path-mechanics
Latest
The Nexus Telegraph: Inspirational paths for WildStar
I've gone on record as frequently saying that I think WildStar's paths are pretty awesome in concept. The idea that you can have two characters with identical classes and races but two separate paths who explore totally different sections of the game is really compelling to me, especially when I expect that I'll have approximately nine million alts anyhow. Unfortunately, it's also a concept that winds up feeling kind of amorphous. American readers who try to convert to the metric system know that sense. You grow up with a certain basis of comparison, and trying to wrap your head around a completely new one without any foundation is a bit tricky. But I want to help. See, I come from video games. I play a lot of video games. And I think there are parallels to be drawn between existing games with certain mechanical structures and what each of the paths is trying to accomplish. So let's see if we can't fit WildStar's paths into more familiar frameworks before smashing them all into one game.
The Nexus Telegraph: WildStar forges a path
The latest news out of WildStar's new previews isn't going to quiet people who dislike the concept of the game's path system, nor will it stanch the flow of complaints about the game's art style. Those of us simply waiting at attention, however, found ourselves rewarded this week with a wealth of new information, not to mention the best look we've yet seen at how the paths will work together in action instead of concept. And that's only the tip of the iceberg; Jeremy Gaffney has said so many things that merit unpacking that it's almost impossible to swallow some of the implications. There is, in fact, far too much to unpack in a single week. So I'm going to look at paths and start figuring out everything else next week. I may also gush about the Mechari at some point. It's like GLaDOS, Hal, and Starscream had a kid.
The Nexus Telegraph: Walking the WildStar path
If you look at the path system in WildStar the right way, it's a pretty limiting system. After all, if path content makes up 25% of your content in any given zone, it stands to reason that there are three paths worth of content you'll never see on any given character. Any zone in the game is made up of 43% stuff you don't get to explore. For those of us who are fond of alts, this is not exactly a drawback. The idea that a zone I've done three times before can still hold new secrets on the fourth playthrough is endlessly appealing. But it can also feel very limiting from the right perspective simply because it does build in some hard limitations. You will never be able to completely clear an area out on one character. If you only want to play one character, you're just out of luck. At the same time, I think this system will grow to be one of WildStar's strengths. So even if you want to just play one character and you wind up playing a single path, there are reasons to be happy about the way that paths work.
