zenstrata

November 02, 2011 at 12:42pm

 

I just read about this 'free to play' conversion of the game..  And I must say, Every Free To Play game I have ever played was at best mediocre, and most of them sucked horribly.  They usually offered very little repetitively boring content, and all of them purposefully make items that you should be able to keep once you have them, 'time-out' after a while. 

 

So that nice shiny new PPC you salvaged from the last battle?  Well it now only has 200 shots and then it breaks so you have to salvage another one.  Of course they will be terribly rare… Or you can always buy one with real cash…  Etc.

 

Of course it might not be exactly that, but the problem with free to play games is that they must include cheesy ways to milk the customer for money.  The Free-To-Play model invariably means limiting the game experience for the player so that the game squeezes money regularly out of the player.

 

So what does this mean for the new Mechwarrior game?  Well, I fear it has killed it before it began.  I will still probably try it out.  But I hold little hope anymore for it due to the limits that the free-to-play model will put on the game. 

 

If you are still on the fence just take a look over the ‘free to play’ game listing.  Even try a few of them randomly – so you have a good idea of what to expect.  After a month or three of trying out various games in this genre I have little doubt that most people will come away with the same depressed and slightly sickened outlook as I now have for this new Mechwarrior. 

 

I know this is not Piranha’s fault.  They do not own the franchise.  Instead I point the finger-of-blame toward those who do currently own the franchise.  As this type of change is a command type decision.  One other thing, have any of you ever seen a sequel for a ‘free to play’ game?  I know I haven’t.  So does this mean the Mechwarrior franchise is dead?  Probably.

 

Of course the last game I seriously tried in the free-to-play model was several years ago.  Perhaps they have improved vastly in the time I have stayed away.  But the basic model should still be intact, limit key items which the players want, and force them to play extreme lengths of time to acquire them for limited periods, or pay real money regularly for their use.

 

Instead of gleefully passing on information about this new mechwarrior to my friends as I have been doing, I will now be in a ‘wait and see’ mode.  And honestly I hold little hope.  At this point I will try my best to put this current Mechwarrior out of my mind.  If it comes along a year or so from now and surprises me with an amazing game, then I will be happy.  But I will no longer be a rabid fan, hanging on every little news blip.