Wardogs online player count dropped by 100 thousand in a week, so the developers are asking gamers for advice

It's been one week since Wardogs launched in early access and only three days since the 100-person firefight reached its peak number of players on Steam, but that figure has already dropped by over 100,000 as of writing.

That's to be expected for any new game as its shininess dulls and some people realize they'd rather play something more relaxing. Bulkhead is cool with that, but CEO Joe Brammer wouldn't mind some advice on how to slow some of that decline.

We're entering the first phase of @WARDOGS perfectly acceptable decline where people start to find issues with the balancing, or just disagree with design decisions.

So, let's start the next phase of development… Remember, we're in charge here, we're the ones with the vision.

The tone softened as Brammer continued more politely:

However, you have a voice. Season 2 is going to bring lots of new content and changes. But…What is the biggest ISSUE you are seeing right now that you would change mid-season? Let me know your thoughts.

It's notable that Brammer is tentatively asking players for advice when, in the past, collecting as much player feedback as possible was the whole point for developers when launching a game in early access. Pocketpair publishing lead John "Bucky" Buckley recently revealed what worries him about the current state of the industry:

The culture has changed and early access, essentially, has lost its meaning. People just buy an early access game like they buy a normal game and treat it like that's the game.

Perhaps the same trend applies to other developers too, especially now that games like Palworld, TCG Card Shop Simulator, Hades 2, and many more found huge success on Steam as in-progress early access titles.

In any case, Wardogs players are eager to share some of their best ideas with Bulkhead. One fan suggested to "add a dildo to put on the vehicle dashboards," while Buckley himself couldn't resist chiming in with a sarcastic suggestion to "change blue to yellow."

Well, it's a good thing the vision for the game stays entirely in the hands of Bulkhead.