After a successful launch in mid 2014, Carbine Studio's Sci-fi MMO Wildstar struggled to find its core audience. With its focus on the "1%" of hardcore players and grindy mechanics the game quickly became forgotten by a large portion of the MMO community. Carbine has heard the masses and has promised that 2015 will bring a "more fun, less grindy" experience to the MMO.
In a blog post, Carbine studios reveals how it hopes to revitalize the MMO in the new year. The first step involved listening to all of the player feedback to create a more fun, less grindy game. This helps to make the game more accessable to the masses who may not be used to that particular style of MMO. They are working to release updates that aim to appeal to both current and new players across "a multitude of playstyles, group curations, and levels".
Carbine has plotted the first half of 2015 to push out more solo and group content across the game. This will include new shiplands, dungeons, and adventure zones as well as other features not disclosed as of this writing. Customization systems are also getting an overhaul as well as an "improved Elder Game experience...with lots of opportunities for new loot".
Plans for the second half of 2015 call for the addition of an entirely new content mode that will only take 30-45 minutes to complete in order to give new access to the game to those players who have limited playing time. This new system will provide short objective based missions for the player to embark on solo or in a group while offering rare rewards only seen in this mode. Carbine are also working on a new 20 man raid to be released around the same time.
These updates sound exciting and will hopefully breathe new life into the MMO and make it much more enjoyable and accessable for many new players!