WildStar Details Cross-Realm Play
It may not be associated with Halloween, but some recently announced information for upcoming game WildStar is no less exciting. The developers previously announced they would be supporting cross-realm play in the game, but it was only recently that they detailed exactly what that would cover. Most MMOs these days have many different realms (or servers) on launch with different rulesets (PVE, PVP, etc.). In many games if players happen to make characters on different servers than their friends, they’d be out of luck - they would have to either make a new character on the same server, or not be able to play with their friends. WildStar wants to avoid this frustration. First off, players will be able to chat in-game to any other player regardless of what server they’re on by using the following format: /w CharacterName@RealmName Message.
Players can also form parties with characters in any realm following a similar syntax (by inviting CharacterName@RealmName). Party members will all be able to see party chat, regardless of what realm they’re on. The Group Finder tool will also match players across realms (though there will be a checkbox if you’d prefer to only be matched with people from your own realm). Any time players enter instanced content, they will be able to play with other players in different realms.
There will be some restrictions to cross-realm play, however. Players won’t be able to explore the open world (non-instanced content) with players from other realms, due to population issues. Players also won’t be able to trade with players from different realms for potential economy issues.
The ability to play with others regardless of server is becoming more and more expected, and I’m extremely happy to see that WildStar is going to implement it in such a strong way. What do you guys think?