[Megathread] Wildstar - Now F2P

[Marston]

Man, that intro dungeon. Looks really awesome (as well as the whole drop 4 - holy shit that is much). But it's still so far away. I most likely will give Wildstar another shot once Drop 4 is finally there, just from watching that video I am tempted to try it again already. xD

[Dejablue]

SOE is a bit... odd.

Their Alpha from what I heard is what you would expect. Buggy and slightly functionable.

Beta on the other hand, more functionable, not optimized and lacking promised features.
Their beta is more on the lines of slowly adding features and testing each features as they come while optimizing the game. If you took beta start to now, you'd notice a huge difference in performance and less bugs, and of course more features.

SOE's "alpha" and "beta" are merely marketing hype words they are tossing around.

They absolutely are not following any kind of programmatic protocol where alpha is where systems are put into place and tested and then beta where core systems are functional and working as intended and more superficial bugs are ironed out with individual items, quests, etc.

Alpha is lets put in a quest system, beta is this quest is bugged fix it.

SOE's alpha is, "we do not even know what systems to make" and their beta is "hey lets try to make this system".

They pushed beta out before it was actually in beta because they wanted or needed the cash grab/hype.

What game?

Pick one since they went F2P. All of them.

Dave Georgeson may appear to be a shyster, I think he is just really enthusiastic, but since he has become the EQ franchise director, the EQ franchise has perked up and the player-base has stopped bitching as much and things have started to get done, despite the incessant marketing pressure on all 4 EQ development teams.

It would not surprise me in the least if Dave were to leave like Omeed did, because SOE really is about the bottom dollar and fleecing the players for as much money as possible without regard or understanding that players are who you want to invest in the game long term, not piss off with a money grab for $20 and then lose thousands of potential dollars over the course of the next 10 years.

That is why they are selling access to what is a very early alpha as a "Beta".

[Deleted]

Some of the new housing blocks


And over at Wildstar Core Kelzam gives us a insight of what's possible!
http://wildstar-core.com/2014/12/14/...in-the-bucket/

[Deleted]

I had the same problem when i still played. I accidently stepped on my phone, and the screen cracked pretty badly, so 90% of the screen didn't work. All i did was create a ticket saying if they could remove it, and i was willing to submit any info/pictures of my ID to prove that i was the owner of the account. Didn't need to though, since they just removed it without asking for anything.

that's pretty scary, to be honest.

[Ergar]

that's pretty scary, to be honest.

Yeah i was very happy when they first did it, since all i wanted was to get back on my account. But thinking back on it, it was very dumb of them to not ask for any proof.

[Kelimbror]

That is why they are selling access to what is a very early alpha as a "Beta".

That's funny...because many people, including myself, got access for free or through gifting. You know what I could do when I played Landmark? I could play the game with no issues. It's amazing the drama people create over everything. I don't even have any vested interest in that game nor do I have serious ambitions of playing it, but anecdotes are anecdotes. Everything is A-OK perfect on my front. Working with players, check. Adding features with their involvement, check. *shrug*

I also mentioned other games, so I'm not sure why people decided to pick up the SOE bash crusade. Plenty of indie games on Steam that do early access very well. Starbound is one of them. Would Wildstar have been better with this type of development? Sure. They would have to actually listen to their players intelligently and not allow things like 40man raiding and #hardcore attunements to dominate their mode of thinking.

Some of it isn't their fault....I think devs need to figure out a way to get a wider audience type involved in betas. While the more casual players likely won't play and be able to provide detailed feedback like your typical beta audience, maybe some interactive polling systems through emails/website would be helpful to get resounding feedback on things that are clearly fails in any MMO these days: subscriptions with little content, large scale raids, no group finder, etc. I don't know why they can't just use historical data they have access to which paints the same picture, but clearly they pay no attention to past mistakes made by anyone and just plow ahead.

That's the kind of thinking that makes a dev think they can make 'WoW done right' and then has the largest and quickest turnover of any MMO I've ever seen.

[Deleted]

WildStar ‏@WildStar 3 hrs3 hours ago
As a special thank you, we've also given everyone 12 Boom Boxes! Happy Holidays from #WildStar http://bit.ly/1wVxcfk #12DaysofBoomBoxes

Fingers crossed you get a mount

[Deleted]

I used to have confidence in betas being used for player feedback after having done the Planetside 2 beta, but then the enormously long ESO beta counterbalanced by Wildstar's extremely shallow and short beta proved, no matter how a beta is managed, how worthless some companies consider the whole process.

These days the only value for betas for me is no longer to offer feedback, but that for most MMOs it is often the best time of the entire game (extremely enthusiastic playerbase, true game exploration where all kinds of literally game-breaking playstyles are encouraged, deep commitment, guild formations and pre-formations, new content frequently, etc.).

[Kaganfindel]

I wish they'd find another way of celebrating/apologizing than giving out those boxes. Some of the more common items from them are extremely poorly designed. On a brighter note, they seem to be one good patch away from hitting their stride. Let's hope they push it in good time, and without many bugs.

[Kelimbror]

I wish they'd find another way of celebrating/apologizing than giving out those boxes.

If they want to really prove they are confident in their product they will give out at minimum 2 weeks, but preferably a month free to anyone who purchased the game in the past when drop 4 hits. It's the only way I'd even consider subscribing is by trying it out first.

[Nosdrone]

If they want to really prove they are confident in their product they will give out at minimum 2 weeks, but preferably a month free to anyone who purchased the game in the past when drop 4 hits. It's the only way I'd even consider subscribing is by trying it out first.

Same here. I don't care about lootboxes/lockboxes in MMOs.

[Deleted]

All your comments are giving me great hope for the future!
Never mind free weeks, if Carbine pull all this off......the game will sell itself

- - - Updated - - -

Carbine may not be giving us Christmas boo....but this fan made Christmas poem just goes to show the community have not lost their spirit

[Nosdrone]

Fanmade stuff and boomboxes won't make us forget that you cancelled Christmas, Carbine.

We will never forget.

[Deleted]

Fanmade stuff and boomboxes won't make us forget that you cancelled Christmas, Carbine.

We will never forget.

lol Just think of it like the film How the*Grinch*Stole Christmas!
It all turned out happy in the end

[Nosdrone]

lol Just think of it like the film How the*Grinch*Stole Christmas!
It all turned out happy in the end

But in that film, the Grinch returned all of the Christmas presents and got to cut the Roast Beast.

There are no Christmas presents or Roast Beast. Carbine cancelled them.

[Deleted]

12 boombox are the gifts, I got a mount in the last lot....most players will be happy with a new car for Christmas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIQKf0sQT0M

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Drop 4 will be to Wildstar (I think) what RoS was to Diablo: core features that should've been in the game at launch. Knowing how revamps like these have repopulated games in the past (especially RoS; M&B:W), this might give Carbine the boost they need, though only time will tell if the game gets a rwpop depending on how many people we see in the cities afterwards.

[Random Word]

Drop 4 will be to Wildstar (I think) what RoS was to Diablo: core features that should've been in the game at launch. Knowing how revamps like these have repopulated games in the past (especially RoS; M&B:W), this might give Carbine the boost they need, though only time will tell if the game gets a rwpop depending on how many people we see in the cities afterwards.

Hardly. History of MMOs teaches us that once an MMO fails to impress in the "honeymoon" (couple of months after release), it's doomed to f2p as the players who left won't be coming back.

[Edge-]

Hardly. History of MMOs teaches us that once an MMO fails to impress in the "honeymoon" (couple of months after release), it's doomed to f2p as the players who left won't be coming back.

"Doomed" is a pretty harsh word given how some of the F2P transitions have turned out for those games. SWTOR is in an infinitely better place than it was as P2P, and it's seeing pretty solid support out of BioWare, with steady content updates. Same with many other F2P games that continue to see strong support from the developers (Rift, Tera, STO, DCUO etc).

[Tekkommo]

"Doomed" is a pretty harsh word given how some of the F2P transitions have turned out for those games. SWTOR is in an infinitely better place than it was as P2P, and it's seeing pretty solid support out of BioWare, with steady content updates. Same with many other F2P games that continue to see strong support from the developers (Rift, Tera, STO, DCUO etc).

What he meant was, that they've had their chance to impress the majority and failed, many won't return, no matter what.

Doomed to F2P is fair enough as well, most F2P games have crap, buggy and limited content. You keep using SWTOR as a shining example, there isn't a lot to do in that game, being Star Wars is what brings money in.