Questless: thoughts on alternate advancement in Rift

Dalano

During beta 5, I had pretty much decided not to play Rift. I thought it was well-presented and polished for what it was, but after Cataclysm and DCUO, I was sick to death of  endless questing. And Rift's quests seemed to me to be inferior in scope to both of those titles. I wished the game well, but its linear nature turned me totally off. Or so I thought.

I skipped beta 6, but before beta 7 my step-son and a few old role-playing buddies convinced me to give it another go. Earlier that week, I had been reminiscing about AC1 and as I was re-installing Rift, I had a thought: the very large elephant in the room is obviously influencing how mmorpgs are designed. Could said elephant be influencing how I play them as well?

Determined to get some enjoyment out of the game this time, I gritted my teeth, got through the tutorial, and headed the other way when I saw the first quest hub. I had read that leveling was possible through rifts and pvp alone, but I had my doubts to its feasibility or fun. 

To my surprise, it's both.  I've made it to level ~20 in both the last beta event and live by doing minimal quests and lots of rifts and warfronts. 

Stop! Bullet point time.

 

Very Cool:

• 
  The world is lovingly-designed and fun to explore. Level is a factor, obviously, but I was able to get to quite a few spots I probably shouldn't have been in the past few weekends. Also, my view of the lore and overall sense of immersion is actually greater now than when I was doing the quests. NPCs reveal quite a bit of info, and the collections, books and readable items fill in the rest. Really, really well done.
• 
  Rifts and warfronts provide a decent amount of xp. You won't be leveling as fast as the questers, but it's fast enough to not seem grindy. At least at level 23.
• 
  While it's true that rifts can get repetitive for a specific zone, new zones hold different types. Overall, there are a bunch to see and the ability to open and close rifts in the other faction's territory adds another wrinkle.
• 
  The pvp is still sorting itself out, but promises to be pretty interesting, if a bit slow after playing DCUO.
• 
  The soul system allows you to tailor a build to fit your desired purpose. Because of the solo nature of this style of play, having at least a smattering of self-healing is a huge plus.

Meh:

• 
  Just as I'm starting to really feel like a guerilla mmo'er, I have to go see the trainer. Likewise, there are a number of quests that are really in your best interest to do. Bleh.
• 
  The warfront's instanced nature kill the immersion set up by the aforementioned cool world.
• 
  Gear is an issue. As is cash. Two gathering professions help, but auction house humping isn't my idea of a good time.
• 
  I'm not sure how long this style of play will keep me entertained. Probably to level cap, but beyond that?

 

Currently, I'm having a lot of fun. Enough that I already feel I've gotten my money's worth. Kudos to Trion for at least exploring alternative methods of gaining xp. They seem to be all about giving the player more choices.