WildStar vs. FFXIV & "competing" for MMORPG subscribersFollow

The NDA for WildStar (developed by Carbine and published by NCSOFT) was recently lifted.

I know that there was previously a lot of debate on the subject on whether new releases ESO and WildStar would affect Final Fantasy XIV's popularity/subscriptions and I figured we could discuss the latter upcoming title.

WildStar is being priced similarly to Final Fantasy XIV (buy the box and then pay for the subscription as well, Collector's Edition for an exclusive in-game item, etc.)

I have played WildStar and I personally think it's going to be the biggest flop in the history of MMORPGs. I would even bet money on that.

I have previously criticized Final Fantasy XIV for reusing a lot of ideas from other MMORPGs, but let's just say that that complaint applies to WildStar one millionfold.

There are six classes in the game (which is fine, in my opinion), but they are extremely race restricted. So, your race of preference only has 2-3 classes to choose from. If you wanted to play as an Aurin (basically a cartoony Viera), you wouldn't be allowed to be a Warrior or a healer. There are no lore-related reasons for the restrictions like in World of Warcraft. Just, for some reason, you can't wield a sword as the midget race, but you can fire a huge grenade launcher which is three times your size, etc.

The art direction is really bad and it feels like they commissioned a teenage girl from DeviantArt to design a lot of the characters.

And don't even get me started on the grass. If you thought FFXIV had ugly foliage, you're going to need a barf bucket for WildStar. It looks like something you would see on the SNES, and a lot of the ground is basically textureless and ugly as well. If you've ever played the (now closed) MMO-social game called "Free Realms", it's about on par with that, graphically. And despite this 2014 PC-exclusive AAA game being a visual abomination, it's not even well optimized.

WildStar is literally a "WoW clone", and I know that people throw that term around a lot, but in this case it's really, really, really bad. WildStar is like one of those Chinese iPhone knockoffs compared to WoW, but that would be insulting Chinese iPhone knockoffs.

WildStar releases on June 3 for $59.99 (standard edition) or $74.99 (deluxe edition). The subscription fee is $14.99 per month. I'm curious about what you people think of it, if you disagree with my assessment, and whether you think it will draw any MMORPG subscribers away from Final Fantasy XIV.

Edited, Mar 15th 2014 12:51pm by LucasNox

Edited, Mar 15th 2014 12:52pm by LucasNox

Standard MMO that has no identity to speak of and will please a tiny minority that will not keep it afloat especially on a p2p model.

I wanted to try Wildstar, but I don't want to try it enough to pay $59.99.

From a development perspective, I think it's because XI's code has been tidied up properly on the back end now, and the team that is working on it knows it inside and out. It's easier to add updates and adjust things when you know what you're doing.

There was a period there, while the first mini expansions were coming out, that the team handling XI was at its sloppiest. (While the stories for ASA and MKD were good and funny, the story for ACP was weak, and the game mechanics for all three were just... painful.)

When Abyssea started coming out, I think they tightened the ship up, and whoever has taken over now really knows how to produce high quality code fast.

I don't understand what Nox is trying to say here, you give a semi talk about xiv then talk about another game a lot.

If your talking about xiv then I guess your not happy about the subscription cost? I find if your not happy about a game you don't play it.

I think the updates and content of xiv has been far better then any other game I've played, that ranges from wow, sto, xi and kotor. If 2.0 is a success according to se and reviews, people have subscribed and profits are there.

Now se can see how many funds they can continue to pump in.

Wildstar and XIV are both MMOs built on pretty generic mechanics. The only(consequently massive) edge WS has is their access to a larger group of prospective customers because it's free to play.

XIV's biggest competition right now is itself. Yoshi stated that XIV has a subscription model because they're going to offer more content than the competition, but then he turns around and states explicitly that the game is created for "extremely casual players". Either they are not living up to their own expectations for delivering that content, or they consider the content they have going forward to be held to a casual standard.

I actually wanted to try Wildstar... at first...

The idea looked nice in that you got a spaceship and got to hop around planets as an MMO. I've actually been looking for something like that. But the graphics, ugh. To call them cartoony would be an insult to cartoons, but lets just call them "So vastly unrealistic and out of proportions that it's just bad to look at". The whole thing looks and feels like something that would have been played on the first Xbox. Big colorful blocks and slabs, little to no texture, and poorly designed. I mean, the game might still be fun to play, but with the restrictions already in place it's not going to be a good game for me.

It seems to offer very little that's new, so i'm going to go ahead and say that it's going to follow the path of TERA and RIFT. Offering a lot of things in theory and being super overly hyped, but failing at it in execution at it's core and being canceled if not going free-to-play within 6 months. I've not seen an MMO other than XIV in a while that couldnt have been coded by a student entirely. I dont even do anything computer related, but i'm sure even i will do a better job at raising/lowering a flat piece of terrain to make a "world" than most MMO's.

On a semi-related note, TERA still doesnt feel like the free-fight Monster Hunter controls that they promised me...

Edited, Mar 17th 2014 11:07am by KojiroSoma

WildStar looks cool and I'll be checking it out. I don't see it affecting FFXIV's population.

I just saw a commercial for Wildstar. I didn't know what it was at first and thought it was a low budget knock off of Ratchet & Clank. And then I saw the name of the game at the end.

I don't think XIV has anything to worry about here.

Edited, Mar 21st 2014 12:12am by svlyons

I was watching a Starcraft 2 stream on twitch when I saw the commercial. If it showed the name of the game, it would have been right at the start and maybe I missed it.

Not that I'm gunning for wildstar, not by a mile. I actually hope it does flop. I'd like ffxiv to have a large healthy population for awhile. To let the game mature and Try some of it's own mechanics.

With that said, it sounds like the OPs post was written by "a teenage girl from deviantart".

I just talked to someone who said it was literally the best Mmorpg he has ever played. I was concerned so I googled. This was the first hit and the first line feels the opposite. Unfortunately instead of arguing anything worth merit, every single solitary point is based around it's graphical prowess.

Seriously? We all like eye candy but grow up! Their is SO much more to a game, let alone an mmo. If polygon count and texture resolution made the game, their would be plenty flops that should be AAA and vice versa. Wow is a prime example. Game was ultra ugly and is only recently getting slightly fancy and it has more subs than all it's predecessors combined.

Ughg.. Just... Ugh.

I won't ever play Wildstar or ESO, if that counts for anything.

I agree. I used to be of klepp's viewpoint seeing as I have been a WoW player for a while. I used to view every MMO as a threat to WoW's insane sub numbers and was worried they would kill what I love. Now after I have successfully gotten into XIV, while still enjoying WoW, I have changed. I see it as, like you said, a breeding ground for innovation. WoW will probably still be my "main" MMO, but XIV is a great fallback for when I get bored. I sub to both and it's great to have XIV there for times like now where Blizzard is in between final patch and next expansion. If you want to continue to see a growing MMO population and new things happening, you'll want other games to do well. Now, that said, I can understand if you want something to fail because you view it as a poorly designed game, but if it's well-made and people enjoy it, let it live on. Hell, I've started wanting to dip my feet in the pool of quite a few other MMO's where I would have just avoided them previously because they weren't by Blizzard.

Edited, Apr 9th 2014 11:37am by Xandurson