605 replies to this topic

[BoldarBlood]

Hello Lion, on 14 November 2011 - 02:41 PM, said:

Personally, I find the idea of this game being an F2P MMO to be the best thing I could have possibly hoped for in a MWO sequel.

One of my biggest pet peeve about most popular MMOs is the fact that, if I play two hundred hours one month and ten hours the next month the cost of my membership is the same. F2P means that no matter how much or how little I play in a given month, the cost doesn't change, it's always free.

it also means, that if you want the full gameexperience like in a normal fullprice title, then you have to pay waaaaaay more money than you would do for a normal game. so it benefits you only if you dont like the game and stop playing soon after you have started.

[Leonardo Monteiro]

I totally buy & support the F2P model with a sort of "store purchase"

First of all, I think we all love and support the Battletech universe - and Piranha does seem compromised to keep the universe as it is.
So it is on our best interest that Piranha suceeds, FINANCIALLY.
I mean, I want this game to bring them lots of money - that is the garantee that they will care, and reinvest on the game.

That said, the F2P model makes sense because:
1. Competition. More and more online games are either free (surviving on advertising), or are moving to a sort of F2P model (LOTRO comes to mind). Basically means that it is very complicated to start asking for the financial commitment of a subscription fee at this moment

2. Costwise (and i am taking assumptions here, i dont understand s*** of hardware/software costs) i would suspect that the incremental cost of +1 player in the system is next to 0. So it is financially interesting, upon installing your game infrastructure (hardware + software), to have the largest player base possible, in the hope that a small percentage will spend money; But a small percentage over a large population might mean alot of money...

3. It is a valuable proposition for casual & hardcore players alike. I started playing LOTR when they went F2P because, they went F2P. And I have spent money in that game. I would have not done so if it had a subscription model. Why? Well, because I, like most people that have jobs for a living, sometimes don't have time, and certainly don't want a monthly subcription commitment. So i can adjust my spend level directly to my play level, just by buying what I want and value.

[Peryl]

I've been playing DDO for over a year now and love the F2P aspect. It means that my wife and daughter can create characters and play with me and not worry about monthly subscription costs. That being said, we loved playing it so much that we eventually did sign up for VIP subscriptions for My wife and I and are contemplating doing the same for the munchkin when we have the $$ available.

F2P is not a curse. It brings players in, gives them the full meal of the game, not just a taste, and lets them buy that really special dessert if they want it. I'm sold! Now, when does this candle light?

[Blackstorm]

How many times do the devs have to say sit tight and see what we're going to implement?

As someone with zero experience in online gaming but who loves killing time in single
Player games, I'm more concerned with the franchise moving forward and being successful in the long term. So I'll play regardless, hopefully I'll be able to do so with my friends, on my time.

So nit picking now gets everyone knowwhere.
These gents seem to have a handle on the universe, the player base and the know it all fans that battletech attracts.

And you all should be profoundly syked they are even bothering to post here at all, what other developer has this much interaction and back an forth with its players? None.

So give them a break, because when the time comes to really put forward opinions they may be tired of the endless pages of whining.

I know I am.

[Redtail]

Here's my thought.

The ugliness with Harmony Gold scared off the publisher.
That would have caused a lesser developer to pack up and quit.

These guys basically just said, "Alright, f*ck you bigwigs, not only are we *still* going to make the game anyway, but we're gonna make it *free*."
They're dead-set on bringing us something. Otherwise they would have moved onto a different concept just to try to get the publisher to pick it up.

I will also pay lots of money to see Oscar the Grouch on the side of my Urbanmech.

[Ogryn]

I play a large number of F2P games. I played a decent number of classic subscription games. CoH, DDO, LoTRO, ST, WoT, FFXI, WoW, Rift, AoC(cringe) And I have to say... I'm looking forward to more Mech lovin, no doubt. Anything that gets me it will make my day. I'll likely start free, and upgrade if it looks good.

Wait, that might be the point of it. Tho I do have to bring up an issue with WoT, and several other now dead f2p games. Gold rounds. Premium damage ammo, or premium based pay2win items with use on the battlefield. Paying for camouflage, extra hanger space, faster out of battlefield progression? Yeah. Faster Cbill generation? Yeah. Gold plated LRM ammo that does more damage, or whatever? No thank you.

Being able to spend money on getting into a new chassis quicker? Or to finish progression on a chassis, or more cash generation (like WoT Premium sub) is fine. But the second that you have an item that has an increased effect on the battlefield available to those that spend money, then you've started down the pay2win route. And that makes me a sad little jockey.

Hell, making certain mech frames available as premium purchases that then progress normally, however that may be? Sure, I can get behind that idea. Navyfield and WoT, even DDO and CoH do that. Give me something strange from the stables of hundreds of mechs... an O-Bakemono, or the Ostsol/Ostroc set.

[Ragnek]

I'll be honest, I would prefer a Guild Wars model, mainly because I feel its more substantial, and all the free to play mech based games in the past have failed dismally, im really excited to see this game, but ive also seen other fantastic games that were free to play simply because they were free to play, they had no income (people refused to do the micro transactions) and so had no money with which to advertise and found it hard to survive, a fantastic example of this was Battleswarm, (think starship troopers where if your human you play a squad based FPS, if your bug its an RTS, the spin was that these two types played in the same game against eachother, bugs would see little marines running around that were actually people playing against them seeing the game as an FPS) the concept was great, the graphics were ok and pvp brilliant as it was all conqurable territory etc, but failed due to having no income. My point is this, I dont want to see the game fail, and would rather buy the game, then have the possibility to micro transaction for aesthetics, ie different mech skins, and merc corp customisations, than have the opportunity to say 'yay - free mech game!' only to have less than a year or so playing it.

Rag.

[bobhound]

I play World of Tanks. I have a time-consuming job so when I get the chance to play I appreciate being able to have a premium account to lessen the grind it takes to unlock the next tank.

Hence, I can't really fault the F2P model as such. Just make sure that feeding money into your account won't give you an advantage that other players can't get without putting time into the game. Unlocking "gold mechs" as such isn't so much a problem either, so long as they are balanced.

In summary, as long as being a premium member doesn't give you an advantage that can't be achieved by other means than gold, then it's all fine. Custom paint jobs is marvellous, as is xp bonuses, etc. Just please no gold ammo! That concludes my thoughts on the matter.

[VEDRFOLNIR]

After seeing Bryan's postings, I have no worries at present. As time goes on, and more specific information is released, I'll have more input, but right now I'm content to wait and be excited about the possibilities.

[MuffinTop]

BoldarBlood, on 14 November 2011 - 06:01 AM, said:

EVE is NOT an free to play game and you cannot buy premium ships or special ammunition or anything else for real currency. there are no advatages for real money in the game.

Thats strange I didn't say anything about EVE being a F2P game, and you need to do a google search on EVE and wallet warriors. Also I don't like the idea of paying a monthly fee to play in EVE online. Its a bigger ripoff than XBOX Live or DLC for Call of Duty and other Steam games.

[Mad Pig]

Given the choice between what's available now... and what's been described in the dev notes and the Q & A, all I can say is 'do eet... do eet now... no sleep till Brooklyn... no one gets to the choppa until beta!' If it rolls out meeting only half of the expectations that have been set by the powers that be - it will in my opinion still be a success.

Why? Because it's where the Net is going. It is what it is. There's been a paradign shift in web based services and in software development this last decade that is taking off. Look no further than SOA and SAAS based services where core content is offerred for free, and access to premium services can be had at very affordable and competitive pricing. In today's global economic environment it's a no brainer.

If you want to reboot a game franchise for a rabid fan base and want it to be a long term success, then developing a F2P product iteratively through an Agile approach where the dev team is clearly engaging with the user base and embracing social media just makes good business sense. More so when you understand that the devs are putting a 21st century spin on a 20th century product first designed when Bill Gates was still a pimply nerd, when sourcebooks were published before a good portion of the fan base was even born, and when the idea that a cable news network could spam households with live televised smart bomb footage was just as much science fiction as the original PC game running on an 8086 processor...

I'm liking what I see. I'm reading between the lines and I get it. When I surf and see the kind of technology available to modernized professional militaries today... a MechWarrior product that would just rehash the same old tired content with a new skin won't cut it - it won't be marketable or profitable to a user base that is nipple to mouth with technology and getting spammed with CoD game footage during commerical breaks on prime time. We got drones, UAV's, special purposed military satellites that can be retasked on demand, and soldiers on the battlefield walking around with glorified laptops strapped to their backs relaying real time battlefield information to a command center with video relay and voice activated communication systems embedded in their helmets. No, I'm not talking BF3.. I'm talking United States Special Forces, 2012.

If you want people to play a game that requires jump ships, drop ships, and planetary assaults across hundreds of light years with trundling 100 ton behemoths controlled by an elite warrior with a neuro helmet interface... you need to throw in some candy that wasn't around in the 80s when the first sourcebooks rolled off a printing press.

The approach is sound. It makes business sense. And for a community that's been waiting years for something fresh, I say bring it on! Anyone bagging on an approach that engages a fan base and is being developed by a team that's just as much a rabid fanboi of the series as you is...

Doooods... sign me up! Mix it up. Reboot it. Stick to the lore as much as possible. Tweak what needs tweaking for a wired generation and I'll play until the game dies or I do.

[metro]

and the PIGGY has spoken !! Prepare to be boarded! >salute<

[Thoth]

It has to be F2P. It is the model that makes the most cost effective sense.

[jackhammer]

I, for one, am not thrilled about a F2P model. I'd rather get a normal/co-op game with some kind of metagame features than a F2P.

I have tried quite a few F2P, and always stopped after a short time.
Mostly, my problem is with the social side of those games.

I don't want to be forced to play with/against other people, I want it to be my choice.
I'll still give it a try of course, still I'm not sure it's a smart move.

I guess it'll greatly depends on how the game will be articulated, but if it's common team deathmatch kind of thing, even round-based, it'll be without me.

Mechwarrior is a mech sim, still it's a war game. Anything less than co-op objective based missions won't make any sense.
It should play out like military ops.
This means one should get to socialize and join a clan, or create one with friends.
Again, I want to have the option to do it, not be forced to.

Another problem is the lance. This means that I can only play with 3 friends? What happens if I only have 2? Will I be stuck with 10 years old Kevin playing on his dad's computer?

I'd rather command my own lance of bots. The more I think about it, the more I fell like playing Mechwarrior 4 mercenaries instead.

There's also the problem of immersion. I've never felt immersed in an online game. It seems most players enjoys talking about unrelated stuff while playing, which really gets you out of the game universe.

Anyway, these are just some of the points that gets me worried.
Again, I'll definitly give a try, but the announcement of going F2P made this game go from top to bottom in my games wishlist.

I just hope I'll be positively surprised.

If anything, I'd rather get Mech 4 Mercenaries, with co-op. Up to 4 players for a lance, if less than bots take over and that's it.
Add a metagame so the community is still working by clan affiliation toward some kind of goal, and that's pretty much it.

Up to now, I haven't seen any good news about going F2P. No sticks, but no carrots either.

[BoldarBlood]

MuffinTop, on 16 November 2011 - 08:04 PM, said:

Also I don't like the idea of paying a monthly fee to play in EVE online. Its a bigger ripoff than XBOX Live or DLC for Call of Duty and other Steam games.

nope, you are wrong. its completly diffrent from that, because the monthly fee is needed in a real mmog with a persistant gameworld. EVE uses expensive hardware, so you can play battles with over 1500 people at the same time and place. battles with 400 are very common in EVE. no other game is delivering this kind of gameexperience atm. and not only that, you play together with all the players on one single server. no false marketing bullshit like other games tryed it, its realy one giant server without any instances.

and they also developing new features and more content from the monthly fee. not the crap you might used to from bi-weekly free to play pay updates. nope, ccp is releasing 2 big add-ons every year for free. heres the website of the next free expension, coming out next month: http://www.eveonline...cible/features/

i happily pay 12 dollar per month for such a game. thats also a lot (!) less then i would need to pay to have the full gameexperience in a free to play mmog. f2p is the real rip-off.

Edited by BoldarBlood, 18 November 2011 - 12:05 PM.

[Peryl]

What I'd really like to see is out of the cockpit experiences. Make it a real RPG along with the sim aspect.

Or, here's an idea free of charge, keep the sim battles F2P; have some missions that are single mech in its own instance; have a lot more that really need more than one mech to complete and let players make their own lances. Then, as an added benfit to those who want to subscribe, have a server that handles out of mech experiences. Have a bar, some night life, make it like walking around on Outreach or Terra. Hey, maybe you can have a different server for each of the five main capitol worlds too.

THAT is what I was really looking forward to with an MMO. Give me world immersion. I realize that for some players, actual role-playing is difficult. And, just maybe, the ones who OPT to pay for the subscription will do it for the RPG and not just the shoot em up.

[phalanx]

Bryan mentioned in one of the "MWO is gonna be P2W" troll threads that they will be making an announcement in a future blog.

But I am VERY pleased from what I have seen so far and definitely worth waiting all these years.

[Adian HDragon Vordermark]

I think the F2P format is one of the things I have found most rewarding for most of the Mechwarrior Community. Previously released Mechwarrior games needed a way of getting many players on a battlefield, not only for large scale league play, but for team oriented PvE play as well. Many Units have a Great many players at times, but the limitations of previous releases only allowed roughly 8-10 players at any time to play on a sandbox environment.

I am definatly a fan of MMO's in general, and I love playing with alot of players online. I have played quite a few MMO's and most of them are in the Sci-Fi and Fantacy areas. Some are still around, and others are not, but one thing all of the MMO's have is the ability to give the comunity the ability to have litterally hundreds of players on Huge maps all playing at the same time together in what ever capacity the players seem to want. PvP (Player vs Player), or PvE (Player vs Environment), or even Team PvE/PvP.

The large scale of the Mechwarrior universe has been screaming for large scale battle, not only for normal play, but even the ability for leagues to scale a fun and envelopeing experience. As great as this community is, and honestly, there are alot of players I see on here that have been playing for YEARS in Mechwarrior games, I cant wait to see even the newer players, as well as the older ones come together and create a solid, fun filled game that we all can be a part of, and enjoy for years. I mean how many have literally bveen playing MW4 alone for like 10 years..... This speeks volumes of the dedication the MW comunity has, and as we all pull together, I see this game becomeing one Huge success if we all work together.

With this said... I have only one more thing to add.... When is the BETA starting? LOL!!!

See you all on the Battlefield, and WAR ON!!!

Edited by Adian HDragon Vordermark, 24 November 2011 - 06:01 PM.

[Thorqemada]

Well, i did not know about Mechwarrior and Battletech until i bought my first PC - a Suntac 286 AT with 12 MHz.
The 2 first games i bought were Sword of the Samurai and Mechwarrior.
Mechwarrior immedietly catched me, chained me to the Screen and i played it days in a row making the Blazing As... to Blazing Aces.
My favourite Mech is therefore the Marauder - it was the coolest Mech in Mechwarrior.
Becoming addicted i found more Mech games - like the Crescent Hawks games which i enjoyed the first RPG part and disenjoyed the second RTS part.
That is my only complain, that the potential of a real Mechwarrior RPG was never explored.
I also played Mechwarrior 2 to 4 and Mechcommander 1 (not MC2 though i own it - i own all of them in original in several versions).
Never i played the boardgame - i was allways a computer gamer.
I deeply regret i was never able to play one of Multiplayer-MW-Games bcs i had no online connection that time, later playing already time consuming mmos.
So i am really excited that MW is rebooted as Onlinegame and have some hopes to have a good, fun, challenging experience with it and i do not care what payment option is chosen as long it is fair priced and reasonsable in its offerings.
F2P has cons and pros - a pro is for sure the low entrance barrier and if a game needs a low entrance barrier it is a pvp game.
A con is that its very easy to fall to the greed side like Runes of Magic did.
I am not sure what to await from MW Online.
Will it be a very focussed pvp mmo, will it be a mmo world, is there anything more than fight with mechs planned if the game is any successfull for later expansion?
I personally hope so!

[Thorqemada]

PS: And why does my alias start with a small letter and not a capital one?