Rift: Fail or Flourish?

RIFT_Lorhan · November 2010

Hey Folks,

Pretty simple. Vote whether you think RIFT will fail or flourish and give ONE reason why you think so. Lets see how much debate we can stimulate based on a very simple concept. It'll be fun.

RIFT_Lorhan · November 2010

I posted the first vote and I went with Flourish.

I think this game is creating so many new concepts and ideas that the game will surely attract the attention of gamers currently playing games like WoW that are looking for something different and may also coax out of hiding the hardcore gamers who stopped playing when the original EQ died, finally seeing something that has the merit to challenge the typical MMORPG lines.

I'm quite fascinated by the whole rifts/footholds/invasions concept because I really think it will help bring servers and sides together. You'll be forced to work together to eliminate rifts or risk losing whole areas of a map for long periods of time. This kind of cooperation hasn't been seen since you had outdoor raiding environments that required multiple guilds to work together to drop a roaming dragon.

The way I can basically envision it is the gaming world for Rift is like a snowglobe. Inside we have our nice comfortable little place, but every once in awhile other snowglobes of air/earth/water/fire/death are trying to seep in and convert our snowglobe to theirs. We are forced to battle back and keep our "world" safe. Eventually I can see them expanding to allow us to breach into their worlds and battle them on their turf much like we did in the Planes of Power in Everquest 1.

I can't wait ... call me a homer.

svann · November 2010

My magic 8 ball said "It is a crap shoot to try to predict the future".

Master10K · November 2010

I picked flourish because even though it may not be able to capture the mainstream PC gamers; as Star Wars: TOR, DC Universe Online and Guild Wars 2 are intended to do, it will likely find a solid playerbase amongst the MMO community. It also helps that Rift will probably be the 1st amongst the many notable MMOs coming out next year.

As for me... I plan skip on Rift and wait as many months, as it will take for, Guild Wars 2 to come out.

RIFT_Lorhan · November 2010

Originally posted by Master10K
I picked flourish because even though it may not be able to capture the mainstream PC gamers; as Star Wars: TOR, DC Universe Online and Guild Wars 2 are intended to do, it will likely find a solid playerbase amongst the MMO community. It also helps that Rift will probably be the 1st amongst the many notable MMOs coming out next year.

As for me... I plan skip on Rift and wait as many months, as it will take for, Guild Wars 2 to come out.

There is definitely going to be a PR advantage to it being the first of the "next-line" of MMO games to come out. It will get those who are itching to get into a new game and can't wait for something they may desire more.

What I think is going to also attract players is the unique features that have never been tried before. Vanguard Saga of Heroes did that in getting alot of people to buy into their game early, but they failed to impress and lost alot of the immediate buzz with a sub-par title. Hopefully RIFT doesn't fall into this same category.

I guess we'll find out ...

RIFT_Lorhan · November 2010

Originally posted by svann

My magic 8 ball said "It is a crap shoot to try to predict the future".

That makes replying to threads on a game that hasn't been released yet mighty difficult. Speculation is what breeds good discussions. And it's not like there isn't plenty out there to speculate about.

What else are you going to do, play WoW? Sheesh

Miles-Prower · November 2010

I've only just heard of this game after the big "Bots and VIP keys" Posts appearing all ove the place. I'm going to have to go with Fail, with no other reason than "Never heard of it so I can't expect much." =P. Shallow, yes... but that's how it is =P

~Miles "Tails" Prower out! Catch me if you can!

ste2000 · November 2010

It depends how much it borrowes from WoW.

At the moment I am playing WoW (As well as Darkfall) and the only MMORPG I want to play similar to WoW is WoW

But I am waiting for something different.

So if RIFT is "something different" I will play it otherwise I will stick with WoW and Darkfall until something original comes out

Cik_Asalin · November 2010

[edit: I voted flourish] But with a caveat. It will succeed, but by how much compared to its' mainstream competition in the market, we wont know for at least 6-months to a year post-launch.

Rift has as much a chance to flourish as any other mmo. PotBSO, Champions Online, LotRO, STO, EQ2, WAR, Vanguard, and the list goes on.

Over the last five years, with Aion aside (regardless of the asian market included or excluded), none of the mmo's have really been able to sustain much more than 300-500k in consistently sustained subscribership, I think.

So, flourish is a relative term, depending on which end of the fanboi or realist spectrum your on. Rift will survive, but I hope that Trion really goes for capturing a large western market-base.

In the end, it depends on the same usual paramters, some of which are to lengthy to list, most of which are generalities that also carry many layers, but the basics, fun, broad, non-static pvevp, game-play, stable, breadth and depth of game-play, risk/reward, community enablement, focus and involvement, great customer service support, etc.

Rift, as with any mmo, has its' core following, but will Trion be Marketing Power-house while delivering enough of a unique and stable product that is rich in fun game-play, is yet to be seen.

I'm hopeful.

Einherjar_LC · November 2010

I think it'll flourish, but as a niche title only.

There is simply too much name brand competition coming out in the following months to be anything else.

There is always that chance that this game will be off the hook great, and the others extremely disappointing that it could overcome the name brand IP's coming out but the odds are against it. I think it'll do well but I would be surprised to see it garner much more than 300K sustained subs, more likely 150k-225k is my guess....still very respectable.

Regardless, I am looking forward to Rift. I am not a GW fan, SW:TOR hasn't really pulled me in as of yet, and DCUO has no appeal to me if nothing else because of SoE to name a few of the competitiors Rift will be facing.

RIFT_Lorhan · November 2010

Originally posted by ste2000
It depends how much it borrowes from WoW.

At the moment I am playing WoW (As well as Darkfall) and the only MMORPG I want to play similar to WoW is WoW

But I am waiting for something different.

So if RIFT is "something different" I will play it otherwise I will stick with WoW and Darkfall until something original comes out

I assume to some degree that there is going to be some similarities to WoW simply because of the success factor. I think they are going to draw some new lines and expand some boundaries also, but in certain instances it probably goes back to the old saying "Don't Fix what Isn't Broken".

If, from a marketing standpoint, you want to attract members of a current MMO (ie. WoW) to a new game like RIFT, you have to make the transition easy for them. If they begin to play RIFT and see some similarity to the game they've fallen in love with, they are more likely to continue playing.

I envision RIFT introducing enough unique gameplay experience that enough of the people from WoW will take a break and make the switch and probably about 50% of the people who switch over will actually stay put. That will give WoW worlds enough of a population dip for people that previously hadn't tried to consider it. I'm not going to say it's gonna kill WoW, because it won't. But it will probably steal away quite a few of the hardcore gamers who are bored with the current gameplay of WoW.

WoW did the exact same thing to EQ1 when it came out. Enough people took a break to explore WoW and got hooked and stayed. Some of the "hardcore EQers" never left and others returned after realizing WoW wasn't for them, but enough left that it made a dent in EQ that never recovered.

orsin0 · November 2010

I say fail. I personally like the way the game is looking and it sounds like it's going to be fun, but frankly, in the scheme of things just about every game that comes out is going to fail until WoW inevitably collapses under it's own weight. Look at the other games that have come out in the past few years, can we really call any of them a huge success? Sure some of them are keeping their heads above water, but ultimately they have not been able to capture the level of attention that many hoped (including the developers themselves). Can we truly call Age of Conan a Success? What about Warhammer, Aion, or Lord of the Rings? True, they do have their own player bases but they are all far from widely successful. I have not seen anything yet of Rift that makes it look like it's going to have any larger success then the previously mentioned titles or others that I have not mentioned.

Waldoe · November 2010

Originally posted by orsin0

I say fail. I personally like the way the game is looking and it sounds like it's going to be fun, but frankly, in the scheme of things just about every game that comes out is going to fail until WoW inevitably collapses under it's own weight. Look at the other games that have come out in the past few years, can we really call any of them a huge success? Sure some of them are keeping their heads above water, but ultimately they have not been able to capture the level of attention that many hoped (including the developers themselves). Can we truly call Age of Conan a Success? What about Warhammer, Aion, or Lord of the Rings? True, they do have their own player bases but they are all far from widely successful. I have not seen anything yet of Rift that makes it look like it's going to have any larger success then the previously mentioned titles or others that I have not mentioned.

Mmmm I would call Lord of the Rings a huge success for sure and even Aion to an extent tons of people play that game even though the majority in the east.

RIFT_Lorhan · November 2010

Originally posted by orsin0

I say fail. I personally like the way the game is looking and it sounds like it's going to be fun, but frankly, in the scheme of things just about every game that comes out is going to fail until WoW inevitably collapses under it's own weight. Look at the other games that have come out in the past few years, can we really call any of them a huge success? Sure some of them are keeping their heads above water, but ultimately they have not been able to capture the level of attention that many hoped (including the developers themselves). Can we truly call Age of Conan a Success? What about Warhammer, Aion, or Lord of the Rings? True, they do have their own player bases but they are all far from widely successful. I have not seen anything yet of Rift that makes it look like it's going to have any larger success then the previously mentioned titles or others that I have not mentioned.

I'm actually banking on the new Cataclysm expansion to be the straw that breaks the camels back for WoW. Historically, it's typically the 3rd or 4th expansion that really dulls out an MMO. You can typically only go so far with the game before the lore doesn't make sense anymore and you begin to do the same things over again with different mob names.

EQ really began to fall after Planes of Power IMHO. I'm banking on alot of people getting tired of WoW and looking for a suitable place to jump ship to and the marketing timing of RIFT seems about right.

I guess we'll see, huh?

No_Exit · November 2010

I think it should flourish. Its coming out at a good time, as many other MMORPG's are really struggling along, Warhammer being one good example. Others have gone free to play in the hopes of maintaining their player base. The only really solid MMO out there is WoW (as its been for ages), and even WoW has been stagnant for a while now. Now while Cataclysm is about to come out, i really dont see it as a threat. Cataclysm should freshin up the game for a month or 2, and provide some new experiences, but in the end it doesnt really change what WoW is and many many WoW players are only playing because there is nothing else out there they are interested in.

With RIFT coming out soon, and the talk about it drawing from the best aspects of both succesful and failed MMORPG's, there is great interest within other MMORPG communities, and i foresee it slowly pulling players out of the other games, including WoW. While it wont kill WoW, it will imo put a decent size dent in the WoW population once players get bored with Cataclysm a couple months down the line.

terroni · November 2010

I say Fail because it is a safe bet.

Too many games coming out in a relatively short time frame.

Lysandros · November 2010

Rift will likely flourish as stated previously due to:

Marketing

Improvements on Popular Game Systems/Mechanics

Beautiful/Original IP to become immersed in

None of these things by themselves make for a great game, but combined can really work well to pull Rift to the top of the MMO landscape.

Will it knock WoW off its throne? Likely not.

One thing that can be said for WoW, and I think we can all agree on, is even if you've burned out on it - HATE it - Blizzard has done a lot of things RIGHT.

I've played WoW on and off since launch to the tune of Vanilla Hardcore, largely absent during BC, Hardcore WotLK and I have no current interest in playing Cataclysm. What this shows and holds true for me is pretty basic...

What's going on in my life day-to-day largely impacts my interest in an MMO. Though I played Vanguard, Age of Conan, EQ2, FFXI, FFXIV, LOTRO, DDO and GW only WoW was able to re-establish my earnest interest for -long- periods.

If Rift can capitalize on this, that is getting new players on board with changes as well as veterans who had lost interest or strayed from the game; Rift will undoubtedly be a success.

In fact, I would put DDO, FFXI, LOTRO and GW in this category also, but to a lesser extent personally.

Each of these titles made interesting changes that strongly stimulated their waning player-bases to return (even if temporarily).

In the end, a title's resilience can be a measure of its success in my view.

ZoeMcCloskey · November 2010

My guess is flourish. But not blow away everyone with huge #'s of subs, I think it is more likely to draw in a good loyal crowd who will stick to it.

Fuel68 · November 2010

I went with flourish because WoW's success is just not sustainable past the up & coming newer games; AND 2011 is the best opportunity for MMO gamers out there to choose at the very least 4--maybe 5--solid titles to quite possibly push WoW's sub numbers down a great deal where blizzard will likely consider a different economic/business model (F2P/P2P w/MT increased maybe?).

1. RIFT

2. Guild Wars 2

3. SWTOR

4. TERA

5. DC Universe Online

Each of those are SOLID titles and have some serious quality 'cheese' behind their impending beta/gold releases (quality investments made by developers/publishers). Despite each title's different flavor, 2011 is as good a time as its ever been to be an MMO gamer looking for "their" type of game. IMHO, I think there will be a steady exodus from WoW into any of these games. I'll give a slight edge & nod to RIFT because the features are more to my liking than any of the other titles.

mmogawd · November 2010

I think it will flourish for several reasons, one of which is timing. The rush back to WoW for Cataclysm will be short lived due to only 5 new levels are very little new content. It's not going to last for a lot of people.

A big part of the timing will be coming out earlier than GW2 and SWTOR... a lot of people, myself included, seem to look at rift as something that could hold their attention for 3-6 months while waiting for somehing new. And if GW2 is what they[object Window]re waiting for, there[object Window]s a good chance that they[object Window]ll keep subbing to Rift as GW2 will require no sub.

SuperXero89 · November 2010

I think Rift will have more success than WAR and AOC, but it will fall far short of challenging Guild Wars 2, SW:ToR, LotRO, and EQ2.

grimm6th · November 2010

I selected fail because the gameplay doesn't look interesting to me after a short time playing the demo at PAX. It might be because I played it mere minutes after I tried GW2 (I might even have been high after playing GW2, it was that good). I went into it not knowing anything about the class system (which sounds interesting to me), the rift system (which sounds alright to me), the story (of which I like what I have heard), or the idea that the game is supposed to have good graphics (which I really don't put too much weight in anyways). What I got from it was shallow feeling gameplay with nothing truly new or different or in any way more interesting than what WoW already offers (I don't like WoW but I have played it a bit).

It might end up being a fine game that is even better than the long line of failed WoW successors, but ultimately I feel it might be too little change to draw many people from WoW or from other new games for long.

In the end I think this game will 'Survive' but not Flourish.

Lanfea · November 2010

sorry, its far to early to have a clue if rift will flourish or not. too many variables sucess will depend on: server stability, content and long term goals <-> motivation, pc requirements, pvp opportunities and so on. but a little hint how to gurantee a certain amount of long term player who are willing to pay 15-20 $ a month ... provide servers with age restrictions. well, i know a lot of people who will even pay extra money only to have servers on which people under 18/25/30 can't join.

Beachcomber · November 2010

I hope at the worst it partially flourishes, with a good core of players, enough to provide long term development.

tswthoradin · November 2010

I don't get why it's an either or thing. Even vanguard that flopped as it did is still running and people are still employed. What criteria are you using to judge success? I mean if PW makes money and it has enough player base to keep it running, then it's pretty successful.

djcincy · November 2010

Originally posted by tswthoradin
I don't get why it's an either or thing. Even vanguard that flopped as it did is still running and people are still employed. What criteria are you using to judge success? I mean if PW makes money and it has enough player base to keep it running, then it's pretty successful.

Oh your right, under those same guidelines the mom and pop store down the street is just as successful as walmart.

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