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Why does RIFT feel lacking? Could it be you?
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Being a responsive developer, and shoveling more lame content at a breakneck pace also don't make the game's mechanics, game play, or basic design any better. If you have a boat with a 6 foot hole in the bottom, it doesn't matter how fast and hard you paddle. You're still going down.
Play what you want, it's your money. Personally, a company is going to have to do quite a bit better in the fundamental game design and innovation department in order to get my money.
A game that set out to gain mass-market success by trying to heavily emulate and distill the formula of a prior successful game, and then ends up losing 3/4 of their players in the first six months... I don't know what you call that, but I call it a niche game. The number of people willing to pay monthly for what you get in Rift is very limited, and shrinking every month.
These type of games are fine, but they have removed TONS of social features that made these games different.
The issue with this arguement is ever since patch 1.0 is they have done things Blizzard told me was not technologically possible. If you played WoW for any period of time then you know the goal is raid heroics...get guild or pug..go raids. If you want great gear you go raid and if you do not raid you pvp for semi decent gear that is useless in raids.
I am not going to sit here and list everything that is different, but right now outside of the fantasy setting they are two very different games. Maybe in 1.0 or 1.1 it looked like they were going to do that raid or die developing stlye, but it has not gone that route at all.
The reason you see features in Rift from WoW like addons or x-server LFG is the game went after a specific audience and that specific audience likes certain things. If done correctly as Trion has proved cross server LFG does not result in people only standing in cities not talking or grouping like it did in WoW.
The two games learn from each other and if you read Trion patch notes and Blizzard patch notes you really do see it. I am fully convinced right now there has got to be a Blizzard dev playing Rift.
You did noticed in my post my longest playing MMO is 7 year and it is EQ2? I will be in EQ2 until the lights are turn out but I do not compare my experiences in EQ2 to RIFT. They are very different. I never said play RIFT like EQ2 or SWG (pre-nge). I play RIFT for what it offers. I also have not been defending RIFT. You are right it is possible to make an in depth and engaging, themepark MMO and for me Trion did just that. Is it as deep as EQ2? Nope, but no one said it was.
What I love about RIFT and WOW was that you can jump into the game for an hour get in some trouble, earn something cool, log out, and get back to the real world and feel you did something. RIFT is deep enough that when I have 4 hours to play I can challenge myself, immerse myself in the world, and even roleplay. I feel that is what Trion was trying to do and they succeeded at it. If you are a player that can sit for 6+ hours a day everyday then RIFT is not for you. So stop judging RIFT based on something it was not intended to be.
Now here is someone I disagree with but have no problem with their opinion. They played RIFT realized the effort of Trion, felt for them it lacked "soul" and moved on to Vanguard a great game (I forgot to put Vanguard on my list, played it about a year) No mention RIFT was not like WOW, EQ2 or some other MMO and did not try to explain why I should not like it. I disagree about RIFT lacking "soul" that is why I play it even with it's shortcomings. For me it has a lot of enviroment and feels alive which gives it "soul" but I do agree Vanguard can be a blast.
The reasons Rift feels lacking are these:
it has a world slightly larger than my living room
it is very linear without any (despite faction) options for alternative advancements.
There is little customization and the armour is hideous.
The quests are generally 'kill 10 rats'.
Overall it is dull.
Be your character, enjoy the world, escape from real life for awile (by turning off distractions) .. yes I couldnt agree more.
And yet I come to the opposite conclusion, the new games (mmorpg) cannot do that for me anymore, but older games still can.
You challange a fact with a very well played card, the "you are the problem" card which is extremely hard to argue against.
But offcourse it is me who is the problem.
"I am my connectome" https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HA7GwKXfJB0
What's the old saying...
If something stinks in every room you walk into...it might be you that stinks.
The original poster's idea doesn't work... because you can't claim that all the hundreds of thousands of players who have tried Rift and stopped playing are ALL the problem. It's not the game, it's 750,000 gamers that are the problem. Not bloody likely.
I didn't say I didn't like Rift. I liked it well enough in beta to buy a six month sub. You are disconnecting here. The game is okay but it gets boring, period, and that doesn't mean I didn't like it, (you people with your 'absolutes' kill me) so actually you don't get it. I think it fell hard on it's rift immersion; they just end up being loot pinatas.I played for three months at a healthy clip and had two full 50s in that time. That's pretty slow compared to most people that were in my guild or even in the game. Your slow comment isn't relevant to me.
If your intention was to say imagination was something OTHER than imagination, then you should have said so. But usually imagination means just what it suggests. But you clearly stated you use imagination for books and then say as an artist you'd be sad if people didn't use their imagination looking at art. Then you say you think mmos are an art form.
Conclusion: You think people should use their imagination while playing MMOs in order to appreciate it or something. This is where Rift failed me.. as an "art form", it was rather boring and didn't inspire imagination to me.
You think the game is stocked with content and interesting things to do. I think after three months I had experience all I wanted and even a small part of what I didn't want and found it okay, but lacking. That's just opinions we both have, not facts either side.
Using imagination is good, but when you've done just about all the quests, seen all the zones and all you have left is either four Warfronts (which they had then) or raiding two dungeons over and over and over, that gets old for me. No amount of "imagination" could make shiny hunting any more interesting and I don't count that or achievements as "content" either. Perhaps you do, but that kind of thing is what passes in most games these days and it's sad so many players lower their standards to that. It's exactly why mmos are in the state they were the last few years. /sigh
I played FFXI for almost four years. I think that qualifies as using imagination while playing considering half the time of the leveling there is straight mob grinding parties for hours on end (the other half engaging lore/story/cutscences).
Please don't lecture me about imagination. I'll give you one thing you said right: if anyone is planning on playing Rift for any long period of time, they'd BETTER have helluva imagination to get through it.
"TO MICHAEL!"
One thing I wonder if they ever considered. I do not believe every fed ex quest should have voice overs and cut scenes like you see in ToR, but there are obvious quest in yellow that say story where they could include basically a play button to have to read to you?
That seems like the most logical way to put it into a mmorpg. It will add time, but you do not need to do it for every quest. Trion is experimenting with voice overs and the Chronicles really do show that.
The problem is the game sends you from that into the world with nothing but tons of quests that are menial but you have to read each one to make sure you aren't skipping out on proper game lore that's important to keep that feel. You have to make sure you're just skipping Farmer Bill's boring rant about mutant pigs instead of the first part of a meaningful chain. Reading isn't the problem; I LOVE to read (hence being on forums) but the problem is they make you visually wade through tons of garbage to get to the good stuff.
It's like seeing a 15 page thread and wishing you could just skip all the crap and "blah blah blah" people write that has nothing to do with the topic and get to all the good posts, but then you'd end up with two pages. It's just filler you're stuck with.
In a game like TOR, they give you lots of cutscenes, a bit too much for some but they give you plenty. That will be the main quest always, not the "kill ten pigs" quest in a cutscene. You'll pick that one up as a side quest instead to go along with the MAIN one. This is where Rift needed to improve for me because the main quest you had to dig for and then half the time it was only so engaging overall, so you were mad you had to dig through crap to see a mediocre questline.
"TO MICHAEL!"
I'm sorry, but I didn't read the OP post, just the title.
And it's true. I didn't realize it before but after thinking about it, Rift probably does feel lacking because I'm not playing it. I'm sorry to all of you that are not able to appreciate the full experience of MMORPG gameplay because I'm not playing the game that you are. I really wish I had time for it, but I don't. I honestly hope that Rift will be able to stand on it's own enough to be an enjoyable experience even without me there.
That being said, I'm actually quite impressed with the numbers that Rift has been able to hold on to. It's done alot better then I had guessed it would.
All of my posts are either intelligent, thought provoking, funny, satirical, sarcastic or intentionally disrespectful. Take your pick.
I get banned in the forums for games I love, so lets see if I do better in the forums for games I hate.
I enjoy the serenity of not caring what your opinion is.
I don't hate much, but I hate Apple© with a passion. If Steve Jobs was alive, I would punch him in the face.
Op your statement (if taken in general) about mmo gamers becoming less immersed and more A.D.D. while playing is certainly true (I am one of them). I think that’s mostly a product of the average games level of experience in MMO’s and the maturity of the industry in general. What Im saying is it Rift came out in 2004 the majority of people would of played it much more similar to yourself.
I’ll be honest like everyone else I ordered RIFT and like the majority on this thread found it lacking in substance, imagination and just plain fun.
This is just a suggestion but if you like rift (I’m glad you do) you should try wow it’s much more bang for your buck and in my opinion far superior to rift in almost every way.
Most people went to Rift to escape WoW, playing a poorly funded (compared to Wow) clone of the game your getting away from in retrospect was probably a bad idea for most of us.
Also to be honest giving the number of AAA mmos coming out in the next year I wouldn’t expect Rift to have much of a shelf life in the years or possibly months to come (sorry my friend but its true). Another reason to invest in a second game.
Sorry I see now you've played other MMO's your OP made me assume this was your first MMO. In that case...ummmm well Im glad you like the game and enjoy it but again not sure if the company will survive the onslaught on AAA games coming in the next year. If it does it will certainly be FTP
I'm not arguing that Rift isnt sold, but it lacks so much compared to other games. Its linear and repitive. The main cities are small and dont seem natural. The story isnt too bad but you dont really feel part of the world.
Every game is lacking in areas but Rift seems to just be thrown together and is lacking in a LOT of areas.
I don't know how rift is so popular it is by far the dullest mmo i have played yet. i had the least amount of fun in rift than any other mmo i purchased.
Trust your instincts. It isn't that popular. It just has a rather noisy (and ever shrinking) base of fans who refuse to admit that polish and a dedicated dev team don't make up for a bad game.
Could you supply some numbers? I ask because my "medium" pop server is very active.
Really? This game sucks and Im not having fun? Im going to unsub right now. Thanks for the tip.
Can you supply some numbers?
Ah. Didn't think so.
In fact, can you supply the specific number which makes a Rift server "medium" populated? Is it 200? 2000?
No? Hm. Do you deny that the current subscriber base is much, much smaller than the number of units originally sold? If the population has shrunk...how do you explain that? If the game is popular and doing well, why isn't the population growing instead of shrinking?
It's great for you that Trion continues to hide their sales / sub numbers. It provides you with the ability to answer every criticism with "do you have numbers?" Of course we don't, because Trion knows they look bad and doesn't want to create any additional negative momentum. It's pretty much exactly like before the game released, when the NDA was in effect for all of us players who played the game for a significant amount of time... only players who played for a single weekend were allowed to convey their experiences. It was perfect...they could talk about how polished the game was in the most shallow possible review, and we couldn't contradict them and explain how quickly it becomes difficult to log in.
Luckily, before long, no amount of marketing tricks or carefully orchestrated info release can save a game if it isn't fun to play. Most players who bought the game found it lacking...and are no longer subscribing. I don't need specific numbers to know this game is hanging on only because there's pretty much nothing else to play at the moment.
Amazing.. it's as if you peeked into my mind and posted my exact thoughts Ecco. I could not agree more. I play all my MMO's this way. Probably the reason I never reach lvl cap in any MMO I have played. Curently playing Age of Conan right now and having a blast. Game is amazing. Can't believe I have never tried it before now. Best MMO experience I have had to date. Seriously.
EDIT: I too am over 50. Your only as young as you feel and I feel great even though everyone I know thinks I'm crazy to be playing a viji-o game at my age. There all just jealous cause I have more fun than them...
Let's avoid baiting other users guys. Thanks!
Who decides what is a "bad" game? You? You and your group of friends? A guild somewhere? You're stating that you knew Rift was a failure from the beginning. Because you had decided it was due to feature X or design X or whatever the latest Rift Is The Ultimate MMO Failure complaint de jure is, why did you bother spending a year giving them feedback? Did you think they would listen and then change their game to suit your tastes?
Right, the Rift playerbase is ever shrinking. So we should all just cancel our accounts and run home crying, because YOU were an MMO visionary who tried to save everyone from Trion's Doom Failure of an MMO.
Thanks, but while you're telling everyone else what to think, some of us will enjoy Rift, or SWTOR, or GW2, or ArcheAge, or whatever. But we should accept it when you tell us those games are Doom Failures too right?
I enjoyed Rift for what it was but there was just something about it that irked me. Can't quite put my finger on it. Maybe it was the community or maybe...something else... Guess to quote a phrase I hear quite often sums it up... "Rift just has no soul" ...
When in groups no one wants to talk.
I hate todays anti-social attitudes in MMO's
I hate vent!
I'm rambling now so I'm of to Hyboria!
~cheers~
..................................
From what I hear on the actual Rift forums, RP servers are actually pretty social. I understand that isn't everyone's cup of tea, but it fits mine nicely =3.