Why exactly Magicka Wizard Wars Died.

[Nohead]

This is my opinion so you can agree\disagree or make your own assumptions but please don't take things out of context.

So lets begin

* People who analysed marketing stuff funked up. They did not analyzed why people liked the Magicka franchise and what groups of players played it. Somebody just decided that making a purely competitive game that caters only to a fraction of Magicka's fanbase some how will bring all fans of magicka in.

* Then a game was mabe. And netplay was server based. It was a gamble. Because P2P netplay would require a lot of work to prevent cheating or people will make netplay a horrible place. On the other hand Server based netplay could bleed game to death via Server maintenance\renting costs if it won't be popular (guess what happened). So making server based gameplay was a mistake. Just look ar Awesomenauts: this game can exist in a limbo of "nobody cares and your netplay sucks" but still making regular attempts to make a profit because servers cost don't sucking them dry.

* Game had typical "seal whacking" syndrome when hardcore audience scaring off the casual audience, denying transition from casual gamer > avereage gamer > hardcore gamer FOR MAJORITY OF CASUALS and killing game in process.

* Lets add to this a dissapointing rewarding mechanics (random loot that depended on ammount of wins was dissapointing for casuals) and Nothing but PvP content. Game needed advanced powerhouse training mode, and PvE content. Instead of it it got more PvP content and craft based on wins that casuals could not achieve (but it was on game's "last breath" and I can't judge if it did make negative impact). Don't get me wrong, I don't mean that the game made from the ground for netplay PvP should just go back to classic magicka. Magicka Wizard Wars needed the place and conditions for casual players to continue playing and transition into the dedicated fans. And only way to do this: is separation players by skill, aaaaand when you have small player base or you just can't do that you need to have PvE content.

Conclusion

So the devs and hardcore players killed Magicka Wizard wars.

And with kinda sorta same situation with Magicka 2 (game died because fans wanted Magicka 1 but with new graphics and more content but they get a game of smaller scope. And the hype wasn't there anymore) the franchise in hybernation. It is kinda dead but will be revived several years later if needed.

[dimi]

You don't even deserve constructive criticism.

Next time try to be community/forum active. Cheers.

[Nohead]

Originally posted by Dimitris - holypie44 - Sir Timid:

You don't even deserve constructive criticism.

Next time try to be community/forum active. Cheers.

I actually was. But your butthurt is appreciated (why else you answer in such way?)

[Trapfly]

Originally posted by Nohead:

I actually was. But your butthurt is appreciated (why else you answer in such way?)

I think it's just because of your introductory paragraph that immediately discourages anyone from posting any criticism or rebuttal. That being said, I read the entire post despite my distaste.

You actually brought up some decent points. Rewards were garbage, smashing noobs was pretty much mandatory to earn your x10 chest without playing all day, and Soul Harvest might've been better off being PvE instead of the strange MOBA mode that it was.

Also, don't forget about the really shifty marketing decisions, like charging actual money for a requested community feature (Amulet of Nulification for a while), or reselling a Halloween item pack the day after Halloween with an additional item so that you'd need to buy it twice.

It was a wonderful trainwreck of a game in some aspects, but in another, it was the most fun I've had with a game in quite some time.

[Cyan]

I agree with the points you made. I think it boils down to the fact the Magicka series isn't exactly the easiest thing to pick up by newer players, and as there were no players the matchmaking was bad and the more 'hardcore audience' would scare newer players as you mentioned, thus it couldn't get a bigger playerbase to improve things. Kind of like a snowball effect in the end.

Anyways, It was fun while it lasted and hopefully the developers learnt some lessons from this experience.

Originally posted by Trapfly:

Also, don't forget about the really shifty marketing decisions, like charging actual money for a requested community feature (Amulet of Nulification for a while), or reselling a Halloween item pack the day after Halloween with an additional item so that you'd need to buy it twice. :money:

Reminds me of the Yogscast Imp that they added to the Daily Chest. Sure it was like a year later (I think), but still it was meant to be an exclusive item. I was a little bummed when I found out it was put in the chest. :(

[dimi]

Originally posted by Nohead:

Originally posted by Dimitris - holypie44 - Sir Timid:

You don't even deserve constructive criticism.

Next time try to be community/forum active. Cheers.

I actually was. But your butthurt is appreciated (why else you answer in such way?)

Look at me I can use internet slang as well!!!!

cucklmaokysfam:D:D:DD

[Nohead]

Originally posted by Trapfly:

I think it's just because of your introductory paragraph that immediately discourages anyone from posting any criticism or rebuttal. That being said, I read the entire post despite my distaste.

I actually fixed it. why not.

Originally posted by Trapfly:

Also, don't forget about the really shifty marketing decisions,

Yeah. I know. I'm actually ok with it. Because I don't like "have\have not" tactics more. I just wanted to point in general direction (as I see it) and I excluded some stuff because I considered it less important (if other popular games could live with it then it less important.)

[Not even Nea me]

I gonna be honest and i go by topics
Magicka 2- gameplay physics makes the game seem very buggy its not smooth at all, feels more clumbsy than being a wizard and it doesn't seem polished at all. throwing a rock you expect to come out like fast meteor but it actuallly comes out more like youre throwing rocks in the moon lol. People notice this things...

solution:
Put people trying your games inside your known fanbase to give you feed back of how the game feels to be played, if magicka had so manyexpert you could cooperate with them to improve it maybe? just saying...

Marketing-
game dificulty-think about rocket league, they sell professional plays, the game is harder than magicka wizard wars(i have that game one year still cant hit the ball in the air properlly lol) but they sell the stuff you can do if you get good, despite that in your first game if you hit ball once in all match is a victory(sad but its true).

Presentation video- I get that magicka got his comedy side attached, but they should combine a good trailer where it shows his competitive scene side with good players making sick plays the most common hype from this game is a guy solo beating 4 mages(its a scene that shows that there is no limitation rather than your own skil, people like that).

Hard games work you just need to show them what they can do once they master the game(rocket league approach) if they like it they sure will buy it.


I dont think this franchise will be revived since it is a game that doesnt do money, but if they release magicka wizard wars 2( which i would get so hyped to get) only thing i ask to paradox is to release it well polish, I dont care what it takes to make sure its Polish and smooth, just dont throw another clumbsy feel like game.(better not release it then)

[McFlurry Butts]

Honestly, the items were not that great to buy, which is kind of something a f2p mmo needs in order to support itself. The networking was open to crashing all the time. Every wizard was a tank, and he did not die that quickly, which was annoying because it made players use the same spells over and over again. The match making took forever to start a round and people would often rage quit.

Of course, this might have changed later on, but it's reasons I stopped playing.

Don't get me wrong, there was a lot of great things about this game, but that's the problem, it was a great game I could not play.

[Tyrant]

I stopped playing when they changed the matchmaking up to where I was in queue for 5 minutes to play a 3 minute match. They never fixed it so I never came back.

[Salty Rootbeer]

Spent money on this. I thought it was fun. Keep in mind I sucked horendously at it.
At one point, I even needed to reinstall my OS to play it. I did just that. Coz I thought the game was fun. After a while of playing this game (mostly waiting for matchmaking Qs lol) I uninstalled, because I burned myself out on it (tends to happen when I binge a game I love).
Fast forward to now. After not having played for a year or more, I went to reinstall, but got tons of errors. Couldn't even find the game's store page anymore. So I trolled the hub to find out why the ♥♥♥♥ i couldn't play one of my favorite games.
I would be lying if i said I wasn't dissappointed. but after reading through all of these comments things began to make sense.
R.I.P.

[katie kat]

game was not profitable enough to satisfy the CEO's wallet simple as that