My Wildstar Story (Alpha testing experience, plus alpha gameplay clips.)

Izkimar

I just recently bought an external sleeve for one of my old data drives, and while rummaging through it I stumbled upon some old Wildstar Alpha gameplay. The earliest clip is from February of 2013 and latest is 3v3 arena from April 2013 on Spellslinger.

I normally wouldn't post alpha gameplay like this, since NDA's often extend throughout the life of a game. However, after discovering the clips "and with the game going under", I thought I would share them along with my perspective to the community.

The first clip in the Esper features me in a zone that was actually locked off at the time of testing. I found a way through the ocean and mountains to get into the zone, and I was killing mobs that were 5-7 or more levels higher than me. "They hit really hard!"

Gameplay & Story: 

Summary of video:

1. I cannot say names, but I personally know of a person from leadership position that left the game early on due to philosophical differences. These differences apparently couldn't be resolved, and only solution was to pursue other ventures. "My first knowledge of turmoil in the game's leadership."

2. My first feel of the game was pretty good for it being early alpha. I am not sure how early I got in. I think F&F started in late 2012, and I might have played at the end of 2012 and early 2013 at the latest.

   1. I saw a game with good potential, especially since it was one of the only AAA titles really pursuing deck building at the time.

   2. Also, I found a dodge roll + jump bug that made combat feel more active and visceral. It could be used to gain further distance on dodge. "Though you didn't want to use it all the time."

      1. The mark of a good team, is when you decided to rally behind interactions you didn't intend in your game. "As long as they add depth or strengthen the gameplay experience."

      2. Sometimes this might just be a way players interact with your games, or sometimes it is a bug such as jump interactions in "Tribes".

      3. I pleaded with the team to either keep the bug as is, or find a way to incorporate it as a mechanic. They axed it.

3. My first major AAA testing experience was really good. Probably the best I have had to this day. It was far from perfect, but devs really interacted with testers. They didn't just exploit the metrics and brute force testing aspects of testers, they actually sought their perspective based on their game knowledge.

   1. I went into Wildstar expecting something like this, so it was kind of a rude awakening.

   2. Some of the devs didn't take to feedback very well, constructive criticism wasn't appreciated very much.

   3. "First memory of this" I think it was in one of the group missions, where the game dropped you in an instanced scenario. The whole content medium was just designed poorly, and we tried to convey this in a ventrillo talk. However, they didn't really take the feedback well.

   4. A major gripe: This is something that exists in all major testing environments. There were a lot of testers that acted as the vanguard for the devs, they were very vigilant in protecting the team from all sorts of criticism.

      1. It didn't matter if it was constructive, it was typically treated as an assault on the team and their vision.

      2. I have to say if we ever see a return to real testing for AAA games, and you find yourself as a tester. Please, try to refrain from this sort of behavior.

      3. It isn't your role to protect the devs. You are there to give actual valid feedback good, bad, or ugly. You may think you are protecting them, but you are only doing a disservice to them. "Of course criticism should be within the actual testing scope, should be constructive, and should also pose possible solutions."

      4. My experience with some of the devs was they were quick to hide behind the shields of these testers, and align with the more comfortable opinions that things were great.

      5. Also, constructive posts that took a lot of effort, as well as proposed solutions weren't very popular. Instead, fluff posts got more views and dev interactions. "Such as one tester who would post semi-lore type stories of his character's adventures in the game." (No offense if you're reading this btw, I vaguely remember your name.)

   5. Problems: There was a hole laundry list of problems with the game, and as this was close to 6 years ago I don't remember each major point of feedback that was submitted.

      1. I do remember contesting the telegraph system and the disco ball nature of the game. As well as the carpal tunnel spam feel of combat design.

      2. The telegraph system was a bad idea that got cemented as a core feature of the game, and thus would never be walked back.

      3. Telegraphs make sense within context of certain skill design and enemy creature skill design. However, they shouldn't exist in a manner that is just dumped all over the entire game.

      4. Readable animations are a much better way to go, and you should telegraph where telegraphs actually make sense within the context of what you are building.

The ending of my time with Wildstar: I honestly remember being kind of bitter "Was 22 at the time." After putting in so much work trying to help improve the game, I finally decided to make one last big post with the core issues of the game identified.

I did structure it with sort of a stance taken "could have avoided this, but again 22 year old me", but the post was still overall very constructive and polite. I basically stated the major issues, and that if they weren't fixed why I personally wouldn't find the game compelling to play as a paying customer. Also, how I thought it would hurt the overall lifespan of the game. After that post, I was blacklisted.

Bonus story forgot to include in video: There was a contest for one of the early dungeons. I think in the level 30 range. All I remember is a spiral ascent through a lair sort of, there was a boss with fire tornadoes I think? Also, the end boss was some sort of dragon if I remember correctly.

The contest was to see who could clear the dungeon the most within a 24 hour period, and the metric they ended up using to measure it was monsters killed. Well, we grinded so damn hard lol. We ran that dungeon all day and night, clearing it fast as hell. "Once again, 22 year old me lol." We were so damn sure that nobody was even close to us.

However, whenever the contest ended and they celebrated the winners, it wasn't us.. We kept tabs on all the groups, and were trying to gauge other peoples' progress, and from the information we had we didn't think any of the groups really could possibly be close. Well, it turns out one of the competing groups decided to think outside the box. They would zone into the instance over and over again, and just kill the first pack. Because, the first pack spawned a huge group of creatures that offered no challenge and could be killed super quickly. I remember being so salty hahah. It was funny, because one of our guild members was mocking us for even trying so hard at the contest, and I remember him making fun of us after we didn't win.

Cryomatrix

Yeah getting constructive feedback is hard to take if not done appropriately.

jimmywolf

good read it's nice to see their was testers that tried to make a better game not just those that thought they " knew " what was best  and tragically despite it's hype it gone, proof those that " knew " what was best were ignoring good advice. i tried it for a month hated the light show spam  on the ground and combat was vexing.   

H0urg1ass

I played in the open beta and came to some of the same conclusions that this guy did.  I had two major reason that the game just wasn't for me.

1)  It was like playing a video game in some kind of weird Japanese disco.  There were so many effects, floating numbers, colors, explosions and more effects that I often got lost in it all during fights.  They really really needed to tone this down a lot.  It felt like the game designers were going for a "more is better" approach, when in actuality that's often not the case for players.

If WoW was Bugs Bunny, then WildStar was EXTREEEEEEEME BUGS BUNNY!

2)  This game made my physically ill.  I mean this in a very literal sense.  After about 45 minutes of playing it, my eyes would start to hurt.  A couple hours in, I'd have a light headace.  3-4 hours in and I'd have a splitting headache and nausea that would require medication and lying down for a bit.

This is the only game in history that has ever caused this effect on me.  I'm not prone to motion sickness from almost any source.  I'm a SCUBA diver who has been on boats in rolling oceans.  I've made many flights in some of the worst turbulence.  I was a skateboarder and I play lots of racing games using my wheel setup.  I just don't get motion sickness, but this game induced it in me very badly for some reason.

Ungood

Glad I passed on this one.

They pitched it as a Hardcore Raid game, and that simply was not what I was looking for.

Kyleran

Cryomatrix said:

Yeah getting constructive feedback is hard to take if not done appropriately.

I've never found a situation where criticism was truly welcome, constructive or otherwise. 

They always try to sell this where I work asking us to provide constructive feedback to our peers but most employee knew better and didn't do it.

This year they added the ability to do so anonymously so perhaps it will happen more often.

Ungood

Kyleran said:

Cryomatrix said:

Yeah getting constructive feedback is hard to take if not done appropriately.

I've never found a situation where criticism was truly welcome, constructive or otherwise. 

They always try to sell this where I work asking us to provide constructive feedback to our peers but most employee knew better and didn't do it.

This year they added the ability to do so anonymously so perhaps it will happen more often.

I hate to say it, but that is because people are insecure and think making a mistake is a bad thing.

Professionally, I want to know if I can do something better. It may not help me that time, or in that one case, but it will help me next time I need to do something similar, and if I don't know I am messing up or maybe seeing a better way to do something, I will never get better. I am always on the look out professionally for ideas and input, hell, I'll give any employee I have their moment to pitch an idea to me.

Cryomatrix

I can take constructive criticism well if done well

Rockinw311

Agree 100% with the comments about the team's inability to take constructive feedback. IMO, that doomed the game before it even launched

k61977

Ungood said:

Glad I passed on this one.

They pitched it as a Hardcore Raid game, and that simply was not what I was looking for.

That was actually part of what ended up killing it in the end other than personal preferences type things.  People didn't want the big 40 man raids even though they said over an over they did.  It's like trying to herd cats to manage that if you never have.  Half the people you invited didn't do the achievement to unlock said raid so you have to replace them by the time they got replaced over half left because of the waiting.  Never understood why these devs didn't take what they learned from WoW about not doing any more 40 man raids.

The game actually was pretty fun and had a lot of good things.  Some people didn't like the art style, action combat, or the telegraphs.  I didn't mind them at the time.  Those were personal preferences.  One of the good things was the housing system, I loved it myself.  The extra things like pathfinder and stuff were good when the game was populated, but since it required multiple people to actually get the benefits of a lot of hidden areas, as in to unlock for a different person with a different skill it wasn't though out well from when there wasn't others around to help.

The one thing I will say is they did try to make a game with a set core group in mind an stuck with it.  It was sad though that they picked the smallest group in gaming the hard core raiders to be that core group.

deniter

k61977 said:

The one thing I will say is they did try to make a game with a set core group in mind an stuck with it.  It was sad though that they picked the smallest group in gaming the hard core raiders to be that core group.

Making a game with a certain group of players in mind is not necessarily a bad thing. What went wrong, however, was that about 99% of the game represented everything the chosen core group would dislike.

Hardcore raiders are more traditional kind of gamers. Action combat, queueable automated dungeon finders, flashy combat effects, platform jumping puzzles, pruned skill bars, linear and arcade game style questing, etc. represents everything this crowd believes is wrong in the genre.

On the other hand, the crowd who loves this kind of gameplay loathes grinding, long attunements and large scale raiding. All that they could find in WS after few weeks leveling.

It seems to me the beginning of the game was made this more casual group of gamers in mind, while the end game was meant for the more hardcore and organised crowd. What happened was the latter quit playing very early on and the former hit a brick wall in few weeks of playing.

No wonder very few actually liked this game.

Wizardry

I guess all depends what you want/expect from a mmorpg and this combat alone turns me off.

That combat is not how it actually starts out though,MUCH more boring inside some building.
I personally do not ever want strafing/flipping in the air running all over the place type combat.

First of all,you can not EVER  have quality group play with messy combat like that.So it is a single player design and even then i don't like that type of combat in a rpg.

When i tested Ws it felt painful,similar to when i tried GW2.The feeling was one where i wanted to logout way more than i wanted to look any further.

The only thing WS did well was marketing the product,they did a great job there and why it sold so well out of the gate.After that ONE try,i never wanted to go back and try the game again because i did not see any positives to warrant going back.

Izkimar

Ungood said:

I hate to say it, but that is because people are insecure and think making a mistake is a bad thing.

Professionally, I want to know if I can do something better. It may not help me that time, or in that one case, but it will help me next time I need to do something similar, and if I don't know I am messing up or maybe seeing a better way to do something, I will never get better. I am always on the look out professionally for ideas and input, hell, I'll give any employee I have their moment to pitch an idea to me.

People attach their sense of value and worth to their ideas early on in life. Instead of realizing that a thought or an idea isn't you, and that you can actually generate new ones. It goes in line with growth vs. fixed mindset.