109596-my-thoughts-on-the-state-of-the-game

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Carbine is a victim of a very common error. They raised their bar way too high, consequently, raising our expectations too high. (I'll come back to this later.)
 
Don't get me wrong, Wildstar's combat is the best in the industry, as far as I know, and their dungeons are the most engaging and challenging. Attuning, although sorta overkill, is a fine idea. I don't mind that it's hard to get into raids, as long as you don't tie important lore into them, which was done here. The rest, however, is not very good.
 
Adventures
 
Although a very good idea, were not very well executed. Some of them are too long. Most of them are boring. Also, if there's something game-makers should know is that, as a mass, people are just dumb. And I don't mean to offend anyone here, it's just social psychology. Giving us the ability to "choose our path" was a mistake. It provoked "best route" scenarios (which they were trying to avoid) and generally unpleasant or not enjoyable experiences. The same thing with Medals (I'll talk about those soon). Instead they should have let the game (read, The Caretaker) choose for us. That way you make DAMN sure that every run through would be a different experience. Also, they could have been just a bit shorter and more action oriented. Siege of Tempest Refuge is the only good, engaging Adventure. Other than getting rid of player choice, Malgrave Trail could do without all the "look for food and other crap" downtime. Make the thing more about protecting the Caravan, not about feeding them. Maybe have the players on mounts and implement some mount combat. War of the Wilds has too many damn flags for it to be fun and a large area where you basically do nothing for most of the Adventure. I hate to mention WoW here but, Alterac Valley is a great example of what a good War of the Wilds could be. Except PvE, instead of PvP. Most of the time spent in AV, before reaching the enemy base, was fighting over control points and that was DAMN fun! Crime Lords of Whitevale just needs to remove player choice like mentioned above.
 
PvP
 
Well I haven't PvP'ed in Wildstar but i hear it's terrible!
 
Randomness
 
Another thing that needs to be done is to tone down the randomness on a lot of things. Tradeskills and Hobbies, and Gear, for example. Thankfully, they are starting to take steps to remedy this with the upcoming changes to Runes and Rune Slots. Hopefully some changes to crafting randomness will come soon (or late) after.
 
Medals
 
Oh medals! Basically, medals should only be achievements and should have had NOTHING to do with ANY level of progression. Beating the Dungeon/Adventure should be enough to progress. You want to reward us for constantly playing the content without creating the toxic atmosphere that exists now AND let us practice the content to polish our skills? Give us rare drops just for beating the content and make the drop rate small. Not tiny, but small. You know, so you can see the drop anywhere between your 5th and 15th run, not on your 50th run. Then let the "Achievement Whores" (I use that term lightly, no insult intended) try for perfectly executed runs. In other words, Medals should be something ELSE to do...not the progression threshold.
 
"They raised their bar way too high, consequently, raising our expectations too high."
 
Forget the part about raising our expectations. That's just hype and, sadly, it has become a staple of video game marketing. The first part of that statement, however, is very important. Raising their own bar so high has a consequence we are seeing now. Not being able to reach that bar causes anxiety which, in turn, activates defense mechanisms. In Carbine's case, they are so afraid that their game is turning out to "not be that great" that they start to deny that there is something wrong with it. The evidence for this is in the amount of money they're spending on "Community Activities" like the Nexus Report and other things that are really unnecessary and useless at this moment. They are just ways to deviate attention from the real problems. Yes, they usually talk about stuff their doing to improve the game but, that can all be done for much cheaper through forums. The rest is just a waste of money and time. Money and time that could be going to more important issues like bug fixing and game balancing and polish. Don't misunderstand. These things are great ideas, I just think their execution is premature. They should have allowed their game to take roots before spending so many resources on such a huge social media presence.
 
Dailies is another BOREDOM MONSTER!
 
Random dailies chosen from a large pool of dailies is already a staple in a lot of new MMO's. Why would Carbine go back to the same FRICKING dailies EVERY FRICKING DAY?!!! I really don't mind the rehashed zones so much but, the same dailies OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER..............AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER again? It's just lazy development.
 
And last, but certainly not least, Monthly Content Drops. I only have one thing to say about that. This is the most insane, irrational and schizophrenic idea any developer has ever had!!! Did they really expect to be able to maintain an MMO functioning at an acceptable level by introducing new code every fricking month? IT'S INSANE!!!
 
Anyways, those are my thoughts. Agree with them or not is really not my concern. It's Carbine's. I like the game. I still play it every other day if I can (I have a job, dammit!!! :(). The combat is just too addictive!
I really want this game to succeed. It has the potential to be the next great MMO if they only allow it to be. If that's not what Carbine wants well, that's ok too. But then they should lower their monetary expectations cause. like it or not, most players don't have the time or the commitment to be HARDCORE...even if they wanted to.	
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			I don't think they Raised the bar too high. If they wanted this thing to be a cash cow they chose the wrong Philosophy. If they wanted this to be a Niche game that catered to a specific type of MMORPGer most of what's here is fine.	
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I dont mind a high bar.
 
in fact I prefer that. but if they want to keep the bar high they have to keep trying to maintain that, which they need to do.
 
personally after a couple months I really dont expect a large selection of dailies at max level. a year from now, my expectations will be massively different. besides, I know how to have fun in a game. I dont expect them to entertain me, just to provide the framework.	
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	My thoughts on the state of the game
 
 
 
 
 
 
I don't know	
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Want to know what I think?
 
I think I want to take a nap.	
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