And all were made possible because of WildStar. The friendships – both real and virtual – are incredibly precious. From community sites like Arawulf’s WildStar Fans or Sylvan’s WildStar Core, to community members like Anhrez, Olivar, Pseudonimh and many more. Over on the community side, there are so many people that I’ve had the good fortune to meet and become good friends with. Anecdotally, for Shade’s Eve 2015, I ended up sending 120 yellow and green cupcakes to the studio just as a way of saying thanks. There’re also countless amazing staffers that I got to know over the Internet and had many enjoyable interactions with, either through long-distance interviews or in conversations on Twitter. On the Carbine side, there’s Jeremy Gaffney, Mike Donatelli, Chad Moore, Jen Ortiz, Troy Hewitt, David Bass, Mark Hulmes, Sean Clanton, Jon Wiesman, Stephan Frost and so many others that I met in person. But if anything, it’s the people I met and got a chance to know that I’ll treasure the most from WildStar. Overall, I wrote a ton of content on the game. I’d still produce the occasional column on WildStar when there was news to be shared. It was a busy time with plenty of interviews, lots of analysis, and some heavy beta coverage as content was polished up.
I got to meet more of the developers, write more about how the game was shaping up, and meet more of the community.Īfter a break from writing over winter, I took up a columnist role at, covering WildStar on the run up to launch in June 2014. The team was working flat-out to get everything ready for launch, desperately pushing for release. As it turned out, I’d get to know many more over the years.įast-forward to 2013 and WildStar was back at Gamescom with a booth, a playable game, and a Granok. I met many of those early fans along with the developers Carbine flew out for the event. I also got an invite to return a few months later as press, being among the first to cover the game in a hands-on manner. Throughout 2012 I got my first taste of WildStar, going hands-on at a fan Arkship event in London and being among the first to play the game. Incidentally, some of the people I worked with back then are still in the industry, either in community, PR, or even lore and story. There, I’d end up covering a multitude of games, but my core responsibility would still be WildStar. When the spinoff was eventually absorbed into ZAM proper, I followed and landed my first paid writing gig as a columnist for the MMO megasite. An early topic on griefing spawned an lengthly response from me, which the studio picked up on.įrom there, I got noticed by the folks over at ZAM and asked if I’d be interested in writing for their early fansite WildStar Source. It continued with WildStar Wendnesdays, an initiative spearheaded by then-community manager Troy Hewitt to build an ongoing dialogue with the early internet fandom. There was no game to play back then, but the studio was collecting ideas and building a community at that early stage – even designing a world boss with audience participation. It all began with an innocent enough blog post that talked about WildStar’s reveal at Gamescom 2011. Then there’s the communities I’ve been fortunate to be a part of, all as part of this one game. I wanted to talk about the amazing people I’ve met, the friendships I’ve formed, and the lasting impact they’ve had on my life. Instead, I wanted to reflect on how WildStar affected my life, first as an MMO player and then later as a blogger, critic, columnist and streamer. This isn’t a post-mortem on what went wrong.
Alas, the numbers were never great enough to sustain the project, leading to the game’s permanent shutdown some four and a half years later. Bursting onto PCs in 2014, the brand new MMO brought attitude and charm in equal measure, quickly developing a cult following. I always knew there would come a day when WildStar closed for good, but I never expected it to be so soon.
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