105816-open-letter-from-a-random-player

== Content ==
			
Dear Assembled Readers, and perhaps Carbine,
 
   Let me first start of this statement as simply this. I in no way, shape, or form am trying to bash Wildstar, Carbine, White Knights, Black Knights, or any demographic that reads these forums, or plays this game. I am simply a Wildstar player who is up late at night perrusing the forums. Rather than type out short replies in several threads that cover one or two of the things individually I have on my chest I'd rather make a giant wall of text that will make my feeler feel better feels. 
 
   Wildstar has been both an enjoyable experience to me, and at other times very disappointing. As is to be expected in any MMO. I have not felt greatly slighted by Carbine in any way that was more vicious than any previous developer. Expect perhaps in their customer service, but I believe that to be more an NC Soft thing.
 
   I realize that giant walls of text are not everyones cup of tea so when I have a point I'll try to make a tldr section for you skimmers (I'm just as guilty).
 
Game Design and the Resulting Population
 
   When you design a niche game, you end up with a niche population. People want different things from this game, and not all of those things are compatible. 
 
   Wildstar was massively successful in launching because of how it was marketed as the next big thing. The art style, gameplay, dev community and advertisements were just plain fun. From the introduction videos explaining the game to just the website itself. It grabbed a lot of peoples attention. People who were not necessarily going to enjoy the way content has been setup.
 
   You want to have a huge game that is the next best thing? You have to have content that a huge population of people are going to enjoy. There are any number of games in various genre's that can demonstrate that. The more things you have access to, the more people you can attract to your game. Quite honestly, the simpler the content the more people are going to be playing. 
 
   If you really enjoy Wildstar, you really love the RNG, poor/hard to come by loot, the gating(having to accomplish X "epic" task in order to do "Y"), and any number of other non-conforming things I'm happy for you. Truly. But that game that you want can not be successful in regards to massive population. The game is set up to cater to a specific niche, and those are the people that are going to enjoy it. It's almost so tiny of a population that it just leads to heartbreak/disappointment for a lot of people. 
 
TLDR: "Hardcore" gameplay is not for a large number of people. Wildstar was/is attractive from the outside. Less so on the inside. Keep the gameplay or keep the people.
 
Continued Forward Result
 
   Populations diminish until the settle to the point where the only people left in the game are those who enjoy the "hardcore" gameplay, and the few fresh faces that look past the hurt feeler reports. Revenues go down, developement team shrink in efforts to balance costs. "Free to Play" and other avenues of bringing in fresh people get explored (more content) or setup is considered best it can be (less content).
 
Patches and Rolling Out a Changing Game
 
   Patches are dynomite. Good or bad. They completely change the game and how it moves forward. I've never known a patch to please everyone. PTR's are supposed to mitigate this. Developer correspondance is supposed to mitigate this. 
 
   Wildstar has had difficulty applying their "Hardcore" philosophy and move forward. The PvE loot patch was a disaster, and the PvP patch is seemingly following in its proud footsteps. 
MMO's change drastically over the opening months. It is really not healthy to get attached to a character or the way it plays (RIP White Lion. Crackers you were always the best). If you sign up for an MMO release this should be stamped in bold on the character creation screen. 
 
   That said! Players should be able to believe the changes that their characters are changed are for the betterment of gameplay. Players characters are their most important possession in a RPG game. If you break a persons character with poorly fleshed out code/implementation you are playing with fire. Some things are not going to be forgiven. If you do such a thing a response or explaination can help. Staying quiet when your own very motto is "The Devs Are Listening" is kind of crushing. 
 
TLDR: MMO's are living creatures. Be careful where you take them least they become rabid and have to be put down.
 
Suggestions?
 
Simple. If you want people to play their game they should be able to improve their characters when they log on and play your game. PvE/PvP both included in this statement. 
 
Character changes should be overall buffs to bring people up to your best preforming classes. Nerfs are always hurt feelers. 	
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