RocketDog, on 03 December 2012 - 01:00 PM, said:
I think PGI are a very long way from delivering anything other than an arena-shooter type game. I haven't seen any posts or blogs that suggest they have done anything beyond have very hazy thought about providing a context for the matches.
Whether MWO ever gets beyond what it is now must be something of an open question. The rather abrupt move to an OB looks like they were running out of money. If it does hang on, it could easily be several years before we see significant progress.
They haven't demonstrated to me that they can improve the game, really. It's been seven months of "Well the core experience isn't bad..." and I'm not expecting much, I know they said "minimum viable product" and all that, but the truth is I can't tell what has really been done in the past seven months. I appreciate the addition of maps, 'mechs, and weapons, but there are game-breaking bugs and horrific balance issues that aren't addressed properly. Gauss being fragile isn't going to get people to stop playing Gaussapults, ECM won't fix Streakapults (and even if it did, 36SRM Catapults here we come).
We haven't seen any remote implementation of CM, and with ECM we're just going to see the tip of the iceberg in RW, which will still be ineffective because now all a Streakapult needs is a Raven to counter your ECM, assuming your chassi can even mount ECM, or you're able to stay next to your allies that can mount it, assuming anyone will play a gimped-enough chassis that can even equip ECM. Not that we should need to mount a 1.5 ton and 2 crit piece of equipment to attempt to mitigate the damage from a broken weapon, but I digress.
Point was, I agree with you - they haven't provided a context for the matches, and I can't convince myself that I'm actually a 'MechWarrior sent on an assignment, or a 'Merc, or whatever I am supposed to feel - it's just aimless World of Tanks "Kill all or cap" gameplay. Which is fine. Because the matches would still be fun, if some of the issues were addressed (Streaks, Gauss, Heat system in general, etc)
I don't think they're going to be out of money anytime soon; they raised 5.1 million with their would-be kickstarter program. The problem is I'm not sure what exactly they're going to do with it. Like you said, they did abruptly go to open beta...And it felt like a slap in the face when "Pay for paint jobs!" was put in the game before fixing the WWWWWWWWWWW bug, the minimap bug, the CTD bug with ballistic weapons, the overheat bug, the can't target-anything bug, etc...
I can hope for the best, expect the worst, and just pray that it doesn't end up like Fury... Fury was probably the most potential I ever saw in a PvP game, and it shut down in less than ten months due to developer negligence.
Sidenote: If you want a really good arena shooter game, look up the new Nexuiz. It's amazing, but pretty much dead (devs were much more idle than PGI)
Back on topic, the point is that 8v8 queues aren't going to fix anything. It's going to let a certain subsect of the playerbase play with themselves, but new players are still going to have a horrible time because nothing is stopping someone with a 6 SSRM A1 from pubstomping, and nothing is allowing a new player to even fix the heat/armor issues on trial 'Mechs, or add more ammunition to them (which would make them MUCH better. Still not viable, still not competitive, but much better.)
Edited by Volume, 03 December 2012 - 02:24 PM.