WildStar Wednesday is upon us once again. Last week brought us Chad "Pappy" Moore explaining to us how the Narrative Design team is working to bring life to Nexus and the rest of the WildStar universe. This week brings us more from his team, with Part 1 of a series from Senior Narrative Designer Cory Herndon.

In last week's post Chad talked some about the work that goes into creating a universe like WildStar's. Developing the setting and characters for the universe, figuring out how everyone fits together and reacts with one another, writing a history to provide meaning for the characters and the conflicts they're involved in - a great deal of work goes on creating a setting like this. In Cory's first post, he talks about the struggles in getting all of that history and lore into a form players are willing to read.

I'm a bit of a lore nerd for most MMOs I play, but even I don't read all of the quest text and I know that I'm not alone in that regard. Sometimes I can just tell that a quest is filler and I only need to note the "Kill X kobolds" bit. There's also the case where you might have people waiting for you to finish reading the quest; anyone who's space-barred their way through a SWTOR flashpoint will know this feeling. Cory talks about this in his post and some of the ways they're working to convey the story to the player, but without crossing that "TLDR" line.

If you're interested in quest design or just curious how Carbine is planning on making you care about something other than the quest rewards, head on over to the WildStar blog and read Cory's post. When you're done, come back and discuss this in the comments. Do you read all of the quest text in MMOs? Would the ideas Cory has in his post get you more engaged in the world around you or is all text merely getting between you and precious loot?

WildStar Week continues with another feature over at MMORPG.com. In today's interview Charley Lanusse, Audio Director at Carbine Studios, discusses the process behind giving WildStar a voice all its own. He touches some on the feel they're going for with audio as a whole, but the bulk of the interview is focused on voice acting. Charley describes some of their screening process for choosing the right voice for each character. I was pleasantly surprised to see that both the Art Department and Narrative Design are included in picking the right actors for each role.

If you're interested in voice acting in games, be sure to head over to MMORPG and read the full interview. There's also some information on the voice actors for Buck and Sarge from the WildStar trailer as well as outtakes from their recording sessions.

It's WildStar Week! Carbine is teaming up with MMORPG.com to bring you some fun WildStar information, and while we probably won't get anything really juicy, it's certainly a nice thing to have leading up to the holidays!

Yesterday, there was an in-character Granok interview. Anyone else see that mouseover text from the first picture? Some good lore goodies in there..

Today, Carbine is talking about creating the WildStar Reveal Trailer, noting that they wanted to highlight the special features of WildStar, including the path system, vehicular mounts, and a lot of hidden content. There's some great concept art in there (check out that "Piglet" ship!), so head on over to take a peek!

It's Tuesday so that means a new #WSUplink question. The topic for this week: How important is character customization to you? What kind of customization do you look for?

Personally I love customizing my character, but I'm more interested in how to do it after they're made. I'll play with all of the sliders available for eye color and nose shape and whatnot, but those aren't as important to me (I tend to wear heavy armor and full helmets, so it doesn't matter what I choose there). After the character's made, that's where we get into gear choices and talents/specializations; those things that show what you've done and what you're capable of. There's a certain fun that comes from picking out what's best for your play style and the content you choose to pursue. But that's just my opinion. Now to find out what the rest of you think!

Carbine hasn't posted the question on Facebook as of when I started writing this, but you can still participate on Twitter. Follow @Team_WildStar and send them your thoughts on character customization; be sure to use the hashtag #WSUplink so everyone can see your question. Once you've done that, come back here and continue the conversation in the comments or on the forums.

It's a WildStar Wednesday... on Wednesday! The good folks over at Carbine have posted a new update to their crowdsourced monster, Metal Maw, where he undergoes sculpting and texturing to finally appear as a completed model! Now this handsome character is off to rigging and animation to get some movement going. Take a read of the full WildStar Wednesday article here!

Also, if you have no idea who Metal Maw is, be sure to read more about his birth and journey in Part One and Part Two, all part of an ongoing series to be posted on WildStar Wednesdays!

It's WildStar Wednesday Thursday! In this week's dev update, WildStar's Executive Producer, Jeremy Gaffney, takes the reins to talk about WildStar and how the team is approaching its development.

In particular, Jeremy goes into detail about the differences between "Sandbox gameplay" and "Directed gameplay," noting that establishing a balance between the two is certainly an art. The way they're encouraging Sandbox gameplay is by adding a lot of layers in the world that can interact with each other in unique ways. This rewards players who pay attention to their surroundings, and if you can continually find advantages in the environment, it's something the team wants to encourage. On the other hand, the way the team wants to encourage Directed gameplay is by putting in a strong story quest line with clear goals in place. This way, players can always know where they should be, even if they don't always have to be there (maybe they're too busy exploring!).

You can read the full article over at the WildStar website. It's very informative and a great insight into Carbine's development approach!

Update: OK, we totally forgot they've been open for a while. This post has now been hijacked to remind you to sign up if you haven't already. That is all!

A friendly reminder here that beta sign-ups are here for WildStar! Obviously signing up for the beta does not, in any way, signify the proximity of a beta test, nor does it mean you'll be accepted. What it does mean, however, is that we'll all be able to enter information into boxes, and from now on, any email that contains the words "WildStar" will now set our pulses racing.

...At least until you see it's an email from us telling you that betas haven't started yet! Might as well sign up! We'll try to get this information confirmed and updated as soon as possible!

With the Paris Games Week currently going on, the WildStar Team is sharing some new media for everyone, including a pile of Facebook photos of the event and the team, as well as some fresh in-game screenshots of WildStar! It doesn't seem like any new information has presented itself so far, but with the event lasting a whopping four more days, perhaps we'll get something out of the closing parts of this shindig! Stay tuned!