134386-whats-the-catch

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Not that I am complaining, but how come this game went free to play?
 
I joined the wave of noobs 2 days ago, got lvl 16 and so far I am having a blast. The game oozes personality and the sci-fi setting is so unique compared to other traditional mmos out there. The world (so far) is pretty, polished and I love exploring it. You can literally feel the love the team put into creating nexus. Also, for the first time in years of mmo play we wiped in a below-max lvl dungeon and it felt....thrilling and motivating.
 
So, what's the catch? Is there no end game? Does the game become easy and boring? How come more people didn't play it before the ftp move?
 
EDIT: just saw the posts about lag and just wanted to add I am not experiencing any so my view of the game is not affected; sorry to those who have problems with that and character creation, hope it gets solved soon
			
				
	Edited September 30, 2015 by Shadow95	
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Not that I am complaining, but how come this game went free to play?
 
I joined the wave of noobs 2 days ago, got lvl 16 and so far I am having a blast. The game oozes personality and the sci-fi setting is so unique compared to other traditional mmos out there. The world (so far) is pretty, polished and I love exploring it. You can literally feel the love the team put into creating nexus. Also, for the first time in years of mmo play we wiped in a below-max lvl dungeon and it felt....thrilling and motivating.
 
So, what's the catch? Is there no end game? Does the game become easy and boring? How come more people didn't play it before the ftp move?
 
EDIT: just saw the posts about lag and just wanted to add I am not experiencing any so my view of the game is not affected; sorry to those who have problems with that and character creation, hope it gets solved soon
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Not that I am complaining, but how come this game went free to play?
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I played beta and launch and lvled all the way to 50 having a blast. But then the way dungeons were you had to pretty much get a "raid" quailty group in order to do the 5 mans. They were really hard doing with randoms and even with friends. They had a bronze,silver,gold system and if you didnt do the Objectives and in a timely manner (which meant no wipeing) you would get zero loot for 2 hours of hard work. Also raids were locked behind these 5 mans so less people acually attuned.
 
Thats why I left maybe other reasons for others.
 
TLDR: Content too hard with little reward when completed	
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Quoting my post on a similar thread for ease of communication.
 
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It was a perfect storm of poor design choices and bugs. I'll try to sum up so it's not an absurd wall of text.
 
1. Catering to a niche market on a AAA budget
Probably the biggest design mistake. Carbine built what is essentially a theme park hardcore MMO on a HUGE budget. As anyone knows, while a healthy hardcore player base is great, you need content to keep the non-hardcore player base around and spending money, because the hardcore MMO players are a tiny % of who is playing your game. 
 
2. Rose tinted glasses do not make bad design choices good
Attunements are fine. Long, difficult attunements that become harder as the population drops are not. Who on earth thought making world boss kills a requirement was a good idea? I literally had to put together a tank set for my dps stalker so I could solo some of those dumb bosses. And then requiring an additional attunement for 40 man? Because putting a 40 man together wasn't difficult enough. Speaking of...
 
3. 40 Mans
Again, rose tinted glasses. 40mans were like herding cats. Half the challenge is even finding 40 competent people to not screw up. Also, since the first raid was 20 man and the second was 40 man, it meant smaller guilds had to drum up 20 more people. Terrible. 
 
4. Bugs
Oh god, so many bugs. So many broken things. Datascape (the 40 man) was like, in a beta state. Not ready for people to raid it at all. So even if you managed to find 40 people to raid, have fun with the bugs!
 
5. Slow content releases
So basically you only have ultra hard PvE, structured PvP (which died quickly) and dailies to do. Again, nothing for casual players to do, and hardcore players fed up with the roster boss? GG no re.
 
6. Too many servers, and you couldn't go from PvE -> PvP
As people left the game for the above reasons, this just compounded the problems. And then, if you were raiding on a PvP server you couldn't recruit from people on the PvE server pool, because they couldn't transfer to you! This is why the PvP servers emptied out.
 
In the end, only a handful of PvE guilds were left doing serious progression of any kind, and PvP was pretty much decimated due to a whole other list of problems that I don't know well enough to comment on. iirc only ONE guild managed to get DS40 before the switchover to 20, and it took them over a year to do it.
 
I hope Carbine doesn't repeat these mistakes. As a hardcore player, the time spent on this game was some of the most fun content I've ever done, but I couldn't justify staying as my guild disbanded and everyone I knew and liked left (granted, I was on Rowsdower, which was probably the worst-off out of all the NA PvP servers, so I won't lie that it definitely magnified the game's problems).
 
TL;DR AAA MMO made for hardcore players only, but full of bugs and bad choices so even most hardcore players left.
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The catch is that you cant create guilds or an arena team if you dont have a subscription.
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			My criticisms aside, Wildstar is a good, if flawed, game. I hope Carbine can turn it around.	
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Catches:  Can't create/invite into Guilds and Circles.  Can't create or lead Rated Arena teams or Warparties.  Only 3 AH and CX slots.  If there's a queue to login to the game, you will be in the back of the line.  Only 4 costume sets.  Lower decor limit in housing.  Only 2 slots in your personal bank.  No bonuses to crafting, gathering, currency, reputation.
 
http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/news/2015-05-28-wildstar-is-going-free-to-play-heres-all-you-need-to-know/
 
Other than not being able to create/lead warparties and rated arena teams(but you are able to join them), you will not be barred from end-game activities.  No restrictions on PvP or PvE queues, or Raids.
			
				
	Edited September 30, 2015 by beattlebilly	
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			Oh, my bad, when I read "Is there no endgame", my mind put "access" in there and with that I assumed he was a F2P'er who wanted to know what he was restricted from doing(What's the catch?), and also wanting to know why the game went F2P(which I couldn't answer, because I don't really know why, other than not enough subscribers).  
			
				
	Edited September 30, 2015 by beattlebilly	
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			people cant read sorry OP	
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So, what's the catch? Is there no end game? Does the game become easy and boring? How come more people didn't play it before the ftp move?
 
EDIT: just saw the posts about lag and just wanted to add I am not experiencing any so my view of the game is not affected; sorry to those who have problems with that and character creation, hope it gets solved soon
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how come this game went free to play?
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{| class="blockquote"
So, what's the catch? Is there no end game? Does the game become easy and boring? How come more people didn't play it before the ftp move?
 
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So, what's the catch? Is there no end game? Does the game become easy and boring? How come more people didn't play it before the ftp move?
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It is evolution and understanding.  A MMO is only good if a LOT of people are playing it.  By making it free, you greatly add to the player base, making the game orders of magnitude better.  
 
As an example, when I paid for 6 months of Wildstar - and many CREDD purchases for in game currency - I did have fun.  But when I went to the battleground queues - and started waiting - I lost interest and went back to WoW.  If, instead, Wildstar had thriving and fast battleground queues, then I'd have kept on - continuing to pay and have fun.  They NEED that playerbase - even if most are free players.  it is essential to create the environment to encourage the few who do pay to have something worthwhile to pay for.	
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The subscription model is dead, it is no longer viable. A few games are barely holding on, in denial, but it's only a matter of time until they go F2P too (WoW is at an all time low of subs). The bottom line is the F2P model is more profitable, and better for the game as a whole (population, economy, etc.). There's not really a "catch" involved, these games aren't going F2P as a service to their players, they are doing it to earn more money, and it works.
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OP: 
 
Out of curiosity, are you on a PvP server? Lag is horrendous on NA PvE (Entity) side.	
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			Yes, I play on the Warhound (NA PvP) server. The server is very alive with tons of people everywhere I go but I rarely experience any lag.	
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The "catch" with original Wildstar and the "catch" for F2P are two different things.
 
For original Wildstar, essentially the game was rushed out in an unfinished state both from a technical and design perspective. Wildstar at original launch was a buggy disaster that was catered ONLY to the hardcore players with not even so much as a thought for casual players. This obviously did not go over very well because the MMO market has evolved dramatically since the days of "raid or die" and the game essentially flopped. (I am not saying the game died, but it certainly did not live up to the hype.)
 
As for F2P Wildstar, the obvious catch is the $15/mo fee. The not-so-obvious catch will likely reveal itself in the months to come once F2P launch hype dies down. Will the devs provide enough content on a regular basis to keep players interested, how pernicious will the F2P stuff be in the future, etc.	
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The attunement process was too hard for most. Outside of raiding there wasn't a whole lot to do end game at launch. It just honestly needed another 6 months of dev time before the launch. Instead it was rushed out and spent 6+ months playing fix the bugs that should never have been there
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Nope, WoW is still in the millions of subs and racks enough money still. They make MORE money right now even with less subs because of the stock market. It's affecting the entire company lol and 6+ million subs is more than any other mmo in history in WoW declining state and WILL go up with the new expansion again.
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I would disagree that the attunement process was too hard for most. However I think we can all agree that the attunement process was certainly BUGGY, which led to people not getting attunement credit when they had put in the work/effort to overcome that difficulty. That for sure sent a lot of people looking for the exit...
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Not that I am complaining, but how come this game went free to play?
 
I joined the wave of noobs 2 days ago, got lvl 16 and so far I am having a blast. The game oozes personality and the sci-fi setting is so unique compared to other traditional mmos out there. The world (so far) is pretty, polished and I love exploring it. You can literally feel the love the team put into creating nexus. Also, for the first time in years of mmo play we wiped in a below-max lvl dungeon and it felt....thrilling and motivating.
 
So, what's the catch? Is there no end game? Does the game become easy and boring? How come more people didn't play it before the ftp move?
 
EDIT: just saw the posts about lag and just wanted to add I am not experiencing any so my view of the game is not affected; sorry to those who have problems with that and character creation, hope it gets solved soon
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The catch is that you cant create guilds or an arena team if you dont have a subscription.
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It's a great F2P model. I can't wait to actually play it. :)
 
I don't like SWTOR's draconian F2P restrictions (extra action bar costs money!!!) but their in-game store is excellent. From what I've seen so far, Wildstar's will be similar, and hopefully, equally profitable.	
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			Hi op, whats the catch ? You're actually experience it => big update = game broken	
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It's a great F2P model. I can't wait to actually play it. :)
 
I don't like SWTOR's draconian F2P restrictions (extra action bar costs money!!!) but their in-game store is excellent. From what I've seen so far, Wildstar's will be similar, and hopefully, equally profitable.
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I don't like SWTOR's draconian F2P restrictions (extra action bar costs money!!!)
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Well there really there is no catch. The number one reason this game died is because of lack of players. And a number of things contributed to it. Under-exposure, temporary/fixable game breaking bugs and issues, and having an over abundance of servers didn't help either. It divided the population like mad. And people quickly left the game once their server died and they couldnt transfer. Many people were already turned off by the sub model. Curious people didn't want to purchase because of all the negativity they were hearing at the time, and it all just snowballed to hell. Servers died quickly. People told their friends the game was dead, and no new players came into the game because of the undeserved negative attention Wildstar got.
 
Wildstar had no real reason to fail. The only think that killed this game was a lack of players, and the barrier to entry (buy/sub fee). Now the game is ready to launch and I'm sure Carbine isn't going to make the mistake of opening 50 servers again. Really the only thing that can kill this game a second time is the stupidity from the publisher (NcSoft) or really stupid future development decisions from Carbine....
 
This game is on the fast track to success as long as NcSoft plays their cards right. I can see it easily matching and overcoming the success of games like TERA, which was in a similar state when it first went free2play. In 1 or 2 years Wildstar will either be a total failure or one of the biggest free2play games in the West. And I myself am curious to know which path this game will fall under	
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Population dropped heavily a couple of months after it launched. 
 
I was left on one of those servers that were left practically dead after the exodus. I'm seeing a lot of people downplay it but it went from several full servers to a couple and it wasn't a fun time for those of us on a few of abandoned servers. Eventually I left myself. I put quite a bit into my character and I wasn't starting all over on another server.
 
It seems to be a combination of things that caused some people to leave. 
 
Raid attunement was, arguably, the most mind numbingly tedious exercise i've seen in something supposedly played for "fun".
 
The game was aimed at more "hardcore" players. It was never going to appeal to everyone and a lot of people walked away. It's a shame because it does a lot of things so right but, as I said when I was still playing, it crossed a line between "hardcore" and tedious. Dragging things out isn't challenge but it does get boring.
 
Couple that with dwindling populations on a few servers and people struggled to find groups. Those that had stuck around on those servers started to struggle to find groups and we started to get bored. This was mainly the EU servers. A couple of the NA servers still had high population but Carbine/NC had gone the region lock route. A hell of a lot of MMO's got rid of that due to it being about as popular as genital warts but there it was. 
 
I don't know how much has changed but the potential this game had/has is massive. It could have been a huge game but they dropped the ball the first time round. I hear a lot of things have changed now, raid attunement being one of them, but I don't know how much (haven't been able to log in yet).
 
One of it's big plus points for me is the housing. I've played every MMO with player housing but this has, by far, the best i've seen. Some of the designs people come up with are fantastic.	
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So, what's the catch?
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My criticisms aside, Wildstar is a good, if flawed, game. I hope Carbine can turn it around.
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The catch is that you cant create guilds or an arena team if you dont have a subscription.
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			The main problem was that the content was too hard for most of the playerbase and that there were too many flaws in the design + various bugs that each let to a smaller and smaller playerbase while new players were coming due to bad PR. Players who stopped playing mostly didnt say that it is no fun, they mostly named one of above reasons. furtheremore the WoW addon gave players content so they went back to wow.	
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The catch.
 
As previously stated even with the telegraph system, fights were so tightly tuned and bonus objectives so tightly tuned you needed not just good players, but have the playing the classes that worked well. There were many, many bugged abilities and poor design choices early on. Esper dps? better not be a high mobility fight! medic dps in the group? time to leave and re-queue. engineer and warrior in group? sweet now you can afk while they nearly solo the whole thing for you.
 
The loot being tied to a medal system was just..moronic. There is no other word for it.
 
The base game is ok. It's like guild wars 2 and eso combat but with more telegraphs for everything. And that was another problem..
 
The game launched just a couple of months after ESO. The paint wasn't yet dry on that release, and that game is still going and in a stronger position than wildstar thanks to it's console release.
 
This f2p launch was also done at a bad time - there are so many expansions and major patches for mmorpg's planned in the next month that it will take a lot of steam away from this train, and it clearly was not ready.
 
And then there is the parent company - NCSoft. They have made a lot of enemies among long-time mmorpg vets and industry insiders with the handling of Tabula Rasa and City of Heroes and that car one I can't think of the name for. That did color perceptions and expectations for this game.
 
Finally there was the absurd premise - that 40 man raiding could ever truly be a thing and be a profitable thing. Just before the burning crusade launched, blizzard was getting a lot of flack about going to smaller raids. While justified on some level due to the amount of guilds that imploded from the change, the company also posted interesting metrics. I don't have the exact figures for all but I do remember one - only 1% of the total playerbase at that time had cleared a single wing in Naxx40 6 months after it had released. I believe they also stated that less than 15% of the playerbase had successfully cleared a 40 man raid, while over 70% had cleared the 20 man zul'gurub raid.
 
This thought that there were enough paying customers to support 40 man raiding was unrealistic. The world economy was vastly different in 2004-2006 as was corporate culture.
 
This last part is my opinion, but I don't feel that the LAS works as well as it does in ESO.	
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			Lockboxes - I would prefer they be just cosmetic items and mounts, or do you prefer the STO version where the best items in the game are only available from lockboxes?	
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First of all I am sorry for being off topic.
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Catches:  Can't create/invite into Guilds and Circles.  Can't create or lead Rated Arena teams or Warparties.  Only 3 AH and CX slots.  If there's a queue to login to the game, you will be in the back of the line.  Only 4 costume sets.  Lower decor limit in housing.  Only 2 slots in your personal bank.  No bonuses to crafting, gathering, currency, reputation.
 
http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/news/2015-05-28-wildstar-is-going-free-to-play-heres-all-you-need-to-know/
 
Other than not being able to create/lead warparties and rated arena teams(but you are able to join them), you will not be barred from end-game activities.  No restrictions on PvP or PvE queues, or Raids.
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I dont think there really is a 'catch' per se, but the game had a real rocky start that it never really was able to bounce back from, hence F2P.
 
It released to early, and didnt really have the endgame content for the non raider, besides that, the typical newly launched MMO issues of bugginess. The artstyle was perhaps to reminiscent to WoW for some, and had some performance issues (not everyone). The group content demands, at least when I played a year ago, more coordination that has been typically expected from a pug in other games, which turned some people off, add to that that at released your group was rewarded by dungeon performance with their gold/silver/bronze medal system (changed since then) it created some drama. The new IP didnt help either, sadly.
 
Most of this seems to have been addressed with the last year of development, so time will tell how much the changes will resonate, with the new/newly returned players.
 
I think the game, at its core, is solid, although I think the new mouse look REALLY should have been a core mechanic/option at launch. I havent really been able to get back into it yet because of queues and whatnot, but I think the F2P model is very fair, so you wont be locked out of content or have dungeon run/loot limits like with TOR for instance.
 
I would probably advise that if you like it, to drop some money to get the social features, like circles and guilds unlocked fully (a previous poster touched on this).
			
				
	Edited October 1, 2015 by Dantos	
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I would disagree that the attunement process was too hard for most. However I think we can all agree that the attunement process was certainly BUGGY, which led to people not getting attunement credit when they had put in the work/effort to overcome that difficulty. That for sure sent a lot of people looking for the exit...
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			The game was badly optimized for AMD hardware, and leveling was really slow when the game launched.On top of that, instances were ludicrously difficult relative to other games in the genre, and drops in instances were based on how well your group did.The attunement process towards raiding was long and ardorous, and you needed 40 people (20 now) to raid. There were quite a few bugs around the early history of the game as well. A lot of people got bored at level cap.To top it off, the game launched while GW2 was enjoying quite the success with their business model, so some people just outright refused to play the game because of the subscription requirement. (it released around the same time that ESO did, so there was some competition there. And both games were sub-based at the time.A lot of the issues listed have been adressed in a variety of ways with the F2P update, though.
			
				
	Edited October 1, 2015 by Havesh	
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Nope, WoW is still in the millions of subs and racks enough money still. They make MORE money right now even with less subs because of the stock market. It's affecting the entire company lol and 6+ million subs is more than any other mmo in history in WoW declining state and WILL go up with the new expansion again. 
 
It's because it has loyal players from the olden days and was the first of the few sub games to succeed thus you will never see WoW go down into the ground. Same for FF14, it has a COLOSSAL AMOUNT of loyal fans to support the P2P model due to the FF series having a history of quality of it's solo player games.
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