This month in MMO Co-Opportunities, we take a look at Wildstar. Unlike other times Wildstar has been featured, this time we have some very preliminary impressions of general gameplay and features experienced in the first handful of levels.
A bit over a week ago, I was granted access to the Wildstar closed beta. This was quite exciting for me, as I’m very much looking forward to the game. At the moment, the press is only allowed to cover content experienced up to level 15 - which ends up being completely fine for this month, since as of time of writing, I’ve only hit level 8. There’s still a ton to write about, though, even in this very first handful of levels.
Though I’d love to gush about some of the game’s technical mechanics (e.g. combat, classes, and skill customization), this time I’ve decided to focus on three aspects that are social in nature: grouping up with friends in-game, mentoring, and circles. These social aspects really address some of the major questions we, as co-op-minded people, generally ask ourselves as we’re considering buying an MMO.
Grouping Up
Is the following scenario familiar to you? You and a friend decide to play an MMO together. You roll characters as the same time. You pick X race and your friend picks Y race. You load into the game to discover that races in this particular MMO start in completely different areas of the world. Been there? Welcome to one of my biggest pet peeves of MMOs. In my mind, MMOs are meant to be played with friends, and yes, even from the moment a player loads their brand new character into the world (if they want, of course). Has it ever stopped me from buying an MMO? To date, I don’t think so, but it’s certainly resulted in a lot of complaining and grumpiness, depending on the severity of the offense.
Wildstar doesn’t have this problem. Right out of the gate, all three of your faction’s races are in the same area. There’s one small caveat: once you finish the tutorial (around level 3), you leave the tutorial area and cannot come back. So if you have finished the tutorial and your friend hasn’t, you won’t be able to group up until he or she completes it. The tutorial isn’t super lengthy, however - it may have taken me an hour, but I was reading lore entries and exploring a bit. The tutorial area also spits characters out in the same location, so players out in the world can just go and wait for their friends at this spot. In short, super big thumbs up from me for Carbine understanding that people want to play with their friends now, not later.
Mentoring
In Wildstar, players can “mentor” other players that are of a lower level. The concept of “mentoring” in an MMO certainly isn’t new, but there are a variety of ways I’ve seen it implemented. In Wildstar, mentoring consists of selecting another, lower level character, choosing to “mentor” them, and then being temporarily down-leveled to that character’s level. The mentor keeps all of her skills, but her attributes are scaled down to an appropriate level. This keeps the content from being trivialized and the mentee’s XP from being ruined. It effectively lets the players can experience content together as if they were much closer in level.
As I’ve said before, the idea of mentoring has been featured in MMOs. To date, though, Wildstar’s version works better than any other mentoring system I’ve experienced. Keep in mind I’ve not yet experienced it with an enormous level gap between mentor and mentee, but I am really excited about the implications of the mentor system and look forward to using it many times in the future.
Circles
Since MMOs are, for many of us, a hugely social experience, it’s unsurprising that some players end up with different groups of friends in a game. This can lead to an awkward situation for those players when it comes to joining a guild. Most traditional MMOs only allow characters (or sometimes even accounts) to be in one guild at a time. Some MMOs (mostly newer ones) allow players to be in multiple guilds at the same time, but often with the stipulation that they are only active in one guild at a time (they “toggle” their guild, so to speak). Wildstar only allows characters to be in one guild at a time; however, they address the age-old social conundrum with a new system: Circles.
Circles are completely separate from Guilds, yet support many similar features, such as private chat channels, group rosters, and tags below your character’s name. I also believe that grouping with circle members gives players an XP boost. Circles allow players to keep in touch with multiple groups of people easily, though they’ll still need to choose one guild. I like the idea, and see it as a stream-lined way to support a consistent private chat channel. I’ve already created a Co-Optimus circle!
All in all, Wildstar really impressed me with these social aspects. Carbine really seems to know that MMO players want to play with their friends, and goes out of their way to facilitate that. From grouping up from the start, to being able to play with different level friends, to being part of multiple social groups, Wildstar has your back. And that’s certainly most encouraging to see.
That about wraps up my column for this month. I’ve only really scratched the surface of Wildstar, and I’m excited to get into the small group content with Mike and Locke. Maybe next month I’ll have more on that, as well as combat, class, and skill details!