The non-violent MMO Wander has had a very rocky start. Especially the Playstation 4 players are upset and even call the game the worst PS4 game of all time!
But why? Well, Wander is a niche title. There are no fights, no quests, no NPCs and it targets a specific group of players who want to explore a world and its secrets together with others, but do not want to engage in fights. But that alone cannot make the game the “worst Playstation 4 game of all time”.
Emma S. was the community manager of the game and experienced the shitstorm at launch. She recounts on the gaming website kotaku.com.au about her experiences and how dealing with a hateful community has shaped her. Within just half an hour, her inbox and the game forum were flooded with hate messages. Wander turned out to be very buggy on the Playstation 4. It was not even possible to log into the game. Emma S. worked through every message and endured all the insults and abuse directed at her. With angelic patience, she replied to all emails and helped users in the forum as best as she could. Although the negativity of the users was actually directed at the game, it felt personal for Emma S., as she had also been passionately involved in the development of the MMO.
More on the topic: Launch of the non-violent MMO Wander leads to outbursts of anger
Wander – A Disaster
Meanwhile, the team is working hard to improve Wander. While bugs were being fixed, Emma S. held live Q&A sessions on Twitch to show customer closeness. In doing so, she always had to find a balance between loyalty to Sony, which also financially supported the game, and honesty and understanding towards the customers who simply could not understand how such a buggy game could survive the quality assurance phase and be released.
Even today, the team is still working hard to tackle the long list of errors, crashes, and other problems, releasing patch after patch. Emma S. has drawn her conclusions from the disaster. She explains that she has learned a lot about the development and marketing of computer games and has ultimately decided to seek her future in another field. She is turning her back on Wander and wants to focus on her family for a while.
How the future of the MMO looks is uncertain. For the damage has been done, and even if the game should run smoothly in a few weeks, gamers will not forget this situation anytime soon…
