102598-wildstar-so-far

Content
{| style="width: 100%;"

Why would you ask the question if you already have your mind set on an answer? Don't make a thread asking for advise on a topic you already are set on.


 * }
 * }

{| style="width: 100%;"

I could definitely picture WS working better as f2p rather than p2p... just my honest opinion. :ph34r:

If only we could grab the back-end of a Taxi and zip all around the planet while on our hoverboard... that might be a little too "hardcore" I guess. :D


 * }
 * }

{| style="width: 100%;"

The developers don't have final say on that, NCSoft does.


 * }
 * }

{| style="width: 100%;"

As I told my clan in the last game I played, the forums are the true endgame.

RIP Warhammer and my Blackguard Ork.


 * }
 * }

{| style="width: 100%;"

That wasn't the question though. The question was "will they kill Wildstar before going F2P?". And the answer to that is in the contract. If Carbine aren't legally obliged to work on the game, they can just quit. You think NCsoft would hire an entire replacement team just to get their F2P intentions enforced? Of course another question is if Carbine would have the integrity (?) to stick to their decision and potentially go unemployed.


 * }
 * }

{| style="width: 100%;"

Not really a comparable situation, but I don't think this side-debate is going anywhere further, since its very premise was speculation, and we are now speculating about speculation via analogies. Just this much: In most civilized countries, you can sue if your employer doesn't grant previously agreed on vacations.


 * }
 * }

{| style="width: 100%;"

Carbine is part of NCSoft. NCSoft DOES have the final word.


 * }
 * }

{| style="width: 100%;"

Well damn. I hope the devs are listening.


 * }
 * }

{| style="width: 100%;"

Damn, that's disheartening. I really hope that streamlining loot progression and fixing the awful awful itemization will do -something- at least. I don't see many complaints about the difficulty as much as how pointless the item progression system feels. I personally don't care as much about loot because I see how much gear really factors into the whole picture, but I also understand why people play MMOs these days. Loot progression. The thing I'm worried about is that I don't even think fixing itemization and gear progression will even do much in the long run. Say Carbine fixes all that has been mentioned, people see a clear gear progression path, they clean up some of the inane parts of the attunement and do some class balancing, what happens when people get back to the "hard parts" of the game. Everyone flurries to fix their gear so they can finally do dungeons, or feel motivated to do dungeons but still feel roadblocked by silver. What then? I hate to sound like the slippery slope fallacy but where is a reasonable sweet spot for a large chunk of the player base? I'm not going to quit this game because it's something I've been wanting for a long time and lots of these issues don't bother me as much. However, I'm not going to be a blind fanboi about this game either. I still want people to play it and I want them to experience the difficult stuff because it really is fun, there's just some growing pains that people feel isn't worth their money. Maybe they'll be back when shit is fixed up and a little more presentable. Who knows. TL;DR Numbers tell the truth. Carbine needs to get in gear and make the game more reasonable to larger chunks of players. Keep making hard shit to kill, just don't block people from trying it.


 * }
 * }

{| style="width: 100%;"

Never tried STO but I did play DCUO for a few months when it launched. I've heard a few times that a load more content has been added since, I really should check it out again one day.


 * }
 * }

{| style="width: 100%;"

City of Heroes was out for 8 years before NCSoft deemed it unprofitable. WS is into its second month. Panic much? As to the OP, yes there are bugs. It's a new system with many ambitious goals that have not always been implemented in the best way and still need tweaking. But I have to say that there is not a single bug in this game, at least for me, that ruins my overall gaming experience. This game is fantastic.


 * }
 * }

{| style="width: 100%;"

8 years when people were patient. Times have changed, when a game like WS has a major decrease in playerbase because Carbine can't get their crap together, you bet NC Soft is going to step in. They know how the market is, and if the Devs dont get on the big issues fast, this game is doomed to be killed like CoH.


 * }
 * }

{| style="width: 100%;"

Yea but that grind is fun and hardly seems like a grind.


 * }
 * }

{| style="width: 100%;"

That amazing feeling when you hunt down a vein of polymer for miles and find a gigantic deposit of it in a big, empty field, and drop 10 huge extractors right on it like a boss. And then running back and collecting it all and feeding it into your factory to make delicious packs of whatever schematic that you experimented on to make.

Dayum shame.


 * }
 * }

{| style="width: 100%;"

I remember reading something to that effect. Not sure if it was an interview, a forum post, or something else. But it was direct info from the developer and not some 3rd party hearsay. Pretty much says something about they rather close down the server then go F2P. No guarantee it won't go F2P though. It wasn't like they took a screenshot of a notarized contract that says "IP is terminated upon switching the subscription model to Free 2 Play model". But either way, F2P will bring in more members - but I won't be sticking around for that.

No one knows the content of their contract. We don't know if NCSoft owns the IP or it was just a profit sharing. Most likely NCSoft owns it though. No idea how much control the developers have over the process.


 * }
 * }

{| style="width: 100%;"

Box sales, initial subs, and CREDD sales. If Wildstar doesn't come out gangbusters in the 2Q report, I'll honestly be shocked. Its the 3Q report where things will get interesting.


 * }
 * }

{| style="width: 100%;"

TBH, I imagine most speculators are figuring WoD will eat 20 million subs and then lose them in a month, where they'll be recycled and fall as rainwater in California, but won't make it over the Rockies to fertilize the Great Plains. Speculators don't know much about games or MMORPGs. They figured WoW's subscription numbers would climb, that SWG would equal them and pay back their overhead bill, and that games like FFXI and EVE would be dead by now. The reality is that everyone expected a huge initial outburst, a reduction to a more stable core audience, and then some time where it will either slowly gain or lose accounts for the next year. The WoD release will probably hit everyone's sub numbers to some degree, probably Wildstar's less so because some people will have enough CREDD to fund their accounts and essentially make it F2P and thus worth keeping active even after it releases. FFXIV:ARR is probably bracing the gates for the same reason, expecting some kind of reduction when people go back for the new expansion. I'm not sure if they'll get as big a bounce this time as they traditionally did; they're not a bad game, but more and more people are just finding other games. It's a more competitive market than it was in 2004. Wildstar ought to be just fine. They've stated in interviews that they know there will be a "core" audience where Wildstar will be their "home" game and there will be a larger number of players who play occasionally during big content drops. They settled in to play the long game over years, not a couple months. Wildstar's biggest problem is its name recognition. Only a couple people who are interested in this sort of thing know Carbine's history to know their pedigree. Outside of that, they're a new development house and this is their first game, a brand-new original IP. They can't bank on people playing due to the brand, so they have to literally build their audience from the ground up. That's why CREDD was so important to their business strategy. They can pay for their initial costs and essentially fund themselves through that period of acquainting everyone with their franchise. I don't think they'll be having overall money issues for a while, at least. They probably bought themselves a good year or more of breathing room, if the abysmal price of CREDD proves anything. They figured it would debute at 40 plat, not 4. The market just got supplied with so much CREDD that it couldn't cope. I don't think CREDD's market flush is a lack of demand; anyone who can afford it with game currency is buying it in bulk now to save their IRL money (with the exception of those of us who don't feel like using our plat on something we can afford IRL). CREDD is money in the bank for NCSoft without sacrificing Wildstar's subscription model. It's why I don't think they're going to have to worry about money for a long while. They essentially have a bunch of "free" sub money.


 * }
 * }

{| style="width: 100%;"

Again, is there a link to a document where analysts have said that they're "predicting WildStar to be their lowest performing product" or is that just spin you're putting on the numbers in the forecast? Some things to consider: The end of year predicted data is given for 3 quarters of WildStar vs 4 quarters of all of NCSoft's other games. With one more quarter's data, WildStar's values would certainly be higher than Lineage II. WildStar is a Western game marketed in the West. All the other games are Korean games not only marketed in the West but all over Asia as well. The data doesn't indicate how WildStar is performing in its markets compared to other NCSoft games in the same markets. The Q2 figures for WildStar are based on units sold. Subscriptions aren't counted until Q3, since nobody was billed for subscriptions until July. The drop in revenue in Q4 may be, in part, attributed to the number of subscribers who purchased 6-month subscriptions in Q3 and not a prediction that WildStar will be losing players in Q4. That isn't to say that WildStar isn't performing as well as they predicted (and they've said as much in the report), or that there aren't things Carbine should do to attract/keep more people in the game, but the numbers don't indicate that analysts are predicting doom and gloom for Wildstar.


 * }
 * }

{| style="width: 100%;"

It's okay, you didn't play the game. Entertainers and doctors would apply buffs to people, with queues forming that were 20 people long and up. Sitting and talking with people while you provided a service to them, so they could go out and adventure while you healed/buffed, was just one way to play the game. Nothing AFK about it. wildstar doesn't have ANYTHING like that. You don't need other classes for jack, as long as it fills the trinity you're good to go. SWG had way more variety than that, including completely non-combat roles. You're the one saying the genre is dying out. wildstar is just a bad execution of it.


 * }
 * }