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My take on Rift to new age and old age players.
I was thinking about all this hype revolving around Rift. The opinions of wether its good or bad seems to be even no matter where you go to read reviews, opinions, or just forums like these. I guess we could do an age check.
I do know this.........Im 37 years old. I come from the line of Commodore 64 games like Bards Tale, Ultima, Legacy of the Anciets etc...etc. With the inception of MMO games back when they really hit society as Ultima Online and EQ those of us who where old enought to remember know what it was really like and the feeling we got with something so new.
How many of us for the past 10 years or so have subbed, unsubbed, tried betas, stopped beta, bought the game cause it was new and the list goes on. Was there anything out there that really held onto you? I do know that for me Rift was like this, and I did play beta twice. For me its not about getting slammed by people who said, Oh you didnt give it a chance, or you only leveled to WHAT? Or you didnt give this or that a chance. Is it really about all that? Or is it as simple as this.. You get invited, you download, you install, you play, you log off and maybe come back for a bit here and there but dont really think about it much during the day, or just skip days here and there until beta chance is over? If it doesnt drown you in excitement like looking for excuses to leave work early or call in sick or what have you (like your first loves of the newly created MMO's when they came out with them). do you really think you may stick with the next so to be called MMO? Or are we just searching aimlessy. For me its just that I guess. Im looking for something that just wont be there anymore. Rift was like that for me. Nice graphics, cool ideas here and there, just no magic. Us old players I guess and myabe not YOU, but most my friends summed up in a nutshell are feeling it to..
Just my 2 cents.
Comments
There is a fairly large community of Old School gamers in the beta forums that love Rift, i think it's just a matter of taste or expectation of what you want out of your MMORPG's. I for one still play my UO account on the sonoma shard since '98 and love playing Rift.
"It would be awesome if you could duel your companion. Then you could solo pvp".--Thanes
Here's the problem: MMOs were once new. They no longer are. They never will be.
Something's only new once.
There are many disappointing things about MMOs today. If someone comes along and re-writes the way they are made and makes them new and exciting again, I'll be happy to give them my money. Until then, these are the games we have.
If EQ was still doing it for ya, you'd still be playing it and not trying countless new games to find something else. Nothing will ever replace my first MMO experience 10 years ago, why expect it to?
"Id rather work on something with great potential than on fulfilling a promise of mediocrity."
- Raph Koster
Tried: AO,EQ,EQ2,DAoC,SWG,AA,SB,HZ,CoX,PS,GA,TR,IV,GnH,EVE, PP,DnL,WAR,MxO,SWG,FE,VG,AoC,DDO,LoTRO,Rift,TOR,Aion,Tera,TSW,GW2,DCUO,CO,STO
Favourites: AO,SWG,EVE,TR,LoTRO,TSW,EQ2, Firefall
Currently Playing: ESO
Did you just suggest that rift is gonna be a WoW killer? Sorry, but NO, not gonna happen by rift or any other MMO any time soon.
But anyways, I'm with you OP.
In my 30s and loving my Rift Beta experience. I think it helped that I knew what I was getting into before logging in the first time. I actually had kind of lower expectations based on craptastic games of late. Rift felt like the MMO genre has finally returned to some semblance of respect. I'm sorry you and your friends didn't have the same experience. It was nice to read a mature post though. Thank you for that.
I'm seriously hoping that Rift starts a trend of good/great MMOs this year. With Tera/SWTOR/GW2 it would be nice if gamers had an embarassment of riches instead of a trough of garbage.
Good grief. Give it a rest. He suggested it. He didn't say it would happen.
Only because WoW has 4-6 million Gold Farmer and RMT accounts active in China...
"It would be awesome if you could duel your companion. Then you could solo pvp".--Thanes
Right, I guess every single chinese player is a gold farmer
Source? And your rear end doesn't count as a credible citation
Probley considering it's legal in China and a multi billion a year buisness...
"It would be awesome if you could duel your companion. Then you could solo pvp".--Thanes
I'm only 25, but have been playing MMOs since UO and MUDs before that (several years - 3?). It might be a generation thing since I started on MUDs and MMOs when I was very young, but I'm personally not stuck in the past like some people and am looking to move on. Though I miss some mechanics of the old (EQ and even EQ II's open world dungeon that aren't linear treadmill dungeons and the lack of quest hubs and sense of exploration) I think there are plenty of great new mechanics that people fail to acknowledge like a nice streamlined UI, dynamic content, instanced PvP (scenarios/warfronts), more active gameplay, less downtime, removal of harsh death penalties, more character customization, etc. There are great innovations coming alone that will move the genre forward and even though we may not completely agree (more group oriented content especially one the way to level cap please! Less of a focus on solo play!) on the direction these new MMOs I don't understand why old schoolers choose to ignore a lot of the great innovations, albeit at a very slow pace.
There are lots of options for old school MMOers out there too. A large number of the big ones are still active and running to this day. What's the reason old school MMOers aren't continuing to play these to this day?
Bring back UO style game play and WoW will fall... Rift is doing the closest ive seen in an mmo to UO's skill system... we will see how it holds.
"theres a message in my alphabets it saids ooooooooo"
"PETER THOSE ARE CHEERIOS"
lol you can't possibly be serious.
Elaborate please. I have no experience with UO and geniunely curious.
I am 36 and from the same background. Played the crap out of Bard's Tale and Ultima only I did it on a C128! Fortnately for me Rift did hit me by surprise. Enough so that I was willing to preorder and founder sub for 6 months. It's funny but even at my age my first mmo was WoW. Even after playing it I always yearned for something else... Lotro, AoC, Tabula Rasa... you name it. I hope you find your game soon.
Im 29,
Enjoyed the launch and evolution of EQ as my first MMO.Ive given into the fact that I may not see and experience that 'magic' again as time goes on even though at times I still yearn for it.It doesnt stop me from enjoying todays MMO's however.Yes,they've gotten extremely repetitive with theyre layout,but its still fun to play with friends and experience a new world.
Rift grabs me,I think about it almost daily.Its main events,the rifts,arent the main attraction to me either.I like the setting,the world,and the town invasions from rift mobs.I love the class mixing too,thats probably the main thing i think about when it comes to Rift,which type of class I want to try with which souls to choose.
Does it have that 'magic' feeling? for me no,but that doesnt mean its not fun.If youre trying to find an mmo these days that brings that magic feeling back,you'll be hard pressed Im afraid.
Could wait for Guild Wars 2 or ToR,but even those I doubt will bring that 'magic'.Then again everyone is different.
UO had many "skills" you could choose from, you were allowed to pick 8 of them to 100, and 120 at end game when you killed bosses (Sorta). This allowed you to be whatever you wanted, There was A LOT to choose from magery, nero, parry, sword, mace, peace makeing, tameing, fishing, cooking, alch, PICK POCKETING/ STEALING!...
"theres a message in my alphabets it saids ooooooooo"
"PETER THOSE ARE CHEERIOS"
I'm 35 and have been having a blast with the beta. Your feelings on Rift have nothing to do with your age. If you don't like it, fine. Why isn't that enough for you to just move on? Why do you have to go further with this kind of elitism?
In UO if you got freaking stranded in the forests and you had minimal lvl of taming all you had to do was tame a horse and then use it as a mount... it was then your pet (that could fight) and your mount.
"theres a message in my alphabets it saids ooooooooo"
"PETER THOSE ARE CHEERIOS"
39 here.
I really liked games that were polished and able to pull you into the world.
UO did this with being able to make everything or be any type of character you wanted and the full loot pvp and the crazy dungeons with creatures that would take some of your stuff if you died. You would then have to kill the creature to get it back.
Everquest won me over with the questing and the really fun and unique dungeons with trap floors and hidden walls and slippery floors. Alot of innovation happened there.
WoW got me with the ease of play, took out the tedious waiting of past games with food/drink that brought back health/mana fast. There were alot of innovations that WoW had.
Then comes Rift. Rift is to me....kind of a patch together of many of the good ideas from EQ and WoW with a sprinkle of UO and then some new innovation of it's own. Everything I have heard and seen about Rift is telling me this will be the game for me to play for the next few years.
Sure I will play Guildwars 2 and I will probably also get Two Worlds 2 but the only game that seems interesting to me now is Rift.
I think the key to Rift's success is how it allows you to actually play the game the way you want to as far as leveling up goes. You can PvP and get exp, or you can do quests and get exp, or you can attack Rifts and exp, or you can dungeon run and exp. Also the character builds allow you to create 4 characters and be able to play every soul the game has to offer. I can see after a year or two having 4 fully leveled characters with the ability to be anything you want any time you want. That is huge for MMO's because it take the "looking for class" part of grouping away.
So yes I have had the same feeling as you have when MMO's were new and Rift with all it's interesting new ways of wrapping the old into something new seems to have re-awakened that sense of joy I used to have. Mind you there have been alot of let down games in between the listed ones but I kept looking and am very happy March 1st is not far off.
I'm 36 and i approve this post....
"It would be awesome if you could duel your companion. Then you could solo pvp".--Thanes
Good post. WoW certainly cemented a lot of things, but reducing downtime and things like that actually existed in other games before(I haven't had really bad downtime between fights since EQ, really). WoW just became to MMOs what Elvis was to rock and roll. Neither one really invented anything, they just took it to a much wider audience. Still, both very important to the development of their genres.
As for the specific comment about having four characters and being able to try out all the souls, that's one of the things I LOVE about this game. I have a couple of tendencies in MMOs:
-One is that I often find myself soloing because I'm not very extroverted, and will often just do things myself, or duo with a friend, rather than find a group. This means I tend to pick classes/spec choices that solo well, but aren't always good end-game group/raid builds.
-Two, I enjoy creating a character in my mind, whether the server RPs or not, and invest myself in that character, and so don't roll alts very often.
The fact that rifts and invasions can pop up in the world means I'll have a reason to meet more new people, which helps with the first bit. The fact that I can completely respec my beloved character at any time, and still have my solo-friendly spec in tact, solves the rest of the issue.
In regards to the OP: No, this isn't totally amazing and new, but nothing is likely to be for a while. The games that really break the mold don't often find commercial success, which often means shutting down for lack of funding. Still, it solves some of my complaints about other games, while still giving a familiar, and(for me) enjoyable experience.
Eh, 32 here and have been playing MMOs since the UO beta (and EQ, AO, DAoC, AC1, AC2, E&B, etc etc) and Rift is actually one of the more enjoyable games to have come out in the last few years. Enough so that a lot of our group (ages 26 - 35 have preordered).
I think what you are experiencing is more along the lines of being tired with the path of the genre in general. You cut your teeth on older games (as did we) but can't seem to move on from those days. Sure a lot of us would love a new old school style EQ or UO, but we cant just do nothing and wait till that happens. So we adapt and enjoy a game for what it has going for it.
As for never feeling that 'i cant wait to get home and play feeling', like all things it does wear off after X amount of years. I mean when you were 16 and got your license you just couldnt wait to drive, and neither could I! But after what, 16+ years of driving, I don't get excited for it anymore at all. No matter where I am going or how many new cars/trucks I get.
There are 3 types of people in the world.
1.) Those who make things happen
2.) Those who watch things happen
3.) And those who wonder "What the %#*& just happened?!"
The one thing I do not blame any MMO gamer out there for is being cautious or not excited for a new MMO game. I mean look how much crap came out in the last few years. Rift is not crap. It's just not everyone's cup of tea.
Yes I just used that cliche...
Ouch! So far I am the oldest poster here. OUCH!!
Heh, anyway, may I suggest you give Rift a little more time? I felt the same as you. Beta 1 bored and disappointed me. I don't care for the starting areas and the similarities between Rift and other MMOs really show here. But I thought I was being too critical. So I logged back in for Beta 3 and found myself having more fun. By Beta 4 I was hooked as I got a true taste of how the game differs from other games on the market and how much fun it brings to the table. So Trion gets my money, and as of now I can't wait until Beta 5.
The one thing I keep seeing is this. This game flew under the radar for a long time and many went into the Beta 1 knowing virtually nothing about the game. Commence backlash. Add onto that the fact that this was Trion's first high population test on the game ever and problems ensued. Spawns over camped. A starter instance that was dull/borderline miserable. All of this was fixed by Beta 2. By Beta 2! Over 8,000 word patch notes and almost all of it was from Beta 1 tester feedback. I'm not kidding. Two things happened at that point. People fell in love with Trion and took it upon themselves to give more feedback. By Beta 3 after two very large string of patch notes later, the game started to really hum. By Beta 4 I was falling in love with the game. I'm not going to go that far. We're in the dating stage. I wanna see her goods. But I'm excited for Beta 5 and I think this might be partly why others are too.