WildStar has been struggling with the effects of some design decisions just under two months after its release. How many players really see the raid content into which so much work goes?
To shed light on the issues faced by WildStar, we take a brief trip into the deepest conceivable past, practically to the analog age. Back to a time when we had not been world champions in football for ages and our national players were named Odonkor and Neuville instead of Müller and Neuer. A time when Naxxramas was the hardest instance in MMOs ever and not a simple card game expansion for 18 euros. A time when raiding was still something for real men and women: Back to the year 2006.
The WoW Problem: Everyone Can Raid
At the end of Vanilla World of Warcraft, in June 2006, Blizzard introduced Naxxramas, a raid that the designers were incredibly proud of, as could be heard. But hardly anyone saw it.
The entry barriers were too high, the time until the expansion too short. Players had to clear all the raids beforehand to pass the hard gear checks, a set of access quests was thrown in for free by Blizzard: Moreover, the requirements within the necropolis itself were enormous. Raid guilds fell apart because suddenly eight tanks were needed for one boss instead of four. Consequently, main tanks changed guilds and servers just to play the fifth, sixth, seventh, or eighth tank in a progress guild for that boss.
Those who survived spoke of the hardest raid of all time. They talked about Naxxramas like veterans from a battlefield, where they had become a man but also lost many of their friends.
It was a groundbreaking experience for Blizzard and the players. Although they initially stuck to the design decisions at the start of the “The Burning Crusade” expansion, by the end of the expansion, they gradually abandoned them, eliminating elaborate access quests and introducing mechanisms to help players catch up with gear deficits more easily.
A few years later, raiding in World of Warcraft in some modes was hardly more than a summer stroll. Every four months, previously hard-earned gear became significantly easier to obtain, and bosses in the raids were regularly nerfed. Where 40 players used to battle, only 10 remained today.
Blizzard made its decision: content that was created with much effort and dedication should be seen by every player. Even if it was just the Mickey Mouse version of it.
The WildStar Problem: Hardly Anyone Can Raid
As a result of Blizzard’s decision to devalue raiding or, to put it politely, make it more accessible to more players, many veterans turned away from the whole raid business. They lamented that it had become too “casual”, the competition with other guilds had dwindled, there was nothing left to be proud of – they wished for the raiding of old in World of Warcraft to return.
If we fast forward a few years to the development of Carbine’s WildStar, one often noticed a slight undertone in the developers’ statements: “If you truly mean it and want to raid like before, we will give you exactly that.”
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Raiding in WildStar – 40 wild heroes – Is it still relevant?[/quote_box_right]
And WildStar actually rolled back time to around June 2006. Again, there are rock-hard access quests, again the raids are demanding, and the competition is fierce. And they made it clear: this is how they want it. They would not follow Blizzard’s path and gradually nerf the bosses.
But what about Blizzard’s old problem? What if you create elaborate raids but simply cannot find enough players to see and experience them?
If a Boss Stands in an Instance and No Player Sees Him – Is He Still a Boss?
WildStar now finds itself precisely in this dilemma when looking at the numbers. According to WildStar-Progress, a site where guilds can record their achievements, 113 guilds worldwide have currently defeated the first boss of the Gen Archives. If you consider a dark number, you could double this number and talk about 5000 players who have defeated the boss and gotten to see all the stuff Carbine has hidden behind it. The second boss has been downed by 61 guilds, let’s say 3000 players.
The bosses beyond have a bit of the problem of a lonely tree in the woods. Are they still bosses if no one is there to fight them? Do they count for the gaming enjoyment of the unwashed masses, the PvE precariat, do they make the game better for non-raiders?
Resource Allocation a Sensitive Topic
Now it must be said that the numbers from WildStar-Progress are not absolute. And this should be stated here. Not every raid guild knows the page and dutifully records itself there (while, with other MMOs, especially WoW, it is almost a matter of honor to register on the respective sites), but the absolute numbers, even if only tendencies, are sobering. There are no exact player numbers known, an overly optimistic estimate of 1 million players circulated on an English-speaking site. More realistic might be 500,000. Then, with optimistically estimated 5,000 raiders, the content would be designed for 1% of the players.
However, having such hard raid content in the game like WildStar also creates a motivational effect. Players have a goal they can strive for. “If I get good enough and invest enough time, then I will see all this stuff that I would otherwise never get to see, and that 99% of others also won’t get to see.” Players say they will join later, need to gear up, and are looking for the right opportunity, the perfect guild. The plan is actually to raid when they have more time, when the stars are aligned better, or when they finally finish that cursed access quest that takes so much time and nerves.
At Carbine, it would be impossible to explain to fans that the raids are being weakened or changed, as they have repeatedly emphasized that they would deliver just the game they are currently providing.
The question is only: Are there enough players to justify elaborate raids? Or did Carbine fall victim to the phenomenon described recently by an employee of Lord of the Rings Online? Are raiders and hardcore PvPers in MMOs overrepresented in gaming forums and thus make more noise than their numbers would justify? What if there are simply not enough raiders for Carbine’s approach to work?
“If You Build It, They Will Come”
The question remains whether the invested resources in raids are worth it in this form or whether they would be better employed elsewhere. Even the biggest fans must agree that the two existing daily zones, each recycled variants of starting areas, deserved a bit more love and effort.
[pull_quote_right]Where are the raiders who have been calling for such a game for years?[/pull_quote_right]
When we see how many resources flow into the design of bosses that a large part of the players will not get to see in their current form, one can understand Blizzard’s decision in hindsight. And it will be very interesting to see whether Carbine remains steadfast and sticks to their decision to develop parts of WildStar really only for a “hardcore elite”. And to hide them behind a high wall, a harsh access quest.
This wall is currently causing many complaints among passionate raiders lately. Because even if one has the joy and satisfaction of having battled through the 20-man raid, there are still two new hurdles at the entrance to the 40-man raid: a lengthy grind in the form of the access quest and the fact that now they have to re-equip 20 new players and grant them access to proceed. Merging smoothly with another 20-man guild on the same level is a difficult story on many levels. Many guilds prefer to recruit to avoid losing control.
Currently, the first design concepts of Carbine are shaky. They likely want to reconsider the access quest in the coming weeks.
Carbine and WildStar cannot be blamed. They delivered the game they said they would deliver. The question is allowed: “Where are the raiders who have been calling for such a game for years?”
