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CypherHalo, on 25 January 2013 - 08:24 AM, said:
I'm sorry, but why are we so intent on punishing players? Games should be about having fun. R&R should add to the fun of a game, not be a punitive measure. Personally, I do think R&R can make the game more interesting, the problem was how they implemented it. Since it drained away your c-bills, I just came to resent the R&R costs. I felt like I was getting punished every time my hard-earned money went to R&R costs, especially if you were driving a Heavy or an Assault. You could practically lose your whole earnings. I mean, jeez, are Assault mechs never supposed to die?
Unfortunately the R&R debate heralds all the way back to Pre-Closed-Beta times. On the one side you have the BattleTech fans who cut their teeth on the Board Game and earlier versions of MechWarrior and on the other hand you have the new players who only know it is a game about fighting robots. R&R is not meant to be a punishment, however that is how a lot of new players have come to view it. This comes down to How players view this game:
Battletech fans know a least a bit about the background of this game. They dream of being able to step in to the story about the Inner Sphere Succession Wars (and the imminent Clan invasion of the Inner Sphere). The 'mechs in Battletech are very expensive war machines that usually only the great Houses could afford to field in large numbers. First lets take a look at the total 'mech production of House Marik (Free Worlds League) for one year - this is taken from the House Marik sourcebook - ready for it? 500 'mechs TOTAL were produced each year.
Only a few Mecenary units could afford to field a full Regiment (108) of 'mechs, most of the smaller Mercenary units had a Batallion (36) or less, and these 'mechs had to last because production could not keep up with combat losses. Often a 'mechwarrior who survived the loss of his or her 'mech joined the disgraced ranks of the Dispossessed - a few notables covered in the books went through a lot of trials to get a 'mech back (by taking someone elses).
So the fans are looking at a Battletech game where Battlemechs are rare, expensive, machines. Often the objective is not to destroy the enemy 'mech because you need all the parts you can salvage from it to keep your own 'mech in operation - or better yet repair the damaged enemy 'mech to add to your own numbers. In short the expensive R&R is a reflection of how valuable the Battlemechs really are to a combat unit.
Now we come to the new player. Most new players come from games where most of the resources in the game are readily available and quite cheap. For example in Battlefield 3 if you need more ammunition just find a friendly support player and they will drop you an ammo box free of charge, need healing find a medic. In short resources are not an issue because they are free or very inexpensive to acquire. So the very thing that the fan is looking for in this game the new player sees as a punishment.
Now that more games are choosing the Free-to-Play model the resource expense is going to become a staple of the F2P game. MWO is not the first and certainly will not be the last to use this method for modeling the economy of the game - and for a F2P game that is how it should be.
