Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Wildstar is a gem of an mmo, played it hard for awhile, then one day like a switch it was over and I was done? To this day i still have no interest in returning even though i only have fond memories of playing it. Only thing i can think of is that the theme wasn't for me considering how in love i am with ESO and SWL.
My faith is my shield! - Turalyon 2022
Your legend ends here and now! - (Battles Won Long Ago)
So, I tried out this game during the closed betas and decided not to play it, then came back and re-tried it when it went F2P. I only made it to level 25 ish so can't comment on endgame at all. Here are my thoughts on why it didn't succeed:
1) Performance Issues
This is what really held me back. Their engine initially sucked and basically wouldn't run on AMD processors. The game maxed out at 19FPS on my machine with everything turned down low (and about 16fps with everything on max). It took them many months to sort this out, but when I came back after F2P, they'd fixed it and the game ran at 40fps on high.
2) Combat
This is another big issue. The combat sucked. It was an utter spam-fest. Constant dodging of telegraphs then spamming your own limited number of skills. Numbers flying everywhere. Sure, it was fast paced, but it was meaningless because there were so many numbers flying around your screen. It was completely unenjoyable whilst leveling. Things got worse in pvp where there were so many telegraphs you couldn't avoid them. Only time it was fun was 1v1 in pvp. Again, I didn't make it to endgame so maybe it got better later on, but first impressions were terrible.
3) UI
Seriously, one of the worst UIs I've ever used in a game. Just tons of boxes and popups all over the screen! I absolutely hated it, it was always obscuring what was happening in game and I was constantly having to close popups. Quest text was also small and hard to read. Just wasn't enjoyable at all.
4) Connection to character
So, they go through all this effort, creating new races and interesting classes / characters / gear. Sure, cartoony, but it was different and things looked good. But, you never saw it! In order to fight effectively you had to zoom out miles, otherwise you couldn't see the telegraphs. But, that meant I couldn't actually distinguish any details about my character. Like, I really couldn't see any difference between lvl 1 and lvl 25 - it was the same basic outline and floppy ears, but I couldn't see details on armour or weapons. Being connected with your character is a big reason for staying in games, especially those revolving around long term progression, so this lack of connection did not help.
5) Linear Zones
Maybe it got better later on in the game, but everything I saw sucked. Very small, linear zones with massive walls to keep you trapped. Corridor -> Quest Hub -> Corridor -> Quest Hub....uggh, terrible.
6) Lack of Cohesion in Game Design
There just didn't seem to be a point to the game. Who was it for? What is the overall goal? Wildstar felt like a ticklist of features rammed together into a game, rather than being built with a specific purpose or goal in mind. The pvp, the dungeons, the story, the quests, the housing, the crafting....all felt completely disconnected from one another.
It is a shame that the game failed because it did do some things really well. I enjoyed the secondary class thing (explorer / killer / scientist / builder?) - I tried out explorer which had some fun platformy type challenges, as well as some boring "see the whole map" stuff. Also tried builder, but that was boring to start but had some nice buffs.
I did actually enjoy some of the quests, partly for the humour but they were also just a bit different. One of the early ones involved collecting butterflies from beside a waterfall and you achieved this by jumping on bouncy mushrooms. Simple, but different. I also enjoyed some of the outlandish design choices - too many western devs stick with dreary / realistic type art styles so it was a breath of fresh air to see some craziness. I also enjoyed what little I saw of crafting and housing.
I think if Carbine had gone for a better combat system and more open world design, I could have probably gotten over the other problems and would have played it properly. But, the minute-to-minute gameplay just wasn't fun for me.
I'd drop +1 vote to the "bad targeting / hardcore" camp. They've built a game for all those "masses" of hardcore raiders longing for vanilla wow, and they successfully reached them. All 50-100 of them While all the others got a fairly linear and pretty grindy game, with tons of grouping and dungeons barely forgiving any mistakes. During a time which already was about dumbing down and "accessibility".
By the time they started to make changes (lower people raid, smoother leveling part, PA "tutorial" dungeon, etc.) the damage was already done. Wildstar is a fun game, with one of the best housing, some really great ideas, but it is still weighted down by the original "built for the raiders from the raiders" mindset. To this day I used to go back from time to time and play a bit... and mostly I agree with OP, it should be (at least a bit more) popular.
Once you get attuned and do the content requiring other people it feels pointless to go back once you've done all that. I'd play it again if they raised the level cap.
I would recommend it to insomniacs who don't respond to strong drugs.
There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody's expense but his own. -- Herman Melville
I hope all themeparks from now on fail hard as wildstar did.
Of all things I think the themepark aspect of it was the final straw...i was just so burned out on them by the time this one came out that it was painful to play it.
Of course they're dying. Publishers saturated the market to the point where it's now a VERY high risk proposition. And they all are mostly just reskins of other MMOs. Also, nobody has come out with any groundbreaking ideas in quite some time. And RvR hasn't worked well since what DAoC?
MOBAs and shooters provide more rewarding environments without the need to grind for gear.
Wildstar failed due to it being poorly designed (catered to vanilla 40 man crowd) with questionable art design choices. Add in a brand new developer and terrible advertisements geared towards kids and it was a recipe for failure.
I honestly think its because the humor and game play style wasn't very appealing to a broad audience. The humor is what ruined it for me and the UI, I know a lot of people felt the game wasn't sure what it wanted to be. Plus it was a bit to much of a wow clone in my opinion but I really liked it for awhile, I actually convinced 5 people from work to play but I just couldn't get them to stay.
For me it was the cartoonish look. You can argue with me all day why it shouldn't matter, but it does matter to me.
Second thing is the hardcore 40 man raiding focus. The mmo forums were filled with people applauding this but people posting on mmo forums are BY FAR the vocal minority. All data showed that less than 5% of mmo players are hardcore raiders so when you build your endgame to appeal to the less than 5% this happens, no matter how many loud voices in forums scream at you it's amazing those raids will be back.
Comments
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
1) Performance Issues
This is what really held me back. Their engine initially sucked and basically wouldn't run on AMD processors. The game maxed out at 19FPS on my machine with everything turned down low (and about 16fps with everything on max). It took them many months to sort this out, but when I came back after F2P, they'd fixed it and the game ran at 40fps on high.
2) Combat
This is another big issue. The combat sucked. It was an utter spam-fest. Constant dodging of telegraphs then spamming your own limited number of skills. Numbers flying everywhere. Sure, it was fast paced, but it was meaningless because there were so many numbers flying around your screen. It was completely unenjoyable whilst leveling. Things got worse in pvp where there were so many telegraphs you couldn't avoid them. Only time it was fun was 1v1 in pvp. Again, I didn't make it to endgame so maybe it got better later on, but first impressions were terrible.
3) UI
Seriously, one of the worst UIs I've ever used in a game. Just tons of boxes and popups all over the screen! I absolutely hated it, it was always obscuring what was happening in game and I was constantly having to close popups. Quest text was also small and hard to read. Just wasn't enjoyable at all.
4) Connection to character
So, they go through all this effort, creating new races and interesting classes / characters / gear. Sure, cartoony, but it was different and things looked good. But, you never saw it! In order to fight effectively you had to zoom out miles, otherwise you couldn't see the telegraphs. But, that meant I couldn't actually distinguish any details about my character. Like, I really couldn't see any difference between lvl 1 and lvl 25 - it was the same basic outline and floppy ears, but I couldn't see details on armour or weapons. Being connected with your character is a big reason for staying in games, especially those revolving around long term progression, so this lack of connection did not help.
5) Linear Zones
Maybe it got better later on in the game, but everything I saw sucked. Very small, linear zones with massive walls to keep you trapped. Corridor -> Quest Hub -> Corridor -> Quest Hub....uggh, terrible.
6) Lack of Cohesion in Game Design
There just didn't seem to be a point to the game. Who was it for? What is the overall goal? Wildstar felt like a ticklist of features rammed together into a game, rather than being built with a specific purpose or goal in mind. The pvp, the dungeons, the story, the quests, the housing, the crafting....all felt completely disconnected from one another.
It is a shame that the game failed because it did do some things really well. I enjoyed the secondary class thing (explorer / killer / scientist / builder?) - I tried out explorer which had some fun platformy type challenges, as well as some boring "see the whole map" stuff. Also tried builder, but that was boring to start but had some nice buffs.
I did actually enjoy some of the quests, partly for the humour but they were also just a bit different. One of the early ones involved collecting butterflies from beside a waterfall and you achieved this by jumping on bouncy mushrooms. Simple, but different. I also enjoyed some of the outlandish design choices - too many western devs stick with dreary / realistic type art styles so it was a breath of fresh air to see some craziness. I also enjoyed what little I saw of crafting and housing.
I think if Carbine had gone for a better combat system and more open world design, I could have probably gotten over the other problems and would have played it properly. But, the minute-to-minute gameplay just wasn't fun for me.
While all the others got a fairly linear and pretty grindy game, with tons of grouping and dungeons barely forgiving any mistakes. During a time which already was about dumbing down and "accessibility".
By the time they started to make changes (lower people raid, smoother leveling part, PA "tutorial" dungeon, etc.) the damage was already done.
Wildstar is a fun game, with one of the best housing, some really great ideas, but it is still weighted down by the original "built for the raiders from the raiders" mindset.
To this day I used to go back from time to time and play a bit... and mostly I agree with OP, it should be (at least a bit more) popular.
This isn't a signature, you just think it is.
There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody's expense but his own.
-- Herman Melville
MOBAs and shooters provide more rewarding environments without the need to grind for gear.
Wildstar failed due to it being poorly designed (catered to vanilla 40 man crowd) with questionable art design choices. Add in a brand new developer and terrible advertisements geared towards kids and it was a recipe for failure.
Second thing is the hardcore 40 man raiding focus. The mmo forums were filled with people applauding this but people posting on mmo forums are BY FAR the vocal minority. All data showed that less than 5% of mmo players are hardcore raiders so when you build your endgame to appeal to the less than 5% this happens, no matter how many loud voices in forums scream at you it's amazing those raids will be back.