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I love what these guys are doing. The fact that it's mech combat sim and not mech arcade (So MechWarrior rather than HaloWarrior) is going to make me pretty happy.
The bottom line is, I love that something is happening. I'm going to give it a try. (On a similar note, Crimson Skies as an ACTUAL SIMULATOR like the yr 2000 video game in a persistent disunited states would ALSO be fun.)
Here comes the rub: Unless something changes, I'm not expecting to see another MechWarrior single or multi-player game that isn't 100% fanbuilt. This Free to Play stuff is probably seen as slumming it by the bEAstards over at EA, while indie game houses probably think it's a vile corruption of their artform.
The fact that it's being released at all makes me happy, and I hope it's the game that saves Free To Play, and turns it into a respected model (It's already viable, just not respected).
As much as I love these guys for bringing back my beloved MechWarrior, they're not working for a billion dollar charity. They're working for a business, and one that isn't very large.
As someone who's in the business world myself now, I can tell you, the bottom line rules all. It doesn't matter how awesome my ideas are, it doesn't matter how cool that thing I wanted but didn't have time for would have been, as one of the higher up muckity mucks, you have to have to have to think about your bottom line.
That turns us all into vicious uncaring jackals.
So the question I would have if I were one of their bosses is this:
"How's [INSERT PET ISSUE HERE] going to work with the system we've designed?"
I mean, look at MWO. Really, look at the business model. We're going to have large-scale warfare now. We've been doing that in leagues for years, and finally a game company said "Hey, they're conquering planets in MechWarrior. Let's build a game around that." The whole world of this game is designed around community, teamwork, and testing your teamwork against their teamwork.
I can't tell you how many times I and my lancemates were wiped out by some group of kids because we were all drinking and joking around while they were playing a game with military precision. Most of us have been playing since MW2. Those kids earned their kills against us by virtue of our years of experience with Mechs.
My point to that story is that the purpose of this game is integration. There's a word called Synergy that ***** businessmen use to describe the idea that every aspect of a business should help some other aspect of a business. Personally, I fire anyone who says "Synergy" in a meeting on the spot. It proves they've been getting business advice from Delta Skymall, and that's bad for business.
So here's my question for everyone who thinks this game might be ruined forever because their favorite thing might not be in it: how does your pet issue help people integrate with a community, grow it to a larger size, and encourage those people who have money to spend it on everything from useful stuff to monocles for your atlas?
I'm going to be honest, video games are not my business. Video Games are the mental health supplement that keeps me from beating that fratboy intern to death with my keyboard every time he says the word "dude."
So the folks in charge of this shindig probably know a little more about video games than I do, considering it's what they do and everything. My point is, whatever this game is, if they haven't been lying through their teeth about mechanics and such, it's good enough for me. I'm ready to settle. As the Republican Party will eventually be forced to nominate Mitt Romney because there literally is no one else who might stand a bishops chance in hades of beating Obama, this game, whatever it is, is likely the last hurrah of MechWarrior in the video game world.
Unless it's a giant ******* success. And I as a customer am going to do what I can to make it one.
Which means asking this: Don't give me power for dollars. Don't make it so that I and my drunk friends can beat those kids who have the time to drill military precision, just because I have some disposable income.
Because I'm going to drink beer and have fun. I'm going to get shot out of my 'mech because I was too busy pouring that second scotch to dodge.
I deserve to be.
But damned if that atlas I'm driving isn't going to look snazzy in a monocle and tophat.
And the main reason you shouldn't sell me power, is because I'll buy it. My favorite weapon in ModWar2 has always been the knife. 90% of my ModWar2 kills come from running up silently and aerating someone's giblets. I can do that when I'm drunk. It's a one-hit kill. Sure, sometimes I run past the guy and he blows my head off with a shotgun, but I always respawn and kill him again. What was my point? Oh, yeah.
If you sell me a super kill-o-death laser, or a special mod that gives my atlas a one hit knockout on any mech, so that I can strip off all the weapons and give myself an 80KPH pummel monster, and no one else has those things, you'll have a drunk republican murdering people who just don't have the money to compete.
And while that may be fine for the US Economy, it's no way to run a community you actually care about.
Edited by Sholto MacLeod, 07 November 2011 - 06:58 AM.
