119848-ellevar-is-unpleasant

== Content ==
			
This will have spoilers for Ellevar, just so you know. Caveat lector.
 
It's not just that it's poorly designed or unpolished or anything, but rather that it's morbid. I could see it working as an area for the Mordesh, but for the Cassians it seems peculiar vis-a-vis the Arkship and Illium. It feels out of place.
 
Whereas the Cassians seem to generally be a mixed parody of medieval Britain and modern Britain (socialist values, uniformity, classism, et al), Ellevar comes over as an overly grim and melancholic experience. It tries to sell it to you as gothic, but that aesthetic belongs very much with the Mordesh. It almost feels like it was originally meant to be a Mordesh zone, which was then covered over with a coat of paint at the last minute.
 
Things about it are as morbid as they are peculiar.
 
The bloke who sends you out to kill the Pell with a rather poor taste take on smallpox blankets has what apears to be a strain shrine in his room, and an odd fascination with anatomy. It feels Mordesh, but it doesn't particularly feel like the opulence a highborn Cassian would enjoy. None of this is explained or even spoken of after the fact. No one bothers to bring up the Shrine or his other proclivities, there's nothing to scan with a scanbot. It just hangs there.
 
The Pell, too, left a feeling in the pit of my stomach. Not just empathy for them, but that it was a poor attempt to get an emotional rise out of me. I'm smarter than that. I'd imagine most gamers are. It was a really cheap shot. And then what happens? Hey, challenges to kill the Pell! So, not only were we accidental child murderers, but instead of going on quests to try and heal relations and put things right, we embrace the war. That, too, just felt out of place.
 
And the whole way the Pell were made sick just reminds me of what the Mordesh did to the Lowborn, it didn't feel very Cassian at all. The Cassians, despite being Dick Dastardly villains, have a weird sense of honour. They'd rather make haughty demands than do something as completely underhanded as that.
 
More than that, the whole thing was an American parody, which -- again -- fits the Exiles because they're actually American. The Dominion are British socialists. If you read up on why the pilgrims actually left Britain in the first place, you'd understand why this is such a baffling thing to parody on the Dominion side, of all places. If I were a more cynical, petty person, I'd even say that someone just wanted to make a cheap shot for whatever bizarre agenda they had? It's weird.
 
I was at least expecting some kind of outpost, one Toric had setup to deal with the influx of ill Pell and to provide a home for the children. But no. We were brutal children murderers. We killed a bunch of kids and that's completely okay. That wasn't even okay for Bethesda.
 
And then, if that wasn't enough?
 
You steal the ball of dead children for a challenge where you go and kick it around. You kick their ball around on the site of where they died. You steal a dead child's ball and then play with it near where their corpse would have been.
 
What? I mean, really, what?
 
That's gross! Again, it fits the culture of the Mordesh because they are really grimdark, melancholic, and gothic, and into grotesque things as has been confirmed by the lore time and time again. Not entirely unlike WoW's Forsaken, then. So the whole thing just made me feel like I was playing a Mordesh rather than a Dominion character. There were even random veggies around, looking like they belonged there, which confused me more.
 
I really don't like Ellevar because it just doesn't feel like a Dominion zone. Which makes me wonder if one of the starting Exile zones doesn't feel particularly Exile. I wonder if originally Carbine had planned to have both factions on both starter continents, and then decided against this, making the continent a one-faction-only thing instead.
 
So, now a disclaimer.
I don't hate Wildstar. I worry that this harsh criticism will have some wondering, but is it not true that we can be most critical of what we love? And I have loved my Wildstar expeirence. I love the combat, the challenges, and the paths especially!
Deradune, Auroria, Illium, and the other zones I've experienced thus far were wonderful.
This is a thread based upon my personal opinions, analysis, and tastes. Feel free to challenge them, but understand that like everything, they are not meant to be objective.
I felt that this needed to be said. All of it, really. I won't be running another character through Ellevar because it feels morbid, and just not at all fitting.	
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
This will have spoilers for Ellevar, just so you know. Caveat lector.
 
It's not just that it's poorly designed or unpolished or anything, but rather that it's morbid. I could see it working as an area for the Mordesh, but for the Cassians it seems peculiar vis-a-vis the Arkship and Illium. It feels out of place.
 
Whereas the Cassians seem to generally be a mixed parody of medieval Britain and modern Britain (socialist values, uniformity, classism, et al), Ellevar comes over as an overly grim and melancholic experience. It tries to sell it to you as gothic, but that aesthetic belongs very much with the Mordesh. It almost feels like it was originally meant to be a Mordesh zone, which was then covered over with a coat of paint at the last minute.
 
Things about it are as morbid as they are peculiar.
 
The bloke who sends you out to kill the Pell with a rather poor taste take on smallpox blankets has what apears to be a strain shrine in his room, and an odd fascination with anatomy. It feels Mordesh, but it doesn't particularly feel like the opulence a highborn Cassian would enjoy. None of this is explained or even spoken of after the fact. No one bothers to bring up the Shrine or his other proclivities, there's nothing to scan with a scanbot. It just hangs there.
 
The Pell, too, left a feeling in the pit of my stomach. Not just empathy for them, but that it was a poor attempt to get an emotional rise out of me. I'm smarter than that. I'd imagine most gamers are. It was a really cheap shot. And then what happens? Hey, challenges to kill the Pell! So, not only were we accidental child murderers, but instead of going on quests to try and heal relations and put things right, we embrace the war. That, too, just felt out of place.
 
And the whole way the Pell were made sick just reminds me of what the Mordesh did to the Lowborn, it didn't feel very Cassian at all. The Cassians, despite being Dick Dastardly villains, have a weird sense of honour. They'd rather make haughty demands than do something as completely underhanded as that.
 
More than that, the whole thing was an American parody, which -- again -- fits the Exiles because they're actually American. The Dominion are British socialists. If you read up on why the pilgrims actually left Britain in the first place, you'd understand why this is such a baffling thing to parody on the Dominion side, of all places. If I were a more cynical, petty person, I'd even say that someone just wanted to make a cheap shot for whatever bizarre agenda they had? It's weird.
 
I was at least expecting some kind of outpost, one Toric had setup to deal with the influx of ill Pell and to provide a home for the children. But no. We were brutal children murderers. We killed a bunch of kids and that's completely okay. That wasn't even okay for Bethesda.
 
And then, if that wasn't enough?
 
You steal the ball of dead children for a challenge where you go and kick it around. You kick their ball around on the site of where they died. You steal a dead child's ball and then play with it near where their corpse would have been.
 
What? I mean, really, what?
----
			
Wildstar's writers are not beyond cheap emotional shots. If you play Exile and go to the Granok/Human starting area, they have the Dominion shoot down a ship filled with refugees. And to make sure your feelings are properly wrenched, they let you know a pregnant non-character was in the ship too. Oh no! Are you sad already, player? Do you hate the Dominion already? Factions must mean something!
 
They are also not beyond making the player character an idiot if it furthers their goals. A particular Strain story mission comes to mind.
 
In any case, I think the 'Strain shrine' that you saw has nothing to do with the strain. It's just a gloomy catacomb. Why the man was hiding there is anyone's guess, but my bet is on that the developers wanted the player to fight him on a secluded place as to not disrupt the peace of the cathedral by shooting an NPC in the middle of it.	
----