Home › Game Forums › WildStar
Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Servers empty - Should Wildstar had launched as F2P?
People are saying the servers are empty, and that all of them except for a couple are low pop all day, even during primetime. It's just been 1 month. Should Wildstar had launched as free to play? Would it have been better received?
https://forums.wildstar-online.com/forums/index.php?/topic/98600-game-is-empty-or-only-my-realm/
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/417538/Wildstar-i-like-it-but.html
"We see fundamentals and we ape in"
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
Nah, I'm pretty sure they've already got their conversion to a F2P model all planned out.
Grab money from box sales for as long as they can, and then convert to a F2P game with a premium membership option seems to be the way to go these days. If things are as bad as it sounds they might have to launch their conversion even before ESO does though.
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/
This game's starting experience is one of the worst that I have ever encountered in a MMO again my opinion. For me it took almost 20 levels for me to start to enjoy the story and my characters and yes I made it to level 50. I really think that this has contributed to the lack of fresh players or that steady influx of players that new MMOs have in their first 6 months.
This game got way too much praise from the media and the small vocal minority of fans that has promoted the game. It really doesn't offer anything different from other theme park mmos and I think a lot of players are just bored with gear treadmills and quest hubs. The story while being interesting some ways is very generic and very very cliche. The questing in the game doesn't really give you much back story either you gotta dig or spend time to discover the lore of the game. Everything is so streamlined propelling you to the end game quickly that it gets boring fast. Carbine removed a big chunk of what makes RPGs fun the lore and the journey by making you level so quickly.
There are other issues for sure but they have been discussed to death in other posts. I don't think this game will die though it will be more niche having a smaller sub base for sure due to its hardcore end game.
I really wish these companies would quit chasing WoW and actually innovate this has really stagnated the MMO market.
I think Ws was over hyped in certain regards.
1. For example being a funny game. I maybe laughed once... and there were other interesting moments. So dont focus on this aspect, and i was not hung up on this either but it was the beginning of their marketing scheme seen here. Anyone that says this is a funny game that makes them laugh takes drugs, or laughs at anything... then you can or can not relate to that and use them as some kind of reference (or not). Maybe its me that I dont laugh at everything just like everyone/most that i notice in regular conversations.
2. The first problem was that the text was too small and for it being too small was either in chat bubbles disspearing quickly for its small size or in the chat box again to small and invconient to normal quest chats in WoW for example.
The did it differently with text and it was worse.
3. Pvp combat with their action combat and no tab targeting makes for an imbalance between ranged classes and melee.
4. Trinity - the soloists arch nemisis to content for pve and pvp. In Pve since balance is an issue to require players to gear/spec to the epicness of tanks or healers. Pvp it requires more organization and rewards it too much that an organized team will wipe a group of randoms, easy. While this may not seem to be a big problem or a problem at all, its an imbalance that exists due to a trinity rewarding grouping more due to imbalances (in an FPS a good player will still do well on a losing team but not so much in an mmo and more so with a trinity). Then arenas would be some kind of salvation except that for example even in 1vs 1 situations in pvp a certain class might not do well since they are not pigeon holed in the right way with tank/heal abilities in WS in stalker build which is OP in that regard rather than assualt, and will lose.
6. Hype over certain content being dynamic and there being environmental effects. The world feels more dynamic than swtor but not by much more.
7. Content being unimportant instead of main story which becomes important and interesting towards the end at around lvl 40, and also not being Voiced over. It would not be a problem if there was no voice over, but they had voice over, but they scattered it all over the place instead of adding it where it counts.
8. Crafting being simple enough and potentially fun, but requiring catalysts which are rare drops to complete crafting tree. So crafting is tied in with drops and rare drops which are random rather than something specific in the open world. For example if it was in a certain region I would get all the mats for crafting in a region that was also a daily zone then it would encourge players to play in that area and pvp while collecting mats.
9. Gear grind to access content. Not so much a problem but a game has to be done well enough for a player to commit to a gear grind and pay 15$ while they are doing that to then begin raiding or to begin pvping competitively. I beleive they did not do enough for me personally to draw me on a gear grind to get through their content such as the attunement for raiding or pvp gear to melt peoples faces with.
I think those were the major reasons.
However, raiding was fun with their combat system. So if a person likes to raid only, try doing dungeons as soon possible and decide if thats the kind of content you enjoy since I beleive thats their best aspect in WS. A person might also enjoy pvp as a melee class (dps stalker) in WS and they are entitled to that... but I have my reasons for posting the above reasons.
Write bad things that are done to you in sand, but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of marble
The game was outdated the day it launched. I made it to lvl 23 and realized there was nothing there that I wanted to do or hadn't done before.
If anything they were smart to get box price while they could.
Hah, sounds like they made the same mistake as SWTOR back at launch.
Servers filled to capacity? Let's add a ton of extra servers! And a few months down the line the complaints started coming about all the ghost servers.
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/
Not true. I mean, I'm sure it IS true in some cases, but not all.
F2P can also be a way for a game that had a bad launch and/or used to be bad in general to try and recover. It's not as simple as, "Oh! Our game sucks! Let us make it free to play and we can keep on keepin' on!" The game has to get good (or better), or else it won't survive, even as F2P. Nobody (or at least, not enough to sustain it) would bother spending money on cash shop items for a terrible game.
Nop, but TESO should've with the level of "quality" they brought to the table. At least WildStar has its inner systems working xD
All in all IMO both games should've gone B2P but that's just me.
Not necessarily. There are lot of factors as to why MMOs can't sustain a playerbase. It doesn't mean it's because they are bad. It's the genre as a whole, that has a hard time retaining players. A lot of MMOs have made clones, and lot have tried something new, and the results are still the same. Players are hard to satisfy, and it would be impossible to know what will keep them playing.
Nop, but TESO should've with the level of "quality" they brought to the table. At least WildStar has its inner systems working xD
All in all IMO both games should've gone B2P but that's just me.
Aye, defeinitely B2P for TESO (or Zenimax pays you money to play, gain to play? G2P, gain to play?).. though WS has a built in mechanic to earn more time (ala EVE).. while in-game.It's a pseudo-F2P feature ... although you need to subscribe to take apart of it, which is absolutely not F2P. Pseudo comes in, which it what WS is, payment wise.
It's refreshing, none-the-less. It could have gone worse if they went EA style, and made every feature as unlockable "content".
"I'm going to report you BC!"
LOL. Covering your bases
F2P isn't a saving grace for any game; it's just a band-aid to attract more users.
Honestly I can't fault the game, it delivers everything you want for the most part. The story is sorta lacking and casual content isn't there yet but it's a solid engine and a well made game.
The sad part? I feel absolutely no incentive to log in after a month of playing.
I dunno if it's because I'm so burned out on the genre or it's just the style of game doesn't appeal to me.. Frankly I can't get on board with FFXIV, ESO or WS.. which are basically the big three right now.
I've tried ArcheAge too and it's also very meh.. Feels very arcade grind with a lot of toys thrown in.
Currently enjoying Landmark but there's not a lot going on but building - here's to hoping EQN returns us back to the "RPG" element of MMORPG.
Wildstar seem to have all what a blackbuster MMO needs, yet the sales are low?
If it's true, that's most interesting and suprising...
I had 2 dozen friends go to Wildstar saying how great it was and it will be the next WOW. All of them quit within 3 weeks and after talking with them here are the pros and cons I got from them.
Cons
Leveling takes so long. Yes a long time ago this was a good thing. However today when just about all of my friends have kids, full time jobs and what not taking 2 to 3 weeks just to reach levels 15 to 25 was not fun for them.
Combat. As much as they liked Action Combat at first they found it very hard to play when it came to group content, and PVP.
The game was meant for little kids. Yep thats right they could not stand the Bunny crowd and the way it looked like it was meant for little kids. All of them played D&D type games, so playing a a Halfling would be more appropriate than playing a Bunny.
Raid Grind. One of my friends said that the core group of his guild all ex EQ1 players made it to end game and learned that to do 40 man raiding you have to have 20 man raids to get into 40 man raids. So you have to clear the content on 20 man then move to 40. I been saying this since WildStar came out. 40 man raiding organized will never work again. It would work for an LFR setup but not Classic WoW raiding. I been a raid leader in 2 40 man raiding guilds and I can tell you the effort it required I will NEVER do again. Its more of a headache than it is ever worth.
Pros
Everyone liked how tough the content was in 5 mans. They were tired of 20 minute faceroll gear runs in WOW. This is the one thing they would love to see in WoW again even if they remove the challenge modes from being Timed runs to being BC like heroics.
No LFR. Yep thats right they all love that there was no LFR because how WOW is designed right now where you are forced to gear up via LFR no one likes. LFR is a Drama feast.
I personally did not try Wildstar because like I said to all my friends I knew what was coming. I would love the hard instances again however after Tera and Neverwinter I cannot stand Action combat and never will. Its not meant for an MMO period and I played a lot of MMOs. UO, SWG, FFXI, FFXIV, WOW, RIFT, ArcheAge, AION, EQ2, Vangraud, SWTOR and so on. But I never really got into the Action combat games and I dont think I ever will.
Also like I said 40 man raids will NEVER be doable again. You can think well hey I can get a 40 member group to go Raid IronForge in WOW. Well Guess what people will randomly group of for something minor like that. They will never do a MC, BWL again. It just does not work. And BTW I love raiding. I am doing Flex right now in WOW because I like the freedom of the number of people vs having a set group and a bench.
I personally like Wildstar but cannot play it any more. Litterally cannot. After playing for more than an hour my hands hurt so much that I cannot continue. Action combat is not for me. However, I do not castigate Carbine for using action combat. It can be fun and is certainly exciting. The issue is with me - not Carbine.
From what I read on other sites I gather that my reaction is not as unusual as I suspected. It is a shame as there are a lot of thing that I like about Wildstar - the graphics, the humor, the complexity and the settler path. To show my support for Carbine I purchased a 3 month sub but after that it is over.
Should WS have been released as F2P - no. Any AAA MMO title that starts out F2P would be trashed from the get go. It seems that the normal procedure now is to release as a sub and then switch to f2p. The developers/investors need that initial payoff.
Would F2P make a difference? Not for people like me. However, moving to free to play would bring in a lot of younger players that enjoy action combat so the net effect would be positive.
TESTIFY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm just going to keep playing WoW. I did buy Wildstar, was thinking about resubbing, but I have been on vacation for 2 weeks and it's summer. I don't play games in the summer.I don't think being a good game is enough anymore.. In theory WS should be a massively successful game.
As you said, it just doesn't deliver anything new. I think the industry will learn some lessons from ESO and WS that bringing out a triple-A game which just re-uses all the old methods is not even close to enough now.
MMOs are on the decline big time and have been since SWTOR. ESO and WS was kinda the last stop for most people and they're already fading away into mediocrity and repetitiveness.
I realize this is a bit melodramatic - the point I'm making is that the majority of ideas have been thought of and/or tried when it comes to MMOs. It's unlikely you're going to see any kind of radical shift which delivers something groundbreaking and new.. almost the same ways the FPS market has stagnated to where it is. There simply isn't revolutionary concepts out there anymore when it comes to MMOs; just the tweaks and minor additions we see evolve.
It's a bit of a sad time really for me as I've been playing MMOs for almost 20 years. I suppose it's not bad going if it took that long to burnout but frankly I don't see this burnout disappearing for me now. It's more a burnout due to the staleness of the games rather than a disinterest in the games and I just don't see where the market will go from here honestly.
I don't think being a good game is enough anymore.. In theory WS should be a massively successful game.
As you said, it just doesn't deliver anything new. I think the industry will learn some lessons from ESO and WS that bringing out a triple-A game which just re-uses all the old methods is not even close to enough now.
MMOs are on the decline big time and have been since SWTOR. ESO and WS was kinda the last stop for most people and they're already fading away into mediocrity and repetitiveness.
I realize this is a bit melodramatic - the point I'm making is that the majority of ideas have been thought of and/or tried when it comes to MMOs. It's unlikely you're going to see any kind of radical shift which delivers something groundbreaking and new.. almost the same ways the FPS market has stagnated to where it is. There simply isn't revolutionary concepts out there anymore when it comes to MMOs; just the tweaks and minor additions we see evolve.
It's a bit of a sad time really for me as I've been playing MMOs for almost 20 years. I suppose it's not bad going if it took that long to burnout but frankly I don't see this burnout disappearing for me now. It's more a burnout due to the staleness of the games rather than a disinterest in the games and I just don't see where the market will go from here honestly.
Watch the Camelot Unchained bat shit crazy videos, read up on The Repopulation. MMO developers don't have to do that much really, they just need to empower us who play them to make it interesting. It's up to the players to make it interesting then, I have met some interesting people who can turn any game into fun.I think if they had released as F2P with a cash shop like GW2 they would have had a lot better retention. I don't think the servers are "empty" per se, but I do think most of them are low pop at this point, or at least they were around a week ago, which was the last time I logged in before my month elapsed.
The performance/ui and combat bugs are just too heavy to pay every month to deal with for me right now, but I'd probably still log in occasionally if it was free, especially to check and see if the game is fixed up.
People like to rag on ESO for whatever reason, but I don't see WildStar's launch as any better than ESO's with all the bugs bots and glitches abound in WildStar. Like ESO, it's just going to take time to fix all the game's problems, and time is something MMO players don't enjoy spending with a game anymore it seems.
Currently Playing: ESO and FFXIV
Have played: You name it
If you mention rose tinted glasses, you better be referring to Mitch Hedberg.