I spent most of my time scanning flowers, although I never saw the massive beasts I saw in the live preview on screen. Yet as with the Settler, my actual experience with the Scientist was less engaging than what I'd seen on the screen. So much for YouTube walkthroughs, I thought-and in this case that's a good thing. This captivated my attention about as much as The Secret World's investigations missions, particularly since Gaffney added that the solution changes with every playthrough. At another, we saw him guide us through a color-based puzzle quest that looked like it would have been at home in Myst. At one point, a live demonstration showed a scientist scanning a plant only to find it was an antenna on a massive elite enemy that rumbled out of the ground. It caters to players who want to learn more about the world around them, and as such it brings with it more story content than the other three paths. The new Scientist path looks more appealing. Indeed, Gaffney conceded that the Explorer was much more popular in the current beta build. (I never saw it finished.) Such activities appeal to my OCD tendencies, but I'm not sure the draw was strong enough to warrant skipping over the Explorer path, which looks destined to become the most popular path come launch. I spent most of my time running around repairing light fixtures, although I once managed to gather enough supplies to start building a marketplace. I wanted to love the Settler, but to be honest, my hands-on playthrough was less exciting than what I'd seen on screen, possibly due to the level 7 gameplay and my two hours of available gametime. But knowing MMO players, I argued that this setup could result in players finding a dozen or more campfires around prominent faction hubs, thus leaving it up to dumb luck if another player clicks on your campfire rather than the many others scattered around. 'It's a really good way to have a good social environment,' he said, especially if players prepare campfires or built outposts near tough content.

The idea, Gaffney said, was to 'bribe' players to find the most optimal points for their campfires to earn the optimal XP. Take the Settler's simple ability to build campfires that buff players who visit them, thus granting the Settlers themselves an XP boost to their path in return. Still, I wonder how the Settler's dynamics will work at release. As a person who gets satisfaction out of merely putting down karma banners for other people to share in Guild Wars 2, this appealed to me. Moving on, he showed us how settlers could revive entire base camps that had fallen into disrepair, even to the point of unlocking quest givers and NPC guards that defend you once they were done. During the preview, Gaffney showed us videos of settlers erecting temporary mount stations that acted like flightpaths, allowing players early access to motorcycle-type mounts. Despite the prosaic name, it looks intriguing. That's partially where WildStar's Settler comes in, one of the two new 'paths' I saw at the latest hands-on event for WildStar.

Listening to him, I got the impression that he might just be able to pull it off. One of the minds behind Asheron's Call's allegiance system and City of Heroes' sidekick system, Gaffney wants to revive some the social strengths of early EverQuest and early World of Warcraft and temper them with the emphasis on solo play so common in contemporary MMOs. Socialization, he rightfully believes, is the only thing that MMORPGs undeniably do better than other genres. Jeremy Gaffney, executive producer for the upcoming MMORPG WildStar, believes MMO developers aren't experimenting enough with the social possibilities of the genre.

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