Why do you play Rift ?

hcoelho · April 2012

Hello guys,

I want to know why do you play Rift ? talk as much as you like. I'm very interested in your answer.

You might wonder why, it's because i have no MMO to play. I'm re-installing LOTRO and Downloading Rift at the same time, will try the free time for a bit, but getting some pure personal feedback would be good.

maji · April 2012

I did play it because it seemed comfy. The graphics and sounds are fine, it's mostly bug free and got updates at regular intervals.

I stopped playing it because the quests, combat and skills were all too generic, predictable and boring, and because there was no replayability or exploration of any kind.

El-Hefe · April 2012

i don't currently play Rift. but i did for a good 7months.

Likes

-spell effects (i think they looked bad ass, esp. compared to WoW)

-soul system (very in depth talent system)

-big open world (almost seemless, also you could climb up hills and mtns, and do a bit more exploring compared to other recent games)

-ACHEIVEMENT SYSTEM (love it, lots of fun acheivements to do, shineys to find, fun titles you can get)

-world bosses (there were a few, some tied to Rifts, others tied to quests)

-zone variety (i guess somewhat typical of a themepark, snow, desert, grasslands, etc. but i like them)

-wardrobe feature (basically you can reskin all your gear to the gear you like the looks of, you can dye gear the colors you want too)

-puzzle quests (one in each zone, go looking for them you might find)

-open world pvp (didnt happen often but some questing areas were close enough to add a feeling of caution, especially during zone events)

Dislikes

-pretty linear (i think you have to make two choices, of where to go quest as you level, not a huge dislike it's just meh)

-rifts (can become annoying, especially when the rift spawn enemys kill your quest giver)

-gear progression (it used to be pretty brutal, like 8 tiers of pvp gear. i think they have changed it by now, pve wasnt so bad)

-standard combat (tab target hotkey just too standard)

about all i can think of right now. feel free to ask a question if you want. im not a Rift expert by any means. but i did enjoy the game.

edit: play a defiant. the guardian starting zone sucks.

Professor78 · April 2012

For me it's the fact that there is always something to aim for, yes it may seem a bit grindy with all end game stuff, but there are several choices, and I do them regarding to what mood I am in.

For example now I am heavily in a pvp mood, so I am working towards all the achievments in warfronts - and looking out for world pvp to work on those. I already have max PVP gear but still much to do. And to break it up a bit run some dungeon's. Im a healer but pure healing can get boring and by now I am a bit overgeared, so I experiment with new roles to challenge myself to keep the group alive while out-dpsing them

And almost everything you do gives you planar experience to constantly give you small stat boosts the more time you invest, so nothing you do is really wasted time...

Some end game stuff :

Raiding, Crafting, Rifting, Dungeons, PVP, Artfact hunting, Achievements, Experimenting with different roles (class builds), Quest dailys, Working on Factions/reputation/notoriety, invasions, world events, ember isle onslaughts, chronicles (single/duo) instances, instant adventure (instantly jump into a group with other players doing open world quests, more players the harder the objectives/bosses)

Apart from the Rift related stuff, its the same as what most over games have, just alot more of it, more choice. So for now I can't find myself playing anything else that doesnt have as much choice or end game content to offer.

And kudos for Trions rapid content releases

I would say to people tryintg it that you have to get to end game and look at all your avenues before calling it clone of x, because the journey from 1-50 will make up like 0.01% of your game play time in the end, and you can't judge a game just from that.

El-Hefe · April 2012

Originally posted by Professor78
I would say to people tryintg it that you have to get to end game and look at all your avenues before calling it clone of x, because the journey from 1-50 will make up like 0.01% of your game play time in the end, and you can't judge a game just from that.

this. so much. i always hear people saying they quit at lvl 10 or so. that's like an hour into the game.

sapheroith · April 2012

Originally posted by maji
I did play it because it seemed comfy. The graphics and sounds are fine, it's mostly bug free and got updates at regular intervals.

I stopped playing it because the quests, combat and skills were all too generic, predictable and boring, and because there was no replayability or exploration of any kind.

This.

I stopped when i reached 50. The endgame is just exactly same as Wow. I could have just played Wow instead.

Zylaxx · April 2012

Originally posted by sapheroith

Originally posted by maji

I did play it because it seemed comfy. The graphics and sounds are fine, it's mostly bug free and got updates at regular intervals.

I stopped playing it because the quests, combat and skills were all too generic, predictable and boring, and because there was no replayability or exploration of any kind.

This.

I stopped when i reached 50. The endgame is just exactly same as Wow. I could have just played Wow instead.

Exactly this. I quit Rift 1 week after I hit 50 because of this.

Cthulhu23 · April 2012

Originally posted by Zylaxx

Originally posted by sapheroith

Originally posted by maji

I did play it because it seemed comfy. The graphics and sounds are fine, it's mostly bug free and got updates at regular intervals.

I stopped playing it because the quests, combat and skills were all too generic, predictable and boring, and because there was no replayability or exploration of any kind.

This.

I stopped when i reached 50. The endgame is just exactly same as Wow. I could have just played Wow instead.

Exactly this. I quit Rift 1 week after I hit 50 because of this.

Count me in with the above responses. I lasted a couple of months past 50, but only because I was in a good guild and had nothing better to play at the time.

hcoelho · April 2012

is the game the same in both aspects, pvp and pve ??

Thats not good then, i don't like the gear eternal grind very much.

airhead · April 2012

Originally posted by Cthulhu23

Originally posted by Zylaxx

Originally posted by sapheroith

Originally posted by maji

I did play it because it seemed comfy. The graphics and sounds are fine, it's mostly bug free and got updates at regular intervals.

I stopped playing it because the quests, combat and skills were all too generic, predictable and boring, and because there was no replayability or exploration of any kind.

This.

I stopped when i reached 50. The endgame is just exactly same as Wow. I could have just played Wow instead.

Exactly this. I quit Rift 1 week after I hit 50 because of this.

Count me in with the above responses. I lasted a couple of months past 50, but only because I was in a good guild and had nothing better to play at the time.

BUT all of this is true for ALL mmos. Seriously! They are ALL predictable, generic and boring. I must inject that Rift does hold a little more interest than others because of the flexible class system: i.e. play a rogue, melee dps build, ranged dps build, learn to tank, learn support/heal, blah blah. Experimenting with different builds (6 of them) with different gear is a nice feature and kept my interest for months, (compared with other MMOs).

PVP is just like any other skill-less mmo; give time to grind for power then click to display power. If you want real competition, play a shooter, ping-pong, or get out and hit a tennis ball.

At the end of they day, (after you've consumed the content of a game), one plays an MMO because of friends/guild/joking-around-chat, blah blah. It's techincally impossible for devs to produce content faster than players can consume it.

EDIT: duh... to answer the question... i play because i've made some good friends and in a good guild and we are figuring out the final big raids. But some are leaving, and new games are coming out over the next 4 months... so if the guild dies, I will leave and play something else. So bottom line answer: I play Rift because my friends do and WE have something to figure out (hk etc). Take either of those two things away, and I will probably move on to something else...

boydous · April 2012

"I did play it because it seemed comfy. The graphics and sounds are fine, it's mostly bug free and got updates at regular intervals.

I stopped playing it because the quests, combat and skills were all too generic, predictable and boring, and because there was no replayability or exploration of any kind."

my answer to. in general it is a good game. but start a new character and it is exactly the same 2nd time through.

Valkaern · April 2012

Originally posted by airhead

Originally posted by Cthulhu23

Originally posted by Zylaxx

Originally posted by sapheroith

Originally posted by maji

I did play it because it seemed comfy. The graphics and sounds are fine, it's mostly bug free and got updates at regular intervals.

I stopped playing it because the quests, combat and skills were all too generic, predictable and boring, and because there was no replayability or exploration of any kind.

This.

I stopped when i reached 50. The endgame is just exactly same as Wow. I could have just played Wow instead.

Exactly this. I quit Rift 1 week after I hit 50 because of this.

Count me in with the above responses. I lasted a couple of months past 50, but only because I was in a good guild and had nothing better to play at the time.

BUT all of this is true for ALL mmos. Seriously! They are ALL predictable, generic and boring. I must inject that Rift does hold a little more interest than others because of the flexible class system: i.e. play a rogue, melee dps build, ranged dps build, learn to tank, learn support/heal, blah blah. Experimenting with different builds (6 of them) with different gear is a nice feature and kept my interest for months, (compared with other MMOs).

PVP is just like any other skill-less mmo; give time to grind for power then click to display power. If you want real competition, play a shooter, ping-pong, or get out and hit a tennis ball.

At the end of they day, (after you've consumed the content of a game), one plays an MMO because of friends/guild/joking-around-chat, blah blah. It's techincally impossible for devs to produce content faster than players can consume it.

That's simply not true. It's true of the WoW clones, obviously, but it's misinformed to say (especially in caps) that 'ALL' mmos are like that. In fact I'd say there are more MMOs that all around that don't follow the streamlined WoW hamster wheel model. As a side note, there used to be some content that took players months & months to solve, with average guilds not having completed the previous content before a new expansion arrived (EQ) so it's not even remotely true that it's 'technically impossible for devs to produce content faster than players can consume it' as the precedent is there. History proves that statement 100% false. It's only true in the dumbed down simplistic clones like swtor, rift & wow in which they intentionally shower everyone with the best of the best gear within weeks of starting in accordance with their 'everyones a winner all the time!' policies.

I think it'd be more accurate to say ALL endgames you've experienced have been imitations of that design, there have been plenty that weren't simply the copy & pasted treadmills that flooded the market from 2004-2011. DAoCs endgame isn't generic & predictable (boring is too subjective to include). Non AI enemies that can take over various locations at any time isn't really something you can predict. Sure you can predict that it will happen, but where, when and how many enemies will always be variables. WARs endgame wasn't the same Rift/WoW/Swtor treadmill. SWGs endgame was nothing like the Rift/WoW/Swtor treadmill. Wurm online doesn't resemble it at all. Eve, as far as I can tell so far is a different animal as well. Ryzom also is not a copy & pasted Rift/WoW/Swtor treadmill. Wish wasn't either. Horizons doesn't follow the same end game model either. Neither did Shadowbane, UO, Rubies of Eventide, AC or AC2. There's a ton of games that are more than just generic treadmills at endgame, that's 12 off the top of my head and I'm sure others that have been around can remind us of a few more. Which should hopefully make those that can't imagine anything but that same rehashed treadmill as endgame aware that there have been, are, and will be alternatives.

In the end it was the same for me with Rift. I hoped it would evolve into something more, but a year after release and it's still a tiny game with the majority of action taking place in just a few small zones (I watch my wife occasionally play still). After finishing HK, it became apparent that this game wasn't going to evolve horizontally enough to keep me interested. After years of hardcore raiding in other games it's clear that I've come to prefer endgames that offer a wider array of meaningful endgame activities (small group content, housing, pvp that allows for territory gain, user generated content, etc.) over repetative treadmill grinding with an arbitrarily large number of players. I'd love for them to really expand the game and add some depth, but at the moment it's just a basic and uninspired collection of rehashed systems.

I liked raiding early on in MMOs when it was a special occasion, a dragon that only spawned once a week or some other rare encounter that required a small army to defeat (especially when you found your guild working alongside a few other guilds), but once it became exclusive to your guild, heavily instanced nightly repetative grinds for 20+ people for gear that's of no value outside of raiding anyway (due to the strict gear segregation, it's no good for PvP and you don't need it for the single group stuff which I don't need anyway as I have raid gear...), it wasn't really a special occasion anymore.

airhead · April 2012

(note: i cap instead of quote, sorry. traditionally cap=scream... i'm not screaming, just finding capping easier)

1. Content that takes a long time to figure out. Rift has HK, there are a handful of guilds per server that have done it after months of work, but there are also 80% of the population that has not cleared it all. It's there, there is something to figure out; but you are most likely not going to do it alone or regularly by PUGing, need a guild/group and figure it out. I think I said a group-figuring-something-out is why I'm still playing. But eventually (soon) we are going to figure it out, and Trion is NOT going to be able to keep up. Content is coming out at a slower-pace already imo.

Granted, maybe not ALL games fail in the production-to-content race, it all depends on how fast your gruop is. But your statement that MOST mmos win in that race is an overstatement as well. And of course the meaning of ALL is limited to my mmo experience: ac2,eq,sb,eq2,wow,lotro,ryzom,war,aoc,rift.

2. Different endgame models.

Shadowbane-type area control = just a big UT onslaught map. Is it really that exciting and different? You get together, take over an area, build, etc. Once you are good at it, you win. Maybe you get lucky and another competitive group comes on and you have some challenge (keep sub another month or two). More than likely, if you get really good, you own, then you get bored and quit. If combat is determined by hours-played, you grind to empower. this is not content-driven imo... and I can get the same adrenaline rush playing a shooter on day-one.

Different end-game model: dynamic world pve. Rift did pretty good at this: rifts, zone events. Other games will copy a little. But after you've experienced it X+ times, you know all the fights, all the mechanics, and you do it mindlessly... i.e. boring.

And as you mentioned, very few MMOs even have this much dynamic end-game... essentially just hard dungeons. And if you require 20man instead of 10man, then you throw in another difficulty, how to get 20-people to commit regularly to a set time and get geared and figure it out... all just little "obstacles" to make it take longer, i.e. to keep the subscription longer. I suppose if you view that as end-game 'content', then sure, there are some MMOs that have done that.

But all of these features or lack thereof pale in importance to real human-connections, friends, chatting, working-together, competing with others, razzing, jesting, taunting, joking, blah blah. If 'content' = puzzles, pretty-pixels, immersion, then MMOs mostly fail imo... just play single-player games like skyrim or some competitive shooter.

I suppose all I was really trying to say was this: beyond eating the original content of an MMO, the ONLY reason to keep playing an MMO is guild, friends, group-tasks, etc. The 'dream' that a dev company is going to keep spitting out "game content" at a faster pace than players can consume is just that... a 'dream'... as yet unrealized, and it's an overused sales pitch. Here i'm defining content as equivalent to 'mechanics'... something you or your group have to 'figure out' or 'overcome'.

Of course this is just my opinion, and it's limited to my experience, (see list above), and it's probably tainted because I'm old and pessimistic and have no faith... lol

Professor78 · April 2012

Originally posted by sapheroith

Originally posted by maji

I did play it because it seemed comfy. The graphics and sounds are fine, it's mostly bug free and got updates at regular intervals.

I stopped playing it because the quests, combat and skills were all too generic, predictable and boring, and because there was no replayability or exploration of any kind.

This.

I stopped when i reached 50. The endgame is just exactly same as Wow. I could have just played Wow instead.

Oh, i may have to try Wow again as I never knew it had Duo/single player dungeons, instant adventure, world events, onslaughts, invasions and a decent community......

I would just ike to point out something that seems to come up alot...replayability..........

Why? Go play a single player for that, in all honesty I can't see why any MMO should have the need for re-levelling... And Trion seem to have hit the nail on the head with that, as they make the classes have the ability to perform numerous roles without having to create a new character..

150+ Viable class choices to play around with, name another MMO that can give that.....

BartDaCat · April 2012

While RIFT may have given me "more of the same" in some ways, they were game features that I had grown comfortable with in other MMO's and wished to see again.

At first, it was easy to label this as "just another WoW clone", but a lot of the "cloned" aspect comes from the user-friendly features that people have come to rely on. Not necessarily "easy mode" features, but intuitive user-interface features, quest hubs, and things that make it easier for new players to get started.

What was most impressive was that many of these features were added later because a majority of the player-base asked for them, and Trion listened.

I think a lot of ideas were pondered over before they were implemented. I don't think anything was added necessarily to "dumb the game down". (go ahead and try to clear Hammerknell with a Pick-Up Raid, I dare you), but to enrich the game experience.

I see a concerted effort to improve the quality of the game, as well as a continual effort to build upon the lore to engage players in further immersion of the game world.

It's the forward momentum to continually improve RIFT that gives me hope that it will eventually evolve into something to be reckoned with as a massively multiplayer role-playing game.

It could definitely use more content, and I'd love to see more "sandbox" elements added, but as a relatively newer MMO on the market, it's going in a better direction than most MMOs Ive seen lately.

Damon · April 2012

Personally, I'm bouncing between games like a pinball in an arcade. I currently have SW:TOR, RIFT, Guild Wars, Mythos, Warhammer Online, EQ2, LotRO, and a few other games on my desktop. I just started playing Drakensang Online this morning, and it's kinda neat. I just can't find anything to hold my attention for too long, since I've played a lot of the major titles for a length of time already. RIFT just fel like more of the same games I already played, and I played it at launch with the CE of the game on a shelf somewhere behind me. I came back, because it is free up to a point (L20, I think), but I'm already bored of it at 15. GW2 is my hope on the horizon.

Boatsmate · April 2012

Rift is ",Comfort Food", like Mac&Cheese, or ChicknNoodle Soup. It isn't the best at anything it does, but a reliable game to fall back on. I can't stand the infamously annoying and immature WoW population for more than two or three minutes the last couple of years. They should make a badge you wear while playing that game like a radioactive badge that tells you it is time to leave, you have hit your limit of WoW player irritation damage. Many of the other games I used to fall back on are ftp now, which I will dabble in but don't partake of item stores. I will play big games when they come out, and fall back on Rift when it is time to move on. Rift is a game you can put your back up to,It has your back. A good way to pass some time.

senti02 · April 2012

best game i played in a while now..after i got bored with WOW this is the only game that keep me xcited.it has all the feature for generic mmo,and has diff ones too,like soul system,rift,instant adv and many more,crafting is meh for me.so easy and hard to make profit.i dont play much like others do.maybe thats why i dnt get bored fast,for me all in all.its a fun game.and its more fun if you play with friends or guild.

maji · April 2012

Originally posted by airhead
BUT all of this is true for ALL mmos. Seriously! They are ALL predictable, generic and boring.

Nah, I don't think so.

Take Fallen Earth for example. With my let's play I'm now at episode ~260, and I'm level 16 of 55. I wouldn't have expected that. And I can explore there more than in Rift. What is behind that hill? Where does this tunnel lead to? What is in this seemingly abondoned house, which's silhouette I can see on the horizont?

And it's not that predictable either, because I don't know yet what exactly the last third of the game looks like, in matters of landscape, or how the faction stuff turns out, or mutations or anything.

Sure, I could research it, but I don't want to. But with games like Rift, there is nothing to research.

hcoelho · April 2012

I'm trying it again (played 30 days at release, but never passed lvl 30... i was not enjoying it that time.), but still dont know if its worth the sub though... with so many F2P MMOs and being a lifetimer in LOTRO i'm not sure if Rift is interesting enough to have my 15 USD/month.

What about Rift pvp ? i enjoy pvping, i really like it. (thats why i'm not playing LOTRO atm.)

Oziius · April 2012

I don't.... However; I do remember it being a pretty good game. felt like a good mesh of a lot of games that came before. I do recall loving the amount of options and customization availible. I may give it another go.

GeezerGamer · April 2012

here is my opinion of Rift.

When they put it on the drawing board, they went with a WoW clone. But I truly believe that Trion sees the mistake they made.

Yes, getting to 50 will not feel much different from the usual. Rifts biggest drawback is that much of what you will do in Rift, even it's the 1st time you are doing it, will not really feel that new. But there are options. You can seek out minor rifts to break the monotony of questing, but that only goes so far. Zone events are a real fun diversion during leveling. I always enjoyed those. You can do PVP levleing in War Fronts. Again, nothing really new, but it breaks it up.

Once you get to 45, you can start to do instant adventures Which is a lot of fun. They will eventually repeat but that takes a while, I leveld from 45-50 on one character like this. Basically it's a sort of dynamic event where the quest objectives automatically get added to your log and they scale to your group. It can go up to raid group in size. And you run through a chain of events. There is nothing like it in WoW.

I can really see a strong effort to break away from WoW in each update now. Especially in Ember Isle. It's not as easy as the rest of Rift. In spite of what another soon-to-be released game's fan base will tell you, it's fairly dynamic, there is always something going on beyond the usual zone content. Zone invasions, World raid bosses, dynamically spawned events. If you want to do everything there is to do while it's happening around you there is enough content to last a long time.

There are options in end game. You have a personal story called Chonicles that you can run through. There is a new mechanic called Planar Attunement that allows you to continue to gain XP after cap. You apply XP to abilities tied into the elemental planes.

And ofcourse, the usual (good or bad, I'll leave to you to decide) There is crafting, PVP, Dungeons and Expert Dungeons, Full on raids. Plenty of what you are used to.

I will also state the other side of the coin. Rift's biggest negative is that there really is tremendous amount of "WoW" still in this game. In terms of game mechanics and game play. Minus the cartoony backdrop. But as I said, Trion is making every effort to break from WoW and it really does show at lvl 50.

teakbois · April 2012

Originally posted by airhead
(note: i cap instead of quote, sorry. traditionally cap=scream... i'm not screaming, just finding capping easier)

1. Content that takes a long time to figure out. Rift has HK, there are a handful of guilds per server that have done it after months of work, but there are also 80% of the population that has not cleared it all. It's there, there is something to figure out; but you are most likely not going to do it alone or regularly by PUGing, need a guild/group and figure it out. I think I said a group-figuring-something-out is why I'm still playing. But eventually (soon) we are going to figure it out, and Trion is NOT going to be able to keep up. Content is coming out at a slower-pace already imo.

Granted, maybe not ALL games fail in the production-to-content race, it all depends on how fast your gruop is. But your statement that MOST mmos win in that race is an overstatement as well. And of course the meaning of ALL is limited to my mmo experience: ac2,eq,sb,eq2,wow,lotro,ryzom,war,aoc,rift.

2. Different endgame models.

Shadowbane-type area control = just a big UT onslaught map. Is it really that exciting and different? You get together, take over an area, build, etc. Once you are good at it, you win. Maybe you get lucky and another competitive group comes on and you have some challenge (keep sub another month or two). More than likely, if you get really good, you own, then you get bored and quit. If combat is determined by hours-played, you grind to empower. this is not content-driven imo... and I can get the same adrenaline rush playing a shooter on day-one.

Different end-game model: dynamic world pve. Rift did pretty good at this: rifts, zone events. Other games will copy a little. But after you've experienced it X+ times, you know all the fights, all the mechanics, and you do it mindlessly... i.e. boring.

And as you mentioned, very few MMOs even have this much dynamic end-game... essentially just hard dungeons. And if you require 20man instead of 10man, then you throw in another difficulty, how to get 20-people to commit regularly to a set time and get geared and figure it out... all just little "obstacles" to make it take longer, i.e. to keep the subscription longer. I suppose if you view that as end-game 'content', then sure, there are some MMOs that have done that.

But all of these features or lack thereof pale in importance to real human-connections, friends, chatting, working-together, competing with others, razzing, jesting, taunting, joking, blah blah. If 'content' = puzzles, pretty-pixels, immersion, then MMOs mostly fail imo... just play single-player games like skyrim or some competitive shooter.

I suppose all I was really trying to say was this: beyond eating the original content of an MMO, the ONLY reason to keep playing an MMO is guild, friends, group-tasks, etc. The 'dream' that a dev company is going to keep spitting out "game content" at a faster pace than players can consume is just that... a 'dream'... as yet unrealized, and it's an overused sales pitch. Here i'm defining content as equivalent to 'mechanics'... something you or your group have to 'figure out' or 'overcome'.

Of course this is just my opinion, and it's limited to my experience, (see list above), and it's probably tainted because I'm old and pessimistic and have no faith... lol

POINT 1:

Hammerknell has *one* boss that is noteworthy. Akylios's difficulty was about on par with Heroic Ragnaros, but nowhere near as difficult as some past WoW bosses (not even gonna compare eq or eq2, which have harder content than both games but the gameplay is different, WoW and Rift play almost identically). yes, a greater percentage of guilds cleared H ragnaros pre nerfs, but it wasnt significantly more (many servers never cleared him) and its due to the fact the many WoW guilds have raided together for 6+ years.

All other raid instances in Rift are easy. the second half of HK is a good difficulty, on par with a standard WoW heroic mode. but its not this amazingly hard dungeon by a longshot. the reason 80% of people havent seen it is because 80% of people dont do 20 man raiding on anything more than a strictly casual level.

POINT 2

Rift's endgame model is a near mirror image of WoW. ALmost EXACTLY identical. its gear crrency grind wth heavy emphasis on daily quests. Yes, there are a few more options. but the absolute focus in Rift is gear and currency/reputation for gear. And espeically focused on repitiion of dungeons ad infintum.

Professor78 · April 2012

Originally posted by teakbois

POINT 2

Rift's endgame model is a near mirror image of WoW. ALmost EXACTLY identical. its gear crrency grind wth heavy emphasis on daily quests. Yes, there are a few more options. but the absolute focus in Rift is gear and currency/reputation for gear. And espeically focused on repitiion of dungeons ad infintum.

Entirely your opinion, 90% of my time is not spent grinding for gear, I prefer doing other things. And having racked up over 2000hrs it just shows there are other things to do... I could not do this in all the other games I have played.

In fact I'm not particulary interested in raiding, which is all you could do in most other games at endgame.

It shows you have very limited view on what RIFT has to offer, or are "trying to play it like exactly like WOW" as thats all you are used too. Dig deeper, you will find more.

CericX · April 2012

There are two primary reasons I play aside from friends and guild.

1. There is always something to do that will advance my characters.

I have two level 50 chars both highest PVP Rank, both raiding in HK. Gearing up for ID, neither character is really "there" yet. I PVP with friends and have a blast, espescially when I get merc'd and play against them. Dungeons, expert or master modes, 1020 man content like RoTP or GSBROSHK. I have a tough time getting a chance to work on events or IA's because I keep busy in the other aspects. I've yet to complete (not even close) artifact collection or Rare Boss kills on either character.

2. The soul system. Between my mage and my cleric there is ALWAYS something to work with or change up to get different results. Cabicar PA grinding...wheeeee! Inquisicar PVP. Full dungeon healing as Inquisicar. Squirrel...Fireball..Fireball..Fireball. POOF Yer a Squirrel...Fireball...Fireball..Fireball. Heh, that particular never gets old. Lightning raining down from the sky, hellish firestorms bursting from the ground! Alright, I admit I have lots of fun with my characters.

@lighting issues, I had similiar problems initially but an update to NVidia drivers and game handling resolved it. Fixed both at Nvidia and at Trion. Something that helped prior to those fixes was turning off AA in graphics settings. Everything is crisp and clean and no lighting issues except deep in an event when the sky turns dark or in Realm of the Fey during the snow blind.

BartDaCat · April 2012

Originally posted by GeezerGamer
here is my opinion of Rift.

When they put it on the drawing board, they went with a WoW clone. But I truly believe that Trion sees the mistake they made.

Yes, getting to 50 will not feel much different from the usual. Rifts biggest drawback is that much of what you will do in Rift, even it's the 1st time you are doing it, will not really feel that new. But there are options. You can seek out minor rifts to break the monotony of questing, but that only goes so far. Zone events are a real fun diversion during leveling. I always enjoyed those. You can do PVP levleing in War Fronts. Again, nothing really new, but it breaks it up.

Once you get to 45, you can start to do instant adventures Which is a lot of fun. They will eventually repeat but that takes a while, I leveld from 45-50 on one character like this. Basically it's a sort of dynamic event where the quest objectives automatically get added to your log and they scale to your group. It can go up to raid group in size. And you run through a chain of events. There is nothing like it in WoW.

I can really see a strong effort to break away from WoW in each update now. Especially in Ember Isle. It's not as easy as the rest of Rift. In spite of what another soon-to-be released game's fan base will tell you, it's fairly dynamic, there is always something going on beyond the usual zone content. Zone invasions, World raid bosses, dynamically spawned events. If you want to do everything there is to do while it's happening around you there is enough content to last a long time.

There are options in end game. You have a personal story called Chonicles that you can run through. There is a new mechanic called Planar Attunement that allows you to continue to gain XP after cap. You apply XP to abilities tied into the elemental planes.

And ofcourse, the usual (good or bad, I'll leave to you to decide) There is crafting, PVP, Dungeons and Expert Dungeons, Full on raids. Plenty of what you are used to.

I will also state the other side of the coin. Rift's biggest negative is that there really is tremendous amount of "WoW" still in this game. In terms of game mechanics and game play. Minus the cartoony backdrop. But as I said, Trion is making every effort to break from WoW and it really does show at lvl 50.

I'm having the same revelation about RIFT, Geezer.

I recently returned to RIFT because a core group of my guild friends kept asking me to come back. I am really glad I did.

I'm getting the same impression that folks at Trion realized their mistakes in following the "WoW" model too closely, and I feel that RIFT is starting to create its own identity. I'm looking forward to patch 1.8, and I'll be curious to see how the game continues to shape up in future content updates.

Definitely having a good time with the game again. It could be partially because of the community (my guildies in particular) which always helps, but I think Trion is evolving as a company, lessons learned.

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