115390-the-reason-why-wildstar-will-never-be-number-one

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*This post is NOT comparing titles or the quality of one game to another. I hesitated even mentioning other games because I did not want it to go that direction. This post is about WILDSTAR. So please keep it centered around Wildstar's strategy going forward and not other games*
 
Over the past several months in other MMORPG's I've asked players to rank their top MMORPG's from first to last. Rarely do people even include Wildstar in their list.
 
Interestingly enough...Wildstar is the 2nd highest rated MMORPG on the market behind FF XIV (when looking at polls from sites such as metacritic). However, in terms of volume of sales the MMORPG's with the lowest rankings have the largest market shares. Why is that?
 
It's simple...marketing. Wildstar is a great game...but the company has to INVEST in marketing for this game. Literally NO ONE knows what Wildstar is or what it is even about. People can talk all day about World of Warcraft, Elder Scrolls Online, Final Fantasy XIV, Guild Wars 2, and even SWTOR...but when I say "Wildstar" they say every time "What is that?"
 
I think you guys have a great product and it's really sad to see a possible juggernaut for your company slip through your fingers...while new titles come out with larger marketing departments.
 
There are some really high quality MMORPG's coming out in 2015...I hope Wildstar changes it's strategy on how to reach out to customers because their current "word of mouth" strategy...is not going to cut it.
 
It's not about selling a quality product to a small margin of hardcore raiders...it's about selling the product to ALL THEIR FRIENDS as well. If you fail to grab as many of their friends as possible....they will get bored and move onto whatever their friends are playing and talking about on Skype (or whatever voice chat they're using).
 
I don't know if this mega server strategy is a good thing or not yet. Quite frankly I'm a little hesitant on saying anything positive about it....I just hope that with this transition comes more outreach...	
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It's simple...marketing. Wildstar is a great game...but the company has to INVEST in marketing for this game. Literally NO ONE knows what Wildstar is or what it is even about. People can talk all day about World of Warcraft, Elder Scrolls Online, Final Fantasy XIV, Guild Wars 2, and even SWTOR...but when I say "Wildstar" they say every time "What is that?"
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Interestingly enough...Wildstar is the 2nd highest rated MMORPG on the market behind FF XIV (when looking at polls from sites such as metacritic). However, in terms of volume of sales the MMORPG's with the lowest rankings have the largest market shares. Why is that?
 
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I had a player just last nite do the "Wildwhat" in GW2.   When Wildstar released I gave GW2 a break to play this, and a surprising amount of players either heard of it but didn't know anything about it, that it was a NCsoft game, or never heard of it at all.
 
Tinfoil hat, but I think we will see more than megaservers and drop 3 for this relaunch of WS this winter.	
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The only thing that matters is that Wildstar is good, and is sustainably successful. It doesn't have to be top. There is almost no way any mmorpg can be number 1 anymore, there is too much competition, and social groups force gamers into games they don't like as much, due to many more reasons than quality and marketing.
 
The major battle mmos have to battle these days is to convince players to join their friends elsewhere. The strategy of attracting the hard core plays greatly towards this. This is because hard core players need a game that can feed an addiction, obsession, and talent mixed with a crazy amount of motivation. Wildstar has achieved this, in that the hard core players have a home, and can slowly convince a larger crowd of hard core players to join. This means the core population grows slow, but is fiercely loyal, as long as the content and mechanics are there.
 
As an example of a similar business model, look at Eve. Is it ever going to be number 1? No... is it sustainably successful and growing? Most definitely. In addition Eve has a way to pay for game time through playing the game, pay for gold officially, and has one giant server. These are definitely not coincidence that Wildstar cherry picked these ideas. They are going for a similar business model, and hope to become hugely successful eventually.
 
There is virtually no way a mmo can quickly gather the majority of players anymore. But, they can still be successful.
 
In addition, hardcore players get the itch for a game with a constant challenge, and will continue playing, despite a lot of glaring issues, as long as the challenge is there. Albeit they will still complain, but they will still play. Wildstar chose a marketing campaign to sell to these players, and not the general population, because that was the original target audience. They are now adding content for the rest of the players, which has to be significantly more polished. The hardcore players then make the megaservers look more lively, when others try out the game, or come back. So it would be incredibly stupid of Wildstar to start a big marketing push before drop 3, and only be effective if the Polish is there, and the content for less driven and obsessed players exists.
 
TLDR; Who cares if it's not number 1, as long as it's good, and sustainable, it will slowly grow.	
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			Marketing means nothing if they can't keep retention high.	
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You compliment Wildstar...say it's a great product...then this is what you get in return...an audience that gets hung up on one sentence at the very top of the post. I'll simply remove what I do for a living and maybe that will help. All I even used that for was to show that my personality type is very analytical...
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baslin: What is the plan to increase the game's population, find new players, and bring players back that already quit?
 
“The first step is to fix these bugs. We have a lot of publishing and marketing plans. We, on the dev side, have to make sure the bug stuff is done. There’s a lot of changes, and we think that players are going to be like, “Wow they’ve done a lot of work!”
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			Wildstar does need some more exposure, BUT NOT UNTIL megaservers, rune changes and drop 3. The next few patches introduce a lot of QoL and anti-RNG (hopefully), that were the cause of so many players leaving. Polish the product and then do a big relaunch.	
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It's not about selling a quality product to a small margin of hardcore raiders...it's about selling the product to ALL THEIR FRIENDS as well. If you fail to grab as many of their friends as possible....they will get bored and move onto whatever their friends are playing and talking about on Skype (or whatever voice chat they're using).
 
I don't know if this mega server strategy is a good thing or not yet. Quite frankly I'm a little hesitant on saying anything positive about it....I just hope that with this transition comes more outreach...
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You assume their goal is to be "number one" ( right now ) and not just a competitor in the field.  Perhaps right now as they are feeling out the market for their product Carbine is happy with taking their time and getting feed back from the initial player base to their game to maybe make them a "future" competitor for the "top spot".
 
I am sure that the primary objective, "right now" for Carbine is to make sure that NCSOFT is happy enough to let them exist and to make sure they have a product that can pay all of their employees.  Once that is established, and NOT before, then the quest to be number one would be a prudent option.
 
If, as I see it, Carbine is attempting to be cautious and be long term minded and thankfully are actually taking all our "opinions" into consideration to improve the game in an effort to survive in this market place then, I applaud them for doing so and not acting all "knee jerk" to "possible" short term losses and "the vocal minority" of forum posters that complain about the game ( which of course I am one so ... yeah no flames for that one ).
 
In the end PATIENCE is what is required.  This is a VIRTUE that is LACKING today in the age of the heresy of modernity of "instant gratification".
 
I say, Carbine, well done in weathering the "slings and arrows" of all of us ( the vocal minority ) and having the humility to actually entertain our suggestions.	
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I'm going with 'no one is likely to unseat World of Warcraft as Number One because no new game can travel back in time to build its base on the much less sophisticated audience of the time'. The formula has been rehashed countless times and the formula only sprouts and thrives to that degree in soil that no longer exists. Not even WoW is the game most people think of when talking about WoW.
 
That and the current title holder has a bigger warchest than anyone when it comes to evolving and adapting with the times. Wildstar is founded on the conceit that WoW was wrong to evolve with the market, that Vanilla was the pinnacle of all gaming.
 
The market disagrees.	
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You are aware of WildStar being a completely new franchise? Additionally it's Carbines first game...
 
Guild Wars is out 10 years
Warcraft and elder scrolls 20 years
final fantasy almost 30 years
and Star Wars almost 40 years...
 
I'm sure you're a great researcher guy tho.
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In the nexus report stream last week, one of the questions was if carbine has plans to bring more players in game.
The response was that they have already marketing plans for the game, but that will come only after megaservers and drop 3, they don't want new players to play a buggy game at its current state.	
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You're basically confirming what the OP said. "Oh yeah, well these other games have a MUCH better market presence! So that'll show you, Mr. Guy who says WS has no market presence!"
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no?
So in your logic I'm saying if Wildstar had better marketing they'd be established since 20 years? I don't really understand.
I tried to say that the brands he named are the biggest and best known in the genre and are sequels to many games/movies that came before them. They already have a huge fan base.
 
Even If you didn't hear about SWTOR yet, you know Star Wars. Even if you don't know WoW it's likely that you played Warcraft as a gamer.
And you surely came across some Final Fantasy and Elder Scrolls in your gaming life.
 
Those are universes that grow for decades now. Wildstar didn't even finish the first step of it's story.
 
It's a new game, I really don't know what you're expecting.
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What you are saying is still that those other franchises have a huge leg up on WildStar. If Star Wars has a 40 year history of IP and WS has 0, then next year WS will have 1 year and Star Wars will have 41.
 
It's not like the gap is going to close. If WS wants to beat other IPs then Carbine will have to beat their decades of IP in the here and now.
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Yes that makes kinda sense. They need to do some advertising after the game is at demonstrable level and they already said they'll do that.
 
But closing the gap to Star Wars and the other games on this list in terms of popularity?... That's unlikely to happen.
 
But it doesn't need to happen in my opinion. With some patience form us and hard work from Carbine Wildstar can get a big thing.
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			Chua just say: Game not need to be one, need to be fun and have Humans paying and playing.	
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Reading this title I can't get that scene from the first Austin Powers movie out of my head...
 
Austin Powers choking a would be assassin "Who does number 2 work for?"
Texan in next toilet "That's right give that turd hell."
 
But I don't think WS will ever get into the top 5, because it does not come from a strong historical IP and it is not as far as I know successful in Asia.	
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Wildstar will never be number one because it doesn't cater to the casual crowd.
 
 
Its a niche game, a niche game that fits my niche, I hope they never jump the shark and cave to the pressure of needing to water everything down for more mass-appeal.	
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Wildstar will never be number one because it doesn't cater to the casual crowd.
 
 
Its a niche game, a niche game that fits my niche, I hope they never jump the shark and cave to the pressure of needing to water everything down for more mass-appeal.
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			I didnt say there is nothing for casuals to do, it just hasn't been their emphasis.	
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*This post is NOT comparing titles or the quality of one game to another. I hesitated even mentioning other games because I did not want it to go that direction. This post is about WILDSTAR. So please keep it centered around Wildstar's strategy going forward and not other games*
 
Over the past several months in other MMORPG's I've asked players to rank their top MMORPG's from first to last. Rarely do people even include Wildstar in their list.
 
Interestingly enough...Wildstar is the 2nd highest rated MMORPG on the market behind FF XIV (when looking at polls from sites such as metacritic). However, in terms of volume of sales the MMORPG's with the lowest rankings have the largest market shares. Why is that?
 
It's simple...marketing. Wildstar is a great game...but the company has to INVEST in marketing for this game. Literally NO ONE knows what Wildstar is or what it is even about. People can talk all day about World of Warcraft, Elder Scrolls Online, Final Fantasy XIV, Guild Wars 2, and even SWTOR...but when I say "Wildstar" they say every time "What is that?"
 
I think you guys have a great product and it's really sad to see a possible juggernaut for your company slip through your fingers...while new titles come out with larger marketing departments.
 
There are some really high quality MMORPG's coming out in 2015...I hope Wildstar changes it's strategy on how to reach out to customers because their current "word of mouth" strategy...is not going to cut it.
 
It's not about selling a quality product to a small margin of hardcore raiders...it's about selling the product to ALL THEIR FRIENDS as well. If you fail to grab as many of their friends as possible....they will get bored and move onto whatever their friends are playing and talking about on Skype (or whatever voice chat they're using).
 
I don't know if this mega server strategy is a good thing or not yet. Quite frankly I'm a little hesitant on saying anything positive about it....I just hope that with this transition comes more outreach...
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This post is NOT comparing titles
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Promotion does play a big part but I am partially debating if they should allow the customers enough time to familiarize with the product as well?
 
Wildstar is brand new to the market. New characters, new world, new potential.. and most of the resources are untapped so far.
 
Baby steps. :)
 
Of course I don't expect them to provide the results of a decade overnight.
 
They should be careful with their choices (as they are) because I don't think that the gaming market is a very friendly place for a new company, let alone a company that has the potential for greatness. Saying that, it would also be smart if they gently started promoting the gameworld & its denizens more.
 
All of the famous game franchises have iconic personalities that players identify with. NPCs that serve both as the promoters and a reference point of each game. More of that would be nice. :)	
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Promotion does play a big part but I am partially debating if they should allow the customers enough time to familiarize with the product as well?
 
Wildstar is brand new to the market. New characters, new world, new potential.. and most of the resources are untapped so far.
 
Baby steps. :)
 
Of course I don't expect them to provide the results of a decade overnight.
 
They should be careful with their choices (as they are) because I don't think that the gaming market is a very friendly place for a new company, let alone a company that has the potential for greatness. Saying that, it would also be smart if they gently started promoting the gameworld & its denizens more.
 
All of the famous game franchises have iconic personalities that players identify with. NPCs that serve both as the promoters and a reference point of each game. More of that would be nice. :)
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*volunteers*
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*volunteers*
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Next time someone asks you, "Wildwhat?".
 
Tell them it's StarFire FlyWars.	
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			From my experience the people who have never heard of WildStar are the gamers that think the epitome of gaming is Call of Duty, Clash of Clans, or the Sims. 	
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To everyone making the argument "WILDSTAR is brand new! That is why their competition is more successful! Those other games have been around forever!"
 
Let me introduce you to some titles:
 
***For the love of God don't compare a RTS game to MMORPG's development experience...I know you guys wont do that....right???? If you do I'll be going back to TABLE TOP GAMES for MMORPG experience!***
 
In October 2001, before most of you were born...and right after 9/11 when the country was in utter fear, stocks were falling, and people were scared to death of spending any money....Dark Age of Chamelot burst onto the scene. Mythic sold 51k copies within the first few days, shattering their wildest expectations by almost double. By 2002 they had over 250k subscribers. 3 years later after TONS of overwhelming success and working out all the major flaws....this ideal MMORPG falls to 50k subscribers within a few months of another release.
 
In 2004 World of Warcraft launched WITH NO MMORPG EXPERIENCE and obliterated their competition within a few short months. Initial sales for 2004 were $1.5 million. Since then this juggernaut has had 100,000,000 accounts created and has generated $2 *puts pinky next to lip* BILLION dollars in subscriptions.
 
A game developed in 1987...almost 3 decades ago...and had almost 2 decades of success before World of Warcraft was launched....attempted to take on the juggernaut almost 30 years later...and while successful at penetrating the MMORPG market with their large fan base...they did not come even close to bringing down the giant. This game is called....Final Fantasy....
 
Do we really want to bring up the Star Wars or Elder Scrolls loyal long term fan base and their lack of success?
 
If you want to take this in a direction comparing RTS to MMORPG development...we can discuss Warhammer's history.
 
Saying a game is older...is not an excuse for that game having more success. With the right formula a new MMORPG could be the king of that market within it's first year. World of Warcraft proved it can be done....
 
 
"BUT THEY DO NOT WANT TO BE NUMBER ONE!!!!"
- If the picture below is a dev reading forum posts on his phone instead of working hard to make a profit driven business financially successful....then I would agree with you...
 	
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			Chua not get anything of previous post.....	
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Wildstar will never be number one because it doesn't cater to the casual crowd.
 
 
Its a niche game, a niche game that fits my niche, I hope they never jump the shark and cave to the pressure of needing to water everything down for more mass-appeal.
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			The Clove Club will never be number one unless they start selling £1 burgers and open thousands of outlets like McDonalds.	
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Wildstar will be number one.
 
Hell WoW was always popular but didn't really take off till 1 year in with the burning crusade expan and it literally had no competition in the MMO market for years.
 
Mega servers, Drop 3, followed by advertising and a crazy good promotion will go a long way. Just need to be patient	
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			While agree patients on the part of the player base is warranted, I do wonder how "patient" NCSOFT will be. <_<	
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The funny thing is NCsoft will be exactly as patient as Wildstar deserves.
 
Lets all hope Wildstar earns its long and glorious run :).	
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