Carbine announced its shutdown along with Wildstar.

[t209]

https://kotaku.com/wildstar-developer-carbine-studios-shuts-down-1828862729
For summary, Wildstar had a rough start in 2014, then it went F2P a year later.
Strangely enough the community (mixed PVE and RP) are strong enough to enjoy the game, even we made stories.
Now at long last, the game is going to shut down, though no date is given but it will be soon with Carbine's announcement.
I am not sure if there are games that are similiar to Wildstar, at least in genre and art.

[Psyren]

I had high hopes for Wildstar back in the day, but they squandered their potential. I can't remember what specifically turned me off, but both WoW and Guild Wars did its magitech schtick better.

Whatever it was that sunk them (if indeed it was one thing), I doubt that NCSoft's management was any real help.

[NeoVid]

One painful joke among the people who did still play was "How is this game still running?" They originally designed Wildstar for the 5% of MMO players who want extreme challenge without realizing that would mean 95% of players wouldn't like it. I got into it just because I'm a fanatic raid grinder in most MMOs (well, and because WS let you tank as a tiny rodent in power armor), and it was such a pain just to get raid attuned that I left off trying for months.

Just a few months after launch, they massively updated the core systems of the game to make it more average-player friendly, but no one who'd left after launch month found out they should give it a second chance. They did a pretty sad job promoting the game after launch, and it never got enough of a player base again.

Wildstar holding out this long despite never being popular will always leave me wondering why NCSoft did the opposite of what they did with City of Heroes... Hopefully we'll at least get something along the lines of Paragon Chat for Wildstar's housing. The player housing should have been enough to carry a game on its own, and I don't expect ever getting anything to match it in another MMO.

[Kitten Champion]

I had high hopes for Wildstar back in the day, but they squandered their potential. I can't remember what specifically turned me off, but both WoW and Guild Wars did its magitech schtick better.

Whatever it was that sunk them (if indeed it was one thing), I doubt that NCSoft's management was any real help.

According to this breakdown (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru0dXDz9qoY&ab_channel=nerdSlayer), they had poor player retention in general. With the bleeding hastened by dividing the population too sharply with the addition of what would turn out to be unnecessary realms which were added under the presumption they'd be eventually necessary for continued growth. While they'd see a spike again with a F2P conversion it was temporary as the same issues plagued them.

The video attributes much of this to Wildstar failing to really differentiate themselves, aside from raids for hardcore PvE-oriented players. Which, having a 40-player raid format in a game with both a dwindling population and associated performance issues was a real problem. Add to that the limited number of raids and that they only added one in the game's lifespan and you don't have much to invest in.

[Psyren]

According to this breakdown (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru0dXDz9qoY&ab_channel=nerdSlayer), they had poor player retention in general. With the bleeding hastened by dividing the population too sharply with the addition of what would turn out to be unnecessary realms which were added under the presumption they'd be eventually necessary for continued growth. While they'd see a spike again with a F2P conversion it was temporary as the same issues plagued them.

I do enjoy a good Nerdslayer/LazyPeon autopsy. Not sure why I never sat down to watch the Wildstar vids but I'll give that one a look.

[Hunter Noventa]

It's hardly a surprise, given NCSoft's Korea-centric outlook and unrealistically high demands for profit. After what they did to City of Heroes and Tabula Rosa, I'm surprised anyone gives them the time of day.

[NeoVid]

It's hardly a surprise, given NCSoft's Korea-centric outlook and unrealistically high demands for profit. After what they did to City of Heroes and Tabula Rosa, I'm surprised anyone gives them the time of day.

Oh, I'm not about to forgive or forget what NCSoft tends to do to games I like, but I can't blame the dev teams for being unlucky enough to be working for NC.

[t209]

Oh, I'm not about to forgive or forget what NCSoft tends to do to games I like, but I can't blame the dev teams for being unlucky enough to be working for NC.
Well, they were somehow given a job to make a (canceled) Chinese release rather than Korea, which might make it more suspicious.
I just go there for RP, which customization on housing plots allowed to create interesting buildings and even run RP events.
Alas, bad fortunes for me was that I was banned from an RP community over my fight with the admin, which is actually my fault and I have gotten more agitated this year and lost my impulses over rejection. And it was my second chance a week ago after I got into a fight with the admin, which means that I was banned a week after the announcement.
At least, I have learned to let go of it and decided to change my behavior (also learn to relax and not get obsess).

[AdmiralCheez]

I played a bit of it back when they offered a free trial shortly after launch, and then again when it went free to play. It had some good ideas, and an interesting setting, but I think they wasted a lot of potential. Like, I was really into the whole two factions at war for the rights to this planet full of mystery and secrets story, but it just felt like after the first few zones, they kinda forgot about it in favor of bog-standard MMO quests. Like, I'm a little hamster thing loaded down with guns and robots on an alien world, and you're sending me out fighting trolls with spears and oversized aggressive animals? I can do that in any generic fantasy MMO.

And I think they went too strong on the goofy evil corporate business guys. I started a new character a few months ago to see what was new, and a lot of the tutorial was fake sales pitches. It was just a bit much.

So, it's still sad to see an interesting world shut down, but honestly I'm surprised to learn it was still going all this time. I though it would have gone under years ago.

[t209]

I played a bit of it back when they offered a free trial shortly after launch, and then again when it went free to play. It had some good ideas, and an interesting setting, but I think they wasted a lot of potential. Like, I was really into the whole two factions at war for the rights to this planet full of mystery and secrets story, but it just felt like after the first few zones, they kinda forgot about it in favor of bog-standard MMO quests. Like, I'm a little hamster thing loaded down with guns and robots on an alien world, and you're sending me out fighting trolls with spears and oversized aggressive animals? I can do that in any generic fantasy MMO.

And I think they went too strong on the goofy evil corporate business guys. I started a new character a few months ago to see what was new, and a lot of the tutorial was fake sales pitches. It was just a bit much.

So, it's still sad to see an interesting world shut down, but honestly I'm surprised to learn it was still going all this time. I though it would have gone under years ago.
Yeah, I kinda prefer if they just make it like "faction-less" though.
http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/12/13/e65baf17198f0125e1de7c627fc7f59f.jpg
Maybe like...GW2.

[t209]

http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/news/2018-09-26-wildstar-signing-off-november-28/
So the game is going to be closed on November 28th. :smallfrown:

[NeoVid]

As a City of Heroes fan, an NCSoft game getting shut down at the end of November brings back painful memories.

At least the WS closure is being handled in a much less arbitrary and evil way than the end of Paragon Studios.

[Spore]

It's hardly a surprise, given NCSoft's Korea-centric outlook and unrealistically high demands for profit. After what they did to City of Heroes and Tabula Rosa, I'm surprised anyone gives them the time of day.


Oh, I'm not about to forgive or forget what NCSoft tends to do to games I like, but I can't blame the dev teams for being unlucky enough to be working for NC.

The only NCSoft game I played was Aion which was pretty baller on release but you soon discovered that endgame is lacking. People started to unsub, the game was forced to go f2p but weirdly enough it is still going.

It is apparently pretty healthy but quite pay to win (you still need skill but buying stuff in the cash shop tends to advantage you very much).

[Hunter Noventa]

The only NCSoft game I played was Aion which was pretty baller on release but you soon discovered that endgame is lacking. People started to unsub, the game was forced to go f2p but weirdly enough it is still going.

It is apparently pretty healthy but quite pay to win (you still need skill but buying stuff in the cash shop tends to advantage you very much).

Never forget that NCSoft forged Richard Garriot's resignation while he was in space. Now there was controversy on both sides of that regarding Tabula Rosa, but that's going just a little bit too far.

[Spore]

Never forget that NCSoft forged Richard Garriot's resignation while he was in space. Now there was controversy on both sides of that regarding Tabula Rosa, but that's going just a little bit too far.

That sounds like a super spy movie plot. Replace NCSoft with a company that does nuclear weapons, and Tabula Rasa would be their world ending scheme. :D Maybe just attack his returning vessel with a rocket.

[AdmiralCheez]

Oh, hey, I got a PayPal refund on the $5 I gave them for a new character slot a few months ago. Wasn't expecting that, honestly. Now I don't feel so guilty about spending it and not logging back in.

[Psyren]

My big problem with it is that everything it was trying to do, GW2 (and to an extent WoW) ended up co-opting and doing better. Being massively multiplayer, the science fantasy elements, combat based on avoiding the bad, exploration/platforming, race/class identity, they were outclassed in all of it. Maybe the PvP was better, but I'll never know since that isn't my bag.

By my understanding, the only niche they really nailed was player housing, which admittedly is a selling point, but you've got to distinguish yourself in the other areas before people come to your game for that.

[t209]

My big problem with it is that everything it was trying to do, GW2 (and to an extent WoW) ended up co-opting and doing better. Being massively multiplayer, the science fantasy elements, combat based on avoiding the bad, exploration/platforming, race/class identity, they were outclassed in all of it. Maybe the PvP was better, but I'll never know since that isn't my bag.

By my understanding, the only niche they really nailed was player housing, which admittedly is a selling point, but you've got to distinguish yourself in the other areas before people come to your game for that.
All it need is player housing.

[NeoVid]

Carbine did the same thing Paragon Studios did near the end and spoiled the game's entire planned storyline! (https://www.wildstar-online.com/uk/news/2018-11-14-the-lost-world-story/)

Unlike CoH, there will only be a few people beside me who will care, but it's still good to see.