I find it amazing that the OP is actually talking about SOLO playing at all... wtf is wrong with people MMO is multiplayer not solo play... mmo are too little team oriented...
As many times as this attitude has been debunked, it still amazes me that grouping addicts still trot this out as if it has any validity. By all means, keep flailing against the tide. Game developers are not going to be able to make people play with you if they don't want to.
IMO, I think purely solo players are a minority compared to players that at least slightly lean toward some sort of grouping. I can't see many people playing an MMORPG for any extended period of time (3 or more months) without some sort of friendship being developed with other players. I don't have facts to back that up, but I just don't see that being "the tide".
I find it amazing that the OP is actually talking about SOLO playing at all... wtf is wrong with people MMO is multiplayer not solo play... mmo are too little team oriented...
As many times as this attitude has been debunked, it still amazes me that grouping addicts still trot this out as if it has any validity. By all means, keep flailing against the tide. Game developers are not going to be able to make people play with you if they don't want to.
Failed attempt to be even remotely serious...
For solo play there is tons of great titles for single playing with immensly deep stroyline and much more fun and for socializing you still have your friends on skype and other programs to communicate and socialize... the wast majority of new "friends" you meet are really just not "friends" you want..
As for your last sentence you seem to totally misunderstanding what I'm saying... I'm not trying to make and game devs change their games as your funny remark is... no by all means let them create the games they want... they just want to empty your pockets anyway they can.
Most games gets old fast because when you reach a certain lvl or amount of accumelated abilities the game become utter boring... people enjoy fast pace I can understand that.. but fast lvling usually makes hours and hours worth of programming wasted because people gets to lvl 50 in no time or 10mill skill points or which ever measurement in skills you do... the game devs really lack insight in what they are actually making... most of the older games have more depth and is actually way more fun than newer titles that is spewed out everyday..
Too few titles with only team play as option is out there and most of then are lacking depth, the actually good ones is jump in and blast anything away shooters, I would love a title that require you to team up with 2 or more people at anytime for adventuring... solo play is crafting but even here I would love to see possiblity for coop to create special items...
most games that have solo play as option really make you super duper and you are invincible and you basically kill all with no effort really... they have raids or fleets or group missions but its basically a bunch of the same super duper people fighting a buffed npc horde...
For those who have played pen and paper roleplay they would understand the meaning of class or variation of type of characters.. one char cannot be all and that makes team play vital...
I recon OP really loves solo play since he bother to comment it... most people I get to know on mmo's want a good team play game but the reward for solo play is far greater so why bother team up...
And i got quite a few friends who are 50 and not really complaining too much about the content.. Once you get to 50 you'll get the hardcore raids to do and it's pretty much like every other MMO, a grind to get end game gear.. What, do you want more mundane quests to do at 50? lol.. Rifts end game content out the box is unpar with most games, i remember AION only offered you 1 pvp dungeon (dregion) with 8hr lockouts and one instance with non-changeable difficulties (dark poeta.) I think once you hit lvl 50 you'll see theres the same ammount of content there in this game as there is most MMO's at launch, even maybe more so then most.
Thing is, Aion had half decent world PVP (rifts), as well as a complete RVR zone and capturable fortress etc.
Rift only has Warfront's, with only 1 new one at 50 which is the lamest of the bunch. All the other WF's you have already more than sick of by 50, and that's it, that's your 'endgame pvp' right there - WF grinds, Joy!
It's the same thing with Rift's dungeons, the expert version at 50 are the same crap except with harder mobs.
i just love how people can assume the game is bland when the game has only been out a month. Every MMO I have played from launch has started out this way. A MMORPG(whether its a RPG, FPS, RTS) is like a fine wine it gets better as it ages. COmparing Rift to games like WoW, EQ2 or Vanguard is rather idiotic. Those games have been out 6 years of course they will have better leveling systems better dungeon systems and better crafting systems. The Dev's wouild be complete idiots if they left the game as it was at launch. Give Trion Worlds some time to iron out some of the major problems and add more content.
"Possibly we humans can exist without actually having to fight. But many of us have chosen to fight. For what reason? To protect something? Protect what? Ourselves? The future? If we kill people to protect ourselves and this future, then what sort of future is it, and what will we have become? There is no future for those who have died. And what of those who did the killing? Is happiness to be found in a future that is grasped with blood stained hands? Is that the truth?"
My wife and some friends truly love the game but I am with you on some of the points. I love questing but even I find myself just clicking accept and moving on from hub to hub there is no sense of exploration. Even vanilla wow did not feel this force fed. I also have high doubts on replayability. Doing same quests in same same zone in same order might be too much. Though I may get 2 play throughs one defiant and one guardian.
You're missing out on a good bit of content. There are a number of hidden quests and 'tasks' (non-quest things you can do for rewards) that you'll miss if all you're doing is running from hub to quest to hub.
Every time I tried exploring, I just found things that a quest was about to send me too. I explored a lot, and never felt it was worth doing. Just kept doing it anyhow, because that's the sort of player I am, but I never felt like Rift was really an explorer's game.
Some people go on about these hidden quests, but I guess you don't mean the exclamation mark you can see on your mini-map, from the linear quest path. In all my exploring though, I never saw anything like that. So, give an example. A low level one that wouldn't matter to spoil.
When I want a single-player story, I'll play a single-player game. When I play an MMO, I want a massively multiplayer world.
It seriously worries me that the creator didn't do more with this game than they actually did and that game sites and magazines now compete about who can name the most mistakes. Luckily I didn't put any money into this because I'm fed up with games that want my money but in NO WAY deliever.
If it ain't dead you're not pressing 2 hard enough.
Lifeless questing - Well, I can't really say any game out there has lively questing. Its all the same recycled garbage with a new face.
Stale Solo Play - Soloing is pretty stale in most mmo's from what I have experienced. But this ties back into the first one with the Lifeless questing. Its nigh impossible to allow for an mmo to fully embrace single player gameplay elements while still allowing for everyone else to experience the same content concurrently but seperately from other players.
Checklist Crafting - Same as every other mmo out there pretty much, at least of this style mmo. Crafting all that useless nonsense, as you put it, is the same thing as starting a toon out at level 1. Sure by the time you finish the tutorial you can hop into just about any max level character and in short order be fully competent with whatever class it happens to be, but its not about skill, never has been, and as long as the games are suited to the broadest possible audience, never will be. Its just something else for the player to do to waste their time and lengthen out the subscription.
PvP Balance - Will always be a source of contention as long as people have different skill sets from everyone else and different gear etc. And then every new piece of equipment, new skill, etc throws balance out the window again. Just par for hte course in MMO gaming.
Just two leveling paths - hehe, again like most every other mmo out there. Granted having racial starting zones helps alleviate that, but then again I betcha for the past several years anyone that leveled a gnome then turned around and leveled a dorf would be right here in the same boat as you are. Can't actually think of a single game out there that doesn't recycle material over and over again to make it seem like the subscriber is getting their money's worth
Lifeless questing: please, write down EXACTLY how should questing look to make you happy. Exactly ... do not bother why they did wrong so you do not like. Do not blame them, give solutions.
I get so sick of this argument.
As soon as I invest millions or tens of millions into a game promising next-gen, I'll consider myself responsible for improving questing.
For now, I'll expect companies to live up to their hype.
Not sure if any company can handle YOUR expectations.
The one thing that worries me is not the normals rifts it is events you like the hag in gloam and Jacob in Freemarch down the months how are people going to get the purple sourcestones without the numbers.
I think you are completely Wrong about the Crafting... Simply put you're missing the point. Crafted Items are superior to the stuff you get from quests. And that really helps the performance of your character. Which means, with a modicom of effort, you can level up more quickly. And you can sell the quest rewards and not be quite so poor.
I can see the issues with 4 of the 5, don't PvP so I can't really weigh in on that part. The wife and I are pretty happy so far, but it'll take us a while to reach the cap. I'm hoping that we'll see more content rolling out, a new faction or two, that sort of thing. The game's still pretty much showroom new as MMO's go so I expect they've got bughunts and balance issues to tend to before they can really get into gear expanding the world. Just have to see what happens.
Excluding the PVP one (didn't do any), the rest of the list is why I didn't make it past the beta into retail.
^^ This... And one thing that urked me seriously bad was the combat. The very slow GCD, the slow animations, the near non-existent auto attack. It all was terribad. I mean, they could take some lessons from Blizz on that part (I'm even bored with Blizz version but this one was worse and it just appalling.)
And, this game was advertised for PvP. I remember many videos watching where they said PvP and PvP Rifts and such would be existent and just fell short. Someone said play Battlefield but that game is super boring, I want an very large world to wander around and attack other players and have them try and gank me. This is fun to me. And the way Rift was set up when i played beta, I expected a lot more battles but didn't happen. I was in a PvP guild and near almost all of them already quit the game. A select few stuck with it till something else comes out but, yeah...
I quite agree with some points you make. But for me the crafting is not the lack of interactiveness that draws it back, I'm sorry I justed finished grinding thru quests and got some bonus loot that i can advance my craft with the last thing i want is a "mini game" to annoy the **** till I'm able to learn a new recipe/plan/pattern. The gear you produce I feel is relatively decent if not better than most quest item, depend on what stats your looking to have at a certain lvl. I rather have more recipes while skilling up rather than a "mini game" that don't allow me to learn a new recipe or increase my chances at reproducing pleasing results the next go around.
Plus being able to "go" while leaving my character to do something more productive than just standing and looking pretty (or ugly depending on race or game) is ok by me.
I would LOVE to see games implement, and evolve into more polished forms, class based Epic Quests along the lines of how WoW once had one for Hunters, Warlocks, etc.
This isn't a WoW pump, per se. It's a gaming opinion on something that was, then wasn't, because Blizzard must have decided it wasn't worth the time to keep that dynamic in the game as releases moved forward.
I think the Hunter quest was the most notorious for being very difficult (if you actually DID it, instead of weasling a "cheat" to have a more powerful/experienced Hunter do it for you). But Warlocks had one, etc.
What was it?
A signature quest series for your class, of great difficulty, with a commensurate reward of great value.
And I'm not overstating the word "difficult". In the Hunter version there were five demon lords you had to defeat, each in single combat, no help from anyone allowed. If someone tried to attack one once spawned up before you were engaged, it would one shot them if they weren't a Hunter. If they took a hit from someone else while you were engaged, they'd despawn, etc.
So, solo it was, hopefully with no interference from others, but you could buff yourselve to the nines.
Each was very powerful, with specific attributes, strengths, and weaknesses. Indeed, they rivalled some instance bosses, and you had to do the deed . . . solo.
One of my funniest moments as a Hunter in WoW was running back to the Winterspring demon after a failed run at him. Still spawned up where I had left him, 10ft tall with blue demon wings spread, I noticed two other players off to the left of him, one of which was face down dead (a paladin), his Druid buddy scuttled behind a tree.
Obviously they had seen this rare World Boss spawn, huzzah! No one else was on to it yet, so, they had attacked not knowing what it was, thinking to gain some nifty booty. The Pali was instantly one-shotted as he rushed the mob to tank it.
The Druid sees me ride up on the other side, sit down, and start to buff up. He's now sending me tells like "Don't do it! It'll one shot you! My buddy has (insert impressive stats here) and he got nuked!"
I calmly tell him not to worry, it's my epic quest mob, I have to kill it solo, and it's designed to one-shot peeps who try to interfere. He didn't believe me for like a minute. lol. At which point he finally believes me as I pull the mob and start my second kiting run up to the road, at which point he sends me a final tell: "GL with that".
The class epic quests in WoW were HARD. Some classes could have help, depending on scenario design, some solo like the Hunter.
The quests, once completed, had great rewards highly valued and useful.
The quests PUSHED players to the limits of class game play. I learned more about being a real Hunter in the time finishing that quest line than in five times the regular game play just going pew-pew. Doubled edges sword here, as many players cried about their difficulty.
Never the less, of the things I remember the most in WoW as a proud accomplishment, completing a VERY difficult solo quest chain . . . and doing it myself instead of playing a trick to get someone else to do it for me . . . completing my Hunter epic quest for Lok'Delar and Rhok'Delar (epic Bow and Staff) tops the list.
Blizzard let that dynamic just sink into the mud, instead firing up Arenas and Arenacraft.
I'd welcome that dynamic heartily in a newer game, and see it flourish for those willing to conquer them.
Because in the end, they were fun, and produced better players.
As opposed to rocketting level-bunnies who don't even know what the word "kite" means.
I would LOVE to see games implement, and evolve into more polished forms, class based Epic Quests along the lines of how WoW once had one for Hunters, Warlocks, etc.
This isn't a WoW pump, per se. It's a gaming opinion on something that was, then wasn't, because Blizzard must have decided it wasn't worth the time to keep that dynamic in the game as releases moved forward.
I think the Hunter quest was the most notorious for being very difficult (if you actually DID it, instead of weasling a "cheat" to have a more powerful/experienced Hunter do it for you). But Warlocks had one, etc.
What was it?
A signature quest series for your class, of great difficulty, with a commensurate reward of great value.
And I'm not overstating the word "difficult". In the Hunter version there were five demon lords you had to defeat, each in single combat, no help from anyone allowed. If someone tried to attack one once spawned up before you were engaged, it would one shot them if they weren't a Hunter. If they took a hit from someone else while you were engaged, they'd despawn, etc.
So, solo it was, hopefully with no interference from others, but you could buff yourselve to the nines.
Each was very powerful, with specific attributes, strengths, and weaknesses. Indeed, they rivalled some instance bosses, and you had to do the deed . . . solo.
One of my funniest moments as a Hunter in WoW was running back to the Winterspring demon after a failed run at him. Still spawned up where I had left him, 10ft tall with blue demon wings spread, I noticed two other players off to the left of him, one of which was face down dead (a paladin), his Druid buddy scuttled behind a tree.
Obviously they had seen this rare World Boss spawn, huzzah! No one else was on to it yet, so, they had attacked not knowing what it was, thinking to gain some nifty booty. The Pali was instantly one-shotted as he rushed the mob to tank it.
The Druid sees me ride up on the other side, sit down, and start to buff up. He's now sending me tells like "Don't do it! It'll one shot you! My buddy has (insert impressive stats here) and he got nuked!"
I calmly tell him not to worry, it's my epic quest mob, I have to kill it solo, and it's designed to one-shot peeps who try to interfere. He didn't believe me for like a minute. lol. At which point he finally believes me as I pull the mob and start my second kiting run up to the road, at which point he sends me a final tell: "GL with that".
The class epic quests in WoW were HARD. Some classes could have help, depending on scenario design, some solo like the Hunter.
The quests, once completed, had great rewards highly valued and useful.
The quests PUSHED players to the limits of class game play. I learned more about being a real Hunter in the time finishing that quest line than in five times the regular game play just going pew-pew. Doubled edges sword here, as many players cried about their difficulty.
Never the less, of the things I remember the most in WoW as a proud accomplishment, completing a VERY difficult solo quest chain . . . and doing it myself instead of playing a trick to get someone else to do it for me . . . completing my Hunter epic quest for Lok'Delar and Rhok'Delar (epic Bow and Staff) tops the list.
Blizzard let that dynamic just sink into the mud, instead firing up Arenas and Arenacraft.
I'd welcome that dynamic heartily in a newer game, and see it flourish for those willing to conquer them.
Because in the end, they were fun, and produced better players.
As opposed to rocketting level-bunnies who don't even know what the word "kite" means.
This. I agree with every single point here but rift really didn't come out on top like everyone thought. Its now sinking and will be hard to revive.
Lifeless questing - Well, I can't really say any game out there has lively questing. Its all the same recycled garbage with a new face.
{mod edit}
Stale Solo Play - Soloing is pretty stale in most mmo's from what I have experienced. But this ties back into the first one with the Lifeless questing. Its nigh impossible to allow for an mmo to fully embrace single player gameplay elements while still allowing for everyone else to experience the same content concurrently but seperately from other players.
I though RIFT was a MMO? You know playing with real people... Once again, OP, SWTOR might be your answer as you'll have companions and they stated the game will be soloable at +90%. Just for the record I leveled my main 95% playing alone, grouping rarely.
Checklist Crafting - Same as every other mmo out there pretty much, at least of this style mmo. Crafting all that useless nonsense, as you put it, is the same thing as starting a toon out at level 1. Sure by the time you finish the tutorial you can hop into just about any max level character and in short order be fully competent with whatever class it happens to be, but its not about skill, never has been, and as long as the games are suited to the broadest possible audience, never will be. Its just something else for the player to do to waste their time and lengthen out the subscription.
Crafting is very fine to me, for this kind of game. It's far from my favorite system: Pre-CU SWG, still it's much better than WoW and I never felt like grinding and you can do usable items at your level without turning crafting into a second job or grind.
PvP Balance - Will always be a source of contention as long as people have different skill sets from everyone else and different gear etc. And then every new piece of equipment, new skill, etc throws balance out the window again. Just par for hte course in MMO gaming.
Counterstrike ==> this way. Balanced PvP in MMO simply won't exists as long as all characters aren't a carbon copy of each others. {mod edit}
Just two leveling paths - hehe, again like most every other mmo out there. Granted having racial starting zones helps alleviate that, but then again I betcha for the past several years anyone that leveled a gnome then turned around and leveled a dorf would be right here in the same boat as you are. Can't actually think of a single game out there that doesn't recycle material over and over again to make it seem like the subscriber is getting their money's worth
Exactly and what do you propose William? You are fully aware this is a new game and it takes time and $$$ to add branching content. I take it as a low blow to a polished game.{mod edit}
A good reply Severius, may I add in blue above
Obviously this article was only looking to generate pages views as most of it is very bisased and narrow. Contrary to the OP RIFT does not do:
Questing
Solo PLay
Crafting
PvP
Levelling
...Wrong.
They are indeed really well made and what the game need is more content but the core is there and is mark my words: solid.
Now what is wrong if you want a real list is:
No UI skins nor addons
No guild bank
No LFG tool
Lack of filters in AH and crafting
Interestingly enough most of the above are being addressed in the patch 1.2 and they're adding social clothing a feature that even WoW (along gear dyes) doesn't have and possibly TOR won't have either. And the game is 1 month old not years...
Lifeless questing - Well, I can't really say any game out there has lively questing. Its all the same recycled garbage with a new face.
{mod edit}
Stale Solo Play - Soloing is pretty stale in most mmo's from what I have experienced. But this ties back into the first one with the Lifeless questing. Its nigh impossible to allow for an mmo to fully embrace single player gameplay elements while still allowing for everyone else to experience the same content concurrently but seperately from other players.
I though RIFT was a MMO? You know playing with real people... Once again, OP, SWTOR might be your answer as you'll have companions and they stated the game will be soloable at +90%. Just for the record I leveled my main 95% playing alone, grouping rarely.
Checklist Crafting - Same as every other mmo out there pretty much, at least of this style mmo. Crafting all that useless nonsense, as you put it, is the same thing as starting a toon out at level 1. Sure by the time you finish the tutorial you can hop into just about any max level character and in short order be fully competent with whatever class it happens to be, but its not about skill, never has been, and as long as the games are suited to the broadest possible audience, never will be. Its just something else for the player to do to waste their time and lengthen out the subscription.
Crafting is very fine to me, for this kind of game. It's far from my favorite system: Pre-CU SWG, still it's much better than WoW and I never felt like grinding and you can do usable items at your level without turning crafting into a second job or grind.
PvP Balance - Will always be a source of contention as long as people have different skill sets from everyone else and different gear etc. And then every new piece of equipment, new skill, etc throws balance out the window again. Just par for hte course in MMO gaming.
Counterstrike ==> this way. Balanced PvP in MMO simply won't exists as long as all characters aren't a carbon copy of each others. {mod edit}
Just two leveling paths - hehe, again like most every other mmo out there. Granted having racial starting zones helps alleviate that, but then again I betcha for the past several years anyone that leveled a gnome then turned around and leveled a dorf would be right here in the same boat as you are. Can't actually think of a single game out there that doesn't recycle material over and over again to make it seem like the subscriber is getting their money's worth
Exactly and what do you propose William? You are fully aware this is a new game and it takes time and $$$ to add branching content. I take it as a low blow to a polished game.{mod edit}
A good reply Severius, may I add in blue above
Obviously this article was only looking to generate pages views as most of it is very bisased and narrow. Contrary to the OP RIFT does not do:
Questing
Solo PLay
Crafting
PvP
Levelling
...Wrong.
They are indeed really well made and what the game need is more content but the core is there and is mark my words: solid.
Now what is wrong if you want a real list is:
No UI skins nor addons
No guild bank
No LFG tool
Lack of filters in AH and crafting
Interestingly enough most of the above are being addressed in the patch 1.2 and they're adding social clothing a feature that even WoW (along gear dyes) doesn't have and possibly TOR won't have either. And the game is 1 month old not years...
Rift is a good game, thats all, the pve is fine, but compared with a game like Lotro is bored, however is not bad and fun in some point. The PvP is one of the biggest problems in rift, and since the 50% of the active population was playing rift for the pvp, this is a serious issue, the 1.2 update is a stepforward but not enough, the game really need more pvp content and trion know it, but they need more time to do that, maybe 3-5 months?, sadly it will be late, yes im talking about TOR, rift cant be a competition for TOR when a single zone in that game has the size of Telara.
I am not totally educated on Rift. I tried one of the free weekend trials though. Of course everything I say here are my own opinions.
I could not get into the storyline enough to want to read the quests I tried both factions Defiant was my preferred of the 2 so that is what I went with in the trial, however when I walked into the Night of the Living Dead all I could do was laugh and say oh my I am in a horror movie.
I forced myself to finish the beginning area due to that I wanted to see a rift and the tradeskilling system. I could not even bring myself to get to the tradeskilling due to as soon as I saw the candy ore and fake flowers that you harvest I said ZOMG. No graphics are not everything but I have always had a hard time with playing a game that looks fake or cartoony.
Tried a rift and it was way to easy. What worries me most and this is one of the reasons I won't buy it was that from my view it looked like what I could have bought for the PS2 for $30 new before the PS3 came out. Another thing is people are saying they are already at max level after 1 month... So this tells me that this game is all about end content and none inbetween.
I had already heard from more than one person that the tradesklilling was like WoW and that alone turned me away from it.
I would have to agree with most of your points on the questing most definately. So imo the weekend free trial may not have been the best idea to only allow people to get to level 15 and not experience the dungeons. Not enough personal information to decide for me completely whether or not it would be worth my money or not.
Consequences? Please....EQ2's system is overly complicated when you start...then...it gets routine as you figure out the 3 buttons you need to spam......repeatedly. To give it credit, EQ2 does have some useful and fun crafting paths. WoW's system? Gimme a break....have been playing it since vanilla Open Beta....and..well...while it's an "easy" system....it's basically useless. You can make very few useful items (imho), and what you can make barely keeps up with your level. I like in Rift that you can actually make all the items you need and learn more items that you can use as you level up. Yes...the items you can get from instances/questing are better (usually, and yes I agree they should be), but it's nice to have a system that let's you make useful, relevant items. Oh yeah...back to consequences....why do you need "consequences" if you fail to make an item? There are enough consequences out there while questinng
Is it overly complicated or is it routine? By the laws of logic It can't be both.
I personally found the learning process pretty fun in EQII, and having that air of danger when crafting is something I haven't experienced in a game since. For some of us, when you know there are consequences for failure then success becomes that much better. For others it's just about the end result.
In Rift the crafting was so... lackluster. It's not about the items, which were just fine, but more about the sameness of the system. I knew exactly what to do the first time I picked up a piece of animal hide and found a crafting station, because I'd done all the exact same type of crafting in WoW. If I can ever immediately know how a crafting system works because I've played another game, it's probably not going to hook me.
When I was in the navy, my engineer would say " don't come to me with problems, come to me with solutions."
I personally want to escape to another world when i play an mmo, and join friends to face challenges that I can not do alone, or do much more efficiently with a group.
with that being said, solo questing should be removed. not just from rift, but lets say, the next anticipated game. no quest should have a "!". you should have to read what people are saying, and bring an item, like in eq1. you dont get a magic circle. I dont even think you should get a minimap. make your own damn map.That way, you feel like you are discovering what to do through effort. the quest item should not be soloable on equal level.
crafting in saga of ryzom, was the most fun ever for me. also the harvesting. if you didnt pay attention when you obtained items in SoR, you could DIE,. all items would be affected with the mats you brought to the recipe, so the quality of materials and the skill of the user, would affect the outcome. there was no crafting 10 of the same exact thing. people could play the game just as a harvestor, or just as a crafter, and have fun/feel useful. the items i made, i felt were mine, because they werent the same as the next guy. material locations would change with time of day, and seasons. there were no node locations depicted by a cheesy graphic. you had to memorize where you found a good item and that area can be tapped out.
taming pets that have thier own skillset, with thier own skill tree is a good idea. having the same class/level share the same pet as everyone else, and the pet is basically free, is lame. leaves nothing to the imagination. seeing everyone walking around with the same stuff is horrible. old old rappelz had the best pet idea. you grinded a said monster until it dropped a card. then you had a CHANCE to tame it. once tamed, you leveled it, and spent points on a tree. you couldnt redistrib your points, so thought and care had to go into it, or your pet would be broken. also, dont announce the future skills. let people discover them. for over a year, no one had a max level pet, and it was great, because it left something to the imagination.
player housing, guild housing, rvr, fishing, fighting on mounts, twitch combat, build your own boat/mount can add to overall immersion. what rift lacks, is depth. what rift has, is short lived excitement for people starving, begging for something new. having a new class system/game entices people's imagination, but once its figured out, the rest of the world is pretty dry. rifts also, are exciting at first, but they are basically the same at level 10, as level 50, minus raid rifts.
i believe that the problem isnt trion, or rift, but the fact that people want something huge that they cant conquer. Something where you feel threatened and seek out other peoples help. A game where they can spend thier time and become really unique. there are plenty of standalone games say, mass effect, obliion etc , that beat the snot out of any mmo in graphics and depth. if you crave better solo play, then play a stand alone game and talk to your friends on vent to pass time. you dont need an mmo. mmo's should MAKE you play with other people to progress. there shouldnt be much solo progression, or you can play the whole game alone, not having met anyone, completely missing the point of going online at all. i suppose making money with your game, and making a game true to actually being ann mmo conflict in this aspect. if you make people earn thier stuff, they wont want to play, and therefore the company will make less money.
I remember grouping on orc hill outside of crushbone/kelethin, thinking sweet, i have an orc hill group, i will finally get to level 7. I was more excited about that, than getting to 50 in rift because I couldnt do it on my own. I had to meet people and ask for thier help. If you were an ass in a group, you wouldnt get invited back, and it was back to solo play for being bad. Now days, solo play is more efficient, its almost silly to group for your characters development. You will miss out on rep and more boring quest chains to solo with.
Im sure ive somewhere in all of this, contradicted myself, misspelled something etc, but you get the feel of what I am trying to say right?
As the state of pvp to date they have shown that they can not balance it out. They state certain classes are fine when they faceroll anything on the map and do this with no skill or effort. For those wanting to pvp competively in this game don't try. You either play one of the 2 classes that can kill or 2 of the classes that are their targets. Either way it will be boring for someone that is competitive. I prefer a balance where i can lose or win. How exciting would christmas be if I knew what all the packages under the tree contained. Same with rift by what class you pick the package is already unwrapped.
Comments
IMO, I think purely solo players are a minority compared to players that at least slightly lean toward some sort of grouping. I can't see many people playing an MMORPG for any extended period of time (3 or more months) without some sort of friendship being developed with other players. I don't have facts to back that up, but I just don't see that being "the tide".
Failed attempt to be even remotely serious...
For solo play there is tons of great titles for single playing with immensly deep stroyline and much more fun and for socializing you still have your friends on skype and other programs to communicate and socialize... the wast majority of new "friends" you meet are really just not "friends" you want..
As for your last sentence you seem to totally misunderstanding what I'm saying... I'm not trying to make and game devs change their games as your funny remark is... no by all means let them create the games they want... they just want to empty your pockets anyway they can.
Most games gets old fast because when you reach a certain lvl or amount of accumelated abilities the game become utter boring... people enjoy fast pace I can understand that.. but fast lvling usually makes hours and hours worth of programming wasted because people gets to lvl 50 in no time or 10mill skill points or which ever measurement in skills you do... the game devs really lack insight in what they are actually making... most of the older games have more depth and is actually way more fun than newer titles that is spewed out everyday..
Too few titles with only team play as option is out there and most of then are lacking depth, the actually good ones is jump in and blast anything away shooters, I would love a title that require you to team up with 2 or more people at anytime for adventuring... solo play is crafting but even here I would love to see possiblity for coop to create special items...
most games that have solo play as option really make you super duper and you are invincible and you basically kill all with no effort really... they have raids or fleets or group missions but its basically a bunch of the same super duper people fighting a buffed npc horde...
For those who have played pen and paper roleplay they would understand the meaning of class or variation of type of characters.. one char cannot be all and that makes team play vital...
I recon OP really loves solo play since he bother to comment it... most people I get to know on mmo's want a good team play game but the reward for solo play is far greater so why bother team up...
Yeah, boring quests, and endgame PVP that consists of grinding lame WF's. Oh, and brightwizards to boot.
Oh well, was fun for a month....sort of.
Thing is, Aion had half decent world PVP (rifts), as well as a complete RVR zone and capturable fortress etc.
Rift only has Warfront's, with only 1 new one at 50 which is the lamest of the bunch. All the other WF's you have already more than sick of by 50, and that's it, that's your 'endgame pvp' right there - WF grinds, Joy!
It's the same thing with Rift's dungeons, the expert version at 50 are the same crap except with harder mobs.
Endgame = joke.
PVP = even bigger joke.
I totally agree doing quest time by time in the same zone is just to much for a game.
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i just love how people can assume the game is bland when the game has only been out a month. Every MMO I have played from launch has started out this way. A MMORPG(whether its a RPG, FPS, RTS) is like a fine wine it gets better as it ages. COmparing Rift to games like WoW, EQ2 or Vanguard is rather idiotic. Those games have been out 6 years of course they will have better leveling systems better dungeon systems and better crafting systems. The Dev's wouild be complete idiots if they left the game as it was at launch. Give Trion Worlds some time to iron out some of the major problems and add more content.
"Possibly we humans can exist without actually having to fight. But many of us have chosen to fight. For what reason? To protect something? Protect what? Ourselves? The future? If we kill people to protect ourselves and this future, then what sort of future is it, and what will we have become? There is no future for those who have died. And what of those who did the killing? Is happiness to be found in a future that is grasped with blood stained hands? Is that the truth?"
Every time I tried exploring, I just found things that a quest was about to send me too. I explored a lot, and never felt it was worth doing. Just kept doing it anyhow, because that's the sort of player I am, but I never felt like Rift was really an explorer's game.
Some people go on about these hidden quests, but I guess you don't mean the exclamation mark you can see on your mini-map, from the linear quest path. In all my exploring though, I never saw anything like that. So, give an example. A low level one that wouldn't matter to spoil.
When I want a single-player story, I'll play a single-player game. When I play an MMO, I want a massively multiplayer world.
It seriously worries me that the creator didn't do more with this game than they actually did and that game sites and magazines now compete about who can name the most mistakes. Luckily I didn't put any money into this because I'm fed up with games that want my money but in NO WAY deliever.
If it ain't dead you're not pressing 2 hard enough.
Lifeless questing - Well, I can't really say any game out there has lively questing. Its all the same recycled garbage with a new face.
Stale Solo Play - Soloing is pretty stale in most mmo's from what I have experienced. But this ties back into the first one with the Lifeless questing. Its nigh impossible to allow for an mmo to fully embrace single player gameplay elements while still allowing for everyone else to experience the same content concurrently but seperately from other players.
Checklist Crafting - Same as every other mmo out there pretty much, at least of this style mmo. Crafting all that useless nonsense, as you put it, is the same thing as starting a toon out at level 1. Sure by the time you finish the tutorial you can hop into just about any max level character and in short order be fully competent with whatever class it happens to be, but its not about skill, never has been, and as long as the games are suited to the broadest possible audience, never will be. Its just something else for the player to do to waste their time and lengthen out the subscription.
PvP Balance - Will always be a source of contention as long as people have different skill sets from everyone else and different gear etc. And then every new piece of equipment, new skill, etc throws balance out the window again. Just par for hte course in MMO gaming.
Just two leveling paths - hehe, again like most every other mmo out there. Granted having racial starting zones helps alleviate that, but then again I betcha for the past several years anyone that leveled a gnome then turned around and leveled a dorf would be right here in the same boat as you are. Can't actually think of a single game out there that doesn't recycle material over and over again to make it seem like the subscriber is getting their money's worth
http://www.speedtest.net/result/7300033012
Not sure if any company can handle YOUR expectations.
The one thing that worries me is not the normals rifts it is events you like the hag in gloam and Jacob in Freemarch down the months how are people going to get the purple sourcestones without the numbers.
I think you are completely Wrong about the Crafting... Simply put you're missing the point. Crafted Items are superior to the stuff you get from quests. And that really helps the performance of your character. Which means, with a modicom of effort, you can level up more quickly. And you can sell the quest rewards and not be quite so poor.
I can see the issues with 4 of the 5, don't PvP so I can't really weigh in on that part. The wife and I are pretty happy so far, but it'll take us a while to reach the cap. I'm hoping that we'll see more content rolling out, a new faction or two, that sort of thing. The game's still pretty much showroom new as MMO's go so I expect they've got bughunts and balance issues to tend to before they can really get into gear expanding the world. Just have to see what happens.
^^ This... And one thing that urked me seriously bad was the combat. The very slow GCD, the slow animations, the near non-existent auto attack. It all was terribad. I mean, they could take some lessons from Blizz on that part (I'm even bored with Blizz version but this one was worse and it just appalling.)
And, this game was advertised for PvP. I remember many videos watching where they said PvP and PvP Rifts and such would be existent and just fell short. Someone said play Battlefield but that game is super boring, I want an very large world to wander around and attack other players and have them try and gank me. This is fun to me. And the way Rift was set up when i played beta, I expected a lot more battles but didn't happen. I was in a PvP guild and near almost all of them already quit the game. A select few stuck with it till something else comes out but, yeah...
Amen. People like to jump on the hate bandwagon nowadays. I enjoy the game immensely.
I quite agree with some points you make. But for me the crafting is not the lack of interactiveness that draws it back, I'm sorry I justed finished grinding thru quests and got some bonus loot that i can advance my craft with the last thing i want is a "mini game" to annoy the **** till I'm able to learn a new recipe/plan/pattern. The gear you produce I feel is relatively decent if not better than most quest item, depend on what stats your looking to have at a certain lvl. I rather have more recipes while skilling up rather than a "mini game" that don't allow me to learn a new recipe or increase my chances at reproducing pleasing results the next go around.
Plus being able to "go" while leaving my character to do something more productive than just standing and looking pretty (or ugly depending on race or game) is ok by me.
This review is spot on. Nothing makes the game different to any other MMO out there at the moment.
Neal - British Guards Gaming Community
britishguards.co.uk
I would LOVE to see games implement, and evolve into more polished forms, class based Epic Quests along the lines of how WoW once had one for Hunters, Warlocks, etc.
This isn't a WoW pump, per se. It's a gaming opinion on something that was, then wasn't, because Blizzard must have decided it wasn't worth the time to keep that dynamic in the game as releases moved forward.
I think the Hunter quest was the most notorious for being very difficult (if you actually DID it, instead of weasling a "cheat" to have a more powerful/experienced Hunter do it for you). But Warlocks had one, etc.
What was it?
A signature quest series for your class, of great difficulty, with a commensurate reward of great value.
And I'm not overstating the word "difficult". In the Hunter version there were five demon lords you had to defeat, each in single combat, no help from anyone allowed. If someone tried to attack one once spawned up before you were engaged, it would one shot them if they weren't a Hunter. If they took a hit from someone else while you were engaged, they'd despawn, etc.
So, solo it was, hopefully with no interference from others, but you could buff yourselve to the nines.
Each was very powerful, with specific attributes, strengths, and weaknesses. Indeed, they rivalled some instance bosses, and you had to do the deed . . . solo.
One of my funniest moments as a Hunter in WoW was running back to the Winterspring demon after a failed run at him. Still spawned up where I had left him, 10ft tall with blue demon wings spread, I noticed two other players off to the left of him, one of which was face down dead (a paladin), his Druid buddy scuttled behind a tree.
Obviously they had seen this rare World Boss spawn, huzzah! No one else was on to it yet, so, they had attacked not knowing what it was, thinking to gain some nifty booty. The Pali was instantly one-shotted as he rushed the mob to tank it.
The Druid sees me ride up on the other side, sit down, and start to buff up. He's now sending me tells like "Don't do it! It'll one shot you! My buddy has (insert impressive stats here) and he got nuked!"
I calmly tell him not to worry, it's my epic quest mob, I have to kill it solo, and it's designed to one-shot peeps who try to interfere. He didn't believe me for like a minute. lol. At which point he finally believes me as I pull the mob and start my second kiting run up to the road, at which point he sends me a final tell: "GL with that".
The class epic quests in WoW were HARD. Some classes could have help, depending on scenario design, some solo like the Hunter.
The quests, once completed, had great rewards highly valued and useful.
The quests PUSHED players to the limits of class game play. I learned more about being a real Hunter in the time finishing that quest line than in five times the regular game play just going pew-pew. Doubled edges sword here, as many players cried about their difficulty.
Never the less, of the things I remember the most in WoW as a proud accomplishment, completing a VERY difficult solo quest chain . . . and doing it myself instead of playing a trick to get someone else to do it for me . . . completing my Hunter epic quest for Lok'Delar and Rhok'Delar (epic Bow and Staff) tops the list.
Blizzard let that dynamic just sink into the mud, instead firing up Arenas and Arenacraft.
I'd welcome that dynamic heartily in a newer game, and see it flourish for those willing to conquer them.
Because in the end, they were fun, and produced better players.
As opposed to rocketting level-bunnies who don't even know what the word "kite" means.
Wherever you go, there you are.
This. I agree with every single point here but rift really didn't come out on top like everyone thought. Its now sinking and will be hard to revive.
Free to play means pay to win.
A good reply Severius, may I add in blue above
Obviously this article was only looking to generate pages views as most of it is very bisased and narrow. Contrary to the OP RIFT does not do:
Questing
Solo PLay
Crafting
PvP
Levelling
...Wrong.
They are indeed really well made and what the game need is more content but the core is there and is mark my words: solid.
Now what is wrong if you want a real list is:
No UI skins nor addons
No guild bank
No LFG tool
Lack of filters in AH and crafting
Interestingly enough most of the above are being addressed in the patch 1.2 and they're adding social clothing a feature that even WoW (along gear dyes) doesn't have and possibly TOR won't have either. And the game is 1 month old not years...
Rift is a good game, thats all, the pve is fine, but compared with a game like Lotro is bored, however is not bad and fun in some point. The PvP is one of the biggest problems in rift, and since the 50% of the active population was playing rift for the pvp, this is a serious issue, the 1.2 update is a step forward but not enough, the game really need more pvp content and trion know it, but they need more time to do that, maybe 3-5 months?, sadly it will be late, yes im talking about TOR, rift cant be a competition for TOR when a single zone in that game has the size of Telara.
I am not totally educated on Rift. I tried one of the free weekend trials though. Of course everything I say here are my own opinions.
I could not get into the storyline enough to want to read the quests I tried both factions Defiant was my preferred of the 2 so that is what I went with in the trial, however when I walked into the Night of the Living Dead all I could do was laugh and say oh my I am in a horror movie.
I forced myself to finish the beginning area due to that I wanted to see a rift and the tradeskilling system. I could not even bring myself to get to the tradeskilling due to as soon as I saw the candy ore and fake flowers that you harvest I said ZOMG. No graphics are not everything but I have always had a hard time with playing a game that looks fake or cartoony.
Tried a rift and it was way to easy. What worries me most and this is one of the reasons I won't buy it was that from my view it looked like what I could have bought for the PS2 for $30 new before the PS3 came out. Another thing is people are saying they are already at max level after 1 month... So this tells me that this game is all about end content and none inbetween.
I had already heard from more than one person that the tradesklilling was like WoW and that alone turned me away from it.
I would have to agree with most of your points on the questing most definately. So imo the weekend free trial may not have been the best idea to only allow people to get to level 15 and not experience the dungeons. Not enough personal information to decide for me completely whether or not it would be worth my money or not.
Is it overly complicated or is it routine? By the laws of logic It can't be both.
I personally found the learning process pretty fun in EQII, and having that air of danger when crafting is something I haven't experienced in a game since. For some of us, when you know there are consequences for failure then success becomes that much better. For others it's just about the end result.
In Rift the crafting was so... lackluster. It's not about the items, which were just fine, but more about the sameness of the system. I knew exactly what to do the first time I picked up a piece of animal hide and found a crafting station, because I'd done all the exact same type of crafting in WoW. If I can ever immediately know how a crafting system works because I've played another game, it's probably not going to hook me.
When I was in the navy, my engineer would say " don't come to me with problems, come to me with solutions."
I personally want to escape to another world when i play an mmo, and join friends to face challenges that I can not do alone, or do much more efficiently with a group.
with that being said, solo questing should be removed. not just from rift, but lets say, the next anticipated game. no quest should have a "!". you should have to read what people are saying, and bring an item, like in eq1. you dont get a magic circle. I dont even think you should get a minimap. make your own damn map.That way, you feel like you are discovering what to do through effort. the quest item should not be soloable on equal level.
crafting in saga of ryzom, was the most fun ever for me. also the harvesting. if you didnt pay attention when you obtained items in SoR, you could DIE,. all items would be affected with the mats you brought to the recipe, so the quality of materials and the skill of the user, would affect the outcome. there was no crafting 10 of the same exact thing. people could play the game just as a harvestor, or just as a crafter, and have fun/feel useful. the items i made, i felt were mine, because they werent the same as the next guy. material locations would change with time of day, and seasons. there were no node locations depicted by a cheesy graphic. you had to memorize where you found a good item and that area can be tapped out.
taming pets that have thier own skillset, with thier own skill tree is a good idea. having the same class/level share the same pet as everyone else, and the pet is basically free, is lame. leaves nothing to the imagination. seeing everyone walking around with the same stuff is horrible. old old rappelz had the best pet idea. you grinded a said monster until it dropped a card. then you had a CHANCE to tame it. once tamed, you leveled it, and spent points on a tree. you couldnt redistrib your points, so thought and care had to go into it, or your pet would be broken. also, dont announce the future skills. let people discover them. for over a year, no one had a max level pet, and it was great, because it left something to the imagination.
player housing, guild housing, rvr, fishing, fighting on mounts, twitch combat, build your own boat/mount can add to overall immersion. what rift lacks, is depth. what rift has, is short lived excitement for people starving, begging for something new. having a new class system/game entices people's imagination, but once its figured out, the rest of the world is pretty dry. rifts also, are exciting at first, but they are basically the same at level 10, as level 50, minus raid rifts.
i believe that the problem isnt trion, or rift, but the fact that people want something huge that they cant conquer. Something where you feel threatened and seek out other peoples help. A game where they can spend thier time and become really unique. there are plenty of standalone games say, mass effect, obliion etc , that beat the snot out of any mmo in graphics and depth. if you crave better solo play, then play a stand alone game and talk to your friends on vent to pass time. you dont need an mmo. mmo's should MAKE you play with other people to progress. there shouldnt be much solo progression, or you can play the whole game alone, not having met anyone, completely missing the point of going online at all. i suppose making money with your game, and making a game true to actually being ann mmo conflict in this aspect. if you make people earn thier stuff, they wont want to play, and therefore the company will make less money.
I remember grouping on orc hill outside of crushbone/kelethin, thinking sweet, i have an orc hill group, i will finally get to level 7. I was more excited about that, than getting to 50 in rift because I couldnt do it on my own. I had to meet people and ask for thier help. If you were an ass in a group, you wouldnt get invited back, and it was back to solo play for being bad. Now days, solo play is more efficient, its almost silly to group for your characters development. You will miss out on rep and more boring quest chains to solo with.
Im sure ive somewhere in all of this, contradicted myself, misspelled something etc, but you get the feel of what I am trying to say right?
As the state of pvp to date they have shown that they can not balance it out. They state certain classes are fine when they faceroll anything on the map and do this with no skill or effort. For those wanting to pvp competively in this game don't try. You either play one of the 2 classes that can kill or 2 of the classes that are their targets. Either way it will be boring for someone that is competitive. I prefer a balance where i can lose or win. How exciting would christmas be if I knew what all the packages under the tree contained. Same with rift by what class you pick the package is already unwrapped.