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A firsthand tour of a WildStar adventure
WildStar's beta test is ramping up further and further. It's ramping up enough that pretty much everyone who isn't in the beta already is looking for a way to get in on it. Now's your chance! Hit this link for a giveaway that will grant you a chance to win a beta key for Wildstar. And one of the things you'd be able to see within the beta, if you were in, are the Adventures that have been all the talk of press releases lately. So what is an Adventure? Well, the DevSpeak video past the break will give you a nice top-level overview of that, so you could just go with that. Or you could ask me, because I got to make my way through one with the development team at Carbine Studios, getting a firsthand look at how the content is supposed to work and what's cool about it. That's also past the break.
The Nexus Telegraph: Stuff the endgame needs in WildStar
I'm going to go ahead and totally dispense with any vagueness here because we already know that WildStar will have a raiding endgame and a PvP endgame. That's great, that's valuable, that's absolutely nothing. That's exactly what lots of games launch with. It's what lots of games consider their bread and butter. It's also not going to cut it. If WildStar sells itself on providing the exact same endgame that we've seen in every other game ever, I'm hesitant to say "it will fail," but it sure as heck won't be dazzling anyone three months out from release. You can't make a game with the selling point of "play however you like" and then surreptitiously add "except when you get to endgame, and then you'd better raid, buddy." With that in mind, let's talk about what the game needs in terms of endgames that we don't see on a regular basis.
WildStar previews upcoming adventures
It's fortunate for adventurers on Nexus that they won't be alone. And that's not just a matter of their faction; no, they'll have a little help from the Caretaker, a sentient AI left behind by the Eldan. Yes, he may have been waiting just a little while to deal with another sentient life form, but he's certainly not bitter about untold centuries of complete neglect without any word or even so much as a steady stream of information. So when you meet him in WildStar, why not let him take you on an adventure? The latest WildStar teaser is just past the break, and it hints at how adventures will work -- players will be put into a virtual construct wherein they can choose how to proceed, with consequences depending on which choices are made. They're also replayable, allowing groups to go back through and try different choices on the second time around. Click on past the break to let the Caretaker explain it in his own words... but you might want to sit a little further back from your monitor. He's a bit on edge. [Source: Carbine Studios press release]
The Nexus Telegraph: Making it how you'd like in WildStar
I freely admit that I have not dived heavily into crafting in the WildStar beta, for the same reason that there is a lot of stuff in the WildStar beta that I have not heavily invested in. That reason is simple: I plan to be playing this game for a long while, and I'd really like to avoid burning out before it even releases. I didn't adhere to that rule in the Final Fantasy XIV beta and kind of felt the pinch, so this is a rule I learned the hard way. That having been said, I've fooled around with it enough to be really excited after the last interview I had regarding the crafting experience. What I heard confirmed my limited experiences and offered some interesting food for thought. There are a couple of elements that might seem counterproductive and a lot more that are worth looking forward to in the future.
A look at WildStar's crafting mechanics
As WildStar nears its ambiguous-but-soon release date, questions have to be asked, aside from "when is this game releasing, anyway?" Like crafting-related questions. Why haven't we heard more about crafting yet? What are the mechanics? Is this another example of a game wherein crafting is just a matter of assembling a pile of materials and clicking a button? The answer to that last one is a pretty firm no. As it happens, there's a lot going on under the hood of WildStar's crafting mechanics, enough to intrigue dedicated crafters of many styles. We had a chance recently to sit down with system designer Phillip Chan to talk in-depth about the game's crafting mechanics and how the team is working to keep crafting relevant through the whole game, from start to finish. The goals were to create crafting mechanics that rewarded players for taking part, gave room for custom creations and specialized crafters, and to make the whole thing feel fun. The net result? Not just clicking a button and going off to make a sandwich.
The Nexus Telegraph: WildStar's greatest opponent is WildStar
Your real opponent is pretty much always yourself. I could spend the next several years of my writing career trying to be a better writer than, say, Justin Olivetti. I'd fail, for starters, because look at the guy. But even if I could succeed, I'd never be living up to my potential. I'll always be the guy trying to be better than the last thing Justin wrote, never coming up with my own things, never really advancing myself. The only way to be truly good is to try to be the best writer I can be, regardless of who else is out there. What does this have to do with WildStar? Simple. I mention other games here, other releases looking at the same window, but WildStar doesn't need to be better than those games, up to and including The Elder Scrolls Online. WildStar needs to be the best version of itself that it can be. Its only real opponent is itself, not other titles.
Moving day: Settling in to your WildStar house
Player housing is more than fluff, as detractors claim; it is settlement, personal expression, and ownership in a way that we don't always get in an MMO. I've been in MMOs without housing and been distressed to be an eternal nomad. I've been in MMOs that have had sub-standard housing and felt the pain of "what could have been." And I've seen MMOs that have incredibly robust housing that becomes one of the most talked-about features in those titles. I'm sincerely hoping that WildStar will prove itself to be the latter, especially given how much Carbine has been talking up the system. WildStar's focus on customization options for players is readily apparent when you finally arrive at your personal floating island in the sky early on in your adventures. Once you hit level 14, you'll get a quest to go to your capital city and travel by transporter to claim your land. Why we need floating houses instead of a carved-out chunk of the massive untamed wilderness on Nexus was never explained to me, but I didn't mind. I was a homeowner!
A look at WildStar's customization options
How much do you like character customization? If you shrug and click the nearest "random" button when making a new character you probably don't care much. But if you like to carefully examine customization options before creating a character, and then even more carefully examine customization options after creating a character... well, WildStar's developers understand the way you work. They'd like to help, insofar as giving you a whole bunch more customization options could count as "helping." Customizing your character doesn't end at creation -- it extends to how you play your character, how your character's outfit looks, and even how your mount looks. Not to mention, of course, that there's the housing system. The game's latest DevSpeak video about customization is just past the cut, and we got a chance to talk a little more with the fine folks at Carbine Studios about tuning your character just right.
WildStar's Stephan Frost on creating content and keeping within deadlines
Developing an MMO is not an easy process. We know that intellectually, but most of us have not actually built a game ourselves, so we don't know exactly how or why it's not difficult. Design producer Stephan Frost recently penned an article taking a look at the process of design in WildStar, highlighting both common elements to MMO production and some of the ways that Carbine Studios does things a little bit differently. Frost explains that the key to producing an MMO is understanding that it's really more like producing several different games layered on top of one another. He goes on to explain how all content is designed according to a master roadmap, allowing space for individual designers to put their distinct touches on things while still working within an overall vision. If this sort of thing interests you, by all means, take a look at the full article for a deeper look at how these games come to life.
The Nexus Telegraph: Everyone's got active combat, and so does WildStar
WildStar is launching with active combat, but let's be totally honest about something: The whole telegraph system is not exactly as special now as it might have seemed, say, three years ago. Guild Wars 2 has active combat. Ditto TERA, ditto DC Universe Online. The Secret World makes use of telegraphs all over the place (which kind of feels like a kludge, but so does most of the game's combat system, so there). Even Final Fantasy XIV -- a game I have noted on many occasions as having a much slower and more tactical combat pace -- makes heavy use of telegraph mechanics. And The Elder Scrolls Online is certainly launching with a more active combat system, to boot. There's more to WildStar than telegraph markers, though. So it's time to talk about what the game actually does in terms of combat that's interesting and novel. We've been told that the active combat of the game is a big deal, but is it actually revolutionary, an evolution, or just another thing?
WildStar offers straight talk on its guild mechanics
So it's come to this. Your adventures in WildStar have left your character backed into a cave with a broken weapon and a desperate urge to escape from the monsters prowling outside but no means to do so. What do you do? Well, hopefully you already made some friends and can put a call in to your guild because the monsters outside probably won't decide to let you go. So it's a good thing that guilds in WildStar offer a variety of benefits, as detailed in the latest development blog. Aside from a customizable holo-display for guild insignias that can go wherever you'd like and access to guild vaults, guilds also provide a variety of perks and abilities. These perks are purchased with Influence, which is earned just by grouping up with your guildmates and doing pretty much whatever. The idea is that a small guild that plays together will always be more effective than a big guild formed from people shouting in general chat. Take a look at the full article for more details about guilding up in the game, hopefully when you aren't tucked away in Monster Cave.
Tips and tricks for surviving WildStar's active combat
All gamers have areas of interest when going into an MMO beta test, the things that they want to see and the content that they want to preserve for launch. Personally I hate going through quests and spoiling the story while in beta, so if there's a way to skirt around that, I take it. That's why my time with WildStar has been so very combat-centric, as I've been happily grinding on both PvE mobs and PvP competitors during my sessions like the archaic dinosaur gamer that I am. Because of this, I've gotten very well acquainted with WildStar's combat system during these rough-and-tumble initial 15 levels. I'm no expert, mind you, but I definitely have a good feel for how these encounters work and what are the right and wrong ways to go about tackling them. So today I'd like to share with you some observations and lessons to help you survive your first few days on Nexus, whether as a beta tester or a player in live.
The Nexus Telegraph: Examining the Exiles of WildStar
It's a truism you can see in literally any project you undertake: As a project wears on, standards for success slip lower and lower. The Exiles of WildStar have seen their major project go on for a very long time now. It started with Brightland's rebellious activities, yes, but at the time, those were actions of protest. That was a long time ago now, down what seems like an almost unfathomably far road. The Exiles of today certainly aren't fighting to reverse policies or change the Dominion; they're fighting for a home. We're introduced to the game's setting as a conflict between two opposing factions, but let's not mince words. The heart of the conflict has been over for a very long time now. The Exiles lost. What players will be jumping into is not the latest part of an ongoing struggle but the last stand of one faction that survives partly on the simple ignorance of its greatest enemy.
Latest WildStar livestream highlights the Stalker
The latest WildStar livestream set the spotlight on the game's token stealthy-stabby class, the Stalker, with over an hour of gameplay and Q&A all centered around WildStar's masters of subterfuge. The stream, which can be watched in full on Twitch.tv, features a number of the game's developers -- including Stalker class designer Jade Martin -- answering questions from viewers and showing off the Stalker's many capabilities in both PvE and PvP situations. For all the skulking and shanking you can handle, grab some popcorn and click on through the link below for the full Stalker livestream.
WildStar to reduce character breast size
Citing feedback from testers and others, WildStar developers will be reducing the breast size for Exile, Cassian, and Aurin characters in an upcoming beta patch. The change to bust sizes will bring the characters into a more reasonable proportion. As of right now, all players will receive the same body models per race and gender, although Design Producer Stephen Frost hinted that body shape sliders could be a post-launch feature. Chua will also get a character creation screen change in the form of underpants.
The Soapbox: Launching with a subscription is still a good idea
The massively multiplayer online game industry is constantly changing, but one thing about it never will so long as capitalism stands: MMOs have ongoing costs, and those costs are passed on to the end user. Exactly how they're passed on is one of the things that has been changing, but new methods don't mean old methods don't have their place. New isn't good because it's new. New is good because it can provide solutions to old problems. When an old method is seen as the source of a problem actually caused by something unrelated, shoving a new method in there can just create new problems. So why all the wailing and gnashing of teeth over games trying out a subscription before they move onto other models? And why all the wailing and gnashing of teeth in retaliation to this opinion?
The Nexus Telegraph: WildStar's great big sexist elephant in the room
There's a subtle problem in WildStar that we've all seen lurking around the edges. It's not huge, and it's not glaring, but it's there, and it's pretty obvious. It's the elephant in the room, and much like the traditional elephant, it's something absolutely no one wants to actually point out because it is not fun to point out. But it's pretty obvious as soon as you look at the races that the male Mechari are built like linebackers and the female Mechari are wasp-waisted blowup dolls in a permanent pair of heels. I've been a fan of WildStar since its first teaser trailer, and while I'd hoped for detailed character customization, the beta came without any body sliders or any other options for customizing a character's build. And while the Mechari are easy to cite as problematic (mostly because none of the other women has high heels as part of her feet), this sort of subtle and passive sexism weaves its way into the game on a consistent basis.
The Nexus Telegraph: Examining the Cassians of WildStar
Imagine, for a moment, that your self-esteem has been validated completely by an external force. In fact, let's turn that up a little more -- let's say it's been validated by every single person you've ever idolized. Imagine that they all showed up at your front door and said you were awesome and that if you would just give them your cat, you would be granted a marvelous dominion over everything. First of all, it would be time to say goodbye to the cat. Second, it would mean that from that moment on, your future actions would all be entirely validated no matter what you did. Seriously, how could it ever be otherwise? Every authority you respect came around to tell you that you are supremely awesome, and you are apparently the last person any of them talked to. This should give you the barest hint of what it's like to be one of the Cassians in WildStar. You are born into greatness, into a legacy of being the greatest thing ever, and you don't just have to live up to that legacy -- you have to outdo it.
Some Assembly Required: Virtual world roundup for 2014 and beyond
Just over two years ago there was a great disturbance, as if millions (or so) of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. Yes, something terrible had happened: a beloved virtual world was destroyed. And that left a number of sandbox refugees looking for a new place to call home. At that time, Some Assembly Required offered a roundup of the then available virtual worlds that could possibly offer accommodation, depending on what qualities players most desired in their games. But as things are wont to, they changed; a lot can happen in the MMOverse in 24 months, from additional features in existing games to new games to the loss of more worlds. So it's time to update this list of virtual worlds to reflect 2014 and beyond. Take a look and see what titles or titles-to-be have the sandbox features that best make a game a home for you.
Perfect Ten: New MMOs to watch in 2014
Out with the old desk calendars that you didn't use past February 2013 and in with the new, I always say! It's a brand-new year, and while we don't know all of the twists and turns that we'll travel in MMO news in 2014, I dare say it promises to be a fascinating ride. Last January I gave my list of 10 new MMOs to watch for that year, and I'm a sucker for traditions. With 2014 a mostly blank slate right now, I want to lay out the up-and-coming class of games that at least have a shot at releasing by December. There are the big names, of course, but several other titles that could be sleeper hits if all goes right. Which will succeed, which will flop, and which won't even get out of the door? I don't claim to know all, but I know all, so here are my prognostications for 2014!
