Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Yeah, developers Carbine know that spending resources on a video that is just about how the characters in Wildstar move seems a little odd. It should be trivial, but actually, given that this is an MMO, there’s quite a bit of extra stuff going on in here, specifically the addition of a platform-game style double jump, and a TPS/FPS type metered sprint function. There’s also a “dash” function for dodging. Doesn’t that make it a dodge function and not a dash? I mean I guess dodging is in a context. You can dash whenever, and it only becomes a dodge when you are dodging something. Yeah.

Movement: with more philosophical legs that you might expect.
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If Wildstar existed back when WoW had me pinned under its hulking gorilla girth, I think my head would’ve exploded. It has pretty much all the things every fiber of my hunched, addiction-ravaged being could’ve wished for – and then some. Player housing? You betcha. Customizable guild death lairs? Oh my yes. Highly mobile combat? Try standing still and find out. Bizarrely out-of-place anime bunny people? Well, they can’t all be winners. But you get my point. Its personality reminds me of less obnoxious 3D-animated kid films, too, and it definitely has heart. I can practically feel Past Me grossing up his portion of the space-time continuum with puddles of anticipatory froth. Current Me, though? He’s living in a post-WoW world, and he’s got a family of largely inconsequential desk cacti to be responsible for. Is Wildstar’s take on the tried-and-true MMO formula too little, too late, even with a generous helping of all the things? Perhaps the now up-and-running closed beta can help us find out.

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The last time I played Wildstar, Carbine’s upcoming MMO, I had a decent time but I was left anxious about how close it stuck to the numbers, numbers, numbers model and why its Explorer path was so much like a late 90s platformer. Now it’s increasingly looking as though they might just have been sitting on the good stuff, like a hen made of veteran MMO developers incubating an egg of semi-sandbox play. Er.

Best forget that analogy. Instead, take a look at this player housing video – while the numbers, numbers, numbers stuff is very much in evidence, so is tantalisingly freeform DIY.
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I like a trailer that’s up-front. What Is Wildstar? it asks, in a self-deprecating fashion. As NCSoft’s latest MMO, from Carbine Studios, prepares to begin its beta, they’re making sure you know. This is a properly good trailer.

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NCSoft’s next big MMO, Wildstar, has been quiet for the best part of the year, and this is of course because it’s been on a fantastic voyage to the bottom of the sea, tutoring giant squid, blue whales and starfish in the ways of levelling up and crafting. Either that or they wanted to develop a load more of the game before showing it off again. I went to see and play Carbine Studios’ sci-fi/fantasy mash-up, which aims to be a deconstruction and then new reconstruction of MMORPG tropes, last week, and I’ll have a full report on that for you late next week.

In the meantime, today they’re telling the world about one of their two opposing, tri-race factions, and pledging to get the game out in 2013.
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Carbine’s science fiction Wild West MMO Wildstar certainly has a lot of promise. The colourful, bold art style is lovely for a start, but then when you read up on some of the more esoteric aspects that have been announced for it, there’s some potential for it to be interesting. It’s not stepping out of the quest-based mould, granted, but it seems to have enough character to stand up as something singular in the MMO landscape. The new trailer detailing player-housing – plots of lands that can be turned into floating islands of player-erected buildings and furniture – does nothing to dispel that feeling. Go take a look, below.
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Many moons ago, I got the chance to play WildStar. It was kind of a surreal experience for me. I mean, I wanted to be delighted. There were gorgeous vistas and Han-Solo-esque gunmen and surprisingly dark references to the film Alien and brilliant tweaks to the traditional MMO formula. It was like a diligent student with purple hair and bunny ears for some reason that had trained under WoW – and then surpassed it. But, even with dodge-heavy multi-lane combat, I couldn’t shake the feeling that this cartoony sci-fi-fantasy galaxy far, far away was actually Azeroth’s next door neighbor. Group combat – tank-healer-DPS “holy trinity” and all – does look fairly exciting, though. Let it caress your giant, strangely out-of-character anime eyeballs after the break.

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Admission: I’d forgotten that Wildstar existed until I watched a new video for the game today. I’m very glad to be reminded though because it looks like that rarest of things, an MMORPG that I might want to play for more than five minutes. The video shows giant monsters, death ray spewing robotfaces acting as an environmental hazard and demonstrates some of the capabilities for each possible ‘path’ players can follow. Read more about that concept in Alec’s interview or go right ahead and watch the video.

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Brriiiiiing! Briiiiiiing! Briii-
“Hello, Alec Meer speaking.”
“Hello, is that Alec Meer?”
“Yes, that’s why I said ‘Alec Meer speaking’. God, why do people always do that?”
“Sorry, yes, it annoys me too. Alec Meer here too – you said I should give you a call.”
“What?”
“You said you have so many half-forgotten interviews to transcribe that you needed to find some sort of fool-proof reminder system. This is it. When you sell RPS for $4 billion in 2027, you spent your share on a machine that could send phone calls back through time.”
“What?”
“So this is your reminder to transcribe the Wildstar interview you did back in August.”
“What? Wait, that’s actually really useful. Thanks.”
“Oh, and if you post that beta sign-ups for the new NCsoft MMO are now open, that’ll further help you to remember. Bye!”
“Oh, that’s a very sensible idea.”
“Oh, and don’t play Duke Nukem Forever, it’s rubbish.”
“Hang on, I thought you said you were from the future?”
“Er… Gotta go!”
[Click]