Seems Wildstar ain't faring as well as some said...

If they do have a F2P contingency planned, then good for them. They might be smarter than I give them credit for.
If not, well... you reap what you sow.

All devs have to be arrogant before launching their game. It's a marketing trick.
They overhype their product until you just HAVE to check it out for yourself and see what all the fuss is about.

Swtor's devs definitely didn't shy away from bold statements like how it was going to bring down WoW, how it was going to have a few hundred planets by the end of its run, how OPs would be more heroic without being about everyone attacking the boss etc.

They all do it. The question is why do people, a decade after the most successful and the first truly mainstream MMO launched, still fall for it?

Especially considering that they came from WoW, which has never ever had to even think about going F2P, and they were dead-set on stealing their loyal customers from the look of things.

So I actualy doubt that they have a F2P contingency.

Is it F2P yet?

There was the NCSoft earnings call which heavily implied that WS only sold 500K at launch, in comparison ESO sold millions. They've both declined but ESO at least started from a significantly higher base. Plus ESO's future roadmap does look promising whereas WS looks to be quite reactive.

I played ESO to Veteran level 12 then quit but I barely got to level 20 on WS before quitting cause the levelling process in WS is poor whereas ESO 1-50 is quite good. Now like some others I've come back to SWTOR and liking it a lot.

Any game that builds its end game around hardcore, rarely seen, massive time sink content is not going to work in mass market appeal. It could work as a niche game but if they have a bottom line that requires a large number of players to be successful and profitable, it must appeal to the larger, more casual group. The end game MUST be accessible to a more "casual" market.

There really isn't any debate there. This has been shown again and again since WoW.

Niche games can be as hardcore as they want. Mass market games cannot. A company needs to structure their financial plan around that.

Wildstar - NC SOFT title. I'd sooner eat my own hands than willingly give NC soft money for anything ever again.

ESO - As much as I love elder scrolls games, I can't bring myself to even try ESO. I know what the elder scrolls games are. I know what mmos are.

I hoped never to have to see mmo'ification happen to the elder scrolls franchise, but the best I can now do is stay far, far away from it.

This part actually is hardcore. Hardcore players are generally ones that no longer care about content (usually, however, because they've already played through it twice or thrice), or about graphics, willing to turn it down to "ultra low", but only about gameplay.

Most hardcore games have lackluster or minimal graphics. One of the most outstanding examples is this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Hexagon

There's a difference between CoD-level graphics and bad Cartoon Network graphics.
Hardcore players might not care too much for extremely realistic graphics, but in an MMO like Wildstar any form of immersion is non-existent - well, unless you're a big Ben 10 or My Little Pony fan.

Also, Super Hexagon is not an MMORPG.
It might be an addictive little indie game, but let's not compare apples to oranges.

Spoiled kids these days...

Try CS 1.6 graphics - the only version of Counter-Strike accepted as suitable for competition.

Try Quake graphics.
Try Doom graphics.
Try VGA Planets graphics.
Try Wasteland graphics.
Try ADOM and Nethack graphics.

Now tell me Wildstar lacks the visual realism of ADOM.

Again, you're talking about very different things and, most importantly, of a very different time in gaming.
None of the games you mentioned are new games. Gamers' expectations have changed much since then.

And this whole thing is besides the point, really.
It's not that Wildstar graphics are bad, it's that they are cartoonish and childish.

SWTOR doesn't have the most realistic graphics in the world. They too are sort of cartoonish in a way.
But you can't compare them to the Looney Tunes tribute that is Wildstar.

Cartoonish graphics =/= bad graphics.
You just have to know your audience before you decide to go down that path.