The first few months in particular are paramount.

This is exactly what happened for a fairly large percentage of players that tried outWildStar.

Some servers seemed empty even a month after the game launched.

Guilds now struggle to find enough players for raiding or Warplot action.

This is all a much-needed step in the right direction, but what happened exactly?

What drove players off in the first place?

WildStarstarted out kind of like a hurricane.

Its unique character models, cool humor, and futuristic, steampunk-esque story drew players in by droves.

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We loved it.

Gathering bots and essential AMPs with low drop rates caused the economy to madly fluctuate.

Several classes had an entire laundry list of bugssome of which still arent completely fixed.

No, no, no.

A large portion of these bugs negatively impacted the climb for gearing up and accessing raid/arena content.

Some PvEers were forced to change their gear sets completely thanks to a few last-minute currency shifts.

Some specs like DPS Medics were even deemed undesirable for raids.

This led to drastic changes between which content players ran and why.

Endgame adventures started out fairly popular, but now theyre largely avoided.

This also led to players being extremely picky about performance during endgame runs.

Consistency is integral to the early endgame stage of an MMORPG.

It ensures everyones on equal footing.

Without consistency, the playerbase begins to shift into multiple groups.

This lack of consistency led to some player groups developing specific instance-farming strategies for farming best-in-slot pre-raid gear.

Other player groups felt as though crafting was the only real option for obtaining gear.

This gapalthough obviously not intended by Carbine at allhelped lead to the current divide we see now inWildStars endgame.

The RNG (random number generationthe chances of obtaining upgrades, essentially) is simply too random.

No, best-in-slot gear isnt needed to begin raiding, but it can make a difference.

For some player groups and guilds, this difference is enough.

This results in these groups looking elsewhere for new players, thereby further increasing the gap.

This jot down of gap isnt healthy for any MMORPG, let alone one thats still finding its wings.

Instead of bug fixes and mechanic reworking, we got nifty new content to explore.

Quality is more important to an MMORPGs longevity than quantity.

In light of player feedback, however, Carbine probably shouldve went a different route here.

Thankfully, the development team does seem to be listening.

They havent even announced a release date for their third content drop yet.

Instead, theyve said theyll push it out when its ready.

Until that time, were seeing a solid chunk of bug fixes and much-needed class readjustments every week.

This, in all honesty, is what should have happened months ago.

Its a solid place to start.

Weve got a bright horizon to look forward to.

Unless youre a chua, of course.

Then you have a bright horizon to look forward to blowing up.

For more onWildStar, check outour coverage hub.

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