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The Nexus Telegraph: Let's hear it for the tweet-quest
There are many parts of WildStar that are treading familiar ground in unusual ways, and quests are no exception to that. We know that the game will have quests, but those quests are compressed into 140-character, Twitter-style soundbites. They're quick nuggets of information sending you to a place to do a thing, and that's it. Needless to say, this has sparked some outrage from people absolutely certain that this is catering to ADD-afflicted jumpy maniacs concerned only with getting the most loot the fastest rather than people who actually care about playing a game. For starters, I'm not sure these people actually know how ADD works, but that's not the point. The point is that there's a lot to like about the concept of the game's tweet-quests. Obviously we don't know how well the idea will work out in practice, but from what we do know, there's plenty of reason to look forward to the different format. I should note that those of you who caught my appearance on Nexus Weekly got a preview of some parts of this column, so congratulations for reading ahead. Listening ahead. Whichever. If you didn't catch it, you can listen before or after. It's up to you.
WildStar's Jeremy Gaffney discusses sandboxes and themeparks
While WildStar has been offering a lot of previews to eager fans, that hasn't stymied player questions. It's been known for some time that the game aims at being a sandpark-style game, midway between themepark and sandbox principles, but what does that mean in execution? Executive producer Jeremy Gaffney penned a piece today responding to player discussion on the topic and explaining how the team at Carbine Studios is trying to offer something for everyone. Gaffney explains that the team wants to ensure that players aren't lost or unsure of what to do next while at the same time not keeping the entire game on rails. The main method of doing this is by having coherent quests and missions coupled with more spontaneous content dependent on the state of the zone -- so while there might always be a quest hub to the north, more dynamic events are roaming to the south that you won't always encounter. Read the full article for more on the game's content layout and the importance of zone-by-zone player feedback.
