Free Shuttle Flights to Nexus, Coming Soon

Twitter is all abuzz this morning. And that's always good for a game and studio. Cautious optimism is my reaction to this exciting news. I liked WildStar, in small bits. But Scooter and I left the game just before the Great Server Merger last fall because we couldn't justify the cost, what with Scooter's computer at the time giving her issues.

This announcement has been a long time coming. Carbine admitted to tossing around various ideas for an alternative payment model as far back as the mega-merger, and I speculated on the possibilities at that time. I wonder when we'll have details about the nature of the WildStar's F2P scheme (because they vary widely). [EDIT: Thanks to Alisdair, I got the details.] Will it be relatively innocuous (e.g., Rift) or more in your face (e.g., LOTRO) or horrendously egregious (e.g., SWTOR, to which I am currently subscribed for a reason)?

The link to the official announcement is basically a link page to the trailer and to a post about loyalty awards for those have been subscribed since launch or will subscribe for a bit before the transition. Oh! it also has a place to sign up for beta. Beta, for F2P? I guess that's necessary.

Honestly, if I were not already committed to SWTOR right now through August, I might jump back in, just to get the loyalty rewards, if nothing else. However, as it is, I don't see myself going back before September, regardless of when F2P goes live.

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