115911-massively-interview

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Massively has not been my favorite reading stop lately, but they did just put out an interview piece that's not just opinion and speculation! You can read it here! 
 
 
There's some pretty exciting stuff in there that I want to know more about! Like...what's a "Contract?" 
 
..."we're adding a new system called "Contracts" that can be enjoyed in parallel with the parts of the game that you prefer regardless of your level, location, or skill."
 
Also this: "Players like the challenge of the raids and dungeons. Player feedback has shown us that they're not happy with trying to wrangle a 40-man roster, so we're working on a plan to alleviate this, and we'll be able to talk about it very soon."
 
They are adding more solo friendly play as well, which will be very fun.
 
And they teased us about the next drop: "We have new daily and weekly content, PvP and both the Protogames and the Protogames Academy dungeon/raid slated to roll out in the January update and Protogames Allstars and Augmentors dungeon/raids as well as new World Story and shiphands."
 
*bounce bounce* SO excited!!	
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			I think I have the same questions you do :)	
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Oh hey, look at that, an interesting read!
 
At least we know there are at least 200k players:P	
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			I was kinda hoping that they just ignored his questions after he whined about them not being answered last week.  Another teaser about Contracts though, I can't wait to actually get some details.	
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			Gonna read this after the Nexus Report, thanks for the link! :D	
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Actually, I'm more relieved when they said they have no current plans to change the business model.
 
The offer still stands.  I will pre-subscribe to all the time that NCSoft and Carbine can definitively say they will not be going F2P.  If it's three months, I'll pre-sub to the quarter.  If it's a year, I'll buy the whole year.  Just give me a decisive post saying, "You have nothing to worry about until [now]".  I'll handshake you with subscription time.
 
Still, it's good that it's not on the table right now.	
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Interesting interview and reply to the previous Massively post. There's a couple responses where the PR bull got a little thick. Oh, you can get to level cap without raiding? Umm, yeah, okay. How can you have "tuned gear" in an itemization system that's getting an overhaul? I thought Donatelli was a straight shooter?
 
Regardless of the scratch your head moments, it seems they're at least steering in a direction now as opposed to just spinning haphazardly. My biggest concern if they can actually deliver. The first hurdle will be this Wednesday's server merge. If they cupcake it up, it certainly doesn't bode well for the Hail Mary Drop 3: Please Let This Work.	
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Looking at the responses on Massively to the interview always makes me sad  :(  
Is there like a sitgma on Massively website against Wildstar or something?	
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Looking at the responses on Massively to the interview always makes me sad  :(  
Is there like a sitgma on Massively website against Wildstar or something?
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The Massively community that respond to WS articles seem like a bunch of fails. GoldenGirl, for example, never misses a chance to crap on the game and gloat over its supposed failings/imminent death. It's pretty sad to see someone that hard-up for emotional stability and productive things to do.
 
The WS forums get their fair share of inarticulate and self-serving posts, but also plenty of valid criticism and debate. The rage and ignorance from the Massively posters doesn't seem worth wading through because the criticisms are hive-mind and frequently paranoid/decontextualized.	
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I wonder if the folks claiming that the problem is the players and not the game really understand how much damage they've done.  I suspect they don't.  
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Massively used to be a big booster of Wildstar.  They aren't any more. 
 
It's not just Massively either, it's pretty much everywhere in the Internet gamesphere that isn't here.  Former players are very bitter and people who've been pointing out Wildstar's issues since closed beta are toasting each other with champagne to have been proven right. The whole narrative of "It's not the game's fault, it's the players who suck!" that's all over these forums, unrestrained, is causing a lot of bad feeling in the greater MMO gaming community, and the community is lashing out. 
 
I wonder if the folks claiming that the problem is the players and not the game really understand how much damage they've done.  I suspect they don't.  
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 Yea, I'm sure the juvenile inability to move on with their lives has nothing to do with these responses either. Because mature, intelligent people prefer to gloat and cavort every time they think they're right about how wrong other people are.
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So who's been a jerk about it? Because I see a lot of finger-pointing and gloating directed towards Carbine, not the overzealous white-knights. Who are, actually, a pretty small minority. I frequently see threads on these forums that criticize and the responses are often from many different perspectives. This is not black vs. white as your comments insinuate.
 
Next, I didn't name-call or insult anyone. I said it was "juvenile inability" which is a criticism of the behaviour. Don't try to escalate my comments.
 
Also, please never again include in an argument the phrase "it's absolutely human nature". Neither as a fact, nor as a justification for doing things like posting a picture of a woman dancing on a grave.
 
Also also, I'd appreciate if you avoid, in future comments, any subtext that you weren't posting a comment that 100% generalizes/pours more gasoline on the fire. :)	
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Well people seem to really cling onto this "hate wildstar". I have never been offended by a game. For example I'm not satisfied with WoW these days, but I have never expressed that opinion openly in such a negative manner as some of those people are. This might be the only situation where I'd apply the word "butthurt" (God I really hate that word) because I feel it describes the comments quite nicely for a majority of them. 
 
You don't have to write in the most condescending and negative way as possible to express your opinion on a game's state. 	
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You don't have to write in the most condescending and negative way as possible to express your opinion on a game's state. 
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I don't understand the "70% of people play MMOs solo" part.  They use it as reasoning to add more solo content, but maybe 70% of people play solo because there isn't enough group content?  The entire leveling game is solo, and once you're at cap there's not much to do on a day-to-day basis in groups (solo queueing for group content doesn't really count).  Most people do dailies solo because its a pain doing them in a group and you're actually punished for doing so (most quests take much longer in groups).  All the "prime" mobs that were fun to group up for while leveling are gone in daily zones, and the "group" quests in the daily areas can easily be soloed.  "Prime" mobs were a great idea, but why didn't they carry over into the daily areas?
 
I think it'd be nice to see more focus on "small group" content (less than 5 players, but more than 1) rather than just pure solo content.  With the imminent arrival of mega-servers, there will always be somebody else running around to pair up with for dailies. SWTOR had some really great questing areas designed for 2 and 4 man teams that I really enjoyed.  It'd be nice to have something like this where you can group up for dailies rather than competing with other players in the area for kills.  This would also help people whose main-spec isn't DPS since they could tank/heal with their partner instead.
 
I know there's "supposedly" some group content coming in the new zone, but they said the same thing about Blighthaven and look how that turned out.  People run past all the mobs in front of Eloynia to speed-run her and then people just stand around at the tree event waiting for it to fail rather than defending it.  That's not exactly engaging group content.  How about something where multiple players have to solve a randomly generated puzzle to gain access to an eldan lab?  Or coordinate together through an area with moving platforms...  There were some fun group puzzle mechanics like this in raids in SWTOR (look up the Towers of Hanoi puzzle boss, or Soa), but not all of your fun mechanics have to be hidden away in raids...	
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So who's been a jerk about it? Because I see a lot of finger-pointing and gloating directed towards Carbine, not the overzealous white-knights. Who are, actually, a pretty small minority. I frequently see threads on these forums that criticize and the responses are often from many different perspectives. This is not black vs. white as your comments insinuate.
 
Next, I didn't name-call or insult anyone. I said it was "juvenile inability" which is a criticism of the behaviour. Don't try to escalate my comments.
 
Also, please never again include in an argument the phrase "it's absolutely human nature". Neither as a fact, nor as a justification for doing things like posting a picture of a woman dancing on a grave.
 
Also also, I'd appreciate if you avoid, in future comments, any subtext that you weren't posting a comment that 100% generalizes/pours more gasoline on the fire. :)
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This is just the fallout of that
 
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The past is the past for a reason. Pointing fingers is not gonna help either side (community or carbine itself). The topic was about the upcoming changes massively blocked about and I think that's what needs to be discussed if there's even a reason of discussing it and nothing else.
 
I read the article already earlier this morning before it even became a topic. I have to say that this interview defiantly helped me in moving on. While I understand the changes being made and a lot of people loving the game with the new upcoming changes, for me and only for myself before someone get's offended again here, it's something I have 0 interest in following up on.
 
I joined wildstar for it's raiding content not for the lore, housing, character customization. Don't get me wrong it's nice and all but just not my thing. Since there are no changes made to the raiding system itself or actual new raid instances being added, I have to say that this game became nothing but boring. The solo content could be interesting but playing an hour or two and being done with it is not worth the subscription.
 
However I hope that Wildstar can increase it's customer base and actually improve their business model.	
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I joined wildstar for it's raiding content not for the lore, housing, character customization. Don't get me wrong it's nice and all but just not my thing. Since there are no changes made to the raiding system itself or actual new raid instances being added, I have to say that this game became nothing but boring. The solo content could be interesting but playing an hour or two and being done with it is not worth the subscription.
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Since there are no changes made to the raiding system itself or actual new raid instances being added, I have to say that this game became nothing but boring.
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			Item stat changes on raid gear would be tops on some raiders list, myself included. From what I am reading, those got pushed back to January.	
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Gratz on Avatus btw, when are you releasing the video?  Who got dat pink weapon?
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Have you already completed all of our raid content?
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Do you feel that the game's insistence on marketing itself as "hardcore" helped alienate players before it went live, as it was not a part of the game's initial announcements or marketing push? Was there a major shift in development philosophy away from the sandpark style of play originally discussed? 
Chad Moore: Epic Warplot battles, intense raids, and dungeons that would put even the most experienced players to the test were always a part of our marketing campaign. Similar to most MMO marketing campaigns, those aspects of the game are discussed and detailed closer to launch following months of buildup focused on lore, features, combat. classes, races, housing, etc. However, it was the difficultly of the raids and dungeons that specifically caught the attention of both media and fans alike. Players embraced the difficulty of those specific game experiences as they were up for a new challenge. Because of this added attention to the difficulty of those game experiences, the "hardcore" label that was mentioned specifically in the Raid DevSpeak took on a life of its own painting an inaccurate perception of the entire game. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our fundamental development philosophy from the very beginning has been "play the way you want to play," and with things like Path content, Housing, Role-Playing, Challenges, Shiphand Missions and Adventures, we think we're still sticking to that philosophy. You will see moving forward that our content updates will provide fun things to do for players of all kinds and at various levels. MMOs are big, and we know that there are parts of the current game that need to be adjusted to better reflect that philosophy.
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Have you already completed all of our raid content?
What sort of changes were you looking for?
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All i got out of the interview was confirmation thats its not the game for me despite ENJOYING the game.
They basically said there would never be any casual content great than 5 mans.
Ever. Period. Raids are for elites only and thats the way it is.
 
Between that, the white knights, and forum moderation, this was my last day.
Still have like 2 or 3 months of prepaid sub too, but its clear the devs are either not listening, or listening to the wrong people.
Wish yall the best, cheers.	
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They haven't said they won't make larger content for casuals, there just aren't plans right now. They can only do so much.
 
Of corse, stuff like R 12 and World Bosses do exist, so what exactly are you looking for? 10 man raids?
 
I think you can already do GA pretty casually with the right guild, and least the mini bosses and X-89, if you can organize 20 people.	
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Ever. Period. Raids are for elites only and thats the way it is.
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People talking about lack of new dungeons and raid content confuse me...I even quoted this: "...Protogames and the Protogames Academy dungeon/raid slated to roll out in the January update and Protogames Allstars and Augmentors dungeon/raids as well as new World Story and shiphands."  I mean...if that doesn't say more dungeon/raid content is coming, I'm not sure what does????
 
 
Anyway, my guild is raiding happily in GA, and I do not consider us elite ( AWESOME! but not elite :P ). We'll hit up as much raid content as we can. I expect we'll clear GA and, worst case, find a guild to team up with to run DS until new 20 man stuff comes out. Play the game the way you want doesn't quite mean that everything in the game will be something you want to do. Do the parts you enjoy and leave the rest alone. It's a big world!
 
Guess I should go finish the Drusera instances so I'm ready for Journey to Omnicore when it comes out!! :D
 
 	
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All i got out of the interview was confirmation thats its not the game for me despite ENJOYING the game.
They basically said there would never be any casual content great than 5 mans.
Ever. Period. Raids are for elites only and thats the way it is.
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Actually, the Defile apparently includes a whole string/chain of 20-man open world events. That seems like a great opportunity to get out and do some casual large-scale content. At least I hope it will play out that way.
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Yeah, over in the "Changes" thread "supriselol" just made a post calling WoW players retards and "The lowest common denominator." 
 
If I were still playing WoW, that kind of garbage would definitely make me do a little dance on Wildstar's body, gotta admit.  Keep in mind that there are probably a good chunk of players playing and enjoying both games since a lot of MMO fans keep multiple subs going at the same time.  I realize it's not the whole of the Wildstar fan base doing this kind of thing and ticking off the rest of the MMO player population, but there are enough of them that it's just not surprising that a ton of MMO players are reacting to Wildstar's struggles with undisguised glee. 
 
It's not so much that trash talking other games is unusual, but the arrogance and nastiness of a certain portion of Wildstar's fan base is extreme and really grating, and people are reacting to that.  Posts like the one I'm talking about happen here on these boards multiple times a day and it's really not a good thing.  It makes the game population look really uninviting and unattractive to players who might otherwise give the game a shot and hinders the game's chance for population recovery. 
 
There isn't a whole lot random posters can do about the bad apples, of course, but if you're looking for a reason why the comment sections on these articles savage Wildstar so badly, this is a lot of it right here.  The perception is that the devs support and encourage this kind of attitude among the toxic portion of Wildstar's player base with all the talk of how Wildstar is "hardcore", and people outside the immediate Wildstar bubble just freaking hate it.  And react as you might imagine. 	
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Yes, it's absolutely human nature to say "I told you so!"  It's particularly satisfying when the person insisting they were right when they weren't has been a jerk about it, and you know it is.   There wouldn't be nearly as much celebration of Wildstar's struggles if the Wildstar fanbase hadn't been so dismissive and insulting of players with real complaints. You think anyone can dish out that garbage and somehow not get it tossed back in their faces at the first opportunity?  Nope. 
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I would really, really like to know some specifics on this, because... I'm not seeing it. Is this about the difficulty thing? Y'know, just because you don't agree with other players on whether WildStar is too hard or not, doesn't mean those players are dismissing all complaints about the game. It's pretty easy to see that the vast majority of criticism gets taken as valid.
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I'm thinking about starting a doc file of all the insults and nastiness that gets tossed around on this board so that the next time someone says something like this, I can just do a file dump and go "There. See?"  And that will end the discussion. The most common and worst sort of post for inviting greater community backlash was the ever-popular "If you don't like Wildstar it's because you're a baddie scrub -- go back to WoW!" (See supriselol up above there.)  If you haven't seen this stuff, it's because you haven't been looking or haven't been paying attention. I used to call out these guys as "Blizzard Plants" because they were doing such a good job of driving people away from the game that I posited that they were in the pay of Blizzard, hired to deliberately ruin Wildstar's player base and thus the game's chances, but it was like shoveling back a snowdrift with a teaspoon.  I never actually believed that literally, of course -- but I was hoping they would see the level of harm they were doing and the backlash they were inviting from the larger game community.  They didn't, of course. So now the backlash is here, and as I said, it's utterly predictable. "I'm a baddie scrub? Well my game is still thriving, and YOURS is DEAD. So enjoy your HARDCORE, jerkwad!"  
 
Utterly predictable. 
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It really does sound like WoW is a better fit for what you want to do in the game, so I wish you the best.
 
FWIW, I almost always have fun in dungeons in this game, and a lot more fun than I did in the dungeons in WoW. But admittedly, I care very little about lore. 99% of the reason I play is for exciting and engaging combat.
 
Different strokes for different folks. I think there are enough people this game can appeal to as it grows and matures.	
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Heh, funny story, while everyone seems to be on the topic at hand.
 
So I got home from work tonight, and I logged in to check my mail, to see if my auctions sold.  I told my wife that I was kind of irritated because I had to work late tonight and I wouldn't get a chance to log into Wildstar for very long before I had to hit the hay and go back to work in the morning because I wouldn't get to play after work tomorrow night.
 
"Why?" she asked.
 
"Wildstar is getting the Megaservers starting tomorrow and the game will be offline for about 24 hours."  I told her.
 
"Oh, you mean they're switching to Megaservers because no one else plays your game?"
 
"What...?  Where did that come from?  Other people play too!"  I replied, somewhat shocked.
 
"Every time I look at your screen it looks so empty.  So, it's what, like you and 5 other people?"
 
...
 
Now, mind you, this woman and I share the same bed and have for the past 4 years and have 4 children together so you know I love her more than life itself, but I swear... I almost cancelled her WoW subscription right then and there.	
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Why is it a big concern to people whether you're surrounded by people in a game or not? If you enjoy the game, continue to play it. If it's a problem of investing your time in a game you're not sure where is headed, well I would actually recommend WoW as I don't see it going anywhere in a long time. But if you enjoy playing Wildstar despite everything going on, then I'd say go on. I still continue to play the game as I find it very enjoyable. When the time comes and I find it less enjoyable, I just move on. Wildstar has brought me so many hours of joy, I'm pretty happy with it atm. 
 
But I'm also weird like that I guess. It does definently take away from the Massive Multiplayer aspect of an MMO, so it does make sense. 	
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Now, mind you, this woman and I share the same bed and have for the past 4 years and have 4 children together so you know I love her more than life itself, but I swear... I almost cancelled her WoW subscription right then and there.
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Heh, funny story, while everyone seems to be on the topic at hand.
 
So I got home from work tonight, and I logged in to check my mail, to see if my auctions sold.  I told my wife that I was kind of irritated because I had to work late tonight and I wouldn't get a chance to log into Wildstar for very long before I had to hit the hay and go back to work in the morning because I wouldn't get to play after work tomorrow night.
 
"Why?" she asked.
 
"Wildstar is getting the Megaservers starting tomorrow and the game will be offline for about 24 hours."  I told her.
 
"Oh, you mean they're switching to Megaservers because no one else plays your game?"
 
"What...?  Where did that come from?  Other people play too!"  I replied, somewhat shocked.
 
"Every time I look at your screen it looks so empty.  So, it's what, like you and 5 other people?"
 
...
 
Now, mind you, this woman and I share the same bed and have for the past 4 years and have 4 children together so you know I love her more than life itself, but I swear... I almost cancelled her WoW subscription right then and there.
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LMAO @ Vic
 
Had to log in just to like your comment.
 
haha	
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Oh hey, look at that, an interesting read!
 
At least we know there are at least 200k players:P
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"WildStar currently has hundreds of thousands of active players."
 
If you really want to parse the quote, the lower limit would be 100,000 players.
 
He didn't say "a couple hundred thousand" or "a few hundred thousand"
 
Of course, he isn't going to be allowed to be very specific, but I imagine he would be as generous as possible in his verbiage.
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"WildStar currently has hundreds of thousands of active players."
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			20 man Datascape! Make it happen!	
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I'd just like some smaller raid content tbh. It's all I have missing from my game. I love Wildstar and it seriously ruined all other MMO's for me. The combat is just addicting and I can't get enough.
 
With Shadow of Revan coming to SW:ToR (my first MMO and I love it dearly) I went back these last few days to give it a go so I can be ready and take advantage of seeing the 12X class mission exp boost so I can see the last 3 story lines I haven't done (max'd all the other classes already) and I was just frustrated with the movement, the combat. Wildstar you ruined me.
 
Just give me some small man raiding content and I will never leave you. Hell, I'll STILL never leave you as your combat system is hands down my favorite, but just give me something to do with 10 people where I can progress and I will love you even more. 
 
Oh, and get better at passing your story. You may not have the IP that ToR has that speaks to me since I'm a SW fan since I was 4, but you still have an amazing one. Get better at telling it, even during quests, and I would be so happy. I can deal with bugs and super expensive stuff as everything always starts expensive and eventually gets fixed.	
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right now actual group content is kind of lacking and is in this weird niche place
like adventures are pretty much a joke they're so easy and lacking challenge in any way. It's like enduring boredom for the sake of gear
while dungeons are... let's put it this way, I have a varied group of friends
The more casual people that want to login, run a 50 dungeon through the group finder, and be done playing an hour later find them to be completely impossible
The hardcore people trample through them with 5 people in assault spec just slaughtering everything before it even has a chance to be dangerous
there needs to be more dungeons for variety and have to find some sort of enjoyable for everyone middle ground ground
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Come on, there's PR BS and there are flat out lies.
 
One would not have to solo a zone-wide event:
 
 
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Come on, there's PR BS and there are flat out lies.
 
One would not have to solo a zone-wide event:
 
 
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Love the game, its music, the difficulty in raids, the art style, the challenges...
 
... but from the amount of people I've seen in Pergo and Stormtalon, I highly doubt the game has 200K or more active players (unless most of the people are on EU servers)...
 
I still hope this will change with megaservers and drop 3 though  :)	
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			Raids are the hardest PvE content, therefore give the best PvE loot. That does not mean however that you need to be "elite" or "hardcore" to do them. My guild raids 9hrs a week and are 5/6 GA. By no means are we hardcore, but we can still progress in raids. I've seen guilds recruiting that raid less than us and they still kill bosses, just might be at a slower pace due to only raiding 5-6 hours. But hey, they can still get in there and do it.	
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Just a comment on the whole 'hundreds of thousands claim':
 
I also had doubts that the game currently has several hundred thousand players. Why? Because I don't see anywhere near that many, I've been on Stormtalon and Evindra and they're both fairly quiet, overall.Now let's dig into that a bit. Based on my personal experience, on what I can see in Illium and when I travel, I would estimate there are  less than 1000 players actively logging across all servers. 
 
Does that make sense? No, not in the slightest. If Wildstar were anywhere near 1000 players this game would be tanking way, way harder than it is, and NCSoft would have probably already pulled the plug, as their income would be abysmal and would not even support the salaries of the staff at Carbine. There has to be significantly more players than we're seeing, though I can't explain why we're seeing so few. Concurrency has some part in this but I have no idea to what degree.
 
Let's apply this perspective to WoW. It has 7m subscribers, so let's be cautious and assume half of those actually play on a semi-regular schedule. That's 3.5m players. WoW has what, maybe 400 servers if you include EU and other places? Many of them are ghost towns, and I think the most I've seen online in Proudmoore (one of the most active servers) was around 100 players. So let's be generous and say that every one of Blizzard's servers has 200 active players in a given day.
 
That's a mere 80k players... roughly 2% of the shared subscriber number.
 
The point I'm trying to make here is that either our experience of a given population is very misleading, or major game developers across the board are lying. I'm gonna go with the more reasonable explanation and assume the the first possibility is the correct one.
 
Consequently, I have no problem believing that this game has at least 200k players. 	
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Now, mind you, this woman and I share the same bed and have for the past 4 years and have 4 children together so you know I love her more than life itself, but I swear... I almost cancelled her WoW subscription right then and there.
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Just a comment on the whole 'hundreds of thousands claim':
 
I also had doubts that the game currently has several hundred thousand players. Why? Because I don't see anywhere near that many, I've been on Stormtalon and Evindra and they're both fairly quiet, overall.
 
Now let's dig into that a bit. Based on my personal experience, on what I can see in Illium and when I travel, I would estimate there are  less than 1000 players actively logging across all servers. 
 
Does that make sense? No, not in the slightest. If Wildstar were anywhere near 1000 players this game would be tanking way, way harder than it is, and NCSoft would have probably already pulled the plug, as their income would be abysmal and would not even support the salaries of the staff at Carbine. There has to be significantly more players than we're seeing, though I can't explain why we're seeing so few. Concurrency has some part in this but I have no idea to what degree.
 
Let's apply this perspective to WoW. It has 7m subscribers, so let's be cautious and assume half of those actually play on a semi-regular schedule. That's 3.5m players. WoW has what, maybe 400 servers if you include EU and other places? Many of them are ghost towns, and I think the most I've seen online in Proudmoore (one of the most active servers) was around 100 players. So let's be generous and say that every one of Blizzard's servers has 200 active players in a given day.
 
That's a mere 80k players... roughly 2% of the shared subscriber number.
 
The point I'm trying to make here is that either our experience of a given population is very misleading, or major game developers across the board are lying. I'm gonna go with the more reasonable explanation and assume the the first possibility is the correct one.
 
Consequently, I have no problem believing that this game has at least 200k players.
 
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Your made-up math makes me cringe. But i do agree with the last line. I can definately see the game having 200k players.
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			I never liked Massively and all their opinionated reviews from even before Wildstar, frankly I hate those guys over there now because they've been especially harsh and some cases untruthful toward Wildstar. They're defamatory and a bunch of idiots. Plus the commenters they attract makes me feel like I'm back on the LoL forums. People that read their slander before considering to try the game I feel sorry for, I only trust word of mouth.	
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I never liked Massively and all their opinionated reviews from even before Wildstar, frankly I hate those guys over there now because they've been especially harsh and some cases untruthful toward Wildstar. They're defamatory and a bunch of idiots. Plus the commenters they attract makes me feel like I'm back on the LoL forums. People that read their slander before considering to try the game I feel sorry for, I only trust word of mouth.
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The point I'm trying to make here is that either our experience of a given population is very misleading, or major game developers across the board are lying. I'm gonna go with the more reasonable explanation and assume the the first possibility is the correct one.
 
 
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Just a comment on the whole 'hundreds of thousands claim':
 
I also had doubts that the game currently has several hundred thousand players. Why? Because I don't see anywhere near that many, I've been on Stormtalon and Evindra and they're both fairly quiet, overall.
 
Now let's dig into that a bit. Based on my personal experience, on what I can see in Illium and when I travel, I would estimate there are  less than 1000 players actively logging across all servers. 
 
Does that make sense? No, not in the slightest. If Wildstar were anywhere near 1000 players this game would be tanking way, way harder than it is, and NCSoft would have probably already pulled the plug, as their income would be abysmal and would not even support the salaries of the staff at Carbine. There has to be significantly more players than we're seeing, though I can't explain why we're seeing so few. Concurrency has some part in this but I have no idea to what degree.
 
Let's apply this perspective to WoW. It has 7m subscribers, so let's be cautious and assume half of those actually play on a semi-regular schedule. That's 3.5m players. WoW has what, maybe 400 servers if you include EU and other places? Many of them are ghost towns, and I think the most I've seen online in Proudmoore (one of the most active servers) was around 100 players. So let's be generous and say that every one of Blizzard's servers has 200 active players in a given day.
 
That's a mere 80k players... roughly 2% of the shared subscriber number.
 
The point I'm trying to make here is that either our experience of a given population is very misleading, or major game developers across the board are lying. I'm gonna go with the more reasonable explanation and assume the the first possibility is the correct one.
 
Consequently, I have no problem believing that this game has at least 200k players.
 
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Gratz on Avatus btw, when are you releasing the video?  Who got dat pink weapon?
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Snarky comments aside, he said changes to the raiding system, which I would assume means a move to 20-man (or smaller).  Wanting more raiding content is not the same as wanting 40-man raiding content.   The current plan is not worth his subscription, and I doubt he is alone.  Every 4-5/6 20-man guild right now that can't make the transition once they down Ohmna will be more lost subscribers (especially with WoD around the corner that they can easily switch to with flex/20). 40-man was always a risky expiriment, and I am surprised that so many resources were placed on it, with virtually no back-up plan, and just stop making them isn't a good plan unless you have a new 20 man ready to go (a single boss encounter that is between dungeons and GA is not it).  I was a supporter of 40-man, because it has a lot of benefits but they aren't being capitalized on and the playerbase is not adjusting, and who knows the playerbase might stabalize and see success in it, but I doubt it.
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You know they are working on more 20 man content right? The "Boss-in-a-box" augmenters encounter has been on the PTR for quite some time now. There will likely be more of that down the road. Expecting them to release new raids every month is kind of ridiculous. So the snarky comments are perfectly reasonable to that sort of attitude.
 
Further, if any of the players have ANY respect for their guildies at all beating ohmna and calling it quits is just terrible form. Yeah maybe 3ish players are geared out, but there are so many more in the raid that helped those who are geared get geared. Those people need to run GA more times until they are geared too. By then there will hopefully be more content, or circumstances have changed and guilds have merged such that DS is possible. That attitude "oh we killed ohmna, I beat the game" is beyond selfish. 
 
My guild (that runs 2 raids) has 4 ohmna weapons now. There are at least 36 people plus bench who don't. I'm not saying all of us will get their ohmna weapon, but it's absolute crap to assume that as soon as a guild that can only field 1 raid hits 6/6 their raiding life is over. 
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Yes, I do know they are, since I noted it in the post (a single encounter between dungeons and GA). They are working on more of all forms of content.  A single new boss encounter in 7 months (if it is in the January drop, which is likely with the loot/currency overhaul scheduled), after only having 6 (12 if counting mini-bosses) at launch for 20-man is not enough content to keep him, or me, subscribed.  To just say well you haven't done the 40-man is not going to keep anyone in a similar position in the game.  If you see no future fun in the game, why would you stick around?
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Where are all these hundreds of thousands? I never see them in Thayd on Myrcalus when ever I log in!!1!!11!
 
 
I also look with note that Carbine have reduced their server count DOWN TO TWO!!!!!.. dying game is dying!!1!!1	
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Where are all these hundreds of thousands? I never see them in Thayd on Myrcalus when ever I log in!!1!!11!
 
 
I also look with note that Carbine have reduced their server count DOWN TO TWO!!!!!.. dying game is dying!!1!!1
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Disingenuous poster is disingenuous.
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"I'm a fanboy."
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While many comments are not written in the best tone, if you look passed the passive/aggressive, angry, mean spirited, etc tone of the posts there are valid points, observations and questions.
 
Personally I feel that Carbine still has a good game and that things can be righted.
 
It is my hope that along the way to putting things in order that comments made by Carbine employees are open and honest. If for some reason it is felt that something cannot be answered with facts then skip it. Do not try to placate us with answers that you think we want to hear because honestly sometimes it comes across like you think we are brain dead, or close too it.
 
 
Also, if the current subscription model is going to stay as is, it might not be a bad idea to throw us a bone with some sort of subscription sale. I mention it because I feel that Carbine would have an easier time keeping the numbers while we wait for bug fixes before waiting for content with a price break. I would justify the request by pointing out that originally the subscription model was justified with promises of monthly content. Since that is not happening, some people are leaving until it does. If the sub went down to $10 or even $7 until things are righted, Carbine sends the message that we are important and that they are willing to work for their money... and charge us based on their performance.
 
No, $15 is not a lot... but in most businesses when a mistake is made refunds are handed out and/or concessions are made. In doing so people stick around and even fall in love because they feel valued and appreciated.
 
I want to be clear, I don't need a price break to stick around at this point, but I am feeling that more needs to be done to keep people as it is easier to hang onto people than it is to get them back once they leave.
 
I would really like this game to succeed.	
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More like sarcastic post is sarcastic :P
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Where are all these hundreds of thousands? I never see them in Thayd on Myrcalus when ever I log in!!1!!11!
 
 
I also look with note that Carbine have reduced their server count DOWN TO TWO!!!!!.. dying game is dying!!1!!1
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I don't understand the "70% of people play MMOs solo" part.  They use it as reasoning to add more solo content, but maybe 70% of people play solo because there isn't enough group content?  The entire leveling game is solo, and once you're at cap there's not much to do on a day-to-day basis in groups (solo queueing for group content doesn't really count).  Most people do dailies solo because its a pain doing them in a group and you're actually punished for doing so (most quests take much longer in groups).  All the "prime" mobs that were fun to group up for while leveling are gone in daily zones, and the "group" quests in the daily areas can easily be soloed.  "Prime" mobs were a great idea, but why didn't they carry over into the daily areas?
 
I think it'd be nice to see more focus on "small group" content (less than 5 players, but more than 1) rather than just pure solo content.  With the imminent arrival of mega-servers, there will always be somebody else running around to pair up with for dailies. SWTOR had some really great questing areas designed for 2 and 4 man teams that I really enjoyed.  It'd be nice to have something like this where you can group up for dailies rather than competing with other players in the area for kills.  This would also help people whose main-spec isn't DPS since they could tank/heal with their partner instead.
 
I know there's "supposedly" some group content coming in the new zone, but they said the same thing about Blighthaven and look how that turned out.  People run past all the mobs in front of Eloynia to speed-run her and then people just stand around at the tree event waiting for it to fail rather than defending it.  That's not exactly engaging group content.  How about something where multiple players have to solve a randomly generated puzzle to gain access to an eldan lab?  Or coordinate together through an area with moving platforms...  There were some fun group puzzle mechanics like this in raids in SWTOR (look up the Towers of Hanoi puzzle boss, or Soa), but not all of your fun mechanics have to be hidden away in raids...
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