The morning of Comic-Con Day 2 has arrived, and tons of
people were lined up and waiting at the entrance of the Javits center, ready to
get in and nerd themselves out.
However, unlike last year, the huge line was able to be
dissolved in less than 10 minutes rather than an either hour like last year. The whole process of entering the convention
center has been streamlined with new RFIDs on top of each and everyone’s
ticket. Each ticket owner simply has to tap their tickets with one of the NYCC
event staff when entering the convention center and tap again when exiting. This
little system is also used to prevent fraud as well as cut out the yearly
ticket scalpers from selling off their tickets for cheap.
Yeah, it works just
like that...
To my surprise, the crowds were more or less the same as yesterday! It wasn’t too difficult to get from one exhibit to the other, unlike last year where there were so many people on the show floors; everyone was constantly bumping and elbowing each other in the face.
My first stop for the day was a visit with Carbine Studios
at their Wildstar booth. This was the first time that the public ever get to
try out the recently revealed Chau and Mordesh races. This was also the first
that –I- would get to try out the game, and I instantly jumped on it after
taking a few shots of the booth.
I played as a Chau Spellslinger for my first play through,
to see how good the run & gun gameplay would be. My first quest was given
by Mondo Zax, the same mad Chua genius that was featured in their early bits of
Wildstar lore, as well as their ongoing web comic series.
The quests granted by Mondo Zax were a typical set of “Kill
this, bring that” quests, but it was quickly pointed out by a member of the
staff that the NYCC build was using an outdated quest system. This will soon be
replaced by the “Progress system.” Whenever players kill or collect items, a
small progress bar in the bottom right corner will fill up. While this may seem
like a cosmetic change, the progress system will allow players to either hand
in quest items early, or pile their progress up by collecting even more in
order to earn greater rewards.
The combat for Wildstar took me awhile to get used to, but
soon after I was lining up power shots like nobody’s business. While I was
playing on one of the early levels in the game, the combat does a good job of
keeping a steady pace, along with adding a layer of risk vs. reward with skill
attacks. I was quickly getting addicted to the combat, so I had to stop myself
from playing more, otherwise I would have missed out on getting my interview
with Carbine Studios staff.
After the members of the staff
held a quick raffle contest to give away free Logitech gear, I met up with
David “Scooter” Bass to get some questions answered for the OnRPG/MMOHut
community. David wasted no time telling people what they wanted to know, and
didn’t shy away from a single question, which was awesome since most of the dev
interviewees I've met usually beat around the bush when it comes to asking
about serious stuff. Every single review question got answered, and I sure hope
the OnRPG community will be pleased with his responses. Keep your eyes out for
a video interview on Wildstar during the week.
After the Wildstar meet up, it was time to revisit the
Dungeon Defenders II booth to get a more in-depth look at the game, which my
brother took the helm on. This interview was hosted by a community manager for
Trendy Entertainment. The questions were pretty straightforward, and so were
the responses. The game was already shaping up to be something great and the
devs are hoping to get Dungeon Defenders II out to the public as soon as
possible.
I was pretty much free for the rest of the day, so I took
the time to check some crazy cosplay. Many costumes seemed to be pretty average
this year, but there were a few standouts like these!
Afterwards, my attention was drawn towards a very weird
booth that was related to the ever popular TMC series: The Walking Dead. They
were promoting something called “The Walking Dead Chop Shop”, where users can
download an app for the iOS and create a zombie survival vehicle, decked out
with blades, machine guns, roll cages and more. Users would be able to vote for
their favorite vehicles online, or for anyone at NYCC, they could get
themselves zombified while taking a gander at a real life zombie survival vehicle.
Imagine driving
around town in this thing…
Last up, me and my brother were “invited” to meet up with
the Carbine Studio community team over at a bar called McGarry’s to meet and
greet the team, as well as get a free round of drinks at their expense!
Although, we did end up arriving a bit too earlier, so we
almost ended up leaving the place before they showed up. While we were the
first to have a chat with them, we learned all about their hometowns, their
career and gaming backgrounds, their deepest, darkest secrets like whom in the
company that each member had a crush on… (*just kidding*)
But overall, it was a cool time spent with cool guys.
Along the lines, I noticed a trend throughout the event: The
trend for this year’s NYCC seems to be hosting events AWAY from convention
center in order to get more personal and attention for your products or
services. Or possibly it may just be an excuse to host some wild parties, but
overall it’s a plan that works.
Tomorrow and Sunday will more than likely be the slowest
days of the convention, so I plan to spend it going hands-on for just about
every game I can play. Stay tuned.
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Original Article: OnRPG.com
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