Ok, this is going to hurt. I apologize profusely to all posters in this thread. I was one of those who was very dissappointed with my first 2 beta outings and I had just about written this game off my list.
Beta 3 has arrived and some things have changed.
1. I got a new video card yesterday, Radeon HD 5770 1g to replace my Nvidia GTS 250 512mb - big difference in the game, I actually felt no fps stuttering.
2. Whatever they patched to make combat faster and flow better...it's like night and day to me. I actually had FUN in combat. also movement seems tighter too.
3. Sound effects seem to be better, surround sound is awesome on this game.
4. PVP - I took my warlock over to the guardian area looking for red folks, found 2 and barely beat them but it was FUN. And I suck at PVP. So this game has made me enjoy PVP which is very hard to do.
5. They changed the soul trees around and it's actually viable to throw points in other trees, so that aspect is coming along with some nice balancing and changes
6. Maybe I was just in a crappy mood when I tested during Beta 1 and 2 or maybe I just didn't approach the game from the right attitude, that is changed now and I'm actually enjoying my Beta 3 experience and am actually getting the urge to play the game when I'm not logged in. This is good.
So...Trion seems to be listening to testers, is making changes ultra fast, is offering a wicked CE choice and frankly is making me eat my words from a page or 2 ago. Well done, and again apologies to all.
I´ve been reading this thread for a while, and playing the game. I restrained myself from commenting earlier for a single reason: I had no suficient information to sustain any analysis, however deep or shallow it might be. But since the 3rd event is over, and every fanboy and hater got to post their opinions, here's my tuppence worth:
As an "old timer" MMO player, I had my share of high expectations and deep frustration. One thing that I've learned is never to expect anything from a game before it's release. Specially since most beta shows unpolished games with major unbalance and stability issues that are carried thru release. But one thing about this game caught my attention as something different than what I´ve seen so far. It's the Dev's ability to listen to players and improve key aspects of the game in a short period of time.
Trion's staff seems commited to deliver a solid game experience with heavy participation of the community. Nevermind the nice graphics, the Soul and Rift systems, the way above average stability. To me, the most important thing here is the willingness to make a game for the players and with the players. That's a refreshing approach after all the crap we´ve been fed this past few years, with developers beta testing alpha versions, conducting beta tests as advetisement events and major publishers pressing for the launch of unfinished products just so the sales don´t get hurt by other releases.
That doesn´t mean that the game is revolutionary or even particulary evolutionary. It just means that for once we might actually get what we want (By we I mean the average gamer that constitute the bulk af any game community): A fantasy MMO, with all the great concepts introduced by other games, a couple of new systems, nice graphics, stable, dynamic, familiar enough not to scare people off and yet fell like something new. Of course there are lots of ways in wich Trion can screw this one up, but for what they have done so far, that seems unlikely.
I know, I´ve said I´ve learned not to expect anything, but that's not an expectaion, is my impression of what was already done. Still a lot of things to be tested and I hope they will all be as nice as what I´ve seen so far.
When I friend asked my what is the game like, I said that if you put WOW and WAR together and added much better graphics you have Rift.
I understand why the companies don't dare to do anything different I've worked in the advertising business my whole working life, and introducing something new is taking a chance.
Believe me every company wants a sure thing, movies, games, TV shows, they look at what works and say lets do that only a little different do we don't get dragged into court.
I'd love to try something new, I have my own ideas about how to do a new MMO that would really suck people in, but the odds on anyone trying it are none to none.
If it was possible for someone like myself to put an MMO together on my own then you would get stuff that is really different but as long as it has to be financed by big companies you won't see much risk.
I like the game, I haven't decided if I will buy it or not.
I'm still playing Lord of the Rings Online on and off.
I'm also beta testing DC Universe Online which is some what different but I only in the setting.
Mike
If you shoot a mime, do you have to use a silencer?
....OMG! I love how people have to compare this to WoW and other games out there.
It is blantently obvious who has really put time in playing the game (I have been in all betas 1-4) since the start. There are so many other components to this game that set it apart from WoW or others out there......you have to really play it long enough to experience the full package not just a small part. Hello!......Huge epic Server Boss battles....that take the entire server to enmasse (in the free and open game world...not instance).....These huge epic server events pay out awesome epic loot.....This alone has not been done to this scale....till now. This alone makes the game stand out and sets it apart!!!. Even MMORPG.com own person writing the article doesn't fully get the scope/ scale of the entire game!!!! GO Back and do more homework! and write and honest article. It's not entirely fair to a game to write those comments based on "beta" and not ....full retail release anyways!!!
"You can learn more about a person in one hour of game play than in an entire lifetime of conversation." ~ PLATO
If one goes to IMDB.com there are tens of thousands of threads complaining how this or that movie is not original. When you look at the poster’s history it is conspicuous in a lack of posts in movies which tend to be more orignal. My point is that people complain things aren’t original, but they also rarely support or give a chance to products which are actually original.
I did this myself recently, a had a passing interest in DCU looked at a few videos and decided to pass on the game, simply because it looked as if it played too much like a console game to me. Instead, RIFTS is going to get my business.
One only has to look at the recent discussion here about crafting and how many people state they’d never play a game without crafting. Change the way movement works and see how people scream, change the UI layout (why don’t you use WoW’s layout), etc. Try to release an MMO without tanks or healers and see how many people will even give your game a chance.
Comments
Ok, this is going to hurt. I apologize profusely to all posters in this thread. I was one of those who was very dissappointed with my first 2 beta outings and I had just about written this game off my list.
Beta 3 has arrived and some things have changed.
1. I got a new video card yesterday, Radeon HD 5770 1g to replace my Nvidia GTS 250 512mb - big difference in the game, I actually felt no fps stuttering.
2. Whatever they patched to make combat faster and flow better...it's like night and day to me. I actually had FUN in combat. also movement seems tighter too.
3. Sound effects seem to be better, surround sound is awesome on this game.
4. PVP - I took my warlock over to the guardian area looking for red folks, found 2 and barely beat them but it was FUN. And I suck at PVP. So this game has made me enjoy PVP which is very hard to do.
5. They changed the soul trees around and it's actually viable to throw points in other trees, so that aspect is coming along with some nice balancing and changes
6. Maybe I was just in a crappy mood when I tested during Beta 1 and 2 or maybe I just didn't approach the game from the right attitude, that is changed now and I'm actually enjoying my Beta 3 experience and am actually getting the urge to play the game when I'm not logged in. This is good.
So...Trion seems to be listening to testers, is making changes ultra fast, is offering a wicked CE choice and frankly is making me eat my words from a page or 2 ago. Well done, and again apologies to all.
I´ve been reading this thread for a while, and playing the game. I restrained myself from commenting earlier for a single reason: I had no suficient information to sustain any analysis, however deep or shallow it might be. But since the 3rd event is over, and every fanboy and hater got to post their opinions, here's my tuppence worth:
As an "old timer" MMO player, I had my share of high expectations and deep frustration. One thing that I've learned is never to expect anything from a game before it's release. Specially since most beta shows unpolished games with major unbalance and stability issues that are carried thru release. But one thing about this game caught my attention as something different than what I´ve seen so far. It's the Dev's ability to listen to players and improve key aspects of the game in a short period of time.
Trion's staff seems commited to deliver a solid game experience with heavy participation of the community. Nevermind the nice graphics, the Soul and Rift systems, the way above average stability. To me, the most important thing here is the willingness to make a game for the players and with the players. That's a refreshing approach after all the crap we´ve been fed this past few years, with developers beta testing alpha versions, conducting beta tests as advetisement events and major publishers pressing for the launch of unfinished products just so the sales don´t get hurt by other releases.
That doesn´t mean that the game is revolutionary or even particulary evolutionary. It just means that for once we might actually get what we want (By we I mean the average gamer that constitute the bulk af any game community): A fantasy MMO, with all the great concepts introduced by other games, a couple of new systems, nice graphics, stable, dynamic, familiar enough not to scare people off and yet fell like something new. Of course there are lots of ways in wich Trion can screw this one up, but for what they have done so far, that seems unlikely.
I know, I´ve said I´ve learned not to expect anything, but that's not an expectaion, is my impression of what was already done. Still a lot of things to be tested and I hope they will all be as nice as what I´ve seen so far.
I put in a lot of hours in Rift the last week.
When I friend asked my what is the game like, I said that if you put WOW and WAR together and added much better graphics you have Rift.
I understand why the companies don't dare to do anything different I've worked in the advertising business my whole working life, and introducing something new is taking a chance.
Believe me every company wants a sure thing, movies, games, TV shows, they look at what works and say lets do that only a little different do we don't get dragged into court.
I'd love to try something new, I have my own ideas about how to do a new MMO that would really suck people in, but the odds on anyone trying it are none to none.
If it was possible for someone like myself to put an MMO together on my own then you would get stuff that is really different but as long as it has to be financed by big companies you won't see much risk.
I like the game, I haven't decided if I will buy it or not.
I'm still playing Lord of the Rings Online on and off.
I'm also beta testing DC Universe Online which is some what different but I only in the setting.
Mike
If you shoot a mime, do you have to use a silencer?
"You can learn more about a person in one hour of game play than in an entire lifetime of conversation." ~ PLATO
....OMG! I love how people have to compare this to WoW and other games out there.
It is blantently obvious who has really put time in playing the game (I have been in all betas 1-4) since the start. There are so many other components to this game that set it apart from WoW or others out there......you have to really play it long enough to experience the full package not just a small part. Hello!......Huge epic Server Boss battles....that take the entire server to enmasse (in the free and open game world...not instance).....These huge epic server events pay out awesome epic loot.....This alone has not been done to this scale....till now. This alone makes the game stand out and sets it apart!!!. Even MMORPG.com own person writing the article doesn't fully get the scope/ scale of the entire game!!!! GO Back and do more homework! and write and honest article. It's not entirely fair to a game to write those comments based on "beta" and not ....full retail release anyways!!!
"You can learn more about a person in one hour of game play than in an entire lifetime of conversation." ~ PLATO
If one goes to IMDB.com there are tens of thousands of threads complaining how this or that movie is not original. When you look at the poster’s history it is conspicuous in a lack of posts in movies which tend to be more orignal. My point is that people complain things aren’t original, but they also rarely support or give a chance to products which are actually original.
I did this myself recently, a had a passing interest in DCU looked at a few videos and decided to pass on the game, simply because it looked as if it played too much like a console game to me. Instead, RIFTS is going to get my business.
One only has to look at the recent discussion here about crafting and how many people state they’d never play a game without crafting. Change the way movement works and see how people scream, change the UI layout (why don’t you use WoW’s layout), etc. Try to release an MMO without tanks or healers and see how many people will even give your game a chance.
Good article.