7 replies to this topic

[zorac]

Hi Forums! I'm going to try to ask this question in a positive way, and see if I can get some positive responses.

I absolutely love Battletech and past MechWarrior games. MW2 Mercs alone is a reason to keep a good joystick handy.

So, MWO could be a chance to play more BT-related games. Fantastic! And I'm excited to spend money on them, because it encourages the industry to keep making giant wonderful mech games.

However, the PVP-only focus I'm gleaning from the forums has me deeply worried. Real life will never leave the time online to be a very active part of a corp. I quit MMOs years ago, because the typical online experience required too much filtering out unpleasant interactions.

Almost any online-only game will have the anonymity syndrome and a high population of relatively rude children and young adults. All ages can be jerks to deal with, but being a kid does come with a brain built to be maladjusted. We all go through it, but there's no reason to keep subjecting oneself to that social interaction voluntarily. Some notable exceptions are communities surrounding brain-intensive games like RoboRally and Dwarf Fortress. Those communities tend to be more self-filtering by having an inbuilt barrier to entry.

It sounds to me that, as an occasional player, the only choice (They're calling it "Lone Wolf") would be to join random groups for 12 vs 12 matches, essentially making the game consist only of PUGs. The developers seem to emphasize heavily that group coordination will be critical and that groups without experience working together (PUGs) will find themselves on the losing side.

They claim that Individual skill, stats, heroics or Mech build will fall to good group planning and balance. That's a great goal, but I worry that it leaves the solo-oriented player less able to contribute. It seems like they're more likely to experience either the random outcome of a random group, or be frustrated trying to bring a group together.

I'm having a hard time coming up with a way to rationalize how the game can be fun for a player in this situation.

Is there anyone around who:

A. Understands and sympathizes with this perspective, and:
B. Can help me come up with a rationalization for throwing some dollars at the game, given that they've kindly provided a "Buy Now" banner at the top of the screen.

[CeeKay Boques]

If you have zero desire to socialize, I cannot recommend spending money on this game to you. Play it for free, that way you won't have expectations. Children like games. This is a game, there will be high levels of immaturity. The only way to avoid it, is to find a group of adults of your intellectual/moral leanings and join them, or ignore the player base entirely, again, leading to a half enjoyable product, as any tactics that happen will incidental and coincidental.

That said, I've made some Friends for Life through this comradarie of Mech combat.

[Otto Cannon]

If you join one of the houses there's no player in charge who will kick you out for not playing often enough, but you should hopefully be able to find decent people in the same house who you can team with regularly. Even if nobody you know is online you should be able to team with others from your house who have good reason to co-operate with you and you can make new friends. That's my take on it anyway, feel free to come join us space vikings in the FRR and fight the clans while quaffing mead and singing.

[Henchman 24]

wow, I expected something different from the title. haha pleasantly surprised.

Um, for what it's worth....many have your same worries....which leads to an answer for itself. There are plenty of folks interested in this game, that aren't used to the F2P model and all it means.

I get the sense that the bottom line question is....Is it worth it? And will I have enough fun as a lone player to justify a cash expenditure?
Nobody knows the answer to the first...and considering the greater amount of players are non-affiliated....yeah, there should be enough meat for you to fry to have fun. Shoot I know players who went Lone or Merc simply because they hate the IS and are willing to fiddle for the year it takes the clans to arrive.

No matter what...you aren't getting any single player mission based anything, ever, from what I've been reading. So we're all left with this, and if what PGI promised is true, and the community doesn't eat itself alive....then this could be something big.

This said, you don't have to buy a founders pack, and I'm sure it won't be the only "pack" they eventually sell...so I think you still have an opportunity to try and then buy. You just won't have the perks of the early adopter, or for that matter, the risk.

[Gargunza]

All your points can be applied to World of Tanks and I definetively enjoyed the game playing "Lone Wolf" tho I must admit I got more fun playing with a couple of friends on a regular basis.

[Name48928]

I've been on these forums (forae?) for over 2 months now and still haven't found enough reason for me to drop $30+ on MWO. There's still relatively little known about the actual game and nothing specific about the F2P business model has been announced yet. For me, it all comes down to the in-game community whether I'll put money into MWO or not. Right now, the community is alright. But once it goes live and the "typical" F2P crowd shows up...?

I'd rather wait and see.

[Woska]

I completely sympathize with the sentiment expressed. It can be very disconcerting. I myself play primarily solo in other MMO's But this one I have found to be engaging. Yes, it's all PUG combat. But since it is all PUG, then there are very few dedicated groups out there running rough shod over everyone. You'll have bad teams, and good teams. But the individual experience can still be rewarding.

The Beauty of this game too, is that it is free to play. So if you're going to be a casual player, you don't have a monthly subscription to cough up whether you play or not.

Now, to convince you to spend the money. The founder's packs are a great way to do that. If you get a founder's pack that includes a mech or four, you get a vehicle with an intrinsic money bonus. So even if you get stuck in bad groups, you're still going to get more cash than normal. And then you don't have to keep subscribing if you don't think it's worth it in the long run. Win/win from my point of view. I hope you enjoy the game.

[WardenWolf]

You don't have to spend any money - not now, not ever - but you can still enjoy the game! If you don't have a lot of time to dedicated to gaming, I would advise against playing in the beta anyways: the point is to test things out, and I spend easily half my time writing about the game instead of just playing it.

Simply wait till it hits open release, and then give it a shot. If you end up liking it, great - you can spend money to support them then, if you so desire! If not, you are none the worse for wear

In all seriousness, though, even if you aren't going to be in a competitive merc company I still think there is a ton of potential for enjoyment here. I am not, nor will I likely ever be, in an organized long-term group... and yet I have tons of fun