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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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
The Nexus Telegraph: WildStar's year in review
I started this column early in December of 2012, which means that as of now I've been writing about WildStar once a week for a little over a year. It's also nearly the end of the year, which makes it an ideal time to write about the changes that we've seen to the game over the past year. So I'm just going to go ahead and ignore the slight discrepancy and use this column for both year-in-review elements. Obviously it's not exactly possible to look back at the changes to the game over the past year, since we're talking about a game still in the midst of its testing cycle. But we started the year without even knowing about one of the game's factions beyond a vague mention, much less the game's lore and classes. So let's look back at the last year of news and the last year of columns in their entirety.
The Nexus Telegraph: Examining the Aurin of WildStar
The Aurin aren't the same as their allies in WildStar. The humans are still fighting a long, lonely war against the Dominion for slights that were so long ago the Dominion has likely forgotten about them. The Granok persist in their fight out of a dogged need to make their exile from the homeworld seem palatable. And the Mordesh have a long history of loathing to go along with being undead monstrosities, for which they (somewhat unfairly) blame the Dominion. But the Aurin? They aren't fighting for anything. They were dragged into this war by humans, propelled by a promise that grows ever more unlikely in its potential fulfillment. All that the Aurin wished to do was help people in obvious need, and their thanks -- and ultimate reward -- seems to trap them in an endless cycle of violence in which they're not naturally inclined to participate. In some ways, they're the most victimized race of the Exiles because they're limited by not just the Dominion but their fellow faction-mates.
The Nexus Telegraph: Talking a bit about WildStar's beta
As you probably saw last Thursday, the 1-15 beta experience in WildStar had its NDA lifted for us schlubs in the press, allowing us to chatter on quite a bit about the game. We've seen articles discussing the early levels, we've seen streams, and we've been treated to a surfeit of information on the game in its current beta state. I talked about all of that, and I want to talk about it some more because I am really excited about it. After playing the game through to 15, I've got a lot of stuff to look forward to as well as some definite criticisms. So above and beyond what I've already said, I want to talk some more about WildStar's beta.
The Nexus Telegraph: WildStar's last two classes
In the wake of last week's class reveal, I'm going to start with a piece of information that was actually revealed shortly thereafter but might have been missed. According to the development team, the Chua can be Medics as well. So now, WildStar's full class and race layout has been made public, and what seemed to be a single odd omission is now corrected. You might recall that I did some serious class speculation when we didn't even know what the last two races were going to be back in March. Now we know the last two classes of WildStar and I can see how good my aim was. And once I'm done congratulating myself on fitting together pieces of obvious information, we can talk a little more about what the last two classes are actually doing within the context of the game. That seems fair, doesn't it? I'm glad you agree.
The Nexus Telegraph: Examining the Chua of WildStar
Last week I proposed a theory about two of the game's races, one of them being the Mordesh. That theory, in case you didn't catch it (and it wasn't stated outright anyway) proposed that WildStar's dirty little secret races are that way in part because they say something about their home fashion. The Mordesh serve as a reminder that the Exiles are not, in fact, purely heroic figures struggling against insurmountable oppression. They're just as culpable as the Dominion in places, and they do not like thinking about that. So what about the Chua? What do they remind the Dominion of, aside from the ironclad law that every single MMO has to have one token short race? The Chua hit that button pretty hard. Just like Gnomes or Asura or Lalafells or countless other races that fall into the same role, they're a short and smart race known to be full of energy with an affection for technology, magic, and the usual assortment of things smart people like. The biggest difference is that WildStar's short race is both furry and insane.
The Nexus Telegraph: Surprise! WildStar!
You might have noticed that there was an omission in last week's installment of The Nexus Telegraph. Every week I let you lovely people know what I'm going to be writing about next week, and when I can, the week after that. Last week I completely omitted what I'd be discussing in my next WildStar column, leaving you with no idea what I'd talk about today. Surprise! Yes, that was the thematic link. It seemed clever to me. One of the big elements that WildStar is embracing thus far is that trick of surprising the player. It's a tricky thing to pull off in an MMO because the entire genre is built around understanding and minimizing surprises as much as you can. So let's take a look at some of the game's approaches to surprise and how the game manages to create more surprises by giving you fewer surprises in some areas. Yeah, it's that sort of thing.
The Nexus Telegraph: Examining the Mordesh of WildStar
No single race in WildStar has less to lose than the Mordesh. And no one has more to lose, at that. The simplest way of explaining the Mordesh is that they are the dirty little secret of the Exiles as a whole. They're the assassins, the pressure, the people who don't worry about doing something awful when it absolutely needs to be done. For all that the Exiles want to think of themselves as the good guys unfairly set upon by the Dominion, the Mordesh are the subtle reminder that there are no good guys -- there are just people. But that's not the whole of it. Unlike when I discussed the Granok, the Mordesh aren't just in this to bloody the Dominion's nose as much as possible. No, they've got all of their chips in this part of the game. And to understand why, we're going to need to zoom out a little bit and take a look at what got the Mordesh to their current position first.
The Nexus Telegraph: Winter in WildStar
Another round of beta testing is almost here for WildStar, after what seems to have been forever and a day. And that's with the promise of upcoming class reveals after a several-month-long information drought on the game, something that I suspect all of us felt pretty acutely. No more waiting! There's information that will be coming fast and furious, even if the developers are going to start off with a refresher of the information we already have. Thus far, there's not a whole lot to react to. We have a clearer picture of the Warrior, we have a peek at a new build from the livestream, and we've seen some hoverboard footage. It's not what I would call a coherent picture just yet. But we can suss out a few new bits here and there, as well as some things that might not be worth getting all that excited about just yet. Yes, I'm saying it might not be worth getting excited about something. You read that right.
The Nexus Telegraph: Examining the Draken of WildStar
Let me open this third column about the racial lore behind WildStar with a simple statement: The Draken are relentless hunters, stalkers, and combat monsters. Unlike the last two columns, this one will not suggest in any way that this is not what they are. I know the past two have raised some questions regarding the nature of the races compared to how they are presented, but the Draken are exactly what they suggest they are collectively. That doesn't mean there's nothing more to be said or understood. The Draken are an old acquisition of the Dominion, one of the first member races afforded some degree of respect by the Cassians. And however cut-and-dried that might seem, I think there's a lot more going on beneath the surface.
The Nexus Telegraph: Why WildStar's housing matters
A while back, I got a wonderful letter from a reader whom I'll simply call L for these purposes. L was curious why, exactly, I cared about housing in WildStar, not out of a desire to belittle but out of a genuine curiosity. From his standpoint, housing adds nothing to the game and takes development time away from features that do add to the overall experience. His question was an attempt to see if he was missing some crucial point, something that made housing more important than, say, another raid at launch. Partway through typing a response, I realized that this was a response that deserved more than just a letter; it deserved center stage because L is both right and wrong. In the strictest sense, housing does take away from development time that could go toward other features. For some players it's just not that interesting or relevant. But at the same time it also opens up avenues of design and play that just don't exist without housing in place, which winds up making the game as a whole better even if you don't want to play housekeeper.
The Nexus Telegraph: Examining the Granok of WildStar
The Granok are the polar opposite of the Mechari. Where the latter are covered in mysteries and elements that don't make a whole lot of sense without invoking conspiracies, the former is a race that you can pretty much understand as soon as you see a trailer involving the race. They're rock people who like to fight things and probably blow stuff up, and they don't really need a whole lot in the way of subtlety. Discussion over. Enjoy WildStar's boisterous bruisers. Heck, the Granok are more Exiles by practice than anything. The Granok that we know aren't lending their support to the Exiles for nothing; these are mercenaries by trade, first and foremost. At a glance, you could easily see these men and women fighting alongside whichever of the two factions paid better. They certainly don't care about Nexus in particular. But they do care about a lot more than beer and a good scrap, and when you understand the race a bit more, that punch-drunk attitude starts to look a little thin.
The Nexus Telegraph: WildStar reveals; we analyze
We've gotten some substantial updates about WildStar over the last two weeks. Not as substantial as we might necessarily want, but I don't think anyone realistically expected this much news. Frankly, after an extended drought of worthwhile information, I'm happy to get as much as we have. Some of it has been hinted at before, some of it's completely new, and some of it is both unexpected and highly welcome. And then we've gotten some hints worth speculating upon, even if we haven't been told what's happening outright. So in the grand tradition of this column guessing at things only to be proven wrong not long thereafter, it's time to analyze and speculate a whole mess of things, starting with the biggest element that I didn't expect from WildStar at all, and that's all the cross-realm features. That's way more intriguing than mere class speculation.
The Nexus Telegraph: Examining the Mechari of WildStar
Who's afraid of the big bad Mechari? As it turns out, a lot of people. Possibly for good reason. Of all the races in WildStar, the Mechari represent the biggest question mark. Part of that is by design; when you have a race of sapient machines controlling the information flow of an entire empire, you aren't supposed to know everything there is to be known about them. But there are a lot of questions that pose themselves based on what we do know. Starting with the fact that they don't exactly make sense. I've touched on this briefly before, but the fact is that the stated purpose of the Mechari is at odds with what we know of their creation and behavior. They're intelligence gatherers that don't actually have obvious tools for that role. They're left in the dark in ways that don't make sense, and they are altogether a race of contradictions if you accept everything at face value.
