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Credit where credit is due
There seens to be a lot of RIFT hating these days, which makes sense cause the MMO audience seems to get more jaded and harder to please every day. I understand if you are sick of these style of game, IT IS the DIKU style progression with Meridian gameplay with an emphasis on endgame raiding that EQ made popular with the quest based leveling experience from WoW. If you don't like that sort of gameplay, you will not like RIFT. However, it does bring its own innovations and improvements making it a worthy nextgen version of this type of game, just like WoW was a nextgen EQ.
I understand all of this, I get it. The thing I don't get, RIFT never pretended to be something else. It was shooting for that audience, and unlike those "wow clones" in previous years its doing pretty well. There are reasons it didn't crash and burn like AoC, WAR, and the countless MMO titles that didn't even get a high volume of initial box sales. Trion is actually working for our dollar, and thats someting worth acknowledging.
I know this seems pretty random and very fanboyish, but I just needed to rant. I was checking out the website for Aion tonight, and saw dyes, DYES!!! in a subscription game being sold in a cashshop. Most of the titles in past years launched relatively incomplete, companies like NCSoft, Cryptic and SOE have notoriously gone for quick cash grabs; simply put my theory for the reason of RIFTs success is Trion has avoided the crucial MMO pitfalls of the post-WoW era. I've spent $120 on RIFT for a CE and a 6 month sub, and so far they've given me world events and coming out with a 2nd major content patch.
No, RIFT didn't reinvent the wheel. Still, credit where credit is due.
Comments
A.) It's not really more jaded every day, it's more jaded every release.
B.) If RIFT didn't reinvent the wheel then you give the bulk of the credit to those that did.
C.) I just said this in another thread and feel guilty for saying it here but "We're not in Azeroth anymore." was RIFT pretending that it was different for the majority of gamers. Luckily most of us chose to try the beta which was easy to get an invite to and eventually free-to-all. Many chose to purchase, many did not. (No numbers to go on but I'll grant that more probably purchased than passed, in hopes that endgame/pvp/the community would somehow be different.)
B. and C. are unrelated. I by no means pretend that WoW is original, but RIFT didn't copy wow's formula because it liked how it worked. No, they copied it because millions of players around the world like how it works.
Spec'ing properly is a gateway drug.
12 Million People have been meter spammed in heroics.
Yeah, I understand completely. My last two posts have been rants against whining MMO players and their illogical slamming of Rift.
Many of them are completely fed up with the genre and are too stupid to take a real break.
You can leave out "to take a real break" and your post would still be wildly accurate.
Rift seems like an OK game as far as I can tell from the beta and trial. I just couldn't get to into it because it reminded me of so many games I've played. I thought about buying it for a week and decided against it. I just don't feel like going through the same experience I had in other games all over again. I'm taking another break from MMOs for now.
Glad you have a game you're enjoying, though. Wish I could say the same for myself. It's been a while since I had fun in a MMO for more than a month or 2.
While I do enjoy the game, thats not the main point of my rant.
Trion is earning credibility as an MMO developer for their conduct especially when compared to other MMO studios IMO
For example, when RIFT first launched there was a hole in account security. Trion recognized the problem, quickly added coin lock, restored hacked accounts; basically they handled it well. Now lets look at, SOE; people warned them they had holes in account security, they ignored the warnings, arguably the biggest fiasco in MMO account security happens in which they have still not really addressed the issue and done very poor damage control PR-wise.
Not to mention, free server transfers, regular content patches, and did I mention they had a smooth launch because the game released in a polished state?
Look, I'm not arguing you should play the game if you don't enjoy it. A lot of you are sick of this style of game, I completely understand that. However, some of us still enjoy this particularly subgenre and it shows as this game does have a heathly playerbase.
On a sidenote, I use the term WoW-clone with quotations for a reason. I went to the trouble of adding a tangent about the evolution of this subgenre and the last game mentioned was WoW because it was hardly the first. I've been playing "WoW-clones" since '99, and even Everquest didn't invent the genre. Its like with my 5yr old cousin; my aunt was explaining to him this weekend just because something is new to him doesn't make it new, a concept a 5yr old needs explained but you all shouldn't. Just because you never played an MMO before '04 doesn't mean the genre started then.
I think Rift is important because, if nothing else, it proves that you can launch an MMORPG that works right out of the gate. This gives them credibility as developers. Since they said, "We're launching a classic mmorpg" and they launched a classic mmorpg gives them credibility in doing what they say they are going to do.
This makes their next two projects (the RTS and Defiance) look very promising. I am very much looking forward to Defiance. Not so much the SyFy tie-in, but still, it could be interesting.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
Trion does deserve credit for the smooth release and a decent level 1-49 game. They did come up with some innovations that I'd miss in future games.
They badly underestimated the shelf life of the level 50 game, and they have to get the future patches and updates, from 1.3 to 2.0, right on target and liked by the customers. If they don't, all the good will they've earned will get flushed away in Yet Another MMO Exodus of players dumping a game for parts unknown. That's a tall order, and would anyone express surprise if a lot of Adult Beverages are consumed by the Trion staff? One bad release and they get hit by the feeding frenzy of angry players.
Avatars are people too
Players are a fickle bunch. My fellow pvpers are among the worst. Still Trion has been adding pve content at a steady pace. The pvp content could be sped up a bit thou. I would like to see some game world objectives that have effects outside a wf.
I agree with the PvE patches being steady and the PvP being subpar. Rift has things to do at level 50 in PvE but not so much in PvP. Right now it is nothing more than a self perpetuating gear grind at best. You PvP to get more points to buy more gear so you can get more points to buy more gear to get more points to..... Its not like you do some content to unlock more content and get the gear along with it as PvE is, its do Scion over and over and over and well, so you can do Scion again. There isnt any new content to unlock just because you got better at the old stuff or your gear got better. Thats about all they really have at level 50 PvP right now, and why they seriously need to bring some focus to the PvP content updates sooner rather than later.
What they needed was to add more something at level 50 to split up the gear grind at a minimum (dont care if it is warfronts or open PvP zone). If Rank 1 and 2 PvP gear is the same as T1 expert PvE, Rank 3 and 4 is the equivilant of T2 experts, Rank 5 and 6 being the same as T3 PvE gear, then they should have had content to go with it just like PvE does. This would stop the grind so much, and eliminate the massive slaughter of the lower Ranks from the higher at the same time. When you reached Rank 3 you got access to a new whatever it is, at Rank 5 you opened another. Something they seriously lack.
My only complaint thus far is the server I am on seems to be dead. Nothing is ever on the Auction House. I can never sell my gear. I've been in 3 random groups, since I started on May 30. I have two toons in the level 30-40 range, and even war fronts have slowed considerably.
Rift is definitely fun, but what makes it fun requires other people to participate. I don't know if its just my server, but if the server transfers don't fix it I know I will be gone.