The SF-MMO WildStar aimed to deliver new content every month. According to an interview with game designer Megan Starks, that is about to change soon. The next content patch “Corruption” may not be released at the beginning of September, but could take several months.
WildStar started with the promise of bringing new content every month in the form of a “drop.” They had planned 16 months in advance. The first patch in July introduced two new PvE zones, and the August patch included, among other things, a new PvP battleground. However, it seems that they will have to deviate from this plan. According to Starks, the overall planning will not change, only the schedule may need to be adjusted. It appears they no longer want to adhere to strict deadlines, but rather take more time to refine and polish the content.
WildStar wants to take more time, first polish the content
In an interview with mmorpglife at Gamescom, which can be found on YouTube, Sparks said:
Now that we have released two major patches, we have taken another look and rethought things. We are sticking to our plans. We still know exactly what we want to deliver and are working on it. But for example, with the next patch, which is on the test server, we are addressing bugs and evaluating the feedback from our players. Now it is important to polish and refine it before we truly bring it into the game. Therefore, we have decided to work on the patch until it has a quality that we are really satisfied with.
They plan to release the patch in the next few months. This is the better alternative than hitting a deadline and then delivering what they have at that moment, even if they are still dissatisfied with it. This applies not only to the current patch but also to future ones.
Will Carbine’s bold statements turn into a boomerang?
Mein MMO says: This is quite a bombshell that has not yet made it public, even though the interview is a few days old. The video interview was conducted by a small site and seems to have been somewhat overlooked in the excitement of Gamescom. This will surely change in the coming days. It will be exciting to see if the interview gets commented on by those responsible when the topic – as expected – heats up in the WildStar forum, Reddit, and on the major gaming sites.
Just last week, NCSoft’s financial report revealed that WildStar’s sales figures were rather mediocre. A few days later, it was announced that one of the two weekly live streams would be closed. Now, it seems that moving away from the central promise of delivering new content monthly is feeding the critics and skeptics of WildStar.
The breakneck pace that Carbine promised for the continuous development of the game raised concerns from the beginning about whether they could maintain this speed over a longer period. After all, all theme park MMORPGs face the problem of not being able to deliver content quickly enough, resulting in players getting bored. The most prominent example is WoW, which requires content pauses of over a year between expansions to then deliver regularly.
However, fans repeatedly heard from Carbine to trust them. They had it under control and knew what they were doing. Several teams worked in parallel on the patches, and they would do everything possible to meet the deadlines. “No bullshit” was one of the mantras leading up to the launch. They would promise nothing they could not keep.
This deviation from one of Carbine’s central promises just three months in will be hard to sell, although initial reactions from fans do not appear to be so negative. After all, polished content does have its advantages.
The interview with senior game designer Megan Starks can be found below.
