It's been a strange old year for MMOs. Where once it seemed the subscription model was all but dead , the relative successes of both Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn and The Elder Scrolls Online suggest that, perhaps, the ageing business model might not be so long in the tooth after all

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Raids

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Warplots

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Housing

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Adventures

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Artifact Weapons

Of course, one of the main strengths those two titles have going for them is the fact both are the latest entries in wildly successful franchises that don't typically inhabit the MMO space, ensuring a healthy dose of interest in both from genre veterans and newcomers alike. While WildStar may lack this advantage, its team of former Warcraft devs are bringing their experience in the genre to bear by creating a game that builds on all that came before. MMO fans often lament that few fresh challengers can rival WoW for its breadth and depth of content, but WildStar certainly seems to be doing what it can.With that in mind, we spoke to game design producer Stephan Frost to figure out just why long-time disillusioned MMO fans should have renewed faith in WildStar, and what it plans to do to justify that sub fee.WildStar makes no apologies for the difficulty of its raids. While there's a commitment to providing content everyone can enjoy, Frost acknowledges the importance of roping off certain sections that only the best of the best can tackle. When WoW ditched its 40-man raids, it faced accusations of oversimplified content and pandering to the lowest common denominator. While the decision to do this and introduce a Raid Finder meant more people than ever got to see the game's coolest content, it had the unintentional effect of driving away some of the more hardcore players... which wasn't good.The hardcore MMO players are your game's evangelists. While they're there, putting in the time to be the best, they offer a benchmark the rest of your community can aspire to reach. The knowledge some players are willing to work this hard in the title offers reassurance it must be worth doing. If those guys go however and, in some cases, even start lamenting that gameplay and design isn't what it once was, there's trouble a-brewing.This is why WildStar will once again feature 20 and 40-man raids. It's a controversial move, but one Frost feels is integral to the game's success. "Lots of people were saying 'well I don't have the time to do those,' or 'I don't have the ability to talk with all these people.' We don't have Looking For Raid, we only have Looking For Group, which is for the 5-person content. The reason that we did this was because we wanted to encourage community and players talking to each other. When you have a bunch of raiders that come together in a WildStar raid that don't communicate, you just have a bunch of people that are going to die really quickly. So we prefer that these groups are groups that work well together and really care about accessing the most brutal and difficult content to get the best rewards throughout the game."Alongside standard PvP fare like Battlegrounds, WildStar also introduces Warplots: customisable death fortresses that you can populate with all manner of deadly defences. From mines and turrets to giant nuclear waste facilities, there's a whole host of possibilities at your fingertips. You're even able to summon bosses from the game's dungeons and spawn them in your enemy's backyard, forcing them to quickly switch to PvE mode while also fending off your forces.Warplots are created by War Parties, which are essentially PvP guilds that own their own Warplot. A War Party can have up to 80 members, and has ranks with permissions of who can change which aspects. Because a Warplot match requires such a high number of players, War Parties can also recruit Mercenaries to join them on a fight-to-fight basis, allowing individual players to solo-queue and still get in on the Warplot action. They're ranked-only though, so be prepared for a baptism of fire.If PvE has never really floated your boat then, Warplots show Carbine's clear dedication to making sure there's something for everyone once Wildstar's leveling process has come to an end. Just don't expect it to be forgiving.Considering The Elder Scrolls Online recently branded Housing something that most MMOs should look into with a couple of anniversaries under their belts , the fact WildStar is set to have it from launch is pretty impressive. Alongside offering you a chance to express yourself in various unique ways, there are also a number of functional advantages on offer. The more extensive your decor, the more rest XP you accrue. Similarly, if you're into your PvE in a big way you can plaster your lawn with portals to Raids and Dungeons to help you get about quicker. Not your thing? Then fill it up with mini-games that unlock even more decorations."I am not a housing player," Frost admits. "I never have been. And the designer that wanted to make housing, his goal was to make me actually care about it. And I think he succeeded and the reason that he did that was he tied rest XP to all the different things that you put inside your house. So if you have a lot of stuff, you're going to level faster. But even at endgame this plays a part because when you hit level cap, you stop generating levels."What you start generating is endgame currency, and that endgame currency can be used to buy all sorts of things: whether it's weapons or armor, it can also be other housing items or it can be PVP items. Lots of stuff. So as you do these different things in housing it actually makes your play experience a lot better and makes you more efficient as a player. So it's definitely useful to get all the stuff that you can, and also play through a lot of the different plugs so you can get all these different items that are unlocked only by doing housing stuff."Anyone who's played The Elder Scrolls Online lately could be forgiven for thinking they know what Adventure Zones are all about following the launch of Craglorn , but WildStar plans to do things a little differently. Adventures see familiar areas redesigned for five players, similar to a dungeon but less linear."We make it very story-driven and it's not as complicated from a combat perspective as the other dungeons, but we give you a lot of different choices and styles of gameplay," Frost reveals. "So one example would be like a choose-your-own-adventure sort of thing, where let's say an orphanage is on fire or somebody is drowning in a lake somewhere. And that somebody who is drowning has some really important information. You can choose, 'Well, I kind of like orphanages and kids that are in them so I'm going to save those kids and let that other guy drown.' If you replay that again you can kind of choose, 'Meh. Who cares about the orphanage. I'm going to go for the guy drowning.' So it really provides this option of choice and you can replay and see how it affects things."It also has a variety of game types: so one thing might be a MOBA, in War of the Wilds, for example. Another one, like Galeras, is like a tower defense thing where you're defending an incoming attack from the Dominion military or the Exile military. And you're trying to keep just the towers that you have alive, and once those blow up, you lose. Or Malgrave Trail, which is like you escort a caravan of people across an entire zone and keep them alive in the face of the elements or from raiding parties, that sort of thing. So adventures are crazy different and they're crazy repeatable too."For many of us MMO players though, it all comes down to one thing: loot. WildStar's set to feature a unique set of tools called Artifact Weapons, which are designed to get those of you looking for a challenge to tear your hair out."Artifact weapons are the most awesome weapons we have in the game. They're pink," Frost says, laughing. "The weapons themselves are not pink, but the value of the weapon is denoted by its pink background. So what's cool about artifact weapons is there are quests on the artifact weapon itself. As I do each quest it becomes more powerful. So when I tick off all the quests it becomes really powerful."One of those quests is to kill two 40-person bosses at the same time."It's brutal and it's going to take people a long time. And that's just one person, let alone other players who are in the guild that need to do their artifact weapon. And those drops are rare. So it's going to be a lot of work and it doesn't just end with the fact that, 'Oh I got into a raid. Yay, I just get the items here.' It's a ton of work."

With early access set to start on Saturday, Carbine is likely nervous about the weekend ahead. The content's clearly been designed thoughtfully, but a dodgy launch could still seriously tarnish the potential on show here. Still, it's a promising start and, if you're a former jaded MMO player who's been burned one too many times, this could be the title that lures you back to the fold.We'll have much, much more on WildStar next week so be sure to keep it locked to IGN.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK News Editor. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on Twitter