I've played mech fighting games since the days of DOS and wire frame graphics in the late 90s. I played War Robots and was disappointed when Pix sold out to mail.ru. I was a beta tester for Battle of Titans and was sad to see that project abandoned. I've tried most mobile mech fighting games available to me. I've played Mech Arena for 2+ years (off and on).

Mech Arena is not a bad game, and once upon a time, it had amazing potential. I really thought with the crisp (albeit "kiddie") graphics, the smooth movement and connectivity, the great start of various equipment that made for some interesting battle gameplay that this game might go esport. But then reality set in.

The first thing I noticed was the matchmaking was very bad, so bad that my still newbie hangar would be placed against teams of maxed hangars. Then, I realized like 90% of the other hangars throughout my matches were ai - in a player versus player game. Likewise, I noticed the ai on my team was not as good as the enemy ai, significantly weaker and not nearly as smart. As I tracked the weird actions of my ai and the incredible abilities of the enemy ai, I realized the ai is a paywall - the higher dollar player of the match gets better quality ai with better gear and intelligent scripting while the lower dollar player gets ai geared with weak gear and dumb scripting. This gets to the point where as a free player, you feel like you go into battle with the Three Stooges + Shemp versus some overspent overpowered enemy and the Borg from Star Trek.

If you have seen this than you know the same thing I do: the game cheats for spenders. There's just no other way to look at it. With 47 million plus accounts after four year in some regions, there really is no need for ai - unless the game can't keep players and needs to ai to fill games (which is a whole other problem I won't get into) or the ai is a tool of the company to force spending and slant victories to keep spenders in game, feeling validated for finally getting kills after spending in a free game.

Now, I know Plarium has no intention of changing this, they are making a fortune off exploiting your need to feel like you're good in a free game. But come on, PLAYER SATISFACTION HAS TO OUTWEIGH PROFITEERING. This is why I don't spend: despite the game not being bad, the simple truth is, in this current setup, it's not good, either. As a company, they are not doing enough to ensure the game isn't infected with hackers, but instead make it the player's job to determine who's using hacks and then (what feels like pointlessly) reporting them for "suspicious" behavior. The chat in-game and even this forum is covered with spam that has nothing to do with the game at all or advertises forbidden services.

Maybe it's just me, but I'm not seeing what I'm suppose to be spending for. To get caught in the "meta trap"? No thank you. To overpower my hangar so I can be put against weaker players and bad ai? Haha, not even. For the countless and abrupt maintenances that randomly popup throughout the day? Why don't you do it all at one time and stop interrupting your players time in the game, some people have very little to invest!

To the spenders: at what point do you wake up and realize you might be paying to win, but you're also paying to be treated really badly. Is your need to win so vital that you really overlook the obvious? Plarium has made you, the spenders, a joke.

Demand better.