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Changing servers, leaving rift, or something else? opinions appreciated.
Hello.
I've been playing Rift for about six months now. I've got four characters, one of each type, and I prefer to roll with my Cleric. I'm River of Souls ready for tanking and DPS (and Hammerknell, for healing). I happen to be hanging out on Dayblind as my spouse is interested in the open world PvP (even though we only do it a couple times a week). I'm a guild leader with a guild of over 250 users, with over 100 level 50 players. I have a hard time pulling together enough people for stable 10-man raiding, and am always having to work with other guilds to pull together 20-man raid groups.
I don't have any issues doing solo content on my own. I enjoy doing the rift events, running around doing the monthly quest events (although the most recent is not nearly as in-depth). But I'm finding the game is much to easy, the mechanics are easy to learn, many of the non-raid events can be handled solo or with a small three man group. The hardest part is forming groups to go PvP with and getting people who are raid-ready who want to raid. I've considered that perhaps it is my server that causes these issues. Is the nature of a PvP server given over to not wanting to do PvE content? If so, why is it hard to form up a group to go out and do open world PvP? Are other servers having similar issues?
I know I lost 4 core raiders to Call of Duty MW3. And two others to Skyrim. Is Rift really just a stepping stone between other titles? Will it not be a long standing game with multiple expansions and a dedicated player-base? I do not want to give up what I have worked so hard towards. Where are all the players? Please someone tell me its not just me (or even better, that it is just my server and there is life somewhere else).
Thanks for your feedback on this issue. I've been struggling with this for a while now.
--Cass
Comments
6 months too long. I actually was on Dayblind myself. My friends and I got to 50 in about 3 weeks and got to sargeant pvp rank or whatever was rank 4 and we quit. The game lacks depth and really we just used to to play inbetween titles. We ended up going back to various games. Just waiting for Star Wars. Rift was fun while it lasted which wasn't too long before it dulled out. It occupied us for a couple of months but that is it. Might be time to look for greenier pastures elsewhere. Good luck with whatever you plan to do.
My main reason to go to Starwars is for the population. I don't like not having people to play with. Especially a guild your size having issues getting 10m that is not good. I have been there in games and that sucks. Currently playing Age of Conan on the deathwish server for hardcore pvp and it is just dead. I look forward to something fresh with population.
The Rift fans will tell you something different, but Rift is, in fact, a stepping stone game to other titles. A large part of Rift's population consists of players who want to find something to do until bigger titles come out. Rift is a solid, polished, easy to play paint-by-the-numbers MMO that is a nice diversion while you wait for better games. Unfortunately, for most people, it doesn't hold their attention for more than a few months. Poor replayability, small world size, coma-inducing quests...it just isn't enough to grab people and keep them. What it does have is a solid, player-friendly company in Trion behind it, and for that reason, it will hold some of its more hardcore fans. But Skyrim, despite being a different type of game, will take some of Rift's population and replace it as the "stepping stone" game until the other titles come in. When SWTOR hits, Rift is going to lose a large portion of their playerbase. When GW2 hits, they will lose even more. Trion has a tough year ahead of them.
I also think that the times of raiding big are generally coming to an end for various reasons. While in Rift also the lack of players doesn't help, this isn't a Rift exclusive problem but can be read about in other games' forums as well.
-already been doing it for years in other games already and seeking a lighter approach playing mmorpgs today
-refusing to spin along any more in the neverending item spiral, as it's just not worth it
-being sick of the same-o-same drama aka constantly afk wanna-be raiding housewives or 14 years olds who got to quit at 9pm right before a boss
-looking at Rift as a stepping stone while waiting for a better (yes, i said better) game to come and therefore not wanting to spend excessive time into character progression
-the borderline insulting lack of any optimisation and performance of the the game in general as a result of being cheap and using Gamebryo
to name just a few reasons i've heard people mention in that regard.
As mmorpgs become more accessible and provide things to do in an hour per evening, more players aren't willing to invest 3+ evenings a week raiding and just go along with the content as it comes. Picking some flowers, doing an instance, craft some, starting an alt when the main hits top level.
In the same mindset, many don't join guilds in first place but go solo all the way, perhaps with a friend or two.
I remember in vanilla WoW when we had 60 players online for a 40 man raid and 15+ ready and geared people literally sat out for 7+ hours to get an invite for a single boss. Today many guild leaders are lucky if they can invite a member's wife off the oven to make a 10 man raid possible on last minute with her quest greens and keyboard turning.
Based on reading your entire post, two things stand out.
1. You seem like one of the most extremely intelligent and sensible guild leaders I've ever read when posting, which makes me think you are a quality person as well able to attract other quality individuals.
2. Given that, the sheer facts that you present about your guild in terms of numbers and activity this early in the game's life (eight months) is simply mindblowing.
Those two things together make me think that unlike what some have continually said about guild leaders who claim this, it's not "you"... there is something else at work here which is what most people who have left said all along.
"TO MICHAEL!"
Yes, and yes.
For a large part of players its a stepping stone. But my guess is when the smaoke clears it will settle in to somewhere around current EQ1/EQ2 numbers and have a long life. Expansions? eh its a new company so who knows what will happen.
However, your server is the number 2 server in the game population wise.
The only thing I would say is maybe try a PvE server and see if mentality is different over there. There is still PvP to be had on the PvE servers if you want it. Or look at the forums and find guilds similar to yours and chat with the guild leadrer a bit
I've got a similar story to share... sorta. I've played Rift for a couple months, well long enough to get 4 level 50s, 2 Guardians & 2 Defiant that are all Raid ready (Rogue & Cleric can do RoS). Well I was enjoying myself, however my Guardian guild was having a fair amount of trouble recuiting Clerics, because quite a few quit. Couldn't even get enough Clerics for Greenscale. I never really paid much attention to the player population on my server because Whitefall was the one EU server that used to always be High pop and have server queues, not too long ago. Well I only started noticing after the master exodus of all the large guilds for the past couple weeks and in the end my guild transfered to another server, because we couldn't progress at all.
It's a shame to see Rift slowly fizzle out, but I'm not all that surprised because to me Rift is just a way to kill some time until Guild Wars 2 comes out. There's just much more fun to be had in that game, than Rift. I'll probably play Rift for one more month, because come late December I can guarantee that the playerbase will take a major hit when SW:TOR comes out. Too many people are just using Rift as filler until those 2 games have come out. See it all the time in general chat.