By C’Loni Bailey, Assistant Manager at Bookmans Mesa

As an MMORPG (Massively Multi-player Online Role-Playing Game) junkie, I’ve played everything from World of Warcraft to Final Fantasy XI to Guild Wars 2, but my current MMO of choice is WildStar. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this vivid, multi-layered game, WildStar is a sci-fi adventure MMO that takes place on a newly inhabited planet called Nexus. Players choose between two factions (Exiles or Dominion), eight races (four per faction), and six classes.

WildStar

In addition to basic customizations, players choose between four paths that grant unique quests and activities based on how you like to play MMOs. Love to spend most of your time exploring the world map? Become an Explorer to get unique missions that take you to the most out of reach places and open up areas and bonuses unique to your path. Love world lore? Become a Scientist to scan found objects that uncover information about Nexus and its long lost inhabitants, the Eldan.

WildStar’s combat is real-time and action-oriented, utilizing aiming and telegraphs (visible areas of effect that show where your skill will hit), as well as double jumping, dodging and sprinting. The questing model is a combination of traditional MMO questing (talk to an NPC, get a quest, complete the quest, then turn it in to the NPC for a reward) and the more dynamic quest system seen in Guild Wars 2 (quests automatically appear whenever you enter a new area and do not require you to run back to the NPC to turn them in).

Another extraordinary aspect of WildStar’s gameplay is the player housing system. I’ve seen many MMOs attempt to do player housing in different ways, but WildStar does it right. It blends the addictiveness of Animal Crossing with the customization of The Sims and adds a robust positioning system that allows players to not only place any item anywhere on their plot (even suspended in mid air), but also allows items to be scaled up and down with dramatic and incredibly useful results.

At level 14 each player receives their own plot of floating land where they can choose to buy a house from a list of ready made homes or build it from scratch using various building blocks that aren’t limited to practical walls and floors. I’ve seen player homes with floating platforms made from salad bowls that were scaled to ten times their normal size! The most astounding player home I witnessed was a flying glass castle that could only be reached by jumping into a tornado (one of the many Adventure plots players can add to their land) and riding it up to a series of floating platforms. The possibilities of WildStar’s housing system are endless!

What really makes WildStar fun and charming its humor. WildStar is full of pop culture references, my favorite of which is the Lollygagging lore book that spoofs the Trainspotting monologue, which you unlock during a challenge that requires you to run around and lick psychedelic lollipops before the clock runs out. If you’re looking for a delightfully whimsical and hilarious MMORPG with tons to do and a wonderfully creative community, check out WildStar!