WildStar | A Look Back at the First Month of Free | MMORPG

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WildStar | A Look Back at the First Month of Free | MMORPG

A month following WildStar’s free-to-play conversion, columnist Gareth “Gazimoff” Harmer looks at some of the good and bad that’s surfaced since the switch.

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markh777

I am impressed with the game...Started playing when it went F2P. I was going to sub...until I saw the...ummm...bonuses you get for signature (subbing) and I said...no..The only things that I see you get are xp, crafting, and reknown bonuses..and a few others but thats not enough for me to want to sub...ad inn a monthly stipend of Omnibits or something similar to Swtor's sub bonuses. Maybe its just me but I dont feel that Carbines Sub features are any better than me spending less money for a couple of unlocks.....comments?

Daakkon

I currently am subbed and can say without a doubt that it's worth it. This is game is tons of fun and can only get better with time. The combat keeps it fresh for an MMO veteran like me and I generally am not a fan of these theme-park MMO's.

Tykam123

Yeah Markh been playing since launch myself and I gotta say the sub bonus is quite underwhelming. I'm only subbing them because I want to support them. I believe they are looking into adding more things.

orbitxo

what they need to focus on is NEW CONTENT and story progression, yes we got 'shades eve'= an amazing event. but these holiday events wont 'cut it' with the competition they are against with new expansions and betas looming ahead. lets hope they learn from their past mistakes.

exile01

im playing myself and enjoyed the journey to 50. Sadly i found out that warrior are not that strong in pvp, so im rolling a esper now.

Kriggles

Got hooked on the game two different times. However I recently upgraded my PC to an Octocore AMD processor/mobo and can't even stay in game more than 20 seconds now without it crashing on me even with the dx9 trick. Optimization has been one of Wildstar's banes since the beginning. For shame.

lianse

Back when the game had a subscription, I played a short trial, but refused to subscribe as I was already subscribed to world of warcraft and wildstar just did not manage to entice me away. However, now it has gone free to play, I have quit world of warcraft and am playing wildstar instead. The quality of the game and the amount of access you get as a free player is superb. It hands down beats any other free to play mmorpg out there. I have only got to level 21 so far but I am already hooked on the game. There have been one or two glitches here and there but nothing that has not sorted itself out in the end, and you get them in any game you play, even the polished world of warcraft is not glitch free, so I won't get put off by that. The ingame housing is a nice aspect that I had not experienced in my previous trial, there is so much customization available, it is really good. I have not had to spend any money in the game in order to enjoy it to its fullest so far, although I have spent a little bit to get a mount I liked the look of. I just hope that things continue on as they are well in to the future and that the game grows and develops well and does not get turned in to a pay to do anything mess like other free to plays have.

Panserbjorne39

I created a char recently on the news of F2P as a Sci-Fi fan. The bright colors and cartoony-ness are just too much for me. Haven't made it past the starter area.

orbitxo

Panserbjorne39 said:

I created a char recently on the news of F2P as a Sci-Fi fan. The bright colors and cartoony-ness are just too much for me. Haven't made it past the starter area.

cartoon n style is the best part of the game!- futurama all the way!!!

meonthissite

I'd try it if it were released on consoles.

DarLorkar

lianse said:

Back when the game had a subscription, I played a short trial, but refused to subscribe as I was already subscribed to world of warcraft and wildstar just did not manage to entice me away. However, now it has gone free to play, I have quit world of warcraft and am playing wildstar instead. The quality of the game and the amount of access you get as a free player is superb. It hands down beats any other free to play mmorpg out there. I have only got to level 21 so far but I am already hooked on the game. There have been one or two glitches here and there but nothing that has not sorted itself out in the end, and you get them in any game you play, even the polished world of warcraft is not glitch free, so I won't get put off by that. The ingame housing is a nice aspect that I had not experienced in my previous trial, there is so much customization available, it is really good. I have not had to spend any money in the game in order to enjoy it to its fullest so far, although I have spent a little bit to get a mount I liked the look of. I just hope that things continue on as they are well in to the future and that the game grows and develops well and does not get turned in to a pay to do anything mess like other free to plays have.

Not trying to pick on this person...but, how can a game "continue" if most people can play the entire game and not spend much?

i just do not see how games can afford to open new servers, make new content, and make everything basically free at the same time as well? 

Those are just some of the points from posts on the first part of the front page....people need to support games that they enjoy.  How else will they continue?

Just strange to me how this FTP BS effects players. What they expect for nothing.....most destructive thing (IMO) to happen to gaming.

MrMelGibson

I am really impressed with all the changes (fixes) the game has gotten. I have had lots of fun in it since the F2P launch. The only problem for me is that i'm currently playing SWTOR's expansion. Otherwise, I would be playing. Once I finish SWTOR content and SC Void. I will be back on Nexus. For anyone on the fence. Give it a shot. It's free after all.

MysteryB

Wildstar would be a fun ass console MMO, make it happen Carbine let's go!

Wizardry

I lasted all of a few hours and saw all i needed to see,not fun not creative or unique at all,basically felt exactly the same as when i played Skyforge,wanted to logout more than i wanted to login.

Pvp battlegrounds...not interested PVE instances not interested. Good thing there is this supposed big improvement and change to play the same type of gaming i have been playing for the last 15 years and bored sick of.

I don't for one minute pretend to like WOW,but if i was going to play a game like this why not just pick Wow or EQ2 both are MUCH better at the same type of game.

I felt combat was painful to try and enjoy it actually was the first thing to quickly have me wanting out of the game.

Gretelda

Wizardry said:

I lasted all of a few hours and saw all i needed to see,not fun not creative or unique at all,basically felt exactly the same as when i played Skyforge,wanted to logout more than i wanted to login.

Pvp battlegrounds...not interested PVE instances not interested. Good thing there is this supposed big improvement and change to play the same type of gaming i have been playing for the last 15 years and bored sick of.

I don't for one minute pretend to like WOW,but if i was going to play a game like this why not just pick Wow or EQ2 both are MUCH better at the same type of game.

I felt combat was painful to try and enjoy it actually was the first thing to quickly have me wanting out of the game.

well if the F2P is actually free and the contents are as hard as some people say, then i can see why some people pick it over WoW. it still won't be enough though. i am not sure what Carbine had in mind when they created this. the design is niche, the content is niche. aiming an MMORPG toward a niche crowd is suicide. if it had a Korean theme it would work in Korea/China but doubt they go for this over Aion etc. still if they release this on Steam i assume they are gonna get a huge spike in membership after a while.

MMOvision

Panserbjorne39 said:

I created a char recently on the news of F2P as a Sci-Fi fan. The bright colors and cartoony-ness are just too much for me. Haven't made it past the starter area.

^This had me laughing.    It pretty much describes my first attempt to enjoy Wildstar back when I got in to the beta before launch.        I had just cancelled my long time Eve account to take a much needed break, but I don't like not having a go-to scifi game.  Unfortunately, playing Eve does not typically prime someone to find enjoyment in lighthearted/funny/cute/easy games.  I found WS to be gut-wrenchingly obnoxious almost immediately. When characters started to talk, and the UI became active/visible, I was like "noooo.... no no no no. This better get goo... nope.  I'm done."  lol    That really doesn't and shouldn't count as giving the game a chance.

Currently, my go-to scifi game is SWTOR, as it fits perfectly into my lifestyle.   It's ULTRA themeparky-ness, ULTRA SOLO-FRIENDLY-ness is actually quite enjoyable for me. 
I don't have the time to play anything that will require an intense time and focus commitment before any gratification can be had.  Not that I am against deep/time consuming gameplay.  On the contrary, I wish there were more oldschool/sandboxy type games to choose from, but I am not in delusion that I personally can or should be playing those games right now.      

Back on point-   Maybe now is the right time to give Wildstar another shot.   I am in the mindset to appreciate a lighthearted game, and I expect/hope they've improved the code or something because the optimization sucked and I don't have a nice PC right now.  

In any case, I am gonna download it tonight. 
Going f2p makes a big difference when it comes to "try it before you knock it"

Sainguin

While F2P was a smart move for Wildstar, I'm pretty disappointed that they've barely addressed the elephant in the room, and that's performance. The game still runs very poorly on good AMD/Radeon systems, and by good, I mean next generation systems. Systems that run games FAR more graphically intensive than Wildstar, but can't run Wildstar on anything more than Very Low settings. The development team needs to make this priority one, or at least admit that there are issues and they're trying to work on them.

Theodwulf

I tried this game during beta and when it went F2P...Boooorrrring. "Action Combat" feels like AOE grinding. I do not like the setting or class selection. The music is pretty good and you cannot beat the price. If you have the time, give it a try, it is worth a try.

svandy

Was a great game before F2P and remains a great game. The combat may not be for everyone, but its fast, fun, and has a feeling of impact when you land your hits (at least as a Spellslinger). Classes are original, races are fun, the game has a great sense of humor, tons of endgame content for various group sizes and skills, etc etc. I'm very happy with the game, even if I am starting to hit a stone wall with Vet Dungeons. I don't know all of the mechanics yet, and watching videos on youtube only teaches you so much until you actually do it... but, if Wildstar has 1 huge problem it is that the elder game population is filled with elitist jerks, even more so than many other games.

It isn't everyone, I've had some overwhelmingly positive experiences too (a medic in raidgear literally tanking Protogames and teaching everyone game mechanics on the way), but the majority is just terrible. It's the WoW Gearscore days all over again, only compounded by the fact that Wildstar dungeons are actually hard and have intense mechanics. I, and my friend who plays with me, are willing to learn, but we cant seem to find those patient enough to teach (still looking for a guild ) All that said I love the game, and looking forward to future content.

 I just hope the F2P revival was enough, because this game more than any other MMO I have played deserves success. Sadly, I don't think it will happen. The game becomes to difficult at endgame for the bulk of MMO players, so once Legion or other big name mmos/expansions come out I am afraid Carbine will be left in the dust again if they don't have an impressive expansion up their sleeves.

Chaserz

It's very clear a tremendous amount of effort, depth and detail went into this game. I gave it an honest try and even subbed. But it just didn't grab me. That being said I think many will enjoy it immensely and I wish this MMO great success.

lianse

DarLorkar said:

lianse said:

Back when the game had a subscription, I played a short trial, but refused to subscribe as I was already subscribed to world of warcraft and wildstar just did not manage to entice me away. However, now it has gone free to play, I have quit world of warcraft and am playing wildstar instead. The quality of the game and the amount of access you get as a free player is superb. It hands down beats any other free to play mmorpg out there. I have only got to level 21 so far but I am already hooked on the game. There have been one or two glitches here and there but nothing that has not sorted itself out in the end, and you get them in any game you play, even the polished world of warcraft is not glitch free, so I won't get put off by that. The ingame housing is a nice aspect that I had not experienced in my previous trial, there is so much customization available, it is really good. I have not had to spend any money in the game in order to enjoy it to its fullest so far, although I have spent a little bit to get a mount I liked the look of. I just hope that things continue on as they are well in to the future and that the game grows and develops well and does not get turned in to a pay to do anything mess like other free to plays have.

Not trying to pick on this person...but, how can a game "continue" if most people can play the entire game and not spend much?

i just do not see how games can afford to open new servers, make new content, and make everything basically free at the same time as well? 

Those are just some of the points from posts on the first part of the front page....people need to support games that they enjoy.  How else will they continue?

Just strange to me how this FTP BS effects players. What they expect for nothing.....most destructive thing (IMO) to happen to gaming.

That is why I had no problems spending money to get the mount i wanted, because it supports the game and I am sure there are many others who feel the same. There are still people who pay subscription which also supports the game. I would imagine with the increase in players since going f2p that they will probably now make more money than they did before. Ok there will be those that wont spend a penny and just enjoy the free content but there will also be those that spend each month just to get that new mount, costume, companion pet, inventory expansion etc.

Theocritus

Panserbjorne39 said:

I created a char recently on the news of F2P as a Sci-Fi fan. The bright colors and cartoony-ness are just too much for me. Haven't made it past the starter area.

I think I had the same impression...IT felt too WoWish for me.....Played 2 characters to about level 10 and was done.....Not my cup of tea I guess.

Pongping

i played my Stalker to 50 then suddenly had no more interest to login. All the other classes but Stalker arent good enough to keep me playing. Its the classic "level to 50" game and then all you can do is Raid and Guildplay or quit The game at 50 felt like "Game Over" to me.......

bcbully

1st 12 posters with exactly 29 post. Not suspicious at all 

Krighton

Well all the bots are gone. queue times are *almost* back to pre-f2p status. Soon we'll be waiting for 30 minutes to BG or Dungeon.. SUCCESS!