Extra Content: A Home Away From Home
Both WildStar and World of Warcraft have a $15/month subscription fee, so it’s important that there’s enough to do so you get your money’s worth.
WildStar has a truly extraordinary player housing system that has been a crowd favorite. You are able to collect and buy objects for your property, which has a great editor that allows you to place objects in and around your home. You can even neighbor your friends so they can come visit you and hang out.
There is also a Path system in WildStar, which might seem like a distraction while leveling, but is a great casual getaway from the other content of the game. Explorers have reason to explore landscapes and find hidden locales, while Scientists have some serious puzzles to solve.
World of Warcraft has the benefit of five expansion packs. You can revisit old content and take down timeless bosses like C’Thun, or travel to areas that were once only regarded in myth. Outside of that, there isn’t really something that stands out as much as WildStar‘s player housing and path systems.
At launch, WildStar is a god in terms of content, and miraculously wins in this area.
Winner: WildStar
Outlook: What the Future Holds
Both Blizzard and Carbine Studios are committed to supporting their games until the end of time—or just until they run out of subscribers—, which is a great prospect for anyone investing any sizeable amount of time into their respective games.
WildStar will be receiving its first major content update next week, which is only a month after launch. As a matter of fact, if everything goes as planned it will receive a large patch every single month. As crazy as that sounds, with more than 10 packages in the pipeline it could very well become the most well supported MMO we’ve ever seen.
World of Warcraft is aging, and really, it isn’t updated enough. It’s been months since the last major patch came out leaving many players bored while waiting for Warlords of Draenor. Warlords of Draenor looks really… really good, but it is an expansion more about going backward than forward, reviving some of the early qualities of World of Warcraft.
WildStar might be the newer game, and hasn’t totally proven itself, but its future looks more bright than the aging giant that is World of Warcraft.
Winner: WildStar
Conclusion: World of Warcraft Wins
If you were hoping for decisive victor, you may be surprised to see that both games match up well, and that’s because both excel in different areas for different reasons. World of Warcraft‘s environments are immersive in a way that few MMOs will ever compete with, and it’s easy to fall in-love with. However, WildStar has been equipped with action-oriented gameplay that makes its difficult content unlike anything else on the market.
While I’m going to give the nod to World of Warcraft for its iconic world, WildStar is the strongest contender I’ve ever seen. It has an incredibly positive outlook with a healthy content roadmap, and more importantly a strong foundation. World of Warcraft will likely continue to be a genre leader for the foreseeable future, but WildStar is an outstanding alternative with flavor of its own.
