Carbine Studios' "Wildstar"

[Ingmar]

OH AND THAT QUEST COMPLETION VOICE-OVER YOU WANTED TO LISTEN TO? FUCK THAT SHIT!

This shit drives me fucking crazy.

[Sjofn]

My feelings on the combat pretty much match the last few posters. Maybe I really am just sick to fucking death of DikuMud derivative combat because slow, boring and grindy are the best words I can use to describe it. Also... badfont. Lots of badfont.

I still like Diku whatnot, and I find the combat pretty meh, so I don't think it's quite that. It definitely has the issue of "some classes take way too long to start to get fun," though. Medic was the only one I enjoyed fairly early on, and as a result is the only one I got past level 10. Warrior never even made it off the arkship, poor thing.

[Rasix]

Why is this so depressing reading all of this?  I don't even really care about Wildstar.  I mean the housing video long ago had me interested, but now.. 

I guess my initial impressions weren't just colored by how badly it ran on my pretty decent system.  I even turned down a lot of options and it was still horrid.   The intro felt like something I had already done a hundred times and had no desire to ever do again.  It all felt very "messy" as well, but that could just be a GUI that I'm not completely familiar with.   

I'll probably load it again at some point to see if the performance thing is no longer an issue.

[Nevermore]

In fairness, I stuck with the grind (and there was a *lot* of bear ass collecting grind) just long enough to open up housing.  There was a lot I liked about housing, but some I didn't.  Don't know how much more specific I can be about that with the NDA still up.

[Fordel]

Why is this so depressing reading all of this?  I don't even really care about Wildstar.  I mean the housing video long ago had me interested, but now.. 

I guess my initial impressions weren't just colored by how badly it ran on my pretty decent system.  I even turned down a lot of options and it was still horrid.   The intro felt like something I had already done a hundred times and had no desire to ever do again.  It all felt very "messy" as well, but that could just be a GUI that I'm not completely familiar with.   

I'll probably load it again at some point to see if the performance thing is no longer an issue.

It ran even worse on my not so decent system, like N64 worse.

[luckton]

Why is this so depressing reading all of this?  I don't even really care about Wildstar.  I mean the housing video long ago had me interested, but now.. 

I guess my initial impressions weren't just colored by how badly it ran on my pretty decent system.  I even turned down a lot of options and it was still horrid.   The intro felt like something I had already done a hundred times and had no desire to ever do again.  It all felt very "messy" as well, but that could just be a GUI that I'm not completely familiar with.   

I'll probably load it again at some point to see if the performance thing is no longer an issue.

It ran even worse on my not so decent system, like N64 worse.

I want to contribute this to the beta watermark/overlay.  At least that's what I hope it is.

[Rasix]

Why the hell do they even do that? That is possibly the most obnoxious thing I've ever seen in any MMO beta to date. 

[Trippy]

In fairness, I stuck with the grind (and there was a *lot* of bear ass collecting grind) just long enough to open up housing.  There was a lot I liked about housing, but some I didn't.  Don't know how much more specific I can be about that with the NDA still up.

We've all already said too much

[Nevermore]

Well in that case I'll go ahead and post a screenshot of the game.

[Hoax]

Fuck this game. What a pile.

The first four engineer abilities are a 3 second channel b4 doing anything, something that instantly casts but channels for 5 seconds an instant cast stun on a 10-15 sec cooldown which isn't shitty to use and a pet. At that point I stopped caring at all.

The level up voice was maybe the best part of the game though the vac'ing up bits of meat and bone was sort of funny. The quests are generic trash. The zones are just WoW zones but different. The mobs were insanely boring with stupid red ground attacks that were so slow to activate and didn't do a whole lot if they did so I stopped caring like 8 fights in. I fought a giant robot once and realized when he died that I never looked at anything but the ground and that the fight ended without me realizing it because the ground effect was still "charging" so I was still fighting.

This game is way worse then GW2 and NWNO both of which I thought were pretty shitty.

Why the fuck in 2014 do games feel the need to start you with 2 abilities? I mean for real? You don't think I can handle being able to do things and control the camera at the same time? Better ease me into it?

[Draegan]

Why the hell do they even do that? That is possibly the most obnoxious thing I've ever seen in any MMO beta to date. 

GW2 did it too.

[Draegan]

Fuck this game. What a pile.

The first four engineer abilities are a 3 second channel b4 doing anything, something that instantly casts but channels for 5 seconds an instant cast stun on a 10-15 sec cooldown which isn't shitty to use and a pet. At that point I stopped caring at all.

The level up voice was maybe the best part of the game though the vac'ing up bits of meat and bone was sort of funny. The quests are generic trash. The zones are just WoW zones but different. The mobs were insanely boring with stupid red ground attacks that were so slow to activate and didn't do a whole lot if they did so I stopped caring like 8 fights in. I fought a giant robot once and realized when he died that I never looked at anything but the ground and that the fight ended without me realizing it because the ground effect was still "charging" so I was still fighting.

This game is way worse then GW2 and NWNO both of which I thought were pretty shitty.

Why the fuck in 2014 do games feel the need to start you with 2 abilities? I mean for real? You don't think I can handle being able to do things and control the camera at the same time? Better ease me into it?

100% and the Engineer is one of the better classes. Go try playing an Esper where everything roots you in place.

At least hopefully this game will finally put the nail in the coffin of the quest treadmill formula. Fuck that kind of play. At least ESO and it's shitty PVE doesn't have you collecting bear asses.

[Kitsune]

Tera kicks the shit out of Wildstar's gameplay.  GW2 is inferior to Tera's combat, but still way better than Wildstar.  The other features of the game I actually liked a fair bit.  I liked tradeskills having as much depth as combat classes.  I liked housing.  I liked the roles having something to do other than collecting 100 rat tails.  I disliked the fact that none of the actual game had any of the fun wit that the trailers had; most of the game was as dry as any other MMORPG.  I didn't mind the Randy Savage dings.  I disliked the fact that movement was as slow as molasses if you didn't have a speed buff up.

They can still fix the combat, which was my primary complaint.  I don't think they will fix it, but definitely believe it's possible.

[Rendakor]

Man, that makes this difficult. I love crafting and housing, but GW2's combat was awful compared to TERA and hearing that this is worse (but in the same vein) is really off-putting. I haven't had a chance to actually try it (since all I get are beta weekend invites and weekends aren't usually great for me), so I might preorder it at Gamestop for early access then cancel it if I don't like it.

[Lucas]

NDA lifted, release date is June 3rd, 2014:

http://www.wildstar-online.com/uk/news/wildstar_release_date_and_nda_lift.php

They will start accepting pre-orders on March 19th .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ay8Ze96I9_w

[luckton]

Think I'll wait and see on this one.  Rather play WoW.

[Lantyssa]

Oh good.  NDA lift.

The combat is my main complaint.  It's all ground effects and slow.  Dodging seems mostly pointless since I can run walk out at the same pace.  All my engineer attacks also required sitting there and charging which didn't help my opinion of things.

Leveling also seemed really slow.  I wouldn't mind that so much, but combat was boring so it felt like a grind just to hit 10.

My other complaint was the camera.  If I got close enough to really see my character, most of my body was hidden by UI or off-screen.  The perspective was just wrong.

[Ghambit]

Perfect timing for when Dark Souls wears thin.
As for the NDA, yah, most of us have skirted around it so closely that there's  not much really left to say.  Few point though:  

-Movement has always been an issue; they've tweaked it a few times along with various animations... but since it's a race-based mechanic, it's tough to justify a frankenstien engi. being able to platform as well as a Chua.  Most people seem to hate the racelocking, so I guess making movement quicker and more fluid across the board would be wise.  Though, lessening the value of mobility classes (stalker, slinger) would be unwise.  Do not forget there are also mobility skills, gadgets, and abilities.  Most smart players will minimally have the settler movement buff active (especially those folk that are uhh, settlers).  Then there's craftable movement pots and so forth.  Every Path seems to have a way to deal with it.

-I guess what I like about the game is what most people do not.  Like with movement, there are layers of meta involved with even the simplest things.  Most people will bitch they're too slow and QQ the devs for a buff rather then take the time to improve their movement by gaming.  Like, why would there even be a settler pod for movement if everyone moves like a fuckin Tera character?  Or a sci potion, etc.  Makes no sense to axe all those systems just to make everyone an equally special snowflake with minimal effort.  This is before even considering the impact on the combat system, wherein there are times you just arent fast enough to get out the of the way w/o a dodge or buff of some kind.

-That's the basic philosophy behind the game.  Many layers of meta, some of which could be coined a 'grind,' (many are nifty minigames, though easy) that are mandatory to flesh out the fun.  It's good for the worker-bee type of classic mmo player but the burnt out/jaded newschool gamers wont like it.

-Combat speed complaints are typically unfounded simply because again...  the game is wildly different depending upon class.  Warriors will out proc. an engi. + bots every day of the week (because they're wailing away every 1/4 second), which is why they still make better tanks.  Slingers are too complex to even complain about speed to begin with - the vast majority of the time people who whine when they spellsling just can't play them...  they're the strafe and port skillshot class; steer clear if you dont have nimble fingers.  Control classes like Esper or Medic need time to survey the situation, not to mention their abilities cannot be quick due to the utility of their powers; making them quicker would just be stupid.  And again, this is before even considering the myriad combat speed abilities, amps, buffs, whatevs that are sprinkled in the game.  If you made everyone a ninja you might as well eliminate all those systems, including the skilldeck system (which can be tweaked for quicker abilities and so forth).

-Dominion is flat out cooler then Exiles from my experience.  The quests seemed to have a bit more depth and skill in writing. The lore just felt deeper.  There was one warzone quest that had me really impressed; up until I BSODed.  I never quite made it to the hubs so I cant speak for the midgame.

-Most of the smaller outposts are definitely bland, as people have been saying.  This issue stems from the whole 'survivalist colony' aspect of Nexus.  I must say this is something that I didnt foresee when considering this game; it's pretty jarring.  Reminds me of Fallen Earth.  I hated it.  It's a thematic thing though, so it cant be fixed.  

- ^^^ main issue the game will have keeping players.  Most folk will not like the theme.  Same issues with Defiance come to think.  I like space pulp myself, but this particular presentation is lacking in this regard due to the choice of making it a quasi-colonization game.  I prefer my worlds to be complete when I play, which I think is something that was under-appreciated with WoW; those zones were pretty much lore complete from release day.

-UI is definitely weird.  They opted for some giant center-screen thing that blocks your character (as Lant says).  It's moddable, but the default might not be your taste.

-Pre-orders get a rockethouse automatically.  That sells a lot of boxes right there.

-The release date is definitely smart, as the summer break will coincide perfectly.

-Game is setup for the oldschooler (gaming is my 2nd job) type of gamer.  An Eve person might like it for instance.  There's a system for everything and the game will be heavily reliant on 3rd party mods.

[01101010]

Oh good.  NDA lift.

The combat is my main complaint.  It's all ground effects and slow.  Dodging seems mostly pointless since I can run walk out at the same pace.  All my engineer attacks also required sitting there and charging which didn't help my opinion of things.

Leveling also seemed really slow.  I wouldn't mind that so much, but combat was boring so it felt like a grind just to hit 10.

My other complaint was the camera.  If I got close enough to really see my character, most of my body was hidden by UI or off-screen.  The perspective was just wrong.

Combat I am fine with. Engy was fun and most everything had a charge time, but at least you were mobile unlike the esper.

I agree with you on the rest. Leveling was painfully quest grindy. I was hoping they either decreased the TNL or upped the xp per kill since the last beta weekend, but alas it was not done. Warping through the first 8 levels felt about right if a little slow, then all the sudden it became a slog - even the fights were noticeably rougher from level 8 on unless you outleveled the area by a level or two. Doesn't help that you ding between like lvl6 and lvl9 and only get access to what, one new ability? Gaining a new level never felt as AWESOME AS FUCK as the announcement made it seem.

Quests are all over the place and pop up just wandering around which negate any need to just grind mobs for xp which is fine, but it just feels like I am hunting for quests instead of mobs. Nature of the beast I suppose. Some of the quests are interesting, most are not. Completing them on the fly and not having to run back for every one is nice, but in most MMOs now anyway.

The Paths are a neat feature I like. Explorer is too overwhelming though - there is soo much shit they can do and get into that makes the other paths seem pedestrian. Planting flags, scouting cliffs and finding hidden paths... completionists will enjoy the path for the sheer amount of stuff they have to do. Settler is great for buff stations and vendors on the fly, but outside of that, the other stuff they do in the world is pointless in that anything they build is gone in a minute or two. There is no salience with anything the settler does which is unfortunate. Not to mention collecting building materials is tedious. I like that they drop too, but still. Scientist was ok. The scanbot seemed pointless other than not requiring your character to walk an extra 20 feet to look at something. I liked the fact they had some puzzles to figure out to gain access to doors and areas, but those areas usually just had a cube and nothing else. Lost potential there. Whole behind-the-door areas just wasted when they could have just had the wall open to reveal a cube. Soldier was nothing more than find a terminal and stand-your-ground for a few minutes. Some of them were kinda rough and I did die while 7 of us were trying to do one soldier's terminal path quest. I like the fact the mobs ramp up when there are more people, but overall, the soldier path just seemed boring.

Loot seemed pretty steady, grabbing the blue weapon around 5-6 from the trophy quest goes along way since I was using it into lvl 11 (as far as I got)...but it gets boring when you don't find a new shiny and the weapon's killing power starts fading as the mobs ramp up. Was hoping for a replacement to drop, but everything I got was less than the blue weapon. Disappointing to say the least, but not surprising given the standard MMO fare with this game.

Bag space is again an issue which astounds me. Once you learn how to salvage (~lvl8) the linen costume items seem to drop off everything and fills up your bag space too quickly. Salvaging itself is a pain in the ass doing single item only, unless I missed a mass-salvage-everything-in-your-bag button somewhere. Takes forever to free up space salvaging everything, and you make a ton more coin just vendoring it. Settler might be a premium for this fact alone.

The camera needs a ton of work. You stated exactly what is wrong. Perspective is just off. Not to mention the fact that you zoom out to a reasonable distance, adjust the camera a bit to look at something which shifts the focus, and the camera never seems to reset back to where it was when you put it back where it was. Constantly monkeying around with zooming in and out is frustrating and since they seem to want you to constantly move around, that camera is constantly being moved and bouncing perspective as it hits environment objects. Swing it around at a nice distance and run into a rock and it pushed the camera right on your character then takes forever to try and reset the distance back, but never ends up corrected.

I can live with those for the time being, but expect them to be addressed at some point. This will scratch my itch for an MMO this summer but I don't know about the staying power after the 3 month honeymoon period I give MMOs.

[Rasix]

The release date seems a bit early, but I guess it's timed well to move boxes.   But honestly, I see this game doing pretty poorly in the market.  It'll sell poorly, retain poorly, and will most likely mean the death of this studio.

I really wanted to like this.  I like WoW/diku. I like GW2 stye combat.  I like the art style in theory (see WoW).  The marketing/dev chat videos were great.  I like space.   I do not like what I played. It was so boring, that I didn't even get to housing.  I can't even remember what level I got to.  I just didn't want to play anymore after a handful of sessions. The combat was not interesting.  The interface was terrible. It ran like Skyrim on an iPhone. The leveling pace was slow, even at noobie levels (that is honestly one of the worst game intros I've ever experienced).  The game just looked like a bad mess.

The only semi-interesting part was the different paths: explorer, builder, etc.  It looks like that could be something.  The only way I would give this a second look is if they did a serious optimization pass.  I'd want to at least not be lagging to shit on my PC that can run every other game on the planet in high settings without issues.

[Ingmar]

I would totally have bought this based on their great marketing if it hadn't been for actually playing it. I knew the combat was going to be a strike against it going in, as I don't like the GW2 branch of MMO combat much, but I was expecting all the other systems to be as cool as they seemed in the videos. They weren't, and I found that the very poor levels of character appearance customization also really bugged me. I'd agree with Rasix that progress felt slow, although I don't recall the UI being a problem one way or the other.

Pet AI was godawful when I played as well. Possibly that has improved, I haven't bothered recently.

[Fordel]

I downloaded the game, installed it, opened the character maker and got 4 FPS. I opened the settings, turned off/down the usual suspects (fancy shadows etc) and... still got 4 Fps. Opened the settings again, turned even more stuff down and got 5 FPS. Went into the settings again and just put everything to it's lowest possible setting. This got me to the 10-15 FPS range. Up to 20-25 if I stared at empty space like the floor. At this point my game looked like something that literally belonged on the PS1 or N64, like super basic polygon models with jagged edges and no actual lighting and blurry textures. So right off the bat here, I'm having a great experience.  

The UI just kept throwing things at me, this is the first time in a long long time I felt like a game UI was actively trying to assault me. I could probably get used to it with time, but I had no desire too, since the game ran like utter shit and I had zero attachment to the setting or world or anything. The game also ran like shit. Did I mention that?

I didn't care for the fact despite all the pseudo action combat, the game still wanted me to click on mobs like I was playing WoW. I adjusted really quickly to the Neverwinter method of pseudo action combat, where you default to a aiming/camera control state and press a button to bring up the mouse pointer for menus, instead of the old style of having to hold down a button to mouse look and junk. I otherwise never got far enough to really make any calls on the depth of the combat, since again, the game ran like complete garbage.


My TLDR: Game ran like unbelievable crap and nothing about the game made me want to figure out how to make it not run like crap. Just a pile of apathy and meh.

[Ard]

I only played this one weekend, but it made me never want to go back.  Between the content being absolutely boring to the point where I just stopped reading it (on top of them making it both hard to read and listen to), the Dominion side literally starting in the barrens killing space orcs, and the combat being outright tedious, I just gave up.  It's not even proper sci-fi, it's WoW with a very false sci fi veneer.  Tons of pointless running around, tons of back and forth to NPCs despite having phones, tons of getting hit in the face by people with swords and the usual over-sized insects.  This game actually turned out worse than ESO, and I don't like that game either.

[Miasma]

Do they have beta forums and out of curiosity are they filled with lots of yes men fanboys who scream murder whenever a more sensible person suggests the game is tedious/grindy/shitty?

I wonder why the performance is so poor considering how bad the graphics are.

[01101010]

Do they have beta forums and out of curiosity are they filled with lots of yes men fanboys who scream murder whenever a more sensible person suggests the game is tedious/grindy/shitty?

I wonder why the performance is so poor considering how bad the graphics are.

They seemed somewhat functional. The criticisms were there and the largest threads were fairly constructive in their offerings and opinions. Of course, those suggestions were not implemented - at least in terms of paths suggestions (which I was most curious about - enough to read the forums). Was fairly mixed though - but yeah, you always had those topics 'leveling is too slow!' - "NO NO, make it slower so I can be some status symbol in game!" 

The chat in beta however... well, it is chat in an MMO. Topics were mostly about how to segregate players by playstyle and drivel about how to make the game harder and exclusive to only the leet kiddies. I sorta turned off the chat early on though. 

As for performance... I have no idea. I am still getting by with my 470 GTX with framerates around 30-40 in populated areas. Couple times dipping into the teens and 20s for some reason out in less populated areas. Restarting cleared that for me though. Though I suspect they were doing something with the servers at that time.

[Nevermore]

Do they have beta forums and out of curiosity are they filled with lots of yes men fanboys who scream murder whenever a more sensible person suggests the game is tedious/grindy/shitty?

Yes to all of that.

I wonder why the performance is so poor considering how bad the graphics are.

In-game I kept seeing comments about how using the 64 bit client would fix most of the performance problems.  I wasn't having performance issues, but I checked to see which client I was using and it seemed I only had a 64 bit .exe anyway.

Most of the problems I had with the game have already been touched on by others so I won't just repeat what they said other than to say that for me the game already had an uphill battle to try to grab me since I *hate* the art style.  I was never much of a fan of the cartoony look in WoW but at least that game mostly played the story straight, with some humorous stuff thrown in.  Wildstar takes all the cartoony WoW look and irreverence and cranks it up to 11, which is the last thing that I personally want in a game.  So I get that this game is just not for me, but the other stuff like surprisingly poor combat and lots of grind is why I don't think this game will do very well.

I also hope they improve their chat by release.  Not being able to turn off or filter barrens chat the advice channel was really annoying.

[Signe]

I disable the advice and add the combat channel through the chat window but it doesn't stick after you log out.  Of course, maybe that's fixed in this big patch they did.  The UI needs work, for sure.  One thing I do like is the quests related to your path.  Although a lot of the quests are mundane, it does help you feel a bit more customised than, say, WoW.  Because we've been having a lot of power outages due to the damage done by the recent bad weather, I haven't been on long enough to make it to housing and I've done very little crafting.  I'm not going to decide on the game until I've played with that.  When I do play, however, it's enjoyable.  My computer zips through the game at the moment and I haven't had any problems with lag or anything.  Of course, this is a new computer with a better graphics card.  I'm not sure my laptop would have been able to run it at all.  Maybe I'll give it a try and see one of these days.  (I say things like that but I never actually do it.  I haven't touched the fucking laptop since I transferred files the day I brought this thing home.)

I liked the look of WoW and I like the look of this one, too.  They really are similar.  I like the race choices more in this, especially the robot ones, the diseased ones and the horny ones.  Yes, I forget what they're named.  :(  The diseased one's are my fav, but I've just started a horny character.  Yeah, yeah, horny.  I said that.  Whatever.

[Paelos]

Game was boring and the setting didn't grab me. Leveling took forever by common standards today. The combat is ground effects and that's about it. Did I mention I think the setting is dull yet somehow overly flashy? Didn't think that was possible but here we are.

[Signe]

All of a sudden combat is bouncy and fast and everything kills me even other players.  This can't be right?  It must be me.

[Miasma]

All of a sudden combat is bouncy and fast and everything kills me even other players.  This can't be right?  It must be me.

Reading from other places tells me that they are testing pvp by making every server fully pvp so yes other players are probably killing you.

I also read that people in beta had to "compete" to stay in the beta by achieving certain levels and so on.  If true that would be hilarious as it pretty much makes certain that the only people testing and giving feedback on your game are hardcore sociopaths resulting in the complete failure of the game in the mass market come launch.

[Sjofn]

I didn't care for the fact despite all the pseudo action combat, the game still wanted me to click on mobs like I was playing WoW. I adjusted really quickly to the Neverwinter method of pseudo action combat, where you default to a aiming/camera control state and press a button to bring up the mouse pointer for menus, instead of the old style of having to hold down a button to mouse look and junk. I otherwise never got far enough to really make any calls on the depth of the combat, since again, the game ran like complete garbage.

You don't have to click on mobs, but you do have to aim at them. You only "have" to click on mobs if you have autoface on and want it to actually work. It's still not Neverwinter, but it's not WoW-style either (unless you want it to be).

Thinking about it, my biggest problem with the game was how fast it felt like a huge grind. I posted about it on the forums and bitched about it in pretty much all my feedback, but I should not start to feel like it's taking forever to level at level nine. A lot of crazies on their beta boards, though, whining the leveling was TOO FAST (in between whining that the artistic vision of the game was RUINED FOREVER when they shrunk the aurin and human boobs).

edit: I did make it to housing (I made it to level 19 or so on my medic before getting sick of soloing and went back to playing games with Ingmar) (Ingmar played Wildstar for like ... one night). The housing was too expensive for my tastes, although I liked a lot of what I saw otherwise. I just don't like the game nearly enough to get to a point where the housing doesn't feel super expensive.

Game should not be a sub model. There is no way this game will manage on a sub model.

[Nevermore]

(in between whining that the artistic vision of the game was RUINED FOREVER when they shrunk the aurin and human boobs).

Wait, you mean Aurin and Humans used to be even more comically exaggerated?  

Edit: Yeah, I pretty much liked housing except for how much everything costs, especially since a lot (most?) of the plots degrade and expire.

Double Edit: to be clear, the lot doesn't expire, just some (most?) of the sectional stuff you put into plots on your land.

[Lantyssa]

I can't say on the proportions as I only played an insecto-bot.  Wouldn't surprise me about those two though.

It's another game that were it just a box cost and f2p I'd probably get it, but I just don't like it enough to go for a sub.

[Bhazrak]

I tried to be interested in it the handful of times I got to play during the weekends, but I never could. Nor did I ever reach that point during some MMOs where something 'clicks' for me and I start enjoying it more. It has such a huge WoW vibe to me, that I can no longer muster any interest for it. The last time I played it, it felt exactly like the last time I tried one of those 'Come back!' trials for WoW.

I'm sure a lot of it is the art style and movement specifically, combined with the dull 'quest' leveling, combat, maybe also the lightheartedness of it all? I'm not sure. I know I am tired of the quest driven themepark styled MMOs of yore, but even those that have come out in the past few years had something else that hooked me. Rift's soul system and it's world, Tera's combat (and being a spinning barakan warrior), GW2's world and WvW and somewhat different leveling/exploring, Final Fantasy 14's overall rebirth. I didn't play any of them terribly long, but I enjoyed my time with them. Wildstar seems like WoW 2.0 to me in some ways, but sticking with the 'tried and true' themepark formula that is (or is getting) played out.

[Sjofn]

(in between whining that the artistic vision of the game was RUINED FOREVER when they shrunk the aurin and human boobs).

Wait, you mean Aurin and Humans used to be even more comically exaggerated?  

Edit: Yeah, I pretty much liked housing except for how much everything costs, especially since a lot (most?) of the plots degrade and expire.

Double Edit: to be clear, the lot doesn't expire, just some (most?) of the sectional stuff you put into plots on your land.

Yeah, the aurin and humans used to be even dumber (you can see the old model on the NPCs, I think). Like boobs-the-side-of-her-head dumb. The neckbeards were horrified. My favorites were the ones who complained they got shrunk down to "an A-cup." Nothing makes me laugh harder than dudes who don't know how bra sizes work.