Wildstar MMORPG (NCSoft/Carbine)

[Vexx]

http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/ne...s_wildstar.php

The video trailer has in-game footage and an amusing narration. The dev and production team seems to be having fun doing this.

review: http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/05/15/unicorn-poop-beer-cans-and-housing-dungeons-wildstars-jeremy/

wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WildStar_%28video_game%29

main website: http://www.wildstar-central.com/index.php

The art design is cartoon fun. It seems to be fun from an exploratory viewpoint (the legendary planet Nexus and plundering/archeology/for-science!). A lot will depend on the restrictions on class/race, etc.
However, the sense of humor and balderdash definitely has my interest.

Exile forces video -- http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/news/meet_the_exiles_1.php

Dominion forces video -- http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/news/wildstar_wednesday_meet_the_dominion.php

Wallpapers, etc -- http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/media/

[Jazzrat]

One of the MMO games I'm looking forward to though mostly because it's sci-fi nature and the level of character and personality within the design. Also the trailer was great.

Gameplay wise, most of it have been done before but their Path feature where you can choose to be a combatant, scientist, explorer or a settler (crafting i assume) that determines the type of extra missions you ll be getting is something i haven't seen before.

[Vexx]

I've seen attempts at it in other MMOs but it implies more than one kind of questing path, which I like a lot if true.

Yeah, I'm getting a sense of a collection of "best practices" and "most requested" which actually I'm not complaining about.

[Mr Hat and Clogs]

Saw an ad for this the other day (actually have the website open in another tab atm), and have to say it does look quite amusing, it does not take itself to seriously it seems based on the videos.

My only probable issue is that it's by NCSoft, they have a tendency to make their games... excessively grindy. I kinda hope it's F2P like GW2 though..

(the videos for meet the exiles and dominion are hilarious)

[synaesthetic]

NCsoft is only publishing Wildstar. Carbine Studios handles development.

As for payment model, Carbine has been very hush-hush about it. Considering how quiet they've been I'm suspecting it may be a new subscription-based game, or at the very least a B2P model similar to that of Guild Wars.

[Mr Hat and Clogs]

Even so, developers have a tendency to capitulate to publisher whims. I always try and remain optimistic but still past precedence leaves me skeptical. I hope its GW2's model, since F2P seems all the rage these days, people only like paying for one sub game at a time traditionally.

[synaesthetic]

I'm effectively done with MMOs until the genre pulls its head out of its ass and stops trying to turn every game into a microtransaction dress-up-doll playtime with no actual substance or content.

Likely this means I'm done with MMOs forever. Oh well. It was fun while it lasted. I'm finding myself increasingly drawn more to indie gaming and classic gaming while only bothering to acknowledge modern gaming when the occasional triple-A title catches my eye.

[Kyero Fox]

Didn't I already make this thread? O_o

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by Kyero Fox

Didn't I already make this thread? O_o

Probably, I did a search but the searching for "wildstar" got me zilch. If there's another one we can just append my inputs into it.

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by synaesthetic

I'm effectively done with MMOs until the genre pulls its head out of its ass and stops trying to turn every game into a microtransaction dress-up-doll playtime with no actual substance or content.

Likely this means I'm done with MMOs forever. Oh well. It was fun while it lasted. I'm finding myself increasingly drawn more to indie gaming and classic gaming while only bothering to acknowledge modern gaming when the occasional triple-A title catches my eye.

I'm about two steps behind you. IF this is a subscription model, I'll probably give it a shot. Otherwise, I probably won't spend much time on it. It's only kept my attention for the last year or so because it turned out not to be a "hub instance" game but an actual virtual world and there's a chance it will be a traditional sub game.

Currently, I'd never played the Fallout series and snared FO3 and FNV on a Steam sale so my allotted weekly game time is being spent there.

[Jazzrat]

I'll be very surprised if this turns out to be a subscription game. Though the fact that they haven't announced their business model yet may hint at something different than f2p.

[Vexx]

EQ2 has a fairly workable hybrid model f2p/sub with a cash shop that doesn't actually punish you for not using it - it has all kinds of little cool cosmetic gear and house items. If they did something along those lines I wouldn't have any rant about it.

[Jazzrat]

SoE's game generally uses a hybrid model though for Wildstar which is published by NCsoft, i strongly suspect it's going to be atmost a buy to play with cash shop. Atleast this is from their track record. Hybrid model doesn't seem to be a thing for them yet.

How well it's going to be balanced though is up in the air though considering it's a western developed game, i think it's probably much better attuned to the western consumer as opposed to other localized korean/chinese MMO.

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by Jazzrat

SoE's game generally uses a hybrid model though for Wildstar which is published by NCsoft, i strongly suspect it's going to be atmost a buy to play with cash shop. Atleast this is from their track record. Hybrid model doesn't seem to be a thing for them yet.

How well it's going to be balanced though is up in the air though considering it's a western developed game, i think it's probably much better attuned to the western consumer as opposed to other localized korean/chinese MMO.

Truth. Once I've gotten past the "oh this is cute fun" of essentially every Korean/Chinese MMO I've played, it's been a circular file for the game folder because of intrinsic fails. Pretty but empty.

[Xion Valkyrie]

Korean/Chinese MMOs are pvp games. Their PvE content generally sucks compared to the Western MMOs. Only play them if you enjoy open world pvp. Don't play any PvE ones.

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by Xion Valkyrie

Korean/Chinese MMOs are pvp games. Their PvE content generally sucks compared to the Western MMOs. Only play them if you enjoy open world pvp. Don't play any PvE ones.

Personally, I find the combat mechanics often lacking on the PvP side. It is often a who has the best gear they've grinded up.

I'm not saying there aren't some decent ones and I'm always willing to look at a good example but the idea that they excel at PvP leaves my eyebrows crinkling.

[ninryu]

The style reminds me of the early 2000s PC games. Looks really nice.

[Jazzrat]

Personally, I don't spend a lot of time with MMOs these days especially with the endgames.The only one that i m currently spending a lot of time right now is Planetside 2 but that's mostly because it's a FPS where combat is a bit more interesting than RPGs. While newer MMO is slowly introducing a more active approach, it still isn't exactly there yet for me.

Eastern MMOs tends to wear me out quickly with the whole item enhancement system. It's a lot more boring dumping money hoping for that extra +1 to your equipment than grinding dungeons hoping for your BiS.

I'm generally a gameplay guy so quest and story usually isn't high on my priority list though if a game have interesting lore and background, i would atleast read the quest text but most of em kinda fall flat on it's face. Still keeping my fingers crossed for a sandbox style MMO with user generated contents, I think it's much more interesting to do "quest" that occur naturally from player interactivity with the world than follow the yellow exclamation breadcrumb.

[Xion Valkyrie]

Originally Posted by Vexx

Personally, I find the combat mechanics often lacking on the PvP side. It is often a who has the best gear they've grinded up.

I'm not saying there aren't some decent ones and I'm always willing to look at a good example but the idea that they excel at PvP leaves my eyebrows crinkling.

I'm not specifically talking about mechanics, but rather, Korean/Chinese MMOs are all about open world pvp. Sure it's not balanced but there's a lot of fun derived from the chaos. Most western MMOs are going the whole battlegrounds/instance pvp route which is not nearly as interesting or as fun.

Speaking of mechanics, I don't think any other tab targetted MMO holds a candle to Aion in terms of gameplay and pvp mechanics.

Anyways, I think for a new PvE MMO to interest me it'd have to have the following:

1. Ridiculously good character creator, like Aion level of customization.
2. Next gen graphics. At least UE3 or CryEngine 3.
3. Action combat, TERA level would be the bare minimum, preferably Vindictus level.

For me to really commit, it'd need:
1. Immersion, on the level of single player games like Mass Effect or the Fallout/Elder Scroll games. None of these new MMOs feel like worlds at all.
2. Sandbox elements like politics, karma, relationships, player made factions, etc.

[Vexx]

I'd line up right behind you for that

(and yeah, I tend to find the capture-the-flag/lasertag/arena type pvp obnoxious ... as much as Shadowbane annoyed me in other ways, the idea I could get ganked picking flowers was kind of exciting)