14 DAY TRIAL // WildStar is a very promising massively multiplayer online role-playing game coming to PC on June 3 from Carbine Studios, a subsidiary of NCsoft founded by former members of Worlds of Warcraft's development team.
As such, the game bears a striking visual resemblance to the colorful and cartoonish be-all end-all of MMORPGs, but it also brings lot of innovation to the genre, as the developers have shown us time and time again.
Like World of Warcraft, The Elder Scrolls Online and Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, WildStar has the Audacity to utilize the monthly subscription business model, in an ever-increasingly free-to-play dominated genre.
WildStar producer Stephen Frost defended the model by stating that paying the monthly subscription will ensure the quality and fairness of the game, and compared it to subscribing to Home Box Office's cable service.
"HBO is a great example of a subscription service that people will pay for because there is quality content. I think that we have a quality enough game where people will play through it, and they don't have to be stopped by paywalls and really unfair practices that gamers see through," Frost explained.
Developer Carbine learned a valuable lesson from CCP Games, makers of EVE Online, by applying the same business model that allows players to earn the equivalent of the monthly fee by playing the game.
As such, dedicated WildStar players will only have to fork out the initial cost of the game, and will be able to purchase the subscription through in-game transactions, using in-game currency.
"If I'm a player that plays all the time and I have loads of gold, I can spend my money on a subscription. As a player who doesn't have as much time and just wants gold immediately, I can just buy that subscription, put it on the Auction House and get it purchased by that hardcore player. It's a good ecosystem, I think, that will bring that across," Frost stated.
For the rest of the world, the monthly subscription fee will ensure that they never come across any type of in-game paywall, with Frost mentioning that he thinks that it is very unfair for developers to ask for more money in addition to the base cost of playing in order to provide the best armor or a certain race to their players.
Such is the case with The Elder Scrolls Online, restricting access to one of the races to everyone but buyers of the Legendary Edition.
"With us, the other thing that's great about what we're doing - month after month after month you're going to get a new zone, you're going to get new PvP battleground, you're going to get new dungeons - that's all part of your subscription model," Frost concluded.
WildStar is currently in beta, but pre-orders are already open on the game's website, permitting players to join the action on May 31, a full three days before the full launch date of June 3.