RacerX, on 15 January 2013 - 09:05 AM, said:
The point that was obviously missed here is negative reinforcement has a sense of punishment. It is simple psychology. If a player does not feel rewarded for thier efforts then they will loose interest and leave. If, however, they feel some sense of positive reinforcement then they will be engaged.
Simply redirecting a player to a less desirable path, ie trial mechs for an indeterminant amount of time to achieve a level of gratification, is not a solution. Stating that a player is whining about not getting rich is also a redirect of the subject at hand and does not, in any way, prove or disprove anyones position.
Players don't need to get rich. They need positive reinforcement that keeps them vested in the game. In this instance PGI chose C-Bills and XP as the vehicle that delivers this gratification. The Grind, as we have it now, is setup to make it more desirable to pay real currency to shortcut the time investment that the "Grind" represents. PGI did make some concensions by adding extra rewards to new players and adding XP to trial mechs. This allows them both the sense of accomplishment and the ability to purchase/build something competitive within a shorter period of time.
Finally, I will disagree with your statement, "He who makes the most money..." If the playing field is level then I agree with you. However, we do not currently have balance for most matches. Also, I find that folks who throw more Real Currency at this game have a real edge on the battlefield until those who are the F2P crowd can catch up. Remember, this is a F2P game and not a Pay2Win game as PGI keeps re-asserting. So asking someone to put up or shut up with thier money also is not a valid argument.
Now, as far as Respawns go. I've been thinking about this for Conquest mode. 8 vs 8 team deathmatch simply seems too shallow of an experience for this game type. It may not seem very realistic but it would make the game more interesting and perhaps worth playing.
When this game gets respawns, I'm outta here, unless their phased reinforcements.