108586-why-im-not-quitting-wildstar-page-2

Page 1, Page 2
== Content ==
			
{| class="blockquote"
I actually think this, emphasis mine, is more or less the common experience.
 
No piece of what Wildstar asks you to do is specifically onerous. Just the great unpleasant, unrewarding, repetitive, gate-heavy, abominable mountain of it all crushes the soul for all but the most serious dead-eyed grinders.
 
And I mean dead-eyed as a compliment, like a berserker. Something more and less than they were before they clicked Log In.
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
 
 
There isn't any evidence that dropping the content difficulty will increase the playerbase and there's every bit of evidence saying a lot of people will leave if it drops further than it already has.
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
You're missing the point here, which is that if Carbine is not on a survivable path with Wildstar right now (based on the numbers they can see and we can't),  they have no choice but to change, because to stay the course is to accept that their product is as good as dead.  This doesn't mean that changing it will ensure survival, because it won't.  But it's better than certain doom. It's a chance.  And when it comes to changes they can make that might work, nerfing is tops on the list.  There's no guarantee, of course.  It might even make things worse as the hardcores huff off. But if Wildstar is dying anyway, they have no choice except to change, or lie down and say goodbye to this labor of love.  
 
Now, of course, this is assuming that the game is, in fact, in trouble right now in terms of the number of subs and the trends of subs (Increasing? Decreasing? If decreasing, is the rate at least slowing? Or is it showing no signs of slowing?)  If the game is not in trouble, it would be an excellent move for the dev team and/or NCSoft to release a statement saying they are happy with Wildstar's numbers and see no need to make real changes, only to debug, fine-tune, and continue to develop content at the same difficulty level for their loyal fans.  But this is not what we are hearing. We are hearing "Attunements now bronze not silver," "Starter dungeons coming", and so on.  That's a giant blaring klaxon if you pay attention.  The hardcore thing is not working.
 
That's not to say the casual thing will definitely work -- particularly after alienating a lot of the casual base with all the "We don't want no one here who's not willing to WORK to succeed at our game!" jibber jabber. But I'll repeat what I said above: it may come down to possibly living on Casual Street, or certainly dying on Hardcore Hill.  That's it.  I know you would probably prefer that they die on Hardcore Hill, and who knows, maybe they would too. But a lot more is riding on this for the devs than for you. This is their livelihood.  If Carbine closes doors, they have to find jobs elsewhere, and video game dev jobs are not in generous supply.  They have to uproot their families, sell the house, start over again, if they can.  It's pretty easy for you to say "DIE ON HARDCORE HILL!"....but you're not the one who pays the piper if they choose that path.  
 
If they nerf the game to keep the doors open, are you going to punish them for choosing that?  Are you just going to stop playing because the game isn't what you want any more?  If you do the latter, what makes you actually different from a casual, anyway?   
 
We all want what we want in a game.  If Carbine doesn't provide what enough people want, Carbine can change or die.  They know this, and you should too. 
----
			I agree so much with you man, I love this game, even after only having it for a bout 3 days, let's try to work together to bring it to the top of the MMO ladder!	
----
			Vic you might just be a hero class irl. Down with RNG!!! Inb4 tryhard fanboys tell us how its integral to the game and we should shut up and color!!	
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
But I'm never going to say, especially in light of what they're actually saying, that the people who left did so because vet dungeons are just too hard.  Hell, the only IRL guy I know that dropped out from 50 dropped out the first month because he thought other people weren't good enough, not that he wasn't.
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
Vic you might just be a hero class irl. Down with RNG!!! Inb4 tryhard fanboys tell us how its integral to the game and we should shut up and color!!
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
Yeah, I'm one of those weird people who wants to reduce the RNG, but also to do a whole raft of PVE changes to make people want to run content all the time.  I had a pretty good thread on the topic of using Elder Gems, crafting, and tokens to make a new and better system.  But I'm completely against the idea of making content easier.  But yeah, gear pieces dropping that are useless due to the gear stats or not having perfect slots?  Yeah, we could do away with that.  That ain't hard.
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
But surely you can see that this is essentially the same thing as someone leaving because it's too hard. He left because it's too hard for others..
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
 
There is no one saying they will quit if the game's not easier except some hypothetical group of magical players who are just waiting to jump out of other games to play Wildstar if it were just a little easier.
 
And, I'm sorry, you're wrong.  This game gets complained about for its RNG and grind, not its difficulty.  Difficulty is constantly called out as one of its strengths.
 
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
No, he left because he's a bit of a leetist. -.o
 
If after a month, you're mad because people pugging vet dungeons can't one-way clear the dungeon, you just aren't playing with realistic expectations.  Hard content is hard.
 
Also, I never played with him (he was on Stormtalon), so I have no idea whether other people were the problem, if you get my drift.  Poor healers in this game having to keep up the first month with people who didn't know how to catch the green.
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
Er...what?  You don't think the large drop in player count is due to the difficulty?  It absolutely is.  Things like long grinds, difficult attunements, RNG on items so you have to get them over and over and over again hoping for exactly the right set of rune slots on THIS one....that's what difficulty is, in an MMO.  Doing things on a timer? Difficult.  
 
I'm really curious as to what you think "real difficulty" is, if it's not all these things put together.  What's "real difficulty" here? Aiming a telegraph? Interrupting on time? Those are not difficult.  
 
What I'm hearing here is me saying, "The difficulty is the issue," and you say, "No, it's the RNG and the grind!" and I say, "Yeah -- that's what I said. The difficulty. How difficult it is to get anywhere."
 
So I think at this point I need you to say what you think Wildstar's "difficulty" is that the MMO community wants so badly?  
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
I admit, your posts make me hopeful. I am never going to be upset if they fix the game and leave difficulty alone; as I said, I like the difficulty. If you are right, and I hope you are as I DO agree with your carrot ideas, then it's just good news. 
 
And yeah, those leet players can be quarrelsome. 
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
It needs to be said for all of the developers who work day in and day out to improve this game:
 
Some of us appreciate what you're trying to accomplish.
I, for one, have been playing MMORPGs since EQ1.  I've always lamented the "everybody wins" mentality that has infected newer MMORPGs and welcome the attunment and barriers to entry of the end-game.  I welcome them along with the Mechari, my new robot overlords.  I don't get what the big deal is/was causing all the griefing.
I felt like there weren't enough people on the server I had chosen.  So I moved servers.  Problem solved.
I felt like there wasn't going to be enough end-game content to satisfy me.  I talked to some old friends from WoW from my server (Deathwing-US), who reformed their old cata-era guild here (Enigma).  They assure me that the end-game is challenging and rewarding once you get enough people.  Problem solved.
I was tired of LFR and how it "broke" raiding progression in WoW.  Reducing the need for teamwork completely removed any incentive to join a guild, slave as a trial for no loot, and show up every week like it was your job.  So people stopped.  Without the guild aspect -- it just isn't the same.
I was a little worried about the "grind" -- but then I remembered all the weeks -- litterally -- I spent in Guk camping Raster for my monk epic 1.0 in EQ1 and realized no matter how grindy wildstar is, it can't be THAT bad.
I personally haven't had the "optimization" issues others have complained about.  i5 3750 @ 4.0ghz and ATI 280X here.  Can't complain so far.  People with AMD CPUs need to stop complaining and realize that their CPU is roughly equivalent to a 6-year-old Intel CPU when it comes to single-threaded applications.  Games are single-threaded (mostly).  Time to get a real gaming rig and buy Intel.  If you don't have a lot of cash get a Celeron.  For games a fast dual-core is much better than anything AMD has.
I'm slightly concerned that there won't be enough cash to pay to develop new content (raids and expansion packs).  I'm not entirely over this but I figure I'm going to give it until WoD launches and see how it shakes out.  I'm cool with playing a niche game as long as the development dollars are focused on keeping raids coming at a reasonable rate.
Finally, I really enjoy the gameplay.  It's challenging, the world is beautiful, combat is varied and fun, lore is great -- It's really a breath of fresh air.
So I'm going to keep on playing.
 
Thanks for the great game, Carbine!
 
----