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When the Yen-Lo-Wang was released as the first MC only mech, it fired up the “Pay To Win” debate. Now, three months later, we have five Hero Mechs. I thought now may be a good time to review and ask again, does Mechwarrior Online have “Pay To Win” elements?
1. Definition of Pay To Win.
A major sticking point in the P2W debate is the definition of P2W. Some people consider anything that can be used in gameplay but can’t be earned without spending money, instantly P2W. Others view only items that give a clear gameplay advantage a P2W item. There is the added caveat that some people consider gameplay advantage items OK if they can be also earned with in game money, while others don’t want real work money to let you buy anything but “fluff”, since that is “paying for power”.
While you can feel free to argue for your definition of P2W in this thread, for my analysis I am using my opinion, which is that an item is “Pay 2 Win” if two conditions are met.
First: The item can only be bought with real world money and can’t be reasonably earned for free.
Second: The item can be shown to give a noticeable gameplay advantage over all free alternatives.
Please note the words reasonably, and noticeable. I say reasonably earned for free because some things which can be earned for free can’t be earned in any reasonable amount of time. A good example is the high end modules. And I say noticeable gameplay advantage because a lot of things give tiny advantages that are too small to seriously consider. An example would be the MC only camo patterns.
We should also define the word “win”. For this analysis I am considering “win” only as it applies to winning the current Assault and Conquest matches in the game. If your definition of “win” is something else, like unlocking all the mechs or having a 10/1 KDR, that is outside the scope of this thread.
2. What Can MC Get You?
To see if any MC item meets both those criteria, let’s run down what you can get with MC. The following list is from the C-Bill and MC Guide.
MC is used to buy the following:
Vanity cockpit items.
New Mech bays.
Premium Account Time.
New paint patterns and colors.
Conversion of Mech Specific XP to Generic XP.
New Mechs (Including Hero Mechs).
3. Do MC Items Give You a Gameplay Advantage?
First we can easily mark off a few items on the list. Mech bays, Premium Time, and vanity cockpit items clearly do not help anyone win inside of a match.
Next we look at camo patterns and colors. Some of the camo patterns can confer a gameplay advantage. The Dazzle pattern for example, can make it harder to see and target specific parts of some mechs, or even make it hard to tell which direction they are facing. I personally thing the advantage is so small it does not meet my second criteria for P2W, but others may disagree.
Then we have Mech XP to GXP conversion. This may not look like P2W on the surface, but it has the potential to be. Right now, the available modules are definitely useful, but again, I don’t think they present a noticeable gameplay advantage. If in the future they become more important though, it could turn into P2W because the natural rate of GXP gain for a free player is so low it is not reasonable to include as a “free alternative”, and thus GXP conversion would meet both my requirements. I hope this does not happen.
Finally we have the MC item that sparked off the P2W debate in the first place. Do any of the Hero mechs meet both requirements? Hero mechs do meet the first requirement right now. Some hero mechs can do things no free alternative can, such as the Muromets dual arm gauss, or the Wang’s arm mounted AC/20. But do those unique abilities make the mechs meet the second requirement? Do any Hero mechs give a clear and noticeable gameplay advantage over all free alternatives? I personally do not think so, but I look forward to reading your arguments about it.
4. Conclusion.
In my opinion, Mechwarrior Online does not have Pay To Win right now. But I think that two of the MC only systems, XP to GXP conversion, and Hero Mechs, have the potential to become Pay To Win in the future. So far I think PGI has done a good job of making Hero Mechs unique but not overpowered, and modules useful but not necessary. I hope they continue to walk that fine line, so all players have a level playing field.
Edited by 80Bit, 26 January 2013 - 04:37 PM.
I wasn't implying the Ilya is over-powered per se, but rather it is arguablly best variant in class, and is the only mech that can sport triple UACs effectively giving it THE best burst DPS in the game....and no, the Jaeger will not be able to surpass it.
