The Doctor is in!
This column dissects, bisects, and totally gouges out the gory details of Wildstar’s path system. As a Doctor of Path-ology, I have taken my Hypocritic Oath to research and probe the world of Nexus and keep you up to date with all the latest changes that may impact your character. This week, we look at the social aspect of the Settler path!
The Wildstar Settler, the social archetype, the proverbial chatty party animal of the planet Nexus! The Settler path allows the player to improve the world of Nexus by building towns and outposts with all the comforts of home. The settler can help defend a town as well as improve the overall value (quality of life, etc) of the town. The construction that a settler can perform is based on tiers that force cooperation between Settlers to build and maintain the higher tiered structures. A single Settler can build and maintain basic structures with lower level rewards, but if you want to get the big rewards you’ll need help from your other Settler buddies to build the corresponding big structures. The great part about the Settler Path is that you don’t have to join a party to build with your buddies; you can just walk up and help them out, which calls into question the “social” aspect of the Settler.
I have played other games, which shall remain nameless, where the players would engage in shared “events” with other players without joining a party and experienced a very non-social event. While exploring an area I came upon a large group of players literally sitting around, so I walked over to see what was going on. What I found was very little social interaction except for a few people trying to get a dance party started. Then the event kicked off with the entire group rushing toward the target frothing at the mouth. In a matter of moments the target was exterminated, booty was collected, and everyone went their separate ways with a few fading verbal high-fives. In my opinion, the event was not a social event, but a cooperative event.
Hopefully, the same situation will not occur in Wildstar and Settlers will need to actually plan and build together by speaking to one another instead of a bunch of people rushing in to build, get the reward, and then disperse. If not, you really won’t have to be social to be a Settler.
Don’t agree with my diagnosis? Let me know by leaving a comment.
I plan to be a settler for Wildstar and all about a community and growing the social aspect of an MMO, so I’ll be hoping that the social part of events will be there and if not, I’ll be one to at least initiate it :)
Games like Rift and GW2 which have this type of event have proved me wrong however with no one chatting during the events but we shall have to wait and see for Wildstar’s release.