I've played pretty much every themepark MMO out there, and nothing really compares to what I've experienced in Rift in the past few days. The game is crazy good, seriously.
I want to share what happened today, but first look at this map:- (Bigger picture here.)
Every one of those purple swirly things is a Rift. These are public events that everyone joins in on and completes. They spawn the crossed swords, too.
Every one of the square things is a Foothold. This is where the Rift creatures have placed down (or conquered) footholds on wards etc. I'm not sure if they spawn the crossed swords, but I'm fairly certain they are.
Every one of the crossed swords is between 2 and 6 hard (sometimes elite, sometimes just difficult) mobs that run towards the nearest wardstone to capture it. These create footholds which spawn more of these.
This was the beginning of the "big" (there are smaller ones that come along more regularly and are easier to defeat) death invasion. By about halfway through the invasion, my map was literally covered in a sea of purple swords. People were holding off the sheer masses of undead converging on one of the objectives (the other was taken out fairly early on due to a lack of defence) whilst others did Rifts and killed super elites that were running around in order to power some giant cannon thing.
After a LONG time, we completed it. It was hard, it was fun and it actually kinda builds a sense of community and pride in your fellow players.
It was absolutely amazing, hectic and crazy. It's an example of what makes Rift the best themepark MMO to date, too.
If we'd've lost, I think we'd've had about thirty minutes of undead running rampant through the zone, slaughtering quest givers and basically fucking up playing for a bit.
This game is brilliant.
EDIT: By the by, Rift does amazing dynamic landscape change. When the event started the zone went seriously dark, I could barely see beyond about 100 meters around me. I could still see the rifts tearing open in the sky in the distance, though. It was AMAZING. I wish I could've got more pictures.
Translation: "This game has the monster spawners, just like every other game. Each one is practically the same experience, over, and over, and over, and over... and everyone does the same thing, over, and over and over and over, running back and forth, back and forth back and forth, and each battle everyone tries to tag as many enemies as they can so they get the kill...over and over and over."
Fact is...this is neither new, nor exciting. I am glad you are easily entertained, since not everyone can exhibit that behavior. To even suggest Rift is dynamic is silly however, you just dont know where to look apparently to see the railroad tracks. There is lots of hidden linearity in Rifts design, and a lot of it...no so hidden. All those spawn points you call Rifts.... those are not random in location. They are hard coded to always appear into those same spots, its just a matter of when..and quite frankly, it happens way to often that none of it will ever feel rare.
This is the part of the game that is certainly the most dynamic and fun. I do believe that vangaurd over all if the best themepark game.......however i have never had more fun then running around with like 20 people killing world bosses and closing rifts.
rest of the game is just WoW clone though.
Playing: PO, EVE Waiting for: WoD Favourite MMOs: VG, EVE, FE and DDO Any person who expresses rage and loathing for an MMO is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae.
This is the part of the game that is certainly the most dynamic and fun. I do believe that vangaurd over all if the best themepark game.......however i have never had more fun then running around with like 20 people killing world bosses and closing rifts.
rest of the game is just WoW clone though.
It would be a stretch to call Vanguard a theme park mmorpg. It was sandbox for the most part.
As for the rest, even a piece of yarn can entertain a cat or person for a few hours...what happens when it gets old however?
It would be a stretch to call Vanguard a theme park mmorpg. It was sandbox for the most part.
As for the rest, even a piece of yarn can entertain a cat or person for a few hours...what happens when it gets old however?
Vanguard is a strange mix, I'd say it feels mostly 'oldschool', as EQ, DAoC and such were oldschool, not themepark nor sandbox. I've always seen VG as the real successor of EQ, more so than EQ2.
Someone's bliss can be another person's piece of yarn. One person can be ecstatic about the movies Avatar or Iron Man where another person found it nothing but a piece of yarn, or one person could praise a movie like No Country of Old Men while another found it a yarn fest.
Differing tastes, mate. A concept that some people might have trouble grasping, that people can have different preferences and tastes while those still can be equal and not inferior to their own. In fact, a lot of people have trouble grasping that concept of differing, equal-of-value tastes.
As for longevity of entertainment that Rift offers, we'll see after a few months. It all depends upong how varied and entertaining the endgame content is.
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums: Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
This is the part of the game that is certainly the most dynamic and fun. I do believe that vangaurd over all if the best themepark game.......however i have never had more fun then running around with like 20 people killing world bosses and closing rifts.
rest of the game is just WoW clone though.
It would be a stretch to call Vanguard a theme park mmorpg. It was sandbox for the most part.
As for the rest, even a piece of yarn can entertain a cat or person for a few hours...what happens when it gets old however?
Vanguard was far from a sandbox. You guys need to remember... themepark doesn't necessarily mean "simple as dirt WoW clone" which is what most people seem to think it means. EverQuest was a theme park. Dark Age of Camelot was a theme park. They had kind of sandboxy elements in their big open worlds, but it was strictly a level/class based game.
Vanguard was about as themepark as they come, but it was the good kind of themepark, that allowed you SOME freedom to move around, not the WoW themepark.
And yeah, these Rift things... you guys realize the exact same feature was in Tabula Rasa, right? Didn't save that game.
Translation: "This game has the monster spawners, just like every other game. Each one is practically the same experience, over, and over, and over, and over... and everyone does the same thing, over, and over and over and over, running back and forth, back and forth back and forth, and each battle everyone tries to tag as many enemies as they can so they get the kill...over and over and over."
Fact is...this is neither new, nor exciting. I am glad you are easily entertained, since not everyone can exhibit that behavior. To even suggest Rift is dynamic is silly however, you just dont know where to look apparently to see the railroad tracks. There is lots of hidden linearity in Rifts design, and a lot of it...no so hidden. All those spawn points you call Rifts.... those are not random in location. They are hard coded to always appear into those same spots, its just a matter of when..and quite frankly, it happens way to often that none of it will ever feel rare.
You've not actually played this game, have you?
Or, at most, you played it to level 10 and didn't get to see an invasion. Like I said, without invasions I would not be playing this game.
The first ten levels are godawful, I'll admit that. Once you get past that, though, it gets epic amazing.
Translation: "This game has the monster spawners, just like every other game. Each one is practically the same experience, over, and over, and over, and over... and everyone does the same thing, over, and over and over and over, running back and forth, back and forth back and forth, and each battle everyone tries to tag as many enemies as they can so they get the kill...over and over and over."
Fact is...this is neither new, nor exciting. I am glad you are easily entertained, since not everyone can exhibit that behavior. To even suggest Rift is dynamic is silly however, you just dont know where to look apparently to see the railroad tracks. There is lots of hidden linearity in Rifts design, and a lot of it...no so hidden. All those spawn points you call Rifts.... those are not random in location. They are hard coded to always appear into those same spots, its just a matter of when..and quite frankly, it happens way to often that none of it will ever feel rare.
You've not actually played this game, have you?
Or, at most, you played it to level 10 and didn't get to see an invasion. Like I said, without invasions I would not be playing this game.
The first ten levels are godawful, I'll admit that. Once you get past that, though, it gets epic amazing.
On the contrary, I played past level 20 and into the next zones. I had a VIP pass from the moment the first beta even started. I was at E3 when they were showing off the game as well.
Needless to say, it doesnt get much better and I accurately described the "rift system".
If you have 20-40 different locations that rifts can appear in a region and all kinds of invasion troops roaming around all over the area, then it doesn't really matter that it isn't 100 different locations where a rift can spawn. At least to 99% of the people.
People either care for the rifts or don't care, but not that they can appear in 100+ locations instead of 20-40 locations. That;s just an argument used by people who already dislike rifts and are merely looking for more ways to talk negatively about them and Rift.
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums: Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
If you have 20-40 different locations that rifts can appear in a region and all kinds of invasion troops roaming around all over the area, then it doesn't really matter that it isn't 100 different locations where a rift can spawn. At least to 99% of the people.
People either care for the rifts or don't care, but not that they can appear in 100+ locations instead of 20-40 locations. That;s just an argument used by people who already dislike rifts and are merely looking for more ways to talk negatively about them and Rift.
All kinds of invasion troops? Not really. It is all pretty much the same every time. Neither is a process of "roaming around". Watch these "invasion spawns"... you will see they are on very obvious way points tracks that do not really vary. Not only can you predict where they will go every single time, but the Map essentially tells you with arrows. Why? Because they are on way points. Their destination is always set the moment they spawn.
Thus if a spawn appears in the lower left hand corner at the same spot every single time, you know for a fact that the same "invasion spawn" is really just going to run to the same way point, and work towards the other way point as though on tracks.
The rit system is great as a concept, but its horribly executed. In fact, its mostly just smoke and mirrors. A bad attempt to give the illusion of that kind of depth and mechanics, when none really exist to begin with. This is either because they didnt have the talent or resources to make good on the concept, or they never intended to from the get go. As for the 99% of people... i think that is wrong. Remember, the % that see it for what it is probably wont be playing the game, so all thats left in the game are those that havent seen it yet or will eventually get the pattern (or are too dumb to get it). The point is though that saying 99% of the people as a general statement is wrong.
@Rabenwolf: yep, I did watch them. Pretty extensively for hours after hours hunting them, actually. And what I saw was roaming troops. Of course the map tells you with arrows. it also shows you that those arrows can point to different targets from one spawn to the next.
But hey, it's clear that you dislike rifts and everything that's related to Rift, coloring everything that you say about it into the onesided negative.
Which is fine, differing tastes and all that. I'm just saying that you're wrong in several of your arguments, imo from what I've seen.
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums: Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Second best MMORPG i have played in the last 13 years, i give UO the number one spot simply for the amount of content in the game. Give Rift a few years worth of xpansions and new content to be developed and you could argue for the number one spot...
Awsome headstart with very little downtime for patches and not one single server crash, i did get kick to desktop a few time last night but was able to log back into the server with no queue...
Great job Trion and thank you...
"It would be awesome if you could duel your companion. Then you could solo pvp".--Thanes
I have said since my earlier Beta experience that the Rifts don't make up for an egregious lack of content and depth in the underlying world. They don't make the world dynamic, because their effects are not persistent. They are simply random spawns that distract from a lack of content for questers.
In Beta, I exhausted the quests for the open zones. Exhausted them. Then moved on. That makes the game essentially linear, except for the rifts. But what the rifts bring to the game is MMO battleground type play. They don't contribute to the RPG aspect of the game.
I like the game for what it is. And I have to say I like the class system alot.
But it isn't a world that I'll get lost in and immersed in for long unless the world itself becomes more interesting and they add more content so that players can have individual story-arcs and characters. As it is, the world doesn't make me feel unique (we are ALL doing the same quests regardless of race/class/whatever) and it doen't give me a REASON to want to save the world from the all-to-frequent rifts.
its fun and jaw droping first week, maybe 2, and i hope it will hold you longer than it did me, and my reasons not to play rift might be bit different, but i just didnt enjoy lvling at all, and i am guy who never read quests, ignores lore and just rushes to endgame
why was this different? well many said wow had good quests after rewamp , sure it did, had plenty of them before, but none of those felt special till i saw how bland questing can be.. you think warhammer had boring quests... well rift beats them on that..
rifts and ivasions are fun.. but after you did it for 200 times its just same.. after you killed 50 invasions in last hour, its just grind
its good game anyway, maybe i just finally grew out of themepark mmorpgs and being hardcore rusher to be first and best.. i suppose i should thank cata, where i first time bought game on midnight launch and actually played thought the night.. and then another night after , skiped my studies.. just to find myself terribly annoyed more i played due lack of sleep
and when i hit endgame content.. all those server firsts heroics i did.. those epic mounts.. none of it mattered.. half of those needs to be enjoyed with friends , sure i made a lot of new friends, joined best server guild after not playing for a year.
in the end it was " meh " 2 months of content and whats left is boring raiding,, where i once again packed my things and quit, and in process i wasted money.. my time.. disapointed my guildmates by leaving , and just didnt felt like doing same in rift.. cuz i know i would.. 5 years ago i would played with little content.. raiding and loving it.. now its just old.. same.. boring..
i remember raiding whole saturday.. or staying till 5 am in the morning with whole raid and loving it.. can you believe that, now its just drag..
10-19's zone map lights up a lot like that. In one character to 28 and one to 42, I only saw the 20-29 area light up like that twice. 30-40s never did.
Strange, considering the levelling is pretty linear and you head from one area to one area and there had to be a lot of people progressing to cap, pushing to try the highest level stuff that they could. These people had plenty of time to do that with a 5 day day long final open beta and the last 3 betas retaining characters.
(I only rerolled because I had to. While I wasn't particularly enjoying the game. I was enjoying the people I played with. I posted a post of questions on the forums, as genuine and nicely worded as this one is. First post, and they banned me from playing. Also a reason that I post in more ... welcoming .. forums such as this one. I posted in the lion's den (official forums) and got banned lol.)
That amazing experience should be gone 1-3 months in when most of the initial wave has bought the game and is high level and the low zones are empty and the high level zones... just don't have amazing events that I ever saw.
Every event map screenshot I've seen has been the 10-19 area.
Spec'ing properly is a gateway drug. 12 Million People have been meter spammed in heroics.
First of all the Rifts we all know about and they happen so often,they can hardly be called an "EVENT",they imo actually happen too often.I also think many others share that sediment.
As for changing the landscape,that is only a VERY small area around the actual rift and it is the exact same transformation in EVERY Rift.
I think we need a little more to go on than JUST "RIFTS" when we are talking about the best Thempark !I also do not like to label games other than RPG or first person shooter or puzzle game.Rift is suppose to be a MMORPG nothing more or less.
If you like playing it GREAT,all the power to you,but if talking the "BEST OF" make a stronger argument.I can think of tons of things it does worse than my favourite game,so it would hardly be a best of ,just a personal game you like .
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
I should write down all names that now shout rift is awesome lol.
Im almost positive that at ;east 90% in month time comeback to forum and say its most boring game ive ever played and quit hehe.
I dont realy say for sure it will happen but after 2 days make a topic and claim its best themepark ever is a little bit silly dont you think guys and girls?
Hope you keep enjoying it, but claim its best after you play for months extensively:)
Games played:AC1-Darktide'99-2000-AC2-Darktide/dawnsong2003-2005,Lineage2-2005-2006 and now Darkfall-2009..... In between WoW few months AoC few months and some f2p also all very short few weeks.
I'll probably get banned for this post, or end up getting the thread locked, but in my humble opinion Rift is essentially a VASTLY improved WAR.
I'm kind of happy that people are no longer scoffing at the themepark label, but it does sadden me that it lacks heavily in the innovation and immersion departments. The combat itself is literally everything you've ever played before with maybe improved interaction, since some popular games are not too good in that area for all classes.
I guess people are so hyped about the game, because it's one of the first to be released in a near flawless state.
@Rabenwolf: yep, I did watch them. Pretty extensively for hours after hours hunting them, actually. And what I saw was roaming troops. Of course the map tells you with arrows. it also shows you that those arrows can point to different targets from one spawn to the next.
But hey, it's clear that you dislike rifts and everything that's related to Rift, coloring everything that you say about it into the onesided negative.
Which is fine, differing tastes and all that. I'm just saying that you're wrong in several of your arguments, imo from what I've seen.
Well, you are wrong and if you do not see it now, you will eventually ( I would hope ). There is nothing wrong if someone can still get enjoyment out of it but it doesnt change how the system works.
As for your reasoning.... I could use the same silly argument back at you. "It is clear you like rifts and everything related to rifts, coloring everything you say about into one sided fanboyism." Your reasoning is hypocritical in nature since you suggest that just because I find fault in the rift system, or lack there of, that some how i have a bias that some how negates the information I am sharing and or unqualifies my post as a result. Do you realize how silly that is? The same bias can be on your end, the same argument can be used, and thus you cannot think critically about the game and or see it in any other light.
I was very Pro-Rift when I saw it at E3 and I supported the game prior to actually PLAYING IT. Then I started to see that there was a huge gap between their marketing and hype, and the actual execution of game mechanics and design. I went in thinking good things about Rift and left with a bad impression based on the experiences. This means I didnt go in with an already negatively influenced bias. You really cannot make the argument otherwise. I feel I am being fairly neutral in the analysis of Rift and the conclusion is just one that those who like rift way too much cant seem to accept.
We can agree to disagree, but please dont use arguments like "well you are biased" because that would invalidate your post as well, if it were true.
I still stand by the opinion, based on patterns seen so far and choices made by Trion, that Rift will lose large numbers of initial subscribers at the dreaded 3 month mark, and more so as it gets closer to 6 months, leaving the game with a small niche of players like every other mmo. Very few seem to actually grow in sub base over time, most just lose subs over time.
In Beta, I exhausted the quests for the open zones. Exhausted them. Then moved on. That makes the game essentially linear, except for the rifts. But what the rifts bring to the game is MMO battleground type play. They don't contribute to the RPG aspect of the game.
Actually, at launch Trion's overnerfed rifts xp so it's pretty much worthless for leveling, just getting tokens and stuffs, for now. And so far nobody's been exhausting quest.
Oh and about questing being linear in Rift, I don't think it is really linear. Since launch I've been exploring the zones more thoroughly and have several quest hubs that I've not encountered when I was linear questing during beta. I think because the end quests on this game always point to another quest hubs, plus people almost alway keep the "show old quest" unchecked on the minimap, these elements give people the feeling that questing in Rift is linear.
Also about you wishing the effects should be persisten, sorry mate but this is a themepark MMORPG, not sandbox, even the dynamic events in GW2 are not completely persisten, just have multiple stages and they'd reset at some point.
All kinds of invasion troops? Not really. It is all pretty much the same every time. Neither is a process of "roaming around". Watch these "invasion spawns"... you will see they are on very obvious way points tracks that do not really vary. Not only can you predict where they will go every single time, but the Map essentially tells you with arrows. Why? Because they are on way points. Their destination is always set the moment they spawn.
Thus if a spawn appears in the lower left hand corner at the same spot every single time, you know for a fact that the same "invasion spawn" is really just going to run to the same way point, and work towards the other way point as though on tracks.
The rit system is great as a concept, but its horribly executed. In fact, its mostly just smoke and mirrors. A bad attempt to give the illusion of that kind of depth and mechanics, when none really exist to begin with. This is either because they didnt have the talent or resources to make good on the concept, or they never intended to from the get go. As for the 99% of people... i think that is wrong. Remember, the % that see it for what it is probably wont be playing the game, so all thats left in the game are those that havent seen it yet or will eventually get the pattern (or are too dumb to get it). The point is though that saying 99% of the people as a general statement is wrong.
So, what you're complaining about is the fact that invasions actually invade?
As in, they attack villages and towns.
LUL.
Originally posted by Wizardry
The OP is exaggerating a tad bit .
First of all the Rifts we all know about and they happen so often,they can hardly be called an "EVENT",they imo actually happen too often.I also think many others share that sediment.
As for changing the landscape,that is only a VERY small area around the actual rift and it is the exact same transformation in EVERY Rift.
I think we need a little more to go on than JUST "RIFTS" when we are talking about the best Thempark !I also do not like to label games other than RPG or first person shooter or puzzle game.Rift is suppose to be a MMORPG nothing more or less.
If you like playing it GREAT,all the power to you,but if talking the "BEST OF" make a stronger argument.I can think of tons of things it does worse than my favourite game,so it would hardly be a best of ,just a personal game you like .
10-19's zone map lights up a lot like that. In one character to 28 and one to 42, I only saw the 20-29 area light up like that twice. 30-40s never did.
I'd like to let you know that the number of rifts are proportional with the number of players in the zone. So if the 40-50 zones have as many players as in the screenshots, then there would be just as many invasions. Also the number of people who rush to 42 in beta is actually pretty low.
As for your reasoning.... I could use the same silly argument back at you. "It is clear you like rifts and everything related to rifts, coloring everything you say about into one sided fanboyism." Your reasoning is hypocritical in nature since you suggest that just because I find fault in the rift system, or lack there of, that some how i have a bias that some how negates the information I am sharing and or unqualifies my post as a result. Do you realize how silly that is? The same bias can be on your end, the same argument can be used, and thus you cannot think critically about the game and or see it in any other light.
I was very Pro-Rift when I saw it at E3 and I supported the game prior to actually PLAYING IT. Then I started to see that there was a huge gap between their marketing and hype, and the actual execution of game mechanics and design. I went in thinking good things about Rift and left with a bad impression based on the experiences. This means I didnt go in with an already negatively influenced bias. You really cannot make the argument otherwise. I feel I am being fairly neutral in the analysis of Rift and the conclusion is just one that those who like rift way too much cant seem to accept.
We can agree to disagree, but please dont use arguments like "well you are biased" because that would invalidate your post as well, if it were true.
I still stand by the opinion, based on patterns seen so far and choices made by Trion, that Rift will lose large numbers of initial subscribers at the dreaded 3 month mark, and more so as it gets closer to 6 months, leaving the game with a small niche of players like every other mmo. Very few seem to actually grow in sub base over time, most just lose subs over time.
Of course the same reasoning applies to me, it's all opinion, truths mixed with personal taste and subjective arguments.
However, it's the degree of bias and onesided argumentation that differs from one person to another, as well as the acceptance that there can be equally valid opinions that might disagree or be in contrast with one's own.
As for me, I don't severely dislike or like Rift, I went into the betas as a blank, so there's also no bitter disappointment for me: I played the betas, enjoyed my time, it was a nice, new MMO, but it wasn't enough for me to get me into buying the game. Friends of mine are wildly enthusiastic about it after the betas, enough to buy the game. Which is fine, to each their own game for fun. But me, I'd say I'm fairly in the middle regarding Rift, not inclined to a onesided negative or onesided positive view.
As for some of your arguments, yes I do find them biased or onesided. I disagree with your view about the graphics and your statements of the static nature of the rifts is not what I observed. When someone as good as only states negative arguments about a game, then that sounds onesided or biased to me. Actually, many of the most negative and onesided biased people are often the ones whose expectations were hurt and got disappointed. Of every game good and bad qualities can be summed up.
As for the longevity, I have my doubts about it as well about the retaining value after 3 months.
But it isn't something that I wish for that Rift will undergo the same decline as seen with other MMO's, as some posters here seem to want. I'm all for diversity and more quality MMO's to be able to pick from, so I hope Rift will do well even if I've no intentions of playing it (yet).
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums: Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Comments
Translation: "This game has the monster spawners, just like every other game. Each one is practically the same experience, over, and over, and over, and over... and everyone does the same thing, over, and over and over and over, running back and forth, back and forth back and forth, and each battle everyone tries to tag as many enemies as they can so they get the kill...over and over and over."
Fact is...this is neither new, nor exciting. I am glad you are easily entertained, since not everyone can exhibit that behavior. To even suggest Rift is dynamic is silly however, you just dont know where to look apparently to see the railroad tracks. There is lots of hidden linearity in Rifts design, and a lot of it...no so hidden. All those spawn points you call Rifts.... those are not random in location. They are hard coded to always appear into those same spots, its just a matter of when..and quite frankly, it happens way to often that none of it will ever feel rare.
This is the part of the game that is certainly the most dynamic and fun. I do believe that vangaurd over all if the best themepark game.......however i have never had more fun then running around with like 20 people killing world bosses and closing rifts.
rest of the game is just WoW clone though.
Playing: PO, EVE
Waiting for: WoD
Favourite MMOs: VG, EVE, FE and DDO
Any person who expresses rage and loathing for an MMO is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae.
It would be a stretch to call Vanguard a theme park mmorpg. It was sandbox for the most part.
As for the rest, even a piece of yarn can entertain a cat or person for a few hours...what happens when it gets old however?
The Rifts look cool visually but when I was in beta every Rift I was in was simply a zerg snooze fest.
Hopefully they get better with higher levels.
Vanguard is a strange mix, I'd say it feels mostly 'oldschool', as EQ, DAoC and such were oldschool, not themepark nor sandbox. I've always seen VG as the real successor of EQ, more so than EQ2.
Someone's bliss can be another person's piece of yarn. One person can be ecstatic about the movies Avatar or Iron Man where another person found it nothing but a piece of yarn, or one person could praise a movie like No Country of Old Men while another found it a yarn fest.
Differing tastes, mate. A concept that some people might have trouble grasping, that people can have different preferences and tastes while those still can be equal and not inferior to their own. In fact, a lot of people have trouble grasping that concept of differing, equal-of-value tastes.
As for longevity of entertainment that Rift offers, we'll see after a few months. It all depends upong how varied and entertaining the endgame content is.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Vanguard was far from a sandbox. You guys need to remember... themepark doesn't necessarily mean "simple as dirt WoW clone" which is what most people seem to think it means. EverQuest was a theme park. Dark Age of Camelot was a theme park. They had kind of sandboxy elements in their big open worlds, but it was strictly a level/class based game.
Vanguard was about as themepark as they come, but it was the good kind of themepark, that allowed you SOME freedom to move around, not the WoW themepark.
And yeah, these Rift things... you guys realize the exact same feature was in Tabula Rasa, right? Didn't save that game.
You've not actually played this game, have you?
Or, at most, you played it to level 10 and didn't get to see an invasion. Like I said, without invasions I would not be playing this game.
The first ten levels are godawful, I'll admit that. Once you get past that, though, it gets epic amazing.
On the contrary, I played past level 20 and into the next zones. I had a VIP pass from the moment the first beta even started. I was at E3 when they were showing off the game as well.
Needless to say, it doesnt get much better and I accurately described the "rift system".
If you have 20-40 different locations that rifts can appear in a region and all kinds of invasion troops roaming around all over the area, then it doesn't really matter that it isn't 100 different locations where a rift can spawn. At least to 99% of the people.
People either care for the rifts or don't care, but not that they can appear in 100+ locations instead of 20-40 locations. That;s just an argument used by people who already dislike rifts and are merely looking for more ways to talk negatively about them and Rift.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
All kinds of invasion troops? Not really. It is all pretty much the same every time. Neither is a process of "roaming around". Watch these "invasion spawns"... you will see they are on very obvious way points tracks that do not really vary. Not only can you predict where they will go every single time, but the Map essentially tells you with arrows. Why? Because they are on way points. Their destination is always set the moment they spawn.
Thus if a spawn appears in the lower left hand corner at the same spot every single time, you know for a fact that the same "invasion spawn" is really just going to run to the same way point, and work towards the other way point as though on tracks.
The rit system is great as a concept, but its horribly executed. In fact, its mostly just smoke and mirrors. A bad attempt to give the illusion of that kind of depth and mechanics, when none really exist to begin with. This is either because they didnt have the talent or resources to make good on the concept, or they never intended to from the get go. As for the 99% of people... i think that is wrong. Remember, the % that see it for what it is probably wont be playing the game, so all thats left in the game are those that havent seen it yet or will eventually get the pattern (or are too dumb to get it). The point is though that saying 99% of the people as a general statement is wrong.
It's always gonna be the same doombringers and naysayers out there, trying to convince you that you don't like the game.
Having said that, I think this game is awesome and looks like it could be a promising option for me for months if not years to come.
"When it comes to GW2 any game is fair game"
@Rabenwolf: yep, I did watch them. Pretty extensively for hours after hours hunting them, actually. And what I saw was roaming troops. Of course the map tells you with arrows. it also shows you that those arrows can point to different targets from one spawn to the next.
But hey, it's clear that you dislike rifts and everything that's related to Rift, coloring everything that you say about it into the onesided negative.
Which is fine, differing tastes and all that. I'm just saying that you're wrong in several of your arguments, imo from what I've seen.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Second best MMORPG i have played in the last 13 years, i give UO the number one spot simply for the amount of content in the game. Give Rift a few years worth of xpansions and new content to be developed and you could argue for the number one spot...
Awsome headstart with very little downtime for patches and not one single server crash, i did get kick to desktop a few time last night but was able to log back into the server with no queue...
Great job Trion and thank you...
"It would be awesome if you could duel your companion. Then you could solo pvp".--Thanes
I have said since my earlier Beta experience that the Rifts don't make up for an egregious lack of content and depth in the underlying world. They don't make the world dynamic, because their effects are not persistent. They are simply random spawns that distract from a lack of content for questers.
In Beta, I exhausted the quests for the open zones. Exhausted them. Then moved on. That makes the game essentially linear, except for the rifts. But what the rifts bring to the game is MMO battleground type play. They don't contribute to the RPG aspect of the game.
I like the game for what it is. And I have to say I like the class system alot.
But it isn't a world that I'll get lost in and immersed in for long unless the world itself becomes more interesting and they add more content so that players can have individual story-arcs and characters. As it is, the world doesn't make me feel unique (we are ALL doing the same quests regardless of race/class/whatever) and it doen't give me a REASON to want to save the world from the all-to-frequent rifts.
Just my two cents.
its fun and jaw droping first week, maybe 2, and i hope it will hold you longer than it did me, and my reasons not to play rift might be bit different, but i just didnt enjoy lvling at all, and i am guy who never read quests, ignores lore and just rushes to endgame
why was this different? well many said wow had good quests after rewamp , sure it did, had plenty of them before, but none of those felt special till i saw how bland questing can be.. you think warhammer had boring quests... well rift beats them on that..
rifts and ivasions are fun.. but after you did it for 200 times its just same.. after you killed 50 invasions in last hour, its just grind
its good game anyway, maybe i just finally grew out of themepark mmorpgs and being hardcore rusher to be first and best.. i suppose i should thank cata, where i first time bought game on midnight launch and actually played thought the night.. and then another night after , skiped my studies.. just to find myself terribly annoyed more i played due lack of sleep
and when i hit endgame content.. all those server firsts heroics i did.. those epic mounts.. none of it mattered.. half of those needs to be enjoyed with friends , sure i made a lot of new friends, joined best server guild after not playing for a year.
in the end it was " meh " 2 months of content and whats left is boring raiding,, where i once again packed my things and quit, and in process i wasted money.. my time.. disapointed my guildmates by leaving , and just didnt felt like doing same in rift.. cuz i know i would.. 5 years ago i would played with little content.. raiding and loving it.. now its just old.. same.. boring..
i remember raiding whole saturday.. or staying till 5 am in the morning with whole raid and loving it.. can you believe that, now its just drag..
10-19's zone map lights up a lot like that. In one character to 28 and one to 42, I only saw the 20-29 area light up like that twice. 30-40s never did.
Strange, considering the levelling is pretty linear and you head from one area to one area and there had to be a lot of people progressing to cap, pushing to try the highest level stuff that they could. These people had plenty of time to do that with a 5 day day long final open beta and the last 3 betas retaining characters.
(I only rerolled because I had to. While I wasn't particularly enjoying the game. I was enjoying the people I played with. I posted a post of questions on the forums, as genuine and nicely worded as this one is. First post, and they banned me from playing. Also a reason that I post in more ... welcoming .. forums such as this one. I posted in the lion's den (official forums) and got banned lol.)
That amazing experience should be gone 1-3 months in when most of the initial wave has bought the game and is high level and the low zones are empty and the high level zones... just don't have amazing events that I ever saw.
Every event map screenshot I've seen has been the 10-19 area.
Spec'ing properly is a gateway drug.
12 Million People have been meter spammed in heroics.
The OP is exaggerating a tad bit .
First of all the Rifts we all know about and they happen so often,they can hardly be called an "EVENT",they imo actually happen too often.I also think many others share that sediment.
As for changing the landscape,that is only a VERY small area around the actual rift and it is the exact same transformation in EVERY Rift.
I think we need a little more to go on than JUST "RIFTS" when we are talking about the best Thempark !I also do not like to label games other than RPG or first person shooter or puzzle game.Rift is suppose to be a MMORPG nothing more or less.
If you like playing it GREAT,all the power to you,but if talking the "BEST OF" make a stronger argument.I can think of tons of things it does worse than my favourite game,so it would hardly be a best of ,just a personal game you like
.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
I should write down all names that now shout rift is awesome lol.
Im almost positive that at ;east 90% in month time comeback to forum and say its most boring game ive ever played and quit hehe.
I dont realy say for sure it will happen but after 2 days make a topic and claim its best themepark ever is a little bit silly dont you think guys and girls?
Hope you keep enjoying it, but claim its best after you play for months extensively:)
Games played:AC1-Darktide'99-2000-AC2-Darktide/dawnsong2003-2005,Lineage2-2005-2006 and now Darkfall-2009.....
In between WoW few months AoC few months and some f2p also all very short few weeks.
I'll probably get banned for this post, or end up getting the thread locked, but in my humble opinion Rift is essentially a VASTLY improved WAR.
I'm kind of happy that people are no longer scoffing at the themepark label, but it does sadden me that it lacks heavily in the innovation and immersion departments. The combat itself is literally everything you've ever played before with maybe improved interaction, since some popular games are not too good in that area for all classes.
I guess people are so hyped about the game, because it's one of the first to be released in a near flawless state.
Well, you are wrong and if you do not see it now, you will eventually ( I would hope ). There is nothing wrong if someone can still get enjoyment out of it but it doesnt change how the system works.
As for your reasoning.... I could use the same silly argument back at you. "It is clear you like rifts and everything related to rifts, coloring everything you say about into one sided fanboyism." Your reasoning is hypocritical in nature since you suggest that just because I find fault in the rift system, or lack there of, that some how i have a bias that some how negates the information I am sharing and or unqualifies my post as a result. Do you realize how silly that is? The same bias can be on your end, the same argument can be used, and thus you cannot think critically about the game and or see it in any other light.
I was very Pro-Rift when I saw it at E3 and I supported the game prior to actually PLAYING IT. Then I started to see that there was a huge gap between their marketing and hype, and the actual execution of game mechanics and design. I went in thinking good things about Rift and left with a bad impression based on the experiences. This means I didnt go in with an already negatively influenced bias. You really cannot make the argument otherwise. I feel I am being fairly neutral in the analysis of Rift and the conclusion is just one that those who like rift way too much cant seem to accept.
We can agree to disagree, but please dont use arguments like "well you are biased" because that would invalidate your post as well, if it were true.
I still stand by the opinion, based on patterns seen so far and choices made by Trion, that Rift will lose large numbers of initial subscribers at the dreaded 3 month mark, and more so as it gets closer to 6 months, leaving the game with a small niche of players like every other mmo. Very few seem to actually grow in sub base over time, most just lose subs over time.
Originally posted by Talon_Actual
In Beta, I exhausted the quests for the open zones. Exhausted them. Then moved on. That makes the game essentially linear, except for the rifts. But what the rifts bring to the game is MMO battleground type play. They don't contribute to the RPG aspect of the game.
Actually, at launch Trion's overnerfed rifts xp so it's pretty much worthless for leveling, just getting tokens and stuffs, for now. And so far nobody's been exhausting quest.
Oh and about questing being linear in Rift, I don't think it is really linear. Since launch I've been exploring the zones more thoroughly and have several quest hubs that I've not encountered when I was linear questing during beta. I think because the end quests on this game always point to another quest hubs, plus people almost alway keep the "show old quest" unchecked on the minimap, these elements give people the feeling that questing in Rift is linear.
Also about you wishing the effects should be persisten, sorry mate but this is a themepark MMORPG, not sandbox, even the dynamic events in GW2 are not completely persisten, just have multiple stages and they'd reset at some point.
So, what you're complaining about is the fact that invasions actually invade?
As in, they attack villages and towns.
LUL.
You've not played an event.
kthxbai.
I'd like to let you know that the number of rifts are proportional with the number of players in the zone. So if the 40-50 zones have as many players as in the screenshots, then there would be just as many invasions. Also the number of people who rush to 42 in beta is actually pretty low.
Of course the same reasoning applies to me, it's all opinion, truths mixed with personal taste and subjective arguments.
However, it's the degree of bias and onesided argumentation that differs from one person to another, as well as the acceptance that there can be equally valid opinions that might disagree or be in contrast with one's own.
As for me, I don't severely dislike or like Rift, I went into the betas as a blank, so there's also no bitter disappointment for me: I played the betas, enjoyed my time, it was a nice, new MMO, but it wasn't enough for me to get me into buying the game. Friends of mine are wildly enthusiastic about it after the betas, enough to buy the game. Which is fine, to each their own game for fun. But me, I'd say I'm fairly in the middle regarding Rift, not inclined to a onesided negative or onesided positive view.
As for some of your arguments, yes I do find them biased or onesided. I disagree with your view about the graphics and your statements of the static nature of the rifts is not what I observed. When someone as good as only states negative arguments about a game, then that sounds onesided or biased to me. Actually, many of the most negative and onesided biased people are often the ones whose expectations were hurt and got disappointed. Of every game good and bad qualities can be summed up.
As for the longevity, I have my doubts about it as well about the retaining value after 3 months.
But it isn't something that I wish for that Rift will undergo the same decline as seen with other MMO's, as some posters here seem to want. I'm all for diversity and more quality MMO's to be able to pick from, so I hope Rift will do well even if I've no intentions of playing it (yet).
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Rifts are a lot of fun when joining the public groups. I had lots of fun sitting back and healing everyone while they fight.