60 replies to this topic

[Cairbre]

This too, is Battletech. http://ironwindmetal...roducts_id=1909
And that one can't even be customized, or played in a computer game.

Battletech has always had an incredibly cheap basic experience- if you had a record sheet and a rulebook and some loose change, you could have yourself a battle. Despite that, most people weren't happy until they bought a mech mini, some glue to hold it together, some paint, some brushes and all the other trappings, which could easily pop the 20-30 dollar bubble if one were starting miniature gaming from scratch.

Now personally, I find the Assault Mech price point absolutely out of my comfort zone, but I can definitely see myself buying a hero mech in the medium or light class, and probably another when the Clans arrive. I wouldn't do it unless I knew I already liked the chassis- but that's just common sense. You don't buy the LX model without test driving the basic. The tiers of payment are there so you're always left with some money you need to use- just get $5 more and you can get that new pattern! Like the sales, it is just good economics. If a purchase actually requires two MC purchases, then PGI wins, and you get more than you wanted, which may turn into a mechbay or some new paints. These ancillary purchases further deplete your MC, and so when the next hero rolls around, and you would have had enough for the $16 mech with your leftovers plus 15, you must again buy 20. Without any discernible effort, PGI has just weaseled more money out of you than you were eager to spend.

Ultimately, I really don't care how high their prices are as long as I'm not forced to buy it to be competitive- and I am confident that there are enough variables in this game to keep any chassis or variant from becoming completely dominant. Heck, those crazy ECM Spiders are actually starting to outnumber 3Ls in my games. I guess being Spiderman, and invisibly jumping across roofs is really fun. Who knew?

[Monaco335]

I will play devils advocate and whole heartedly disagree.

MC is too CHEAP!

For us working folks that play MWO maybe as a stress release or enjoyment after a long day, I don't mind paying some cash for my mech. Maybe make some exclusive really cool colors or other NON pay 2 win stuff in addition to the current cockpit stuff. Let me change the sound of my guns or something fun... maybe a standard small lasers from the eyes of the mech. =)

I think people feel entitiled to the MC perks of the game and to be quite honest, PGI could easily double the cost of MC for certain aspects of the game and still have a very strong following of cash payers.

[Ryan Kryzanowski]

Monaco335, on 20 March 2013 - 10:16 AM, said:

I will play devils advocate and whole heartedly disagree.

MC is too CHEAP!

For us working folks that play MWO maybe as a stress release or enjoyment after a long day, I don't mind paying some cash for my mech. Maybe make some exclusive really cool colors or other NON pay 2 win stuff in addition to the current cockpit stuff. Let me change the sound of my guns or something fun... maybe a standard small lasers from the eyes of the mech. =)

I think people feel entitiled to the MC perks of the game and to be quite honest, PGI could easily double the cost of MC for certain aspects of the game and still have a very strong following of cash payers.

You have it all wrong. $ to MC for the amount of content in the game its abysmal, I can go buy 2 completed games for what it costs to buy a mech and a paint job. Players need to stop spending $60 on this unfinished product. If no one bought any MC do you think the price would come down? Do you think content might come out a little faster? It is a pretty obvious answer.

I would rather see them release a half finished project so that we can have some input into it, that's what a beta is for, because so far the ideas they just go ahead with, without asking the community have been pretty damn horrible.

Edited by Ryan Kryzanowski, 20 March 2013 - 10:24 AM.

[Mawai]

Bluten, on 23 December 2012 - 10:56 PM, said:

Free? Don't know about you, but mine costed money.

Regarding prices, I also played League heavy for a year and picked it back up for occasional play ECM patch basically turned the game into a bore. The pricing would be more reasonable though if the Mech slot cost was dropped entirely. I don't expect MW to compare with LoL but the least they could do is drop this slot fee. People want to hoard Mechs, that's just natural. Who wouldn't? Being gouged for slots=no fun. That's money that could have went for hero variants, skins for your Mechs, or Premium time. So this slot cost probably encourages many players not to buy that other stuff, which translates into actually dropping less money on the game. Which would you rather get, Piranha, 15$ from a guy needing slots(3kmc=10 slots), or 30$ for a guy wanting that Ilya and/or some Premium?

Actually, I think charging the 300MC for mech bays is probably one of their best moves. It isn't that much real money - about $1.50 each ... and many people will want more slots even if they don't buy hero mechs .. they will usually want to play and collect more than the initial 4 mechs.

Consider the costs of real life items ...
- a chocolate bar or cup of coffee is $1.50 or more these days
- a specialty drink at Starbucks is 3 times that amount
- going to a movie and getting popcorn and a drink costs as much as hero mech ... which will you enjoy for a longer time?

I do think that the hero mechs are priced a little high ... spending $22.50 for a 4500MC hero mech seems a bit expensive to me.

However, the objective is to find the point where (number of purchases X price of item) is maximized for maximum revenue. They also want to make the hero mechs uncommon so folks feel "special" driving them ... you don't want a situation where everyone is in a hero mech ... the higher price point helps with that though I think it probably hurts overall revenues.

[Verbrand]

Yeah Mechbays they have priced right, one off paintjobs, probably about right, individual colours and pattern unlocks....not too bad.

A few of the cockpit items are a little pricey but generally ok. the actual mech cost, the thing you can grind for or spend money for, a lot of people are seeing the cost and going "no way, I'll grind instead". I'll just have to wait until the right sale rotates around.

I'm sure they are looking at the statistics of what people are spending money on and may adjust soon.

[Rakashan]

So it's this glorious thread again.

Before you all convince yourself that this is a conspiracy and they will be changing their pricing models, why don't you go take a look at a little game called World of Tanks. It's been winning awards right and left for two years. It uses *exactly* this pricing model. It's been successful beyond the wildest dreams of it's publisher.

It's called a free market. They price it the way they want to. You don't have to buy it. And just like the guy standing outside the QuickieMart screaming about the price of the HoHos, you guys sounds like a broken record; you are annoying and just about as effective.

[DJSpaceCowboy]

Everyone that has ever managed the battletech franchise where they were in the business of "selling mechs" has done this same stupid ****.

The reason this happens, and I bet a bunch of oldskool TT gamers and even Warhammer gamers can back me up here, is because MINIS ARE EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE. Ral Partha made an ABSOLUTE SLAUGHTERHOUSE OF CASH selling those super nice, trimmer pewter miniatures back in the late 80's and every single mini game and everything like it where they are selling you a "yum yum" has been this way.

GET OVER YOURSELVES. TT GAMING IS LARGELY DEAD. This crap is NOT WORTH WHAT YOU THINK IT IS ANYMORE. I feel so completely screwed over by the stuff I've bought so far... the YLW is SO BAD that I WOULDNT EVEN PICK IT OVER A NORMAL CENTURION EVER and you want REAL MONEY for it? The only thing I do with it now is put 2 machine guns on it and suicide it if I have a 2-3 minute wait to get back into a mech I actually want to play. I don't feel at all bad whatsoever doing this in a completely SHART mech that I paid real money for.

I am never spending another dime on MC.

WHY CAN'T I JUST BUY THE GAME AND PAY 15 A MONTH TO HAVE EVERYTHING

TAKE THE COKE STRAWS AWAY FROM YOUR BUSINESS MANAGERS

Edited by DJSpaceCowboy, 20 March 2013 - 10:40 AM.

[Werewolf486 ScorpS]

MC isn't too expensive, the crap you buy with MC is too expensive.

[Ghost Inc]

Well, there are actually sales quite frequently.

But of of reasons unknown, PGI offers Sale for Stuff no one really wants.
I would like a Muromets as soon as its on sale. Or a Flame...

[SQUIRRELLL]

I would buy a lot of mechs if they were $2-6 a pop($2being lights, $6 being assaults).

[DoktorVivi]

Yeah, certain things are priced fine (mechbays, for instance), but almost everything else is overpriced. It's at the point where I won't really buy anything with MC outside of the occasional camo sale. Make things cheaper and they'll get more sales.

[Boompow]

Im going to sound off a bit, for one i think its a bit much to start the pay model in beta of the game. I (stupid me i know) for example missed the post that my founders package 20K MC was going to be reset for the last time and blew it testing mechs like I did so many times during the closed beta etc. where it reset regularly.

The next part are the prices of the paint jobs....really? Thats ridiculous, this game has so much potential in terms of longevity , content, player base etc. why do you have to **** off your players with finicky little **** purchases that are super overpriced, Eve online learned the hard way that you just don't do that if you want a scale-able and permanently growing player base.

Give us some options. I would be happy to pay a subscription of 10-15 a month for all the content and some perks but dont ask me to spend the equivalent of a AAA title for a few mechs and a ****** flag hanging in the cockpit or a black paintjob.

By the way, I would pay top dollar for a single player campaign and a clan addon

[Stoicblitzer]

it's only too high if nobody pays.

[Volume]

Yeah, the price points are absolutely horrible. There have been topics about this before.

I don't disagree; it seems that if they let you purchase MC in smaller increments they'd get more people, or lowered prices in general.

Edited by Volume, 21 March 2013 - 12:57 PM.

[HellAvenger]

Demand elasticity. Obviously, their pricing teams are *******. I work in investment industry, this is a bad business model. Remmeber this, this game is NOT WOT. Do not think something that work for another game will work for you. Look at MOH copying COD, what happened? MOH series has been shelved.

[Corvus Antaka]

I tend to agree. I'd like to see at least 30,000 MC for 100 bucks.

[Iron Hyena]

CredibleHulk, on 23 December 2012 - 10:01 PM, said:

Look, I'm a total newb. I downloaded the game and I am playing it now this week.

So, after joining as a free player I am really loving this game. I noticed there was a cool mech for sale (flame) which had a custom skin, c-bill boost and was a Dragon chassis (of which I already have one). So I thought: well its a beta game but only 4500 MC that seems like not a big deal. Let me get myself a christmas present or something. That's like what $6 for a mech?

So I went to buy MC and its actually $30 to get 6k, which is enough to get the 4500 for that mech. $30? Thats way too high. That's the same cost of 2 months of playing WOW and 3x higher than comparable to other F2P games (like vanity mounts or perks which pricepoint around 5-15$).

Sorry, you just priced yourself out of a sale. I am literally typing this post with my credit card out right now. I would have done it but $30 is just not worth it for a mech I may or may not like and probably requires a bunch of modification to get it to match my style. $6, sure. $10 probably. Anything more than that, no thanks.

Oh no, that 5-10$ they lost!

[Pater Mors]

Kaijin, on 23 December 2012 - 10:20 PM, said:

You are not alone. A majority of forum users feel the MC pricing is extreme. Whether that majority extends to the larger player base - Only time will tell. IGP should play around with the MC prices and see if setting them lower would generate more sales.

It would. I've been thinking about buying but I am annoyed enough at buying Microsoft Points which are exorbitant and come in stupid packages. I'm not going to fall for the same trick with MC.

If they lowered the price, in line with the OP then I would buy. I would probably buy enough to run a years premium plus more for some mechs and vanity stuff. As it is I am not spending more than I would on 2 or even 3 NEW Xbox games, just for this game.

[Rabid Imp]

First I dont consider this game beta, when you start taking cash you are in release imo.
Second the mech prices I agree are way to high. heavys are right at $30ish a pop, i buy 2 heavies and a couple of mech bays I have just bought a full price game. If they were 6-10 bucks I probably would have bought several mechs by now, but at $30? No thanks.

Just look at the number of hero mechs you see ingame. If you cut that price by 2/3 you would see a whole lot more. People would even spend the cash to buy normal mechs instead of grind if the price point was attractive.

[Jack Gallows]

Werewolf486, on 20 March 2013 - 10:41 AM, said:

MC isn't too expensive, the crap you buy with MC is too expensive.

This. But that's obviously what the OP is basically saying.

I haven't paid a dime past my original founder's package, and nothing PGI has done since has engendered feelings of changing that anytime soon. MC to 'mech ratio in game is stupid high, I'm not paying anywhere near 26-30 dollars for a 'mech when I can get 3-4 times the value in any other F2P game out there for the same amount. Hell, I've probably spent almost 200+ on League in the past year, and have already dumped close to 50-100 on War Thunder and it's still in beta (and will still see me put more money into it) but won't muster even 20 bucks for MW:O because I don't feel like it's anywhere near worth it (even with the "sales") with what I get for my money's worth.

Pretty Baby is around 26 bucks worth of MC...one single 'mech. The extra c-bill boost is obviously worth money, not going to argue it's value, but I feel the current prices are prohibitive in getting people to actually buy MC compared to how it might be if some things were lowered. I'm not going to turn and drop 30 dollars for an Battlemech, ever, new paintjob and hardpoints be damned. I understand they're optional and that you don't have to buy them, but I think PGI would see more revenue from them if they weren't priced as high...giving MW:O a better income overall.

As for straight up MC costs for everything else, I don't think MC to XP conversion is bad, especially seeing as they're in the habit of doing that XP conversion sale quite often and that's pretty cool.

Edited by Jack Gallows, 23 March 2013 - 03:23 AM.