111842-population-reality-vs-game-quality

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Title probably sucks but I didn't know what to really title this topic.
 
Long Version:
 
I have been here since beta and you'd probably be fair to label me a fanboy. It doesn't mean that I can't see flaws or overlook things to the point of being in denial due to my fanboyism (word?).  I guess I am somewhat guilty to not being willing to admit the declining populations because I always had a great group and guild around me.  I have to be honest and say it is starting to creep into my world now and it is upsetting. 
 
It upsets me because I am in love with this game.  I've been around since WoW's launch and played everything in the MMO game space that I could since WoW.  This is the first game to give me the addicting "I can't wait to get home and play" feeling again that I had with Vanilla WoW. 
 
Yes, there are bugs but to me they are extremely minor in comparison to what I've experienced in all other games.  Yes, I can see that there are many things that need to be tweaked such as gear classification, runes, dungeon rewards, etc.  I have faith in the devs, I have faith in their passion for this game and their desire to see their child mature. 
 
What I don't understand is how people can be so impatient or are they just "spoiled" by current tendencies to give players things with little or no effort.
 
I just started running dungeons in Wildstar after spending a week or so doing Veteran Adventures to learn my rotation and gain experience.  Holy snikies Batman, the challenge and experience in my dungeon runs was so freaking refreshing and fun!  I didn't give a dam*n about what dropped at the end to be honest.  The group I was in (a pug!) were also commenting on how fun and challenging it was.  I left the dungeon runs feeling like I earned something, that I met a difficult challenge and succeeded.  I was smiling ear to ear and actually felt pride, how silly is that (pride from a video game accomplishment)?  Do you know how long it has been since that was the case?  Seems like forever.
 
This game has such a strong foundation, awesome play experience in dungeons/adventures.. it really doesn't deserve the harsh criticisms its getting in my opinion.  Yes, there are flaws... but its obvious the devs are listening and working.  They deserve our patience and support. 
 
Lastly, if you can't tell by the fact that I just started with my attunement, veteran dungeons, etc... I am pretty casual because I have a job, children and life outside of the house.  I play Wildstar about 1-2 hours a day and when I can afford to sacrifice sleep, a bit longer. 
 
TLDR:  Great foundation, great mechanics, fun as hel*l dungeons.  Yes there is work to be done but have patience and support the game.  Make it even better together!
 
 
 
 
 	
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The biggest "problem" with Wildstar is that folks who are "experienced" in other games, could not come here and beat even the lowest dungeons the first time without hours and hours and hours of wipes. Those people chose to forget the YEARS AND YEARS they've devoted to getting good at those other games, and came here expecting the same level of face-roll-rofl-stompage that WoW provides. They couldn't do it the first time, so they left.
 
Some stuck around and ran into the "attunement wall" at 50. They might have been able to finish the vet-level stuff, but many couldn't beat the stupid timers no matter how hard they tried. Of course, many didn't even TRY ... the toxic environment fostered by Carbine's "go gold or go home" mentality destroyed so much goodwill in this community, the ONLY way to recover is just get an entire new population. The old folks, should they come back, will still be stuck in that horrible mind-set even if the requirements are lowered.
 
As someone said in other thread, Wildstar's difficult content requires players to be co-operative and get along. Since that's never going to happen on a large scale, I fear Wildstar's "glory days" lasted all of three weeks.	
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Meh, problem with Wildstar are just having a nefast population that would like to see Wildstar fail, because maybe their favorite MMO has failed before or is on the downhill now. *Shrug*
 
Real talk: That game is the SH!T	
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The biggest "problem" with Wildstar is that folks who are "experienced" in other games, could not come here and beat even the lowest dungeons the first time without hours and hours and hours of wipes. Those people chose to forget the YEARS AND YEARS they've devoted to getting good at those other games, and came here expecting the same level of face-roll-rofl-stompage that WoW provides. They couldn't do it the first time, so they left.
 
Some stuck around and ran into the "attunement wall" at 50. They might have been able to finish the vet-level stuff, but many couldn't beat the stupid timers no matter how hard they tried. Of course, many didn't even TRY ... the toxic environment fostered by Carbine's "go gold or go home" mentality destroyed so much goodwill in this community, the ONLY way to recover is just get an entire new population. The old folks, should they come back, will still be stuck in that horrible mind-set even if the requirements are lowered.
 
As someone said in other thread, Wildstar's difficult content requires players to be co-operative and get along. Since that's never going to happen on a large scale, I fear Wildstar's "glory days" lasted all of three weeks.
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What I don't understand is how people can be so impatient or are they just "spoiled" by current tendencies to give players things with little or no effort.
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The biggest "problem" with Wildstar is that folks who are "experienced" in other games, could not come here and beat even the lowest dungeons the first time without hours and hours and hours of wipes. Those people chose to forget the YEARS AND YEARS they've devoted to getting good at those other games, and came here expecting the same level of face-roll-rofl-stompage that WoW provides. They couldn't do it the first time, so they left.
 
Some stuck around and ran into the "attunement wall" at 50. They might have been able to finish the vet-level stuff, but many couldn't beat the stupid timers no matter how hard they tried. Of course, many didn't even TRY ... the toxic environment fostered by Carbine's "go gold or go home" mentality destroyed so much goodwill in this community, the ONLY way to recover is just get an entire new population. The old folks, should they come back, will still be stuck in that horrible mind-set even if the requirements are lowered.
 
As someone said in other thread, Wildstar's difficult content requires players to be co-operative and get along. Since that's never going to happen on a large scale, I fear Wildstar's "glory days" lasted all of three weeks.
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Its funny you bring that up..... that was the exact problem we ran into with release. The first time we did ST, it was a disaster. People disregarding telegraphs, paying absolutely no attention to positioning, not knowing anything about their characters or really how to even coax the best performance out of them. And I wont lie, we were all guilty of one or more of those issues.
 
We wiped for an hour on the first boss in normal ST.
 
So everybody's sitting there in vent, talking about how ridiculous it is, and how are we so terrible at this game..... and (its always the quiet ones too.) this lady we played with during WoW beta and through a lot of years pipes up in her southern belle accent....
 
"Maybe yall should stop playing like this is wow."
 
You could hear a pin drop.
 
Break time. Everyone hits the forums, starts reading up on amp specs, rotations, etc.
The simple fact was, we walked in here all arrogant thinking this was going to be another gather and aoe fest.
 
Not so much.
 
Its embarrassing to admit that we more or less ignored what we knew was the right way, and tried to do things our way. Didn't work out so well.
After that, it was much easier... wipes still happened on occasion... bad placement, someone doesn't move in time, etc.... but the amount of wipes significantly dropped and golds were no longer ridiculously difficult. We were just arrogant idiots.
 
The harder content requires more coordination. It requires teamwork. And requires a desire to do these things without ego, or attitude.
The problem isn't the content.
 
The problem is us.
As a whole gamers have become a very..... rigid, unfriendly, group. Competition has become toxic, and the games we play suffers for it.
The simple fact is, this problem will follow us to every game we go to, it will infest every activity we undertake, until we as a group decide to excise it from us.
 
Its something we should think about the next time we decide to take a potshot at someone. Or troll them. Or some group decides to kick a pug because they think they deserve more of a chance at loot, or whatever ethically horrific act we decide to undertake.
 
I know I do.
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We had a great group of people. We all talked on Mumble and had a great time. Problem was, there was only maybe 10-15 of us that could actually complete the content. The rest of the players weren't terribly bad, just not good enough. Sadly, this is how the majority of players are in MMO's and, unfortunately for Wildstar, there's not enough of the "good enough" players to support the game.
 
Loved the game, the story, the dungeons and everything else. There's just not enough "good" players to spread around.	
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I haven't/won't run group PVE content for those very reasons.
 
I know how to play this game. Hell, I've been here for a year already. I know how to interrupt. I know how to AOE and when not too. I know how to dash, how to roll, how to strafe and how to get out of telegraphs.
 
What I don't (can't?) do, is abide name-calling and uber-leet rudeness from other players. I've heard of people being kicked right after killing the last boss, so the others get the gear. I've heard of groups disbanding immediately after the first person dies. I've heard even worse behavior than that - and I won't stand for it and I won't be subjected to it. So, I've never done any of it. I want too. I want to be able to lead my guild through at least the low-end stuff, but I can't force myself to sit through the trauma of learning with people I don't know and can't speak too.	
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I just started running dungeons in Wildstar after spending a week or so doing Veteran Adventures to learn my rotation and gain experience.  Holy snikies Batman, the challenge and experience in my dungeon runs was so freaking refreshing and fun!  I didn't give a dam*n about what dropped at the end to be honest.  The group I was in (a pug!) were also commenting on how fun and challenging it was.  I left the dungeon runs feeling like I earned something, that I met a difficult challenge and succeeded.  I was smiling ear to ear and actually felt pride, how silly is that (pride from a video game accomplishment)?  Do you know how long it has been since that was the case?  Seems like forever.
 
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			I love this game. I love everything about it. I've been here since early Beta and have no intention of jumping ship now. I'm in this for the long haul. The great friends that I've made while playing this amazing game alone are worth it. So if I get nothing else out of this, thanks Carbine, for my awesome new friends. :D I'm sticking it out whatever the hell may come. Onward to riches haha.	
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The biggest "problem" with Wildstar is that folks who are "experienced" in other games, could not come here and beat even the lowest dungeons the first time without hours and hours and hours of wipes. Those people chose to forget the YEARS AND YEARS they've devoted to getting good at those other games, and came here expecting the same level of face-roll-rofl-stompage that WoW provides. They couldn't do it the first time, so they left.
 
Some stuck around and ran into the "attunement wall" at 50. They might have been able to finish the vet-level stuff, but many couldn't beat the stupid timers no matter how hard they tried. Of course, many didn't even TRY ... the toxic environment fostered by Carbine's "go gold or go home" mentality destroyed so much goodwill in this community, the ONLY way to recover is just get an entire new population. The old folks, should they come back, will still be stuck in that horrible mind-set even if the requirements are lowered.
 
As someone said in other thread, Wildstar's difficult content requires players to be co-operative and get along. Since that's never going to happen on a large scale, I fear Wildstar's "glory days" lasted all of three weeks.
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Ahhh, but imagine how you would have felt if it would have ended in total failure with not even being able to down the first boss. That's what happened to me both times I tried dungeons.
 
So, not such a great feeling for me, at all.
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To address the Title of OP....
 
Does anyone know what the actual population is? Nope. Do we have anything besides (put bluntly) falsely equating anecdote with reality to gauge population? Nope, not as is presented here.
 
So what is the population problem? I couldn't tell you. I can't even tell you there is one truthfully, because there is no evidence to suggest there is.
 
People conflate real problems with bad assumptions and then spread false information like no one else's business. I swear to what ever deity you like kneeling to this is why we can't have nice things 
 
 
 
The REAL problem is PLAYER CONCURRENCY. Not as many players are in game on many servers at the same time. This is the FIRST ORDER issue that people notice and then attribute falsely to SECOND or THIRD order issues with out any reasoning behind that step. 
 
So what causes problems with player concurrency? things like non-gaussian distribution of time through out the game (back loading of content into end game rather than spread accross a longer time leveling), sharding, region locking, no incentivization for longer play time (cap EP and log out for a week), and a myriad issues that include but are by no means limited to PLAYER DENSITY (aka: 'population').
 
Low population ALONE doesn't bother anyone; Games like RO which have populations 3-5 orders of magnitude smaller than W* have no problem with pops because they optimise player concurrency through other means to compensate.  What bothers people is low player concurency (having too few players playing concurrent with your play time). Fix the issues that decrease concurency and no matter how low your pop may get (with obvious extreme limits at the low end of the spectrum), the game will feel full and vibrant.
 
 
So, what is W*s population anyway? good question, until NCSoft / Carbine release numbers NO ONE knows. Little Timmy QQ complaining because his friends left him alone doesn't tell us a thing about total population. 10 little Timmy QQ's singing their same song and dance also tell us nothing of value. ANECDOTE IS NOT REALITY, period. 
 
W* launched to the tune of 500K plus accounts. I get this number from the release stats and the Forum accounts that were activated by launch. 
 
Using Overwolf and Raptr trend data; the population since launch appears to have dropped by around 60%. That in itself is not only not uncommon, it's expected.
 
So what does that mean for current populations? It means we are likely looking at a current population around 150-250k players across ~35 servers 
 
At launch, when we had only ~25 servers, we were hitting massive queue times. We can use that to estimate the approximate server caps (and using release numbers the minimum server cap would be at least 22k per server, and realistically probably closer to 30k). This suggests that the High/Med/Low metrics are probably in-line with a 20-30k 'High' | 10-20k 'Med'  | 0-10k 'Low'. This coupled with Carbines statements that server levels here are higher than other games, suggests that this spread is probably a decent approximation of what the server levels actually represent. 
 
So is population an issue? Frankly, that is very unlikely. a game with a pop of 150-250k along ~35 servers isn't terrible; but the other factors that exacerbate low player concurrency are definitely NOT helping. Seeing as Frost hinted on new tech to help with the issue, I suspect that we'll get either a new server schema (megaservers / combined servers) or expanded cross server play for the open-world. If they remove region locks on top of whatever they are planning that would be even better (to fill in the off times for players in NA / EU who don't play during their regions respective prime times). But we'll have to wait and see.
 
 
Anyway, there's your dose of 'population reality' now back to your scheduled 'game quality'	
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I haven't/won't run group PVE content for those very reasons.
 
I know how to play this game. Hell, I've been here for a year already. I know how to interrupt. I know how to AOE and when not too. I know how to dash, how to roll, how to strafe and how to get out of telegraphs.
 
What I don't (can't?) do, is abide name-calling and uber-leet rudeness from other players. I've heard of people being kicked right after killing the last boss, so the others get the gear. I've heard of groups disbanding immediately after the first person dies. I've heard even worse behavior than that - and I won't stand for it and I won't be subjected to it. So, I've never done any of it. I want too. I want to be able to lead my guild through at least the low-end stuff, but I can't force myself to sit through the trauma of learning with people I don't know and can't speak too.
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I just want to give my 2cent. Why people keep saying they are bleeding subs? Yes, they have lose some subs after first and second month, but what make you think that they are now in constant downhill.
 
Pops is smaller thant at launch -> probably
Pops is getting smaller everyday -> there is no way for you and me to tell, so please stop spreading those false statement.
 
Thank you, come again
 
ps:  What did the boy volcano say to the girl volcano? I Lava You! 	
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Naz, buddy ... you're crossing over into a zone that I can't follow.
 
Your blindness to the issue of population and stalwart refusal to accept what HUNDREDS of others are experiencing is ... well, to be honest, I don't need any more Warning Points, because if I said what I'm thinking, I'd probably earn a few more and couple of days "vacation" from the forums.
 
Suffice to say, I am glad you're a champion of the game, but man, you've gone off the deep end in your refusal to accept what's happening to the population. Screaming for FACTS FACTS FACTS and NUMBERS NUMBERS NUMBERS is not only off-putting, but it's downright disingenuous.	
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Naz, buddy ... you're crossing over into a zone that I can't follow.
 
Your blindness to the issue of population and stalwart refusal to accept what HUNDREDS of others are experiencing is ... well, to be honest, I don't need any more Warning Points, because if I said what I'm thinking, I'd probably earn a few more and couple of days "vacation" from the forums.
 
Suffice to say, I am glad you're a champion of the game, but man, you've gone off the deep end in your refusal to accept what's happening to the population. Screaming for FACTS FACTS FACTS and NUMBERS NUMBERS NUMBERS is not only off-putting, but it's downright disingenuous.
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I haven't/won't run group PVE content for those very reasons.
 
I know how to play this game. Hell, I've been here for a year already. I know how to interrupt. I know how to AOE and when not too. I know how to dash, how to roll, how to strafe and how to get out of telegraphs.
 
What I don't (can't?) do, is abide name-calling and uber-leet rudeness from other players. I've heard of people being kicked right after killing the last boss, so the others get the gear. I've heard of groups disbanding immediately after the first person dies. I've heard even worse behavior than that - and I won't stand for it and I won't be subjected to it. So, I've never done any of it. I want too. I want to be able to lead my guild through at least the low-end stuff, but I can't force myself to sit through the trauma of learning with people I don't know and can't speak too.
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I respect your opinion Tex. I disagree fundamentally that either of us can say what hundreds of other people are experiencing; but I don't doubt for a second a LOT of players are experiencing low player concurrency. What I dislike is the false leap from low player concurrency to low overall population that frequently occurs.  
 
Everyone is welcome to their own opinion, but not their own facts. And Most certainly not invent facts based solely on anecdote when none are available from official sources.
 
We can estimate, and ponder. But even my estimates are little more than reasonable possibilities. But I am seriously tired of the unsupported anecdotal statements of a few dozen individuals pushing a dialogue on a game that is played by 3-4 orders of magnitude more people. 
 
YMMV, but if I had a nickel for every instance where anecdotal perception of an issue was = to the ACTUAL issue... I would have zero nickels. 
 
 
As Mondo Zax would say: "separate the scientific truth from plausible falsehoods "
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I honestly can't point to hard numbers to support problems with the population. I don't have access to that. I can give you anecdotal evidence of what I have experienced in my time. I can also point to the server populations as being "low" during peak times when they were "med" before.
 
Does that mean that there is a population problem? Eh......
 
A certain amount of "bleed off" is expected, and generally reaches a higher range than I think we as players would expect. People are generally always moving from one game to another, then back and off to another...etc. Its somewhat of an MMO dance.... where the goal is to capture players attention during the first few months to retain as many as possible.
 
In that respect, no, I don't think we have a "problem" per se.
 
However, what we do have is a plethora of servers with players spread out over way to many servers, often times giving the feeling that the worlds are deserted and that there is a population problem. This coupled with very real disillusionment to the games current state, or what many see as major problems tends to lend itself to the very negative feeling that the game is... "dying".
 
I don't think that is necessarily the case here.
I do think, we have our population spread out over too many servers and that needs to be addressed. It would be a perfect opportunity to resolve faction balance issues as well on both the pve and pvp servers.
 
I also think, though, that dismissing it as not being a problem, is dangerous as well.
 
Think of it this way....
 
Wildstar is a boat.
Its taking on water.
Its not enough to sink it.
But if we ignore it, it will eventually sink it. Because lets face it, holes in the boat don't fix themselves.
 
Solution?
 
Pick everyone up in a helicopter and sink the boat with torpedoes from a submarine not very far away.
Wait.... no....
 
What I meant was.... oh forget it, you get the idea.
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Meh, problem with Wildstar are just having a nefast population that would like to see Wildstar fail, because maybe their favorite MMO has failed before or is on the downhill now. *Shrug*
 
Real talk: That game is the SH!T
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I also think, though, that dismissing it as not being a problem, is dangerous as well.
 
 
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The biggest "problem" with Wildstar is that folks who are "experienced" in other games, could not come here and beat even the lowest dungeons the first time without hours and hours and hours of wipes. Those people chose to forget the YEARS AND YEARS they've devoted to getting good at those other games, and came here expecting the same level of face-roll-rofl-stompage that WoW provides. They couldn't do it the first time, so they left.
 
Some stuck around and ran into the "attunement wall" at 50. They might have been able to finish the vet-level stuff, but many couldn't beat the stupid timers no matter how hard they tried. Of course, many didn't even TRY ... the toxic environment fostered by Carbine's "go gold or go home" mentality destroyed so much goodwill in this community, the ONLY way to recover is just get an entire new population. The old folks, should they come back, will still be stuck in that horrible mind-set even if the requirements are lowered.
 
As someone said in other thread, Wildstar's difficult content requires players to be co-operative and get along. Since that's never going to happen on a large scale, I fear Wildstar's "glory days" lasted all of three weeks.
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I agree, but I disagree that the problem is sheer population. 1000 players playing 5 hours a day will seem much more 'alive' than 5,000 players playing for 30 minutes a day at different times which will seem 'dead'.
 
I'm NOT suggesting there isn't a problem. There obviously is. But the problem proper is player concurrency (that dead feeling from having few players playing at the same time as you) which is related to, but not mutually dependent on sheer population. The overall population has demonstrably fallen by ~60%. but simply assuming that is the major source of the concurrency problem is, with out good evidence to support it, bad reasoning.
 
Perhaps the difference is unimportant to the average player; but implementation wise it is VERY important to combat the underlying concurrency issues as well as increase player density in order to truly solve the first order issue; which is having more people playing at the same time you are. 
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I agree, but I disagree that the problem is sheer population. 1000 players playing 5 hours a day will seem much more 'alive' than 5,000 players playing for 30 minutes a day at different times which will seem 'dead'.
 
I'm NOT suggesting there isn't a problem. There obviously is. But the problem proper is player concurrency (that dead feeling from having few players playing at the same time as you) which is related to, but not mutually dependent on sheer population. The overall population has demonstrably fallen by ~60%. but simply assuming that is the major source of the concurrency problem is, with out good evidence to support it, bad reasoning.
 
Perhaps the difference is unimportant to the average player; but implementation wise it is VERY important to combat the underlying concurrency issues as well as increase player density in order to truly solve the first order issue; which is having more people playing at the same time you are. 
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Im babbling again, aren't I?
 
Yeah, I am... Ill show myself out.
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Here's the weird thing about it, though.  The game's not that hard.
 
I mean, comparatively speaking?  Is it the hardest game ever?  Not even close.  Not even counting out the tedium v difficulty discussion.  Not even counting logistics.  There are a LOT of harder games out there.  Some are beyond certain people to play.  I haven't met the gamer yet that CANNOT complete this content.
 
I've met a lot of people who quit because they wouldn't, though.
 
Wildstar is a harder game than most, if not all, other MMORPGs.  It's not beyond your basic player's ability.  However, I did have a friend come to try the game out recently.  She was frustrated within minutes of hitting the Northern Wilds.  She said she couldn't get out of the telegraphs in time.  I asked why not and came to find out that, after all these years, she'd been playing WoW by turning with the WASD keys.  Raided heroic with me all that time, and she'd never learned how to strafe or turn with the mouse.  She was literally turning and running with WASD.  So I tried to tell her how to turn and pivot, how to strafe by using E and Q at the very least, about how holding down right click locks the camera and turns the turn keys to movement keys.  Then I found out she was on a laptop and had no mouse.
 
She played WoW with me for probably 5 years, never far from the top of Warlock DPS, without a mouse.  And she didn't want to learn to use one, she said it was too much to ask that she learn to use a mouse.  Why should she?  She didn't need one for WoW.
 
She may be back; who knows?  One of the few people I roped into this game that isn't playing anymore not because the game is too hard.  She could excel in this game; it's not beyond her ability to comprehend and play.  I don't think I've met anyone yet that plays games to any degree that couldn't play and succeed in this game.  But it's not WoW, and most other MMORPGs have backed the difficulty off to such a pathetic degree that ANY difficulty, any learning how to do something different, it's just too much.
 
I refuse to believe there are people who literally cannot learn to circle out of the red into places that aren't red and still damage or heal.  Yes, it's harder.  It takes more concentration.  It's more frantic and schizophrenic.  It's more entertaining for those very reasons.  But this game is not impossibly difficult.  That's something potential players do to themselves.
 
People are largely leaving to wait and see what happens to gearing, the grind, and other administrative crap that exists around the actual gameplay, and they'll return.  Honestly, though, I'm not sure I want the people back who left because the game's literally too hard.  There's a difference between hard and too hard, and Wildstar's only difference here is their lack of kiddy gloves.	
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Okay, okay. I thought of something to "prove" the issue to you. Now again, it's anecdotal, but it's a demonstrable anecdote.
 
PVP Battleground Queues.
 
They are cross-realm. Meaning every server is represented, right? Because of that, assuming your "concurrency" theory is correct, then why are PVP queues taking longer and longer every day, at EVERY bracket.
 
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I refuse to believe there are people who literally cannot learn to circle out of the red into places that aren't red and still damage or heal.  Yes, it's harder.  It takes more concentration.  It's more frantic and schizophrenic.  It's more entertaining for those very reasons.  But this game is not impossibly difficult.  That's something potential players do to themselves.
 
People are largely leaving to wait and see what happens to gearing, the grind, and other administrative crap that exists around the actual gameplay, and they'll return.  Honestly, though, I'm not sure I want the people back who left because the game's literally too hard.  There's a difference between hard and too hard, and Wildstar's only difference here is their lack of kiddy gloves.
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Here's the weird thing about it, though.  The game's not that hard.
 
I mean, comparatively speaking?  Is it the hardest game ever?  Not even close.  Not even counting out the tedium v difficulty discussion.  Not even counting logistics.  There are a LOT of harder games out there.  Some are beyond certain people to play.  I haven't met the gamer yet that CANNOT complete this content.
 
I've met a lot of people who quit because they wouldn't, though.
 
Wildstar is a harder game than most, if not all, other MMORPGs.  It's not beyond your basic player's ability.  However, I did have a friend come to try the game out recently.  She was frustrated within minutes of hitting the Northern Wilds.  She said she couldn't get out of the telegraphs in time.  I asked why not and came to find out that, after all these years, she'd been playing WoW by turning with the WASD keys.  Raided heroic with me all that time, and she'd never learned how to strafe or turn with the mouse.  She was literally turning and running with WASD.  So I tried to tell her how to turn and pivot, how to strafe by using E and Q at the very least, about how holding down right click locks the camera and turns the turn keys to movement keys.  Then I found out she was on a laptop and had no mouse.
 
She played WoW with me for probably 5 years, never far from the top of Warlock DPS, without a mouse.  And she didn't want to learn to use one, she said it was too much to ask that she learn to use a mouse.  Why should she?  She didn't need one for WoW.
 
She may be back; who knows?  One of the few people I roped into this game that isn't playing anymore not because the game is too hard.  She could excel in this game; it's not beyond her ability to comprehend and play.  I don't think I've met anyone yet that plays games to any degree that couldn't play and succeed in this game.  But it's not WoW, and most other MMORPGs have backed the difficulty off to such a pathetic degree that ANY difficulty, any learning how to do something different, it's just too much.
 
I refuse to believe there are people who literally cannot learn to circle out of the red into places that aren't red and still damage or heal.  Yes, it's harder.  It takes more concentration.  It's more frantic and schizophrenic.  It's more entertaining for those very reasons.  But this game is not impossibly difficult.  That's something potential players do to themselves.
 
People are largely leaving to wait and see what happens to gearing, the grind, and other administrative crap that exists around the actual gameplay, and they'll return.  Honestly, though, I'm not sure I want the people back who left because the game's literally too hard.  There's a difference between hard and too hard, and Wildstar's only difference here is their lack of kiddy gloves.
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Hey everybody, 
 
The long awaited news is finally here! Go to read about it https://forums.wilds...ng-to-wildstar/  and here to discuss! https://forums.wilds...eedback-thread/	
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