169 replies to this topic

[Edward Smith]

A few more things can be changed as well not just the price of MC.

1) Online web form cash shop that is linked to you account.

2) Paint 1 use reduced price.

3) Permanent paints for your self (this part is important)

4) Trade system that allows you to sell 1 use paints from website to other players for in game cash.

These can be done from a website to game client as many f2p titles use this in some way or other. This would allow people to get hold of paints of other players so would increase sale of paints. With a permanent 1 that can not be traded at all.

[Princeps Yarema]

They copied World of Tanks' pricing scheme. In almost every sense, both in the bundle pricing but also in the 300 MC/Gold for a Mechbay/Garage slot, $30 bucks for a Iyla Muromets/ high tier medium tank, $50 bucks (supposedly for the assault premiums) or the high tier heavy tanks.

But WoT has certain features that justifies that sort of pricing.

First, the premium tanks do more than just give you a credit income boost. They are unique tanks that you cannot get anywhere else. It isn't just a unique setup for a certain chassis, it's a totally different tank. In Mechwarrior terms, it would be like a Rifleman or Warhammer offered only through MC. Also, the premium tanks have better "tiering," that is, they don't face heavier opponents quite as often as a tank of the same tier would. In MWO, that would mean the Ilya Muromets would generally be the top mech in the match, rarely seeing more than one or two Assaults on the enemy team.

Secondly, there are sales like all the time. MWO is starting to do that now, but not to the extent that WoT does it. Literally every weekend sees some sort of sale. Whether on specific tanks, garage slots, premium time, or even just base credit costs for different tanks.

Finally, there are non-monetary ways to win gold in WoT. The primary source is from the Clan Wars, where player made clans fight over territory on a risk-style map. Each province you hold gives you gold income. Each battle ends with gold and credit income. There are also little nifty contests running, usually, all the time. These are sometimes twitter quizzes, caption contests, or creative contests. Some pay extremely well, one of the create-a-banner contests had a 10,000 gold grand prize. During the twitter quizzes, it's generally pretty easy to win a couple of questions, and you get 200 gold per question. I've won 2,000 before.

I always feel like I'm getting better value for my money in WoT.

[infidel74]

MC is for mech bays, you get plenty of mileage that way.

Use credits to buy mechs, not MC.

[Roadbuster]

+1

[xsweetcheeksx]

I've spent $250 over the last 6 months on FireFall(F2P MMO FPS still in closed beta) and feel great about every purchase. They're still trying to figure out exactly what they're going to do with the pricing.

For example, they have 1$-5$ 1 time use paint jobs, I refuse to buy them. They have 10$-15$ unlimited-reusable paint patterns(armor and under-armor are separate), I've bought half of them.

There is nothing that I find "worth" paying my money on in MWO. If standard assault mechs were $5 hero mechs were $10, sure. If paint jobs were $5-$15 but could be slapped on to every single mech you own, sure.

Things I look for in a cash shop:

• Permanent.(score 2 stars out of 5)
  
• Good time vs $$$ value. (score 3 stars out of 5)
  
• Under $10. (score 1 stars out of 5)
  
• Nothing available may be pay 2 win. (you're fine on this one, 1 star out of 1)

Total MWO cash shop score: 7 out of 16



If you want my money, you'll need to make some changes to pricing, if you want more of my money you'll need to make paint jobs 1 time purchases for all of your mechs for the lifetime of the game.

Edited by xsweetcheeksx, 04 February 2013 - 01:49 PM.

[Hammish]

xsweetcheeksx, on 04 February 2013 - 01:48 PM, said:

I've spent $250 over the last 6 months on FireFall(F2P MMO FPS still in closed beta) and feel great about every purchase. They're still trying to figure out exactly what they're going to do with the pricing.

For example, they have 1$-5$ 1 time use paint jobs, I refuse to buy them. They have 10$-15$ unlimited-reusable paint patterns(armor and under-armor are separate), I've bought half of them.

There is nothing that I find "worth" paying my money on in MWO. If standard assault mechs were $5 hero mechs were $10, sure. If paint jobs were $5-$15 but could be slapped on to every single mech you own, sure.

Things I look for in a cash shop:

• Permanent.(score 2 stars out of 5)
  
• Good time vs $$$ value. (score 3 stars out of 5)
  
• Under $10. (score 1 stars out of 5)
  
• Nothing available may be pay 2 win. (you're fine on this one, 1 star out of 1)

Total MWO cash shop score: 7 out of 16




If you want my money, you'll need to make some changes to pricing, if you want more of my money you'll need to make paint jobs 1 time purchases for all of your mechs for the lifetime of the game.

How is permanance only 2 stars out of 5, pray tell, with the current scheme?

Buy a hero mech, it's yours forever.
Buy a paint color, it's yours forever.
Pretty sure converted XP won't ever go away.
The only thing you have to repurchase, and only if you switch chassis type, is the actual skin.

Also, to a previous post, so far as a WoT comparison goes.. mostly true. But MWO is still in the process of ramping up, if you will, whereas WoT is currently in its prime. You're starting to see sales coming from PGI now, I would expect them to keep up that trend, too.. and I'd be surprised if high-end community warfare doesn't end up giving a small MC payout as well.

One also needs to factor in that the amount of raw work going into creating a new tank isn't quite the same as a creating a new mech, when it comes to the 'gold tanks are unique models' bit. The only really complex portion of creation in WoT is the hitbox crafting for internals. Beyond that it's one model for the chassis, 1-2 for the tracks and turret, and 2-5 gun barrels (many of which are reused from previous chassis).. compared to 'mech creation which includes:

Skeletal modelling for each body portion
Articulation animation (bipedal animation is much more complex than having one gimbal for the turret and one for barrel elevation)
Modular visual cues (see also: Catapult K2 and Raven with the way the model adapts to mounted weapons)
Cockpit modelling

Or, TL;DR: I expect 'mechs in general to cost more than tanks, yeah.. because it cost the company more to make 'em. Many people don't consider that into their expectations, but ought to.. because the other option is decreasing pricing coupled with decreased production values.

[Hellen Wheels]

Seraphims Blood, on 12 December 2012 - 03:15 AM, said:

at current prices I'm not spending $1 on this game

Agreed. It's almost laughable, if it weren't so sad. They must not have a single MBA in the house.

This is basic marketing principles. They just don't get it.

[Jordan Youngblood]

What I find most laughable are the people on the forums here talking about how PGI is insane for charging the prices they do, that they will never spend that kind of money, and that they can guarantee a 5x increase compared to what PGI is currently making now by lowering prices, etc...

And not a single one of them has any idea how much money PGI is currently bringing in, how many unique purchasers there are, or how many repeat purchasers there are.

For the record, I do think prices are a bit inflated, but I think it is silly to claim PGI is struggling or could be making way more money without knowing a damn thing about the current state of revenue for them.

[Lightfoot]

Well, I think they should get a monthly/quarterly subscription fee in line with other MMOs and you get a discount on MCs with that. The rest of it PGI has to sort out. I have already spent more on MWO than I would spend on a regular MMO in about a year, maybe less.

Anyway, some sort of subscription plan that results in a good bargain would be wise.

Other than that I am stopped by the pricing of things. I generally have to really need or want what is offered.

[Scromboid]

I've been reading this thread and decided to go ahead and toss in a little bit of math.

If any math is incorrect, please don't flame. Let me know and I'll correct it.

I decided to go ahead and average all the purchasing points together. It's not perfect, but it should more adequately reflect the real prices of things. Obviously, if you buy 25,000 MC, you'll get a much better deal than if you buy 1,250 - and that's a discussion in it's own right. For the purposes of discussing price points on things, I figured it would be more useful to have an aggregate average.

I also included the prices for LoL, because folks have compared it. I am a long time LoL player, and the one thing I would like to make a quick note of is this: A direct comparison to LoL is not really appropriate. Everything ~game play mechanic~ wise that can be purchased for real money in LoL can also be purchased for in game currency. This is not true in MWO. For example: Death Smell is the only Commando with 4E. The X-5 is the only Cicada with 4E2M (or missiles at ALL for that matter). These are NOT JUST SKINS, they are exclusive variants for paying members only.

https://docs.google....R0E&usp=sharing