205 replies to this topic

[Monsoon]

@OP: Sorry you haven't a clue what you're talking about. You can play this game as MUCH as you want without ever paying a dime. You get 4 mechbays to do with as you will. Run out of space and don't want to buy another mechbay? Nothing is stopping you from selling one of your current Mechs and buying a new one.


Nothing special about Hero Mechs in terms of combat. Just different load-outs, that won't give you any leg up, just more variety.

Edited by Monsoon, 15 February 2013 - 12:08 PM.

[Joseph Mallan]

cdlord, on 15 February 2013 - 12:03 PM, said:

I'm an impatient person

I'm...
Married with Children(C)

[Rotaugen]

Joseph Mallan, on 15 February 2013 - 12:05 PM, said:

I'm...
Married with Children©

Me too. My playing time is so limited, I spend a lot of MC just to speed things up. C-Bills are for customization of loadout, MC for pretty much everything else. Dang kids...

[Keisuke Nagisa]

You can do everything in this game short of acquiring hero mechs, vanity items and mech bays, without spending a dime. If you are to cheap to spend the $1.50 one mech bay costs then find another game. This (and any F2P) game isn't a charity. The idea is to spend SOME money even if its just a few bucks.

[CMDR Sunset Shimmer]

Tennex, on 15 February 2013 - 08:41 AM, said:

LoL *IS* free to play. all you pay for is vanity items and speeding up. you don't pay for "storage space" for more content.


MWO is not. this game content comes mainly in the form of mechs. and progression comes in the form of pilot exp.

but you'll notice as you fill your mech bays up with progression. at one point or another you are going to have to pay for mech bays. or give up the content you've acquired, to swap for more content. so your paying to be able to access more content without losing some content at that point.


at one point once your bays are filled up, you are starting to pay everytime the release content, to be able to play that content. without giving up already acquire content


but hey they gotta make money somehow. but since most people don't realize it. its actually a REALLY SMART way to charge a monthly fee essentially for content.

You can sell an already bought mech to buy new mechs to progress up the pilot trees.

All you "need" is the basic 4 slots, 1 slot for your "primary" mech, 3 slots the mechs you're training up for pilot XP with.

Don't let this gold tag fool you, I didn't buy Legendary until the LAST day of closed beta. So I understand some of the frustration with the game in it's "Free" format. However the truth is, yes, this game is free, and if you so wish to play it fully free, you the player have to make some concessions, one of these concessions is that you cannot "Collect" every mech. You can however train up in every mech if you manage your slots properly. Much as I said before, pick a "primary" mech, then buy 2 more chassis of the same type, train them all up to elite/master, sell off the 2 you find least useful and keep the useful one that you like, then buy 3 different mech and begin training... if you find you like one of those better, pick it, and sell your old mech plus the 2 others... and again and again untill you have everything mastered, then you can go back, buy the 3 other mechs you find most useful, and hold on to those until a new mech comes out and then do it over again.

you're not really stopped from progression. there's just a few more steps in the way. It's "Pay2avoidgrind and pay2bepretty, and some would argue pay2lose." but it's far from a "you must pay to do anything." game.

[StalaggtIKE]

Joseph Mallan, on 15 February 2013 - 12:05 PM, said:

I'm...
Married with Children©

I'm married with cat...
Doesn't have the same ring to it.

[FrDrake]

StalaggtIKE, on 15 February 2013 - 12:16 PM, said:

I'm married with cat...
Doesn't have the same ring to it.

It's a toss up though as to which is smellier to clean up after.

[Sir Burpalot21]

Guild Wars 2 is not Free-to-play you ignorant so it's model has nothing to do with MWO.
You purchases it for $60. And complaining about microtransactions in GW2??? None of it gives you a competitive advantage and none of it is required to enjoy the game you paid $60 for!
Also, all of it can be purchased in in game coins by converting to gems so you completely lost credibility by trying to paint it as some shady scheme.
Its up against competitors who either offer the subscription MMO deal (WoW) or recent converts to F2P like Star Wars: The Old Republic which failed as subscription based MMOs because their content wasn't worth that cost.

As for the Mechwarrior Online situation. Its a F2P game that offers you 4 FREE mechbays to start out with. New players aren't even going to think about getting their mech chassis mastered. They're thinking about tweaking their mechs and buying new ones. By the time they've actually filled up their 4 bays and want to go for Elite's and Master's, they would have invested enough time into the game to decide if it's enjoyable enough to spend a few bucks on to get some new mechbays or tough it out and sell a chassis to make room.

Edited by Sir Burpalot21, 15 February 2013 - 12:52 PM.

[Havyek]

I have a second account that I played with (non-founder obviously) during the height of the repair/rearm tear-fest. Just to test out how bad it actually was.

Within a few days of playing (Pugging mostly, maybe 3-4 drops at the end of the night with my group) I had the first 'Mech I WANTED (not the first I could afford). I believe it was a HBK 4SP IIRC. By the time I had earned enough XP to max out basic on the 4SP, I could afford a 4H or 4J. Rinse and repeat with the 4H/4J until I could afford the next chassis.

After that, I pretty much dismissed any of the "complaints" and claimed "hardships" of the F2Pers. It should be exponentially easier now with the cadet bonuses.

[CDLord HHGD]

Rotaugen, on 15 February 2013 - 12:09 PM, said:

Me too. My playing time is so limited, I spend a lot of MC just to speed things up. C-Bills are for customization of loadout, MC for pretty much everything else. Dang kids...

Same here, but also with a cat and dog..... What is this "time" you speak of?

[Agent of Change]

NT Hackman, on 15 February 2013 - 12:59 PM, said:

Odd that most of the replies in this thread are coming from people who paid money for a "free" game.

Not really the people who spend money on a game are most likely the people that like it enough or at least care enough to enter the forums and participate. They aren't the only ones but they are likely to be well represented.

[RickySpanish]

Sir Burpalot21, on 15 February 2013 - 12:39 PM, said:

Guild Wars 2 is not Free-to-play you ignorant so it's model has nothing to do with MWO.
You purchases it for $60. And complaining about microtransactions in GW2??? None of it gives you a competitive advantage and none of it is required to enjoy the game you paid $60 for!
Also, all of it can be purchased in in game coins by converting to gems so you completely lost credibility by trying to paint it as some shady scheme.
Its up against competitors who either offer the subscription MMO deal (WoW) or recent converts to F2P like Star Wars: The Old Republic which failed as subscription based MMOs because their content wasn't worth that cost.

As for the Mechwarrior Online situation. Its a F2P game that offers you 4 FREE mechbays to start out with. New players aren't even going to think about getting their mech chassis mastered. They're thinking about tweaking their mechs and buying new ones. By the time they've actually filled up their 4 bays and want to go for Elite's and Master's, they would have invested enough time into the game to decide if it's enjoyable enough to spend a few bucks on to get some new mechbays or tough it out and sell a chassis to make room.

I didn't compare MWO's model to GW2 silly, I was comparing the COST of items in the three games, and stating that they didn't feel like 'micro' transactions. I also quite explicitly stated AND IN CAPS(!) that MWO's big advantage (and thus justification for the cost of its items to an extent) is that you DO NOT need to drop, and I quote "the down-payment on a house" to get into the game.

Now the big deal with GW2 is that the value of its in-game currency is DIRECTLY tied into the value of gems that you buy with real money through the gem/gold exchange, and thus gold == $$. This, and their handling of various features in the game (dyes, cost of WvWvW, cost of legendary precursors, the karka event) led me to question the morals of whoever does their books, and, despite actually GETTING a legendary precursor weapon and being well on my way to obtaining a legendary (Bolt, if anyone is interested) I STILL DECIDED to quit the game. I hope the caps there helped to highlight a few pertinent things.

Now, for the Xth time, I love MWO. I do not love (but do use) the 'micro' transaction model. Yet I understand why it must exist. I think we should stop calling it "free to play" when it isn't F2P beyond what is arguably a demo mode.

[PoLaR]

This post has wayy too much attention.

You do not have to pay anything to play this game.

For those who CHOOSE to pay, good for you. For those who don't, that is cool too.

[TheRulesLawyer]

Vasces Diablo, on 15 February 2013 - 08:49 AM, said:

A few years ago, this game would have cost you $50, wouldn't have been published yet, and would charge you $13 a month to play.

Really? The quality isn't anywhere near as good as most $50 games. I mean its fine for a f2p, but it probably a $30ish title if it were sold in store. Plus most shooters like this have no monthly fee. I can't remember ever paying a monthly fee for this type of game unless you run a private server for your clan.

[TungstenWall]

I agree! People who pay for this game have an advantage.

The battle ALWAYS goes to the team with more LOWEs! W8...

[Sir Burpalot21]

RickySpanish, on 15 February 2013 - 01:11 PM, said:

I didn't compare MWO's model to GW2 silly, I was comparing the COST of items in the three games, and stating that they didn't feel like 'micro' transactions. I also quite explicitly stated AND IN CAPS(!) that MWO's big advantage (and thus justification for the cost of its items to an extent) is that you DO NOT need to drop, and I quote "the down-payment on a house" to get into the game.

Now the big deal with GW2 is that the value of its in-game currency is DIRECTLY tied into the value of gems that you buy with real money through the gem/gold exchange, and thus gold == $$. This, and their handling of various features in the game (dyes, cost of WvWvW, cost of legendary precursors, the karka event) led me to question the morals of whoever does their books, and, despite actually GETTING a legendary precursor weapon and being well on my way to obtaining a legendary (Bolt, if anyone is interested) I STILL DECIDED to quit the game. I hope the caps there helped to highlight a few pertinent things.

Now, for the Xth time, I love MWO. I do not love (but do use) the 'micro' transaction model. Yet I understand why it must exist. I think we should stop calling it "free to play" when it isn't F2P beyond what is arguably a demo mode.

Perhaps I overreacted. My apologies.
I will however still have to disagree about the cost of things in GW2. While yes, gold and gems are tied together that doesn't put pressure on players to spend money on gems. It's far better than an auction house system which is far more open to exploitation. In addition, the dye system works perfectly fine. While it might not be account based as initially proposed, they drop so often that's really not a problem. Most rare dyes cost less than a single ecto on the trade post so if there is a color you want (besides black and white) it's cheap to obtain.
Even Anet admitted the Karka event was handled poorly so they made amends to those who disconnected and didn't get the final chest and said they would refrain from holding 1-time events in such a short time frame.
As for legendaries. They are supposed to be something to work for. It should be understood by anyone that it's going to be a long endeavor. For Guild Wars 1 you had to grind a lot for the best looking armor. This isn't that much different.

I don't think there is anything wrong with how MWO markets itself as a free-2-play title. I think the problem lies with some consumers who are not familiar with how the model works and how to judge the value of the offerings of such games.

Edited by Sir Burpalot21, 15 February 2013 - 01:23 PM.

[lsp]

Lol, the last thing I thought I would see someone complain about far as this game not being f2p would have been the mechbays. You don't get anything more from the game by having more mech bays, I don't see the argument here. I've bought one extra bay, with my founders mc and never had a need for more then that. And I've been playing since friends and family.

[WarHippy]

hammerreborn, on 15 February 2013 - 08:45 AM, said:

LoL is F2P because you can buy heroes with in game currency or real money. MWO is not F2P because you can buy mechs with in game currency or real money

Actually LoL is F2P because you can buy heroes with in game currency or real money and keep them. MWO is mostly F2P because you can buy a mech with in game currency or real money but only get to keep them all if you spend extra real money.

Kind of a big difference.

I would be ok with people being able to unlock mech bays with c-bills in a limited fashion. For example only allow the purchase of one mech bay every four months for a total of three a year. Doing this gives people an incentive to spend money by skipping the time sink without breaking the F2P model.

[Lukoi Banacek]

WarHippy, on 15 February 2013 - 01:31 PM, said:

Actually LoL is F2P because you can buy heroes with in game currency or real money and keep them. MWO is mostly F2P because you can buy a mech with in game currency or real money but only get to keep them all if you spend extra real money.

Kind of a big difference.

I honestly don't think you understand the meaning behind the acronym f2p at this point if you're trying to split hairs over the degree to which it's f2p which really would be a separate discussion.

You don't have to buy mechbays to play the game. they add convenience nothing more. The hero mechs aren't required at all to be competitive (and many would argue they are sub-optimal compared to cbill variants and that's likely on purpose by PGI), so how does that make the game any less f2p?

[Rotaugen]

WarHippy, on 15 February 2013 - 01:31 PM, said:

Actually LoL is F2P because you can buy heroes with in game currency or real money and keep them. MWO is mostly F2P because you can buy a mech with in game currency or real money but only get to keep them all if you spend extra real money.

Kind of a big difference.

I would be ok with people being able to unlock mech bays with c-bills in a limited fashion. For example only allow the purchase of one mech bay every four months for a total of three a year. Doing this gives people an incentive to spend money by skipping the time sink without breaking the F2P model.

Once again, which part of you get 4 more free mech bays by starting a new account do you not get? Yes, you have to sign in again, but it is still free. You pay for the convenience of one sign in. MC get you stuff faster, not more stuff, outside of the hero's that generate c-bills faster and really aren't the best option in their class. So, you CAN keep all the mechs you buy with c-bills permanently. You don't have to have just one account and sell them off. You can have one account per chassis and get Master level on ALL of them.