425 replies to this topic

[WolvesX]

Lee Ving, on 14 February 2013 - 01:06 PM, said:

Remove one of the last profit incentives here?

Maybe if the bays cost 30,000 GXP.

lol. Thats not that much. I go with MALICE.

"No, they don't!"

[PoLaR]

Mech Bays....

Aren't expensive.

[Lukoi Banacek]

AEgg, on 14 February 2013 - 04:20 PM, said:

There's little difference between an actual paywall (i.e. pay-only tanks in WoT or hero mechs here) and an equivalent one (i.e. EVERYTHING in Battlefield:Heroes after it flopped). The issue of discussion here is how far is acceptable before the game is a waste of time for non-paying players. I'm kind of impartial on pay-only mechbays. I really don't know how difficult it would be to stick to just four since my premium time bought thirty or so and I'll thus never run into the issue.

It'd be a painful inconvenience but if one were honest with themself, they'd realize that's all it is....a matter of convenience. You can play the game competively with four mech bays. It just costs you more time (to grind, as you'll be selling Mechs essentially at a loss, in order to master more than one) and you'll be limited to how many chassis you can run, but ultimately you can still play, kick *** and compete with just four mech bays.

For me, it's a matter of convenience that's easily covered in terms of cost.....PGI is a business trying to make money and my personal time is precious to me and fairly limited....so Mechbays for 300MC (I bought MC at 250 to the dollar) is worth it to me.

[Sorho]

4 free slots is more than enough and allows you to maintain 1 mech of each weight class without paying a penny.

[Bren McGuire]

MWO is still in Beta. Unlike other betas, you can pay for extra features, but it's also known that upon release all that MC will be refunded. I see alot of people here whose real motives are to protect their investment, without thinking of the consequences of lessened competition, and that's not healthy for the game.

That's not surprising considering the current matchmaking problems. ELO is flawed but it'll be a rude awakening for many vets.

I believe it would be worthwhile exploring free mech bays and the effect it has on competition in general after ELO.

[Bryan Kerensky]

Edited by Bryan Kerensky, 14 February 2013 - 04:40 PM.

[Grrzoot]

Yeah this has all been said 10 times in this thread already, but i will repeat.

No, no free mech bays, not ever, not even once.
If you have so much time in your life to run multiple accounts to get more mechs to play, hell just the fact that you have 4 kited out mechs means that you have gotten more enjoyment from this game, FOR FREE, than many games you would pay $60 for.

The fact that if you want to own more mechs means jumping through some artificial hurdle, or paying $7. And then you want to complain about that fact, and demand more free stuff? You are hurting a game that i currently enjoy and support, there is no need to feed the leeches, they get enough blood on their own.

Bren McGuire, on 14 February 2013 - 04:36 PM, said:

MWO is still in Beta. Unlike other betas, you can pay for extra features, but it's also known that upon release all that MC will be refunded. I see alot of people here whose real motives are to protect their investment, without thinking of the consequences of lessened competition, and that's not healthy for the game.

That's not surprising considering the current matchmaking problems. ELO is flawed but it'll be a rude awakening for many vets.

I believe it would be worthwhile exploring free mech bays and the effect it has on competition in general after ELO.

Incorrect info is incorrect. There will be no more wipes. MC will not be refunded.

[Flapdrol]

Mech bays is the only thing worth spending any MC on, and the only reasonably priced item ingame.

If I could've gotten them with cbills or xp I'd have spent $0 on this game.

If you absolutely want more for free just make another account, and another one, and another one.

Edited by Flapdrol, 14 February 2013 - 04:44 PM.

[Zaptruder]

Vechs, on 14 February 2013 - 01:40 PM, said:

I think some of you guys need to chill a bit.

I agree with Volume that there needs to be a way to get mechbays without using MC.

Why? So PGI can make more money.

Now you might be thinking, "Vechs, WTF, how does that work?"

Well essentially, I would make mechbays be maybe 15 million C-Bills, or 30,000 GXP, something very expensive and grindy, so getting a "free" mechbay would be a big timesink, but it would be doable. This is so PGI can say "Hey, you can do everything in this game for free, if you really want to invest the time."

But here's the thing -- the main purpose of doing this is to drive MC sales. If someone is sitting there grinding for hours just for a mechbay, and they have that 300 MC unlock button staring at them every time they return to the mechlab after a battle, the temptation is going to make a lot of people cave in.

They have to ask themselves "Is a 8 hour+ grind worth it when I could just pay them a few dollars?"

The people that still choose to grind instead of paying the 300 MC are the ones that either cannot or will not ever buy MC -- but PGI still needs as many free players as they can get, because the free players are game content for us paying players.

One more thing -- studies have been done that show that players who buy Pay Currency in a F2P are very likely to become return customers and buy more in the future. That first sale is the hardest, and I think there is potential here for PGI to basically, well, coax some free players into that first tiny sale with a big grind.

A good rational analysis, ignored because people can't be bothered reading a few words in succession, and would rather post: Get a jerb!

It's another vector for the F2P to grind, and another vector for them to get hooked into the game enough fro them to pull out their wallets for the first time; going from free to play, to paying customer. The difference is significant; one has trust issues about online payment and the game and the company. The other has experienced the payment first hand and knows what to expect.

[Rift Hawk]

Volume, on 14 February 2013 - 01:00 PM, said:

I understand that PGI needs to make money. I realize that someone who has acquired four of their own well-equipped and upgraded battlemechs has probably gotten many hours of enjoyment out of MWO, and maybe therefore "should" pay for the entertainment.

However, I find it unfair that players can hit a F2P wall and be unable to progress without heavy compromise.

I feel that there needs to be a way to let F2P players explore all the elements of the game without forcing them to essentially backtrack in terms of Battlemechs.

I don't think a player should need to sell the one he has been using to try a new 'Mech. It's not that they can't make a choice, it's that that choice simply shouldn't have to be made, because it's not a sensible choice to impose on players.

Like I said, I don't expect PGI to give everything away for free to players. I would think that allowing slots to be purchased with C-Bills could be a mistake, but perhaps if a player is capable of getting a few extra slots from pilot rank ups or GXP, he would have a fair degree of wiggle room.

What I find hardest here is that the number of available 'Mechs to play has more than doubled, but F2P slots remain locked at 4. It takes three of the same 'Mech to even get a Chassis to Elite/Master, and having three variants of the same 'Mech and one other seems like a strong limit, leaving the player having only two different 'Mechs to play (3 variants of the same one, one variant of another) unless you count the abhorrent trial 'Mech loadouts with no pilot skills (Which are very, very gameplay-affecting).

Don't push away the players who want to play your game - empower them to earn the items they want, even if they have to grind for them. Otherwise they may not play at all. I think pushing away free players is a scary idea and obviously not what we want to do. It's a good thing that you keep XP even if you sell a chassis, but at the same time, it is a hefty c-bill loss if you decide you want to pick up that chassis again - one that is unfair to a player without a founder's bonus and premium account.

I just don't want to be losing players over this.

Achievements are supposed to give things like this I do believe.

Other than that, Is it too much to ask to pay 7$ to get 3-4 mech bays and help support the game you play ?

[Lukoi Banacek]

It's another vector, but not one everyone agrees with.

[nksharp]

F2P players should get a job.

[SixstringSamurai]

Has anyone gotten forum bingo yet?

Here I will help:

OMG PGI sucks, I hate them, please die. Fire and stuff. This is the worst game ever. I'm mad about robots. Give me a refund. The Yen Lo is a good mech...

Hope that helps.

[ArmandTulsen]

Buckminster, on 14 February 2013 - 02:20 PM, said:

Seriously, stop the QQ.

$7 gets you 4 extra mech bays. Either suck it up or go play Farmville.

Farmville. Now, there's an idea.

[Bryan Kerensky]

If someone can't even fork out 7 bucks for 4 slots what makes you think they'll pay for anything more?

Lol, but but we could make them cost like like 20 billion C-bills right? Haha, with the way people are moaning about how 'hard' it is to get a mech, which you could buy with just C-bills btw, they'll flip and mumble something about P2W.

[Bren McGuire]

Grrzoot, on 14 February 2013 - 04:42 PM, said:

Incorrect info is incorrect. There will be no more wipes. MC will not be refunded.

Ancient uncool meme. Apologies, my info is either old or incorrect, it doesn't mean it shouldn't be right but that's a topic for another thread. What is evident is that people are definitely trying to quash free mech bays to protect their investment. I sympathise but the current model only goes one way. FTP leave, Then the harcdore devour eachother until there's not enough players left to sustain the game. It's the wrong direction for a FTP game.

[Pihb]

Wales Grey, on 14 February 2013 - 04:00 PM, said:

are you a conservative? your hatred is leaking out.

On topic: mechbays are cheap. If you can't afford seven bux for the smallest MC package, you probably should find a less expensive pastime than PC gaming.

I don't identify with a particular political philosophy. That being said, i was brought up and agree with you are not entitled to **** in this world. This game is a gift and people asking for more free stuff is offensive to me.

[Thunder Lips Express]

it's the same type of unfair that my friend who is a doctor earns more money then i do every year simply because he paid for 7 years of schooling!

[KhanCipher]

AEgg, on 14 February 2013 - 04:03 PM, said:

Team Fortress 2 isn't technically free to play. You have to dump $5 into steam to actually have access to everything. Honestly, calling it free to play is completely incorrect, it's still using the standard retail model, it just has an extended demo.

you can smelt weapons to make metal, and metal makes... guess what, weapons and hats! and anyways $5 there gives you way much more than $7 here.

[Cest7]

$15 will buy you 10 mech bay slots... $15 is ~1-1.5hrs of work. Not too much to ask for what will result in many, MANY more hours of enjoyment out of the game. I personally think limited mech bay slots is genius. If you look at other F2P titles, the successful ones have the same kind of limitations. (WoT for example)

What it all boils down to is the fact that Devs gotta eat.