Russ Bullock On Open Beta

Renwault, on 29 October 2012 - 08:16 AM, said:

Why? Because there are a ton of other F2P games right now that do not have all the issues that this one does. People stick around to play this game because they are MechWarrior fans not because the game is so incredible that they cannot leave it.

I have played games for a long time now and will continue to do so and I am a huge Mechwarrior fan that is why I still play sometimes, but it saddens me that other non-fans will not stay if there are issues with the game.

Now you're sounding more reasonable.

I think as long as you remember that people who wouldn't stay because they don't care for mechwarrior type FPS games shouldn't be counted in the same group as those people who would leave because they're programming elitists.

ALSO

It's wise to hold your complaints about bugs in open beta until it's open beta and you know what kinds of bugs are still plaguing the game.

AvatarofWhat,

Please let me know when you start your own game publishing company. I would love to see how you run it and play your games that would be doubtlessly awesome.

AvatarofWhat, on 26 October 2012 - 08:09 PM, said:

Thank you for addressing the community Russ.

I would like to start by saying that I appreciate the hard work everyone at PGI has been putting into this game in order to make it a success. On that note I would like to address some of your comments.

I realize that this is an ongoing process. However the problem is not one or two or even five specific features or pieces of content.

Here are some of the current issues with the build off the top of my head, reposted from another thread.

-No item descriptions/stats
-no in-game tutorial,only 1 out of game tutorial thats only 10 min long
-only 4 maps, buggy maps
-few mech chassis(variants are nice but still basically the same mech)
-horrible mech lab implementation(tab system made it worse), buggy mech lab
-netcode fails to properly register fast moving objects(now with no collisions)
-questionable pilot xp system(should be options against grinding different variants of what is essentially still the same mech)
-unbalanced weapons(machine guns? gauss rifles vs. everything else?)
-few weapons/systems(narc?beagle?)
-DHS not working as originally intended
-Horrible match-up system(the single most asked for improvement)
-Only one game mode
-Economy is unbalanced(spend money on MC to buy mechs that you cannot afford to repair)
-crashes to desktop
-random fps drops
-no in-game computer voice(all systems nominal, heat levels critical, outside mission parameters, etc.)
-no music
-not fully implemented in game voice chat system(havent tried this so not 100% sure on this)
-no chat room, no ability to communicate post-match
-no fix to prevent players from quickly grinding for c-bills using a method that I am not even allowed to discuss on the forums(lets just say that its very detrimental to others enjoyment of gameplay)

This is turn bring us to:

Yes I agree that the core MWO experience can be a ton of fun. However the issues I have listed detract from that experience and will turn off casual players from the experience. These are not only issues like "x feature is not implemented" there are still very serious game breaking bugs. How many times will the average player crash to desktop before he just gives up on the game. How many players will stop playing once they realize that the economy does not allow them to repair a mech that he spent 30 dollars on unless he plays a trial mech every other game to make up the c-bill difference? How many new players will be willing to go to the forums just to search for what a specific piece of equipment does? These are not small forgivable issues, and despite this being a move into another stage of beta, this is the first exposure that the game will have to the average consumer. First impressions are the most important, and its how many will think of the game for years to come. The fact that you can spend money on it and there will be no more wipes only reinforces the fact. Reviews will start pouring in, friends will be told to join, and if they are anything like my friends they wont give it the time of the day because atm the game feels less complete then many community developed mods out there.

Open Betas are generally feature complete. This game doesnt even have its memory leak issues solved yet. Despite the solid gameplay at the core, players and reviewers alike will learn what to expect from the open beta. Once they see the current game they will learn to expect very little. Mechwarrior online may seem to the average player like a solid game at first glance... until they realize how little there actually is to do, in between the fps drops and the crashes to desktop and the clunky mechbay.

Previews dont mean much because they dont address the games bugs and lack of implemented features. They judge mostly based on planned features and how well the features that have been implemented work. No one is denying that the game has solid core gameplay but when all the other issues are brought to light come review time, I doubt that the reviewers will be anywhere near as friendly about it.

The argument "but it's still in beta" won't mean much to the average gamer once they realize just how many problems there are with the game. By releasing it to everyone you are giving them their first impression of what MW:O will be like. You need to realize that for open beta is considered by many players to be very close to the final product. If the game had about 1/3rd of the issues presented(not mentioning the ones I haven't thought to include) then yes maybe some of these new casual players could convince themselves that since its just beta these things will be resolved but right now there are too many issues with the game that don't involve features that have not been implemented yet.

I'm sorry but this seems like a cop out to me. You are saying we are fatigued from getting our data wiped and that's why your moving to open beta? Well how about you stay at closed beta and promise not to data wipe anymore after this next one? It's not like the game will be any more or less complete then it currently is. As for the 10's of thousands of founders, same deal, send them an email, put out an announcement, "come back guys, we are not wiping data anymore." Whether you guys move into open beta or not should have nothing to do with whether your wiping the data. If it's decided that data does not need to be wiped anymore then that's not a good enough reason to go into open beta.

Fair enough, but how about you guys fix any number of things from the list above first. It seems to me you guys have your priorities wrong. Even without non-core players many of the issues I have listed can be fixed. Fix the game breaking bugs first, work on appealing to a larger audience later.

On a closing note I would like to add a few things. First of all thank you for recognizing the dedication and loyalty of this community. That simple acknowledgment gave me the fuel I needed to make this post. I know many people out there will flame me for trying to influence PGI in this direction but I do it for no other reason then the fact that I love mechwarrior, I love battletech, and I want you guys to succeed. You appreciate us, so please listen to us. At this very moment there is a thread that has a poll. The poll asks if you think the game is ready for open beta. At this point there is a 72.63 percent majority saying no. http://mwomercs.com/...-for-open-beta/

Please, we closed beta testers represent the more hardcore gamers and if hardcore dedicated mechwarriors like ourselves don't think that this game is all that great at the moment, the casual gamer probably will never even want to touch it.

Once again, thank you PGI for all of your hard work and I hope that no matter what happens MW:O is a huge success.

Sincerely,
AvatarofWhat

Russ Bullock On Open Beta

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