What's your impression on WildStar

So I heard about Wildstar while playing RuneScape. I hadn't heard of Wildstar until someone mentioned it in global chat because of their discontent with something or another in RS. Being a NCSoft game I had some suspicion as to whether this would be very good, but whomever their video editors are should be commended. The demo videos they have released for the game are very well polished, funny, and captivating. They have some very sound principles of fun, rewarding gameplay, but only time will tell if they can deliver on those promises.

The first observation is that they are taking a page right from one of the more known psychological studies of gaming, The Bartle Test. This test essentially measures the priority that you set for different aspects of game play, specifically, Social, Explorer, Killer, or Achiever. Now you can have different levels of interest in each of these aspects of gaming, but at their core you will generally prefer certain ones more than others. Whether you are the intrepid adventurer that wants to find every nook and cranny and tell all your friends about it or the super competitive PVPer that loves destroying their foes.

In Wildstar, your character is made up of not only a "class", but also a "path". Unlike the class of your character your path determines more about what gameplay you would like to focus on in the game. Now they've stated that other paths will have opportunities to play the content, but selecting a certain path will unlock more access to that type. These paths are the Warrior, who specializes in killing, Scientist, who specializes in understand the lore of the world, the Explorer, who can find fun and secret paths throughout the world, and finally the Settler who will provide building and support to the world. Each aspect brings with it a different type of gameplay.

The game is very much in beta and the outcome of the recent Stress test did reveal that the game is still very much being polished, but has very nice potential. The fluidity that the game seemed to have in movement and interaction with the world seemed very responsive and fun. Due to technical issues the combat aspects were very minimal and fraught with lag, but that is what they were looking to demonstrate. With that in mind, what I saw in game gives very high promise. If Carbine Studios can deliver on their promises this game very well could be the next big hit! I would definitely keep an eye on this one, Wildstar!