6
[The Synopsis:]
The current MC sinks will not stimulate the MC economy, if anything they will cause further backlash and rationing of already obtained MC by Founders. MWO is intended to be F2P, not P2P or P2W. However if they want to secure an active and exciting financial economy, they must do more than simply try and take lessons from Valve.
[The Meat:]
If you have decided to actually read this entire post, then I can already assume you know the majority of paying incentives that PGI intends to implement/already has implemented. If not, I shall go over them in bullet point form to save time and to serve as a refresher as needed.
- Premium Time
- MC for Mechs
- Hero Mechs
- XP to GXP
- Cockpit Accessories
- Mech Aesthetic Accessories (Camo, paint, decals, etc.)
- Mech Bays
So what do they do then? Well, they need to get the Founders to spend the MC they earned. Which depending upon the situation could be 10,000 MC or 20,000 MC. We can already see one attempt at this in action by terminal count down of the Premium Time once you choose to start it. Essentially though this is not going to do much other than sour the mood of the community at large. I can clearly see what they were thinking though, start the countdown and in one to three month's they'll have to pay for more Premium! Except they won't. Since 30-60-90 days is more than enough time to accrue a massive stock of CBills and Mechs. This is essentially enough time for even the casual player base to end up far ahead of their similar counterparts who did not have the luxury of said time. Will this divide persuade people who are not Founders to buy Premium Time? Perhaps, but it will not persuade Founders to buy Premium Time; which is the crux of the problem. Though I believe PGI knows this, thus they have planned to add certain non-vital, or time saving measures to act as further catalysts to attract players to spend MC. Again - not a bad plan, however it still falls short.
So what about GXP? The Premium Time effectively cuts out any reason for players to convert XP into GXP as it offers a 50% XP buff, which translates into greater GXP earnings per game. And since pilot modules need only to be unlocked once to be used in any Mech (after CBill expenditure) simply by using the Premium buff can they acquire all of the needed skills within the time frame they have to work in. 90 days is a very long time, I personally activated my Premium Time the day Open Beta started and since then I've bought and sold over two dozen Mechs with CBills, and have accrued well over 100k in GXP after having bought every single Module, and still have about 370 million CBills in the bank. Given this information, what purpose will I have to actually buy further MC in the future? None. Because I know that before my Premium Time ever runs out, I'll have had enough time to get everything I need and more. March is still a long way's away. Now some of you will scoff and say that I'll fritter my money away on non-essentials like camo and paint. Well, no, not really. I might have to buy a decal at some point for my Merc Corp, but given there's no stated date for the inception of custom decals? I'm in absolutely no hurry, and neither are many others.
What if they make paint/vanity items a one use only affair? Or something that's innately bound to the Mech it is used on (much like the Founders skins are currently)? Perhaps PGI could then see some Founders spend their MC in a hurry. However, if we are to assume they will be like any other item in the game, it is a simple matter to unequip the item from one Mech to another. The same goes for the Cockpit Items. The only real way that these non-essentials could prove to be a quick outlet would be if they were absurdly priced. However this would only hurt non-Founders who are coming into the game broke, and want to spend money on the game without spending too much money at the same time. And of course there will be the group who see these vanity items as simply that, vanity items. They don't effect your skill, or your performance, and so on. Thus there is no inherent reason to spend real money on them. And as a result will retain their MC.
What about Mechbays? Of course, what about them? Founders get one or four Mechs, and like everyone else they still get the four empty Mechbays besides them. Four slots is a lot, in fact it is more than enough for anyone to get any Mech to the Master level. Since owning the Mech isn't required, merely having had unlocked the modules for them, it is actually better for the player to be frugal and sell the Mech once the required slots have been unlocked so they can move up the tree. Simply because it will allow them to purchase the next variant in half the time (usually) if they were to sell it back.
What are the solutions then? More avenues need to be opened, ones that actually encourage spending.
Like? Like these:
- Control over Mech Releases via Pre-Orders
- A Social Economy
- Useful Vanity Items
The simplest way to explain this would be to imagine a roster of all the Mechs we know of that have not yet been added to the game, but are confirmed to be (Let's keep it to IS Mechs for the time being) coming to the game. Now a random selection of say three or so that currently are not being worked on (all of the ones not in the game, and aren't the Cataphract/Cicada) will be thrown into a poll. The point of this is for players to Pre-Order the Mech with MC, and the Mech that has been Pre-ordered the most will be the one that is next worked on (the second most, being the second, and third most being last of the three and so on). To understand how this might work, let's use bullet points again. For this example, I will be using the Spider, the JagerMech, and the Trebuchet. All numbers here are fictionalized for this demonstration.
- Spider (Preorder Cost: 1250 MC) - 15,000 Preorders
- JagerMech (Preorder Cost: 4500 MC) - 25,000 Preorders
- Trebuchet (Preorder Cost: 3000 MC) - 12,000 Preorders
Of course though there must be rules to establish how exactly this works. If you pre-order a Mech, you must have a free slot in your MechBay. After pre-ordering the Mech, it will become a reserved slot that lists precisely which Mech it was you ordered. In this system, the option to pre-order a particular variant may also be possible, but that's entirely irrelevant for this discussion as all pre-orders for the Mech would be lumped together in one sum. There's a few advantages to this. At least for PGI. It means that until that Mech comes out, a Mechbay is permanently locked up. So if a player sees the Mech they really, really want to play show up in that carousel, and they've never bought excess Mechbays? Well, they might start considering it because instead of having four, they now have three. And to strengthen this, players can pre-order a Mech (or Mechs) as many times as they want. Assuming they have the Mechbays for them! So someone could pre-order all of the Mechs as many times as they want, so long as they've got the room. Of course players would be enabled to sell their Mechs at half their net worth (as it currently is in the game) once they received their Mechs. Makes sense doesn't it? And of course, the Mechs would become purchasable with CBills after they were added to the game.
What do you mean a Social Economy? Currently there is no way to send CBills, or Equipment, or Mechs from player to player. I imagine this will change significantly once Community Warfare is added. However as PGI themselves have noted, it is rather inefficient to buy a Mech with MC to simply sell it for half of it's CBill worth. Thus a social economy needs to be instituted, in other words a market, an auction house, a junkyard, whatever vernacular you wish to use. Simply so players can sell and trade items to and fro, as well as buy Mechs with MC, and then sell them below the MSRP CBill value if they so choose. Many players would leap at the chance to see a 75% return on that old Mech they don't use anymore, rather than the standard 50% return. Of course I imagine PGI would implement a CBill tax on all transactions in the way of a few percent of the total.
And what about useful Vanity Items, isn't that P2W? Well... sorta kinda. See, PGI already plans on doing this with the Hero Mechs. If you're clever enough, you can access the .xml files and see that it is their intention to add Hero Mechs as a separate variant of a Mech, rather than just a skin. So if a Hero Mech is added with custom equipment, or perhaps a "better" hardpoint allocation this could be seen as a form of P2W since it is offering a distinct advantage. My suggestions teeter a bit less on the line between F2P and P2W. I am merely throwing out the suggestion of Camos/Paints that for example can reduce (but not hide) your IR signature or your visibility in Night Vision. Or perhaps ones that are less likely to set off a Magnometer. I am not talking about magic bullets, or anything of that sort. Just latent buffs that add a slight enhancement to the Mech itself. Not weapons, or items, nothing of that sort as that would truly be crossing the line in my opinion.
If you have any further suggestions, or critiques, please leave a reply. Assuming you've actually read the entire post with the right mindset.
[Other Ideas:]
Active Nose Art. As we've already seen in past concept art for various Mechs, it appears that Nose Art will be a part of customizing our Mechs. What is particularly neat about this concept is the viability of updating counters. With real-life nose art "kill counts/mission counts" are a common theme. It would be especially interesting to see this concept applied to the idea of keeping one's Mech alive. A kill count/mission count on your Mech would update after each drop, and if your Mech were to be destroyed the count would reset. Of course static numbers/iconic representations are to be expected, but the mere idea of an active counter to show just how great of a Pilot you are with your Mech would add to the intimidation factor you can present on the battlefield. (BeakieHelmet and others)
MechBay Packs. Instead of simply having the option to buy one MechBay at a time, the option of buying several at once (at a slight discount) could be a viable method in which to entice players to buy them in bulk. (Kazuar)
Real Items. It is not uncommon for game developers to offer physical items and swag that people can buy related to the IP from their electronic store. These items can take the form of coffee mugs, shirts, posters, art books, miniatures, etc. Typically some of these items tend to come with items related to the game such as a special skin, or vanity item. This covers both areas, and fills in the vacuum that PGI has in their store. (Airwolf and others)
Battle Scarred Skins. Skins that display retained battle damage on your Mech to really show off the grit of harsh, sustained combat. (Shiney)
Hero Mech CBills Bonus. Aside from being different variants, and also having a different skin. The option of buying a Hero Mech skin for the Mech you enjoy playing could become more lucrative if a similar CBill bonus was attached to the Mech in very much the same manner that Founder's Mechs currently do. (Draco Argentum)
Free MechBay with MC Mech Purchase. Pre-Order Mechs would have to be exempt from this rule; however as it stands a free MechBay that went with the purchase of a Mech (with MC) would go a long way to try and smooth over the disproportionate values that many people see. (Mahws)
MC/Premium Monthly Subscription. The option for repeat billing of a monthly fee in return for a stipend in the form of MC/Premium Time/Discounts in the store, as opposed to manually tasking users with having to purchase MC as they need it. (Sandpit and others)
Customizable Mechlab. The option to customize your Mechlab itself would be an interesting option, as it should be a mostly cosmetic choice. Given the lush history with BT and the number of different dropships there are available, it should be possible for players to change what dropship they want to their Mechs "housed" in, thus influencing the appearance of the Mechlab. (CCC Dober)
Mech Equipment Variations. Another cosmetic option that could be investigated, at least for CW purposes, is the option to purchase different appearances for your Mech's equipment. None of it would provide different weapon statistics, but it is quite common in BT for Mechs of the same kind and variant to differ wildly on the basis of who manufactured what equipment in them. (CCC Dober)
Rentable Mechs. An MC driven alternative to Trial Mechs that allow players to playtest different variants and builds of Mechs without having permanently bought them. This is also a way to acclimate new players to the game (who are willing to spend MC), so they can earn CBills and XP while seeing what a certain Mech is like to play. Possibly also make the Mech free/discounted after a certain number of rentals. (Artgathan and others)
C.O.D. Mech Transfers. Emulating the Collect on Delivery payment system in real-life and other electronic games, C.O.D. Mech Transfers would allow players to send Mechs to and fro at the cost of MC from the receiver. (Sandpit)
Mech Standards/Flags. Want to display the colors and insignia of your Merc Corp or House? Then buy a standard! Attached to the back of your Mech, it acts as a rallying signal for other players on your team and lets your enemies know just who it is they are being killed by.
Edited by Norris J Packard, 30 January 2013 - 10:03 AM.
