WildStar and the Search for a Better Endgame

GameSpy has an article-style interview with WildStar’s executive produce Jeremy Gaffney, which focuses on the game’s “endgame”, a term that MMO fans should be familiar with, and that indicates the content that level-capped PCs engage with. Here’s a snip:

It’s Not So Dangerous to Go Alone

His solution is to implement a series of single-player dungeons, similar in concept to Rift’s Chronicles or Lord of the Rings Online’s Skirmishes. The details are still sketchy at this point, but Gaffney at least related that many of these single-player dungeons will be tied to one of WildStar’s signature “Paths,” which let players focus on an element of the game they enjoy the most. If you choose Explorer, for instance, many of your missions and solo dungeons will center on climbing peaks and surveying terrain, occasionally exploring underground passageways that only you can access. “Paths also unlock a different set of dailies,” he said, “or, at least, that’s our intent.”

But Gaffney wants everyone to get something out of these content releases–not just story buffs. “There’s also a strong reward structure behind solo dungeons,” he said. “If you’re story focused, you’re going to do it to learn more about the story. If you’re reward focused, then you’re going to be doing it as a part of the achievement ladder.”

Shaking Up the Routine

He also wants these solo dungeons and to remain interesting each time players go into them–along with regular dungeons and raids–so he and the Carbine team are toying with the idea of randomness to their design. It’s such an obstacle, however, that these elements may not make it into the final release. “It turns out that when you talk to hardcore raiders and hardcore dungeon players that they hate randomness,” he said. “If you talk to casuals, in general they love randomness. Randomness is the enemy of the elite.” Even so, he’s attracted to the idea because he believes that the current tendency of most “normal” guilds to simply copy the strategies of elite raiders off of YouTube has hurt the genre. “I think those random elements can help you learn to play the game rather than to play the script.”

One possible solution, he said, is to level the playing field. Under the model he has in mind, dungeons would change slightly every week, allowing for guilds or groups to make a name for themselves on a weekly basis. “You know, as in this week there’s a random configuration, and everybody gets the same week to be the first, the best, the fastest to beat this sort of thing, and then we reward whoever’s able to pull it off the best run of that dungeon,” he said. This ideas carries over into Carbine’s general affection for rewarding player achievements. “We’re big fans of leaderboards because, in general, we’re big fans of broadcasting information,” Gaffney said. “People do it anyway. If people enjoy it–if you’re the best of the best–we might as well reward you for it.” The greatest obstacle, Gaffney said, is time investment. Hardcore guilds go into a raid expecting to get something for the three or four hours they spend in there; with too much randomness, Gaffney said, they’ll likely feel as though they’ve wasted their time. “That’s the line we’re trying to walk while implementing our elder game–the right dynamic elements to make it fun, but not the ones to make it frustrating.”