WildStar on Steam or Landmark: Which MMO Launch Makes You The Saddest?
Think back, if you will, all the way to early 2014. On a late January evening, EverQuest Next: Landmark (as it was called then) opened its doors for the first time. Just before the servers went live, Dave Georgeson tweeted out the image of a counter that showed the number of live players -- which was naturally at zero -- calling it a screen he could "never show again."
Today, Landmark officially launches. It's no longer free-to-play, but you didn't buy one of the exorbitant Founder's Packs, you can get it for the low, low price of $10. I'd love to see that counter now.
At about the same time, WildStar hype was in full swing. Interest was sky-high, and prospective players were pumped for a new MMO from a new studio that seemed like a breath of fresh air in a crowded, stale MMO marketplace. About four months later, the game launched to great fanfare, was still doing a few months after launch, and then...
Yesterday, it launched on Steam. Sure, that could revitalize the game and give it a new life, but after everything it's been through and all the other "[Change X] will revive it for sure!" statements, it's hard to be optimistic.
So, my question for you, is: Which game "launch" makes you the saddest? Is it Landmark, with its promise of a greater future in the form of EverQuest Next? Or is it WildStar, full of hope and promise, quickly snuffed out by poor implementation and a mass exodus of players?
Neither game lived up to its potential and, just two years after we got our first tastes, it seems like the odds are stacked against either one seeing its third birthday. We wouldn't mind being wrong, but it's hard to be optimistic, after so many broken promises and shattered dreams.
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About the Author
Jason Winter is a veteran gaming journalist, he brings a wide range of experience to MMOBomb, including two years with Beckett Media where he served as the editor of the leading gaming magazine Massive Online Gamer. He has also written professionally for several gaming websites.
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Wildstar... Well, let's just say that it was a good effort--which is far more than one can say about 90% of its competition. Countless technical issues aside, Carbine's baby definitely has heart--but the typical tedious grind of the me-too MMO mechanics at its core seem bubble up to the vibrant surface far too quickly. Too bad.
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Landmark though... There's no hope here. No chance for a happy ending. Only broken promises and ghosts of dead dreams about a game that was proclaimed "not fun enough" by its own developers 2 years in. Seeing it "released" as it is in form of an independent game when it was supposed to be just a temporary tool to help the devs make EverQuest Next... it's not just sad, it's depressing.