What is the state of the major MMO titles WildStar, The Elder Scrolls Online, and Guild Wars 2 by the end of August?
Last time we wrote the “State of Play” column about these three titles at the end of April. We thought it would be interesting to revisit these three MMOs. They are three of the titles we cover most closely on mein-mmo.de. All three have experienced ups and downs in the past four months. So we find them in a very different state than before.
At the end of April, The Elder Scrolls Online had just launched and had encountered severe problems; Guild Wars 2 was in a Sleeping Beauty slumber interrupted by the outcry over the megaservers; and WildStar was still the hopeful star on the horizon, having done everything right until then and standing on the verge of release. How do the three games look today? Are they ready to take on the giant World of Warcraft when it awakens on November 12?
The Elder Scrolls Online: When will it finally be tomorrow again?
The Elder Scrolls Online is in a much better state than it was at the end of April. Back then, we predicted great potential for the game, but an uncertain present. At that time, there were so many exploits, little problems, and issues that one was startled just by seeing the game’s name anywhere.
Curse of the Prophet or what was the cause of the launch mishaps?
Whenever it seemed to calm down, the next attack on the game came from some corner. This continued almost throughout the summer. Someone at Zenimax seems to have some really bad karma. Maybe a curse or something.
Even when they came to Steam and offered a new Imperial box with a greyhound as a companion, they somehow managed to step into a trap because buyers of the regular Imperial Edition felt cheated out of this cool dog. They themselves only received a silly crab.
Highlight of the mishap series in recent months (besides very serious technical problems that were no laughing matter): The delay of the console version was announced too early due to a bug on the homepage, then quickly removed and – after everyone had criticized it for 12 hours – officially confirmed.
Finally, it has calmed down a bit
At the moment, it is relatively calm for The Elder Scrolls Online. Considering the last few months, this is a good sign. They were certainly not idle: At Zenimax, they have kept an eye on almost all the game’s problems and are prepared with solutions. However, those will take time. The first smaller things – such as a dye system – have already been reintroduced. The mega-server is finally in Frankfurt. Otherwise, they are regularly releasing fresh instances and fixing the many small bugs that plagued The Elder Scrolls Online at the beginning.
The future of the game could look rosy if (and this is a big if) TESO develops into the game that the developers’ future visions describe. Patience will be required. To implement all the current plans, they will likely need time well into 2015. Then the game could approach the Elder Scrolls game many wished for back in April, with the Imperial City, the Champion system, spell weaving, the Justice system, a better combat system, functioning groups, and improved NPC expressions.
Perspective: Bright with a view on Playstation
The Elder Scrolls Online has theoretically found answers to the questions that puzzled fans in April. Now it’s about putting these answers into practice. Everything is geared towards The Elder Scrolls Online being in the best possible shape when it goes to consoles. When that will be, in our view, is not stated on the TESO homepage (which says end of 2014), but in the stars.
Guild Wars 2: Living Story is good, but something is lacking otherwise
Guild Wars 2 is in a much better state than it was at the end of April. The long-awaited new story of the Living World has launched, received much praise; with the unfortunate introduction of the megaservers, European players have also been able to adjust to (or: have to) and a new feature pack is supposed to come in September. Is everything such that even the grumpiest Charr rolls on the ground and purrs contentedly? No, it is not. Somehow, there is currently something wrong with Guild Wars 2. But let’s start with the positive.
The Living World can be seen
Many say the first season of the Living World was somehow “all over the place,” a real mess. One week this, the next week that. They rushed from event to event, the story was not focused, more like a comic book that changes protagonists every two weeks, sometimes from Daredevil, sometimes from Batman, and sometimes featuring the Smurfs. This is different now. The second season is oriented in the narrative technique to modern US series, tells episodically and tightly with well-developed characters and an exciting plot.
Of course: From a hardcore MMO perspective, they are still just bite-sized pieces of content that cannot replace an entire expansion. But not much bad can be said about the Living World and the new chronicle feature. Lore fans and players who simply enjoy good stories are well accommodated here. For casual players, there are also achievements, though that may not be to everyone’s taste.
Things are going well in China, not so with eSports
A big plus for Guild Wars 2 in recent months has been the expansion into China, which has filled the war chests, although it has not doubled the player count as initially reported incorrectly.
On the other hand, there is eSports. ArenaNet seems determined to establish this as a pillar. It doesn’t really seem to be catching on. At Gamescom in Cologne, they invited top players from around the world, but the viewer numbers on Twitch and media coverage were disheartening. When watching the matches, you can see why: It’s confusing, seems random to the untrained eye, and is fixed on cooldowns. It’s a bit like watching table tennis: professionals may recognize the spin of the ball and how well the tactic works; a layperson cannot grasp that. ArenaNet continues to try to establish eSports as a third pillar, offers high prize money, and wants to promote it – the road ahead may be arduous.
Also, MMOs without equipment advantages seem unsuitable for eSports and cannot establish themselves here. eSports fans prefer MOBAs, sports, strategy games, fighting simulations, tank battles, or card games.
Communication problems: I want to tell you that I have nothing to say to you
One of the problems with Guild Wars 2, at least from the perspective of the vocal forum community: ArenaNet focuses too much on PvP and the Living World; they neglect other aspects of the game. At Gamescom, developers were questioned on numerous topics: When will the first-person perspective come, are there new dungeons, when will the Super Adventure Box return, what happens here, what there?
The developers responded evasively and only briefly to these questions. When it was stated regarding the “Super Adventure Box,” a quirky and cult event, that they did not want to bring that back within the Living World, emotions ran high on Reddit. The responding developer didn’t say much, but it was interpreted as “ArenaNet has no interest in this, it’s not important enough for them; they are working contrary to our wishes.”
ArenaNet’s corporate policy is to refrain from speculating about “future developments” to avoid raising expectations that later may be disappointed. This often leads to frustration in daily life, for example, when new dungeons are asked about, and a developer replies that they have nothing to announce.
Perspective: Well … quite good; an expansion would not be bad
Guild Wars 2 has always had a different position due to its Buy2Play character compared to Pay2Play titles. For September, they have planned a major feature patch, the content of which is still quite nebulous. After that, the Living World is supposed to continue. What comes after that is once again a riddle.
Some speculate that the time has come for the big expansion. They’ve heard suspiciously little from many high-profile developers in ArenaNet’s service: Something must be up!
At the moment, the game is well positioned: The China deal has done Guild Wars 2 good, and the Buy2Play model can repeatedly ensure that ex-players find their way back to Tyria. Much speaks for the idea that an expansion could provide a boost in 2015. Or they continue with the Living World and bring feature packs at regular intervals.
Guild Wars 2 could greatly benefit, albeit a delicate issue, if it decides what it actually wants to be. Like few other MMOs, Guild Wars 2 runs the risk of investing a lot of work in areas that large parts of its player base do not find interesting, as they play GW 2 for a completely different reason. An expansion that offers something for everyone “across the board” is thus attractive. Also because most players connect their best memories of Guild Wars 2 with leveling and exploring in the early days.
WildStar: It’s complicated
WildStar was still in the distant future in April. The developers had not made any noteworthy errors until then. That continued: The release went smoothly, the reviews were excellent; however, in recent weeks, a kind of funeral atmosphere has emerged around the game, and some comments read like a farewell.
The sales figures are sobering, the player count seems to be shrinking, the servers that were initially opened additionally now seem empty. And it gets even worse: It is assumed that WildStar players will be the most affected by the pull of the Warlords of Draenor release. What the hell is going on with WildStar? Why hasn’t it become the hit that was expected?
Where is the target audience?
In a way, you could say WildStar has managed to deliver exactly what the target audience wanted, but it seems that audience was smaller than expected. Hardcore raiding like in Vanilla WoW was promised. Tough dungeons that were fair and hard were promised. Exciting elite PvP content in which players could blow up bases against each other in 40 vs. 40 matches was promised. All of that was delivered at launch. Raiders are thrilled with the Gen archives and speak of the best “start content” of an MMO ever.
However, there had to be a retreat on Warplots, the elite PvP content, and they had to reduce to 30 vs. 30. Reason: A lack of players. Little has been heard from the arena scene, except that win trading was used so that PvE raiders could exchange weapons with each other. And the dungeons are indeed very tough and must be executed almost perfectly, which led to players in random groups attacking each other until it became more attractive to finish the dungeon somehow instead of perfectly.
What are the problems?
WildStar is currently a puzzle. Opinions are strongly divided. One can agree on the fact that it has “fallen short of expectations” – and even that is not universally accepted at this point.
When one looks into the causes of WildStar’s issues, one quickly becomes an MMO grave digger and a bird flight interpreter:
Problem 1: The transitions from 1 to 5 to 20 to 40
WildStar forces the player to transition in behavior, and some may get lost along the way. Until level 50, one can play solo, after which 5 players are needed to continue, then 20 for the first raid, and 40 for the second. These jumps require compromises from every player and a willingness to team up. Furthermore, in WildStar, you are dependent on your social contacts and their maintenance.
Problem 2: WildStar eats its children: Cannibalization of guilds
WildStar has somehow managed to amplify the difficulties that every MMO has with raids. Raid guilds run out of players, they poach players from other guilds, causing drama and guilds to break apart. In a guild, there is a performance gap, some want to raid, while others are still on the attunement quest, which creates drama, leading to guilds falling apart. With every guild collapse, in such a fresh game, the left-behind or disappointed players frustratedly leave the game. Now, this is not a problem unique to WildStar, but why does it impact WildStar so drastically?
Because the servers feel so small and empty, the guilds “below” cannot recruit anymore. Since the attunement quest poses a tremendous hurdle on the way into raids, it’s harder to find raid-capable personnel than in other games.
Problem 3: Were the guest passes a mistake at the beginning?
And why are the servers so empty? Because there are too many. And why are there too many? Because WildStar started with guest passes to lure players in to try the game for free. They all needed a place, so new servers were opened. Many of them have since left the game, and their spots remain empty. And now you understand why no other game does this and why guest passes and trial actions usually only occur after the first wave of players has already left the MMO.
Problem 4-800: Something else
Many players also have specific complaints: The world is too flashy, too silly, too colorful. There’s a dead phase in the mid-level. The spark just doesn’t jump over. The challenges create a strange hecticness and pressure. After eight hours of work, there’s no desire to exhaust oneself in the game. Or the balancing in PvP is terrible after a patch.
Perspective: Was it a botched launch or what?
It would be unreasonable to call WildStar a botched launch, as a botched launch doesn’t receive great reviews and achieves such popularity among hardcore fans as WildStar has now. It seems to be the case that the target audience for WildStar is significantly smaller than initially thought.
Perhaps many fans believed they were still hardcore, but due to changed life situations, they are no longer. Maybe the mix of “We want WoW veterans” and “we’re making a rather colorful setting” was poorly chosen. Maybe Carbine underestimated summer as a “factor.” After all, WildStar demands commitment. Or the game is somehow missing a kick or some vaguely defined element that would make it a blockbuster.
Even WildStar has recognized the signs of the times and is beginning to adjust: The access quest will be weakened, the perfection pressure from instances will be alleviated, the warplots will require fewer players, and they will also address the issue of poorly populated servers. However, that will require more time and a different pace. The promise of bringing new content every month has been retracted.
How loyal the players are to the game, whether WildStar will succeed in retaining more players, increasing the numbers… and how WildStar, Guild Wars 2, and The Elder Scrolls Online will perform in November when the giant World of Warcraft awakens from its more than a year-long slumber, will be exciting questions for our next State of Play column.
