Death or Rebirth?WS WildStar News

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Death or Rebirth?WS WildStar News

Are we witnessing the slow death spiral of WildStar, or the start of a new beginning? In this week's column, Gareth Harmer chimes in with his opinion.

Read the full story here

orbitxo

death.

at least for me- over the holidays ive moved on to new games- and this coming year there are alot of active games with new content for them to compete with.

that said iam not bashing the game. ive actually fully raided GA- and killed a few DS bosses already with my guild. but there isnt enough solid driven story content (ingame not loremagadon) to keep me nor our roster up to continue gaming in wildstar- iam sure im not the only player thats goin through this with wildstar.

they had their opportunity, i gave it to them- they didnt deliver. unlesss they are waiting for china devs who maybe working on new content because i clearly dont see NA devs working on any from their small team- the game just looks bleak= for me. i just dotn want to invest time in a short lived mmo. "WildStar is living on borrowed time." -well put.

Avarix

I had to pass on it. I enjoyed my time with the game, but my computer didn't. Optimization was some of the worst I have ever experienced in a game. Basically, it wasn't worth burning out my hardware for.

No doubt we will see the usual 'death by hardcore' comment but the game had many problems, and I don't think its supposed 'hardcore' content was its downfall.

laxie

The game had some strange marketing choices.

I think it was trying to appeal to everyone, in the end appealing to noone. I loved it - as I enjoy a challenge, but at the same time like housing and pretty colors. I think I'm an oddball though. Most people in dungeons were not prepared to do several attempts on a boss.

Some of the marketing was aimed at very hardcore players, some at very casual players. In reality, the population was a strange blend of people, making it difficult to form a tight community.

Azaron_Nightblade

I'll have to try it again now that it's F2P. I did enjoy the atmosphere in game when I briefly tried it after picking up that cheap Humble Bundle that had WS in it.

I haven't heard much about it lately. No complaints, but no real praise either. So I'm guessing it's just one of those gazillion MMOs that make a modest profit these days.

Rusque

I'm more than happy to bash the game. It sucks. It always sucked. It was a huge pile of garbage during beta and it continued to suck at release - the people acting like it had potential or was in some way redeeming are off their rockers. It's a bad game and they clearly can't even give it away for free, people don't want it.


Questing is WoW circa 2006

Classes are weapon locked - people like customization, just look at how many people will instantly say "NOPE" to a game with gender locked classes. Weapon locking is just as bad, if not worse when you are playing a gear chase game.

Telegraph overload - it's not fun to look at.

Combat is bleh, build up > use finisher, great. Fights are either circle strafe to win or OMGOMGOMG so many things! aka boring or crazy.

The running animations are still ice skating!!! FFS who on earth can look at that for more than 3 minutes?

Large scale raiding is bad and should feel bad. Yes, there's still a small contingent who enjoy this, good for them. No one else does, and no it doesn't matter if something else also exists, if the large raids are the top of the top, then you've lost all those people.

Lastly, insane levels of rampant elitism. You think dungeon running is bad in other games where people harp on you for doing 5% less dps than you should - people (esp new people) can and will die in the laser lightshow that is W* and then they'll quit because people will be superdicks to them. How are you going to get people interested in a game, when your loyal players are the ones keeping new people out?

laxie

Azaron_Nightblade said:

I haven't heard much about it lately. No complaints, but no real praise either. So I'm guessing it's just one of those gazillion MMOs that make a modest profit these days.

The game is doing extremely poorly in terms of profits. If you look at the NCSoft financial reports, WildStar is by far the worst thing on their portfolio, predicted to only get worse. This is true even for the Eastern market - you often see "average" games profiting in the east, which is not the case with WildStar.

The F2P conversion didn't help at all. As much as I'd like to see WildStar work, I wouldn't be surprised to see it cancelled (or on life support) very soon.

Azaron_Nightblade

laxie said:

Azaron_Nightblade said:

I haven't heard much about it lately. No complaints, but no real praise either. So I'm guessing it's just one of those gazillion MMOs that make a modest profit these days.

The game is doing extremely poorly in terms of profits. If you look at the NCSoft financial reports, WildStar is by far the worst thing on their portfolio, predicted to only get worse. This is true even for the Eastern market - you often see "average" games profiting in the east, which is not the case with WildStar.

The F2P conversion didn't help at all. As much as I'd like to see WildStar work, I wouldn't be surprised to see it cancelled (or on life support) very soon.

NCSoft doesn't really do life support. So if it is doing bad, it'll be on the chopping block within a year or two.

Username_taken

I beta tested WS and everytime I posted what I felt was a negative with the game, I got flamed by people using the excuse "It's beta. It's going to be buggy as hell." But that close to launch, a lot of those bugs should've been worked out. Still, I pre-ordered 3 copies of the game in hopes that they would fix a lot of the issues, because it was like trying to eat a soup sandwich. When those issues persisted up to a couple of days before launch, I cancelled all 3 of my pre-orders and haven't been back.

Alverant

I enjoy the game a bit but it didn't draw me in like other games. I like the setting and art style and humor. But I'm not a fan of the combat or the crafting (especially the cooking). This game could have been much better. I'll stick with it for a while because it's still the best thing out there but when it goes, I'm not going to be too upset.

cameltosis

I played in beta but it was so poorly optimised I couldn't get above 19fps.

I came back to try it after F2P conversion and with the same hardware I was up to ~45fps, so pleased on that front.

However, it is the core of the game - the combat, ui, quests and zones - that ultimately made me move on. The game just looked and played like a mess. Too many telegraphs, flashing lights, numbers and ui elements getting in the way of the actual world. Hell, even the world was tough to look at at times. The art guys obviously had great imagination and designed some really cool stuff, but when the level builders / model builders got their hands on it, everything just blended into one big mess of colour.

I wish the game had succeeded, I think Carbine did a great job of getting the right features into their game (lore, questing, zones, diverse classes, solo, group, raid content, housing, pvp etc), they just screwed up the combat and presentation.

flizzer

I tried it after it dropped the sub and lasted less than a week.   I hated the looney tunes in space feel and the tight and cramped leveling zones.   I didn't do much with the main story so can't really comment on that part of the game. 

GeezerGamer

orbitxo

flizzer said:
I tried it after it dropped the sub and lasted less than a week.   I hated the looney tunes in space feel and the tight and cramped leveling zones.   I didn't do much with the main story so can't really comment on that part of the game. 


" looney tunes in space feel " is the best part of the game -imo. but the story was lackluster....and in limbo atm.

Malathoos

Death, no idea who this game is for. I played for a week and still couldnt get into it. I love the premise but the flow was horrible and got mildly confusing as you leveled up. Crafting looked interesting though but i wasnt able to go into it much.

Wizardry

Sorry not trying to be mean but i really don't see Gareth as a gamer .
First of all the gloom n Doom is not about financials,gamer's couldn't care less about financials,nobody sits in a game and thinks,wow i wonder how well this game is doing financially,oh shit they suck ,i'm out of here.

The game's doom and gloom is based on very few wanting to play it.
There really is a bigger picture out there,NEW is in,everyone jumps in on new then if they see people start to leave for that next NEW,then more abandoned ship.

This constant trend of rinse and repeat game choices really shows a lack of ability for gamer's to choose correctly,it is as i said NEW is in,ok let's jump aboard.

99% of the time,all these new games offer nothing new but a new skin,we even usually already have BETTER game play in games we already own.So at least to me,it makes no sense to jump on board of every new game if it really is not new and definitely not better.

Who this game is aimed at?I really feel they were aiming at the Blizzard crowd,they got a bunch of them to jump in but then of course they run back to Blizzard games.Developers need to start making games with some creativity and discovery and decent graphics.

SpottyGekko

Wildstar looked so good on the Design Documents. The promotional video's were sharp and funny. Everything seemed to be looking very promising...

I played the game for 5 hours in the final beta test and never touched it again.

The concept failed. Everybody seems to have different reasons why they don't like WS, but the consensus is undeniable: Most players don't like Wildstar.

If the China launch works, it might survive there, although I doubt it.

Siris23

I tried to come back over the holidays, but I felt completely screwed by the updated rune system.

When I left I had a a very nice rune setup on three sets of gear (eng dps, tank and pvp - lots of full sets)

When I came back they gave me 208 1x rune tokens (which you can't use to make full sets) and 8 2x rune tokens. There's no way I'd ever use the 1x runes so thats 208 useless tokens and I'll basicly have to buy a whole new set for plat.

Completely destroyed my desire to play.

p.s. The new rune system does have a few less runes than the old but in terms of usability it feels just as confusing as the old system, not really an improvement in my mind.  

Volgore

I love the game and wish it would make it.
But having seen Carbine's COMPLETE mismanagement of it before and after F2P, my personal conclusion is that this is by far the most clueless and incompetent studio around today.
There is absolutely nothing they ever get right

There is NO WAY Carbine is able to turn this all around, as right in this moment they are in the process to kill it a second time.

Gazimoff

Wizardry said:

Sorry not trying to be mean but i really don't see Gareth as a gamer .
First of all the gloom n Doom is not about financials,gamer's couldn't care less about financials,nobody sits in a game and thinks,wow i wonder how well this game is doing financially,oh shit they suck ,i'm out of here.

Hate to break it to you, but I've been playing games for over thirty years. My first computer was a ZX Spectrum, released back in 1982. At the moment, I'm playing ARK, SWTOR, a touch of the Legion beta, and EVE: Valkyrie (more on that soon). Make of that what you will

On your other point, gamers are definitely interested in how financially secure a game is. Who in their right mind would spend money in a game's item store if they doubted that it would be around in a few months? That's just a common-sense reaction to the news that's been doing the rounds these last few days.

ChronicGamgi

I dont believe this game is going away anytime soon. I love logging in almost everyday and raiding during the weeks, I feel like there is already so much to wildstar that you cant simply pull the plug. A copycat game will rise from the ashes if that is the case but I would lean more toward NCSOFT selling off carbine and wildstar to another publisher willing to take the burden before just saying fuck it.

odiasuda

The fact that you have to ask kinda answers the question for you doesn't it?

Wandris

Wildstar has suffered due to a few key choices that worked against it, and as a result it has been lost the kind of momentum it should have had. At its core its one of the better MMO's ever made, smooth fluid combat, good classes, original sci-fi/fantasy story, large interesting world, full set of features, best housing system in any game etc. If it had been B2P from the start it probably would not have snowballed like it did. I still don't think its too late for Wildstar though, it just needs to work on attracting and keeping new players interested.

Nanfoodle

I retried it, same problems. Combat gets old fast. Quest system is boring. Its hard to team, as you often dont know where your team mates are or where they are on their quest. Killing a mob teamed if your team mate does not tag it, does not count for them. Making support classes a pain to play or team with them.

Some of the best ideas I have seen in MMOs in a long time, just the overall package is badly designed. Where it shies its awesome though. Im done with it myself. I hope it makes it but this game is just not for me.

spawn12345

It will die
The endgame is one of the worst I have played in mmos
They are trying too much at the same time. Its confusing as hell

Octagon7711

I made it to something like level 10. Just not for me. Would like faster leveling as my end game is leveling alts and exploration. Then raise the max level and I'd be happy.