Originally posted by JammaslamWhen I want to read, I have many books that I actually enjoy much more (Song Of Fire and Ice series, Dune, Wheel of Time, etc etc.) I do enjoy the crafting though, its quick and to the point.
Oh what a Mess. What a self-made Mess :-) Then I would prefer reading those great Books instead of... Crafting shit? Honestly there is nothing what "you get out of" Crafting by watching your virtual Character craft something, for your personal Life.
People stop wasting your Time with MMOs that don't "give you anything". When you first discover a little bit of boredom, stop playing immediatelly. You know neither twinking isn't changing the issue nor changing Faction.
Do something for your Brain! Stop playing Games which do not stress your Brain for good.
Letting your Brain constantly run on "Sleep-Mode" because you do repetative Stuff and/or being bored is no good at all.
Originally posted by erictlewis
I think the op is dead on on all 5, we should add one more, the booring combat. Mash 1-2-3,4,5,6 ahhh repeat.
True. Hearing that very often in the last Months. But sadly there is no difference yet, except Age of Conan (gets repetative aswell but atleast something different).
My wife and some friends truly love the game but I am with you on some of the points. I love questing but even I find myself just clicking accept and moving on from hub to hub there is no sense of exploration. Even vanilla wow did not feel this force fed. I also have high doubts on replayability. Doing same quests in same same zone in same order might be too much. Though I may get 2 play throughs one defiant and one guardian.
You're missing out on a good bit of content. There are a number of hidden quests and 'tasks' (non-quest things you can do for rewards) that you'll miss if all you're doing is running from hub to quest to hub.
What do you mean, hidden quests? I have just been clicking and accepting. Getting a little bored doing that. Are there quests within the quests I am missing or are there other quests hidden in different places.
Let's see... There are the puzzles in every zones, some 30+ cairns to locate and plunder, and then there are the random dailies that pop up, not to mention the quests from the Ancient Wardstones that become available when you recreate them. None of those can be found or are even discussed in the quest hubs. Combined with the random invasions, mega-invasions, and rifts, you're never going to have the same path through twice. I've done it 10 times now (4 in Beta), and I can honestly say that no 2 alts ever experience the same game, even when I use the same build on both sides.
Lifeless Questing have always been like that in most games that I've played, the reason why that it feel so liveless and so uninteresting is because of the repeativeness and how it's not so uneventful. when I do quest , I don't expect just a reward, experance, and reputation bonuses, I expect scene changes and upgrades around the area that I just did, so If I kill x amount of monster, I should be seeing less of that monsters spawning in the area, if I try to collect an X amount of items to stop this roaming plague, I should see most people getting sick at first, and after I deliver and finish the quest, I should not see so many plague victims, not only that I should see some cinematics to see how well my "heroic" acts actually turns out.
I've been soloing during the multiple rift beta's that i've attended to this game and got bored of it due to how repeatitive it is, it feel more like WoW and other mmo games that does not have much life to soloing that make it feels very bland and does not make me wish to continue on.
I love crafting but I also dislike how the developers become lazy and not making something very brand new and innovative then just "duhhhhhh, we just copy this and make a small adjustment then duhhhhhhh the players think it's ok".... Seriously, it felt like they don't want to do crafting or they just too damn lazy to make something up and add something innovate that make people want to get into, but these people just copy and paste and ignore it. sometimes it pisses me off when devs started being lazy on certain parts.
I fully agree with this article. I bought the game, played a good amount the first 10 days or so and once I hit level 30-35 I really just couldn't continue. The questing is so mindless, I'm feeling like I'm being dragged along a beaten path, one that doesn't have any forks in the road for other alternative options. You go from hub to hub doing the same kill and loot quests over and over.
I'm stuck on level 41 in Droughtlands, unable to find a reason to log in. I will not be subbing past the initial 30 days.
I found out after I levelled my cleric that there was so much content I missed in certain zones I never even knew about at all, half of freemarch quests for a start.
I only noticed the stuff I missed because I decided to roll a new character and did a little more exploring of zones. If you are just relying on being led by quest hubs then you will not see it all.
I basically agree. I made the mistake of creating each archtype and began leveling. Made it to 25 with one, 15 with the other, and burned out at 10 with the third as I couldn't take the same quests again. I thought about changing factions, but I like my faction. Also, I imagine that the quests are pretty much the same no matter what faction you get on.
In remember that in the 10-20 Defiant zone there is a "secret" hub next to the entrance of Iron Tombs. It involves some group quests that give quite the cheer amount of exp.
And on the other things, I agree and I am happy that MMORPG.com finally acknowledges flaws in a highly hyped game.
Tbh i dont know what ppl expect. I didn't found solo quests anything spectacular in any mmo i've played. Rift offers enough variety of content to solo+pug to not level with just quests if you feel bored with them.
2) Solo play
Ok so you want to do everything solo. That means you skip warfronts, rifts, invasions, instances = 4/5 of game content, even though game made add-hoc grouping best i have seen. If you want to realy ignore grouping, even in game where it is so easy to make a group like in Rift, I think you are playing wrong game type, you would be better with dragon age 2 proly.
3) Checklist crafting
Agree here.
4) PvP Balance
PvP balance in mmo is myth. Period. The thing which is great in Rift that there is only 4 callings, and each of the calling offers a lot of variety what to play. So the chance you will end-up with almost unplayable character in PvP is almost zero. Unless you insists that you will play soul XY at all costs, but then it's just your decision to ignore PvP viable build of your calling = your fault.
5) 2 lvling paths
Partialy agree. Till lvl 30 there is not much choice where to do quests (you can still decide ignore tham and level perfectly fine). After that it gets better. I have most quests in Moonshade, Iron Pine Peak and Stillmore left untouched. World is signifantly smaller than in vanila wow for example, but i suspect it has a lot to do with budget avaible to make a game (thats not excuse, but just most probable reason). But i'm not sure if money reinvested back to the game are not better spent for end game content compared to new starting zone.
Crafting is kinda bleh,as is the questing..I find myself doing more warfronts now than actually pveing or rifting.
I think one thing that also hinders Rift is the multiple soul sets one can accrue throughout their levels.I think Trion shot themselves in the foot here as Im already seeing the low level zones becoming thin of players(atleast at the time I play) compared to the first couple weeks.Sure, the whole 'going through the same content' thing stinks,but I think people would still do it to level their would be alts if the multiple soul sets didnt exist.I also think it will hurt their subs as people have already tried every build they desired to and are sitting at end game being bored.
Wow (no pun intended) I'm sure Activision Blizzard likes to see this on the front page of mmorpg.com I only played Rift in the beta, so I don't have a whole lot to say about it. But what I will say is that it seems like the reviewer doesn't like MMORPG's.. at least the "classic" version of them. (Maybe he likes something like DCU haha...) And sure, I hate the stale, stagnant, grindy feel of some MMO's too. But it's like cool.. all of the things he pointed out wrong with Rift could apply to WOW; although, I certainly understand the article was about Rift; not World of Warcraft. And he said he doesn't like the themepark aspect of a themepark MMO ir "lifeless" questing that is a part of any MMO. Great... Such a good article...
----------------------------- Real as Reality Television!!!
Questing is very blah. and at 50 you get to repeat these quests.... the same ones... everyday...forever....until you cancel.
I'm a crafter and IMO the worst part of the crafting is that theres not much to make thats desired. For instance, as an outfitter about the only thing that people want is bags. So everyone makes bags... until everyone has to pretty much give bags away. Theres some decent purple stuff to make but the recipies are bought with artisan plaques which is aquired by getting lucky (rng) doing a (yep, just one at 300 skill) quests every day. sometimes you can go a couple weeks without getting one....single....plaque. so you dont make anything.
Balance wouldnt be too bad but instead of tweaks they are into the complete kneejerk nerf/buff stuff that developers should have learned not to do many years ago. If something is OP then tone it down...a little at a time.
Sure, there are plenty of things that they can improve... but they've still done more things "right" than any other release in the past 5 years. Based on the devs response to the beta, I'm sure that they'll continue to improve the game as time goes on.
Wow (no pun intended) I'm sure Activision Blizzard likes to see this on the front page of mmorpg.com I only played Rift in the beta, so I don't have a whole lot to say about it. But what I will say is that it seems like the reviewer doesn't like MMORPG's.. at least the "classic" version of them. (Maybe he likes something like DCU haha...) And sure, I hate the stale, stagnant, grindy feel of some MMO's too. But it's like cool.. all of the things he pointed out wrong with Rift could apply to WOW; although, I certainly understand the article was about Rift; not World of Warcraft. And he said he doesn't like the themepark aspect of a themepark MMO ir "lifeless" questing that is a part of any MMO. Great... Such a good article...
This isnt a review article though,he's just giving some of his opinions on what he thinks Trion did wrong.In contrast to his last article on the 5 things he thinks they did right.
Hey, long time listener, first time caller. I've been around, you know, started with UO, died, first try, became a ghost, then quit. Got hooked on Diablo until my evil daughter brought her friends from school, armed witha CD of EQ. Fuckers, I never did anything else, short of work, playing that thing. I spent 3 months on the newbie log, yep, that was me. Along comes, WoW and EQ2, and being a pure gamer, chose EQ2, played that until my computer choked on the graphics.
Took my friend twisting my ear to play WoW, played that thing forever, day 1 till of late. I swear, BG's pre BC kicked. Still got m Lt. General titel and everything. Alas, after BC, took a hiatus, went back to WoW, 10 times, tried AoC, Warhammer, Lotro, you name it, played most for a few months, got stuck on Warhammers Scenarios, although the PQ's were cool for the first week until no one shoed anymore.
Welp, long story short, found Rift. Yup, first game that just popped up on me without knowing shit about it, tried the Beta, Meh!. Then, after careful review of these sacred threads, went back and have not looked back, since. My GF won't let me stop playing, she's hooked, too. So, my point is, the worst 5 things of this game, number one, addiction, pure and simple.
No comment on endgame, or lackthereof, in an MMO that touted what a great endgame they had, right out of the gate? I'm enjoying the game, but getting to 50 seems pointless. For me, that would have to be #1.
#2 would be how easy it is to respec and switch roles. I know, some people love this aspect of the game, but for me, it ruins the fun of making alts. It ruins the "role play" feel. It feels like there are really only four classes, and I've already tried them all. I don't like having one character that can do everything, or four characters that can do everything, in every possible way.
Rift doesn't lack for end game. What were you expecting...getting to 50 and suddenly Rift breaks out into a Call of Duty session?
Two tiers of 5 man expert level dungeons. Several expert level 5 man rifts. Several 10 man rifts/raids and at least one 20 man raid. There is plenty to do at level 50. Lack of anything to do at 50 is not something that occurs in Rift.
Why would I want to do any of that? For better gear? So I can raid some more? What kind of pointless endgame is that? Guess it doesn't help that I hate instances, too. I've yet to see any of this open world raid rift business, so I don't know.. but hard to imagine it staying fun for long, if that's all there is, other than a few instances. Especially if its really just a gear grind.
Welcome to MMORPGs?
Every MMO in existence always ends up with it's endgame focusing on doing the same general thing over and over again. If you're going to snubRift for it, then you might as well snub every other MMO on the market.
There is a difference in having a mechanic that requires you to "grind" something and then having you grind something for the exact purpose of grinding.
The "end game" (if there really is one) of Lineage 2 was pvp and the economy. Sure, players levelled and gathered mats by grinding but the reason they did this was to get more powerful so they can hold castles or hutning grounds, pvp, crafter better gear for pvp, etc.
There is a distinct difference in being at top lvl and just running things to get better gear so you you can run things to get better gear.
Having said that, if there was an inherent joy in running these instances, regardless of the rewards then I could easily say "sure, run them because they are fun". It's my hope that people are having fun while doing this stuff.
But sometimes it seems players are just doing things because they are driven to do them because it's there.
I hate when people say all MMOs are like this. It's not true at all. It's as if people think that WoW is all other MMOs. I know a lot of MMOs just keep copying WoW, but its hardly been all of them, ever.
There's an endgame thread over on the Rift forums, where one person mentions crafting, and how in a few MMOs (e.g. DAOC) you could get the best gear from crafting. Not crafting + rare crafting drops. Just crafting. That alone, to me, suggests just how different that endgame was. If it was all a gear grind, crafting alone would have destroyed it. There were still raids, and cool looking rare loot, but there was an alternative. They didn't try to make the whole endgame about it - untill TOA, and I don't think I need to point out what that did for their longevity.
When I want a single-player story, I'll play a single-player game. When I play an MMO, I want a massively multiplayer world.
Rift is a well polished game comepared to other MMORPG that are out there atm. I think everyone is jumping the gun on Rift too much. If any of you played WOW when it first came out.. you will know that they had the same issues, but with loads.. and loads of bugs. I remember when I hit level cap in WOW and there was nothing to do but wold pvp at the cross roads and major cities or duel right outside of Ironforge. Even WoW's interface sucked (why do you think there was so many addons that was downloadable?) As for Rift... is a new game.. what do you expect? For me they have a great start... better than any game that has came out yet.
PvP.. here is a thing.. I think there will and always be a classes great for pvp and classes great for PVE... It was so exhausting to read up people saying how they have had issues that mages get pawned by melee classes and melee classes have issues about mages 2 shotting them... err well guess what.. mages are power house range squishies... and warroirs are Melee power houses.. so yeah.. Rift is a new game I am sure things will change for the better.
Crafting I have to agree with. I feel they just put it in so they can just suck in "people that likes to craft" I kinda wish they would have done a little bit more with it. I jused to love FFonline crafting.. it was more challenging to get ingredients that you needed.. but everything you make was useful.. meaning not junk for you to skill up and somehow rewarding one way or another.
Questing .. I feel there are way too many hard core power levelers that forget to "Take time to smell the roses" on this game. Only if you knew how much gaming companies spend on writing to make something great just for people to click and go. I would be like going to a fine dine resto and asking for ketchup with your 350$ US dollar meal. Me, I like to get into the game as much as I can.. I mean come on you paid for the game.. might as well get what you can out of it right?
Solo is where I hope they enhance sometime soon. Not everyday I have time wait for friends to be on the same time as I nor patience to deal with some troll that is in your pug group. Sometimes it is nice to turn off "Vent" and Chat rooms and just be more aware of the ingame solo world.
All in all I agree with the 5, but I have high hopes that Trion will move forward with this game with improvements.
IMO after WoW, no MMORPG using traditional Quest system, should have worst design than WoW. Rift has a Worst Design. Sorry, but CAT WoW has way more interesting Quest design.
Hard to disagree on those 5 things other then nit picking pvp balance .
PvP balance is a ongoing debate , it doesn´t matter if it simplified like Blizzard is doing and they gotten 6 years time to balance it .
Basically what one consider PvP balance another consider no fun .
This is the basic argument that plague PvP balance , Now I have seen only one type of real balance that is all level 1 and just smack it out , even then somebody would complain .
why does mine take 2 hit to kill somebody , and the rest kills with 1 hit .
I do not know how in this age people will balance out PvP , simply put by nerfing and buffing it always seem to backfire , maybe by saying ok what is considered balanced class in PvP .
Then raising all classes to be within that balance , and nerfing all classes to that balance.
But many gamers will cry foul and murder either way , too much nerd rage , but then all cry foul and murder if other classes are OP .
One of the main reasons , I really do not particepate in PvP anymore .
Comments
Oh what a Mess. What a self-made Mess :-) Then I would prefer reading those great Books instead of... Crafting shit? Honestly there is nothing what "you get out of" Crafting by watching your virtual Character craft something, for your personal Life.
People stop wasting your Time with MMOs that don't "give you anything". When you first discover a little bit of boredom, stop playing immediatelly. You know neither twinking isn't changing the issue nor changing Faction.
Do something for your Brain! Stop playing Games which do not stress your Brain for good.
Letting your Brain constantly run on "Sleep-Mode" because you do repetative Stuff and/or being bored is no good at all.
True. Hearing that very often in the last Months. But sadly there is no difference yet, except Age of Conan (gets repetative aswell but atleast something different).
Developers have no Ideas these Days.
Let's see... There are the puzzles in every zones, some 30+ cairns to locate and plunder, and then there are the random dailies that pop up, not to mention the quests from the Ancient Wardstones that become available when you recreate them. None of those can be found or are even discussed in the quest hubs. Combined with the random invasions, mega-invasions, and rifts, you're never going to have the same path through twice. I've done it 10 times now (4 in Beta), and I can honestly say that no 2 alts ever experience the same game, even when I use the same build on both sides.
dont forget the dumb nerfs. thats what happens when ppl have no idea on what they doing and start reacting to the nerf whinners in the forums.
the exodus is alreayd on the way.. most servers used to be full.. now medium.. im guessing low soon..
yay gj nerfing most of the playign comunity Trion. Clever move.
Pathetic endgame gets no mention?
Horrible warfront PvP?
Comletely uninspired pve dungeons?
Rift after rift after rift after rift, all the same?
Wow really?
Lifeless Questing have always been like that in most games that I've played, the reason why that it feel so liveless and so uninteresting is because of the repeativeness and how it's not so uneventful. when I do quest , I don't expect just a reward, experance, and reputation bonuses, I expect scene changes and upgrades around the area that I just did, so If I kill x amount of monster, I should be seeing less of that monsters spawning in the area, if I try to collect an X amount of items to stop this roaming plague, I should see most people getting sick at first, and after I deliver and finish the quest, I should not see so many plague victims, not only that I should see some cinematics to see how well my "heroic" acts actually turns out.
I've been soloing during the multiple rift beta's that i've attended to this game and got bored of it due to how repeatitive it is, it feel more like WoW and other mmo games that does not have much life to soloing that make it feels very bland and does not make me wish to continue on.
I love crafting but I also dislike how the developers become lazy and not making something very brand new and innovative then just "duhhhhhh, we just copy this and make a small adjustment then duhhhhhhh the players think it's ok".... Seriously, it felt like they don't want to do crafting or they just too damn lazy to make something up and add something innovate that make people want to get into, but these people just copy and paste and ignore it. sometimes it pisses me off when devs started being lazy on certain parts.
What about no guild bank?
I fully agree with this article. I bought the game, played a good amount the first 10 days or so and once I hit level 30-35 I really just couldn't continue. The questing is so mindless, I'm feeling like I'm being dragged along a beaten path, one that doesn't have any forks in the road for other alternative options. You go from hub to hub doing the same kill and loot quests over and over.
I'm stuck on level 41 in Droughtlands, unable to find a reason to log in. I will not be subbing past the initial 30 days.
I found out after I levelled my cleric that there was so much content I missed in certain zones I never even knew about at all, half of freemarch quests for a start.
I only noticed the stuff I missed because I decided to roll a new character and did a little more exploring of zones. If you are just relying on being led by quest hubs then you will not see it all.
I basically agree. I made the mistake of creating each archtype and began leveling. Made it to 25 with one, 15 with the other, and burned out at 10 with the third as I couldn't take the same quests again. I thought about changing factions, but I like my faction. Also, I imagine that the quests are pretty much the same no matter what faction you get on.
I self identify as a monkey.
In remember that in the 10-20 Defiant zone there is a "secret" hub next to the entrance of Iron Tombs. It involves some group quests that give quite the cheer amount of exp.
And on the other things, I agree and I am happy that MMORPG.com finally acknowledges flaws in a highly hyped game.
1) Lifeless questing
Tbh i dont know what ppl expect. I didn't found solo quests anything spectacular in any mmo i've played. Rift offers enough variety of content to solo+pug to not level with just quests if you feel bored with them.
2) Solo play
Ok so you want to do everything solo. That means you skip warfronts, rifts, invasions, instances = 4/5 of game content, even though game made add-hoc grouping best i have seen. If you want to realy ignore grouping, even in game where it is so easy to make a group like in Rift, I think you are playing wrong game type, you would be better with dragon age 2 proly.
3) Checklist crafting
Agree here.
4) PvP Balance
PvP balance in mmo is myth. Period. The thing which is great in Rift that there is only 4 callings, and each of the calling offers a lot of variety what to play. So the chance you will end-up with almost unplayable character in PvP is almost zero. Unless you insists that you will play soul XY at all costs, but then it's just your decision to ignore PvP viable build of your calling = your fault.
5) 2 lvling paths
Partialy agree. Till lvl 30 there is not much choice where to do quests (you can still decide ignore tham and level perfectly fine). After that it gets better. I have most quests in Moonshade, Iron Pine Peak and Stillmore left untouched. World is signifantly smaller than in vanila wow for example, but i suspect it has a lot to do with budget avaible to make a game (thats not excuse, but just most probable reason). But i'm not sure if money reinvested back to the game are not better spent for end game content compared to new starting zone.
I agree on some points of this article.
Crafting is kinda bleh,as is the questing..I find myself doing more warfronts now than actually pveing or rifting.
I think one thing that also hinders Rift is the multiple soul sets one can accrue throughout their levels.I think Trion shot themselves in the foot here as Im already seeing the low level zones becoming thin of players(atleast at the time I play) compared to the first couple weeks.Sure, the whole 'going through the same content' thing stinks,but I think people would still do it to level their would be alts if the multiple soul sets didnt exist.I also think it will hurt their subs as people have already tried every build they desired to and are sitting at end game being bored.
how is that you basically copy and pasted your "5 things rift did right" for this?
i actually liked this place for the great views and write ups on games. Until recently... mmorpg is just going down hill!
What is there to play thats harder, and more intresting than rift then?
(-_-)
Wow (no pun intended) I'm sure Activision Blizzard likes to see this on the front page of mmorpg.com I only played Rift in the beta, so I don't have a whole lot to say about it. But what I will say is that it seems like the reviewer doesn't like MMORPG's.. at least the "classic" version of them. (Maybe he likes something like DCU haha...) And sure, I hate the stale, stagnant, grindy feel of some MMO's too. But it's like cool.. all of the things he pointed out wrong with Rift could apply to WOW; although, I certainly understand the article was about Rift; not World of Warcraft. And he said he doesn't like the themepark aspect of a themepark MMO ir "lifeless" questing that is a part of any MMO. Great... Such a good article...
-----------------------------
Real as Reality Television!!!
I agree with the list.
Questing is very blah. and at 50 you get to repeat these quests.... the same ones... everyday...forever....until you cancel.
I'm a crafter and IMO the worst part of the crafting is that theres not much to make thats desired. For instance, as an outfitter about the only thing that people want is bags. So everyone makes bags... until everyone has to pretty much give bags away. Theres some decent purple stuff to make but the recipies are bought with artisan plaques which is aquired by getting lucky (rng) doing a (yep, just one at 300 skill) quests every day. sometimes you can go a couple weeks without getting one....single....plaque. so you dont make anything.
Balance wouldnt be too bad but instead of tweaks they are into the complete kneejerk nerf/buff stuff that developers should have learned not to do many years ago. If something is OP then tone it down...a little at a time.
Just my Opinion...
Palazious <The Vindicators> Darkfall
Palazious r40, rr45 SW War
Palazious 50 Pirate PoTBS
Palazious 35 Sorcerer Vanguard
Palazious 75 wizard EQ
Paladori 50 Champion LOTRO
Poppa Reaver bugged at rank15
Sure, there are plenty of things that they can improve... but they've still done more things "right" than any other release in the past 5 years. Based on the devs response to the beta, I'm sure that they'll continue to improve the game as time goes on.
I was just thinking that, for all what Bill could do was praise DCU. Still atleast a lot of us could see through what was being wrote.
I wont buy or play Rift but i congratulate the team on how they progressed with the betas, a shame a few more companys don't follow there lead.
This isnt a review article though,he's just giving some of his opinions on what he thinks Trion did wrong.In contrast to his last article on the 5 things he thinks they did right.
Hey, long time listener, first time caller. I've been around, you know, started with UO, died, first try, became a ghost, then quit. Got hooked on Diablo until my evil daughter brought her friends from school, armed witha CD of EQ. Fuckers, I never did anything else, short of work, playing that thing. I spent 3 months on the newbie log, yep, that was me. Along comes, WoW and EQ2, and being a pure gamer, chose EQ2, played that until my computer choked on the graphics.
Took my friend twisting my ear to play WoW, played that thing forever, day 1 till of late. I swear, BG's pre BC kicked. Still got m Lt. General titel and everything. Alas, after BC, took a hiatus, went back to WoW, 10 times, tried AoC, Warhammer, Lotro, you name it, played most for a few months, got stuck on Warhammers Scenarios, although the PQ's were cool for the first week until no one shoed anymore.
Welp, long story short, found Rift. Yup, first game that just popped up on me without knowing shit about it, tried the Beta, Meh!. Then, after careful review of these sacred threads, went back and have not looked back, since. My GF won't let me stop playing, she's hooked, too. So, my point is, the worst 5 things of this game, number one, addiction, pure and simple.
and then?
I hate when people say all MMOs are like this. It's not true at all. It's as if people think that WoW is all other MMOs. I know a lot of MMOs just keep copying WoW, but its hardly been all of them, ever.
There's an endgame thread over on the Rift forums, where one person mentions crafting, and how in a few MMOs (e.g. DAOC) you could get the best gear from crafting. Not crafting + rare crafting drops. Just crafting. That alone, to me, suggests just how different that endgame was. If it was all a gear grind, crafting alone would have destroyed it. There were still raids, and cool looking rare loot, but there was an alternative. They didn't try to make the whole endgame about it - untill TOA, and I don't think I need to point out what that did for their longevity.
When I want a single-player story, I'll play a single-player game. When I play an MMO, I want a massively multiplayer world.
I can agree with the 5 but here is my opinion:
Rift is a well polished game comepared to other MMORPG that are out there atm. I think everyone is jumping the gun on Rift too much. If any of you played WOW when it first came out.. you will know that they had the same issues, but with loads.. and loads of bugs. I remember when I hit level cap in WOW and there was nothing to do but wold pvp at the cross roads and major cities or duel right outside of Ironforge. Even WoW's interface sucked (why do you think there was so many addons that was downloadable?) As for Rift... is a new game.. what do you expect? For me they have a great start... better than any game that has came out yet.
PvP.. here is a thing.. I think there will and always be a classes great for pvp and classes great for PVE... It was so exhausting to read up people saying how they have had issues that mages get pawned by melee classes and melee classes have issues about mages 2 shotting them... err well guess what.. mages are power house range squishies... and warroirs are Melee power houses.. so yeah.. Rift is a new game I am sure things will change for the better.
Crafting I have to agree with. I feel they just put it in so they can just suck in "people that likes to craft" I kinda wish they would have done a little bit more with it. I jused to love FFonline crafting.. it was more challenging to get ingredients that you needed.. but everything you make was useful.. meaning not junk for you to skill up and somehow rewarding one way or another.
Questing .. I feel there are way too many hard core power levelers that forget to "Take time to smell the roses" on this game. Only if you knew how much gaming companies spend on writing to make something great just for people to click and go. I would be like going to a fine dine resto and asking for ketchup with your 350$ US dollar meal. Me, I like to get into the game as much as I can.. I mean come on you paid for the game.. might as well get what you can out of it right?
Solo is where I hope they enhance sometime soon. Not everyday I have time wait for friends to be on the same time as I nor patience to deal with some troll that is in your pug group. Sometimes it is nice to turn off "Vent" and Chat rooms and just be more aware of the ingame solo world.
All in all I agree with the 5, but I have high hopes that Trion will move forward with this game with improvements.
IMO after WoW, no MMORPG using traditional Quest system, should have worst design than WoW. Rift has a Worst Design. Sorry, but CAT WoW has way more interesting Quest design.
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
Hard to disagree on those 5 things other then nit picking pvp balance .
PvP balance is a ongoing debate , it doesn´t matter if it simplified like Blizzard is doing and they gotten 6 years time to balance it .
Basically what one consider PvP balance another consider no fun .
This is the basic argument that plague PvP balance , Now I have seen only one type of real balance that is all level 1 and just smack it out , even then somebody would complain .
why does mine take 2 hit to kill somebody , and the rest kills with 1 hit .
I do not know how in this age people will balance out PvP , simply put by nerfing and buffing it always seem to backfire , maybe by saying ok what is considered balanced class in PvP .
Then raising all classes to be within that balance , and nerfing all classes to that balance.
But many gamers will cry foul and murder either way , too much nerd rage , but then all cry foul and murder if other classes are OP .
One of the main reasons , I really do not particepate in PvP anymore .