14 DAY TRIAL // Carbine Studios, the developer of the upcoming Wildstar MMORPG that's set to debut next month, has put into perspective the huge variety needed in the endgame content of any multiplayer title, as this is an important aspect that can make or break the popularity of an online game.
Wildstar is an ambitious massively multiplayer online role-playing game coming from Carbine Studios, a team made up of former Blizzard employees who wanted to make a new MMO without repeating the early mistakes of World of Warcraft.
The game is set to debut next month and its Executive Producer, Jeremy Gaffney, has put into perspective how much work is needed for the endgame of a MMORPG like Wildstar.
After players devour the content and reach the maximum level, Gaffney told CVG that a game should deliver varied endgame content, from raids to solo missions and more.
"You'd better have compelling stuff to do at the top level. Raids get a lot of buzz because they're spectacular looking. But for soloers you've got to have lots of areas where people can solo, have some public questing so they can meet and form other groups, it's got to be compelling, and one of the things you need to be able to do is add to it quickly, because soloers consume content."
What's more, the developer needs to already have more content planned and in the actual creation process, as players who've reached the endgame are going to get bored soon if there's nothing new to do.
"You'd better be able to have the next thing in the hopper, and the next, and the next. That's why we've been training ourselves for so long, making sure that we launch with multiple level 50 zones plus multiple areas that are tuned for level 50s, we call them pocket caps, either embedded in other zones or copies of other zones that we tune up."
Besides the endgame content, the universe of the game also needs to be expanded through updates for those who haven't reached the endgame, according to Gaffney, and if a studio doesn't meet all these goals, then things can quickly devolve and damage its popularity.
"And if you fail in any one of those aspects, you're going to get a lot of haters dropping on you saying, 'Well, what about me? I'm not satisfied! Rraghh!' And all of a sudden your boards are filled with anger and rage instead of people reporting back going, 'This stuff is cool. Come on, get up to this level and check this stuff out with me'."
Wildstar is set to debut next month on PC on June 3.