Mechwarrior Online community outrage

[Insidious]

Deemed the last straw that broke the cammel's back. Many of the community are up in arms about the recent addition of 3rd person view and how Russ Bullock handled the situation. Even some of the staff at PGI have lit up heir twitter accounts trolling players.

http://mwomercs.com/forums/topic/132638-3rd-person-an-update-and-apology-feedback-thread/

The topic has grown substantially in the last week with anger, distrust, betrayal, and demands for refunds over what they were told would be implimented in interviews with IGN and their forums last year VS what is currently added "or not added" into the game.
Filtering out the hate posts many of the user base make valid arguements pointing out repeated inconsistencies.

Supporters for #saveMWO seem to have gone largely ignored by both PGI and IGP as well.

Here's what Penny Arcade and Loaded Dice had to say in their articles.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/report/article/the-hardcore-mechwarrior-online-community-is-in-open-revolt

http://loadeddicecast.blogspot.com/2013/08/what-happened-to-mechwarrior-online.html

From my prospective what i saw to be a fairly transparent company taking feedback from the community suddenly changing their policy mid way, closing their windows and extensive delays on promised features or pulling a full reversal adding features they said they wouldn't as well as what the community voted against seems quite odd and upsetting.

From an outside point of view i was wondering what you thought of this? Would you play it or rather buy into it?

 

[jehk]

I don't understand the 1st vs 3rd person problem. I'm kinda worried the same thing will happen with the star citizen community. That fanbase seems like it could ignite easily with controversy.

 

[Insidious]

From the way Russ stated it was intended to aid new players in the game. But this, combined with all the other issues this IP has seen in it's life span thus far is what the majority are angry about. The supporters of #saveMWO posted a petition outlining all the major issues with the game with a bit over 5000 users supporting it. If you don't include the trolling from their staff then there has not been an offical response besides this apology letter that Russ posted claiming miscommunication. I'm not sure how someone could miscommunicate a set of features for nearly a year with no correction until now.

Star Citizen on the other hand seems to be the goto game for former MWO players to flock to.

*EDIT*
Here's some popular signature images being used.
http://i.imgur.com/SU3a2Rv.png
http://i.imgur.com/yyjYafT.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/aKjezRV.jpg

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well in the 1st vs 3rd person matter I give it to the devs, they made it clear those things would be optional and in completely separate matches at that, yes it is very critical to tactical play but you are free to choose your burden.

And for the rest of what is happening I predict they aren't doing too well financially, the game isn't even half done and they are already turning the boat around to look for new fans while patches are getting slimmer every day... usually means funds are getting tight and won't hold out for much longer.
It could be this franchise in now clawing for dear life so you might want to give a bit of leniency before everything tumbles into the abyss.

 

[carnex]

I really don't get the kerfuffle myself. In my opinion third person is not a game breaker, you still need to use first person to fight effectively. It's useful is certain situations, but in the dozen or so games I've played since that patch dropped I've seen maybe one person use it for the whole match. Everyone goes straight to first person.

As far as remember, there has always been an external camera in every MechWarrior game since 2, but first person was what you fought in. This addition is nothing new. So yeah, I don't get the anger, the cries of betrayal or the refund requests. It just seems to be hardcore purists angry for the sake of being angry.

If nothing else, from third person view you have better overview of battlefield which give you tactical advantage.

 

[Eternal Visitor]

this may be just me (only ever really played mechwarrior 4 and a a demo of 3 WAY back) but I can't see the major issue, at least not to "GAME RUINED FOREVER!!!!" levels. my experience (noted before, though I really only remember 4) is that the only advantage 3rd person gave you was a clearer view of the immediate sides and slightly behind your mech, and a better indicator of how your torso was turned, both seem REALLY petty (if your opponent is right next to or behind you, you're hooped anyway, and [in 4 at least] the HUD showed your torso twist range)

 

[Shymer]

The third-person view (3PV) was always going to be a controversial issue (looking at posts in the forums). PGI launched it in a patch, with the default to 3PV and no option for players to opt out of battles where people may be using 3PV. Players can now toggle it during a game (F4) - and can disable it in the options.

The stated aim of 3PV was the help attract new players and ease them into the game's mechanics (as they can see the 'Mech and how it's moving). An external camera would also have peripheral benefits for people who like taking screen shots. Unfortunately, the current implementation has the camera in a locked position, not showing the 'Mech's legs/feet and also disables the minimap with positional arrow showing your orientation to the map and other allies. A little drone with a blinking red light appears behind the 'Mech during the game if 3PV is in use. It seems not to help new players at all and is confusing.

Very skilled pro-players use 3PV to scout around obstacles without exposing themselves to fire. Also to line up sniping shots prior to using jump jets to clear terrain - minimizing the amount of time they are exposed to return fire. It has a "fourth wall breaking" effect on the competitive pro game scene - considerably less/zero impact on run of the mill players and is a hindrance to new players.

While it is possible PGI will add the promised ability for players to choose whether to battle against people with 3PV options (hardcore modes have appeared in the mode menus, but currently greyed out), and may patch camera behaviour to better help new players, you have to ask whether it was worth braving the backlash to rush out 3PV without any of these controls. It seems ill-judged, particularly because the vocal community have been quite clear about how fed up their are with their current diet of features - lacking in changes that address key concerns.

I like MWO and I am happy to play against people using 3PV. I don't use it myself. I think it can be improved.

Dare I say that people are lacking in perspective?

 

[Bertylicious]

I think the issue is that Mechwarrior is meant to be, in people's minds, a walking tank simulator. I have to admit that when I played it I didn't think there were enough buttons to press.

Incidentally, do they have any plans to implement PvE style play?

 

[thebakedpotato]

Third Person View? In my Mech Warrior?

It's not as impactful as you might think.

 

[SilkySkyKitten]

Oh hey, another one of these threads where a little thing is added to/changed in a game that, while it really isn't that significant at all, is blown out of proportion and treated as if it's the spawn of Satan's rectum. Woooooo...

And besides, how many of these flippin' "MECHWARRIOR ONLINE IS TEH HORRIBLES BECAUSE THE DEV TEAM IS SCAM!!" threads are we gonna get? I swear, it seems like these threads are all just created by the same person who just isn't getting the message that A: Nobody here really cares, and B: Their concerns are overblown nonsense.

 

[WoW Killer]

If you hate the game that much, why don't you just stop playing it? Jeez. It's the easiest thing in the world to not play a video game. And don't try to say you all still had your hopes that things were going to get better right up until this very moment, because there's been threads saying pretty much exactly the same thing as this one for months. This here for instance: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.404037-Boycott-Piranha-Games-Inc

Reminds me of this:

 

[Insidious]

This isn't exactly what i had in mind for a discussion. I was hoping for opinions weather or not this is acceptable from a business standpoint to say repeatedly to the media, podcast, and their own forums that they won't do something then turn around and do it anyways.
The 3rd person view became the target since it had the most controversy surrounding it. One of the users made this image of various posts made by staff explicitly saying 3PV would not ever be implemented into the game. It's quite large so i added a link only since i'm not sure if this forum is able to resize pictures.
http://i.imgur.com/moUwdQ0.jpg

And a screenshot of the IGN Gamescom 2013 interview.
http://i.imgur.com/OuZ9QIZ.png
As for the poll mentioned in the image, is it not appropriate to say that if a user chooses not to vote they opt out of the process entirely? How exactly do they even know what this silent majority "as was coined in their forums" want if they did not say anything in the first place?

You find a product that looks interesting, you read the reviews and what the creators say it will do. Sounds awesome so you buy into it. You bring it home, unbox it and plug it in to give it a spin. Something seems off about it. It's doing things that it wasn't intended to do. You go back and ask why is it doing this when you said it wasn't supposed to.

Their reply: Oh sorry about that but the customers who remained silent through out the community feedback told us they wanted it.

Uh?
Am i the only one who sees something wrong with this?
The only reason the community found out about this change was a slip up on the No Guts No Galaxy podcast about a month ish prior to this.

 

[LordLundar]

Third Person View? In my Mech Warrior?

It's not as impactful as you might think.

Pretty much. The only thing I can think of when I hear this is "you have a RADAR system. USE IT!"

 

[kingthrall]

go play myth II soulblighter, people will appreciate players Its community run servers so there are no Administrators, hundreds of mods and professional gameplay.

Mechwarrior to me and all FTP seem like farmville games, my friend plays mechwarrior and now he got bored of it in two weeks and started playing his classic favs like favorite Europa Universallis IV.

So yeah, look up myth II on ebay, buy yourself a copy for 10 dollars and start playing a game that actually has none of these issues.

 

[Insidious]

@SilkySkyKitten - A bit disturbing that you would be such an avid fan of the current direction the game industry is taking. With big wigs such as EA or Blizzard, Or perhaps we could delve into the hardware aspect of the industry and talk about more recent events with Microshaft's new X Bone just to name a few? I'm finding it hard to believe you prefer being labeled as a money bag with an ID number rather than a valued customer with some measure of intelligence. I suppose you can haz it anyway you like, it's your money.

@kingthrall - I played it when it was released and to be honest i didn't care for it as much as i did Diablo, Planescape, or even Total Annihilation of that era. A bit buggy on newer machines but with some modding they work well enough to get a short amount of enjoyment out of them before the application crashes.

@WoW Killer - While certainly apart of the entertainment scene i don't think that video is as relevant as you might think. However if the proverbial "remote" could return my money to invest elsewhere then i wouldn't mind at all. Also, i wasn't aware that topic existed after scanning a few pages in this forum. Though i wouldn't have posted in it as i don't believe a boycott will effectively solve the problem as a whole.

@Major Tom - What if's don't do a whole lot of good after the fact. Sadly the industry is designing it's personal coffin from the ground up. The hole is dug and the box is nearly complete. All that's left is to prepare the eulogy.