Wildstar: Are they missing the point?

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.

Apologies to Wildstar Fans But This Looks Horrible.

I have said I am no fan of the telegraph system in Wildstar.  If only a few abilities are telegraphed it would probably be okay but when you telegraph everything it just looks horrible.  Its a mish-mash of colored boxes, circles, triangles and cones on the ground and it just looks like a geometry monster vomited Skittles all over the place.

To top it off, I don’t think it adds much to the combat system.  You can accomplish everything they do without all the multi-colored telegraphs all over the place.  Guild Wars 2 does it.  Age of Conan does it.  So does Tera and Elder Scrolls Online.  And, yes, I know it can be turned off but if you turn it off you are automatically at a distinct disadvantage to all the players with them on.

I am sorry, I love PvP but this just looks horrible: