130930-f2p-launch-september-29th

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https://twitter.com/WildStar/status/639423237127077888
 
Yep.
 
Was fun knowing you all. Another rushed release, and this was the last chance WildStar had to redeem itself. Pity, it had the potential to be a really fun game.
 
Why the negativity, some of you may wonder. Well, it's because so many things on the PTR didn't get tested or fixed yet. We are all STILL waiting for the "big patch" that was supposed to fix a lot of the issues regarding stats, runesets, equipment and classes, and now we have a release date... For this month. Nothing will get fixed, nothing will get balanced. This was the last chance WildStar had to attract a large number of new players, and now all those new players will get an incomplete product and most of them will turn away. Just like at launch. Good job, Carbine.	
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			i think they are going for this month's release because gw 2 hot is releasing next month not to mention gw went f2p a few days ago.... So they have to rush it or else there will be no people to try it. Or maybe its just me LOL	
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i think they are going for this month's release because gw 2 hot is releasing next month not to mention gw went f2p a few days ago.... So they have to rush it or else there will be no people to try it. Or maybe its just me LOL
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			Doesn't matter why they are doing it.They *cupcaked* up the release and haven't learnt their lessons.Ruining a game that had the potential to be great, what a disgrace.Sorry but this is a right let down.	
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Not trying to be offending but i think ws has to make a profit before q3 or else ncsoft are gonna sack them. As much as it hurts I think ncsoft are pressuring them on release or some financial profits asap
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Not trying to be offendive but i think ws has to make a profit before q3 or else ncsoft are gonna sack them. As much as it hurts I think ncsoft are pressuring them on release or some financial profits asap
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Or they could wait for the dust to settle on the GW2 release, take their time to get things right with WildStar this time and THEN release F2P... There's so, so much that still needs to be tested, balanced and fixed, it would easily take months to get it to a presentable state for F2P launch.
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i think they are going for this month's release because gw 2 hot is releasing next month not to mention gw went f2p a few days ago.... So they have to rush it or else there will be no people to try it. Or maybe its just me LOL
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This feels incredibly rushed, if anyone has spent time on the PTR outside rune crafting they would know they are still huge issues. Currently the class balance is out of whack the rune specials are still incredibly OP or incredibly under powered. Rune sets are still being altered or at least where changed just recently, not enough time to test them. From day one of PTR we have issued this problems and still waiting for this "big patch" that was supposed to change rune's and class balance, and we getting the Drop released in about 3 weeks without anyone ever testing it.
 
I was going to be amazed if they released the F2P launch mid October, but this seems way to fast.
 
 
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Not trying to be offending but i think ws has to make a profit before q3 or else ncsoft are gonna sack them. As much as it hurts I think ncsoft are pressuring them on release or some financial profits asap
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			and the "beta phase 2" patch today did... nothing?	
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			I feel they really should have had F2P launch and drop 6 be separate things - they've been focusing so hard on the cash shop and getting F2P out, everything else in drop 6 seems it didn't get the time it needed to be done properly.	
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and the "beta phase 2" patch today did... nothing?
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			No Trailer? No main page website update? Oh Carbine ... But "WildStar: Reloaded" sounds good ;)	
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Not good news. Releasing late October, in conjunction with the new Hallows Eve content, would have been the better option I feel. More time to get things right.
 
From what I've seen on the PTR it's nowhere near ready. So unless they have a big patch of fixes ready to drop and test before the end of the month, the signs aren't good.
 
If their intended release schedule was this tight and pressured they should never have attempted to change so many things about the game for F2P. So much energy seems to have been spent (wasted?) on changing things that didn't really need changing and creating a big heap of extra bugs and issues in the process.	
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I too agree with you guys, this release feels so rushed! I was sincerly hoping for a Nov/Dec release if not a pospone it to next year.
Live client is no way perfect: addons bugs, pvp bugs, awful ui (e.g. AH/CX), servers' issues need to be addressed before f2p. And we're still getting those random DCs in battlegrounds, issue that's been around since release. 
 
On top of that there are all the bugs and issues with d6 and stuff that haven't been tested at all (arena, warplot) and others that still need a lot of tweaks (tradeskills).
 
Man, I'm totally against this release date :(	
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I'm usually overcritical, but here's a different take that is sorely lacking in this thread.
 
I'm excited! I don't find anywhere near the problems that get embellished on the forums and I can't wait to play the game 'for real' again. I've been waiting for F2P to come back b/c there just wasn't anything to do, but now I'll likely level a new character and chart my own path across Nexus.
 
Looking forward to Shade's Eve as well...thought we would miss it if they didn't launch beforehand.	
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I too agree with you guys, this release feels so rushed! I was sincerly hoping for a Nov/Dec release if not a pospone it to next year.
Live client is no way perfect: addons bugs, pvp bugs, awful ui (e.g. AH/CX), servers' issues need to be addressed before f2p. And we're still getting those random DCs in battlegrounds, issue that's been around since release. 
 
On top of that there are all the bugs and issues with d6 and stuff that haven't been tested at all (arena, warplot) and others that still need a lot of tweaks (tradeskills).
 
Man, I'm totally against this release date :(
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			I just hope the gear and runes are fixed by release. Last build on the PTR had some really weird stat choices and item levels.	
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as I wrote on my tumblr:
 
Releasing within less then a month when you just pushed the second phase of the closed beta on your PTR is......ballsey to say the least.
This is indeed as pointed out another rushed released, because I'm afraid that getting everything fixed before release is going to be near impossible.
Which leads us again to a (re)launch of the game where stuff is missing, broken or incomplete.
 
As said: It seems they simply are not learning at all.
My hope is really fainth, but prove us wrong Carbine.	
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 Originally Posted by ministabber 
With the shades eve instance boosting any player at level 10 or over to level 50, I'd say end of the month or first 2 weeks in October! This will give all the chance to see it, they have also said most of the bugs have been removed from their in-house beta client
Nailed it ....	
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			Well, we have try, guys. We have tell them a lot of things which were wrong, we made them know their mistakes in the past so it doesnt happen again but it's their game so...it's on their hand	
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Not trying to be offending but i think ws has to make a profit before q3 or else ncsoft are gonna sack them. As much as it hurts I think ncsoft are pressuring them on release or some financial profits asap
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			One does not just "drop" a publisher that has invested money in them, especially if they have yet to see returns on their investment.	
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Why hasn't Carbine dropped NCSoft?  Is because money?
 
I mean... ArenaNet dropped them.
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Heh. Rushed? There's still a whole month left for beta testing. You say they could wait until after GW2's expansion launch, but they really can't. They need to get people playing the game before they get invested in something else. And if they wait, it will likely be waiting clear into late November/December when all the other games are having releases.
 
So yeah. Stop being so negative about this. The sooner they reelase F2P the better.	
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No Trailer? No main page website update? Oh Carbine ... But "WildStar: Reloaded" sounds good ;)
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Heh. Rushed? There's still a whole month left for beta testing. You say they could wait until after GW2's expansion launch, but they really can't. They need to get people playing the game before they get invested in something else. And if they wait, it will likely be waiting clear into late November/December when all the other games are having releases.
 
So yeah. Stop being so negative about this. The sooner they reelase F2P the better.
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Heh. Rushed? There's still a whole month left for beta testing. You say they could wait until after GW2's expansion launch, but they really can't. They need to get people playing the game before they get invested in something else. And if they wait, it will likely be waiting clear into late November/December when all the other games are having releases.
 
So yeah. Stop being so negative about this. The sooner they reelase F2P the better.
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Knowing that F2P was coming in the Fall and the timing of F2P beta, I decided to skip out on this beta. My reasoning was simply that they wouldn't have time to fix what I felt are important issues (I realize that Carbine won't prioritize the same things as I have but there are obvious issues that have been bugged for a long time that I doubt will change in F2P, such as the Technophage daily). While I am happy that they finally announced a date, I am worried that this is going to be another repeat of WS's first launch.
 
I always go back to the naming issues in beta. We tried to tell them that there would be a problem with naming characters and they didn't do anything about it until much later. The best part was the name reservation fiasco where they responded "We weren't expecting so many people to reserve one!" 
 
And I am a sad Spider Bro, I would have really liked to look at the beta server but damn my principles! I especially want to live in the Holo-Crypt thread, but I don't feel right posting if I'm not part of the beta.	
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holocrypt is now a scheduled task 
sprint is gonna change and give us the ability to toggle to live actual version of it
 
now the fight is in 3 fronts (runecrafting, class balance and pve dificulty  curve)	
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Anybody who thought that F2P wasn't coming in late September/early October once the Shade's Eve stuff ended up on the test server was frankly being naive.
 
As for NCSoft "rushing them out the door", nope. Sorry, I'm not along for the "this is all NCSoft's fault" ride at all. This game has been out for more than a year already. If it is still unplayable because they're still trying to get stuff like "what are stats, anyway?" right, that is not NCSoft's fault.
 
Looking forward to having some new content on live, and here's hoping that Carbine can make the most of the next few weeks of polishing.	
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Willing to bet more or less anything that NCsoft are just bullying them into releasing early. It's not time to release yet Carbine, unless you've got a huge patch coming up like TOMORROW that fixes all the current balance and bug issues.
 
If you guys release a huge balance+bugfix patch IMMIDIATELY, giving us time to test it out for a few weeks, MAYBE your F2P launch will be smooth. But it really does have to be right now. I hope somebody is working overtime.	
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Very rarely do I chime in, but now is one of those times.
 
The optimistic side of me says that Carbine has been working on free to play a LONG time before it was first announced. They have been planning for months with the idea of a fall release with shades eve in mind. Many people were assuming mid-October. They have learned from past releases and have fine-tuned their closed testing and development cycle.
 
The pessimistic side of me says that not one single update has come out that has not had something totally broken in it. There have been some pretty amazing updates, like the strain update, but they have been riddled with flaws.
 
Most of us on the forums have played from the beginning. We play because we love the lore and we love the unique style of gameplay. We choose to pay because we love it regardless of the flaws. So, if we choose to pay and play regardless, why do we complain so much about what could happen to a botched early F2P release? Because now anyone who doesn’t share that love can come in, have one bad day, and flame this game into the ground. Video game review sites will have the opportunity to trash this game like never before, and ensure that this game never reaches the player base that it deserves. People that were never devoted enough to this game to pay and play will come to the free game, and claim with a mighty voice: "LOOK! WE ALL TOLD YOU SO!"
 
Carbine, your long time pay-to-play gamers love you, and we DO support you and wish for a strong F2P release. But, prepare for Trolls and Flammers. To quote a favorite hero to us all...
 
"The tank can't handle that much pressure.""Where'd you get that idea?""It's in the impulse specifications.""Regulation 42/15: 'Pressure Variances in IRC Tank Storage'?""Right.""Oh, that. Forget it. I WROTE it!"
"A good Engineer is always a wee bit conservative, at least on paper." - Scotty, to La Forge
 
Better to be conservative and lauded later by your peers, than promise more than you can give up front.
 
With best regards -- Bandit	
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DISCLAIMER: This is just for fun....
 
via Imgflip Meme Maker 	
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holocrypt is now a scheduled task
 
sprint is gonna change and give us the ability to toggle to live actual version of it
 
now the fight is in 3 fronts (runecrafting, class balance and pve dificulty  curve)
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I wish I could say good things were coming, but none of the crafting issues have been addressed yet and for those of with crafted endgame gear that is a real concern also today they posted you had to buy coins for the first time from the shop but you can just buy them in game so something is broken there.
 
I don't have too much to say right now except I hope they can lock it down before launch, the last thing I want new players to see is all the veterans starting threads about how broken things at endgame are. It's possible they could be quite broken.
 
I guess I'll just hold my breath until the 29th.	
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			June stream...we have been working on F2P for over 6 months...so last Christmas maybe ?	
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June stream...we have been working on F2P for over 6 months...so last Christmas maybe ?
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Well they might have been talking and working on the aspects around F2P for that long but if they worked that long on Drop 6, the content, then shame on them because if its actually almost 9 months of work its incredibly poorly made
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It's a little bit silly to even consider this when they've put out other content, including much of what has set the game 'right' in that time. 'Working on F2P' is everything from backend systems to the changes coming and Shade's Eve. Pretty disingenuous to say 'the content' is all that 9 months represents.
 
There is plenty to criticize with honesty, we don't need to embellish things.  -_-
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What surprises me the most are the folks in here who are implying or straight up saying the game needs more time to be fixed. We all know that many decisions/systems viewed as broken by the vocal community still make it to live, no matter how much beta time there is. I expect no difference for the F2P launch. Yes, it'll be a bit of a disaster, but isn't that becoming part of the charm? :P  (Probably not, but it's got to stop registering surprise and indignation at some point.)I hope folks will get past their vocal criticism (which is totally reasonable to post, I get it) and either leave or continue supporting the game.
 
Although a minority, I love this announcement cause it means bigger plots faster for everyone. :P  Oh and some sick ass new decor. :D
 
 
See y'all on mega skyplots in the near future!
			
				
	Edited September 3, 2015 by EsperXIV	
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Why hasn't Carbine dropped NCSoft?  Is because money?
 
I mean... ArenaNet dropped them.
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 Originally Posted by ministabber 
With the shades eve instance boosting any player at level 10 or over to level 50, I'd say end of the month or first 2 weeks in October! This will give all the chance to see it, they have also said most of the bugs have been removed from their in-house beta client
Nailed it ....
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			Don't be blaming NCSOFT for this....CRB have tried to shove too much in again and should have learnt from their previous lessons.  They can't keep cowering under the blame NCSOFT brigade...it's about time they learnt how to set their workload and content correctly and not chuck in a load of half bodged stuff.Do smaller chunks and do them right.  If this was the F2P patch then get the bloody F2P cosmetic garbage and shop going and only that.  Don't take on a massive overhaul of the rune system, the stats and everything else at the same time!I still can't believe they're even going to do this myself.  I hope they've made some serious groundbreaking changes in the latest PTR update is all I can say!
			
				
	Edited September 3, 2015 by Charge	
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Sorry, I'm not along for the "this is all NCSoft's fault" ride at all. This game has been out for more than a year already. 
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I wish this didn't make me feel like a lot of our testing and feedback has been mostly for naught.  It just seems like few concerns and complaints have been addressed or even responded to.  Hopefully that changes over the next few weeks, but it feels like they made up their mind on how they're going to do this and there's no more time to shift gears regardless of how we feel about things.
 
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I hope folks will get past their vocal criticism (which is totally reasonable to post, I get it) and either leave or continue supporting the game.
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I think you were around in closed beta like I was and if you remember back to when the initial launch was decided by those that held the purse strings (not carbine) you will recall the devs posting some very up front statements on the beta forum on how they would have liked more time with testing before launch making it pretty obvious that they did not feel the game was ready. I think MANY of us will agree that a large portion of the player base was lost due to some major oversights (like pvp gear rating dropping for one) that might have been identified and addressed had the developers had more time as they wanted. 
 
As the launch date was taken out of Carbine's hands and we know the disastrous results that followed, cuts were then made just a few months after launch including a huge chunk of Carbine employees losing jobs. Now, it is not unusual for a staff reduction after the launch of a game but you typically do not see these numbers within a few months and the game already had a long list of 'needs' as far as work that needed to be done.  To say this game has been out a year is a true statement but I suggest that a circle of chaos started because of the early launch (before Devs were ready) resulting in a reduction of a huge chunk of employees that were needed to continue working on all the issues this game has and the additional work involved in taking it to ftp.I sincerely question whether Carbine had/has the proper staffing to handle everything. 
 
One article on the staff cuts: http://www.polygon.com/2014/10/23/7050545/wildstar-carbine-studios-layoffs
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If they can't deliver stuff they should scream til they're blue in the face and not do it.  
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I'm honestly happy it's coming sooner rather than later at this point. If you've been here since launch you should know by now how things get fixed around here....takes a while, or it never happens.
 
Been here logging in once a day for like 15 minutes a day just to do a daily and then log off....
 
All my friends have left and all my guilds have disappeared, I read EntityLFM from time to time and don't recognize any of the names anymore really. I see people using EntityLFM to spam guild recruitment essays, used to be we didn't allow this as a community to prevent it from getting filled with spam, now everyone is for it ???
 
I want a new community, it's lonely on Nexus......	
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Criticizing this move and supporting the game aren't mutually exclusive. In fact, I'd say they largely go hand-in-hand in this regard. People are complaining because they support the game and want to see it get the second chance it deserves. We don't want a repeat of the original launch.
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You really have no clue on the hierarchy and who was pulling the strings do you? Carbine had no say in the matter as far as 'not doing it'. 
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Friend just said he dueled a Warrior Tank on the PTR and couldn't even get the tank's HP or shields down while the Warrior killed him with his spammer, pretty fast too. Battlegrounds and Arena are going to be a joy if F2P launches with this...
 
Going to be testing tanks and healing in PvP more myself once I get home, but honestly I don't think any major change is going to make it to the game before the launch, so feeling a little disheartened and discouraged to keep testing...	
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You work there do you?  You actually think NCSOFT came in there and said change the rune system, change the stats, give us a cash shop?  
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"Rushed" huh? They need to make money. They made sure the cash shop worked. Their intentions were never to apply fixes to the base game, it was to test the F2P stuff. Anything else was luck. I think a lot of you may not understand that. For those of you saying "Why doesn't Carbine drop NCSoft".... They can't. NCSoft OWNS Carbine. Carbine is a subsidiary of NCSoft. The company was created by NCSoft and has NEVER been an independent business. It was created by them specifically for Wildstar in 2007ish.
 
Would you rather they were dropped and the game disappeared?
			
				
	Edited September 4, 2015 by Jamesius	
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"Rushed" huh? They need to make money. They made sure the cash shop worked. Their intentions were never to apply fixes to the base game, it was to test the F2P stuff.
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And you think it's a good idea to do a major stat and runesystem change at a critical moment like this, where they are re-launching the game in an attempt to attract people to fix the suffering population issue? The game is a mess right now, so many thing are out of whack balance wise and many more things broken or just poorly designed. If it was launching with the current live content, it'd be better. But they decided to not only launch F2P, but also drop 6 with all the huge changes at the same time. That's why it's rushed. Cash Shop might be ready, but Drop 6 is not. New players will join, see a broken, unbalanced and unpolished game and leave.
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And that is all later game stuff that only effects people who have been playing it for a little bit. A brand new player isn't going to be getting into those systems immediately. Again, this change isn't about you or me or anyone else playing right now. It is purely about new players and money.
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And all those players who quit at launch and who are interested in coming back? They come back, see what a mess this is and change their mind. Also it takes like 1-3 days to get from lvl 1 to 50 if you want to level fast. You really think Carbine can fix Drop 6 before a large number of new players are reaching endgame? Because I don't.
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A brand new player isn't going to be getting 1-50 in three days. You don't seem to be understanding who they are marketing to with F2P.
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I remember people getting to 50 in three days back at the first launch... And even if it takes every new player 2 weeks to get to lvl 50, Drop 6 endgame will most likely still be a mess by then. Oh, and I'm not even going to talk about the changed sprint function and new Explorers ragequitting the game due to bad movement system...
 
I'm especially worried for PvP, the PvP community has been struggling since drop 2, and now is the best chance this game has at getting PvP up and going again... But it's very broken. People won't stay.
 
Carbine/NCsoft would have made a LOT more money if they had waited a bit longer and taken their time to fix and get things working properly.
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A brand new player isn't going to be getting 1-50 in three days. You don't seem to be understanding who they are marketing to with F2P.
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Not every person who doesn't want to pay a sub is bad at MMOs. In fact, I'd wager that some of the people are returning players who will in fact hit Lv 50 very quickly, and enjoy the smack in the face from the amp/ability grind when they get there.
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Wow, did you read my post? I wasn't discussing the rune system or changing stats, my post had nothing to do with the cash shop. lol 
 
Not even going to attempt to make a legit reply other than to say you have no clue what I was saying or the point I was making.  
 
My favorite statement of yours was this as it made me laugh
 
Sort of like saying, we don't know what color it is but it is definitely blue. 
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You wrote one sentence, I quoted it.  It's very clear what you said so stop ya squirming quoting half a sentence and putting into a context you want to make it.
 
 
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			Look back at the posts..you plucked a few words out of my post, not the other way round.I did not twist it at all.I said CRB may have had the release date forced on them but they chose to change the rune system etc etc etc.That is their judgment that failed them by not managing things correctly and only including content that was required for F2P and for that release date.  So runes and class changes has a lot to do with that because that's what the game is in the most part.The fact is they have a shared responsibility, they knew the release date, they aren't in the right place.  I'm not poking the DEVs, I'm looking at the management.This is more like "Wildstar : Groundhog Day" than it is "Wildstar : Reloaded".  They've failed once with the launch, have they learnt from that...clearly not.There's only so much pointing of the finger at "the people with the purse strings" that can be done.  The management should be doing their job and not allowing far too much to be changing if they can't deal with it.  It's pretty simple.
			
				
	Edited September 4, 2015 by Charge	
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I wasn't saying they are bad. I was saying they won't be getting from 1-50 in three days on a brand new MMO they've never played before. I don't think returning players will be doing it either for the most part. Some will, but the majority? No.
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But they will.. levling is ridicolous right now. I have levled 4 characters and the fastest is 24 hours played.. Back at launch I levled my character to 50 in 3-4 days played and since then they've made levling a lot faster.. so we will see new players at endgame before Carbine even roll out their first "bi-weekly".
 
Carbines dev team is small, there is no way that they will manage to fix the mess of all the new systems before majority gets to 50.
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I doubt people will get to 50 super fast. Some will, sure. Most won't get there that fast. We'll have "hardcore" F2P players, sure. The majority won't be, they'll be a lot more casual.
 
Look at SWTOR with 12x XP... You can get to level cap in a day. I've done it. The majority, even with 12x, don't. I ran a guild over there, had people who would take well over 2 weeks to get to it. Just because you CAN level super fast, doesn't mean people will.
 
Now, what the dev team does, and doesn't fix in the future, that is another matter. We'll see.
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