41 replies to this topic

[Felbombling]

Hey gang. I have been away for awhile playing other games or doing the standard life thing, but I came back this weekend to take advantage of the Huntsman event. I decided to play it out on my alt account, Alex_Deathson, to fill a gap in the Clan roster.

What I came away with during the weekend was the feeling that PGI treats us pretty good when compared to other game companies out there. Hear me out.

I don't really play the alt account too often, as it was just a vehicle I decided to do one day to test a theory on the new player experience. [I wanted to see how rewarding the new player experience was over the course of the cadet bonus games, to compare that experience with what I was seeing on the forums as complaints about the grind, skill tree, etc.]

At any rate, I stuck with the alt account a little, as I really liked some of the Mechs I purchased and floated back to them from time to time.

After I earned the Huntsman, I did a little review of my account and noticed something pretty amazing. Of the twenty-five Mechs currently on my roster, SEVENTEEN of them were freebies granted to me either as a year-end bonus or promotion, etc.

That is ridiculous when I compare similar rewards from World of Tanks, World of Warships or War Thunder. I mean, those companies will indeed grant you free content, but they are usually on the low tier side of things, like World of Tanks likes to do with tier I - IV tanks, or something granted after a serious grind, like the tier VIII Bismarck and tier IX Jean Bart Battleships my account has in World of Warships.

Just wanted to share that little tid-bit and my hopes that PGI continues along this path of renewed interest in game development with the gamers giving their input into changes. I think I'll be dropping more often now, given the good vibes I have towards PGI of late.

Cheers!

[Dozer6]

Inb4block

[GARION26]

Agree with the OP.
The amount of free stuff in game is amazing. I own 4-5 hero mechs all due to free MC from events or event give aways (Kitfox purifier.)

[TheArisen]

Well it is true there are things PGI could do better you make a good point that they give us quote a lot for free.

[Alan Hicks]

One thing is the amount of free stuff they give if you play their game and another completely different the state the game is and has been for years.

So if you rarely or just occasionally play the game, then yes, it is awesome the free content they give.

But if you engage with MWO regularly and refuse to play it only at certain hours of the day, then the thing is not that good.

Probably part of PGI staff thinks some people are going to stay if they avoid TRULY fixing the game and just continue to give freebies. That may work for some players...

BUT :

A LOT of people left and guess what, they are NOT coming back, even if they had all the mechs, all the free MC or whatever. Why? Because they were just disappointed, dissatisfied and maybe even felt a little or plenty of unpleasantry with the way PGI managed the game.

And that's that, numbers speak for themselves The community is pretty small compared to what it used to be

I wish that PGI hadn't made the mistakes they had so we would still be a robust community. Maybe they can try something else... who knows...

[Spheroid]

Who cares the core game is deeply pointless and repetitive. There was reason you were playing other games. Whoopi somebody got a free Centurion. Have fun with it sitting in mothballs because it is unmeta crap.

[My Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ]

Honestly PGI is way too generous with the amount of stuff you can get from their events, it makes monetisation much harder of a thing to push when you're overly generous with MC from events.

[Vlad Ward]

Monke-, on 02 March 2021 - 10:44 AM, said:

Honestly PGI is way too generous with the amount of stuff you can get from their events, it makes monetisation much harder of a thing to push when you're overly generous with MC from events.

I'm not sure. Getting 80% of the MC for a Hero mech from an event might just be what it takes to buy the other 20% during a sale. I'm sure their BAs have mathed it out well enough for them to be happy with the outcome regardless.

I'm a big fan of the current monetization model. I also play other games and I'm okay with that. Big, stompy robots doesn't have to be my one and only for me to enjoy the occasional match and toss in a few bucks here and there.

[Chaotic_Harmony]

[redacted]

PGI abandoned the game for 2 years. The only thing they've had to retain any players is the tons of events they've been doing. After all, no event means a lot of people have no reason to play.

And the free stuff... well, it gets old after a while. It no longer distracts from glaring issues.

Edited by Ekson Valdez, 02 March 2021 - 10:11 PM.

[Valdarion Silarius]

Agreed. I bought some really good heroes with the MC that I earned from events and with their occasional MC discounts. Now are they too generous? I'd say they are on par with giveaways like other ftp titles such as ST:O (Give or take ST:O is alot more grindy but it is mainly PvE focused while MW:O is purely PvP).

[Felbombling]

Just to point something out. I did indeed leave the game due to stagnant development and lackluster gameplay. As someone stated above, big deal if you got a non-meta Mech for free... it will collect dust.

My point was two-fold. One, they had an event interesting enough to lure me back for a weekend. Two, my account, without even really working on it, is flush with content.

I like the direction this new commitment to game development seems to be going. Will PGI pull it off and make the game more engaging overall? Time will tell, but I'm more inclined to check in now and then and give the game a second look.

I see problems with the game, just like everybody else. One thing in particular slays me when it comes to the development team. I tweeted at Russ that, according to lore, the colours of the Clan Heavy Lasers should be different. I pointed out that it would be great to see that in the game, which would be a clear indicator to the players in 'The Thinking Mans Shooter' what kind of load-out the opponent had, in real time.

Russ tweeted back that he was going to send that suggestion to the dev team, and included Paul in the discussion. Paul tweeted back, "I'm going to make everything shoot rainbows!!"

That was the last we ever heard or saw about that.

[evil kerensky]

matt newman and daeron are in charge of giving the free stuff. theyre great, i dont think anyone in their right mind is complaining about them.

the problem lies in the other pgi divisions. the people who designed a halfbaked factionplay with no long term plan for success. the people who neglected to do proper QA prior to updates. the people who allowed gameplay quality and balance to deteriorate. the people who never thought to address connectivity and server problems. the people who killed their entire comp scene in 1 go with skilltree 2.0 midseason and a stock only championship double wammy. and then theres the people who thought plopping out solaris then abandoning the game for mw5 instead of addressing the above issues was a good idea.

matt newman and now daeron are great, and everything positive in the OP is a result of their work. but their not what people are upset about. this is like painting a mural on a wall and saying "i have a pretty house" when the roof isnt installed. ya, it looks nice, but its missing some of the basic requirements.

thankfully matt seems to be running the show nowadays, and the bigwigs at pgi are accountable to eg7, so theres some hope for the future.

[LordNothing]

ive said many times, if this is as good as the f2p model gets, then i will never play another f2p again.

so pgi hands out free loot. lots of it. lots of free mechs, like most of my heroes stable was free due to all the mc events that come up. thats part of the f2p model. you either pay with cash or you pay with grind. free players are essentially working for pgi to provide bots to the paying player base. for that they get a slow trickle of free stuff. meanwhile you are distracted by the fact that the game itself is a meatless skeleton of a game with no soul.

and if you are a paying customer, you are batter off with pay to play titles, because you will spend less money, get more bang for your buck, and get a lot of different gaming experiences because you aren't spending all your time playing one game. pgi might be the good guy among predators, but what do they say about the company you keep?

as for why i keep coming back, some things come to mind. sunk cost fallacy, stockholm syndrome, love for the franchise, nostalgia, etc. take your pick. im more than happy to ride it out to its conclusion, whenever that happens. but never again.

Edited by LordNothing, 02 March 2021 - 01:31 PM.

[Nightbird]

If 2$ of free content per week is enough to get you to keep playing, great, keep at it and I hope PGI keeps giving it away. I imagine the reason the amount of freebies is high compared to other games is because this tactic is less effective in this community as here the players older and more financially secure than most other gaming communities. Throw pennies to the ground and most don't even look down.

[FupDup]

As someone who is usually very critical of MWO, I will agree that MWO's monetization is far better than that inhumane garbage pumped out by Wargaming or mobile games.

My nitpick is that you're framing the Wargaming monetization as the "normal" baseline whereas I think MWO should be considered normal-ish and Wargaming should be in the Hague for crimes against humanity. That **** shouldn't be normal.

[LordNothing]

Monke-, on 02 March 2021 - 10:44 AM, said:

Honestly PGI is way too generous with the amount of stuff you can get from their events, it makes monetisation much harder of a thing to push when you're overly generous with MC from events.

idk about that, you still need mech bays, i often buy those outright so earned mc can go into hero mechs. keep that bakers dozen around.

Edited by LordNothing, 02 March 2021 - 02:39 PM.

[RickySpanish]

It's almost time, kids. The clock is ticking. Be in front of your PC screens for the Mechathon, followed by the Big Giveaway. Don't miss it. And don't forget to wear your masks. The clock is ticking. It's almost time.

[MW Waldorf Statler]

I saw the Huntsman event but didn't feel any motivation to do the gameplay of MWO, all the free mechs are rotting in the hangar, some not even leveled anymore...Why MCs and all the great stuff, if you don't feel like gaming?

[w0qj]

1. The other way to have MWO fun (for some) is:
~Level up each mech you are interested in by dumping 14+ GSP to start off, and then fully skill-tree it up by playing matches.

2. Which is exactly the point: you will be killed more often in your unskilled mech.
And playing in PSR Tier 4/5 is more fun for some.
Opponents actually do unexpected things!
Less NASCAR...

3. Oh, in Tier 4/5 we actually see significant new players coming in, and also returning players too (regularly see special mechs like TBR-Prime(I), HBK-IIC(O), BLR-1G(P), etc.). Talked with some of them, saying that they have returned to MWO to play "after hearing that MWO development has restarted". Here's to hoping that they would stay around in a few months time!

MW Waldorf Statler, on 02 March 2021 - 07:35 PM, said:

I saw the Huntsman event but didn't feel any motivation to do the gameplay of MWO, all the free mechs are rotting in the hangar, some not even leveled anymore...Why MCs and all the great stuff, if you don't feel like gaming?

[ColourfulConfetti]

Well, I do think PGI gets an inordinate amount of ****. Almost every official post they make has a good chunk of people hurling insults at them, or calling them incompetent. So, I can't imagine how anxiety inducing it might be to be an employee for the company and making public posts. I certainly understand why it happened, I mean Russ's infamous "you're on a island" quote was probably one of the worst things you can say to a fanbase that's been jerked around so much. I think the fan backlash was warranted for a few reasons, but, at this point, does the punishment still fit the crime?

Do the individual employees deserve this level of scorn? I don't feel like that's the case, the company as a whole seemed to at least learn they needed to communicate better and to not make unrealistic promises. I'm not okay with treating the employees like they're perpetual screw ups because they did a few stupid things.

Tl;dr I don't think PGI needs to be regarded as the devil.

Edited by ColourfulConfetti, 02 March 2021 - 08:20 PM.