Given The Choice

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZXWHswqCQo

 

LOL,

Thanks Grimm

 

Mechwarrior 5 (focus on SP-Campaign) VS MWO (focus on MP Deathmatch)

Noone made this comparison in this thread, though in fact, this is the real interesting question. So i talk about this a bit.

Timeshift: Given the Choice, what would you have prefered in the past, when you saw this Trailerclip in 2009:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orhOvbfyyJw#t=31​

when i saw it for the first time, i really thought - WOW, awesome graphics, impressive looks and the best - the Battle was mindblowing. It was the year, when i just played Crysis Warhead - the best looking game from that time. And i didn`t know that the CryEngine would be used for the later MWO. When i heard about this fact, i was really really happy. But now i am not. Too sad.

I sometimes still ask myself the question:

If we could turn back the time to 2009, what would we have wished, if we knew what came out in the Future?
An epic SP Campain in Mechwarrior 5 with the Looks from the trailer and only having a simple MP part, just like in Crysis?

Or after all still the MWO we all know now?

The consequential question i would ask: If PGI or another Dev.Team now starts to develop a new MW5 with new concepts and new epic story, would I or maybe you support them? Would you buy MW5? Or would you say, no thx. MWO was enough, no reason to invest more money on this universe etc..

I myself say, if i'd given the Choice to decide, i would support it IF the Focus is on a very good story based game. Something inbetween MW2 and MW3 would be great. The story about the Rivalry & Fight between Clan Jade Falcon and Clan Wolf was epic. Make a new story about the Inner Sphere followed by the Clan Invasion (as Expansion Packs). But everything from a broader historical view. Maybe even reboot it as a new Mechwarrior Zero.

If i look back to the backgroundstory of Project: MWO, it is interesting that PGI had many problems in the beginning trying to sell MW5 to publishers. No company was really interested and so the money wasnt there for making the project come true. Such projects need a lot of money. A damn lot! Supposed this Project was only realized over crowdfunding/kickstarter, would you think PGI would have collected more money than over the Founders Packages? I think, even if the answer/reality would be yes, the money never could have been enough to realize the Project by the requirements we players would like to have.

Let's compare it with Star Citizen. When Chris Roberts suggested to need 2 Mio. for his Project initially, he never knew, that he will need to realize that he would need round about ten times of that initial amount at least. At least if he wants to deliver the game, we all would like to have, compared to all the predecessors.

Do you think MW5 would have gotten 20 Mio. from Crowdfunding until now? Do you believe until now they have collected enough money like Chris Roberts has now? I think not every player has a logical understanding of how immensively high the delopment costs of nowadays big projects are. Take SWTOR for example. Development costs at least 150 Mio., maybe even more. And the game isn`t really as great as the SW Fans or MMORPG Players would wish.

If you want a real good MW5, then PGI would need the same amount of money to give us a decent content-rich quality game. If they only have one tenth of that amount, well, don`t expect too much.

PGI collects money from MWO, reinvests it into the game, and then definitely needs to make some financial provisons with the remaining money, if there are any money left, what i don`t believe atm. What income do they have now if not from rapid developed stuff like Hero Mechs? C`mon, dudes. PGI needs to sell rapid developed stuffs like Hero Mechs consistently, absolutely. What money do they get from delivering contents like CW? What money do they collect for delivering even small needed contents like new Maps and Game Modes or a better Matchmaker? They need more money to develop. We need content before paying any more money. It's a doom loop.

The Competition on the F2P Market is hard-fought and extemely dynamical, short-living for most projects, which don`t meet the requirements of the user groups. MWO has an advantage against other F2P projects - it has a fanbase from the predecessors in the last decades. But this is also it`s biggest disadvantage - because these old (30+) fans measure the content of MWO with their experience from the games they knew and loved, often with harsh demands toward the requirements based on the beloved prior games. Anger, Frustration and Hatred were all inevitable.

I myself really love the old games. The MP part was never interesting for me, because due to the old days, playing over Internet was A) expensive and B) almost impossible due to very limited connection speed. I remember Multiplayer Battletech 3025, the real predecessor of MWO, but which was never successful. Why? Because this concept of epic MP part requires the rules from the Community, requires Leagues of Leagues from the Community, real competitions from the different houses. A very complex story in my opinion. What do we have now? Randomly mixed teams with pilots from all different houses. I always find it strange to pilot together with Kuritas Pilots and Steiners against.. well - Kuritas Pilots and Steiners!?? WTF, why can`t i be put with players together from the same house? I suppose the player base is not big enough, even after so many yrs. It makes me sad.

Can PGI realize the CW? Well, depends on what the Community can do with it, supposed the Community wants to do something with it. And that depends on the Playability of the game mechanics. If PGI cannot deliver the needed technical stability and the even more needed correct Balancing Tweaks, the concept can never have success. It is sad, but this is reality i guess.


Conclusion:
Would i support and buy MW5, if it would get started? -> Yeah, sure. No, i mean OFC! What a question.

Would i prefer it over MWO? -> Well, for solo missions and breathtaking stories definitely, but i still would play MWO besides a SP Campaigne MW5.

Would i support PGI, if they would do MW5? Well, idk. But i can say, that i would support a MW Project, if the Development is not a Crowd-Funding Project. Yeah you read correctly. No Crowd-Funding Project! Contradictory isn`t it? But i talk seriously. IMO PGI did a mistake to implement the game on Community base.

Why would i not support a Crowd-Funding-Project for MW5? Well, because if the game is financed by a Publisher and the Outcome is crap, i still can save my money and wait for the next installment. Crowd-Funding Project means, the development depends on the Community. And the Community is never in complete agreement. And that`s the crux.

Maybe it was a mistake by PGI to start this big project alone without publisher-backup. They should have sold the game as an Arcadeonly oriented Game, just like Mech Assault for the XBOX360, but for MP with better Engine, just to make it clear, it will never has such big content like CW, what is really difficult to implement without big cash in the bank while trying to satisfy the majority of the community.


P.s. Did you know that Microsoft's PS3 Restriction for publishing MW Games made the Main Reason for PGI not finding any interested Publisher? If you ask yourself why MW5 became a F2P game - this is the answer. Politics damn you.

LINK: http://www.shacknews.com/article/70879/mechwarrior-reboot-was-derailed-by-microsoft-blocking-ps3

 

Interesting read, came expecting a moan at PGI and it was really informative instead.

I loved the SP side so would back it but in terms of playtime of SP vs MP, MP wins hands down and is far cheaper to generate as the main content is arguably your opponents. Its what helped CCP bring Eve Online into play on a smaller budget. They created the world, ships and infrastructure.... players did eveything else. If you ever tried to pve there its mind numbingly boring imo and this comes from someone with 10 accounts and still playing since 2003. The primary entertainment is the other players. Its no secret that we call ourselves in Pandemic Legion the primary content developers in Eve and our alliance shirts look uncannily like CCP ones.

PS: Been interviewed twice at the yearly fanfest by press that mistook the shirt... thought I gave a very positive and interesting review but the face of the panicked CCP employee who realised as I finished one of them and literally ran across the area to jump in was priceless.