We start a game in a mode and victory is on ones mind as we load up into our chat and talk to people in each lance and the team in general. Hoping that those who have experienced a game have what it takes to win over the enemy with builds that work for strategies that are executed and communication that is flawless. While it is the expectation it would be best to know that it isn’t always the outcome of each match. With each person wanting something different from the game there could be a bunch of reasons they are in the match itself.
A match has its team dropped on to the map in their sub groups of the entire group. This all changes in its direction from the game pushing for a direction and the power is passed over to the player. They the players on the team can either decide to go head on or use a number of possible strategies while having most but not all agree in the plan. Those who dont follow will either agree to go their separate ways or start a verbal disagreement on the comms which will lead far into the match and lead the team to defeat at times. When you add oral communication into the picture with the comms its another layer of if people agree or disagree with voice and not just text with action. People might see others and themselves in a particular light of wisdom based on personal perception, levels to prove pilot superiority while excusing their own rude behavior, and leading to arguments of a better or worse that can’t be proven within the match of right versus wrong. A discussion that can happen over and over if paired with random players and happens less when people are on the team and get use to one another. As it has its negatives it also has its positives with being one of the most addictive parts of the game is the human interaction of the other players on the multiplayer. It feels even better when the satisfaction someone will get from annihilation of the enemy is heightened regardless of game modes objectives. It brings that team aspect to the forefront with hearing someones voice and identifying with their personality in the heat of battle to depend on one another for the move. When players are neither in disagreement or agreement of a team with their group chemistry they fall under the category which seemingly has no quick fix cure. This brings those who are the toxic players that spend their time and engagements on and off the game to make the experience horrible. This comes from the nature of not caring about anyone but themselves and pushing for the worse case scenario for the game itself, the developers and their team, and the people who stay loyal to the franchise for a number of reasons. There are so many of them these days in games that people playing have a hard time seeing a discussion thats run by a toxic troll to a discussion that is honest and critical in its nature and both go on to be dismissed. This can be a whole discussion in itself and will be put aside for now, getting back to the effects of what Gamesmanship can do. Lets first look and ask ourselves a few scenarios. When someone dives in can they win the match with Short-Range Missile build? (SRM), when someone who who uses Air strikes win the match? can toxic people become friends just for the time that is online in battle for the best of the team and its performance? Anything is possible and there has to be a system in place to insure to communicate status and repercussions in place to show consequence as what happens a lot in real life. While it doesn’t solve the problem to rid everyone of their toxic behavior it makes people think twice before choosing that problematic path. It can also lead to numbers that could give the developer important information on how they can approach the problem at hand. By looking at people who are arise as people who are making the game a better experience can show the contrast from those who are constantly reported in the system and to find patterns on both. Based on that the system itself can finally begin its analysis and take actions to make a automated way to deal with the problem with each update making it even better than the last. It can’t be understated how important it points to how communication effects the game almost as much as the mechanics of the game. It may take quite awhile for people to realize how communication is essential in controlling toxicity and more specifically how game function does this to speak out to its player base. Making such a system would tell players on servers that they can play safely in their matches where they could all participate with less worry of interruption and celebrate the engagement in the Battletech universe. Concentrating less on who is doing some sort of bullying tactic and who is embraced in battle for the sake of enjoyment, which is why many people go to games in the first place. The final result of nurturing their player base and bringing confidence to the people who originally had supported the game in its creation from the community. With no system there is no objective to change, but players who are against systems will tell you otherwise. Being able to play a MechWarrior game is said to be a remarkable opportunity to have a chance at robot shooters in a niche and experience the rich world of Battletech by being player, so each person who plays is allowed that honor. Which is really hard to defend as it is a point of perspective with plenty of assumptions that go with it, including: first off you play the game humbly and always help other players regardless of your personal views of them which can happen, secondly you are proactive person who sees the big picture that leads by example of good deeds, and thirdly have the tolerance and compassion to never complain over losses or gloat over victories with never speaking in a way to offend players or accuse players. That is an awful lot of expectations to a person who comes from a competitive game environment where toxicity in the genre is the norm amongst its varying age groups. There is nothing wrong with people stating their opinion or being good natured in their spirits of bringing positive vibes to the game for a thriving community and amounts of money for further development. Being able to play a revival of the MechWarrior series is really valuable and even unexpected, but this can not discount peoples treatment of other people as descent human beings. Luckily in the case of MechWarrior the amount of international players is wide and the retention of civility is common in a hand full of countries, but it still needs a way to point players in a direction of respecting other players. But, there is something strange and disrespectful when there are players that spend the entire existence in the fan base to bring others down and take them away from the game they love. The community will preach that in good faith, invested hope, and setting a player example will reach to everyone doing the same, however not everyone wants things to be peaceful as many people have many reasons why they play the game. A big point is pointing and discussing the reporting system that many people feel doesn’t handle cases quick enough or can distinguish severity and give that specific consequence to a player, but in truth only the developer knows some of that information. This results in another hot topic to discuss of players who report feeling ignored and that the developer ignoring the topic to ignore and excuse poor handling of the feature itself. Another discussion for later, but it does still pertain to what people consider when talking about player behavior and having honor in games. And many players, specifically toxic players will even tell you that they don’t want to change anything about player behavior to change anytime soon. Because, they see themselves as superior and sitting on a pedestal, because they don’t want discussion or debate over facts and lead by how they feel, and they want the separation of developer and players to stay far away from each other to make clear that players are only players. This divide can be seen on the forums, it can be seen in game, and it can even be seen when people talk about the game in person. Toxic players would hate any sort of system that would even bring the idea of respect for one another in fears that they would lose control of keeping divisions of players and game makers. There are plenty of reasons that people stay in the game. Not all of which remains for the enjoyment of the game, since some have stated that they enjoy trolling players and watching from the sidelines, and some want to just shoot LRMS silently in the distance with their privacy and not responding even by keyboard. So, unless some sort of system is in place to show what is wanted from the game to respect other people there would be no reason to just wake up one day and change the way a person would want to play. Why change from being on the sidelines if its what they like? Incentives, but even that wouldn’t guarantee nothing, but it would at least make them wonder a bit. They might ask if they want any of the incentives, or if they get something a little extra to contribute some communication they might benefit in someway, and as it becomes practiced it would be ingrained in the way they play without even needing to put much thought in just being respectful and keep communication in a game. With that in mind it is great to bring to the table the idea of fostering the idea of Sportsmanship and making it more specific to video games would be “Gamesmanship”. While controversial it creates specifies of suggested ways of playing a game. While much of the information might be in the legal notes agreement it is a pretty high chance the rules arent clearly stated and even need to be taught as well as enforced for anyone to follow them pass the agreement phase. This means that players who are expected to act a certain way don’t by their own will and need some reason to do so and be reminded of it, otherwise it is quite easy to just shove the idea aside and claim to be wronged by the company itself. It also benefits to teach gamesmanship in how to also respect other players and gaining morals through the game in the foundation of making such a system if there is incentives. These Game Incentives would be for a Gamesmanship System that effects the way people socially judge a person in the game before a match in game lobbies, during the match in chat and comm speak, and afterwards with ratings to encourage people for better reputation points to effect a gamesmanship level. These can be varied by parts, c-bills, etc and have a % of chance in getting smaller rewards that heightens throughout gamesmanship levels and goes to a minimal of 0% chance of rewards. It can be discussed on player voting systems to get different types of "Titles" that can be categorized: At the end of a match there could be a: Perseverance Vote, Communicator Vote, Friendly Vote, and have reports be the negative Votes with its own categories adding to the player (-) in reputation. Player votes should be in notifications for a feel good moment or awareness of negative actions, player reputation should be publicly displayed and shown to the player them self to think over. Holding players accountable with benefits is a great approach to ethics in a video game over matches, but it definitely can and will be improved as more games test out the waters of such a system. How is it not perfect? Say there are players that are in preset games in a group of friends who are giving perfect votes to each player in their group and have unethical voting that passes the system, but is a step in the right direction of pushing people towards certain player behaviors. Despite its possible flaws it would likely reduce the number of people being toxic for the benefits, wanting a incentive positive status for bragging, and accomplish within the system instead of exploiting it. And that leaves those who would be exploiting the system to be taking their own fun out of the game, fixing rotten scores, while adding bonuses to their groups with monotonous reminders of lying to the system for personal gains. This maybe resolved in friends being unable to vote all the time or separate random reputation from friend reputations and tournament level reputations as a possibility too, but it would need time to develop with numbers leading the way. Its powerful to bring people together by learning to treat others as other people online and would seem to be common sense. But the toxic environment that forms when the developer does not get involved shows that people would rather stay in their own belief than to listen to others to be in good faith in one another in person versus person modes. With a strong gamesmanship system it brings people who are young, people who are adults, and even older people together from different factions together for a good match. Such a system would be needed in showing people the positive outcomes of conduct such as, fairness, respect for one's opponent, and graciousness in winning or losing. These are also the building blocks of creating friendships, which can create even more frequent enjoyment of playing the game itself past any mechanic or game mode could ever produce in the playing experience. This experience would lead to the main goal for gamesmanship to achieve cultivating a positive reputation in game. It would be a guideline towards assisting and teaching people the basics of socializing and respects that may not have been available or learned on their own. It would be the difference in being the developer willing to reach out on the communication line to assist players with a system, complimenting where its due in credit, and concluding a game with a gg or other statements of a fun time. All of these things would hope that the game would continue to prosper on all levels and in particular in the community experience.
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We finally have a decent amount of time between the incidents of when accusations, threats, and discrediting was sent to my private messages when articles that were being worked on were released for discussion. So looking back it seemed that controversial things tend to be high discussion points, but have a tendency to go nasty if people let their emotions grab the better of them and things go sour without being civil. The harsh learning a lesson of passion and the unshakable fandom that is in discussions can come out in a multitude of ways.
Every persons opinion matters to the loremasters who enjoy the tabletops, to the mechwarrior player thats into shooters, to the casual to hardcore level players, to the team killing troll who is anti PGI, and even those who are civil players who respectfully play the game for what it is, to the elitist game players who claim they are awesome. The thing is each persons voice can count and that it needs to be heard and discussed or else issues will continue to repeat themselves as a sort of predictable cycle. Especially if it isn’t easy to access with broken search engines, mountains of forum posts, or social media where topics disappear as fast as they came. This was realized in a article i wrote about raising awareness of an issue of online hate as well as asking people if the content that was discussed was even wanted. The presence of the articles have made some people feel uneasy, but alot of people on the discussions had actually enjoyed the diversity that it brought to their post feeds. Some stated that people hate when people take action and are possibly signs that they had given up all hope and are frustrated in previous attempts at discussions being ignored. Some had even recognized that articles were filled with passion and love for the franchise and the wishes each post had for development and discussions. On the other end with a few statements being negative had gone with going full on bashing the issues and treating them as the end of the games vitality. This would be a different perspective of the articles to create a stir of passionate rage that was directed to the writer. This direction had shown the many reasons people play or don’t play the MechWarrior Online game with their attempts at weakening the discussion through complaints of what it lacked over what it could improve over. Several people had voiced the the game should never change, and some people stated that the game would die with further development. This felt like it was a way to dismiss discussion or avoid it altogether by treating it as insignificant to consider other peoples views. At first things were pretty upsetting and the keyboard warriors really had gotten the wrong buttons pressed where things felt grim. There was no new visuals drawn, there was no new developments in writing articles, and there wasnt any more interfaces currently being worked on for the people. It brought up the issue that was being brought to the community about what to do with the messages that are pretty common online. The typical hate messages, irritation rants, and pointing the finger so to speak with a particular message sticking out more than the rest that was showing their anger about bringing up any sort of MechWarrior discussions. This person was not revealed by name and it was suggested that this person not be flamed or bashed, attacked or put down, but a question of the benefits of article writing and talking about it. The message recieved was on 11/3/17 “Get wrecked Matt, you make horrible cuts bleed in your posts and bring a pain to the MWO group page community. You have all these thin skinned adults all grinding on your art when you just came here. You need to post less and give us real results so people can face the realities of game developers not giving a F!@#!@$ about their player base. Stop fabricating hope. It’s annoying.” The message didn’t deserve an argument in being disrespectful, but the person was given a response to cool them down. The person was probably viewing things from being experienced and highly skilled in the game title and with a prideful point of view. This would mean a lesser view of those who haven’t put in the work for becoming skilled and pointing at beginning or casual players and to those who weren’t following the title for the same or longer amount of time. They also allowed themselves to be separated as the willfully ignorant and placing those who discuss the title as a select crowd that are wishful thinkers, so naturally it was important to explain the perspective of wishful thinkers. The difference between those who choose to discuss a topic and contribute to making a difference in parts of the game is a way to fully understand. With understanding there can be better discussions that move the whole topic forward with solid ideas that can be seen for what they are in the points themselves. But, as it is the internet there are alot of other people who choose to look the other way on a topic and keep trying to silence the discussion in hopes of things never changing. This is where situations happen where people can easily cherry pick what they like about the game and discount all the rest of everyone elses opinions as a way to hurt the title. Putting others down for their opinion can make people feel bad and it never shows the care to know about the persons background of investment in the series either, so it could make the offended party look like a spoiled brat if it ever comes to light. While not all people are into the Battletech Universe there are many out there that had gave the game a try because MechWarrior Online was based on it. People come together for the long lore legacies, the interesting technology and hint of cyber punk, big stompy robots called mechs, and shooter genre combat. People have their own histories growing up with the series, some even draw and program projects that extends the nostalgia factor, and some are even brand new players that are curious to go figure everything out. It would be horrible to never figure the stories of this people and say they are flat out wrong about everything they enjoy from the series from their personal experience with it, or their reasons for playing the MechWarrior series, or their own connection they made throughout their bond of the title. Being civil is an important part of keeping the integrity of the discussion to inform those who don’t know who want to know, state a opinion that could gain some traction, or just state the obvious or joke around to keep the conversation going. Too much toxicity and harshness can bring down peoples spirits into discussing anything about MechWarrior at all and prevents people from stating their opinion in staying reserved in consideration of a flame war. Pretending that things can’t be discussed and that someone is right and someone is wrong with a black and white without taking time to look at the grey in between. That very idea can stand between moving everything forward or stopping the discussions in their tracks with people insisting that their way is superior without considering all the angles one could tackle a complex topic as game development. When Alex Iglesias, the celebrated creator of the designs of MechWarrior Online video game franchise, he hit people like an laser barrage with his fresh style, and sustained praise to his designs amongst the player base. He produced artwork for Catalyst Game Labs and is most noted for his work as the lead Battlemech artist at Piranha Games.
Getting into Battletech, Iglesias was exposed from his uncle who had a mountain of books and a gaming computer where he was exposed in the early 90’s. From there the rabbit hole went to MechWarrior 2: Mercinaries, MechWarrior 3, MechCommander, MechWarrior 4, Living Legends, Battletech Novels, Battletech CCG, and The Pods. The mechs were the attraction, but the novels were what kept the interest in the BUC. The Fandom continuued from Iglesias in his urge to collect things from what was available. This would include some source books, technical readouts, some board game boxes, and knick knacks, but with such a small niche of players and no idea how to play the board game it sorta was more for the collection. Back when Iglesias started drawing things it was at really young age of crayon drawings of tanks and random sketches. This would continue as he got older and started getting into robots to explosions and eventually Battletech. But with Battletech he would try and draw game manuals when there were still books that came with the cames, game box art with terrain maps, and other Battletech products with art that that he could find to copy to try and mimic the art styles. Professional life started when school life concluded. The beginning and the end was with a BFA in illustration from Ringling School of Art and Design, Gnomon school of visual arts classes, and previous work at Day 1 Studios, Ignition Entertainment, and freelance. He would always be updating and working on things with Deviant Art with mechs and plenty of them. It was a way to go and get out there with the internet and get some recognition and comments from people who enjoyed his art style. Then jumping to getting involved with Catalyst Game Labs (2007) Mike Vaillancourt worked on a few illustrations (Cthulhutech books) introduced Iglesias at Gencon to Catalyst Games who were mostly Ex-FASA writers and staff along with their Art director Brent Evans who later sent in for some book cover illustrations. Piranha Games came into the picture with Bryan Ekman asking for Iglesias for the challenging role of adjusting proportions, art matching game specs, and refreshed designs completely in some cases. This would be a change for Iglesias in looking at some of the older designs and making them fit for game design, which is not as easy as it sounds, since it has to fit for gameplay and its animations. When working on mech designs Iglesias had stated that his approach would first look at the original design, then secondly emphasize aspects of it while maintaining its identity, while replacing or reducing other elements for its fit into the game world. What this did was to keep in the tradition by respecting the many designers who made variations on the mech with their distinct changes to the designs themselves, like some of the unforgettable designs of the Battletech CCG. The experience was not only tradition, but it was also challenging in taking on the MechWarrior revival frontier and the adrenaline of being lucky enough to work on a beloved IP. With authentic love for the MechWarrior series and the Battletech Universe game Iglesias a creative power supply in his head to take off from to develop new design concepts. The Drawing process first starts with getting a reasonable amount if not all the existing art for a Mech to referance off of. Taking the design at its essence begins the process of identify design elements and shapes that make for the visually distinction of the previous designs. From there it is looked on the inspiration of the designs in the cockpit to the torso and event in the armor or arms themselves. The shape may start as a blob of black and white and then slowly mold into a silhouette or rough draft that changes for awhile with experimentation into several favorable concepts. It proceeds to cleaning up the lines and making distinct shapes for a clearer view of the illustration and finishing up with that begins the color process. The coloring process involves working on the lighting, weathering effects, paint jobs, and of course the color. Fans who had seen many of the artwork from previous Catalyst Games books noticed the gritty more realistic designs that brought more of that old Battletech feel to the designs. This would follow and build a fanbase that would start people talking about the designs as well as MechWarrior all over again. The concepts that were available online which werent chosen for the final models were seen as contrasting, like in the Atlas faces that would take models to the next level. Creating the designs of the game brought back the ideas that people had in the woodworks of faction based designs, specialty designs, and it was just exciting seeing all of Iglesias’s work come to the screen. Toxicity of Fans had a hard time if not impossible time transferring from Piranha Games to Iglesias for having so much vision of what is respectful of lore. They can’t say that the expectations weren’t met with the difficulty of making mechs look nice and show the life of each mech in a great way that enhances the old designs. Even the controversy of adding hips to the Nova, Viper, and Locust almost just seemed passed over for the designs staying so true to the sourcing. The enhancements just feel naturally like they would be natural updates to the mechs designs without it leaving the feeling that its from the Battletech Universe. While each piece is not completely preserved it is one of the best renditions when even compared to its original designs, which sparks the curiosity that if mechs did stay true to the old designs as well... fans would not beable to contain the imagination of what could be with Iglesias’s creative visions for the IP. If you played Mech Warrior Online in the past few years you probably know the name of Russ Bullock. Russ Bullock is "President of Piranha Games" and came from projects like Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza, World War II: Sniper, EA Playground, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and Duke Nukem Forever. He had enough under his belt to finally work on Mech Warrior Online with the confidence that he and his team at Piranha could tackle the monumental task. Taking on MechWarrior is a hard task, since it was years in the making of its ip. The challenges ahead would be the game planning, game visuals, game music, game mechanics, and game balancing. It would need a core root of philosophies of Piranha Games in its core game design and be followed as the shining standard of other titles to expect from the developers. The game was invented from the alpha to the beta and what ended up being the finished basis of what would eventually be a much bigger project. This would be later explained in the attention to detail that Bullock takes in his game titles.
When he makes games he always tries to go deep into the details and is known for complexity in his approach and does think about the player base for better or for worse. But what is overlooked is many times when the with the complexity of the approach it looks at things from so many angles with so many details. With Battletech and the end of options and customization being the heart of the game would seem like a perfect fit in Bullocks way of approach to making games. While it was a great fit it was also possibly one of the best strengths and weaknesses of challenges that would await in development. This complexity starts with the game first having a sense of control. Having the sense that the person is controlling the robot in the battle for domination with a team. With the sense of fans and conrads in development there were people who were taken seriously, until there were so many points of view that things seemed buried in too many details as well as what was constructive in communication. On a positive the extent of detail that was worked on by each grade up the game got in patching and design had always moved the project forward. The immersion of the experience of feeling like the pilot who was a warrior of whats right to a faction. Even actually having units that would represent and celebrate the faction itself to feel more like they were apart of the world within the friend group and shared fiction. When working on games it would be a number of things to capture for the entire experience. This would take him back to the opinions of his fans to see what they would want in a MechWarrior title from people who played all sorts of Battletech Games. Thinking back he would consider Project Juggling for company sustainability, Game Balancing for game enhancement, Game Development for game content creation, and In person or Events for communication. The list goes on, but these were seen from how they were, how they are, and what will be. It would be a colossal undertaking to organize all the details to keep a straight line of work to get it all done. It is to no surprise many times Bullock was known for over exerting himself and working pretty long on the details. Overtime people have not played MechWarrior games. And we ask ourselves why have people stopped playing MechWarrior. Often times its because the: beta promises weren't kept, customization is difficult, and the player base feels insecure in game. While there is so much to do with such a small studio it is always still the consideration of the first time players to the very experienced ones as well with every other detail. Russ and his team took a leap of faith to solve the complexity of at least the gameplay with the Skill Tree. This was the first huge change from the origins of the plan on how to make the game better. While there was major back lash it helped with the advancement of playstyle direction which a player could choose. In a way it also helped with role specialty in its early promises, but far from complete it was a step in the right direction. The History of Russ Bullock and his taking responsibility in PGI has led him on a bumpy road. This would involve projects of User Interface 1.0, User Interface 2.0, and Community Warfare, which have stories of their own, so we won't talk about this here. At first there was regular updates about the project, but as things went along with development and certain aspects were changed there wasn't a complete official answer dedicated to what had happened. What this did was leave many answers completely evading the questions and were recalled as tone-deaf moments. Which ultimately effected the marketing of word of mouth. This had started from not being clear with the: (1) MechWarrior License (securing issues) which had people at first excited and at the edge of their seats to feeling misled and forgotten. (2) Third-Person-Shooter Perspective, was where most players from the previous games were grasping at their memories in nostalgia from the previous MechWarrior titles and then dropped with function being neglected and championed over for exclusive first person optimum play styles. People were divided on this as some people did take into consideration some of the studios hardships who may have already had or been exposed to game making, while many opposed the ideas because they never had been exposed to "making of a game", "fleshed out interviews", "staff updates". Eventually they did get some of that content, but a lot of it still felt unclear and confusing, distant and interpreted as dishonest. These avoiding conflict strategies to lower conflict eventually just stored everyone's opinions in a hide away, people were playing the game out of fear for the series dying, and people who once went to the game as escape from the real world had then started to see the game as the reality and other games as their escape. This had resulted in community backlash of those who had felt forgotten from brand loyalty and trapped in the older games without feeling considered, so they ended up doing a number of negative things. There was again divide amongst players who discussed improvements that would never be and then players who would become the vocal voice of loud angry typers of insult and discreditation, team killing group squads, and community toxicity that grew at a rampant page to ruin the PR strategies that already had a slanted angle to it. This was already on top the usual controversy that is discussing any sorts of non-bias balance changes that lead a particular play style to victory, so many peoples honest suggestions got lost in a vast loudness of wild text and white noise. PGI had a lash of their own of certain streamer favoritism, insults of finances towards the fans, and blaming vague situations on heavy game play promises. Neither side won, but both sides loss in their morality, product confidence, and conscious loyalty that kept them both going. Russ Bullock being the main person running the company would be the one who took the strongest blow to his reputation in fan perspective, casual perspective, and marketing perspective. It was really keeping in all the frustrations that led to this and made the company have a mistake on their hands as any company does, but this was quite public in one of the townhall MWO meetings. This was around the time of the skill tree, so it happened that even though it would do more good than harm... the skill tree would happen to be the excuse for peoples reasons of leaving once again instead of pointing to Russ Bullock in people becoming really afraid of being permanently banned. This was from PGI taking things seriously with the game with no possibility of suspension and only fear of the ban hammer for fans actions. Fans met in groups to have nothing but retaliation for the company in further analyzing and discussing their mistreatment and claims. While out of the game if banned there were many people who went on to reddit outreach and to places of grouping of online people to band together to see the destruction of the company. As each game has its toxicity there were certain points that even supporters had a hard time ignoring after awhile... But that is a discussion for another article. What happened after would be Russ Bullock taking a step back at what all just had happened and making his team work on renewing confidence in the IP when the announcements of planning for MechWarrior 5. This did not overshadow his actions in making sure to take care of his team who has supported him throughout the journey of development. Protecting the team of PGI was important in the values of keeping things close on the inside with any small team becoming close in their limited work environment. The group had invested so much resources and so much development hours that were left unseen that it would be a crazy idea to leave that behind as a company and financially speaking. It was only natural to protect their staff they had to slowly get them away from all the comments so that they could concentrate on the content of the game development. The drama that sparked online from the communication mishaps were catching up with players and developer. There needed to be just a break from all that to concentrate on making MechWarrior Online meet its deadlines. Fans started to notice that people on the forums started to slowly fade or have less contact, some noticed that mass arguments were left deleted or uncontrolled that the community felt worse on the forums, and some people just left the forums entirely to discuss on other online platforms like social media sites. Bullock and his team had taken the blow and continued with MechWarrior Onlines development for years to come. The reason why it lasted so long, was that while many left during the windfall there were still the other half of the loyalist supporters to still kept their faith alive. This hope was in daydreaming about prolonged promises, eventual era and mech availability, and dreamers of more available modes and maps with proper community toxicity support. Since the angle of PR never really had changed and the communication stayed the same the company and Russ himself would have a hard time shaking off the stigma from the past. This stigma had led discussions of loyalists that would defend the company from toxic players as a white knight of whats doing right and comparing non-believers as the dark knights of evil. Each blow to anyone with discussion of controversy, critiquing by constructive criticism, and further developments were often times scorned by the players who had survived the alpha beta days to modern day Mech Warrior Online. The Bullock controversy had settled as a dont ask or dont tell sort of tale. Eventually this heightened where many people would just refuse to discuss the future or any mention of previous mechanics as lost hopes and dream or opening old wounds or online bullying to bring up painful memories associated with the game title. Even stories about Russ Bullock, Bryan Ekman, and the rest of the team was seen almost as a negative thing in general. This made Bullocks job ever harder with the increasing niche of divided Battletech fans from the Battletech Universe Community, chasing the trend of Esports gamestyle specialty role units, with a niche IP that had people craving more reasons to be invested in the series lore. Fans now mention it as a iron wall of no casuals entering and no hardcore players leaving, which has led to an influx of long term players who are counted as financial whales to be the main supporters of moving the game forward. Historically many of the happenings were discussed in group places outside of official sources and not people directly from Piranha games. Because the company and the way its run implying Russ Bullock himself controls the silence in not letting out too much information that led to the initial controversial discussions. Its always sad when really talented creators like Russ Bullock are unable to make games like MechWarrior Online the way they want to, because there naturally has to be so much emphasis and need to chase after money that keeps the game afloat. If a creator needs to hit a profit bar they are forced to make some decisions which they will not really want even for themselves. What at one point had made so many people so happy that has generated revenue in the first place finds itself looking for its identity once more. Its hard to know how this will end up for Russ Bullock and ultimately Piranha Games. Things could work out at a slow pace, or things could get worse, or things could take a leap for the better. People will just have to wait and see as they have been for quite sometime... But to end on a note that MechWarrior is very much alive and kicking, however it certainly could be in a better spot is still becoming a better and better title. And continuing regardless of the past, Russ Bullock is still trying to make the game the best that he can to his abilities. The release announcements of MechWarrior 5, the event Esports of Mech Con, and Mystery of the future of MechWarrior gets people asking whats going to happen to MechWarrior Online. The franchise is owned by a spread of license holders which makes for a complicated situation where each group needs convincing for the series to move forward. Since each company owns apart of Battletech it can be difficult at times for clarity in the companies and then over to the communication with the fans. Judging MechWarrior Online at different times can be a hard idea to follow. Things shouldn’t become forgotten in the series of promises, but understanding that the game at its “Beta” is not the same game it is today.
This means saying things or asking for certain fixes that might have been for back then may not be relevant in todays MWO. It is equally as easy to say there are flaws and lumps, sayings of you can’t make everyone happy, but the real idea is to make many people happy. Things can always be better and pushed through analytics and suggestions of discussion, so in that case every time the game is talked about it is a great way to say the game is very much alive. This leads us up to calling MechWarrior Online dead due to MechWarrior 5. The title is said to be a traditional single player campaign, Co-Op options, Modding options, and much of the information is yet to be released. This being said there is no confirmation of no multiplayer and fans have theorized it to be so no internal game projects clashes with another. This separates MechWarrior 5 with single-player from MechWarrior Online that remains multi-player. This means there is all sorts of possibilities when the title comes out and that PGI may use it as a single player experimentation setting for things to happen, or it could just be testing out the success of single player, but only the company itself would know its direction. Salt has been in no short supply for MechWarrior online, since its launch with every patch some salt thrown, every major change a bag of salt pour, and nothing seems to pass the toxicity in peoples posts. It creates a toxic user environment that is then fed by people going all out into their vision by not explaining exactly how and leaves the argument in a accusation of ruining the game before any testing could even take place, or if any numbers could be accounted for, or if there is any statement that could further define confusing points of whats happening in implementation or practice. The White Cloud of opinions start swarming in packs of negativity that are hard to navigate through and is seen as a possible damage control of the games reputation. What this means is that insults cover the land with minimal facts about why they are angry, but what this also means is crucial criticism that could actually could help the situation can be cought in the crossfire. Not only does it punish the players insulting, but the critiques, and the opinion statements, so no one wins on either side. This was most apparent when the Skill Tree was introduced and brought wide attention to MechWarrior Online. What could have been managed through communication had been not handled in time to stop the burning flame of negativity that had already grown. The event had drew even more attention to it when retaliation of the company began banning accounts and the fanbase begun to go on a PGI witch hunt. While i won’t agree that either side was right in this matter, I will state that both groups of developer and fanbase had begin to be swallowed by the negativity. This in conclusion had made everyone involved at that time ask the question of why they play MechWarrior Online. This brought old debates back into the online community that were talked about on social media and in game. Statements referring to lost promises from the company, saying MechWarrior Online is a dead game, or people threatening to leave the game and making a big deal about it. After awhile it seems like each person wants to fight about the games direction without seeking any sort of whats good fro the game itself resolve to it all. The numbers of players per day could be higher, but the game has survived this long, so they are not counted out yet. There are also those who took the changes in each patch or mechanic in stride and saw it as a fresh start. Some might have been worried from the lack of notice people may have gotten from developers in wondering where their points were all going...But the lesson from the skill tree event is that people had to learn to adapt upcoming mechanic changes, fans always need reinforcement that their points will be safe, and that discussions and talking must occur even with some of the most toxic of people with warnings and levels of suspension before the ban hammer drops. It really pushed the message that the community, developers, and players alike need to keep in mind to voice concerns, state a case for the problem and at least try to problem solve it, and then keep the salt to a respectable minimum to keep conversations from blowing up. Moving on over that time is why many people thought that MechWarrior Online had really taken its fall before the skill tree even came about. The reputation would need time as its healing factor of people seeing the game move steadily onward for people to comprehend that the game was still going be holding on to its namesake. People would look at the number of players and still see not bad numbers, people would see how long match making took and still would find matches, and the leaderboard would also prove that the game kept chugging along the train track. There would have a small amount of new players who weren’t effected by the flame wars who played occasionally to check back on the games fun factor in matches. There were those who still played matches and avoided the crossfire altogether to let things settle down before stating their opinions months later, and some had taken a partial leave until months later as well. This was a bump in the road and didn’t help PGI in their attempts to get much more people interested for more support that they had wanted. The reason it was a bump was that the casuals help fuel the player count in matches, help whales and veterans gain easy kills or pass on their skills, and word of mouth had been bad at the time for various games in the same genre. And then we have the dedicated fans who are known as the Hardcore audience that really loves something had continued to play as well. These are the people who have been attached to the niche from the Battletech brand. It comes down to people talking about the factions, the mechs, and characters from the products. They will be a continual following of the MechWarrior series and see those who don’t seek constructive criticism and choose insult accusation as people who have lost their love for MechWarrior Online and don’t want it to continue without them involved. It is known that people tend to gravitate toward a certain function, mechanic, or faction depending on when and how they got into Battletech and it is important to respect that. It all boils down to their argument of change that would need to be self identified for the person to stop plaguing those around them with insult accusation statements to make a unhealthy environment for the player base. Developers get a hard time for taking things into consideration of what makes the whole entirety of the game work. This means many peoples point of views with the play styles, peoples reasons for playing, and what draws people back into playing the title with their friends. It may seem like they are not listening at times, however they have to sort out all the suggestions, and sometimes all the words might become noise on places like a forum. There are alternatives like video and blog articles, but it has to be sorted well where people can further expand on ideas in a objective way without tearing each other apart. At the end of the day for better or worse the developer PGI is the one who makes the final say in how the series moves on and what will change for players in the pursuit of a fun game for many to enjoy. Observations fans have stated is that they feel “Quick Play” is doing quite well overall and the balance is not perfect, but getting better by each patch. Players still look forward to “Faction Play” but have many opinions on wishes for its improvement and development to make it a contrasting game type from quick play. It has been said that PGI is still recognized in its rebuilding of the MechWarrior series from the ground up, running a huge server with data analysis in its numbers, and bringing the Battletech community back with its game title. While the loudest players only complain there are a sizable amount of people who do know that PGI has delivered what they could, keeps the community informed with limited staff, and understands that some of the things they may have promised may have been them being caught up in the excitement of the title. It leaves people in a situation on the gripes of Faction Play, Contrasting Playstyles, and Overall handling of communication and information is hard to look away from. But, with the time people have been with the game it seems like it is possibly one of the most enjoyable mech games out there with its clunky unique tank like torso shooting. The mech selection is great and the mechanics are progressing slowly and is different from any other MechWarrior game. Even with all the problems and the issues with all the fun and potential the game has its hard not to not have the game stuck in your head. The balancing and added in-game fighting with experiments for play styles in different ways really get the mind going in hoping for the games success and that problems can be addressed and fixed at some point. Especially with the development of other Battletech titles like MechWarrior 5 from PGI, and Battletech from Hairbrained Schemes lorecentric interface, and Catalysts story telling it gives people a rooted desire and the needed exposure to what the game could be. The development of MechWarrior in general from its revitalization has been really refreshing and as much as a complaint is needed, so is a awareness of how ridiculously commendable it is to take on such a game franchise. This does not deter from the main message of the journey had its lessons and the game still survives. This was not to get the MechWarrior community or Battletech Universe Community on any particular side, or to go out and support PGI and if your not your apart of the problem, or to play the game itself. This should mark as a reminder that we all have a choice to play or not play a game and have a right to the opinion of something dead or alive. It should also speak to those reading this that people should still be critical of the game and state all their points of how they feel, what they see, and how to respect one another in doing so. It just goes to show that discussion and conflict is necessary for the ideas to grow and expand passed their origins and into something bigger and better for the progress of a game title. Allowing people to hear the fact of acknowledgement that the game does need some fixes in some areas, the plan on executing something at some point means alot to the players, and it helps see what people arent happy with and having them at least try to tackle the problem makes players feel good. There is no doubt that PGI will continue to try and make their title even better, which is a very good thing, even though it might take sometime with other titles being in the works. Stand tall and look forward on a clean slate. There are many good patches and adventures awaiting the coming months. |
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December 2018
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