Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Compared to SWTOR, Tera and TSW, Rift has the most stability.....
Paddyspub
Member Posts: 104
I have to say, While Rift isnt the most perfect mmo on the market, I do think it is most stable and most likely in 5 years to still be around. Know I know this is all pure speculation but if you look at the trend of the last 3 big mmo releases in the last year (SWTOR, TERA and TSW), All starte out big and fizzled quickly or never took off the ground. Rift on the other hand, while didnt take off like Wow did, at least did moderately ok and has a stable population (I think) and has a its first expansion coming out in a few months. Out of those 4 games, Rift is still a sub game (but like Wow, has a" lvs 1-20 free trial thing") while the other games :
SWTOR> 1. Launched with huge hype, sold 2.4 million copies
2. Ok story but lacked even basic features that mmos years ago had
3. Horid engine with 2004 graphics and shoddy CS
4. Ignorant and clueless devolopers
5. Within months, offers free trials like candy, and in 8 months annouces F2P by Nov
6. Went from 1.7 million subs to maybe at best 500k?
7. With EA on the box, wouldnt trust my time with it (even if it was good) they have a bad track record of shutting down games)
Tera> 1. Much better graphics and animations but dull, tiresome, quest hub, standard themepark gameplay
2. Bad handling of the EU version due to Frogster
3. Lack of endgame
4. Not sure on numbers but prob never had beyond 700k to start now, I think its less than 300k
5. Pretty sure it is going to F2P soon if not already (know it is in Korea)
6. Only one leveling path to lv60, this is what killed Tera for me imo.
TSW> 1. Graphics are meh
2. EA once again, wouldnt trust them with a 10 foot pole
3. Heard the game is already bleeding subs badly
4. Played the game for a few hours then quit, thought it was a total bore.
And now compared to Rift:
1. Graphics arent the greatest, but at least it feels more alive than SWTORs
2. Standard quest-hub themepark but its is just like Wow (it can be a good or bad thing) but didnt bore me so fast like it did in TERA.
3. Great CS support and Trions Worlds really does pump out content quick and listens to players.
4. Is still P2P and with a full expansion otw (looks veyr interesting btw), its future looks good
5. Last I heard isnt bleeding subs and has a stable population of around 500k?
I think Rift, by far, will still be the game most likely to be P2P in at least 2-3 years. I know the F2P market is getting huge and P2P is looking long in the tooth but if the game is good and has good support then P2P is still viable. This is just my opinion and not trying to state these points as fact. I have played all 4 of these games and other than Rift, I could not possiblly see myself ever going back to playing SWTOR, TERA or TSW. Just my 2 cents.
P.S. Also, I dont mean to dog anyone that enjoys SWTOR, TERA or TSW, just imo they were a total letdown really quickly.
Tbe Repopulation will be what SWTOR shouldve been.
Comments
Rift is likely somewhere around 200k subs, give or take 50k ether way. With the exception of a two month span in jan/feb its been bleeding subs since it launched, but all MMOs have lost subs in that time span. We do know it started with 56 active NA servers, and now its down to 16 NA servers, of which half of them are basically dead servers. 2 months ago it had 5 medium and one high pop servers, now its down to 4 mediums and zero high pop. I dont think anyone knows how Trion tracks this anymore because it used to be dynamic tracking, now its static-there are low pop servers that certainly have enough people to classify as medium at prime time, but they remain low on the tracker.
That said, the expansion will probably bump it back up to the level it was two months ago and if expansion has good word of mouth could grow Rift again.
I don't see the point of comparing Rift to TERA and TSW, neither of these were expected to be major factors. TSW got some late hype because it was different and better than expected, but neither game was hyped anywhere near to the extent that Rift was. If Rift is considered AAA than really TSW should be considered AA and TERA is A (no Korean game has made even a ripple in the NA/EU region, let alone a splash). None are 'B' titles, but there was certainly a signficant difference in expectations.
As far as SWToR, well that was obviously expected to make a significantly bigger impact than Rift, and it obviously hasnt. Still, I dont see it shutting down anytime soon. EA will find a way to make it profitable enough to recoup their investment.
I do think its funny you mentioned SWTOR offering free trials like candy in a pro Rift post though, especially as they are in yet another free weekend.
People that complain about swtor because it's too much of a wow clone really need to try Rift because it's an even bigger knock off. OP all of the games you listed are better than Rift because they at least tried to do something slightly different than WoW (swtor really slight lol).OP may be right that it will be the most stable but it certainly isn't clearly "better" than the games you listed at much of anything.
I have played all the games he listed and none of them are/were better than Rift. Trying to do something different isn't enough, maybe they should have all concentrated on making a decent playable mmo and then maybe they wouldn't have all failed.
Whatever Rift is or isn't, it's fun and players stay with it. It feels like a world and not a single player rpg with a sub attached.
I think it's easy to assume Rift will be around since it has of the ones listed been around the longest and is right upon releasing its first expansion.
Irregardless, this sort of conversation doesn't really discuss the game at all and is nothing more than....speculation. At this point, one could make a case for all that are listed for various reasons. But then what's the point?
I've played all the games on your list and currently im playing TSW. I do like Rift and most likely will resub in Nov when the expansion comes out maybe sooner.
You can actually also look at some good in these too. In Tera the combat was almost perfect if they added a bit of range. I love the idea that i could miss.
SWTOR- played itself
Tera- was too cartoon for me
WOW- never again panda's or no panda's
Peace,
Lascer
Rift did crash, during its first few months. It just came out before the others, and more people have forgotten, but sold upwards of a million, and then nosedived. I think it bottomed out, somewhere below TOR but above Tera and TSW. Looks stable now, because that was quite a while ago, and Trion has done a great job of keeping the game going, instead of just giving up, like a lot of other devs seem to do, when they fail to be the WoW-killer they seemed to be hoping for.
Also, @grimal, "irregardless" isn't a word. You just mean "regardless"
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.
Vhaln: Neither is ":p"
Those games aren't better then Rift simply because they differ from WoW more than Rift. Doing something different and doing something better are completely different things.
As are doing something similar and doing something poorly.
Correct. It isn't designed to represent a word, just like that abomination you used in your sentence. However, you did it anyway.
I guess the two of you are now even. Can we move back to the discussion now?
Now that tsw,tor,tera,and gw2 are out and off their pedestals rift really starts to come to the forefront as ne of the best themeparks onthe market. The expansion is adding tons of open world content and player housing. I will level from 50-60 without doing a single dungeon or quest hub. Ill be running around exploring and hunting rifts. My downtime ill be cooking fishing camping cafting trading and working on my house.
Its cool because you still have the quest hubs dungeons and raids but also will have this almost sandboxy playstyle available as well.
The difference between Rift and SWTOR, Tera and TSW is that all the later are niche games. Let me explain before you blow a fuse.
I think most would agree that Tera and TSW are niche games. Tera brings a good clean implimentation of action combat to the MMO space. Not that there are not other action combat games out now and they are becoming more common but Tera does do a good job in this regard. For most people it will not be enough to keep them interested but for a certain group it works. The question is, will this group be big enough to support the game. My guess is that it will be big enough in Asia to keep going and the west will be able to generate enough revenue to keep getting updates ported over, but just barely. We wil see.
TSW is also niche, both in the game design and in the subject matter. X-files and horror fans will keep this title alive. It also plays unusually well even if you are not a conspiracy fan. I think it is a good game overall, it just needs to connect with conspiracy fans and they are not primarily mmo players because there has never really been anything out there for them. I think this title will grow over time but only modestly. It will never be huge and funcom needs to figure out how to bring conspiracy fans into the mmo fold. No easy task.
SWTOR? a niche game? Yes, but only because that is what it ended up becoming. Let me explain. SWTOR is basically the Star Wars flavored, lateral expansion of WoW. They wanted to be WoW in space so they did everything just like WoW and except for dialing up voice over and story to 11, SWTOR really does nothing to differentiate itself from WoW. The problem is that stories always have an end and once you work your way though as many of the stories, or alts as you care to do then you are more or less done with the part of the game that shines the brightest. Once you are done with your story(s) what is left? A raiding end game that is anemic compared to WoW. Basically, from the perspective of the endgame SWTOR doesn't give players any good reason to not return to WoW. So many went back to be with friends, to have a more varied endgame and to enjoy the things that they might have collected over the last several years like titles, mounts and pets. In other words SWTOR was an interesting diversion but it didn't give WoW players enough to over come their inertia. So even though SWTOR did everything it could to be WoW and mainstream, it backfired and now the only real reason to stick with SWTOR is because you love Star Wars. That is their niche. If you just want to be a Luke or Darth or Han Solo then its your game. And don't underestimate the power of that. Only an IP like Star Wars could possibly keep an MMO afloat all by itself. Of course that was not what EA had bargained for which is why they putting the F2P beat down on the title but that is something else again...
Rift is different because it is doing exactly what blizzard once did with WoW. They are simply doing what has proven successful so far, bringing together what works well from dozens of different games, adding a few ideas of their own and doing it all very very well and polished. Rift has taken all the advantages of being newer while delivering things so fast that you forget that they are still new. Rift has the newer look, the newer feature set and a new story to dig into. Basically, it gives people from WoW a new place to go without feeling like they are taking a step down in the endgame. Rift has 3 solid raid tiers now and has built up a very loyal raiding community. I don't think any other company has been able to pull this off to the same extent. That is not to say that they are just like WoW in terms of size, gain WoW has the advantage because of inertia but it has still positioned itself well as a viable alternative to WoW for those who are tired of the same old thing but still want something fundamentally similar.
All die, so die well.
Rift's combat i decent. It is however non laggy and very fast responsive. It is also a very easy game to get into and actually offers a wow endgame - light version.
Where they failed to me however is the class balance. They are even more clueless that aion, wow or swtor in regards to balance.
Even though I love the game I would most likley not play it again even if they fix the class balance. They kinda prooved to me that they are way to clueless to make it work. So if they fix it it will most likley be cause of luck, and in the next patch 2 months later they will be back in square 0.
Can you elaborate on that?
Rift has the worst character animation and models you can find among major MMO titles. Only worse is LOTRO and that was released quite a while ago.
I agree. Further I think all these games, and especially GW2 will in the end actually help Rifts numbers to go up because all the excitement stirs the pot. It shakes people loose from WoW. It helps people to overcome their inertia and realize that perhaps its time to try a new game. But If those other games turn out to be too niche. Too odd for a certain group of people then those people, still wanting something new but at the same time something that lands closer to home may well give Rift a try and realize that it suits them. An MMO market that is in flux will play well for a title like Rift even if it has meant loosing some of its own customers for a time.
All die, so die well.
I tried to play Rift after I quit EQ2 after 6 years and it just could not keep me interested longer the 4 weeks or so. It's not a bad game, but for me it's soulless.
SWTOR on other hand keeps me playing from launch and I am logging in every day.
I think everybody has a different opinion what catch his/her attention in MMO, all of us are different. That's why there will be always place for many MMOs as not one MMO can be a holy grail for all.
It's just not going to hapen.
As of population in SWTOR. As I play every day (The Ebon Hawk) I see plenty of players. Lower planets are well populated and from general chat you can see there are many new players.
Based on Xfire (and I know we can't say much about population from it's numbers) there is a huge "rift" between SWTOR and Rift and other mentionned games:
Today data:
SWTOR: 16
EVE: 26
LOTRO: 39
STO: 55
Rift: 86
Tera: 93
http://beta.xfire.com/games#/games/index
Sith Warrior - Story of Hate and Love http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxKrlwXt7Ao
Imperial Agent - Rise of Cipher Nine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBBj3eJWBvU&feature=youtu.be
Imperial Agent - Hunt for the Eagle Part 1http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQqjYYU128E
I have been repeatedly told by industry folks to not buy the Trion hype. They're reportedly not doing anywhere near as well as they would like you to think. The heads of their company are great venture capitalists and can scrape together money well (remember that $80 million they borrowed from a Canadian TEACHERS PENSION FUND?), but Rift definitely didn't perform to expectations. If it wasn't for the possibilities presented by EoN and Defiance I think Rift would already be F2P. Also worth noting the business model for EoN - F2P, suspected business model for Defiance is also F2P. Just sayin'.
Also for me, Rift is the most souless MMORPG out there. It is a walking trope of everything that is the MMORPG genre. It's the most boring time I've ever had in an MMO. The only alleviation to this boredom was the Rift mechanic and zone wide invasions, however that got old within a month. The soul system which drew me to the game was interesting on paper, but it's actual implementation works out to provide the same cookie cutter builds and lack of diversity present in most MMORPGs today.
Steam: Neph
graphics are good, not in the league of a GW2 or AoC but ok.
Quests are one of the blandest/lamest I've encountered in an AAA MMO. SWTOR, WoW, GW2, TSW and LotrO easily beat Rift in that department with spades.
The dev team is one of the most active around, with regular updates and an expansion that packs oomph big time, there's no doubt about that.
The population might be stable, but is really, absolutely nowhere around 500k. Seeing the number of servers left, what a server status entails to in Rift ('full' is 2k online, 'medium' is 350-400 upwards), I'd say 100-200k.The biggest strength is Rift's furtive dev team and creative PR team. That elevates Rift from a small MMO severely lacking in some ways to a solid MMO title, that should make Rift belong in the current top 10 of AAA MMO titles imo.
It has already been established ages ago that xfire does actually jack shit in esitmating game population. The only reliabe thing xfire does is show trends of activity that one can guess which way the ebb of activity is heading.
Also it says xfire members do not play Rift
... much
Sith Warrior - Story of Hate and Love http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxKrlwXt7Ao
Imperial Agent - Rise of Cipher Nine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBBj3eJWBvU&feature=youtu.be
Imperial Agent - Hunt for the Eagle Part 1http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQqjYYU128E