The Nickle and Dime

While I have certainly made no secret of the fact that Rift just isn’t for me, that doesn’t mean I would ever shy away from commending Trion if I feel they deserve it.  I sang their praises earlier this year for unveiling the most stable and functional MMO launch in years.  But moving towards current events, we have the recent uproar surrounding statements from Blizzard that a Cross-Realm Dungeon Finder might become part of a WoW premium service/subscription.

Yes indeed, the devil is back in black and ready to force Blizzard to milk us dry.  I speak of Bobby Kotick of course, the CEO of Activision.  This is the company that owns Blizzard by the way.  We are talking about a man who once bragged about “taking all the fun out of making video games.”  Here, allow me to produce a recent photograph.

You just keep them focused on the deep depression, Bobby.  Fear is your ally!  And for anyone who is wondering why I am focusing my ire on Mr. Kotick, he has stated repeatedly in the past that he would bill people to play Call of Duty, and that many other online titles don’t charge nearly as much as they should for services rendered.  When you take that along with his statements on ruining fun and focusing people on our poor economy, and I can confidently say that he is very deserving of my angst.

So it’s not difficult to envision a scenario where he calls up Blizzard and says “You’re down 5 percent in subs, so now is the time to start adding more costs to your game!”  This is not absolving Blizzard in any way for their recent statements, of course.  I’m just stating what feels true to me.  Anyways, it’s completely understandable that many people feel like this development of a WoW premium service is crossing the line.

I’m sure many of us now glimpse into the future of our MMO gaming lives and see nothing but the sting of extra costs surrounding titles for which we already pay a subscription fee.  So in that light, it was a welcome breath of fresh air to see Trion release the following statement regarding their new Character Transfer service.  I will highlight the key part below.

“MMOs are all about playing with your friends no matter which server they’re on, and that’s why we’re offering this as a free service to our subscribers,” said Scott Hartsman, Executive Producer.  “RIFT is both a game and a service, and adding free server transfers is just one more way we can make this the best possible MMO experience available.”

Character transfers will remain a free service for the foreseeable future, and could become a permanent addition to the RIFT experience.

Potentially free Character Transfers for the life of your game, Trion?  You mean you don’t want to continuously milk your players for every single dime they’ve got?  After all, the act of transferring a character from one server to another is so simple it can be easily automated.  So why not join in with the rest of the MMO companies who charge us $20 or more every time we want to transfer a toon?  Why not submit to the dark side now and set up shop for years to come?

I suppose the correct answer is that Trion doesn’t want to become just another development studio.  They respect the fact that gamers pay them a monthly subscription fee, which is far more than any company needs to cover bandwith costs.  And yet they are still considering the notion of making this transfer service free…forever.  All I can say to that is Bravo, Trion.  Now if only I found your game a little more compelling!  But regardless, I think some healthy applause is in order.

The Dreading of Quests

You know, I can still remember the unrivaled feeling of joy I felt the first time I sampled WoW and EQ2 in November of 2004.  Quests…my God…they are ingenious, I thought.  I rested peacefully at night knowing that never again would I be asked to gain levels by mindlessly grinding on monsters.  Never again would I be forced to wait for hours on end to find a leveling group.  Questing felt so fresh and new, so innovative and filled with potential when compared to the tried and true monster grind we had come to know in most MMOs.

So it is with profound sadness that I sit here today (closing in on 7 years later) and say the following…I will die a happy man if I never have to walk up to an NPC with a little thingy over their head ever again.  I cannot bear it, not anymore.  The quest grind and the monster grind have become synonymous with each other in my eyes.  They are one in the same.  Oh sure, the quest grind is a bit more deceptive and wily than the monster version.  But it has become an automated grind nevertheless.

MMOs have simply become far too formulaic and straightforward.  We all know what to expect now.  We all know that we will log in, go to an NPC hub and look for people with things over their heads, then we will listen to their pathetic explanations of why they are too lazy to do stuff themselves, and finally we will go do their work for them.  It will usually consist of the following…killing NPCs, killing NPCs and collecting certain items that drop from those NPCs, gathering items found in the game world that are usually located by how shiny they are, escorting other NPCs and keeping them alive so they can complete tasks, and so on.

In nearly 7 years this hasn’t changed much, has it?

Along the way we found that Lord of the Rings Online did give us wonderful Book quests to complete.  These expanded upon the narrative of that world and drew you in to what was going on.  WoW has continuously improved the quality of their quests as well, with the Lich King and Cataclysm expansions.  Cataclysm in particular raised the bar for leveling content, for themepark-style MMOs at least.  I honestly feel that WoW now stands as the epitome of questing design due to many of the improvement they have made.  The sheer assortment and diversity of quests in WoW is quite impressive these days.

The only caveat to that statement is that WoW represents both the greatest strengths of questing (variety) and its most glaring failures (linearity) as well.  But after enduring countless versions of the themepark model over the years, I now look ahead to the MMOs on the horizon and I honestly don’t know what to say anymore.  The Old Republic looks like it will bring a welcome cinematic feel to its questing, but we also know that it will still contain plenty of kill this/gather that quests.

So while I look forward to the storytelling aspect of TOR, part of me shutters at the thought of running in to some moisture farmer who says, “Hello!  Thank goodness you came along when you did.  These Womp Rats are wreaking havoc on my farm, chewing cables and causing all sorts of ruckus!  Could you please help me by thinning their numbers?”

My response…

Guild Wars 2, on the other hand, does appear to be the one MMO on the horizon daring to try something different.  AreaNet has already stated that Guild Wars 2 will have no quest hubs at all.  None.  I’ll let that thought sink in for a moment.  I nearly stood up and danced a little jig when I heard them say that.  Instead, they are designing Guild Wars 2 completely around the idea of dynamic content that happens in the world.

This will be somewhat like the current ideas of rifts in Rift or the PQs in WAR.

The content in GW 2 will be happening around you as you explore the gameworld, and you can join in right then and there to decide the outcome.  This style of world building could work splendidly, providing the quality and polish of this dynamic content is still up to par with our expectations.  Dynamic content is sort of the hot marketing phrase in MMOs right now, with Rift being the main proponent of such talks.

On that note, I always felt that Trion should have scrapped the run-of-the-mill questing system they came up with for Rift, and instead focused their efforts on the rifts/invasions themselves.  They should have developed those into the main focus of the game’s leveling system.  It felt so odd having all these basic kill/fetch quests to do when the thought of battling rifts/invasions that were even more interesting and varied than the current ones, appealed to me so much more.  As things were we just had a different version of WAR’s Public Quests and Tabula Rasa’s Invasion system.

But Trion could have just thrown the quests out and worked on making the rifts and invasions that much more spectacular.  I think developing Rift in that way would have made a huge difference in giving it a far more unique feel than it has now.  It’s this basic idea of creating active content in the world that Guild Wars 2 seems to be latching onto.  I dearly hope it works well and will be cheering them on the whole way.  Still, when looking at how the quest grind now looks the same to me as the monster grind did back in the day, it does feel odd to know that my opinions have regressed to such a degree.

But maybe regression in my own viewpoint isn’t really the problem here.  Maybe it’s just that MMOs have continued to deliver the same old thing over and over again, leaving me somewhat tired and burned out on current design trends.  So at the moment, the thought of just hopping into a group with a bunch of folks and chatting away while we slay monsters doesn’t really sound like a bad idea to me.  That should tell you all you need to know about how much innovation the MMO genre has seen over the years.

So all I have left to say is the following.  Will some development team please come up with a new idea?  Somebody come up with a proposal that’s out of the box, something that will truly be a way forward and not a rehash of the been-there and done-that.  I know that encouraging such thinking goes against the business model of “stick with what works.”  But the MMO genre is crying out for some initiative, for the encouragement of the novel design element that has never been given a chance to shine.  I’m trying to wait patiently, truly I am.

But I swear it gets harder each and every day, especially since my dread of kill/fetch quests only gets worse as those days go by.

Rift: No, it’s not the “Jesus” game

Hello again, friends!  For those of you fine people who are still kicking the tires around these parts, I thought I would take a little bit of free time today and talk about a couple of blog posts I recently stumbled onto.  They both pertain to Rift and the MMO community in general, so I will link to them straight away and then dive right in to where I agree and disagree.

This is a conversation that needs to be had I think, and it seems to be one that people keep twisting into contorted shapes based on their own experiences and preferences…all the while circling near the point but never quite landing on it.  So without further ado I give you these fine posts…

(I will put some little identifiers next to the links for those who lack reading comprehension…)

(I kid, Elementalistly, I kid) 

Rift:  This is where the MMO community let me down   (This post contains the list of 5 Reasons Rift is the new WoW)

It isn’t the game…it’s you   (This is the post that refers to Rift as the “Jesus” game)

Quote of the Day  (Highlighting the original post that lead me to the others)

(So with those clarifications out of the way, we now return you to our originally scheduled blog post…)

Before I make my comments, I would like to warn a few of the more sensitive among you that I am going to fiercely take opposition to some of the opinions on display here.  But this should not be taken as a slight to the bloggers themselves.  We just happen to disagree, nothing more or less.  So while I do find myself empathizing with a few of the points they make, I passionately stand against the underlying sentiment contained in both posts.

Apparently, if I have loved WoW at any point in WoW’s history but haven’t fallen head-over-heels in love with Rift in the same fashion, then I should leave the MMO genre entirely because I am nothing more than a burnt out, jaded gamer who has simply played far too many MMOs in his day.  Come to think of it, I am a burnt out and jaded gamer during these, my MMO twilight years….*snickers*…but that’s beside the point! 

So let me begin with the obvious reaction.  Just because you like something does not mean that everyone else has to feel the same way about it too.  To follow that point, if you genuinely enjoy an MMO then there should be nothing that stops you from relishing every moment you spend with it and its community.  What the larger MMO playerbase thinks should be irrelevant to you, because if you and your friends are having fun where you are then what does it matter if others don’t feel the same way?

Of course, MMOs need healthy populations to survive in this suddenly crowded market…so to that extent we should care somewhat about what other people think of our preferred games.  But Rift is going to be just fine in that regard.  No, it will never be the WoW-killing, genre dominating game that some thought it would be, but Rift is well made enough to carve out its own little niche in the MMO market and go on to live a fruitful and expansion-filled life for many years.

This is all that should matter at the end of the day, but apparently, the fact that some of us haven’t taken to Rift with a healthy amount of zeal is a disappointment to a few good people out there.  So let’s tackle some of those claims next, shall we?  In the first post, the blogger points out another article detailing 5 reasons why Rift is the new WoW.  So allow me to make a few observations.

1.  Rift is a finished product

Why yes, Rift is indeed a polished and well-made MMO.  I have pointed this out several times and have seen many others do the same.  Trion Worlds has managed to finally give us an MMO that doesn’t suck.  But we are missing the point here.  We are congratulating Trion for making an MMO that isn’t littered with problems.  Which is because companies like Mythic and Funcom gave us two duds that were wrecked with issues from beta and on to this very day.  But should we really be so eager to heap endless compliments onto a company for finally doing what most MMO developers should do in the first place…release stable, unbuggy games?

How have we let our expectations become so diluted?  Well, it’s because we are so used to receiving the same crap shoveled out again, that we are more than prepared to kiss the feet of anyone who can release an MMO that doesn’t possess the stench of decay at the very moment it’s birthed into the world.  So is the problem here really the MMO community?  Is that who is truly at fault for making us all so screwed up in how we assess new MMOs?  Or is the fault to be laid at the feet of developers who continue to release unfinished, problem-strewn games?

2.  There’s an endgame

Why yes, Rift does have an endgame and things to work for, which completely differentiates it from…oh wait.  Yes, I am happy as anyone to see that Trion has released an MMO that has some endgame content from the get-go.  But that makes it special how?  I have played a metric ton of MMOs in my time, with Lotro, EQ 2, and WoW being among the most predominant.  And all of those MMOs currently have endgames and many different goals to work towards.  It doesn’t matter if they had a proper endgame at launch, because that is the somewhat unfair reality that new MMOs face.  Freshly launched MMOs have to compare to current games after they have already received a bevy of fixes and updates over the years.

So just because Rift offers me more loot to pursue does not make it special, as I can find that almost anywhere right now.  I can raid in plenty of places, folks, it’ not a revolutionary concept anymore.  But I do applaud Trion for releasing a finished game, as I said before.  But how long are we going to pat them on the back for doing what should be the norm anyway, and instead, point out how they are simply copying what has been done before them without really pushing the genre forward as some of their marketing material claims.  (I will touch on this more later)

3.  The game isn’t buggy

Good heavens, haven’t we already made this point?  Does Rift have nothing else to offer me other than it isn’t a terrible game?  Is there really where this debate has gone?  It’s like when Valve keeps putting blocks and see-saws in Half Life 2 to demonstrate the fact that they made a physics engine.  I’m thrilled that they’ve managed to make a good physics engine, but there are only so many times they can keep showing me how I can throw blocks before I start to desire something more out of it.  (they do provide that by the way, just making a basic point)

So Rift is not buggy.  Well done Trion!  But what else have you got to offer?  Let us see.

4.  There’s a lot to do

This just isn’t getting any better, is it?  We simply keep banging the same drums over and over again.  So I am to understand and be thankful that Rift has lots to do.  Well, that’s a good thing.  But it’s an MMO and they are supposed to have lots to do.  I have so many thing I can accomplish in EQ 2, Lotro, or even WoW.  So how does Rift stand out in this respect?  What does Rift offer me that other MMOs do not?  The Rifts themselves?  They are randomly spawning Public Quests ala Warhammer Online, nothing more.  I can’t believe people are still treating them as some sort of holy grail in MMO design.

There are only two things in Rift that are somewhat unique.  The Invasions and the Soul system are the two features that should be touted by Rift fans everywhere.  But personally, I eventually found the invasion every 15 minute-thing to be really annoying.  I didn’t really find it to be exciting or intriguing in any way, as the invasions happened so darn often that it made the whole world feel like and endless battleground to me.  But I don’t want to play an MMO that is an endless battleground.  I want to play an MMO that is a world that has a few endless battlegrounds in it.

As for the Soul System, it was probably the key ingredient that I enjoyed the most while playing Rift.  It is a step in the right direction for MMOs, and I am more than happy to applaud Trion for its creation.  But at the end of the day, it has two things working against it.  First of all, that many souls will prove to be horribly difficult to balance over time, especially for PvP.  I’m not sure if Trion will ever be able to get the balance right.  Secondly, just like the talent system in WoW or EQ 2, certain flavor of the month builds will emerge and dominate as they always do, proving once and for all that we don’t really need a better class based system.  What we need is a skill based system that actually does its job properly.  But that’s a topic for another day.

5.  Rift is the cure for your WoW ennui

So if I put effort into not thinking about WoW, that will allow me to properly see Rift for the gem that is and allow me to enjoy it the way I should.  That’s like telling me that if I go to the movies I should forget about every other move I have ever seen in my entire life, so I can fairly assess the movie I am currently watching.  Seriously?  I don’t even know where to begin with this comment.  Even better is that we once again come back to that age-old argument on how WoW has killed the MMO genre.

Oh how I wish it were that simple.  If only I could keep a straight face and say that WoW has ruined MMOs for everyone.  But if I did say that, it would be every bit as preposterous as when other people spout the same thing.  WoW has not ruined the MMO genre…other developers are ruining the MMO genre by constantly imitating everything that WoW does.  People see a formula for success and so they try to replicate it.  They copy what has been done before and then try to put a few spins of their own on it to make it seem original.

But it’s not original.  Rift is not ground breaking or unique.  Providing me with the ability to upload videos to YouTube or post my in-game achievements in Twitter does not make Rift revolutionary.  Rift is a solid, well-made MMO worthy of your subscription and many years of continued development.  But it is not the “Jesus” game in any way shape or form.  As I said before, newer MMOs are launching into an increasingly difficult market.  They face MMO players who have seen and done it all over the years, and many are simply tired of the tried and true mechanics with a little dash of something new thrown on top.

Of course, no one really knows what they want to see, do they?  Everyone says they want something different, but typically spurn new ideas and cling to old concepts even though they claim to want something fresh.  This is where I do agree with the previous bloggers.  We, as an MMO community, have to be a little more open and loving to new ideas if they are every going to get traction.  But the flip side of that coin involves the developers too.  You can’t keep giving us the same old song and dance while expecting us to laud you for it.  You have to come up with better ideas, you have to give us a reason to say, “Wow, this is something I have never really seen before I want to know more about it.”

Rift does not do this, it simply has copied what has been done ad-nauseam and then sprinkled invasions and the Soul system on top.  That will not suffice in this day and age.  The bar has been raised and developers need to adjust their ambitions accordingly.  Yes, I am sure many of you are screaming how WoW did the same thing.  WoW just copied what had been done before it and then added a few new sprinkles of its own (questing to level, solo to max).  But there is a difference, folks, and here it is.

That was six years and the MMO genre did not have the choice it does now.  The MMO genre has grown considerably since that time, while the core mechanics of these games have not really changed at all.  WoW became a hit because Blizzard copied what had been done before and found the right formula for success.  Not it sits on top of the MMO world unchallenged as far as subscribers go, and Rift comes along many years later as a well crafted and polished competitor, with people are screaming how we should embrace Rift just as we did WoW before it.

But my friends, the MMO genre is not the same as it was back when WoW launched.  The genre was simpler back then, there is no way to compare it to how things have evolved or de-evolved in some cases.  If Rift had been released five years ago just as it is now, I would have been the first to hail it as the crowning jewel of the industry.  But it has released in the present, in 2011, and is built with the exact same core of every single MMO I have been playing for 10 years.  The basic gameplay is unchanged.

Rift offers little in the way of true advancement.  And just because it does its job well, does not mean we should all conform to hailing it as the greatest MMO on the planet.  I can sit here and say that Rift is a good game and worthy of your subscription if you are tired of the MMO you are currently playing, and just want something similar but with a new skin.  But like it or not, Rift must be judged in the time it has been released in.  And facing that sobering fact, Rift is simply a solid, by-the-numbers MMO in a genre that is already filled with them.

Now that’s more like it

Hello again, friends!

I couldn’t help but notice that Trion has announced their very first update to Rift, and it looks to be headed out on March 30th.  Here is the forum post.    Now at this point, I am not playing much of Rift due to reasons I have stated in previous posts.  I have nothing against the game and am actually rooting for it to succeed.  It’s just not quite what I am looking for in an MMO right now.  But I would like to make a few points regarding this announcement.

First off, releasing an actual content update around one month after the launch of a new MMO…hot damn say it ain’t so??!!!  Blizzard, are you guys listening?  Because I love your work and all, but if your content releases get any further apart then your subscribers are gonna start filing for reckless abandonment.  So props to Trion for keeping to an aggressive schedule here.  This is the kind of thing it will take to really grasp people’s attention long-term.

 

 

Secondly, I would like to point out something about this announcement that truly brought a wicked smile to my face.  Notice the text in bold.

Starting next Wednesday, Alsbeth the Discordant will lead massive invasions across every zone in Telara, raising legions of liches, ettins, and gravemakers to battle Ascended. Over the course of about a week, participating players of any level fighting these invaders can earn hundreds of new items including exclusive rewards, such as a Spectral Horse and a transmogrifying disguise that turns Ascended into the rotting undead. But be warned: once the rifts are sealed, these items are gone forever.

Now that’s more like it I say!!  Implementing an in-game event that actually rewards cool items that will never be available again?  In this day and age of MMOs that struggle with unrestrained fervor to appeal to everyone, God bless Trion for actually bringing a little exclusivity back to the MMO genre.  Not everyone has to have everything, not everyone has to be the same, and not everyone has a ironclad right to say that they were there too.  Sometimes it’s better to create something everlasting, to create memories.

By using this event to reward players with things that will never be seen again, that is the process of creating an actual mythos for your MMO by forcing some of your content to matter.  It truly is a step in a positive direction that I wish far more MMOs would make these days.  Instead, we are typically force-fed with the usual development teams that are terrified to do anything unique or original for fear that it will piss too many people off.

This form of thinking usually makes me want to do things like this…

 

 

So kudos, Trion.    You took a step forward by having the guts to make something unique again.  You just earned yourselves another point in my book.

Rift and Me

It has dutifully been brought to my attention that it’s been a few posts since I have talked to you guys about my adventures in Rift.  But the primary reason for this is mostly because the word adventure can’t really be used to describe my experiences with Rift lately.  To put it simply…I haven’t been playing much.  Knowing myself as I do, this is not a good sign only a few weeks out after Rift’s launch.  But much like Werit said over on his blog, the reason for me not playing has more to do with my own preferences than anything else.

 

 

As I said in my previous post, I realize more and more every day that the MMO I really want to be playing right now is Warhammer Online.  Well, a Warhammer Online that exists in an alternate reality where the RvR is not nearly as frazzled and poorly designed as it is in this one.  But not knowing any Gnomes who could build me some sort of infernal contraption that would whisk me away to such a reality, and not having the Doc around to help me get to…

 

 

…so I could properly warn Mythic of future troubles during WAR’s early development, I find myself faced with something of a dilemma.  Rift is a fine game to be sure, both well-made and polished, with a great Soul system and a few interesting concepts of its own.  But all in all, the more I play it the more I find my mind wandering.  Rift has just not connected with me in the way an MMO needs to in order to secure my subscription beyond the first month.

When I play Rift I can never shake the “been there, done that, have the t-shirt” feeling I get that courses through my veins until I am about to scream.  The world of Telara does very little to rile up my imagination at the end of the day.  I wish I could give you guys more than that, I honestly do.  But Telara has failed miserably to strike any sort of profound chord within my soul.  Worlds such as Norrath, Azeroth, and Middle Earth were all able to do that and I am forever grateful.  But Telara on the other hand, gives me pause.

Since Rift does very little that is innovative on the PvP-side of things, it falls to the concrete world of Telara and the basic game mechanics to immerse me in the setting so I will continue to log in.  But the world has fallen flat with me, and the game mechanics are so shockingly familiar that I become more certain with each day that my time with Rift will always be somewhat on the low/casual side.  But before anyone shows up here to flame, allow me to repeat something I have said for while now.

 

 

I still think Rift is a good game overall and will become a solid hit for Trion in the years to come.  Though I might not always be there to witness the ebb and flow of Rift’s growth firsthand, I still consider myself a fan and will be cheering for them every step of the way.  They have a great deal of work ahead of them, this cannot be discounted.  Creating a solid MMO is just the beginning of the process.  Now they have to maintain the game’s success and find intuitive ways to add content/mechanics that will both entice newer players and excite the current player-base almost simultaneously.

I have faith that Trion can do just that, and I will still be popping my head in to see how things are coming along from time to time.  But Rift and me…we had a good thing and some great laughs in the very short time we had together.  But in the end it was just not meant to be.  There has been no harm and no foul to either of us, as they say.  But I hope that those of you who are loving Rift continue to love it and enjoy yourselves to no end.  It’s a solid title and well worth your time.

But as for me, I’ll be back to exploring the games I have always loved (WoW, EQ 2, Lotro, Eve, War) until something new comes along that shows some real promise of transforming the genre in a positive way.  Rift adds to the genre by taking much of what has worked in the past and refining it, then sprinkling a touch of their own on top.  That is also what WoW did when it was first released.  The problem for me is that I am genuinely happy with the games I have, and so I am looking for a little more from newer titles.  So will it be Guild Wars 2, The Secret World, or perhaps Swtor that captures my fancy?  Who can say at this point?

But no matter where I go, I’ll be sure to post my thoughts as I stroll along this bewildering and always entertaining road that defines the life of an MMO gamer. 

 

Over the hill?

From an MMO perspective, this is truly something I have been wondering as of late.  Have I just been around the block one too many times?

 

 

Am I forever destined to be a jaded gamer who wanders from title to title, hoping something might actually knock my socks off the way Everquest once did?  Will I stroll through the fog of my MMO memories without reprieve, searching endlessly for a transforming experience that will forever change the way I look at online games?  Maybe that’s all too much to ask at this point.  Perhaps I am the problem, not the people who make these games.

Or perhaps it is a little of both.

I may well be in need to soften my expectations when I step into a new MMO for the first time.  But in return for me lowering the bar, MMO devs really need to get their butts in gear and heighten their ambitions a little bit.  That’s the deal I am willing to strike at this point.    Historically, my time in any particular MMO has always varied and that is by design.  I do tend to hop around some to help fight the onset of MMO burnout, which can strike people like me rather viciously I am told.  But let’s face facts for a moment…I have been playing MMOs for over ten years now.

I have always loved them and probably always will.

But as the coming of each new game passes, I find myself slightly more turned off by the genre than turned on by it.  I keep looking for a game that will bridge the gap between what we once had and the advances we have made since those early days.  I honestly feel that the closest we ever got to an MMO of that caliber was Vanguard, but it was fraught with so many other problems that it just crumbled beneath the weight of them.

But this all brings me to the present and where I stand with Rift right now.

Rift is the most polished MMO to be released since World of Warcraft, this is without question.  It is fun, well constructed, and offers some wonderful class options with the Soul system, not to mention the fun that can be had with the rifts themselves.  The rifts are basically like Public Quests 2.0, and that is a compliment.  WAR gave us Public Quests and it was a wonderfully unique idea.  Now Rift has taken them slightly further, though I still think they are destined to suffer from the same problems that WAR’s did.  Basically, once you do them 100 times the bloom is going to come off the rose a little bit.  Trust me on this.

 

 

But for someone who has played so many MMOs, the taste of  Rift as a whole strikes me as just too familiar.  It’s like going to a pizza parlor that isn’t the one you enjoy the most.  What they serve you may be very tasty and certainly worth your money.  But you will always be thinking about the kind of pizza you really want and how what you are currently eating is good, but not different enough to make it special.  So with Rift, I find myself enjoying the game and appreciating the fact that we finally have a new MMO that was actually released when it was ready.

But I also find my thoughts gradually drifting to other places when I play Rift, haunted by the nagging feeling that I could enjoy Rift on a casual basis, but not really sure if it’s something that I want to sink my teeth into the way I have with other MMOs in the past.  Some examples of that would be Everquest, Dark Age of Camelot, Everquest 2, World of Warcraft, Warhammer Online, Eve Online, and Lord of the Rings Online.  Those are all MMOs that I dove into head first and explored just about every facet of gameplay they offered me.  Each one is dear to me in different ways, and I will probably always pop back in to check on those games from time to time.

So while it would not be strange for me to do that while still playing Rift, I now find myself a little troubled by the idea that my mind is already wandering as I play.  It just feels…I don’t know…too soon for me to be having these sorts of desires.  I fully expected Rift to sweep me away for at least a few months, with no thought of playing anything else even entering my mind during that time.  But it just hasn’t happened, even though I have found pleasure in playing Rift and exploring this exciting new world that Trion has given us.

I also have to say that if Rift does possess and ace in the hole, it’s Trion Worlds.

 

 

These guys have their act together in a big bad way, folks.  No company is perfect so don’t kid yourselves, and Trion will have their missteps as all developers do.  But I don’t think I have ever seen a group of devs this on the ball so early in their game’s release.  It not only bodes well for the future of Rift, but for other titles that Trion will undoubtedly make as time goes by.  The thought of how well Trion has responded to player concerns heartens me greatly, providing that warming touch of hope I need to keep plugging away.

But at the end of the day, it all comes down to how much fun I am having and whether or not Rift delivers in the ways I need it to for my own personal enjoyment.  Right now I give the game very solid marks, but I do fear that there might not be enough new spice to keep me playing heavily in the months ahead.  Deep down I think what I really want is an MMO with Rift’s polish combined with the heavy PvP focus that Warhammer Online brought to the genre.  So if Trion can develop the PvP in their game and turn it into something more than what the average MMO offers, then they just might find me subbing for a very long time.

I guess we will just have to wait and see.

 

The Telara Saga

Just wanted to pop in real quick and give a shout out to The Gaiscioch Family, a wonderful guild currently found on Rift’s Faeblight server.  They will soon be holding an epic, 22 week event that begins on March 8th and will run all the way to August 9th.  So if you’re on Faeblight and enjoy a good time, then I suggest you treat yourself to this as soon as it gets going!  Having played with Gaiscioch back in WAR and greatly enjoying their Battle for the Badlands series of events, I can promise a joyous time to be had by all.    Here is a copy of the forum post detailing how this is all going to work in case any of you missed it.

 

 

The Gaiscioch Family Presents: The Telara Saga Public Event Series – Mar 8 – Aug 9

Hail and Well met champions of Telara,
I would like to formerly welcome you all, both Guardian and Defiant to engage in this 22 week server wide public event. Help defend your homelands for the invasions that plague our land or engage each other in battle to the death. The Telara Saga is upon us.

Beginning on Tuesday, March 8th at 6PM PST (GMT-8), The Gaiscioch Family presents their Telara Saga, a 22 week adventure which Begins in Silverwood and progresses all the way to Freemarch through 11 battlefields. The Guardian forces will march each week a step closer to the gates of Merdian. On the 22nd Week, we assault the heathen city of Meridian and kill the 8 Champions of the Defiants, Sylver Valis, Padma Ultan, Brother Damon, Rodan Ismos, Dacia Ultan, Kaspar Massi, Orphiel Farwind, and Asha Catari.

Here is the Full Season One Schedule:

MAR 8 & 15th: Securing Silverwood
MAR 22 & 29th: Advancing to Gloamwood
APR 5 & 12th: The Battle Rages in Scarlet Gorge
APR 19 & 26th: The Securing Of Scarwood Reach
MAY 3 & 10th: Troop Training in Moonshade Highlands
MAY 17 & 24th: Setting up Foreign Opperations In Droughtlands
JUN 7 & 14th: Securing Resources In Iron Pine Peak
JUN 21 & 28th: Scouting The Lands of Shimmersand
JUL 5 & 12th: Testing Our Stregth In Stillmoor
JUL 19 & 26th: Advancing Our Front Line in Stonefield
AUG 2nd: The Siege of Freemarch
AUG 9th: The Battle for Meridian

Over this 22 week campaign we will be taking on Rifts, Invasions, World Events, and most importantly cleansing the heathen Defiants from the lands. We will build our forces, equip them with the best gear we have to offer, and prepare for the battle of the ages to sever the head of the Defiant beast. This event series is design to introduce players to the world of Telara, give them the help they need to understand the mechanics, and expose people to the joys of large community driven events.

EVENT DETAILS:

WHO: All Players of Faeblight Server. Defiants Engage us to your hearts content. PvP Centric folk feel free to have at each other. The PvE folk will be closing Rifts, Invasions, and World Events while the PvP Centric fight to secure the lands against foreign invaders.

WHAT: A 22 Week Public Community Driven Event. Ventrilo Will Be Provided for Guardian Players.

WHEN: Every Tuesday starting on March 8th and running through August 9th, 2011. Event begins at 6PM PST and continues until 9PM PST.

WHERE: 2 Weeks In Each Zone leading up to the Siege of Meridian.

HOW: We will be forming in the town where the previous week ended and marching our way to each region. All Ages welcome to participate.

ABOUT THE GAISCIOCH FAMILY
The Gaiscíoch (Pronounced: Gosh-Kia) Family began as a social gaming community in the industry pioneering MMORPG Dark Age of Camelot. We began on the Nimue server on November 11th, 2001, with a focus on creating a fun and enjoyable community for players of all ages and skill levels.

With our roots firmly attached in the Celtic Mythological Cycle, the Gaiscíoch hold honor, respect, integrity, and fellowship, over hierarchy and dictatorship. Today the Gaiscíoch family spans many games, sports, and social circles.

We are a social casual gaming community with a relaxed approach toward gaming. We allow our members to play how they want, when they want, as long as they want and do not constrict them with quotas or requirements. It is through gaming, athletic competition, and social interaction that we forge new friendships and relationships.

The Gaiscioch Family has been coordinating large scale public events for nearly a decade. We focus on creating fun and enjoyable events for players of all backgrounds. Community development is our primary objective.

If you have any questions please feel free to shoot me a private message or stop by: http://www.Gaiscioch.com/

Slan Go Foil!

Foghladha
Ceannard de Gaiscioch Treubh
http://www.Gaiscioch.com/

Too soon?

So I was browsing through the interwebs this evening as I am known to do, when I came across this nice little post from Syp over at Bio Break.  In it, he discusses whether or not we can safely call Rift a success yet.

 

Bio Break: Can we call RIFT a success yet?

Many good points are made here, but I would like to give the issue a little spin of my own.  My general and most basic response goes a little something like this…

 

 

But to his credit, Syp understands this and was just really expressing his genuine excitement on how good things are looking for Rift right now.  And he is quite right in that regard.  But the first and most important thing I can say about his question is that MMOs live or die based on their subscriber numbers.  Player retention is the key to an MMOs longevity and it always will be.  So to be honest, the first few months of an MMO’s launch won’t really tell us whether or not we are looking at a success.

While I completely agree with Syp that Rift is looking very strong thus far, I would still be remiss not to point out a few things.  Click on the links to read more. 

 

Warhammer Online Launch

Age of Conan Launch

Now let me first say this without question, Rift is in a far better position than either WAR or AOC were during their respective launches.  Just as Syp says, Rift has the feel of a game that is polished, functional, and ready to expand into bold new territory.  But when one looks back on the historic rise and epic crash of AOC, along with the equally impressive beginnings of WAR and its slower but still woeful fall from grace, it can sober you up rather quickly.

So while I do share Syp’s excitement at what I am seeing in Rift right now, history has taught me to take these things rather carefully.

Predicting player behavior is no easy task, and neither is trying to figure out what the landscape of Rift will look like six months from now.  As of now I would say so far so good…but time and fate my have something very different to say on the matter.  I guess what I am preaching here is more akin to cautious optimism than anything else.  But listen, we are all fans of MMOs and to that extent we should be cheering for the good fortune of every MMO out there.

The more successful MMOs we have the better it is for the entire industry.

It means that even more investors will be willing to put their money down to help developers make MMOs in the future.  More games means everybody wins, as a little competition is a good thing for everyone involved.  And yes…that also means it’s a good thing for the MMO that shall not be named.  Rift’s success will be a good thing for World of Warcraft, you did hear me correctly and are not hallucinating.  You see, I keep listening to people refer to WoW in times like these and it always makes me chuckle.

You can barely spend ten minutes in Rift without someone bringing up WoW in general chat.  Sometimes I really do think that the people who hate WoW are more obsessed with it than the people who love it.  But this is one of those unique situations where both of those crowds can come together.  That’s right, folks, it is time for the WoW lovers and haters to come together and sing a little…

 

 

Allow me to explain.

If Rift succeeds and goes on to a long, happy life of expansions and thrilling new content, then Rift loves will have plenty to be happy about it.  But guess what folks…WoW players will also have something to be pumped up about.  Why is this, you may ask?  Because as others have said and I totally agree, WoW needs someone else who can stand in the arena with it and not be knocked out in the first round.  WoW needs competition, it needs a cunning new upstart to come along and give it a few knocks on the chin just to remind Blizzard that they they aren’t in this game alone.

So if Rift can do what some of its predecessors failed to accomplish (hold on to some subscribers), then the entire MMO industry should have something to be thankful for at the end of the day.  So while I am downright giddy to see Rift hit the ground running, I still think we should temper our outlook just a little in the wake of past events.  MMOs are a tricky business and most of them boil down to some variation of raiding and pvp during the endgame.  This is truly where an MMO will ultimately claim its destiny.

If the endgame can hook  players like a mouse to cheese then the MMO will go on to greatness.  But if the endgame falls flat that then said MMO will plummet faster than Paris Hilton after a few drinks.  Maybe Rift players will hit the endgame content and think that it’s nothing really new, and so they might drift back to other games.  Or perhaps they will experience Rift’s endgame and find that it’s far better than what they were playing before, and so they will stay.  I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

But I do know this above all…we will be in for one hell of a ride either way. 

PvP in Rift…it calls you

Today I would like to take a moment and talk a little bit about PvP.  If it’s something that you have generally shied away from in the past, then even better, as this post really pertains to you.  What you need to know upfront is that the time for truly soaking up some of the most enjoyable PvP in Rift is…

 

 

Rift is in its infancy.  It has been birthed into the world and is just now learning to take its first steps amidst the expectations of a passionate and somewhat jaded gaming community.  This is a time of excitement and discovery for those playing the game, as we take our first journeys into a brave new world.  When a new MMO launches, it enters a unique state that will never exist again in its entire life-cycle.  Everything is new and everyone is on a more even footing than they will be months and years after the game launches.  This makes PvP not only a prime opportunity, but a joyous one as well.  The level disparity will not hinder newer players the way it will in years to come.

We are all noobs in Rift right now.

We are all learning and endeavoring to unearth the game’s secrets.  We don’t understand all of the game’s intricacies the way we will down the road, which all adds up to PvP that is far less frustrating for most players, since so much is undiscovered and fresh.  Once an MMO has lived a while and stretched its legs, the average level of the playerbase gets higher and everyone becomes much more comfortable with what works and what doesn’t.  PvP becomes more cutthroat and the min/maxing of talents and stats will start to take over.  The importance of gear begins to supersede the value of skill, and PvP slowly draws itself into a more niche crowd within the game’s subscriber base.

I have seen this happen with MMOs time and again over the years.

PvP becomes more and more daunting for newer players with each update and expansion that launches.  In my experience, the launch of a new MMO can lead to some of the most hilarious and rewarding times for PvP that can exist in the genre.  So the simple reality of Rift’s situation is this…PvP will never be more accessible to the average player than it is at this very moment.  So if you have been on the fence on whether or not to roll on one of Rift’s PvP servers, then let me make it easier for you.  Strike while the iron is hot, my friends!  There will never be a better time to enjoy open-world PvP in Rift than during its first few months.  I have already seen several large battles take place with varying results, and this will only increase in the days ahead as the guild’s slowly get themselves more organized.

So strap on your pads and get out there!!!  The blood is flowing and the opportunity is nigh!!  Just remember one thing… 

 

 

Full speed ahead

And Rift now has its first max level character, level 50, in less than three days.  lol  The guy belongs to a guild called Fraghaus.

 

 

So congratulations are in order…huzzah and all that stuff!!!!  Though I really don’t wish to think of the combination of factors that came together in order to make this type of thing happen.  Leveling to max that fast should carry a warning label of some kind.  Side effects could include no sleep, no life, malnutrition, constipation, irritable bowel syndrome, broken relationships, and…I don’t know…herpes maybe.  But yes, good show!!! 

I kid, I kid.  Well, at least in part anyway.

But let me ask you guys something.  Does anyone remember back in the good old days when reaching max level required around 2,000 hours to be logged on your character?  (EQ)  Now we’re doing it in less than three days.  I suppose you could call that progress, though there has to be some sort of middle ground in there somewhere.  I don’t miss the tedium of those EQ days, please understand.  But I do sort of miss the mystery and sense of exploration that existed back then…the sweeping, brutal, and epic journey of leveling that once met so much and now means so very little by comparison.