Carbine Studios’ WildStar is an MMO billed as a hardcore gaming experience, but the game has seen its playerbase slowly dwindling since its release in June. The official game forums are filled with players asking “Is WildStar dead?”

Some players point to the game’s difficulty as a big factor in the decline, but others aren’t so sure.

It is no secret that games in general have gotten easier over the last 20 years. Insanely difficult games only appealed to a small market of so-called “hardcore” gamers, which turned many people away from the medium on the premise that video games are too hard.

But while hardcore gaming fans found themselves in a shrinking niche, a few developers stepped in to create challenging games that catered to the small hardcore gaming market.

Some of these games sold well, such as From Software’s Dark Souls, which sold nearly 2.4 million copies within the first two years of its release despite its high difficulty and lack of player guidance. Other difficult games like Spelunky, VVVVVV, and Rogue Legacy have also performed well on the PC indy game market.

“Players like the challenge”

Some game genres do not handle high difficulty as well as others, especially MMO games like WildStar, whose business model relies on a stable playerbase to keep the content going.

A recent Reddit thread pointed to WildStar‘s Raid Progression Rankings, which show that only a small percentage of players have even seen the endgame content.

“We don’t have plans to make raiding ‘easier,’ as players weren’t asking for that,” Carbine’s Mike Donatelli told Joystiq in October. “Players like the challenge of the raids and dungeons.”

When asked about WildStar‘s population, Donatelli admitted, “WildStar currently has hundreds of thousands of active players. Would we like more? Absolutely.” Donatelli was optimistic that the player base would grow with upcoming content.

While some say WildStar‘s difficulty keeps it from gaining a wider audience, some players say the game suffers from other issues. Reddit user /u/Juts claimed that the way the dungeon system punishes minor mistakes “created a hugely toxic player base.” Other players noted that Carbine’s previously open social media presence clammed up after game-halting bugs went unfixed for months.

The lower population on WildStar servers has started to negatively impact players, who have trouble finding other people to explore group content.

The developers have started easing some of the restrictions in the game, lowering requirements for some dungeons and announcing a future raid that requires 20 players instead of 40, a tactic used by World of Warcraft several years ago.

But whether the changes will bring back old players remains to be seen.