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What I like about Rift
I know a lot of people will dispute the claim that Rift is 'Next Gen!', and I don't blame them. There are some new spins on old systems here and there, such as the soul-based advancement/class system, and the rifts/invasion. Overall, however, it's just another MMO. So, why would I want to play this game instead of another?
In another thread someone commented that they hadn't found a mechanic Rift didn't do well. I've heard the comment elsewhere, in so many words, and I think that sums it up pretty well.
Obviously, only time will tell if everything that Rift does hold the communities attention in the long run. Right now, however, my experience is that the game has been well put together. Many games I've played in the past had more issues at launch than Right displays in beta. And a great many games come out with problems that go beyond performance issues or quests that won't update.
I can't even count how many times publishers have said that a feature would be in the game, and how genre bending it was going to be, only to release the game without it. In some cases, and announcement will be made that the feature is delayed at the last minute. Sometimes a feature is still listed as part of the game, even though it didn't make it in. Often, entire sections of the game play are altered, meaning that the game that was hyped a year, or even a few months, before isn't the game that hits the shelves on launch day.
I have to say that I've only been following Rift for a few months. I suppose when it was announced, however long ago, they may have said it was going to make coffee in the mornings and summon killer ninja kittens to travel the world and smite the leaders of rival guilds when ever they tried to log into the game. If they ever said things like that, I guess they decided it wasn't going to work out. They are, however, set to release exactly what they said they were when I started reading about the game.
Ok, before the counter-rant, ignore the marketing department for a minute. 'Next Gen' doesn't MEAN anything. It's a buzz-word, so let's move past that. I recently watched a video on the Trion site in which they talked about all the awesome things the game does, and if you ignore the buzz-words, and just listen to the ACTUAL features... yep, the game has everything they say it has.
Like I've said, I can think of many 'AAA' titles that have been released in the past that couldn't say that. Not only is Rift already fairly free of bugs and performance issues, but it's also honest, and seems very true to the vision of the devs. I think that speaks well for its future.
Comments
Women are flat chested in this game. I clear sign that it's bound to fail.
I was not following Rift at all. Sure I had seen the screen shots and thought hmm ... prolly not. Then they were handing out beta keys and Im always up for trying out a game so i got one. Didnt get in beta thought .. not untill the last one that is.
Well I would say Im "following" Rift now .. after it stole my entire weekend and didnt even let me sleep untill monday around noon....
Now I'm half expecting people to start searching for boobage screenshots to counter me, hehe.
Women weren't "flat" in AoC, and you could even go topless in complete female nippley boobtastic glory. Didn't distract from AoCs bugfest and lack of content.
*edit
As any lady will tell you. Boobs may help smooth some things over, but they can't do all the work.
I look forward to a time where a woman can be judged by the size of her swords and not the size of her mammaries!
LOL
You know, I actually mentioned the smaller chests as something I thought was cool about Rift when I was telling a friend about it. It just made the female characters look more like someone who actually spends all day running around killing things, instead of looking like porn stars.
Glad you are able to admit its not next and make it out to be something it is not. This is not to say you cannot enjoy it obviously, but calling it for what it is says you have a level head.
I think what one considered "well done" is subjective though to what you compare it to. Take crafting for example, compared to the competition, its bare bone and can be considered "not well done". However if you take out the competition and ask yourself if the feature works or not, regardless of how simple it is, then sure it works and one can say its well done. If my goal is to make a character jump, and I add in some code that tells the object to move up and then down when a key is pressed (jumping), then I can say its well done. However, in the bigger picture, its not really impressive either. Do you get what I am saying?
Their mechanic works but in comparision to the competition it is also under developed. "Well done" then is correct depending on what one takes into consideration.
Hmm as for "Next Gen". It actually does mean something...or rather, meant something in the past. It is a lot like when HDTV's started advertising 240hz refresh rates. Sony, Samsung and Panasonic were actually some of the first and it really was 240hz. Following that, the competition jumped on the badwagon and started advertising 240hz as well, but it was all a lie. Their tvs were not 240hz, which is why in small print you can find "effect" near by. Thus its the 240hz effect without being 240hz, which really defeats the purpose since the refresh rate is important, not the effect. The more often publishers throw out "next gen" while not delivering it, the more the term loses its clear defining factor.
Part of the problem is there is no enforced standard to keep this kind of false advertising from happening.
Next Gen requires a leapl from the previous generation. It doubles its ability across the board, a great building upon and taking it further than before.
Both the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 were advertised as next gen gaming consoles. And they were. The specs nearly tripled. From 500mhz cpus to over 3 giga hertz. Thats an incredible leap. More than 600% improvement on that hardware alone. Playstation 3 introduced a new form of multiprocessing with the cell based cpu. It brought Bluray disks which can technically hold more than 80 gigs of space per disk if pushed that far. This is a vast improvement from DVDs which with double layering could go up to 12 gigs. The gaming also reflected these leaps.
Its the aspect of really building upon and taking it "into the future" so to speak. Across the board it is improved.
Rift definitely does not do this, which is fine if you can accept it for what it is. Just for example purposes, look at what ArcheAge is trying to do and with what engine they are using. It is next gen and clearly so. Planting trees and plants in the game world and having them grow over time, building and destroying structures, arial and sea battles with player build ships. New forms of graphical rendering using the CryEngine, vast attempts to improve and build upon all formerly generic mechanics, even scrapping some in favore of a more depth based mechanic. This is the kind of mentality that shows true Next Gen status.
Here is a short but sweet article posted on Gamasutra which details of the industries founders critizing game developers for not pushing the design and taking risks.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/32425/Pong_Creator_Challenges_Todays_Game_Designers_To_Take_Risks_To_Do_New_Things.php
Cliftsnotes: I prefer sandbox games myself which i find more innovative
Your original reply was " So what are you trying to say?". Obviously if you read and comprehended my post you wouldnt be asking that.
Then it seems like you thought twice about asking that silly question and changed it to some sort of equally silly response via extreme bias. If you wish to mock me, just say so. It will save us a lot of time in the long run.
Add: Its clearly obvious you did not comprehend a word of my post. I dont know if you chose not to read it or just didnt get it. I think you do me a great injustice by not reading before going on the attack. I promise I will not do the same to you and forego reading your comments before posting, so lets be fair. If I am detailed and address your comments, do the same with the same level of detail.
Good response to my original. I chose to quote this because it's shorter, and would still convey that I was talking mostly to Rabenwolf.
I haven't looked at ArcheAge, but I'll have to now. The crafting in Rift? Yeah, a little weak. However, in games with more involved crafting it can get annoying. In EQ2, for example, you have to counter these icons that pop up, otherwise you'll screw up whatever you're trying to make. Now, I'll admit that's a lot more interesting, but it also means that when you're crafting a large amount of something(my main made food/drink, often in large quantities), you couldn't really socialize very well, at least through chat channels, without risking whatever you were making.
As for what next gen is supposed to mean, I totally understand. I've also found that most games who actually broke the mold did poorly in the market. Maybe people just don't want too much change, or maybe the technical issues that come with truly dynamic worlds and other innovations have simply been too hard to nail down. Perhaps ArcheAge will pull it off, and if not them then someone else.
Personally, I have a laundry list of things I'd like to see, but have yet to find. Still, the point I really wanted to bring out in the original post is that, although Trion(or the folks in marketing) may have a pretty loose definition of what next gen means, at no point have I heard them promise something that the beta hasn't already delivered.
A lot of people are going to pass on this game, but that's true of any new title, MMO or not. I don't think I've ever played a game of Call of Duty... ANY Call of Duty... if so, I can't recall. Still, I hear those kids have made some money off those games. Never played WoW beyond a short stay in beta and a couple trial account, but that hasn't stopped them from making mountains of cash.
Oh, last but not least, I've mentioned elsewhere, but... to those who like sandbox games, it doesn't get more sandbox than Ryzom.
Rift ... where the PvE raids you
The only cut scene I saw was at the very start, when a character enters the game for the first time. It can be skipped. I didn't do any dungeons, though, so maybe there are some in there?
Nah, I just thought I would give it a second glance in case you said something new you haven't already posted in your many other posts about Rift. I'm not trying to mock you at all. You have a right to your opinions and posting them as many times as you like.
I don't really think I missed anything in your post. The general gist of it is you don't like this game and you like to spend your time describing in great detail, to anybody who will listen to you about that fact. We all have to have a hobby where mine is pointing things like that out.
I'm sure another elequently and thought-out post will pop up again very soon, completely reiterating the same spiel. Then I'll be there to read it. If you come up with something new or a different negative perspective, I promise I will give you an equally thought-out response to it. Or at least try. You will have to avoid things like how linear it is of course as you have already brought that up numerous times. I think that's only fair
I mean I really do want to take you serious as I feel you deserve that. I took vesavius and his post serious because he kept his reservations kept in one post. I was more able to put some effort into it and try and understand his PoV. For some reason I just don't get that same fuzzy feeling here
It's basically not a very entertaining or interesting read, when I can pretty much write the posts for you based on your posting history.