You and me have both been doing that, but I wonder for what purpose besides video enhancements I would use this for...
This site offers a LOT more than simply min/maxed builds. This is a great community that has been built up with a wealth of experienced players, gameplay tips and tutorials, advice and extremely friendly gamers theory-crafting. I have formed new friendships, found new people to game with, even found a Merc Group to join and a community like-minded and amicable players to not only share discuss builds with, but, how to be a better player. This is not "another fan site". This is a welcoming community which offers a peaceful haven for MWO fans. Most other places are, as Archwright so appropriately stated, "toxic."
I don't trust official forums generally, I mostly go there to fill in patch/bug reports. Oh and with the speed how PGI is doing stuff it would take forever.
Mechspecs is good because the people posting the builds mostly seem to be reasonable players. I initially got into MWO via the Failheap-Challenge.com (FHC) MWO subforum (and an IRL friend,) but mechspecs is nice, what with the rating system and the smurfy embeds. Since I browse those forums anyway, I'll keep going there as well. So option 1 and option 3.
I do not care if PGI puts neon lights and golden urinals on their site. They allow so much filth and crap on that site that Archwright is right; it is toxic. Also they make useful information impossible to find and what they do not like they simply hide or delete. They should have hired you Mech Specs guys to organize their web site cause whoever is doing it does not know how. I will be staying here thank you. Also, if it is an API that means it can be ported to this site (assuming it is not garbage to begin with).
Jacob, I agree with you. The official forums are painful to read for those reasons. I find it hard to read because of all the redundant threads that crop up.
It is different though, the official website has to do all the propaganda work. Also they will have to deal with whines and complains that PGI deserves. On top of it there are loads of trolls, n00bs and whiners, and white knights that would start flamewars with them. That, and you get the whole "no insulting PGI people" thing going. Here we focus on builds and gamplays. All we need to do is to focus on how to min/max a powerful mechine of death. We do not have to care about what other people are thinking about it, be it whiners/n00bs/roleplayers/mercs/clans/or even PGI. We are just people who build and min/max powerful things to kill and destroy, sort of like a bunch of techpriests.
Sorry dudes I have been here for a while and will stay here. No I wouldn't go to another site when everything I need is here. The main site is full of ass-clowns who are allowed to get away with pissing in the pool or "poisoning the well" as the saying was. Michael doesn't allow that shit at all, believe me, I have gotten a couple of forum warnings myself over the last two years. This is home. Even if Mech Specs closed tomorrow, or Michael changed it to My Little Pony stuff I would still avoid the official forums as they are clunky and often times frustrating to use let alone very uninformative to read. Most of the necessary and good information filters here through Mech Specs Twitter or posts by guys like Michael and Cattra and others. Here, like Enielph says, we build better mechs, we don't cater to forum egos! For this reason alone I have donated over $200 of my personal money over the last two years to keep this site going.
Hung my hat here shortly after following the link from smurfy... not about to leave over some API. This is home... feels that way anyhow.
Voted! And you know for what! -> I am a Mechspecstechpriest! If i got some more money ill definitely donate some - this site and their maintainers really deserve it. Looking for a new job atm. Had an application for employment today. Wish me good luck
Love it here. I still read mainly here, even if I don't drop as much as I used to. I only go to the MWO forums to read the memes.
Yeah, I'd never use main forums again, cuz the real forums are full of great people, like mods who give out players personal emails cuz they are stupid on the job, or biased mods that ban people for no reason and actually wish for them to quit the game. Yeah really classy people on main forums, people like Helmer for example. I doubt I'd ever use another site for MWO if I came back and was playing hardcore again. Cool community here on Mechspecs, I like the setup and the ideas are good, so.
I can say, without a doubt, that Volunteer Moderators do not have access to player information on the official forums. I know this to be a certainty. Also, Volunteer Moderators can not ban people; that is all IGP. At one point they could but that Hammer was taken away when IGP took over a more active role on the forums.
100% approbation, the result of this poll looks kinda soviet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U06jlgpMtQs (sorry, I just like that anthem :blush: )
Well I put the post up for a couple of reasons; chief among them "What is the future of Mech Specs"? It looks, so far, to be a pretty safe assumption that there is a community here that comes here for more than just snagging a build crib sheet or two which is great. I'm still waiting for someone to put "I'll go to the Official Site" down so I can say "See, not biased" LOL The vote is totally blind BTW. So people need not fear the Hammer
Volunteer being keyword ^^ I wasn't talking about Helmer per se in that situation. Point is, comprehensively, I've seen community-ran teams that are more professional in their public relations and more thoughtful in their actions than IGP + PGI.
Héhé, if the poll wasn't blind you could have seen I'm part of the 100% Indeed. I can only speak for myself but it's pleasant to post here, the replies you got of your builds are for most part constructive and there's no flame war of any kind. I also enjoy the fact it's not heavily populated. So I see no reason to go back to the official forums even if they start providing a mechspecs equivalent, and I don't think mechspecs will lose any of the regular posters. Might lose some of the lurkers though, those who come just because they don't find what they need elsewhere.
One of the best things about mechspecs is the commentary about the builds. I can look at a build and get a general idea of what it's meant to due, but specific commentary and optimizations can be very helpful.
