117801-why-new-players-will-love-wildstar

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I absolutely loved my leveling experience in wildstar. I read all of the quests and lore books, explored the zones, did all the quests, qued for every low level dungeon and adventure multiple times, did low level battlegrounds, spent hours and hours getting distracted by low level open world pvp, leveled my professions alongside my character level and generally had a blast playing the game over the 6 days of played time it took me to hit level cap.
 
However I don't think this is the experience that new players are having and I highly doubt this will change in the future. New players today can still enjoy all the questing and exploration that I enjoyed...but all the other stuff will sadly be missing and I can't imagine leveling a character without the crucial element of fun: interacting and playing with/against other players. 
 
Here's the scenario I see panning out for all new players trying out this game:
 
"Hey I unlocked a new dungeon; lets get in the que.. its been an hour and it hasn't popped. Oh well how about a pvp que...no pop there either. Oh well these zones are cool...but where the hell are the other people. Oh hey there's an enemy player to gank.. its a lvl 50 damn. Hey anyone want to help me kill this elite for this quest...anyone? Ah I'll just keep killing mobs. Oh cool I got a guild invite, hey what are u guys up to want to do some....oh you are all lvl 50...cool. Well look forward to playing with u guys whenever I hit 50. Cool i'm level 50 anyone for some adventures...wow these things are really really easy and people are just speeding through them...oh this dude just freaked out because I picked the wrong path in this one. cool. How about a dungeon? Oh I just got 1 shot by this thing. Oh messed up that dodge yikes dead again. Crap ppl are leaving now...damn. Mabe I can get people from Thayd to help out. Anyone? Anyone? Damn. Ok how about a guild run. Anyone want to run SC? No. Ok thats cool. I'll try some pvp I guess. Cool the que popped. Holy  this SS just 1 shot me and holy this is a cluster of telegraphs. Cool i stole their flag...oh i'm dead now. Haha take that...oh crap your health isn't even moving. Oh god and u just 2shot me wtf. Oh assassin's creed unity just came out! Cool I'll check that out. Oh and wow just released an expac and I can pre-order it and get a max lvl toon. Awesome..."
 
Correct me if I'm wrong but for a brand new player I see this as the Wildstar experience. 
 
Carbine if you want to attract new players you need to seriously fix this somehow because new players need to have fun and feel like they are playing an mmorpg.
			
				
	Edited November 10, 2014 by BusterCasey
	
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			What are you asking Carbine to do? Produce people for people to play with? 	
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			Let's get dem sexy bots rolling Carbine!	
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			Same happens to all MMOs. Even in WoW dungeons below the level cap rarely ever pop. Best thing that a new player can do is join a guild and have charitable level 50s run normal mode dungeons for decoration, or cool looking armour pieces :D 	
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I totally see what the OP is saying.
And I disagree that it's normal. I think a large part of the problem is things that are broken now, like PvP, that fixes are coming for, which will hopefully bring back some people to the game.
The other part is lack of motivation for 50s to do normal dungeons, random ones. And apparently a disparity between Adventures and Dungeons in terms of difficulty.	
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I totally see what the OP is saying.
And I disagree that it's normal. I think a large part of the problem is things that are broken now, like PvP, that fixes are coming for, which will hopefully bring back some people to the game.
The other part is lack of motivation for 50s to do normal dungeons, random ones. And apparently a disparity between Adventures and Dungeons in terms of difficulty.
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			It's not really a question of bringing back old players but bringing in new players in my opinion, with drop 3 I'm hoping they'll start making free trials and whatever else it takes just to get a lot of new players.	
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I am somewhat of a new player and totally agree with the OP on the experience thus far.  I played the trial 4 months ago, and then became way too busy to play, so did not purchase and sub until a few weeks ago.  During the trial, I had a lot of fun, queues would pop for everything in level 10-20, and covinced me that I would want to play this game when I get the chance. 
 
Unfortunately, multiplayer games rarely have the ability be re-released with all of the hype they started with.  Even with updates and patches that have fixed problems and polished the game, the many who have lost interest at the start are not likely to come back.  New players are hard to find because there is much less marketing and no anticipation for anything related to the game.
 
It would be nice to see a newer multiplayer game be able to revive itself.	
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It happens in all other MMOs. 
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			Since we can scale down our level to run lower level dungeons, it would be nice if players had a little incentive to do this. I'm not really sure what that could be, maybe some unique looking items or some faction rep. But something that would help get capped players back populating that bracket would do wonders I think.	
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The problem with level 50s running normal modes is that they don't get nerfed enough when they level down. A single level 50 dps can completely trivialize the dungeon.
 
When my fiancé hit 50 and started healing, she and I ran STL 20 just so she could learn her skills and get a feel for what she was doing. I was tanking and she was healing. It didn't feel quite as trivialized as when I've done it as DPS, but I had no threat issues :)	
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Since we can scale down our level to run lower level dungeons, it would be nice if players had a little incentive to do this. I'm not really sure what that could be, maybe some unique looking items or some faction rep. But something that would help get capped players back populating that bracket would do wonders I think.
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While I agree that Carbine should look into ways to help insure that new players have a fun experience as they level up, I also think it falls on "the community" to help make the game friendly for new players.
 
It's not really that hard, even.  It just requires people to not focus on themselves and their own goals, and think about the bigger picture of the game as a whole.  We talk about it enough here on the forums, you'd think that would be pretty easy.
 
But what do I know.  My guild is full of level 50s and doesn't care about new players at all :)
 	
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While I agree that Carbine should look into ways to help insure that new players have a fun experience as they level up, I also think it falls on "the community" to help make the game friendly for new players.
 
It's not really that hard, even.  It just requires people to not focus on themselves and their own goals, and think about the bigger picture of the game as a whole.  We talk about it enough here on the forums, you'd think that would be pretty easy.
 
But what do I know.  My guild is full of level 50s and doesn't care about new players at all :)
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What are you asking Carbine to do? Produce people for people to play with?
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Oh and wow just released an expac and I can pre-order it and get a max lvl toon. Awesome..."
 
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Same happens to all MMOs. Even in WoW dungeons below the level cap rarely ever pop. 
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I am a new player, officially one month in.   I am now level 27 and in Whitevale.
I also have read all the lore along the way, tried many challenges, done every quest, completed explorer path missions 100% in each zone i've been in,
run some dungeons and adventures, worked on my house, and gone to dance parties :)
I absolutely love the game and cancelled my WOD preorder.
 
The thing that's different for me is I don't ever que for anything.  I have no interest in PVP and I was lucky to find a guild that has more than enough events if I want to group for anything.  So population isn't an issue I've run into and in every zone I've been in so far I run into other players constantly even at off hours (Entity.)  Grouping even using zone chat is easy and the ingame community is super friendly and helpful.
 
So as a new player my experience has been incredibly positive and I will be playing for a long time.
 
What IS really needed is a free trial period, up to level 15 or so to expose the new player to housing.  It takes a leap of faith to buy the game when the "word of mouth" is so bad, the information around is that the game is either dying or going f2p, and that it may run poorly on lesser computers.  I took that leap of faith and I am SO happy I did.  	
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			Try turning friendly nameplates on. I'm pretty sure that there are more people around than you realise, you just haven't seen them.	
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			I think we really need some incentive that can push every player into dragging another person into playing as well similar to WoW's RAF program. In other words, something the community can do to help the game grow again now that it will be in a better state. Anything that can make lower level dungeons more worthwhile to spam would help a lot too.	
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Sorry but I played wow for ages now and the que on every level in nowhere close to Wildstar 300 minutes at level 30, as dps in wow yeah you wait but or healer it's like 5-15 minutes and tank it's  <1minute almost always.......It's really hard to believe for me it's that hard to find 5 players to play dungeon together, as sometimes it finds it after 20 minutes and sometimes I wait whole day and nothing. I don't really knows if it's also buggy or what but it's impossible that the whole EU PvE server hasn't got 5 people wanting to do dungeon whole day at level 30.
 
And towards the whole topic I agree it's extremely devastating to me as player who always was leveling through dungeons or pvp in wow that those ques take so much time and still give nothing. Questing is fun for me just not the whole day.
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I played a DPS mage in WoW mid Pandaria. Waiting times for me on a dead server were > 2 hours.
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Servers are linked for LFG.  You didn't wait 2 hours.  You, sir, are a liar.
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You want to help this game grow? Word of mouth. Starting right here on the forums.
 
I just started playing the other night. I thought long and hard before purchasing this game, as it is no "drop in the bucket" for me to throw $60 on a game. I read the forums (which almost kept me from playing) and the reviews from IGN and the like (which almost kept me from buying) and in the end, I noticed something.
 
For all the doom and gloom, there were people having fun in this game. "I hope this game doesn't die, cus it's the first one i could play a bunny girl in, and I always wanted to play a bunny girl." was a post that stuck in my head. Who said it? no clue. But it stuck. There are few things in this world that give people actual joy. You either fight for them, or lament them when they're gone.
 
I'm not saying don't criticize the game. By all means, post to the Devs! Tell them ways to make the game better. But try and do it as helping promote a better game, not just telling them what they are doing wrong, while pounding in the coffin nails.
 
Anyway, that's my 2 cents. Hope to see you folks in game. :) 	
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Wildstar is altogether a pretty impressive game. I don't think any game has ever release with the scope of features that wildstar has, although i think alot of people came to wildstar with the usual impossibly high expectations of both the game and their ability to commit to it. When you are the constant search for the next escape, that search becomes the escape. There is a new MMO or game every other day and its only getting harder to make the time for everything you want to do as well as keep up with all the new stuff and maintain long term commitments to a game with as much meat on it as wildstar has. Carbines own great ambitions for wildstar may have left them particularly vulnerable to the competition. It looks to me that the most serious miscalculations had to with end game progression. Myself with a decade of endgame experience found the jump from the 1-50 game into veteran content a pretty steep climb and my "hardcore" guild put  getting 6/6 GA progression ahead of establishing a solid 40 man raid force with i think ultimately cost them the momentum they would have needed to survive through the past few months.The vet content itself is probably just fine the way it is but there is/was a missing level of difficulty to bridge players into the most challenging content. Unless you had previous experience with the highest levels of endgame or a great deal of determination I imagine the endgame in wildstar would be like hitting a brick wall to many.
 
 I do think wildstar still has the potential to do very well. I also think this kind of player drawback happens with most new games these days, and to a pretty big extent it happens for reasons outside anybodies control. Having said that I am looking forward to playing wildstar for a long time given it can survive these trials. Also for all the critcism and negativity there must be alot of players like myself who didnt leave wildstar for any particular reason but because it was simply too much to digest at the time.	
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actually I did. And it was one of the reasons I quit.
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The vet content itself is probably just fine the way it is but there is/was a missing level of difficulty to bridge players into the most challenging content. Unless you had previous experience with the highest levels of endgame or a great deal of determination I imagine the endgame in wildstar would be like hitting a brick wall to many.
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I could be on board with normal level 50 versions of all the dungeons (only SSM is normal at 50), but quite frankly I think difficulty tiers are too much game-ification.  It turns what is supposed to be a dangerous unexplored world to be conquered into... well, a game with no apparent consequences for lack of personal investment.
 
It has been a cancer on the MMORPG genre since Lich King and all of the WoW copycats decided to turn everything into a bite sized morsel to be consumed in half hour sittings by as many people as possible.  There's no sense of wonder anymore in new MMOs.  There's no sense of danger because there are literally no consequences.  We've all become jaded and entitled consumers that cannot possibly have their hunger sated at a sustainable rate.  I remember starting up WoW when it first came out and feeling completely small in that huge world, and everything new was a risk vs reward decision.  Every MMO since that I've pretty much plowed right through everything they put in my path with shoot first, ask questions later, effectiveness. 
 
The open world in a modern MMO just isn't dangerous.  All of the really challenging stuff is hidden in instances, and the token Primes are either only mildly challenging, or easily tag teamed, but there's never any point to killing them.  If you die, so what?  Nothing lost, nothing gained.
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Having never played in the EU server domain... I can comment playing on US-Oceania from Baku Azerbaijan for WOW stuff still popped, could still find raids. If you queud for DPS only all the time I could imagine you being SOL, as when a tank/healer find good dps they may ride them out to get as much XP from dungeons as possible. But then again since you claimed you managed to get your boyfriends mother through the hardest raid content in WOW, when she is dying against mobs at lvl 7 in wildstar, I am not surprised by your exaggerations.
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I could be on board with normal level 50 versions of all the dungeons (only SSM is normal at 50), but quite frankly I think difficulty tiers are too much game-ification.  It turns what is supposed to be a dangerous unexplored world to be conquered into... well, a game with no apparent consequences for lack of personal investment.
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Protostar Stylists have opened up businesses in major hubs across Nexus, allowing you to modify your appearance! 
Can anyone confirm where these actually are? I'm wandering around Thayd looking for what I assume is a hair/eye/jewelry editing option from a Protostar NPC, but I'm not finding one.	
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			I think it means there are more of them potatoheads across Nexus' hubs. The only new deal they have is 'Remove Dye'.	
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This is right, it is joint responsibility of both the community and the Carbine... Carbine appears to be lifting their game in time for drop 4 where the item optimization will be done.
 
For lowbie dungeons there needs to be added incentive than just gear... extra XP would be good.
 
Back in WOW once upon a time when you pugged dungeons you would get buffs for every pug you had.
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I totally see what the OP is saying.
And I disagree that it's normal. I think a large part of the problem is things that are broken now, like PvP, that fixes are coming for, which will hopefully bring back some people to the game.
The other part is lack of motivation for 50s to do normal dungeons, random ones. And apparently a disparity between Adventures and Dungeons in terms of difficulty.
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Just because there are easy mode versions of dungeons doesn't mean you have to do them. A good example is LFR not everyone uses them, just because they are there to cater for people who may not share your ideological beliefs, doesn't mean other people should not do that. WOWs new party tool is pretty useful.
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