26 replies to this topic

[Lupus Aurelius]

There is an old adage – "You can please all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot please all the people all the time". As with any product, you have to know who your targeted customer base is, and gear your product to appeal to that customer base. The more inclusive you try to make a product, the more you dilute it, the more generalized it becomes, until it loses what makes it unique or distinctive. The more exclusive you make that product, the smaller the customer base, the more specialized it becomes, but with a higher retention and dedication by that niche group. Obviously, the key is achieving a balance between the two.

There are 3 general categories of customers in MWO: Battletech table top fans, Mechwarrior computer game fans, and general gamers. The first 2 categories are heavily interrelated, but necessarily the same.
Battletech is over 25 years old, with an immense backstory and rich history, including over 90 fiction novels, dozens of game manuals, and even an animated TV series. These players are all about teamplay, groups of people who got together in basements and gaming shops who would spend all day rolling dice, yapping, playing as a group. It’s an extremely social activity.

Mechwarrior computer gamers have had 8 different games, not counting expansion packs and sequels ( such as MW4 Mercenaries), an online gaming community since MW2, and the continuation and upgrading done by MekTek after Microsoft dropped the franchise. Many, but probably not the majority, are also into teamplay and socialization, but there are also those that ran the computer games as solo activity at home, school, lunch hour at work, etc.

These are the people that all you have to do is whisper “Mechwarrior” and they will jump thru fire to be part of it, so long as it stays true to the original fanchise. Granted, there are the hardcore fanatics that any deviation from TT is viewed as evil, but as in any population, they are one extreme of the bell curve. Mechwarrior computer gamers are a bit more flexible, having gone thru a lot of the debate on TT vs. computer simulation balancing. These are your core customer base, so long as you can keep these 2 niche groups happy, you have a dependable return customer base.

Enter the general gamers. Now, some may find this insulting, but general gamers for the most part don’t give a $41t about backstory, history, precedence. What they want is action and shinies, the faster and easier the better. Anything that restricts that will be screamed about, whined about, complained about, like an ADHD kid that is jonesing for a Ritalin fix. Here is the rub, though – they are the largest of the 3 categories of players. However, dedication to a brand is not the hallmark of the general gamer. Soon as that new game comes out that is perceived to have more action and shinies, where devs are perceived as being more accommodating to player demands, and they will evaporate faster than a glass of water on the sun.

In essence, PGI’s strategy and MWO appeal, in order to sustain longevity, and in doing so, a dependable level of earnings, has to base it’s product on satisfying those customers that it can depend on for a fairly consistent return business. Even if that is not the majority of players.

As soon as you try to go for the lowest common denominator, the distinctiveness of the game is diluted to the point that those who are “invested” in the MW / BT franchise will no longer see MWO as continuing in the spirit of that franchise. At that point, it becomes a drive to appeal to the rather fickle masses to keep a high turnaround of new customers coming in spending money for short periods of time. For the short term, this can work, but the cost in the end is longevity.

For the long haul, providing a service / product that has a dedicated following that you can depend on for return business, even if it is a smaller customer base, still allows for quite a bit of “walk-in” business, and provides for a long term business model.

[Sayyid]

Well said.

[Alexa Steel]

*claps* Indeed well said.

[Agent of Change]

I wanted to make a snarky comment about how this will be ignored but honestly it just makes me sad.

Very well thought out and exactly what needs to be said.

[Anastasius]

I hope you bothered to accually email or send this in a ticket.

[Jelan]

I've missed my Lupus lectures

[Stormfury]

Great post! It makes me so sad that we're being forced into World of Mechs. If I wanted to play World of Tanks, I'd be playing World of Tanks. The whole reason I bought into MWO was for playing BT/Mechwarrior.

[Grraarrgghh]

This post has merit, the problem that wasn't addressed however is how both the TT/BT group and the MW groups have very different ideas of how to design and implement the game. Especially with 2 groups so invested in previous iterations of a product, you (have and) will see a boatload of infighting and petty ********.

[Cyber Carns]

Very well put. I'd have to agree with the OP. Good job.

[ei8ht]

My hat off to the OP. Sums it up nicely. Hopefully, PGI stays true and isn't going to run off chasing squirrels.

[Ritter Cuda]

something to add teenagers spend 100% of their income . mostly on entertainment . this is why ahige % of marketing is directed to them.  Most of the slow play crowd does not fit that age group. IL2 had private servers the range was from easy mode to hardcore. not sure how MWO can address this with all theInfo server side.

Edited by Ritter Cuda, 21 November 2012 - 07:22 AM.

[Zakie Chan]

Well writen, I hope the devs print this out and pass it around the office.

[KingCobra]

+1 To the OP nice article the thing I see is they have made a game that has limited potential to start with the game model for MWO was not the one I would have chosen for this game IP.A game model more like STO=Startrek online would have been much better.Many over the 25 years would have liked to have a character to walk the faction halls play in epic mech and ground battles in there character or a battle suit and much more. After being a fan since 1989 tabletop/MW1 then playing online since 1995 MW2-Now I feel the game itself could have been much more than a shallow attempt to resurrect this IP.I personally think they chose the wrong game model to start with sure its free the graphics are great the sound is ok but it is a far cry from the PC online games of old. You cant even have matches on maps with teams of your choice or even save configs for maps .I miss the days of the old MSN gamming zone and all the fun leagues I have played in BTU,SL,MWA,BZ,VL,MWL,and many more even gave P2k a NHUA league a shot. This game is just rinse and repeat over and over again in a never ending cycle of frustration over the game play and bugs.Of corse this thread will disappear one way or the other and our comments will not be read by the dev's or owners. It would not take much to fix this game we all have given a lot of great ideas and fixes for a great MechWarrior game. If they continue on the games present course it might just be a short flash in the pan of online game failures. P.S sorry about the wall of text but they have not fixed the IE enter key bug on the forums yet for WIN8.

Edited by KingCobra, 21 November 2012 - 07:32 AM.

[AvatarofWhat]

Ritter Cuda, on 21 November 2012 - 07:21 AM, said:

something to add teenagers spend 100% of their income . mostly on entertainment . this is why ahige % of marketing is directed to them. Most of the slow play crowd does not fit that age group. IL2 had private servers the range was from easy mode to hardcore. not sure how MWO can address this with all theInfo server side.

Teenagers spend 100% of their income on entertainment because they have no real income.

[Chief 117]

Well said and I agree. PGI must stand by their promises and not turn this into League of Tanks.

[Ritter Cuda]

AvatarofWhat, on 21 November 2012 - 07:36 AM, said:

Teenagers spend 100% of their income on entertainment because they have no real income.

all reliaive, how much do you spend a week on entaintment? They spend over 100 dollars on avg.

[Zeh]

Ritter Cuda, on 21 November 2012 - 07:40 AM, said:

all reliaive, how much do you spend a week on entaintment? They spend over 100 dollars on avg.

Significantly more than $100.. but lots of that goes to booze and food. Probably less on games and movies and music.

[Ritter Cuda]

Zeh, on 21 November 2012 - 07:48 AM, said:

Significantly more than $100.. but lots of that goes to booze and food. Probably less on games and movies and music.

there you go . which is why the restraunts and bar advertise to you (and me) and games advertise to kids. this is a game

[Agent of Change]

Ritter Cuda, on 21 November 2012 - 07:40 AM, said:

all reliaive, how much do you spend a week on entaintment? They spend over 100 dollars on avg.

On average a lot more than that, but it is spread out among multiple hobbies and pass times. The point is while the 16-20 demo is attractive for revenue generation it is rarely a sustainable business model for ongoing profits.

As was stated before 'general gamers' jump on the new hotness coming down the pipe much like MWO players jump on the new mech chassis, the difference being there is so much 'new hotness' coming down the road at any given tiem that it becomes easier to just pick up the newest and leave the past int he past.

Really there are two overall general archetypes for long term profits when dealing with an ongoing product:

New Player cash infusion: This business model focuses on pulling in new players to get their initial (usually the larget they will make at one time) investment. Once you have their money the first time you aren't worried about player attrition because you are focused on simply bringing in more new players. The advantages of this are big chunks of revenue but it is incredibly swingy and tends to cluster around 'content releases'. Downsides include continually lowering the bar to 'open it up' to wider and wider audiences, this of course inevitably alienates the people who invested prior to each 'adjustment' to bring new people in. This Model usually also focuses on the young who will in their exuberance blow their own money or parents money getting involved.

Cultivated Community Revenue Stream: This model lives on the other side of the spectrum it focuses less on hordes of new players and more on creating an environment that keeps a player around and paying once they decide to invest. Monetarily this is generally less big spike and more of a steady reliable stream of money. This is what many subscription models were based on and it is possible in F2P if done right. This model however has limitations, by focusing on a core audience to keep and hold, the overall 'accessibility' is reduced, there becomes a barrier to entry which will alienate some potential new players much as the other model alienates existing players. this model tends to focus on older people who will budget and invest in something but only if it maintains the standards they expect.

Now I am partial to the latter because I largely see it as a divide between creating a gaming experience worth having and a watered down cash grab. I think that teh best model lies somewhere between these two, but it does mean narrowing your intended audience to something less than 'everybody everywhere' and trying to avoid driving you most staunch supporters away.

[p4r4g0n]

To be brutally honest, the lack of a tutorial or beginner single player campaign, lobby for ease of communications pre / post match, in-game text chat shortcuts or even a simple embedded chat room on the website tells me that there was never or little expectation of MWO in its current iteration of being able to gain any significant numbers from the general gaming community. MWO in its current iteration is for the founders who coughed up the initial funding and basically, that's it.

Everything I've seen so far (albeit only for a short time) indicates to me that MWO will be made more accessible to the general gaming community i.e. "dumbed down" I believe is the phrase usually used on these forums, in pursuit of that middle ground Agent of Change highlights in his post. Until such time as features mentioned are introduced that ease the new player experience, my belief will be that further "dumbing down" will occur.

Hopefully, MWO will still be something I am interested in playing when it reaches the desired level of compromise.