WildStar‘s free to play launch last week was heavily hyped among its then-current community, as well as players who had long since given it up or never played at all. Hearing a bunch of buzz over WildStar across forums for the first time since launch was interesting, but there’s not much being said now. What’s up with that?
The answer is simple enough: the game’s current queue times are pretty massive.
Akin to an MMORPG at launch, WildStar‘s servers are being bombarded by users trying to log in or those just staying that way, and it’s clear Carbine and NCSoft weren’t prepared for the numbers they’re getting trying to log into the game.
I’ve been able to log in a few times since last week’s free to play launch, but in general I’ve been met with login queues longer than any I’ve seen since ArcheAge‘s launch last year. I haven’t been able to play much, and I know a lot of other players are in the same boat.
Carbine is currently working on increasing WildStar‘s server capacity to lessen queue times. New hardware was added two days ago, though login queues are still fairly long.
It’s an easy assumption that WildStar is going to do better now that it’s gone free to play — it’s something that happens with any MMORPG that changes to a free to play monetization model — and the difficulties over the past week are just a sign of quick, painful growth. How Carbine handles the challenges ahead will be what really dictates the game’s future.
Have you enjoyed WildStar after its free to play shift, and do you think it’s going to be able to keep up the momentum? If you’ve gotten more lucky than I have and been able to log in, let us know in the comments below!
