rift world is really small compare to other mmos that are p2p and f2p
The physical size of the land is kind of a silly measurement to use. If you increased the physical size of the landscape by a factor of 0.7 (instead of things being 10 meters wide they'd be 17 meters wide), increased the run speed of your avatars by a factor of 0.7 to match the run speed of avatars in WoW, then make the avatars bigger by a factor 0.7 the continent in Rift would be the same size or larger than the continent of Azeroth, but your experience of running from point A to point B in Rift would be exactly the same. It's incredibly arbitrary.
A much more meaningful measurement would be the actual travel times and the population density of the areas you're traveling through.
Also, I wish people could tell the difference between "telling the truth", "lying", "relating facts or fallacies" and "expressing an opinion". Opinions aren't facts, no matter how much you want to believe in them.
* edit *
Mmorpg worlds should be measured in square minutes, not square meters.
Mmorpg worlds should be measured in square minutes, not square meters.
Did that, see my sig
But the normal run speed can vary from one MMO to another, making the same distance traveled in one MMO take longer than another if the run speed differs much. So in order for a better relative comparison, it's good to know the travel time needed from one edge to the other as well as the run speed, which results in comparable distances and sizes.
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums: Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
I would like to point out that Rift's land mass isn't just a flat surface. There's a lot of nooks/chasms/cliffs throughout the higher level zones we've seen. They make great use of their land mass also. You can be playing in one area on the surface and have a completely different experience down below. Rift works on what is below you and above you.
It's not original. Other games have done this too, Rift has it also and adds depth and dimension to exploration in an area which I enjoy.
Telara (Rifts) only feels Huge because your character runs so slow. With the introduction of faster mounts in WoW, it feels so darn small also...same would be the case with Rifts.
Originally posted by MMO.Maverick Originally posted by lizardbones
* edit * Mmorpg worlds should be measured in square minutes, not square meters.
Did that, see my sig But the normal run speed can vary from one MMO to another, making the same distance traveled in one MMO take longer than another if the run speed differs much. So in order for a better relative comparison, it's good to know the travel time needed from one edge to the other as well as the run speed, which results in comparable distances and sizes.
If your position is that Telara is BIG, then you'll look at the time, if your position is that Telara is tiny, you'll look at the mileage. The problem with the mileage is that you have to do a little calculation in your head with the run speed to decide if one place is bigger or smaller than another.
Normalize the run speed - i.e. everyone runs at 15 meters per second. Then you'd have a direct comparison of the size of the lands. Then you could use a scale for size. Set Azeroth or Kalimdor to be "1". Rift would be 0.5 of Azeroth (or 1.0? of Kalimdor) and so on. I don't think people are interested in the actual physical sizes so much as they are interested in arguing about how small or big any given mmo world is.
^^ Just my thoughts. You've gone way farther than I ever would have to get land mass sizes.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
RIFT's world is rather small (I would not say tiny, but small), it does not compare in the slightest to worlds that could be called "huge" and it is far smaller than a game like WoW.
At lvl 35, just today I cruised through all the zones with a guildmate in order to get him the puzzles hidden in each of the zones and it took us only a very short amount of time, excluding PvP encounters and knockdowns / chases from mobs (these are very prevalent which means it takes you more time to get through a zone).
What is there though is pretty well done, and there are various incentives for you to go exploring.
Feel free to use my referral link for SW:TOR if you want to test out the game. You'll get some special unlocks!
If your position is that Telara is BIG, then you'll look at the time, if your position is that Telara is tiny, you'll look at the mileage. The problem with the mileage is that you have to do a little calculation in your head with the run speed to decide if one place is bigger or smaller than another.
Normalize the run speed - i.e. everyone runs at 15 meters per second. Then you'd have a direct comparison of the size of the lands. Then you could use a scale for size. Set Azeroth or Kalimdor to be "1". Rift would be 0.5 of Azeroth (or 1.0? of Kalimdor) and so on. I don't think people are interested in the actual physical sizes so much as they are interested in arguing about how small or big any given mmo world is.
^^ Just my thoughts. You've gone way farther than I ever would have to get land mass sizes.
Ah, that was just my curiosity that was bogging me for a while now, I've always wanted to know how big an MMORPG world was compared to others that I played, but there wasn't that much concrete info around, so I went hunting for it. As for worldsizes, Rift seems to be a third to fourth of WoW vanilla when it comes to explorable area, but its lower run speed and area design where more mobs and rifts roam around make a region feel larger than a same sized area would in other MMO's. But in the end, it's all subjective perception.
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums: Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
If your position is that Telara is BIG, then you'll look at the time, if your position is that Telara is tiny, you'll look at the mileage. The problem with the mileage is that you have to do a little calculation in your head with the run speed to decide if one place is bigger or smaller than another.
Normalize the run speed - i.e. everyone runs at 15 meters per second. Then you'd have a direct comparison of the size of the lands. Then you could use a scale for size. Set Azeroth or Kalimdor to be "1". Rift would be 0.5 of Azeroth (or 1.0? of Kalimdor) and so on. I don't think people are interested in the actual physical sizes so much as they are interested in arguing about how small or big any given mmo world is.
^^ Just my thoughts. You've gone way farther than I ever would have to get land mass sizes.
Ah, that was just my curiosity that was bogging me for a while now, I've always wanted to know how big an MMORPG world was compared to others that I played, but there wasn't that much concrete info around, so I went hunting for it. As for worldsizes, Rift seems to be a third to fourth of WoW vanilla when it comes to explorable area, but its lower run speed and area design where more mobs and rifts roam around make a region feel larger than a same sized area would in other MMO's. But in the end, it's all subjective perception.
{Mod edit}
But when you put numbers in your perceptions, suddenly you have facts!
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
RIFT's world is rather small (I would not say tiny, but small), it does not compare in the slightest to worlds that could be called "huge" and it is far smaller than a game like WoW.
At lvl 35, just today I cruised through all the zones with a guildmate in order to get him the puzzles hidden in each of the zones and it took us only a very short amount of time, excluding PvP encounters and knockdowns / chases from mobs (these are very prevalent which means it takes you more time to get through a zone).
What is there though is pretty well done, and there are various incentives for you to go exploring.
How did you get into the zones with the invisible walls around them?
Share the info my fellow explorer because a good part of the map was inaccessible for me.
Where Rift shines is in taking you on a linear path but not feeling like its on rails since its an open zone and you aren't boxed in... Aion on the other hand made no attempt to hide the rails and felt boxed in.
Isn't that like an oxymoron? Being taken on a linear path but without rails? This game completely feels like it's on rails as far as I'm concerned.
There are 15 zones in the game. To run from edge to edge of a single zone, in a straight line, takes an average of 6 1/2 to 7 minutes, not including stops along the way. To me, that's a medium sized world.
I want to note something on the "feel" of the zones. Silverwood, the 5-20 zone for the Guardians, feels bigger than Freemarch, the similar zone for the Defiant, because it is hilly forests, rather than a sloping coastal plain. Some comments I've seen are a lot more appropriate for one zone vs. the other, which may help account for some of the difference in perception.
I enjoyed Freemarch, but Silverwood does feel a lot bigger, even though the size on the map is about the same. Freemarch also feels more linear.
As far as the linearity of the quest lines, it is pretty linear until maybe level 10 or so. Then things start to branch off a lot. Quests from the main hubs send you to out of the way areas of the map. There are also quest givers out in the world and not all of them are found by following quests from the main hubs.
If you do Rifts, which can be pretty fun, you will likely start to outlevel a lot of your quests. This allows you to skip off "the rails" quite a bit as well, since you can mix and match what you skip and what you decide to tackle. Every few levels I have found myself clearing out quests from my quest log, because what they offered was no longer worth the effort. Unlike some games, where the majority of quests are part of long, linear quest lines, I haven't experienced that here. There are some quest lines, but many more quests that do not have other quests as pre-requisites.
The world is no where near as linear as Aion or Warhammer Online. Let's face it, WoW has become extremely linear, but with so much redundancy in content, you can mix and match zones as you go, which is what gives you an out from absolute linearity.
What MMOs are smaller than Rift? Recent games I've played have been a lot smaller in playable land mass: Aion and FFXIV. Both games offer few zones and make liberal use of non-transversable terrain that makes each zone a constricting maze. Rift's world is much less constricting. They use terrain to visually break up the map, which allows good detail to the world and good viewing distances, with in the technical restraints of game rendering. However, even most very steep terrain can be transversed.
I do wish that all MMOs would at least offer the world size, number of zones and content redundancy that WoW did at launch. However, Rift does not, to me, feel anywhere near as small as most titles we have seen over the last few years that weren't sandbox titles. They have maximized use of terrain more than any MMO I've played. There are some individual WoW zones that offer similar density (Ashenvale fits a lot into one zone), but many more that have a lot of wasted space. If Trion could have offered the same density and level of detail, with maybe 50% more zones and land mass, there would have been nothing for anyone to complain about.
When did LotRO become big? WoW is massive, VG is massive, most other MMOs are pretty small having 5-20 levels of progression within one zone.
Where Rift shines is in taking you on a linear path but not feeling like its on rails since its an open zone and you aren't boxed in... Aion on the other hand made no attempt to hide the rails and felt boxed in.
LOTRO is huge trust me. I am positive is bigger than WoW.
I agree though on Rift vs Aion. Aion has a lot of invisible walls giving you the feeling of tunnel or rails.
In the other hand Rift is way more open and feels more free.
As a big LotRO fan that's played for a couple years now, I'm pretty sure WoW is bigger.
Each ZONE is generally bigger in LotRO than in WoW, but WoW has many more zones.
A couple things to take into account:
1. Being able to fly in WoW as opposed to only being able to ride makes LotRO seem bigger, even with quick travel. LotRO stable horses travel at 200%, but also have to follow the roads. WoW griffins travel I think, at 400% and while they have a set path, they don't have to veer so far off the straightest course.
2. If you play only one side, you're missing almost half the landmass for levelling up. Since LotRO really only has only one faction, they only need one factions worth of landmass, though they do exceed that, these days. I think you would be right, IF you only counted the areas for ONE of WoW's factions.
But back to the original subject, there's no contest. Rift isn't nearly as big as LotRO, even at its launch, which is particularly significant seeing as they have 2 factions. And it's right about the size of one of WoW's continents. It has about 5 zones per faction, and even as slow as the character moves, a jog from Sanctum to the other side of the zone is a pretty quick one, even following the roads. but like I said before, that's not necessarily a bad thing. It doesn't make you feel clausterphobic like AoC, and it's not instanced into oblivion like DDO and CoX.
Having more zones doesn't mean bigger. I still feel LOTROs world is bigger. And WoW has several continents and are not connected, you teleport into them. In the other hand LOTRO is one piece of land and the viewing distance is huge so all in all It feels bigger than Azeroth.
I played both sides of WoW for 4 years. I know Azeroth very well.
Of course Telara is not as big as Middle Earth, but I can tell you it doesn't feel tiny or boxed, It feels big enough and there is a feeling of freedom. Mi highest character is level 23 and have opened less that 50% of Stonefield. I think I have discovered like 15% of the whole world so far.
RIFT's world is rather small (I would not say tiny, but small), it does not compare in the slightest to worlds that could be called "huge" and it is far smaller than a game like WoW.
At lvl 35, just today I cruised through all the zones with a guildmate in order to get him the puzzles hidden in each of the zones and it took us only a very short amount of time, excluding PvP encounters and knockdowns / chases from mobs (these are very prevalent which means it takes you more time to get through a zone).
What is there though is pretty well done, and there are various incentives for you to go exploring.
How did you get into the zones with the invisible walls around them?
Share the info my fellow explorer because a good part of the map was inaccessible for me.
I should have said "all the available zones".
You know just as well as I that we have seen enough zones right now and how they compare on the map to get a good idea of what the total size of the game is.
RIFT is small if you take as an average a game like WoW. As I said, it does have a lot of interesting things to do when you go off exploring however and the world feels bigger because you move rather slow and there are various elements that slow you down like mobs you can't get through without killing.
Feel free to use my referral link for SW:TOR if you want to test out the game. You'll get some special unlocks!
Rift is decently sized for a fresh starting MMO that wants to promote open world PvP. Whoever created this thread claiming that the world is huge however, has no true sense of scale.
Telara is tiny. Not only is it tiny, but its linear mechanics of quests dragging you around the map make it even smaller. There's no out of the way places to make the world feel bigger...nowhere you can get lost.
{Mod Edit}
Not including the starter areas, warfronts, and instances, the game has 13 world zones. Also the devs have said their will be planes as well so assume 3 or more planar zones, I kinda assume 6 planes 1 for each of the invasion elements.
So far most players have only explored 1 zone, 20+ players have explored 2 zones, and 30+ players have explored 3 ( 5 if they have explored the opposite faction held zones like I have, that means at release we have only explored at most 1/3rd of the game we will have to play in...
For comparrison relation one of RIFT zones is equal to about 6-8 average sized EQ zones, 2-4 average sized WoW zones... next beta I will actually plot the actual size of a RIFT zone for you so you know the actual play area specs..
Where Rift shines is in taking you on a linear path but not feeling like its on rails since its an open zone and you aren't boxed in... Aion on the other hand made no attempt to hide the rails and felt boxed in.
Isn't that like an oxymoron? Being taken on a linear path but without rails? This game completely feels like it's on rails as far as I'm concerned.
Not only is it, but it feels as every bit on rails as Aion did (does? Not sure).
In fact, once the abyss opened up Aion felt far wider open, with more choice and freedom, then this game did at a comparable level imo.
Now I havent played Rift at 42+ (where i think Aion started to turn into a grinder), but certainly up to 30ish it was a lot more fun then Rift for me in a lot of ways, despite both sharing a VERY similar play model and world build in general.
overall I think that Aion offered a more compelling and original world to be led through then the generic cod fantasy of Rift, but thats just me.
Where Rift shines is in taking you on a linear path but not feeling like its on rails since its an open zone and you aren't boxed in... Aion on the other hand made no attempt to hide the rails and felt boxed in.
Isn't that like an oxymoron? Being taken on a linear path but without rails? This game completely feels like it's on rails as far as I'm concerned.
Not only is it, but it feels as every bit on rails as Aion did (does? Not sure).
In fact, once the abyss opened up Aion felt far wider open, with more choice and freedom, then this game did at a comparable level imo.
Now I havent played Rift at 42+ (where i think Aion started to turn into a grinder), but certainly up to 30ish it was a lot more fun then Rift for me in a lot of ways, despite both sharing a VERY similar play model and world build in general.
overall I think that Aion offered a more compelling and original world to be led through then the generic cod fantasy of Rift, but thats just me.
{Mod Edit}
The game is far from linear, there are multiple tested ways to level, one of the fastest being just RIFT fighting, the warfronts in another fast way to level, then there is quests, tons and tons of VERY assorted unlinear quests.. Sure there is a linear quest line for those players that can not function in a game without a questing for dummies guide, but for real gamers those with a brain and the ability to think for themselves there are tons of side quests and off the beaten stand alones, and quest lines.
People telling you this game is linear are either intentionally being deceptive or are one of those "gamers" that need a gold lines drawn for them leading them to their next quest because they are too stupid to find it on their own.
Anyway, Rift zone design resemble more LOTRO than Aion. Aion had artificial barriers everywhere except specific entry and exit points. In Rift anything you see you can climb it, almost to the top. The hidden cairns and puzzles actually encourage you to do so.
Comments
This.
.. But in a good way.
You have two zones to level 35. Did you even get to 35? Or are you guessing what the zones look like without actually being in them?
Did that, see my sig
But the normal run speed can vary from one MMO to another, making the same distance traveled in one MMO take longer than another if the run speed differs much. So in order for a better relative comparison, it's good to know the travel time needed from one edge to the other as well as the run speed, which results in comparable distances and sizes.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
I would like to point out that Rift's land mass isn't just a flat surface. There's a lot of nooks/chasms/cliffs throughout the higher level zones we've seen. They make great use of their land mass also. You can be playing in one area on the surface and have a completely different experience down below. Rift works on what is below you and above you.
It's not original. Other games have done this too, Rift has it also and adds depth and dimension to exploration in an area which I enjoy.
Telara (Rifts) only feels Huge because your character runs so slow. With the introduction of faster mounts in WoW, it feels so darn small also...same would be the case with Rifts.
Ready for GW2!!!
{Mod edit}
Honestly the world is bigger than many thinks atm. I would say it is "BIG" instead of huge.
Bigger mmo worlds than rift:
- Wow
- Lotro (bigger yes, but boring because mobs seems to be the same on each map, at least in rift there are loads of different monsters)
- Vanguard
- Asheron
- Darkfall
- Fallen earth (very similar and almost empty)
Smaller worlds:
- WAR
- Conan
- Aion
- Champions
But the normal run speed can vary from one MMO to another, making the same distance traveled in one MMO take longer than another if the run speed differs much. So in order for a better relative comparison, it's good to know the travel time needed from one edge to the other as well as the run speed, which results in comparable distances and sizes.
If your position is that Telara is BIG, then you'll look at the time, if your position is that Telara is tiny, you'll look at the mileage. The problem with the mileage is that you have to do a little calculation in your head with the run speed to decide if one place is bigger or smaller than another.
Normalize the run speed - i.e. everyone runs at 15 meters per second. Then you'd have a direct comparison of the size of the lands. Then you could use a scale for size. Set Azeroth or Kalimdor to be "1". Rift would be 0.5 of Azeroth (or 1.0? of Kalimdor) and so on. I don't think people are interested in the actual physical sizes so much as they are interested in arguing about how small or big any given mmo world is.
^^ Just my thoughts. You've gone way farther than I ever would have to get land mass sizes.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
OP, you have no idea what you are talking about.
RIFT's world is rather small (I would not say tiny, but small), it does not compare in the slightest to worlds that could be called "huge" and it is far smaller than a game like WoW.
At lvl 35, just today I cruised through all the zones with a guildmate in order to get him the puzzles hidden in each of the zones and it took us only a very short amount of time, excluding PvP encounters and knockdowns / chases from mobs (these are very prevalent which means it takes you more time to get through a zone).
What is there though is pretty well done, and there are various incentives for you to go exploring.
Feel free to use my referral link for SW:TOR if you want to test out the game. You'll get some special unlocks!
Ah, that was just my curiosity that was bogging me for a while now, I've always wanted to know how big an MMORPG world was compared to others that I played, but there wasn't that much concrete info around, so I went hunting for it. As for worldsizes, Rift seems to be a third to fourth of WoW vanilla when it comes to explorable area, but its lower run speed and area design where more mobs and rifts roam around make a region feel larger than a same sized area would in other MMO's. But in the end, it's all subjective perception.
{Mod edit}
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
But when you put numbers in your perceptions, suddenly you have facts!
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
Which 2 zones? Only Scarwood reach takes you to 35. Scarlet Gorget takes you to 30.
Is there another zone I don't know about or you just making fun of the post?
How did you get into the zones with the invisible walls around them?
Share the info my fellow explorer because a good part of the map was inaccessible for me.
Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
Thats what she said
Isn't that like an oxymoron? Being taken on a linear path but without rails? This game completely feels like it's on rails as far as I'm concerned.
and this is beta. at lvl 35. the world is big and beautiful. it will only get better too
There are 15 zones in the game. To run from edge to edge of a single zone, in a straight line, takes an average of 6 1/2 to 7 minutes, not including stops along the way. To me, that's a medium sized world.
I want to note something on the "feel" of the zones. Silverwood, the 5-20 zone for the Guardians, feels bigger than Freemarch, the similar zone for the Defiant, because it is hilly forests, rather than a sloping coastal plain. Some comments I've seen are a lot more appropriate for one zone vs. the other, which may help account for some of the difference in perception.
I enjoyed Freemarch, but Silverwood does feel a lot bigger, even though the size on the map is about the same. Freemarch also feels more linear.
As far as the linearity of the quest lines, it is pretty linear until maybe level 10 or so. Then things start to branch off a lot. Quests from the main hubs send you to out of the way areas of the map. There are also quest givers out in the world and not all of them are found by following quests from the main hubs.
If you do Rifts, which can be pretty fun, you will likely start to outlevel a lot of your quests. This allows you to skip off "the rails" quite a bit as well, since you can mix and match what you skip and what you decide to tackle. Every few levels I have found myself clearing out quests from my quest log, because what they offered was no longer worth the effort. Unlike some games, where the majority of quests are part of long, linear quest lines, I haven't experienced that here. There are some quest lines, but many more quests that do not have other quests as pre-requisites.
The world is no where near as linear as Aion or Warhammer Online. Let's face it, WoW has become extremely linear, but with so much redundancy in content, you can mix and match zones as you go, which is what gives you an out from absolute linearity.
What MMOs are smaller than Rift? Recent games I've played have been a lot smaller in playable land mass: Aion and FFXIV. Both games offer few zones and make liberal use of non-transversable terrain that makes each zone a constricting maze. Rift's world is much less constricting. They use terrain to visually break up the map, which allows good detail to the world and good viewing distances, with in the technical restraints of game rendering. However, even most very steep terrain can be transversed.
I do wish that all MMOs would at least offer the world size, number of zones and content redundancy that WoW did at launch. However, Rift does not, to me, feel anywhere near as small as most titles we have seen over the last few years that weren't sandbox titles. They have maximized use of terrain more than any MMO I've played. There are some individual WoW zones that offer similar density (Ashenvale fits a lot into one zone), but many more that have a lot of wasted space. If Trion could have offered the same density and level of detail, with maybe 50% more zones and land mass, there would have been nothing for anyone to complain about.
Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
Based on my experience so far with Rift, I would say the world is small. The entire world of Rift is not even as big as one continent in Vanguard.
I should have said "all the available zones".
You know just as well as I that we have seen enough zones right now and how they compare on the map to get a good idea of what the total size of the game is.
RIFT is small if you take as an average a game like WoW. As I said, it does have a lot of interesting things to do when you go off exploring however and the world feels bigger because you move rather slow and there are various elements that slow you down like mobs you can't get through without killing.
Feel free to use my referral link for SW:TOR if you want to test out the game. You'll get some special unlocks!
Rift is decently sized for a fresh starting MMO that wants to promote open world PvP. Whoever created this thread claiming that the world is huge however, has no true sense of scale.
{Mod Edit}
Not including the starter areas, warfronts, and instances, the game has 13 world zones. Also the devs have said their will be planes as well so assume 3 or more planar zones, I kinda assume 6 planes 1 for each of the invasion elements.
So far most players have only explored 1 zone, 20+ players have explored 2 zones, and 30+ players have explored 3 ( 5 if they have explored the opposite faction held zones like I have, that means at release we have only explored at most 1/3rd of the game we will have to play in...
For comparrison relation one of RIFT zones is equal to about 6-8 average sized EQ zones, 2-4 average sized WoW zones... next beta I will actually plot the actual size of a RIFT zone for you so you know the actual play area specs..
Not only is it, but it feels as every bit on rails as Aion did (does? Not sure).
In fact, once the abyss opened up Aion felt far wider open, with more choice and freedom, then this game did at a comparable level imo.
Now I havent played Rift at 42+ (where i think Aion started to turn into a grinder), but certainly up to 30ish it was a lot more fun then Rift for me in a lot of ways, despite both sharing a VERY similar play model and world build in general.
overall I think that Aion offered a more compelling and original world to be led through then the generic cod fantasy of Rift, but thats just me.
its big and beautiful and - lame, because the game it supports is a cut and pate of every other poring pos on the market.
-------
Check out my side project http://lfger.com/ - a mobile lfg tool for any game, any time.
-------
{Mod Edit}
The game is far from linear, there are multiple tested ways to level, one of the fastest being just RIFT fighting, the warfronts in another fast way to level, then there is quests, tons and tons of VERY assorted unlinear quests.. Sure there is a linear quest line for those players that can not function in a game without a questing for dummies guide, but for real gamers those with a brain and the ability to think for themselves there are tons of side quests and off the beaten stand alones, and quest lines.
People telling you this game is linear are either intentionally being deceptive or are one of those "gamers" that need a gold lines drawn for them leading them to their next quest because they are too stupid to find it on their own.
Enchanced editor doesn't like Firefox.
Anyway, Rift zone design resemble more LOTRO than Aion. Aion had artificial barriers everywhere except specific entry and exit points. In Rift anything you see you can climb it, almost to the top. The hidden cairns and puzzles actually encourage you to do so.