Mike Donatelli, a Product Director at Carbine Studios for Wildstar, took to the Wildstar forums today and posted about Elder Gems.
Firstly you might be asking yourself "What in the hell is an Elder Gem?" and I will answer you! It's actually very similar to the way XP works in Guild Wars 2 once you hit level cap. Once you hit cap in Wildstar (lvl 50) anything that would give you XP instead gives you Elder Points. It fills the same bar (not sure why they didn't just keep it as xp instead of elder points...) and once that bar is full you get an Elder Gem (just like GW2 when you fill the xp bar at max level and get a skill point). You can only earn so many Elder Gems per week and once you've earned the max number of Elder Gems you earn gold instead of Elder Points. Yeah I know, it's kinda convoluted and they could have made the system easier than that... But yea, you earn gems...
As I read that post Mike made this whole Elder Gems thing really does sound like Skill Points from GW2.
Here's the big news though... What you get at launch will be buffed up in the first patch post launch and you'll have more things you can do with your Elder Gems than is initially available.
Which leads to a burning question I have... I feel like this is a prime example of a system you KNOW you're going to put in but don't have time to get in before launch. So Carbine is releasing a game without all the features that they're putting in in order to meet a launch window. MMO's have taken a lot of flak over recent years for rushing a release that still feels like a Beta and then buffing up the product with patches post launch.
I guess at least Carbine is admitting it up front but still, how do you feel about this practice in gaming? Are you ok with buying your box, and paying your sub, for an unfinished product?
I talk myself into being ok with it using examples like Landmark, I was ok with "donating" some cash money to be able to get in on the Alpha testing. SOE was up front with what it is, what's going on, and that you're "donating" or paying to be a tester. Carbine is at least following suit with being open and up front.
But then there are other games that do this but don't say jack about it until you're six months down the road and then they change the way something works and say "well we were planning on that all along" and then I feel hoodwinked and like I paid for a game that wasn't complete.
Your thoughts?