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Topic: Carbine Studios' "Wildstar" (Read 990482 times)
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Rokal
Terracotta Army
Posts: 1652
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The genre designation is mostly meaningless at this point. "MMOs" are definitely fading, but two of the biggest games from the last two years, Destiny and The Division, would likely have been marketed as MMOs and charged a monthly subscription 5+ years ago. The features that defined traditional MMOs: large shared spaces, high levels of interaction with other players, and persistent feeling of progress are common among most genres these days. At one point MMO PvP was a fairly unique experience. Now it's done better in lower-budget, more-specialized games like MOBAs which are so prolific that new MOBA announcements are usually met with the reaction of "Oh, not another one of those..."
IIRC Willdstar was 4+ years of development with a staff in the hundreds. Traditional MMOs still have an extremely high cost to make but most people that buy them treat them like any other game: they play it for a month or two, consume the best parts of the content, and move on. And why shouldn't they when the experience is so similar at this point to several other non-MMO titles they may have bought recently? The unique parts of MMOs have been absorbed into better, cheaper, genres and it isn't the job of the consumer to subsidize inefficient dinosaurs with unrealistic business models.
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Draegan
Terracotta Army
Posts: 10043
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I didn't make it out of the tutorial in the beta. The combat was in a strange place; it wasn't fun like TERA but it wasn't alt-tabably-easy like WoW. That was the deal breaker for me.
Wildstar's combat was originally tab target just like WOW. Then somewhere late in development they started making more abilities "cone attacks", then really late in development, like 6-8 months before launch, they decided to make all attacks "cone attacks" thus attempting to make action combat from a tab target system.
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Paelos
Contributor
Posts: 27075
Error 404: Title not found.
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Yeah, the open beta turned me from super hyped because of the amazing promo videos to completely writing the game off.
This was my exact trajectory as well. Gameplay killed this thing - it was like someone made WoW's decent for tab-targeting MMO combat more boring than normal tab-targeting MMO combat. And longer, and more grindy, and with more ground effect dodging.
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CPA, CFO, Sports Fan, Game when I have the time
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Rendakor
Terracotta Army
Posts: 10132
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I didn't make it out of the tutorial in the beta. The combat was in a strange place; it wasn't fun like TERA but it wasn't alt-tabably-easy like WoW. That was the deal breaker for me.
Wildstar's combat was originally tab target just like WOW. Then somewhere late in development they started making more abilities "cone attacks", then really late in development, like 6-8 months before launch, they decided to make all attacks "cone attacks" thus attempting to make action combat from a tab target system. I didn't know that, and it makes it kind of worse. I might have bought space-WoW, but not this awful hybrid they ended up with.
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"i can't be a star citizen. they won't even give me a star green card"
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Samprimary
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Let's face it, in MMO's, the list for most disappointing ever is going to be pretty fucking long.
For one to claim the title Most Disappointing, it's different from just Most Bad. It's awarded based on the gulf between expectations and eventual post-release reality. Wildstar could take the title because it had such initial promise and distinct charm and was a great worldbuilding exercise. And it had the dev diaries guy who was, bar none, the single best MMO promo guy in the history of whenever, and got us all excited with his videos. From where that set our expectations, it was a long, long way down.
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Draegan
Terracotta Army
Posts: 10043
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I didn't make it out of the tutorial in the beta. The combat was in a strange place; it wasn't fun like TERA but it wasn't alt-tabably-easy like WoW. That was the deal breaker for me.
Wildstar's combat was originally tab target just like WOW. Then somewhere late in development they started making more abilities "cone attacks", then really late in development, like 6-8 months before launch, they decided to make all attacks "cone attacks" thus attempting to make action combat from a tab target system. I didn't know that, and it makes it kind of worse. I might have bought space-WoW, but not this awful hybrid they ended up with. Also early on they had a cool crafting system where you could break down any piece of gear in the field and use it to craft new gear and add gems. If broke certain stat thresholds you would get bonuses and stuff. And proca, lots of fun procs. Then they tore it apart and implemented the shit that's there now.
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Rendakor
Terracotta Army
Posts: 10132
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I didn't make it nearly far enough to try crafting.
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"i can't be a star citizen. they won't even give me a star green card"
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Draegan
Terracotta Army
Posts: 10043
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Neither did I but the old system was available at this level 1.
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Setanta
Terracotta Army
Posts: 1518
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I capped out 1 character, glanced at the crafting system, saw how tedious it was and didn't bother.
This game had so much going for it in beta - it was sort of tolerable in the early levels but needed to take the GW2 or WoW combat systems to make it a decent game. Full of character but ultimately... shit :(
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"No man is an island. But if you strap a bunch of dead guys together it makes a damn fine raft."
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Nonentity
Terracotta Army
Posts: 2301
2009 Demon's Souls Fantasy League Champion
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And it had the dev diaries guy who was, bar none, the single best MMO promo guy in the history of whenever, and got us all excited with his videos.
That would be Stephan Frost. He ended up at Blizzard. That team making those dev diaries videos was top notch, though. One of the best teams at the studio, bar none. There were definitely some decisions made late in development that I didn't personally agree with, but I can't really say too much more without digging up my NDA paperwork.
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But that Captain's salami tray was tight, yo. You plump for the roast pork loin, dogg?
[20:42:41] You are halted on the way to the netherworld by a dark spirit, demanding knowledge. [20:42:41] The spirit touches you and you feel drained.
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Samprimary
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that is good. that dude was good dude who did good stuff. i suppose he should have been the immediate and most prominent canary, because he worked so hard and did such a good job getting people excited about the game and being all jazzed about the features, then long before the game even comes out he elects to leave the studio?
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Ginaz
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3534
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Rendakor
Terracotta Army
Posts: 10132
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Do I have to have bought the game or is this a completely free thing?
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"i can't be a star citizen. they won't even give me a star green card"
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Ginaz
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3534
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Do I have to have bought the game or is this a completely free thing?
It's f2p now but I don't know if you need to have created your account prior to this event to get the free 50 or not.
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HaemishM
Staff Emeritus
Posts: 42632
the Confederate flag underneath the stone in my class ring
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Wait, this game is still alive?
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Rendakor
Terracotta Army
Posts: 10132
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I was honestly expecting a closing announcement when I saw the thread bumped.
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"i can't be a star citizen. they won't even give me a star green card"
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Sir T
Terracotta Army
Posts: 14223
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Same here.
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Hic sunt dracones.
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Signe
Terracotta Army
Posts: 18942
Muse.
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I honestly thought that there already was a closing announcement.
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My Sig Image: hath rid itself of this mortal coil.
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01101010
Terracotta Army
Posts: 12003
You call it an accident. I call it justice.
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Dare I ask what the game's population is like? I haven't even read about this game after it came out of beta and faceplanted.
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Does any one know where the love of God goes...When the waves turn the minutes to hours? -G. Lightfoot
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Signe
Terracotta Army
Posts: 18942
Muse.
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According to Steam....
FromFeb 7, 2017ToMar 7, 20176. Mar2. Mar4. Mar8. Feb10. Feb12. Feb14. Feb16. Feb18. Feb20. Feb22. Feb24. Feb26. Feb28. FebApr '16Jul '16Oct '16Jan '17 0500100048h7d1m3m6m1yAllWednesday, Feb 15, 18:00● WildStar: 396
Compare with others...
Month Avg. Players Gain % Gain Peak Players
Last 30 Days 337.1 -9.1 -2.64% 661
February 2017 346.3 -15.1 -4.18% 661 January 2017 361.4 +78.2 +27.63% 723 December 2016 283.2 -26.7 -8.61% 517 November 2016 309.8 -72.2 -18.89% 569 October 2016 382.0 -31.4 -7.59% 697 September 2016 413.4 -197.6 -32.34% 917 August 2016 611.0 -664.1 -52.08% 1,022 July 2016 1,275.0 -449.1 -26.05% 2,730 June 2016 1,724.2 +1,723.6 +286657.06% 5,040 May 2016 0.6 +0.1 +27.00% 5 April 2016 0.5 - - 3
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My Sig Image: hath rid itself of this mortal coil.
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Surlyboi
Terracotta Army
Posts: 10963
eat a bag of dicks
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Tuned in, immediately get to watch cringey Ubisoft talking head offering her deepest sympathies to the families impacted by the Orlando shooting while flanked by a man in a giraffe suit and some sort of "horrifically garish neon costumes through the ages" exhibit or something. We need to stop this fucking planet right now and sort some shit out. -Kail
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Samprimary
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It's interesting to think that this is an MMO with such low numbers that you could easily see 75% of the entire playerbase at some point over a month, or credibly represent the last active playing instance of a specific combination, like Granok Medic Soldier
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