Vermaxx, on 29 November 2012 - 08:37 PM, said:
1. ...there is literally no money sink in the game. They're doing it to keep people grinding. Once people realize there is no real point to grinding, there is no real point to MWO and the game crashes if CW isn't done.
2. ...The game needs a money sink
This reminds me a lot of those posts defending streakcats, gauss rifles, and lag shields with the difference of you saying "Yeah it's wrong, so what?" now that we have mutually established there is a problem but you simply don't care we can get down to business. I'm going to break this down into succinct points for the sake of ease.
1.I could have sworn the entire point of Mechwarrior Online was to have battlemechs fight each other in various locales with various weapons, you know, like in the board game from which is was spawned and like the various other games of its lineage. I don't remember seeing "grinding" in any of the promotional material thus far, someone should let PGI know that they aren't advertising an apparently important part of the game! THE MASSES MUST BE TOLD!
Sarcasm aside, if grinding up for the grand prize of a module slot or affording that one extra variant you have no plans of using is what keeps people coming back to MWO, not the team focused a gameplay, not the mech customization, not its distinct change of pace from the norm, then you might as well change your signature to "MWO is dead" because if it can't keep people interested through core elements then grinding and fighting for fake planets won't save it either. I didn't know we were in Korea.
2. They either need to severely limit the amount of C Bills a player can amass through matches or they better start selling some AMAZING things for MC only because relying on C Bill manipulation will be their downfall. By completely ignoring the the mech tree like I have the player suffers no income loss beyond Repair and Rearm after the initial cost of loading out the one or two mechs they actually do use, compound this with the limited addition of C Bill focused features such as paint schemes and new battlemechs and your average player can become extremely rich all because they just won't play by PGI's rules.
Know I now what your thinking: "Hur dur if they have all that money why don't they just buy the extra variants". I will counter with a question myself: Why not skip the middleman of luring players into buying MC through forcing them to grind C Bills to eventually afford total of
6 different variants of two mechs of the same weight class and buying space for them through MC only mech bays for the sole benefits of being able to do things slightly better and being able to equip something that allows you to do
one thing slightly better,all after hours of either playing them individually or the more popular option of simply amassing on metric **** ton of experience on the chassis of your choice and divvying it among its brethern though the MC only experience conversion system only to sell them off as quickly as you bought them, and simply allow players to amass experience where they choose, allocate general experience where they choose, and
PAY ACTUAL MONEY FOR IT? You know, that stuff PGI needs so they can actually exist?
There are some severe foibles to MWO's economy given that its not a traditional one where players move up from using wooden swords to dragon steel ones with many variants in between and all at increasing a logical price intervals, but saying "making players buy 3 of the same mech so the can move up the associated perk system is what keeps the economy work" is simply wrong and also near sighted. What happens when the pilot finally masters the mech of his choice despite the ridiculous system and is no longer encumbered by buying two extra mechs until something like the Highlander comes out months from now? What happens if a player never buys these mechs with MC and doesn't even use MC for experience conversion and PGI does not make a cent of revenue despite there attempts to induce the opposite? Do you see how the system creates and inconvenience that can be circumvented without given PGI revenue but is not truly countered by a proper convenience that
does. The entire idea of the monetary system is 1.Get players to spend MC on variants so they don't have to wait to buy the extra variants or simply the one they want to own 2.Get players to spend MC on mechbays for these extra variants Optional. Have players convert experience through MC, all with the mech tree being a major impetus (how many people would own more than one or two variants of a mech out of choice without the carrot of the mech tree?). If the average player is willing to completely avoid 1, concede slightly to 2, and mainly take part in 3, why not bring experience conversion to the forefront and rework its restrictions and pricing giving players more freedom and thus generating more revenue? People don't seem to be spending much MC on 1 and 2 along these lines.
pseudolife, on 29 November 2012 - 11:06 PM, said:
no. Id prefer they limit the "pay to win" as much as possible. I dont think paying real $$ should be a viable way to escape the xp grind. While it does suck to HAVE to pay money to recoup xp earned on a master mech, its pretty cheap, and once you've unlocked all the modules, what do you need gxp for? stop asking for shortcuts, if you want to try a new mech, LEVEL IT.
You don't even realize the point of the grind is to get you to spend money to begin with.
Edited by gregsolidus, 03 December 2012 - 09:22 PM.
3
