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Rift: The New Vanilla WoW?
This week, I decided to finally buy Rift after being a Closed Beta tester since phase 1. I finally got enough funds to consistantly pay for it and play it, so it was time for me to be a active subscriber. If you dont already know Rift is a fantasy MMORPG made by Trion Worlds, heres its description:
"Released by Trion Worlds in early 2011, Rift takes place in the world of Telara where players take on the personality of an 'Ascended'. Two competing factions of Ascended, the Guardians and the Defiant, battle through the monsters of Telara in an effort to bring down Regulos, a fallen god bent on the complete destruction of the world as it is known.
Rifts, or tears between various dimensions and Telara, are dynamic events that can open up quite suddenly. Rift events feature open grouping with players able to join one another to defeat the creatures spewing forth from the rift.
One of Rift's most compelling features is the Ascended Class System. Players begin by choosing one of four callings: Warrior, Mage, Rogue or Cleric. During the course of the game, players increase in strength and can 'attune' their callings to become more specialized and flexible." -MMORPG.com Overview
[mod edit]
Question Of The Video: Do you play/played Rift? If so, do you think it feels like Vanilla WoW? Why or why not?
Thanks for reading/listening!
Zach Sharpes
Comments
Vanilla WoW? Not a chance. Closer to the dumbed down, linear, gear-grinding Wrath of the Lich King or Cataclysm. Vanilla WoW is when World of Warcraft was at its best. Rift shouldn't even be mentioned in the same breath as that version of WoW. The only thing that is similar between those two is quantity of instances/raids.
Note that i am only speaking for myself when i say that Rift had it all to make it bare the story i could never get into, not so bad but a bit meh and childish if i may say so.
Open rift, auto grouping feature an involving kind of leaving world, yes that was cool but no ... To me and some friends and relatives the game is bland, good feature and system but without it's own soul, i would say the game lack animation wise, its a bit slow as well and while its esthetic its not charming, it lack this small soul thing.
Anyway it's still a good game and i'am glad you enjoy it, i wish i could
The story definatly isnt its strong point, but tbh like I mentioned in the video, not many care for story anymore unless we wouldnt have quest helpers in everygame. Many just want to go from quest to quest.
Its not even close to WoTLK or Cata because I cant take on two mobs, thus its not easy. Watch the video to hear my thoughts on the matter and youll understand where im coming from
Original EQ1 = about the Journey
Vanilla WoW = most of the focus is on the Journey, however the Destination is given consideration
Rift = Journey is obviously secondary to the Destination
I don't agree with that. I think the reason most people don't care about story anymore is because most mmorpgs don't have one. People have gotten used to the quick quest clicking and accepting. Watch what happens when SWTOR and GW2 come out. Once people see what a good story can do to add the "RPG" back into MMOs, people won't want to go back to the boring text quests again.
I played Rift for about 3 months, and I can say without a doubt it couldn't have been more different than Vanilla WoW if it tried. Like yourself, when I was going through Vanilla WoW, I was absolutely enraptured. I was completely hooked on the game, and I actually cared about my quests, cared about the world around me, and cared about the content. When I was levelling through Rift, I felt...nothing. The world of Telara felt like it had no soul. While nice graphically, it was boring and bland. I didn't care about the quests, and at no point did I feel awestruck while moving through the zones. In fact, the one thing I can remember is the tediousness of it all. It just wasn't very exciting. I'm not sure if it was the bland questline, the linear, claustrophobic world, or what...but it wasn't even close to vanilla wow.
You also mentioned in your video that many people have cancelled their SWTOR preorders complaining that the game is "trash" or like "WoW with lightsabers." That's more than a bit misleading. There has been very positive feedback leaked from many beta testers that they not only enjoyed the hell out of the game, but hated that they only had a few days to play it. Many of them said the storyline really does grab you and make you care about the game. I'd go so far as to say that if you are looking for the next Vanilla WoW, in terms of a game that can capture your attention and immerse you in the game, SWTOR is much closer to that than Rift has ever been. The same could be said for GW2. Story does matter.
I didn't play a mage when I played Rift, but I did play warrior, rogue, and cleric. Even at level 12, I was pulling multiple mobs and having no issues killing them. Maybe it's the mage class. But levelling in Rift is ridiculously easy. Watch some gameplay videos of a cleric in action--paricularly one specced inquisitor/justicar.
Rift has a story. If you can't be bothered to actually read the quest text, that's not Trion's problem. There are plenty of different ways the story is infused throughout the entire world. There are plenty of different ways you can learn about the story. You just don't want to. How else do you want them to give you the story? If you want SWTOR voiceovers, again & again, have at them. GW2 should have an interesting way of delivering story. But Rift doesn't conceal it or try to make it boring. They just can't cater to your personal convenience.
So true.
Yeah, Im sorry I cant make it through the video. I disagree with your take almost completely.
What made me ultimately shut it off was the whole 'everything is a wow clone' nonsense. Here is something that I posted elsewhere about the issue:
People seem to be ignoring the real reasons why Rift is considered a WoW clone. Almost all of its systems follow very closely to WoW with tweaks.
Is Rift a true ‘clone’, of course not. But it borrowed VERY heavily from WoW, and WoW in no way remotely did this from EQ.
Lets take a simple one, the user interface. Compare EQ, DAoC and UO with WoW. Now compare Rift with WoW. The design elements are extremely similar. Yes, it works. Yes other games have copied it from WoW. But it is taking WoW’s UI and tweaking it instead of creating a new one.
Lets look at tradeskills next. In EQ1 you gathered a whole variety of items, and combined them in tradeskill containers. You werent always given recipes, you could experiment. Success wasnt a given, neither was a skill up.
Now comes WoW. In WoW you learn your recipe, gather the items, and presto you have an item. Orange is guaranteed skill up, Yellow is a decent chance, green is small chance, grey is no chance. Hmm this system sounds awfully familiar does it not?
How about leveling up? What happens when you dinged in EQ? Not a lot…your stat caps went up, maybe you had access to new spells.
In WoW? You gained a talent point you could spend in one of 3 trees. Also every two levels you go to your trainer to train your old skills up ranks (removed from WoW shortly before Rift launch, but it was there for 6 years). Sound familiar? Yes, Rift lets you choose the trees and they added the root system. But its blatantly obvious what they used as the base for their system.
Gear acquisition. EQ had big open dungeons with boss spawns that people would camp. Getting a new piece of gear in EQ was usually a rather big deal, as gear wasnt the only source of progression (spells and eventually AA, as well as augments to the gear).
WoW? Instanced dungeons, clones of ones you did while leveling up. Doing these dungeons earned you points to by gear. Gear is swapped out rather fast. Green is basic gear, blue is very good, and purple is awesome. Gear is the only form of progression. Familiar, right?
Now Rift has recently changed the gear being only progression aspect. But at launch it was there.
PvP systems are very similar in WoW and Rift two with BGs/WFs and Honor/Favor. EQ did not have PvP.
I never thought WoW was an EQ clone, and people at the time rarely called it that. It took a look at EQ and the other games out at the time, and said ‘how can we do this better?’ and created their own game with their own systems.
I get the felling when paying Rift they took WoW and said ‘how can we make WoW better’, and set out making WoW better as opposed to starting from scratch with their own unique mechanics.
‘WoW clone’ is really the truth. That doesnt mean Trion made a bad game by a long stretch. I feel there are some things WoW did a TREMENDOUSLY better job with (almost none of these are gameplay related), but Trion most certainly made some improvements to the formula.
My three big beefs are the tradeskill systems, the recycled dungeon grinding for currency, and the gear only progression. 1 down, 2 to go Trion. But with games like SWG, VG, FFXI, EQ1, and EQ2 all having unique takes on crafting why did Trion have to copy the bland one that WoW uses? Yes, I know there are improvements. But its just so damn unimaginative.
That's all well and good, but you are attributing things to me that I didn't say. I never said I'm one of the players that doesn't bother reading quest text. I played on a RP server when I played Rift, collected and read all the lore pages and books, read the quest texts, hunted for artifacts, etc, because I enjoy the story aspect of MMOs. I didn't enjoy Rift's story at all. It was quite simply, very boring. My opinion, obviously, but one that is shared by a lot of people that have since left the game. The levelling process wasn't fun or engaging at all.
But I didn't just blow off the story aspect. I tried. There just wasn't much there and it didn't keep me interested.
Its not that its not there, is its not very good. And there is no flair to the storytelling or quest text, its boring.
Exactly correct.
Not in a million years, this game while having alot of promise did nothing, I mean nothing to up the ante, no it did not have to be revolutionary, but it sure as hell couldv've done something incredible. Not to mention the world does not even feel like a world, it feels like a jigsaw puzzle and each peice is a quest, and all the quests fit in right next to each ohter. Perhaps next time they will hire better world designers. Oh and are there faction cities yet?
Any mmo worth its salt should be like a good prostitute when it comes to its game world- One hell of a faker, and a damn good shaker!
Hi Zach!
Being a great fan of vanilla WoW, i followed your clip with interest. I was hoping that i could maybe catch the drift i miss as to how Rift is alot like vanilla WoW, but i just cannot agree. Between your lines i think i also heard a bit of some nostalgia, like looking for the old vibe in Rift that we all once lost in WoW and lack in games until today.
But it sort of comes down to a simple point: If Rift only had half of the epicness Vanilla WoW had, it wouldn't bleed subs left and right.
-no active or meaningfull conflict between the factions in Rift, while speaking about what went on on the pvp-servers between the wow factions is a topic on it's own
-little identification value playing your faction aka faction pride. In WoW players actually hated the opposite faction and stopped all actions to take 10min flights to defend an outpost in the hinterlands
-in vanilla i could run every level instance 24/7 without DF, in Rift no one does lower level dungeons allover your realmpool
-people in every level zones in vanilla, while Rift takes place at lvl50 only after a few month already
-vanilla had zones and locations that oozed "character"...the blackrock, all STV, plaguelands, hillsbrad foothills etc etc etc! Rift has....?
-Lore...while WoW's lore is not the best, Rift's lore....erm.
-in vanilla people made friendships at level 12 that lasted for years and beyond addons. In Rift NO ONE EVEN TALKS.
-vanilla world was an alive place where one met players logging in at 5 in the morning on a level 40 char. Rift is dead below 50 after a few month already.
-items had a different meaning in vanilla. i'm shure many players remember their first mount and farming for days for it...or their first epic item. Folks with epics gear in IF got cheered to. The blue T0 set which folks made an effort to to upgrade it to T0,5. Nothing of all this is anywhere in Rift.
-replay value, bringing us to
-diversity of classes and their respective mechanics
See, I could go on for many more points here.
To be fair the gap between Rift and vanilla WoW is not only related to content or game mechanics, but also a result of the player's mindset that has changed by the years. But i'm shure Trion could have bought more to the table to make Rift more vanilla, if they wouldn't have been so stubborn to play it safe at all cost aiming for another WOTLK.
Most of the aspects you mentioned are community related, and honestly the mmorpg community as a whole has become this non talking community rather than what we saw in Vanilla WoW which was a social tightly nit community that did many things together. Now we have random LFG systems that pair people up, and the reason no ones doing low level content is theres no tanks, which is the same problem in every game. If you are a tank its almost a instant pop because you already have a healer and dps waiting for you. That is a problem in all games with that LFG mechanic.
I agree with most of what you have said, but to me it feels like Vanilla WoW, but with the MMORPG community to what it has become today.
-Zach Sharpes
Everyone is so boring with this storyes about WOW clones.... every single game is WOW clone so far.... i really dont care.... i know games are similar.... have some same things but in diferent package... but if you look it like than every song is similar..... all songs have notes.......... in different package..... so pls STOP IT.... if you dont like it dont play it.... some of us really dont care you dont like it..
Everythings only a WoW clone because WoW was extremely popular. Not because it is a clone at all. Everything in terms is a clone, movies are clones of one enougher most of the time with new twists and turns, Rift is the same, athough it is different the similaritys shine through. Thats how society is.
"Another", "Similarities"
Meh im one to say that grammar/spelling isnt as important as beliefs and ideas. Most of what I say can be decoded easily xD
All I can say is we need 2 accept that Rift is here, and it is here 2 stay
I love the game, by far the best MMO I have played too date, and I have played
them all.
Animation in this game rocks, If you don't see it, you don't know crap about animation
Just by the way, I am an animator
Anyhow Rift Rocks! And life goes on! And all you haters go hate on SOE
you are right, I just wanted to use the grammar nazi derp gif
Exactly... and thats the point i made in the video.
I would not say :
" The new vanilla WoW ", ............but.............. "Looks and feels somewhat like Vanilla WoW ".
Many things remind the player of Vanilla WoW :
- World, Zones,
- Graphics.
- Classes can almost simulate WoW classes, if built right.
Many things are not :
- It's largest deviation form Vanilla WoW, and its most negative aspect to make it any sort of a WoW killer, or from stealing WoW players for any amount of time is it's linear quest chains.......This alone is why most never stay past the first month, or past like level 35. In Vanilla WoW you enter the world and do what ever you like, quest with anyone you like, move to another zone if you like. THE WORLD WAS YOUR PLAY GROUND to do what you like.
- Many newer mmo's seem to loose customers after the first month. Many just leave without ever giving it any thought as to why. I spend the time figuring it out from a Social point of view.
WITH RIFT, YOU WILL PLAY ALONE UNTIL MAX LEVEL.... quest chains are the problem.
1) no one chats
2) guilds will not help
3) no one will play with me
4) I think I'll quit, this game is boring
All this because of quest chains. It has potential to become the new Vanilla WoW, but in order for Trion to do so, it would have to change its strategy in a large way. Remove quest chains, Add more starter zones, Add more questing zones. INCREASE WORLD SIZE. Vanilla WoW opened it's doors with many more options to play as you like.....Because Rift released with far less content than Vanilla WoW, they will forever be playing catch up. New Players will chew up any kind of content that Trion can give them in just a few days. It almost had to have been in there from the start.
With all this, I must say I'm still enjoying Rift, but not crazy about playing alone and doing it anyway. I'm playing Guardian, I could get some replay value by playing defiant, but not much ( life expectancy for me is about 3 or 4 Months )
You could not be more wrong. Rift is a WoW clone because it used WoW for a blueprint. Almost every single system in the game is based off the same system exactly how it appears in WoW. It goes beyond the genre similarities. Read my post earlier about it. Its impossible to take anyone seriously who does not admit it is a WoW clone.
People need to get over themselves by trying to say Rift isn't a WoW clone: It is, get over it. If its done right thats not a bad thing. For many people, it is done right.