Today was the first day in… some quantifiable amount of time I can’t be bothered to math at the moment… that I haven’t been able to log into Wildstar for random play fix. This is a sad world I’m living in— I had gotten quite accustomed to not having any barrier between me and super-fun-stabbin'-times, and now I have to wait for head start to continue said stabbin'.
It has given me the time, however, to review the unending mass of dev videos, blogs, and various other community interactions that Carbine puts out/updates regularly. It’s a vicarious fix, but it soothes the savage beast in the interim. And they provide plenty of salve. This is an aspect of Wildstar that doesn’t get quite as much vocal appreciation from the community, but truly is an unsung hero of development.
So games are one of those quirky art forms that requires an audience. Images/music/choreography/etc. can be created in the home of the artist and never see the light of day again, but can still be widely considered to be an art. Games, on the other hand, can’t be a game until they are played. The very definition of game-ness means that someone has to interact with it in order to unleash it’s game-y nature. In this sense, the anticipated audience makes up a good portion of the game. But game companies are still kinda fuzzy on how to develop this part. Developing communities usually gets regulated to marketing or advertising, which always (unintentionally) has a air of skeeze to it. And this often makes it feel fabricated, heavily constructed, and just fake as fuck.
Carbine has decided instead to operate not as an salesman, but as a community member, and I’ve deemed it (in my infallible wisdom) to be rather successful. They post blogs, they make videos, the troll fandoms and repost their favorites. They get visibly excited about updates, geek out unabashedly about mechanics, and get personally invested in the game. They admit when things go wrong and make fun of themselves for it. They admit when things are awesome, and make fun of themselves for it. They have an awesome sense of humor that mirrors the one their fanbase has (The Nexus Report 5/13 included a Walken Off— a competition members of my social circle has spent years battling each other for superiority). They play with us— while some make a distinction between them, I truly believe that games are (at their core) toys— and using this understanding, it’s the only game community development that makes any kind of sense.
So hats off, Carbine. You not only made a game so good that I am openly, embarrassingly, OBSESSED, about it, but you've come to my house to geek out about it with me. Bold move-- I dig it.
