A little background; I'm not in the nearest a MMO player anymore, as the last time i was hooked was around WoW: Burning Crusade. I've gotten back to less demanding single player sandbox games instead, and casually tried out a few MMO's from the last few years just to keep up. Not really giving them a chance since it's really just the same game over and over.

Got my pre-order in a couple of days ago, and now finally got to play during the beta weekend this weekend.

I've played around for around 5-6h so far, which in MMO-terms sure as hell isn't a lot, but I'm really starting to see what the PvE is about. I'm sort of just at the point where the safety gloves have come off on my first character. But my impressions so far, is that this team seriously know what their doing in terms of whats different from the competition and what's familiar. Presentation is flawless IMO, allthough with some areas needing some optimizations as the framerate could get a bit choppy. Even on a beefy machine.

Combat in Wildstar is the big thing though. Grinding in WoW, KOTOR and such had me dosing off from boredom after a couple of years doing the same thing in WoW. Whereas here, I find myself just rushing to look for more enemies to crush. The damage prompting really is a game changer, it makes grinding fun again.

Anyone else tried it yet? Maybe someone with a bit more MMO experience could chime in?

I've been in the beta for over a year and got to about 30 on a few toons (i couldn't bring myself to go all the way to 50). I've enjoyed it enough to pre-order. WoW guild died (argh and just 2 bosses before the full heroic clear) and many of us are going to WildStar.

I've played a bunch of MMOs, more than I'm willing to admit. I don't see anything worth playing here. I mean, for those who basically have only played WoW seems like a breath of fresh air. To me it looks extremely generic.

I spent a decent chunk of time with it a few months ago and I had fun, even despite it looking and running like garbage on my computer, so I consider that a good sign. The combat was definitely more fun than the usual MMO-fare. It was a little lacking in some areas I was hoping would be better though, namely in terms of the amount of personality and character from the story and quests. The marketing for the game is pretty fantastic, with a very Ratchet and Clank-y vibe, but it didn't seem to translate to the game as much as I was hoping.

If I ever get around to upgrading my computer I'll likely pick it up though.

You will all be playing warcraft again inside a year :P

@korwin: Haha, that's how it usually goes. Blizzard gets you in the end!

It was oddly playing the wildstar closed beta that made me want to "mmo" (yeah, verb!)

I've been playing the beta for a few months and I love it. The thing that makes it pop for me is that it's a "gameplay first" MMO, and then it has some thematic charm to top it off. Unfortunately I think they might be pushing it out a bit too early, but I guess we'll see come launch. But ye, it's just the simple fact that the gameplay is fun and snappy that really makes it shine, although it does take some getting used to (was not enjoying my first few hours with it). Most MMOs that come out have either passable, clunky or even straight up bad gameplay and then tries to make up for it with nice "wrapping". Wildstar seems to be the opposite.

Hmmm this all sounds interesting.

So how does one get in on this? Are there BETA sign ups anywhere or do i need to pre-order?

@mister_v: If you have/make a free curse.com account you can grab a key for a beta this weekend. I did and can't wait to check it out.

Ah ha!

Code acquired. Thanks for the tip.

I'm pre-ordering this even though I didn't like any of the betas. Weird I know.

Just a couple days ago I was saying that I think I'm over MMOs after being hardcore into the genre a few years ago. After playing beta for the past 3 hours, I've changed my mind. I'm having a lot of fun with WildStar. It doesn't do much new or different, but it feels great.

I played a little this morning. Made it to level 5 as an Engineer and then got really bummed out that it was a pet class. Started over as a Medic for the other faction and I found myself not nearly as interested in the setting and story as I thought I'd be. Maybe it gets more interesting in group content, but my interest kind of dried up after today. It didn't help that a giant info dump for the next WoW expansion hit last night, which addressed a ton of complaints I had with my main class. I thought this would be the MMO to tide me over until that hit, but now I'm not so sure. I'll give it another shot before the weekend's up though.

Played a couple of hours just now. It looks and sounds and feels like what WoW would look and sound and feel like, if it was rebuilt from the ground-up, a decade after its inception. As far as this type of gameplay experiences go, it feels pretty great. Love the art direction and worldbuilding. The actiony combat with the telegraphs has lots of potential. The gameplay feels like it's meant to be a fun game first and foremost. Doublejumps are certainly telltale.

That said, all pretentions aside, such as the more active combat system, it's still very much a MMO in the vein of WoW. I'm not really sure if I want another one of these experiences. For a short stint maybe, but for anything more meaningful and longlasting, I need a revolution. Dunno man. Thinking about it, and all the games that are announced - I think Destiny might be what I hope MMOs will become. Offering gameplay and whatnot, totally unimpeded by the massively multiplayer online nature of the game. Or something.

I look forward to a MMO-experience that feels to me like WoW felt when I first played it. What I'm not looking for is a game that feels like WoW feels now. That's Wildstar for you. A great game that feels like WoW, with the potential to do what WoW does, just prettier and maybe even better... but still pretty much business as usual.

@seppli: How does the combat feel compared to Guild Wars 2? More action-y?

It's been awhile since I played GW2. The main difference is that every skill seems to prompt an AoE telegraph, which requires active aiming, and because it's AoE, positioning is super important. It's also the kind of game that'll voice-off *Double Kill* if you kill two enemies at once - so that's great.

The potential for satisfying combat is immense, but in the early levels, due to how tame these kinds of games are at this point, it really doesn't make much of a difference. If anything, it feels a little cumbersome, just because it's not at all needed to succeed, though once things get more demanding, it'll definitely be rather amazing.

It also got a dodge roll like GW2. And double jumps. Though something about the movement seems a tad bit off. The dodge roll isn't quite as reactive and reliable as I'd like, especially when using the modifier to execute it, rather than dedicated buttons or directional double-taps. Something about jumping feels wierd too. My preference is WoW-like *Momentum Jumps*, so I can jump in one direction and look in another. Jump shots were a big thing for my WoW-hunter. In Wildstar it seems to be a mix between Mario-like air control (which never feels great in 3D games), with a bit off a momentum element to it - neither fish nor fowl.

Dunno about group combat, but unlike GW2 it seems like the holy trinity is intact, which is the one thing that really held back GW2 for me. The lack of proper aggro mechanics and the lack of standardized defensive abilities like taunts and interrupts and whatnot, prevented GW2 from having all too engaging group dynamics and interesting boss encounters.

Mechanically it is rather promising overall. So if you are looking for a well-polished and mechanically interesting WoW-like experience, that flows exceptionally well, Wildstar is going to be great.

Finally a chance for me to get into the beta and I'll be busy most of the weekend, guh...ah well, maybe I'll manage to try it a little. Sci-fi-like WoW is my type of cake.

The big news is this week (hopefully) we should see the new UI put in the game.

I'm enjoying the game, but have hated the UI for a long time. I'm really looking forward to seeing that they changed.

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update, patching the UI in now :)

https://forums.wildstar-online.com/forums/index.php?/topic/31980-ui-20-patch-notes-4814/

Penny Arcade pretty much sums up my OP