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Free-to-Play Relaunch Trailer
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Member UncommonPosts: 12,599
Free-to-Play Relaunch Trailer
NCSoft and Carbine Studios are pleased to announce that today marks the free-to-play iteration of WildStar. The game launches with a host of quality of life improvements, updated features and systems and much, much more. To celebrate the F2P launch, Carbine has released a brand new trailer.
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"If I offended you, you needed it" -Corey Taylor
Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.
My Review Manifesto
Follow me on Twitter if you dare.
I'd like to first make a comment that aesthetic style has little to do with the failure of this game (and the part that does, mainly dealt with bright colors and lighting). Such thinking is moreso personal preference pushing rather than looking at the bigger picture and figuring out just where the game went wrong. It is further compounded by the "Cotton Mather" implication that anyone who does not agree with you is an "asshole". _____________________________________________
Wildstar performed horrible mistakes in the past. The first of which is making a fresh IP Pay to Play with the statement that they believed the model will give them the most money. Further going as far as saying that it's the best option as a company to milk people with a Box + Subscription and then go to Free to Play. Reasons being, that the initiate box sales help pay for servers and the subscription is basically paying them to make the game applicable for Free to play after a year or so of additional development. Emphasis on "milking" is mine, as they didn't say the word, and during that time this may well have been the case, as it was predicted Elder Scrolls would do the same thing. Though now they are F2P and have a fairly good model that gives you access to the whole game without obscene restrictions as some say SWTOR has. _____________________________________________
Next error in their judgement was letting the whole "Hardest of the Hardcore" MMO escape the leash and take a life of its own. Not to mention their cocky attitude that "they're the best MMO ever" and comments that "It's incredibly easy to make a successful MMO", which came from one of the leads that recently quit due to real life needing to be taken care of. The end result? Similar to the disaster that occurred with Final Fantasy XIV 1.0 whereby they (Square) admitted their hubris, made the game free to play instantly and sent out hundreds of letters and newsletters saying how profoundly sorry they were for their incompetence. Which lead to an earnest attempt to try and salvage the game and franchise, which has seen tremendous success when thinking of P2P games. To date, I'm not sure if Wildstar ever admitted fault, but they certainly seem a bit more humbled with their latest statements and how they handled their launch stream. They have made various improvements to the ease of entry for the game, added more solo activities and storylines and made requirements for grouping less strenuous and more rewarding. _____________________________________________
People who played the game a significant amount of time eventually quit due to various reasons, most of which revolved around end game. Guild were cannibalizing each other, extreme attunement were making it so that those who finished such did not want to do it again... yet, they needed people who have completed it in their guilds for raids. Ultimately, the 40 man (they reduced it to 20 in F2P) raiding they created was incredibly dumb -- this is a case whereby the average MMO gamer really has grown up and has families and jobs; those who played another cartoony game called World of Warcraft had the time in which to do such back in the day. Which lead to WoW casualizing itself over time to retain its most dedicated, now family supporting following. The issues were further harassed by the before mentioned attunement processes, the structuring of questing areas and leveling, etc. The tutorial of the game (which was completely redone, as many suggested they should completely redo during the first beta) was horribly boring and a hard sell to maintain the attention of anyone who was just logging in to check the game out. _____________________________________________
Next would be the actual races and combat itself. People have different preferences, but I've seen time and again of how much people hate just how many telegraphs show up in game. One or two here and there is fine, but it went completely overboard. Flashy lights showing up all over the place. Hurting some people's eyes with it's very colorful atmosphere. Personally, I couldn't get into any of the classes or the looks of the races. The in-game trailers they had looked fine, but I just couldn't feel attached to any character I made as soon as I made it -- which is a problem when trying to hook someone into your game (which is likely also due to how boring the initial tutorial was). Wildstar has since added a much more dark atmosphere to the game with this recent update. The lighting is darker and more pronounced where it is needed to be for emphasis. This has lead to a more gritty sci-fi atmosphere where such is appropriate, while still boasting lush wildernesses where it is also expected. _____________________________________________
These are but some of the more simple issues they game had. Taken directly from forums, interviews and videos of people talking about the game. Personally, I couldn't get past level 22 or whatever back in the beta because I did not like the game one bit. Aesthetics and graphics mean nothing to me, as I've been playing games for a long time. It's a superficial grievance as a whole and, while it has a place for the individual, there are myriad amounts of people with different tastes and likes. You will see just as much hate on "realistic" aesthetics as "cartoony". Perhaps more, especially when talking about MMOs and their system requirements. Or how the most popular games on PC are typical 2-d or innovative in terms of gameplay, despite having indie budgets for aesthetics and graphics. League of Legends is very much cartoony / anime like. WoW is still one of the most profitable games, and likely the all-time most profitable game in history. Even earning a recent spot in the Gaming Hall of fame, of which there are only a half dozen or so spots for since the 1980s. Point is, a game failing due to it's aesthetics is only possible if it is being judged by a market or demographic that despises it. Not the overall demographic or market it was aiming for. Of which, there is a huge demand for aesthetics of all types, especially cartoony, as we see ample evidence all around us on the PC. ___________________________________
To condemn or insult someone for their personal preference is -- contrary to words of some and in my opinion -- not indicative of being "mature" or "adult". To think or otherwise imply one's mindset or preference is law / the majority, or has any meaning beyond the small set of people they hang with (or the culture they grew up in) due to them having like-minded thoughts is but one definition of being uncultured. They are not assholes for their preferences, and especially not in this case when someone is essentially definitively saying that one thing is the cause of a downfall without elaboration or evidence, and that anyone who doesn't agree with them just don't understand. Because they're not in their small circle of friends or the demographic that concurs with them.
"If I offended you, you needed it" -Corey Taylor
The funny thing is - I loved FireFly. Wildstar? Had absolutely no desire to pick it up. Even beta tested it for a week and stopped playing after a day or two.
I honestly think the appearence/theme has a lot to do with it. World of Warcraft may be cartoony and I know that's why Wildstar went that way, but Blizzard does everything it can to remind you you're not playing a cartoon: CGI Movies, dark themes - and any sort of comic relief (like gnomes/goblins) tend to be downplayed a lot.
Wildstar, it went full Saturday Morning cartoon and reminds you of it every second of the day.
As Robert Downey Jr would say: "You went full retard - never go full retard."