I told you so. Server mergers. Dwindling population. Its all right on schedule. Next.
Which happens with every mmo...
Yes, indeed it happens with about every mmo -but just because it happened in WAR, AoC, Aion etc., this doesn't make Rift a better game.
We're not talking about the regular 30days+ drop, that happens to every game to an extend. We're talking about folks left WAR, AoC and the likes to the hundred thousands because these games failed bad in several ways -and Rift goes right along with them (also see Trion's more and more desperate measures).
People WOULD stay and are desperately looking for a new mmo home for years, because dev serving nothing but a shallow, worn out formula which people are burnt out of for 6 years, it has become normal that all recent years' games experienced an exodus.
But this is because of their overall lack of quality, the common point all these games share and it is in no way an excuse or an exceptable standard because "it happened to all of them".
I think if you scroll up to my post, you'll see a perfectly reasonable explanation of why server mergers and a 3 to 1 retention rate doesn't necessarily mean doom and gloom in today's market.
But just quickly to get your juices flowing, what if you found out that although 12 million sub to WoW, 30 million have tried it and quit. We don't know this, as there is no way for us in the public to know WoW or many other games retention rates. It is very possible that WoW has the same retention rate as Rift, percentage-wise - so this proves that you are missing huge pieces of evidence to support the theory that server mergers = unsuccessful.
Again, scroll up to my post - looks like you've chosen the gut reaction instead of taking into account a huge number of variables to consider.
I quit playing Rift after two months even though I have fun playing with it. The problem is that Rift's world feels too compact (very linear progression, poor replayability, poor world design, one(!) starting area for each faction). Rift's strengths are soul classes, dynamic content (rifts) and polished finish.
If we have all races' starting areas, the world (3 times bigger), multiple ways to progress to lvl 50...then Rift will have the staying power.
Right now, Trion will need to survive by bringing new players constantly which they will last 2-3 months long. Weak retention is their biggest problem.
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I think if you scroll up to my post, you'll see a perfectly reasonable explanation of why server mergers and a 3 to 1 retention rate doesn't necessarily mean doom and gloom in today's market.
But just quickly to get your juices flowing, what if you found out that although 12 million sub to WoW, 30 million have tried it and quit. We don't know this, as there is no way for us in the public to know WoW or many other games retention rates. It is very possible that WoW has the same retention rate as Rift, percentage-wise - so this proves that you are missing huge pieces of evidence to support the theory that server mergers = unsuccessful.
Again, scroll up to my post - looks like you've chosen the gut reaction instead of taking into account a huge number of variables to consider.
I quit playing Rift after two months even though I have fun playing with it. The problem is that Rift's world feels too compact (very linear progression, poor replayability, poor world design, one(!) starting area for each faction). Rift's strengths are soul classes, dynamic content (rifts) and polished finish.
If we have all races' starting areas, the world (3 times bigger), multiple ways to progress to lvl 50...then Rift will have the staying power.
Right now, Trion will need to survive by bringing new players constantly which they will last 2-3 months long. Weak retention is their biggest problem.