The Extinction of Empathy

The other day we heard about the president of Carbine Studios, Jeremy Gaffney stepping down. We all know Carbine just released the subscription based MMORPG Wildstar. Jeremy has been fighting a deadly skin cancer for a long time. His family has had several members die of cancer. To help Wildstar release smoothly, Gaffney sacrificed himself for the game, company, fans, and his own personal reasons I can't understand. He helped keep continuity in the company during its most difficult time knowing that sacrifice could kill him. After the game released and it had several updates, he finally had time to take a breath and look at his own life. He stepped down to live another day.

Some of the gaming community saw this as the death of Wildstar. They "knew"  this was going to happen and they "know"  the next step for the game, death. Possibly the game is doing bad. Maybe, one of the reasons he stepped down was because of the stress of the game failing. No matter what the all his reasons were, he has cancer. He has a deadly disease that could kill him. For the rest of his life he has to try to live longer in fear of cancer. Fuck the game! His life is more important than a game. He is a living breathing human that had the compassion enough to chip away at his life day by day to produce a fun game for the world. Unfortunately, some people lack the empathy to realize his sacrifice. It's sad.

This is nothing new though. The lack of empathy in some is the cancer of humanity and the Internet is the harmful UV rays magnifying it. It's always been there, it's just mutating the rest of us faster and faster until we all die inside. It's spreading fast and we're not getting treatment for it. What can we do though? Am I going to try to cure the lack of empathy in the world? I don't know how and it's too bad for me to do it. Like Jeremy, I'm not going to give up fighting for what is right. I will not let humanity's cancer kill me. I've fought this my whole life and I'm not going to stop now. I'll tell you my story no matter how personal it is, I need to help others understand why I have unwavering empathy.

I grew up with the blood of other people on my hands. I don't know how many times my fist smashed into another kids face. I don't know how many kids I kicked in the gut with anger. I was constantly at war growing up because my mother was a lesbian. Nowadays gay people are more accepted, but back in the 70's and 80's it was not. Luckily, genetically I'm not to be fucked with. Not to mention my father grew up in Brooklyn in the 50's. A white boy in Brooklyn had to fight to survive.

After awhile, word got around I wasn't an easy target and it probably wasn't a good idea to pick on me. By 9th grade I didn't have to fight anymore. Well accept smashing a yard stick over another kid's face in English class when I was in 10th grade. The main reason I fought so much was the lack of empathy kids had towards my family. Their church going family couldn't fathom a sinning, happy family. Even though we tried to go to church and we're asked to leave, we still held tightly on the teachings of the Bible. We knew the real meaning was empathy, compassion, and live towards all living things.

The sad thing is, we kill each other over the same thing written by someone else. The Bible, the Tanakh, the Quran, the Pali Canon or Chinese Tripitaka, are all books teaching  people religion to teach them how to be compassionate, loving, and how to be empathetic towards others. They're all connected, but still we kill over their words. We have lost their meaning for our own pride and our own ideas. We constantly strive to be the right ones and force others to believe what we believe or we will burn in hell. My mother is going to burn in hell from the hate of what people think the Bible tells them. It tells them to judge, force, kill, rule, and spread like a cancer until we are all dead to live happy the way we want to.

Over the years I've been proven wrong. I've fought with "Bible bashers"  over living life happy in the words of God. I'm done fighting because I accept theirs and my own lack of empathy. I grew up fighting to save my mother from hell so when she dies and I die, we can be together as a family. I've chosen to go to hell with her because I love her. I've chosen to listen to what people say and have empathy and compassion for them. I radiate love to strangers in hope I can push back the disease that's spreading through humanity.

We've lost the true meaning of what it is to live life happy and understand why other people feel the way they do. Just look at Ferguson Missouri. A black boy was shot by a police officer and his body sat rotting in the sun for 4 hours while the people protecting and serving the community thinking they were doing the right thing by the law, lost their compassion and were blind as to doing the right thing as a loving human. What if it was their boy laying dead on the pavement? The police believed they were doing the right thing based on their Bible of laws. They still do. We've all forgotten how to do the right thing without laws or God telling us what to do.

No matter how or why, humans were given empathy, compassion, love, self awareness, egos, and a way to over think every damn thing. Sooner or later we're going to kill ourselves and become extinct like the other animals we killed off over the years doing what we thought was right.

Yesterday when I ranted about this I wanted to do something I have no idea how to do or start. How do I instill empathy into other people? How do I cure this cancer that is spreading? They say, "do not feed the trolls". That is correct you don't want to help the disease spread, but we need to cure it because it spreads no matter what. I was told,  "you first". Like growing up, I'm not afraid to get blood on my hands. I don't want to beat the shit out of anybody, but when it comes to doing what's right, I will stand my ground and fight.

This probably won't change anything, but I have to try. I'm sick of seeing people say horrible things. "Well, don't read it!"  Yeah, I could lock myself in the closet like my mother had to do for 30 years, but that will only hurt me by being ignorant. I need to read about things like Robin Williams' death even though some of the comments on articles seam like they came from robotic serial killers. I man devoted his life to making people laugh and sacrificed his own happiness by bottling up his depression until it killed him. He knew their was no hope in making people laugh anymore. We judge people with depression, anxiety, or mental illness like evil sinners. We lock them in the closet like the gays until they die. All because it's too hard to have a little empathy.

I will fight this hate not based on a book written thousands of years ago, but with my own love and compassion. My common sense. Everyday I'm surrounded by hateful people hiding behind books preaching what is right. They openly say,  "gay people are like sterile cattle, you just need to put a bullet in their head and burn their bodies because the meat is worthless too. They're a waste of life with no purpose... Praise God Amen!"

I've heard this and had to put my hands in my pockets and think of where they were coming from. To me they were wrong. They misunderstand the teachings of the books. I have to think I'm wrong too. I have to accept I'm going to hell. I have to have empathy towards them even if I don't want to. I understand them and I don't hate them for thinking that way. It's hard on me, but I have to stand strong for what I think humanity should be like with these gifts we've been give.

In closing I want to say thank you to you all for reading this. I want to thank Jeremy Gaffney for staying strong and helping make Wildstar. I only wish the best for the game even though I've stopped playing it for now. I know it's hard to read those bad comments, but their are great people in the world that can help push humanities cancer back into remission. Please take the time to have a little empathy, compassion, and love towards others. That is the only cure.

Wildstar Subscription Numbers Overwhelming!

Today Carbine Studios announce they are having an overwhelming amount of subscribers catastrophically bottlenecking their system. They're quickly implementing a system to help players play and not feel stressed out. Here is a forum quote:

"WTF! I woke up this morning to play and I couldn't! This is bullshit! I then checked my bank account and I haven't been charged yet! I was bullshit! Quickly I threw money and cat feces at my monitor! Catshit! "

Later when server Master Server-Guru Cougar announced:

"Sorry for the inconvenience, we've implemented a fix to get players in the game while our payment server is cleaned of cat shit. Please people, stop throwing cat shit at your monitors. Our system takes all major credit cards, PayPal, prepaid cards, and blood donations, but we're not accepting hot, steamy, cat shit at this moment. Oh and we don't accept Bitcoin, cat shit has more value. Thank you for your patience and feel free to save cat shit for a later date. "

So, there you have it. At this point I'm one of the many that hasn't been charged for my year subscription and I have cat droppings all over my computer. Just so you know, jamming crap into your CPU fan does not work either. Who knew? Unfortunately, I need a new motherboard and my carpets cleaned. I didn't know that when shit hits the fan, it will spray back at me. I should've called Tim Howard before I freaked out; he could've saved me!

A Year With #Wildstar

Even though $132 is a lot of money to fork out at once and I'm extremely skeptical with my commitment, I'm going to go through with it. I haven't played an MMO more than 3 months other than WoW in the past... Ever. This might be a stupid idea and I feel Carbine should pat me on the back, give me a hug, and tell me everything is going to be ok. A day doesn't go by without me worrying about my commitment towards a year with Wildstar, but I'm going to hold strong and do it.

I might start to talk about Wildstar a lot on this blog. I'm going to be more serious because I've lost the urge to be an idiot blogger. My childish jokes are getting old and I've lost the heart to do it anymore. I love writing so I figured I'll write normal blog posts like everyone else. I'll talk about my adventures in Wildstar for the next year. I understand if you choose not to read me anymore. I'm really excited about the game, but I wish they'd give me a hug.

That's all I have to say today. Tomorrow I'll talk about my PvP stuff.

My Dog Died and Wildstar Was There to Lift My Spirits!

Last week I was walking my dog down a busy street to break in my new Timberland boots, when a school bus full of children took him out. As my dogs lifeless body slid down the street like a bear skin rug on a moist Slip-N-Slide, I noticed his entrails on my new boots. A massive wave on anger rolled over me because I knew my boots were ruined forever. I wasn't mad at my dog or the careless bus driver puking on a 4th grader, I was mad at myself for dropping the leash in favor of my boots. How did I get so jaded and materialistic? What happened to me over the years to favor things over a living, breathing, being?

Yesterday I discovered, I never owned a dog and I don't like boots very much. I don't think I'd ever buy boots because they are so hard to break in. I'd probably need to get a dog just to wear the boots. I don't want a dog though. I'm afraid he'll get hit by a bus when I'm walking him to break in my boots.

Anyways, I looked deep inside myself and searched for answers to this revelation. I needed to understand the meaning of this searing pain in my heart. I needed to know why I was so jaded towards other people and their pets. Well, mainly towards other people. I needed to spend the day meditating on this, but unfortunately I had work and stuff to do after work so never got a chance to meditate. By the time I really got a chance to sit down and think about my situation, it was time for bed and I didn't want to deal with anymore crap for the day. It's always best to sleep on an enlightening moment in hopes it is forgotten in the morning. So, I slept.

This morning I woke up tired and beat down. I know my lack of sleep was due to my soul constantly tugging me awake at night to talk things out. Of course, I was in no mood to talk to that asshole until the morning. We had several pillow fights and my neck got a pinched nerve from all the tossing and turning. In the end I awoke like a man splashed with acid after shave. That and I had to pee really bad.

As I rushed to the bathroom and almost kicked the cat in my selfish state, I stopped dead in my tracks realizing what happened a week ago with my fake dog. I almost ran my cat over like a bus filled with pee, not people. Grief washed over me as urine warmed my thighs and pooled around my feet. I knew then when the warm yellow liquid, not meant for popcorn, I was a horrible member of the Wildstar community.

More grief washed over me and I fell to my knees splashing piss like Michael Jackson splashing in puddles in his Bad video. I too, felt bad and I should've just beat it, but I was in no mood and I already had a mess to clean up. I had to clean up the mess I made with the Wildstar community. That is why I'm now writing this apology post. I need to right my wrongs and tell my story. Tell you all why I'm such a horrible person and I only meant what was best for me in the end.

FLASHBACK TO THE ANNOUNCEMENT  OF WILDSTAR YEARS AND YEARS AGO...

I remember the day I first heard about Wildstar like it was the day after yesterday. I'm not sure when it was or exactly what I was thinking at the time, but it's all foggy and muddled up in my mind now. I remember the game was called Wildstar and I wanted to play it as soon as it was in beta, maybe sooner if I could. Sooner is always better.

I was excited for the game and I knew it was an MMO I wanted to play. Of course, I play all the MMOs, but I really wanted to play Wildstar. I remember their humor like it was my own humor, but with less swearing. I had the urge to reach out to Carbine Studios for a fun interview. They ignored me. I started a new Twitter handle and started writing fan fiction for the community. They ignored me. Quickly I became angry as a saw new people starting up Twitter accounts gaining followers by the dozens a day. They all skyrocketed to thousands of followers and I was left at 100. My heart sank further and I became jaded towards the community. I blamed them for my lack of commitment to the community and the game.

ENTER A WEEK AGO WITHOUT A DOG OR BOOTS...

My anger festered and popped in a molten bust of puss and hair. I couldn't take being ignored anymore, so I blamed them. They ignored me. I was out of options, so I bought some new boots and took my dog for a walk knowing I would return home without a dog or boots. I would return home to silence and darkness in my heart. I had nothing left to give to a community I really didn't have the time to give anything to in the first place.

You see, I love Wildstar with all my heart for at least 30 days. As an old gamer with 3 kids, 2 cat, a hot wife, a demanding job, a rock hard body with rippling muscles, a female friend that constantly wants to have sex with me, back problems, insomnia, other MMOs, a blog, a podcast, and other things that add up to ridiculous excuses, I realized I never gave 100,% to Wildstar like those other guys with 1,000's of followers. It was my own fault I wasn't an upstanding member of the Wildstar community and nobody knew my  name, Norm!

Here I sit crying knowing my name will never be immortalized in Wildstar. There will never be a mount called "The Scarybooster". Man, I wish I could be mounted and rode hard from quest hub to quest hub. It will never happen though because I don't like boots.

You see, the dog, the boots, and Wildstar are all the same. I never gave any of it a chance enough to become a great member of the community. It is my fault and my selfishness overtook my love and care for the game. I threw away everything I ever stood for just for attention I will never receive. And for that Wildstar community, I am sorry.

Unfortunately, there is nothing left for me to do, but apologize and disappear into the mist littered with gorillas. I will never be the Silverback or the Silverback's go-to-gal. I will just be me and silently enjoy the game. I will try to help others and bring joy to those playing for the first 30 days, but you will not know me as a great leader. I am ashamed I wasn't a better person to you all.

I hope you all forgive me for my selfish ignorance. I hope Wildstar brings a smile to your face everyday you play it, as the developers meant it to. You see, it's not about the dog, the boots, the messed up bus front grill with chunks of meat hanging from it, or even the bloody street some minimum wage city worker is going to have to clean up after maggots start to eat the carcass, it's about the children. It's about how they'll be affected for the rest of their life if they don't get to enjoy Wildstar and it's beautiful community. I don't want to be that guy to show them Nexus can be a bad place with selfish people like me.

I'm ashamed and from now on I'll be more positive and show the community I'm here for them when I'm not busy. Thank you for reading I love you all very much, figuratively like the dog and the boots.

It Is Your Fault MMOs are Single Player Games! Stop Blaming The Game.

My father said to me when I was a pimple faced teenager, "Son... You choose to react to what others say the way you want to. They do not force you to do or feel anything. It's your choice."

I cried for an hour and ran away screaming, "YOU HATE ME!"

Used time and time again is the saying, "You see the glass half full or half empty Daniel Son. It's up to you young padawan to choose your path."

In MMOs we choose to make them single player games. Yes, they could have systems like mentoring or down leveling to assist players in MMOing, but let's be real, most people won't use those systems anyways. It's easier to complain an MMO is a "single player" game made into an MMO to suck our bank's dry.

Wait... Let me finish before you run to the comments and give up on interacting with me and others before you even insert your name in the first field. Yup, blogs are dead for the same reason MMOs are single player games. You!

The story continues...

For the past 5-6 years MMOs have been becoming more and more single player games or as the elite say, "Carebear for casuals". Oh, that's a good guild name! Even though the games have the old systems that made MMOs so multiplayer, they've added systems to make grouping easier. Unfortunately, those systems make it easier to be less social. Again, we are back to glasses half full or half empty. However you look at MMOs and their features there are going to be downsides to all of them.

Everquest 2 has a mentoring system to help people group with lower level people. GW2 has a down leveling system for the same reason. Still, people do not socialize or make the game more multiplayer. They're selfish and do what it takes to achieve their goals in their single player game. So why don't new games add these "must have"  mentoring systems everybody wants so bad? I'm guessing the negative in implementing it at launch is greater than the positive. Why not just do away with levels? In essence, GW2 and The Secret World really don't need levels, but if they totally went away with levels people would lack the push to move forward in the game. Levels add an easy goal to keep people engaged or if you want to be negative, it keeps them tugging at your wallet. When do most people quit playing an MMO? That's right, level cap. Not because of the lack of content, but because the lack of, "now what the hell do I do?" Umm you could socialize and do group things... Naaa too hard. People are asshats. There isn't BLANK system... Ect ect excuse excuse... Your fault!

I make it a point when I log into an MMO to socialize with my guild. You know what? Most of the time nobody responds to me. They're too busy doing their thing. Oh, I've been told it's because they're just in a voice chat, so I boot up the preferred voice chat and nobody. I even ask if people are using it because I get 0 conversation back. Still, nothing! No its not my guild. I'm talking a span of games over 6 years and several highly active guilds, even in WoW. Nobody chats anymore. MMOs are single player games because of us not a lack of features to hold our hands. We are at fault for the lack of M in the MMO. Not the fist M but the second M.

No matter how hard a new MMO tries to be multiplayer, it will only ever make it half empty. You are the only one that can make the glass half full.

Why O Why Did I Pre-order Wildstar?!?!

Last night I did the deed, I refused my wife sex to pre-order Wildstar. What the hell was I thinking?!?!

I'm just kidding. My wife and I were like 2 Chuas fighting over the last slice of rowsdower bacon strip. And in normal human adult terms that translates to: I pre-ordered Wildstar, we went to bed, and as I leaned over to kiss her good night, my penis touched her leg and her breasts grazed my hand. Then, we slept great exhausted from our thought of going further than that. Sorry, but being intimate during the week is like guild events during the week lasting until 12am , I just don't have the energy for that.

Trust me you youngins, you get to my age and raiding becomes a chore if done during the week. If I stayed up that late raiding panties or a dragon with halitosis, I wouldn't recover for months. I wish I was as resilient as I used to be, but I'm not. I have pains, insomnia at times, children barfing on the cats, the cats barfing on the children, and my balls forgotten for months at a time; staying up late to play a video game is the last thing I need.

That being said, one of the things that interests me the most about Wildstar is the raiding. It also pissed me off the most. Over the last few months I've been going back and forth about buying Wildstar for various reasons to include raiding. In the end I made a list of why I wanted to play it and why I didn't. Obviously, the WANT exceed the NOT and I'll show you why...

WANT:

1. RAIDING AND WARPLOTS: These are exactly the same to me. I need a large group of people to achieve these and as a social gamer, that makes me horny. The thought of 39 dudes and 1 woman coming... together... sweaty... loads... of loot and fun, just gets my heart pumping with excitement.

2. HOUSING: Besides the fact that I'd like to see non-instanced housing, Wildstar's housing looks amazing. All the things you can do is jaw-dropping. Why they didn't go the route of having a in-game store filled with housing cosmetics to fund the game like Guild Wars 2 instead of a pay 2 play model, is beyond me. There is so much potential in making money through the housing aspect. I'm guessing NCSoft didn't want Wildstar to directly compete with GW2.

3. HUMOR: From the first day I heard about Wildstar, the game clicked with me. I loved their stupid sense of humor. Even though it is ridiculously over-the-top at times and very childish, I can connect with it somehow. I love the fact that when I level up the sounders says to me, "YAY YOU FUCKING DID IT SHIT FOR BRAINS! YAY FUCK YAY FUCK FUCK FUCK YAY!!! fuck."

That subtle type of humor just makes me smile. My life day in and day out is serious business and it's nice to go home and let my pubes out from time-to-time. Bushy Bushy Blonde Hair Do! You know, the game might be too cartoony or not worth the $15 a month, but those little moments I spend smiling at the stupid shit Wildstar has to offer is worth the free 30 days.

NOT:

1. RAIDING AND WARPLOTS: I know deep down in my heart I won't be able to raid or do Warplots. For one, I can't stay up late enough during the week to even massage some fantastic boobies. Second, the other boobie. Third, the people I guild with are just like me, old. We have families, full-time jobs, puking pets, neglected boobies, laundry, alcohol to be drank, depression pills, lack of interest after 30 days because of the monthly payment, and we're damn exhausted from all this. It just pisses me off!

2. HUMOR: Some days the game is just too "in your face". I'm a human being and that means I get grumpy and annoyed. I just don't feel like having "Las Vegas Strip"  experiences every night. It's fun to do in little doses, but after awhile I can see myself becoming numb to it and annoyed. Now I know how my wife feels when I speak. I'm the last guy you'd think would be annoyed by unnecessary humor, but it might surprise you to know I annoy myself a lot. BALLS! Most of the stuff I write I say to myself, "Haaa Haaa Haaa... Man, I sound stupid. Why did I write that? People must think I'm crazy and gross and more crazy and nuts and and and..."

You really need to be in the mood for ridiculous humor. This game and my blog will suffer the same fate in the end because of our childish behavior. FAME AND DRUG ABUSE!

3. COMMUNITY: This kind of piggybacks humor. Because the game fosters a pompous, over-the-top cockiness, the community comes off as just plain dicks. Imagine a League of Legends community that all think they're Jim Carry. Odd to think I think this is a negative, but when I'm playing a game I'm polite, helpful, and a damn nice guy. My blog is that other guy. I know how and when to turn off the dick. You could say I'm a pornstar and the Wildstar community is a bunch of frat boys daring each other to fuck elm trees. Sad thing is, they don't know they're being dicks they think they're funny. You're not, you're a dick!

Makes my stomach turn thinking a Wildstar fan will read this. I might have to throw up on their cat. Makes me sick!

4. THE ELDER SCROLLS ONLINE: I love TESO and playing Wildstar is going to take time away from that. Why I chose to pre-order Wildstar only hinged on 1 WANT and yesterday that WANT happened. I'll tell you about that in a bit.

After thinking about missing TESO game time and playing Wildstar with TESO, I felt relieved. I'm the type of gamer that hops from game to game every month and having 2 fresh MMOs to hop between sounds a little exciting. Like an orgy. Unfortunately, that will put me behind (and when I say behind /wink) my guild mates that hop between games. That don't stick with one game more than 30 days. That are as ADHD about MMOs as I am... Maybe, I won't get too far behind double penning these 2 games?

WINNING FACTOR:

THE RIVER

Yesterday he announced he will try Wildstar, but he's not too sure about the game. It kind of sounded a lot like me, but with more ice cream.

You see, River and I go way back as bloggers. You could say we're the OG's of MMO blogging. We don't take no shit. We don't conform to the ass kissing ways. We post dafuckever we want, and some developer once gave us pieces to the same skeleton. That kind of makes us brothers in blogging. You don't throw that shit away and if your brother is going to kill some shit in a game, you stand by him killing some shit. Unless, he doesn't log in and you have time to kill some shit while your wife is soaping up her milky white, silky soft, breasts in the shower. Then and only then, we shall not stand as one.

In all seriousness, River is a great friend and his pre-order of Wildstar made it a no brainer for me. Most likely we'll just play it for 30 days and he'll go back to WoW and I'll play TESO, but it's that 30 days the Latency Lowlifes will ride again, that makes it all worth it to me.

... Oh and fuck you feminist! You're welcome River!

EDIT: It seems I was mistaken and River lied to me, by not pre-ordering the game. He never said he pre-ordered the game, but when I said River I meant Rowan. Even tho Rowan isn't like River and is way more polite, I consider him a soft OG like me. Good thing he pre-ordered the game!

DOUBLE EDIT: Soo, Rowan didn't pre-order the game either...  I'm sure some motherfucker pre-ordered Wildstar and I'll play with him! Nunyall evar evar evar have my back during a zombie apocalypse! You all be trippin my ass just because you think it's funny! Stupid Wildstar bunny chicks and gerbils making me talk to the bushes naked in front of the police station!

Wildstar, The Elder Scrolls Online, World of Warcraft Oh My!

One day you're running though the field killing all the flowers; the next day your dead body is giving life to flowers some other asshole kid is going to trample over.

A new beautiful game is given life and it's human nature to crush the shit out if it so nobody else can enjoy it. Whether it's on purpose or by ignorant accident, people are so self-absorbed they don't care what they kill. Kill it with hate or love, it is still dead in the end.

It's a person's right to walk the path they walk and if their feet fall carelessly out of laziness, gingerly with love, or bat-shit crazy with hate, it's that person's right. Good on them for choosing the path they walk.

As I get older I've gotten more pains, seen the doctor's more frequently, and felt more and more weak inside and out. These new games spring up full of life and energy like I used to have.  The older they get the more withered and useless they become. Like me, they will die and be forgotten. But it's the journey we take not the end right? We breed to pass on our legacy and our memories.

Games are like our babies and through them we can express ourselves and pass on our life experiences. As we're parenting them through their adolescents we choose to love, ignore, or beat the living shit out of them because frankly, the baby is ugly and stupid. As a community of gamers we are the step-parents to these games when they launch. We didn't stay awake for 24 hours on launch day while the developers pushed their baby out their vagina. No! We came 4-5 years later holding a bottle of Jack Daniel's tugging at a ball of lint-yarn lodged in our bellybutton that smells like rotten cheese. As we drunkenly look down at our new kid we adopted we say to our loving, developer spouse,  " What the fuck were you thinking!"

From that moment on we decided how we're going to parent that child. Like the many flowers we've stepped on over the years, we choose how to proceed. Unfortunately as creatures of habit, we'll treat the game they way our parents treated us growing up. Of course, we're free willed too and we can choose a different path if we want. It's harder, but it could make the future of all games better. Most likely, we won't though.

In the end, you're going to be dead and that game you passionately loved or hated won't matter anymore. You're dead and most likely if you took the time to poor all your energy into loving or hating video games...

... You're like me and nobody is going to start a meme to remember you or set up a monument. We're just flesh waiting to nourish the spring flowers.

Wildstar's Fatal Misstep

When I was a kid I played a fun game called, Bloody Knuckles. The object of the game was to beat your opponents knuckles bloody to make them give up in pain. Most of the time it ended with the new guy crying as blood squirted out of his knuckles. Most of the newbies gave up and never played again.

You see, the veteran Bloody Knuckler spent countless hours building up calluses and the constant pounding on their knuckles damaged the nerve endings in their hands to dull the pain. There was no way a new guy could win unless he hit hard enough to break the vets hand. Let me tell you, that never happened.

Wildstar is that new guy and they're going to lose.

Before you throw up your hands and start screaming, "what about The Elder Scrolls Online,"  let me tell you why this only pertains to Wildstar.

1. Cartoony graphics

2. Theme park MMO

3. Big raid push

4. 2 factions

5. No existing IP

6. Monthly subscription

5 out of 6 of those scream WoW. In a recent survey WoW players were asked about other MMOs, 60% of them had no interest in any other MMO. 30% liked to try all the MMOs for the right price and 10% didn't even know what MMO meant. That said, Wildstar only has a chance of getting 200,000 people from WoW to try their MMO. Granted, there are a lot more people that don't play WoW and are currently MMOless, but out of those people most of them have tried WoW and left WoW. If 90% of Wildstar is WoW, why would people play it?

I'm not bashing Wildstar if I'm trying to help it survive.

I truly think Wildstar screwed up by not going with a model like Guild Wars 2. GW2 makes money almost as fast as WoW does. I bet percentage wise per capita, GW2 makes more money. Unfortunately, I'm just guessing this according to NCSoft's 3rd quarter earnings of GW2. GW2 didn't win the Bloody Knuckles game with WoW that's because the chose to play a different way.

Wildstar on the other bloody hand, is trying to go blow for blow with the champ. People try to deny it and shrug off the similarities, but at the end of the day Wildstar is a WoW clone to the core. Just like many before them, they will end up bloody and crying. If they just stopped denying it and embraced the fact they would be able to open their minds enough to figure out how to change the game.

So in one corner you have WoW holding tight to the heavy-weight championship of subscription Bloody Knuckles and in the other corner you have GW2 holding the title to the light-weight division, where can Wildstar go?

Like I said before, Wildstar is the new guy in this. They might be full of energy and ready to get bloody, but running in head first is just going to get them knocked out. They might want to want to think a bit longer about their strategy. Maybe they can catch the Champs by surprise with a huge left hook? What would that hook look like though?

1. Wrap their knuckles with a $9.99 sub fee? I know we've all accepted $15 fees with $60 boxes, but what about cushioning the blow to the consumers a bit by bringing the monthly fees down a bit?  I know, "But that's a $5 or 30% profit loss!"  Yup it sure is, but I bet more people would be willing to play WoWstar. I know if I was one of those 60% WoW fans paying $15 a month I'd be willing to try out that other WoW game for less.

2. Take their chances teaming up with GW2 (they are sisters after all)  and hope she doesn't claw Wildstar's eyes out. The problem with Wildstar is, it looks like WoW and smells like WoW. Those 30% that have played WoW and left, don't want WoW or they'd just play WoW... Duh!

Wildstar has a MASSIVE potential for a cosmetic cash shop. With the lack of a existing IP they are free to do what they want. Having a $15 monthly sub is just plain stupid and limits it's the overall growth of the game. It's sad new MMOs only thinking of the short term profit. Sure WoW is old and fat, but its had 9 Years of calluses building up. Of course Wildstar can hope to pull a Buster Douglas on WoW, but WoW would need to have a death in the family, do countless drugs, eat crap, and release WoD while it pukes on its fans.

3. What about having a free 60 days included in the pre-order of the game? What, WHAT?! Now I'm just talking crazy. I know everybody loves the in-game fancy rings with pre-orders or non-combat pets that do funny tricks, but what about giving players something they can actually use past level 5? Why not take a bit of stress off the gamers trying to get them to subscribe? If Wildstar is all about fun and happiness, grow some balls and let the players play the game for 60 days if they pre-order it?  One it can only drive up the initial amounts of pre-orders and two, it let's the player get hooked on the game, worry free,  for 60 days. Studies have shown it takes 90 days to foster a habit and after the first 30 days it gets harder and harder to break that habit. At 60 days it is 75% harder to break a habit. If Wildstar is dead set on a $60 box fee and $15 a month, give players that are dedicated enough to pre-order the game 60 free days. Wildstar needs to go into the Knuckles match with the crowd cheering while it bobs and weaves to wear the fat veteran out. Fat guys don't hit so hard if they can't breathe.

Unfortunately, the mentality behind companies running MMOs is,  "The players that are going to pre-order games do. No need to give them extra stuff that can save them money."  The problem is they don't think about the guy that is sitting on the fence with a pocket full of cash. There are 1,000s of people not wanting to buy Wildstar due to it not being different enough. Carbine Studio needs to push those people off the fence with a reason to play their game besides obscure features in the game. Those features might be cool, but a gamer needs a concert reason to try those features out. What's more concrete than money? Well, concrete I guess...

4. Or they can just pray for a miracle and hope they survive all 10 rounds. There is a list of games that thought they could do that, but sadly they all threw the towel in. What's worse is the other contenders had loved IPs to back them up. Even with the extra push of a known IP, they left in shame. You never know, Wildstar could get lucky? I'm laughing by the way.

The main problem I see about all this is the blinded fans. That say things like,  "we're not trying to kill WoW,"  or "WildStar is nothing like WoW!"  Yup and alcoholics aren't alcoholics if they don't look in the mirror. It's that type of thinking that makes an MMO go F2P or shut down totally. With so many MMOs fighting over players' money, it will be a hard sell for people to get in Wildstar's corner. There are so many better and cheaper options out there. Not to mention the veteran MMOs that already have built a habit from their players. You can scream how it's not Wildstar, but most of the MMO community only sees WoWstar.

Wildstar WILL Fail!

Right now I have 26 friends that are in the Wildstar beta and all hate it.  Without breaking frieNDA I'll vaguely explain why Wildstar will fail.

1. WoW Clone to the Glutinous Maximum:

From the art style to the old-school raids,  Wildstar has ripped pages out of the vanilla WoW book. Why would anybody invest their time in a new game when WoW is perfect? I've went over it in my head for minutes and I can't figure out why anybody would stop playing WoW for any reason. 

You have everything you could ever want in an MMO in WoW.  You have:

A.  A great community

B.  A perfectly balanced game

C.  Millions of people to play with

D.  Quests that make you think

E.  Epic mounts and pets you can pay cash for

F.  Up-to-date graphics

M.  No bugs or exploits

U.  Dynamic combat

2. Their ideas are muddled and stupid.

They have these weird ideas that they think are funny, but they're not.  I find myself watching their Dev Speak laughing to myself.  When I laugh I should be doing it loud and in somebody's face,  not alone in my house eating a whole bag of chips and washing it down with booze. Those videos make me sad on the inside.  I feel like I'm being left out of the joke and everybody hates me.  Never mind,  you don't understand my pain.

4. There is already a WoW we don't need another one.

Many games have tried to emulate WoW and all have failed.  What makes people think they can compete with WoW?  They can't! They should just give up.  WoW reminds me of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. At the end of the movie we know the Wilde Stallions is the band that will bring world peace.  We know WoW is just that,  but a game.  We just need to accept it as our savior.

Obviously you can see why it would be a waste to play Wildstar.  I just scratched the surface with that list.  Not to mention you have to pay $15 a month for Wildstar!  That's just ludicrous!

I'll break it down easy for all the deaf fanboys.

You go to the grocery store to pick up some eggs,  milk,  sausage,  bacon,  and salsa to make a spicy breakfast burrito. You pay and you're about to get in your luxury car to go home to your model wife, when a fat chick on a scooter slaps your nuts and drags you on the back of her scooter. She then drives crazy spilling all your groceries in the street.  Holding on for dear life you latch on to what you think is her boobies,  but it turns out to be 2 McDonald's Happy Meals stashed in her bra. She comes to a jerking stop at a chapel with a banner over the door with your name on it and what you assume is her name.  She clubs you over the head and the next thing you know you're married to her. 

That, my friend, is Wildstar!

The moral to the story is:

You had everything you ever wanted with WoW and you go and screw it up by messing around with Wildstar (man I almost typed Warhammer Online). Just think next time you go last minute shopping for a new game. You could end up in the corner crying yourself to sleep eating an all beef patty with secret sauce. 

Mark my words... Wildstar will fail! I gave you all the evidence you'll ever need.  Now go forth and log back into WoW and forget about Wildstar.