I tried to play Wildstar at Rezzed, which had the least pushy crowds of any convention I’ve been at. Nevertheless, I didn’t manage to get onto the bank of PCs. The players there were curled over the keyboards in the manner of a lion protecting a delicious carcass. I’d approach, there’d be a low growl that I first felt then heard, then my throat would be casually swiped from my neck and the player would return to Carbine’s world. Thankfully the Surgeon Simulator booth was pretty close, and a quick graft restored my larynx. But the Wildstar players did seem particularly engrossed. A less slashy environment to experience the game was the Rezzed developer session, which I’ve embedded below.
This is the first concentrated chunk I’ve seen. It looks like the Guild Wars 2 developers were given the WoW toolset, which means it’s another step on the road to making the damn genre more fun and accessible, but also retains a lot of the genre’s ticks for those that want it to feel familiar. I am fascinated by this new wave of MMOs being built by frustrated players of older MMOs. The frontier stuff does seem to push the game into interesting areas, with the builder-class upgrading structures to add a high-level quest giver, and adding player-built fast-travel stations. It’s taking the spread of the players across the world and giving it a purpose.
Has anyone managed to play the beta?
26/06/2013 at 13:34 Lord Custard Smingleigh says:
Death Fortresses! DEATH FORTRESSES!
26/06/2013 at 16:42 trjp says:
Sold on those alone, frankly…
26/06/2013 at 13:40 NyuBomber says:
Oh my god this is pushing all my buttons.
Just don’t push that button.
CAN WILDSTAR RESIST PUSHING THAT BUTTON?
26/06/2013 at 14:10 Harlander says:
You mean this beautiful, shiny button? This jolly, candy-like button?
Yeah, shouldn’t be a problem.
26/06/2013 at 15:03 Shieldmaiden says:
Yep, I’ve got the same buttons and it’s bashing them like a small child with a free sweets button.
27/06/2013 at 00:25 Arglebargle says:
Is it a Red Button??
27/06/2013 at 04:49 NyuBomber says:
So red. So shiny.
26/06/2013 at 14:03 Quatlo says:
It looks really promising, almost too well, we really need to watch out and not overhype ourselves or we are going to have GW2:Redux reaction.
I think this is going to be my last mmo, if this one fails im done with them, and I really don’t want that because I love playing mmos with my friends.
26/06/2013 at 14:48 aliksy says:
I still don’t know if this is a subscription or not. If it is, I simply won’t play it.
But then again, Rift went f2p and I played it for about an hour before getting horribly bored with it.
26/06/2013 at 14:55 FriendlyNeighbourhoodMurderer says:
I’d rather pay a subscription than having to pay for everything in the game. Or better yet, a one time purchase fee and then like GW2’s f2p model.
26/06/2013 at 15:36 frightlever says:
Perhaps this is it for you. Perhaps there’s nothing left but a gloomy sense of jaded dissatisfaction and ennui.
26/06/2013 at 16:17 nrvsNRG says:
For me personally a subscription based MMO makes better financial sense.
I’m just the sort of person F2P mmo’s love.
26/06/2013 at 17:08 Zelos says:
Absolutely. Free games are much too expensive. Sub please!
26/06/2013 at 17:10 Dominic White says:
You do realize that you’re looking at $220 or more a year if you’re playing a subscription MMO, right? I’ve never spent even a quarter of that on an F2P game.
26/06/2013 at 17:15 Zelos says:
I’ve spent over $600 on league of legends. I’m not sure exactly how much, but I don’t want to know either.
Also, subs are 156-180 a year.
I don’t know of any MMOs that charge 18.33 dollars a month.
26/06/2013 at 17:17 Dominic White says:
… Okay, yeah. I think at that point you can safely say that you’ve got a problem.
26/06/2013 at 17:19 Zelos says:
I’m not sure if this makes it better or worse, but I haven’t spent money on it in months.
26/06/2013 at 17:54 Dominic White says:
It’s $60 for the base game (at launch), plus subscription. Plus with most MMOs you’re looking at a $40 expansion every year or two, too.
26/06/2013 at 18:29 nrvsNRG says:
Also you need to bear in mind that a lot of these f2p games that I regularly spend small (and sometimes large) amounts of cash on, I wouldnt be playing at all if they were subscription games….and the list of these games is huge and always growing.
26/06/2013 at 14:49 Strutter says:
I have high hopes for this game.
26/06/2013 at 14:57 Keyrock says:
I’m not a fan of the art style, it’s like the unholy child of Torchlight (minus its character) and Tera (minus the underage girls’ panties… hopefully) with a hodgepdge of different stuff thrown in with seemingly no rhyme or reason. I can get past the art direction, though, if the game actually plays as good as it sounds.
26/06/2013 at 17:13 Zelos says:
I think it looks great. As far as “lacking character” I couldn’t disagree more. Watch some more videos and you’ll see how it comes together.
26/06/2013 at 16:35 Carwash says:
Art style feels too close to WoW
26/06/2013 at 16:42 trjp says:
*yawn*
26/06/2013 at 18:05 Joe-Gamer says:
Why are factions always race restricted? I want to be a robot scientist exile, can I do that? No, because apparently robots only work for “The Man”(Bonetown reference, zing!). It makes no sense! Factions are ideological constructs, a sentient being of ANY race can be part of ANY faction if their interests are aligned with that faction. I’ve often wished for a traitor quest line in the MMO’s I’ve played, become disillusioned with the Jedi non-interference bullshit, hey come to Korriban, we’ll use you. Tired of Hellscream’s foolishness, come over to the “pretty” side.
Imagine the depth that could be explored, your original faction puts out a hit/bounty on your ass, your new faction doesn’t trust you yet so you have to win them over through massive epic acts of glory/infamy.
Factions do not equal race…I miss the CoX character creation…
26/06/2013 at 18:14 Brun says:
PvP. Having faction-exclusive races makes telling enemies apart from friends much easier. Yes you can look and see if their name is green or red, but that becomes difficult when you’ve got groups of players packed close together.
26/06/2013 at 19:23 Zelos says:
As Brun said, it’s more of a gameplay thing than a flavor/lore thing. You’re limited to the distinct races for PvP reasons. Typically you’ll see traitors/neutral versions of the other races as NPCs, but you can’t play as them.
If every race is a human(SWTOR/Star Trek) then there’s no real reason because races are entirely flavor.
26/06/2013 at 21:10 Phendron says:
Coincidentally, lore makes sense in the OP’s point as well. The robots in Wildstar literally came down from the heavens to tell the totalitarian humans that yes, the earth is the center of the universe, here’s divine right of conquest, we’ll help out so get cracking.
27/06/2013 at 04:15 Zelos says:
Lore isn’t that important important. It will always be written to support the gameplay restrictions.
26/06/2013 at 21:18 nearly says:
Everquest II had faction betrayal, didn’t it?
27/06/2013 at 00:31 Arglebargle says:
Just another dumb metagame decision to lay at the feet of the almighty PvP. ESO is also in that boat, which is worse, as there is little justification for it in the game background. Wildstar at least builds the design from scratch. Still, it’s a shame that those artificial walls get written in.
26/06/2013 at 20:51 PopeRatzo says:
We’ll see.
The console-centric third-person is not exactly inspiring.
My guess is it will be subscription-based, with in-game purchases. Judging by the age-group targeted by the style of artwork (Whacky! Wild! Ass-kicking Big Gun Susplosions!), we’re looking at a very expensive-to-play game. Think third-person Borderlands 2 with a big-money hustle.
I hope I’m wrong, but don’t bet on it.
26/06/2013 at 21:57 derbefrier says:
what does console-centric third person even mean?
26/06/2013 at 22:07 darkChozo says:
It’s when you’re playing a third person game, and then at the end the camera turns around and reveals a Kinect and then it goes DUN DUN DUN and then it goes The End…?
26/06/2013 at 22:08 SkittleDiddler says:
Junk like Gears of War or God of War or Darksiders, maybe?
27/06/2013 at 04:19 Zelos says:
Not God of War, but the other two yeah.
That said, it doesn’t really apply here.
27/06/2013 at 04:18 Zelos says:
Erm, I’m not sure what you’re whining about. The camera is the same as every single other 3d mmo ever released. Are you new to the genre? Subscription with an in-game store is absolutely unheard of, and the only game to get away with it is WoW. It’s either going to be a straight sub or free with an optional sub.
As for the art style, I’m 32 and it is quite appealing to me.
26/06/2013 at 22:00 darkChozo says:
It’s when you’re playing a third person game, and then at the end the camera turns around and reveals a Kinect and then it goes DUN DUN DUN and then it goes The End…?
28/06/2013 at 04:31 ace_bandage says:
Has anyone managed to play the beta?
It is completely possible that some of us may have played the beta and, despite being very excited about the possibilities, been wholly unimpressed with gameplay that feels five years old.
I strongly recommend that people approach this game with a healthy interest but realistic expectations.
02/07/2013 at 03:09 Josh W says:
Surely you mean replaced your larynx with a beaker and three spatulas?