WildStar

Wow, I'm actually starting to look forward to this MMO.

Two new trailers, showing off the Card-Carrying Villain faction.

The Exile trailer:

I was just watching those trailers earlier today and wondering why we don't have a trope page for this. It looks really fun.

There's still a lot "To be revealed" though, even though we have got faction trailers. Dunno why. The Exile's fourth race look like some techno-undead thingamajig with the bony arm cutout and coffin-esque bunk with a needle in it.

I am fairly optimistic about this game, mostly because it seems to realize that going for a fun and memorable style is probably more important than anything else graphically, but as always it remains to be seen how fun it will be to actually play. They haven't even pretended to be avoiding the standard core gameplay of an MMO, and it remains to be seen whether or not "run out of the red circles" is sufficiently dynamic for long-term gameplay.

The early alpha gameplay vids out there seem to show standard point-and-click with dodge mechanics. They're probably banking on world building, characters and story like SWTOR tried to but I'd say they have a better chance at it because they don't have the constraints of an established mythos.

Soft sci-fi seems to be catching on in the MMO market. By next year we might have people sick of two themes instead of one (High Fantasy).

Well, Wildstar has four different "Paths" you can take. I'm iffy on the details, but they're specifically designed to the four major archetypes of player behavior; The Soldier just kills stuff, The Explorer crosses around the map and looks for secrets, the Settler helps other players and builds a community and the Scientist... Learns more about the lore?

It's a really neat mechanic, one I'm interested in seeing as there has been a lot of research into what people actually do in MMO games lately. Wildstar seems set on capitalizing on that knowledge by building a game around it from the ground up.

I just hope the female Draken are... Well... Hot. Go Dominion!

edited 14th Feb '13 4:57:18 PM by ShirowShirow

I'm skeptical about the path system because to me it sounds like it's just cutting off options. Why not just include all of those at the same time? As long as you don't make any of them feel mandatory, having them all be options for getting levels or items or whatever seems like a better policy than forcing you to choose, even if that choice is only temporary (this wasn't made clear to me).

I mean, my first thought on hearing it explained was "so I can't play with my friend if he chooses a different path?"

Like I said, I don't know a lot of the details. Don't know whether that's because they haven't been released yet or I just haven't found them on my own. They may not even be permanently assigned. They're definitely more than just a different set of quests, though.

After watching the two trailers I have a hard time believing that anyone would be motivated to roll Dominion unless we get a more sympathetic POV somewhere down the road or they really want to play one of the races. A pity that races are faction locked because I feel Exile aesthetics would suit the Draken and Mechari really well (and Mechari Exile would be my go-to choice if I were allowed).

The wiki indicates that the Paths simply give unique interactions with the environment, so everyone in a party with all four Paths will be able to tag along for all the path-specific content in the game.

edited 14th Feb '13 6:16:25 PM by Recon5

Why did anyone play the Empire in SWTOR? Being obviously evil has never been a deal-breaker. Heck, some people like roleplaying as evil.

Roleplaying as evil certainly has its appeal. Roleplaying as a stuck up, holier-than-thou prick is only for the hardcore (if done deliberately as opposed to simple inexperience or 12-year-old delusions of grandeur), in my opinion. We'll just have to wait and see.

Only the humans are the stuck-up ones. The Draken are feral berserker types and the robots are cold-blooded assassins. The point is to choose your flavor of evil.

Although over-the-top "I'm better than you" puppy-kicking evil actually seems fairly popular, if the prevalence of Karma Meters is any indication.

The Dominion aren't evil or stuck up!

They're classy.

Silly Exiles. So single minded. And misguided. And... Dirty.

I think both faction introductions were pretty fun in their own right, which is surely the point. Space Western versus Wicked Cultured.

edited 14th Feb '13 6:29:32 PM by Clarste

Silly me. I just remembered that the majority of Day One players won't have seen the trailers and will make faction choices based on the propaganda they're fed at character creation. Wonder why I didn't remember that after playing so many MM Os.

I noticed in one official vid that one of the Explorer Path mechanics is called 'Vistas'. Also, the Soldier path Defense mechanic has players defend a clearly delineated area against periodic waves of creeps. Both of these sound mighty familiar...

edited 14th Feb '13 6:57:44 PM by Recon5

I still don't see what part of the trailer makes them seem unattractive. I thought it was a great trailer, personally.

It sold me on the Dominion in any case. They certainly have style.

Maybe it's just my preference but I like my galactic governments to be more about preserving stability rather than a sci-fi 'White Man's Burden'. It's good for laughs in this case (the In-Universe vid was especially chuckle-worthy) but it doesn't make me feel the Dominion's cause is worth fighting for. Not compared to the Exiles' at any rate.

They could have gotten just as many laughs from an average grunt (probably that poor Cassian who kept cringing in their segment) on top of the character being more relatable than a stuffy bureaucrat.

edited 14th Feb '13 7:19:08 PM by Recon5

He's not supposed to be relatable. He's supposed to be an amusing archetype. And he is pretty amusing. I think maybe you're taking the setting too seriously? When you start talking about benevolent governments and white man's burden you're kinda missing the point that he's a Saturday Morning Cartoon villain.

As far as the racial aspects go though, while he did seemingly overhype his own race, it's worth noting that his enemies are also human, and that he himself seems to worship the Eldan, who are your classic Precursors. It's really not a racial thing so much as a cultural thing. Join the empire or be rabble. He even called his allies "the heroes of the empire".

It's also worth noting that if you read the profiles the robots are actually the real power behind the empire. They just prefer to take an indirect approach to things.

edited 14th Feb '13 7:37:16 PM by Clarste

They chose a Saturday Morning Cartoon Villain to intro the faction when the average player is probably going to be a Saturday Morning Cartoon Hero since the full faction profiles paint them as 'gray and grey' rather than Dark and Light. When I first saw the Dominion trailer I thought they were being set up as the comically inept antagonists.

Not really. One of the early Dominion quests involves "Interrogating" a captured Auren.

Despite the colorful visuals they're going for a pretty moody tone, if the beer, blood and boobs haven't tipped you off.

What part of the full faction profiles made it seem gray and gray? That's simply not the story they're telling here.

And you have completely misunderstood the audience if you think no one wants to play the villain. Seriously, there's a reason every single MMO with a faction system includes an "evil" faction, and it's not because no one plays them. Half of players choose the puppy-killing dark side options of the Karma Meter for crying out loud. In SWTOR half the Empire quests were "Would you be a good chap and crush the slave rebellion for us?"

edited 14th Feb '13 7:45:30 PM by Clarste

Warhammer Online had a pretty big problem balancing the sides in "Good"'s favor early on, because the evil guys included... Well, these charming folks here.◊

Good point. Evil Is Cool has a strong tendency to favor the evil factions.

I mean, the Exile trailer was hardly flattering either, was it? A bunch of "we're not inbred we swear" idiots? What's attractive about that, in any objective sense? The point of both trailers was just to give some flavor to both sides.

edited 14th Feb '13 7:59:42 PM by Clarste

The videos are even labeled as "Personality" trailers.

Man, they are entertaining.

I've noticed a tendency - at least in game forums - for players self-identifying as 'Good' to favor what they view as the oppressed minority. Grit, raggedy-ness and inbreeding only add to the appeal for them. Rednecks and other rural types have the primal attraction of not needing manpower, money and machines to keep up with the upper crust folk, especially if they're mechanically equivalent.

I'll drop the trailer discussion since I can't seem to stop myself from driving it in circles.

The mechanics seem awfully similar to those in GW 2, especially with the way enemy tells are expressed and the terminology used for certain elements. Could we be seeing the birth of the successor to the World Of Warcraft template?