Is MechWarrior Online Pay To Win?

First, so we're starting from the same point of reference, let's start with a definition of "pay to win" from Urban Dictionary: "Games that let you buy better gear or allow you to make better items then everyone else at a faster rate and then makes the game largely unbalanced even for people who have skill in the game without paying."

So, the short answer is, "No, MechWarrior Online is NOT pay to win."

However, the long answer is, while MechWarrior Online is a free to play game, it does have some things you can buy to improve your experience or speed up your progression.

These things include:

• Paint for your mechs (all mechs come painted in drab green)
• Camouflage patterns
• Cockpit items like mech statues, banners, air freshner, dice, and many more
• Premium Time - increases c-bills (in game money) and mech experience earned in matches by 50 percent each
• Champion Mechs - stock mechs with an experience bonus of 10 percent (stacks with Premium Time)
• Hero Mechs - mechs with unique weapon hard points, custom paint jobs, and a c-bill bonus of 30 percent (stacks with Premium Time)
• Additional Mech Bays - You need one bay for each mech you own. You start with four bays.

All of these things are purchased with Mech Credits (MC). Mech Credits cost real money and varies based on how much you buy at one time (the more you buy, the better the value).

Paint, camouflage, and cockpit items are cosmetic only. They don't effect game play in any way. No one can argue they make MechWarrior Online pay to win.

Premium time does not effect game play either. It only adds to the money and mech experience you earn in matches. It's not pay to win, but it could be called "pay to make progress go faster." Yes, you can get access to better equipment faster, but everyone has access to the same equipment and the prices aren't so high that it will take you much longer to buy something without having Premium Time. C-bills and mech experience alone will not make you kill your opponents easier or faster. Only your personal skill can do that.

Champion Mechs only have an earned mech experience bonus. The mechs are exactly the same as any other mech you buy with c-bills. Definitely not pay to win.

Although Hero Mechs are unique variants, they are not any better than other mechs. Some are good variants, others not so much, but none of them are even close to being overpowered. I don't own one yet because I don't think the c-bill bonus and uniqueness make them worth buying. There are lots of Hero Mechs running around though. Full disclosure: One of the reasons I joined the Founder's Program was to own four Founder's mechs (25 percent c-bill bonus and unique look. Not unique variants).

---

Update (June 17, 2013): I purchased my first hero mech, Ilya Muromets (Cataphract chassis), on June 7. After using it quite a bit for the past 10 days, I must say it is a strong mech for its tonnage (70 tons) and weapon hard point locations (one ballistic in each arm and one ballistic in the right torso). The three Ultra Auto Cannon 5 (UAC 5) build is somewhat fragile though due to having to run an XL engine in order to have enough ammo for the UAC 5s to be effective in more than one fire fight.

When the Ilya first came out, it was the only mech that could mount three UAC 5s due to the hard point locations and this could be called "pay to win" because it was, and still is, a big time damage dealer. However, with the Jagermech that came out a few months ago, the Ilya is no longer the only mech capable of mounting three UAC5s. At five tons lighter, the Jagermech can't hold as much ammo as the Ilya, but it is still effective (I have a Jagermech with three UAC 5s) primarily due to the arms of the Jager being located higher up and you don't waste as much ammo shooting the ground like you do with the low slung guns on the Ilya (a disadvantage of the Cataphract chassis). 

Another downside of the Ilya is anyone who has been around a while knows the Ilya is dangerous and it's not long before you find yourself being shot at by multiple mechs. Even with two to three assault mechs standing in front of you. :D

Update (March 19, 2014):Be sure to check out my post on what I think about the Hero mechs I have bought.

MechWarrior Online: Are Hero Mechs Pay to Win?

---

You start with four mech bays and if you want to have more than four mechs at one time, you will have to buy more mech bays at 300 MC each ($2-$3). You can not buy mech bays with c-bills. Technically not pay to win because you can't pilot more than one mech at a time in a match. You can have 50 mechs in your mech stable and it still wouldn't make you more likely to win.

---

Update (May 7, 2015): Mech Bays can now be acquired through gaining Faction ranks in Community Warfare. Basically, you get one Mech Bay at ranks 2, 6, 10, 14, and 18. You can do this for each House/Clan and there are 10 Houses and Clans total. So, if you put in the time, you can acquire 50 Mech Bays without spending any real world money. You can find all of the Faction Rank Rewards here.

---

Now, if you choose to not spend any real money on MechWarrior Online, you will probably progress at a slower pace if you stick primarily to playing the game by yourself. And by "progress", I mean buying mechs or equipment to make your bought mechs better. Unless you spend MC on buying a mech, you are stuck playing trial mechs until you earn enough c-bills to buy a mech of your own.

How long does it take to buy a mech with c-bills? Well, everyone gets a c-bill bonus in their first 25 matches and you will end up with somewhere between 8 and 10 million c-bills depending on how well you play. So, you typically earn enough c-bills to buy a few light mechs, a couple of medium mechs, or maybe even one heavy mech after the 25th match and have enough c-bills to do some customization. If you are playing with Premium Time during your first 25 matches, you make 50 percent more c-bills or 12-15 million c-bills total. This will give you enough c-bills to buy an assault mech and customize it with pretty much anything you want.

---

Update (September 13, 2013): I added a new post with some details on my experience playing MWO with and without Premium Time as it relates to earning C-bills. Includes a spreadsheet with how many C-Bills I have earned per day played from December 4, 2012 to March 7, 2016.

MechWarrior Online: Pay To Win and Premium Time 

---

CONSUMABLES

Apparently there is some misinformation being floated around that the best Consumables (one use items) can only be purchased with real world money. This is COMPLETELY FALSE.

Yes, consumables you purchase with MC (bought with real world money) are the best you can get. However, you can use GXP to permanently upgrade the consumables bought with C-Bills (in game money earned while playing) so that they are exactly the same as the MC versions.

For example, in the screenshot (click image for a bigger version), COOL SHOT 9 BY 9 is the GXP upgraded version of COOL SHOT 9 (not shown because that's the non-upgraded version) is available for 40,000 C-Bills and operates the same as the MC version, COOL SHOT 18. Both remove 18 heat points from your current heat level over the same period of time.

You can also see I have upgraded my ARTILLERY STRIKE and UAV with GXP (but not my AIR STRIKE). They perform exactly like their MC counterparts. I have never bought a consumable with MC because I have upgraded the C-Bill version consumables I use on a regular basis with GXP.


This has become a lot longer than I originally intended, so I'll stop here. But if you're still not convinced MechWarrior Online is not pay to win, give it a try for yourself. It really is free to download and play.