Producer Stephan Frost was for several years “the face” of the action MMORPG WildStar. In 2014, it was a game that many saw as a “WoW-killer”. Years after the end of the online role-playing game, he explains on Twitter how it happened, what went wrong with WildStar, and what he would do differently today.
This is the situation:
- WildStar was the hottest new MMORPG in 2014, coming to the market after years. WildStar was clearly designed as a “WoW alternative” and was presented that way: It aimed to excite former players of World of Warcraft and focused on challenging raids and elaborate access quests to these raids.
- There was a lot of anticipation for the game: This was also due to the incredibly good “DevSpeak” videos, which humorously showcased individual aspects of the game.
- Producer Stephan Frost was “the face” and the voice of these DevSpeak videos. He was the point of contact for the WildStar community – he explained the game to the people.
- However, WildStar launched with many problems and Frost left Carbine Studio just a few weeks after the release.
Show the people out there why the team is so excited about the game
This is how Frost became the “face” of WildStar: Frost says that when he joined Carbine in 2010, the studio had already been working on an MMO since 2005. At Gamescom 2011, they presented what would later become WildStar (via youtube). Suddenly, everyone liked it, the press got excited, and the team felt that they could finally show something after working for 6 years practically in secrecy.
The team gained momentum, but apart from what they showed at Gamescom 2011, they hardly had anything more. For years, Carbine worked on the MMORPG, but since everything was still “work in progress”, there was nothing they could show to the people.
Ultimately, 3 developers discussed that they needed to put together stuff to show the people “out there” what they were working on and why it was cool. This led to the first DevSpeak videos. Internally, everyone loved the videos immediately – in 2013 they were shown for the first time at a fair, and it was clear: The videos were extremely well received. Much better than the developers had expected.
The developers should now constantly make these videos.
Suddenly Frost, a producer, became “the face” and the voice of WildStar because he was making these videos.
Frost was the face of the game but had no influence on decisions
This annoys Frost today: In retrospect, Frost says he made several mistakes during that time:
- The focus was too much on “hardcore” players who wanted difficult raids. Frost says that there was so much in the game besides the raids: These aspects could have been advertised too, but they should have been emphasized even more. However, he spoke so much about raids that it seemed like WildStar “only wanted the hardcore players.”
- Additionally, he says he was often snappy and cheeky in his responses back then. Although this generated a lot of attention, it may have been attention that was not good for WildStar.
- He is also annoyed that although he was the face of the game, he had no influence on development: Since WildStar had been in development since 2005, core elements of the game seemed outdated at release, and they should have been further developed. WildStar was fundamentally a 2005 game (so WoW) with modern graphics and an aesthetic combat system.
High blood pressure, creatively exhausted – Frost switches to Amazon
What would Frost do differently today? Frost says he overdid it back then and filled too many roles at once. This was noticeable: when the game was finally released, he seemed burned out. When he looks at the last streams of WildStar today, he can recognize that.
He says he was “hollowed out” at that time.
Internally, he actually wanted to do even more, he wanted more influence on WildStar, but that was not up for discussion at all. When the offer from Amazon came, he left Carbine.
He says he felt guilty at that moment, but was physically and mentally exhausted: He suffered from high blood pressure, felt totally wrecked, and was creatively drained.
Today he would:
- Not burn out trying to do 3 jobs at once – and that for only $55,000 a year.
- Not try to be cheeky and snappy just to get clicks.
- Make sure: If he’s already the face of a game, that he can also influence the development.
Frost’s insights into the development of an MMORPG are extremely fascinating:
Expert provides fascinating insight into how MMORPG development really works
