I don’t think that you can argue that Wildstar is aimed straight for WoW players in general and ex-WoW players in particular. They are really trying to amp up the nostalgia with their implementation of 40 man raiding at the endgame. Check out this Devspeak video about raiding:
Hardcore!
40 man raids. Attunement quests. Its all there and its all straight from Vanilla WoW.
I can appreciate this. There are thousands of players who long for a return to the old days of World of Warcraft. Look at any MMO forum and you will find them. Hell, I am one of them. I loved Vanilla WoW. I think WoW has lost something in its search for the casual player.
But I am not sure what they have lost is something Wildstar has found.