Following yesterday's PAX Panel, I told my co-worker that WildStar is launching as one of the most in-depth, complete MMOs I've seen in quite some time. In a time when most MMOs are launching with the bare bones minimum and getting new features through content patches month after release, WildStar is releasing with what I believe is the great portfolio of diverse player gameplay options, particularly when it comes to end-game content.
For PVErs, you are getting 20- and 40-man raids that reward you with some of the best loot in the game. For those who prefer story-driven content, you'll have the Drusara quest line, which was shown during yesterday's panel.
On the PvP side of things, you have arenas (2v2, 3v3, 5v5), battlegrounds with various game modes, and 40v40 Warplots.
Both provide viable leveling options and there's more on top of that. There's player housing, dungeons, PCPs, Paths, Adventures, and more. There's so much to do, for any type of MMO player.
As Carbine Studios president Jeremy Gaffney so eloquently put it, they have been able to accomplish all of this through "pure insanity. Pure aiming for the moon and shooting for the stars."
"We have a game that felt pretty damn polished six months ago, but we wanted it to be better," Gaffney told me in an interview that will be published in full later this week. "We think in the industry today there's a lot of jaded MMO players out there. They have been sold the moon and they have not gotten it. And so we want to make sure our proof is in our pudding so it's not like 'Hey, trust us with housing.' Nope. It's in there, it's fun, and it's more expansive than any other housing system out there."
"And because we did it pre-launch," he continued, "we can integrate it deeply into the rest of our game. Raids are deeply integrated in the game. We have warplots with the other systems. You can only do if you've really done that in advance and not try to tack that stuff on afterwards. And for us, it's been a labor of love making sure we do all that."
Oh, and did I mention that on top of all of this initial content, Carbine already has post-launch content in the works? In fact, they are hoping for new content to drop on the 28th of each month.
Listening to Gaffney, it is clear that Carbine is deeply passionate about their game — and it shows in their soon-to-be-released product. WildStar is due out on June 3.
