Friday, May 3, 2013

The Nexus - Sup out there?

This has been a busy week for me. I was able to just narrowly avoid another winter event, we had snow but it was a light rain by the time I left work. Speaking of work, they are doing electrical systems work on our office tower this weekend so my whole department was doing mandatory overtime to get all of our time sensitive work 100% caught up before they killed power to the building for two days. I also had to juggle some great game releases this week.

Fortunately it's been a light week for Wildstar news.

Unfortunately this made it hard to make a post last night. as I stared blearily at the monitor knowing I had to get up at 7 to drive my girlfriend to work. I put it off until this morning and I'm glad I did. Despite a Firefox crash I've found some great items from across the web about Wildstar, a couple of which I just found today and a couple I'd forgotten happened this week. (My how time crawls while you are waiting for a release)
  • Settler in Exile's piece on gold sinks.
  • Carbine responses on Wildstar Central
  • Shoddycast's Nexus Roundup
  • EU Arkship post on Wildstar site
  • Mission: Nexus episode 1
  • Blind Quest: Wildstar Preview


The first thing I'd like to talk about is the upcoming "The Nexus" logo that I am having designed by a friend. Everything he shows me a draft I am blown away! Having a skilled perfectionist who also works a full time job do free art work has some drawbacks, but I should have a final draft by next week and I'm planning on integrating it into the site as a primary logo. I'm so excited to share it with people! My crazy morning hair will serve as a suitable stand in.

I've done a pretty good job sticking to my routine for the latter half of the week. I over stressed my knee yesterday so I skipped the gym. I figured 30 minutes on the elliptical would do more harm then good. I'm hoping it dries up a bit for Sunday so I can drive my bike down to the shop and have skilled professionals outfit it for battle. (More comfortable seat and pedals.)  Enough about all that, let's talk about some Wildstar!

Gold Sinks


Settler in Exile did a great piece on Gold Sinks this week. It featured responses from major community figures on the subject, all of which really did their homework and gave thoughtful responses. The cherry on top of this already fantastic article was a response from Charles "Bull" Durham Lead Systems Designer at Carbine. This is a great article and I suggest reading it. The primary take away is that you can expect the economy to be more like World of Warcraft than like EVE.
We have a more traditional MMO economy where we dump resources into the game and then try to steal them back from you.
Lots of other great information in the piece, worth reading if you have passing interest in MMO economies, no high end math or anything. It's very early and I'm still awake so you can use that as a gauge on its depth.

 Carbine on Wildstar Central

This week Gortok responded to a couple of threads with clarifications that I thought were noteworthy.

In a thread about the Bartle Test (This is a gamer profile quiz. It divides MMO gamers into four primary catagories and is the basis of the Paths system in Wildstar.) Players were sharing their results and some were expressing shock or concern that their results seemed to vary from what they felt more drawn to, path wise, in Wildstar. Gortok offered this:
In my opinion, the Paths do not line up exactly with Bartle.
Soldier specifically does not line up with Killer, if you ask me. If you enjoy the combat mechanics and trying out interesting combat challenges, then soldier is for you.

I would say there is a lot of crossover between Scientist and Explorer; Scientists are looking to find all the secrets of the cultures, lore, and history of the world, where Explorers are more interested in learning about all of the physical spaces in the world, and seeing if they can exploit the terrain. I would guess that Indiana Jones was a Scientist.
In a thread about marketing challenges for Carbine focused mostly on how to combat internet trolls and their snap judgements Gortok offered a response to the critisism that the game seems to look a lot like World of Warcraft.
I think part of the issue with #1 might be the zones we are showing. They look similar to things that are out there because of the landscape. Cartoony savannah is going to look similar no matter the game. Hopefully when we start showing off <REDACTED> or <REDACTED> it will look different enough to quell those concerns. 
Head over to Wildstar Central if you are looking for an active forum community

Nexus Roundup



They don't get everything right, but it's a solid introduction.

EU Arkship


Friday's post on the Official Wildstar site recapped the EU Arkship and provided links to fan coverage of the event. I linked to these last week, but there is also a link to the Wildstar Facebook gallery if you'd like to see a collection of photos taken by the team while they were across the ocean.

Mission: Nexus Podcast


A good first cast by the folks over at Mission: Nexus. The audio is a tinge sub par, but I'm willing to cut them some slack since it's their first cast, audio is really hard to get right. If you want to know why I don't do videos audio is the reason.


Blind Quest


Finally, Richie Procopio works his way into my list again by adding to this Wildstar overview by Matt Visual on You Tube. Lots of talented folks getting interested in this game.


That's it for The Nexus this week. If you have anything else to add, or if you know of anything I've overlooked please drop me a comment. I'll be back Sunday to talk about the Group Finder. [Dra-ma-tic Chipmonk]

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