Week in Review: The next big thing

Its been a good weekend to be a Rift player. Very happy with the first few days

Friends and I have been putting time into Rift and having a blast. We did the first Defiant dungeon today (Iron Tomb) and I have to say it's the most fun I've had in a dungeon in a VERY long time. The environment was visually interesting (some very impressive stuff at times). On top of that, we ran it with a rogue tank (Riftstalker) and mage healer (Chloromancer), which totally threw everyone for a loop -- not just that it was possible, but that it was effective!

Kudos to Trion for creating a title that breaks some of the long-standing "rules" of the genre.

I know right. My guild is playing a queued server, we're going to stick it out. (in a months time we're expecting the queue times to diminish somewhat)

We've made peace with the waiting, its a pity not everyone can. And you're right, if you're raging about it, you should probably move server. Some have no wait at all.

I'm glad to hear things are going well with Rift so far.

For those who don't want to deal with Acti-Blizz it's a great MMO that feels familiar enough to be homey. I had fun with the rifts and invasions. Also the dev team seems responsive and not condescending.

I hope it does well.

Maybe the next big thing for other people, but it's certainly not for me. Not by a long shot.

Blizzard has certainly done everything it can to help Rift by constantly dumbing down its own game and rendering all the pre-endgame content irrelevant. Soon only the raid/PvP addicts praying for the next shiny bauble will be left in Asseroth.

Even with the queues I am having a blast.

I work 3 x 12's graveyard on Friday - Sunday nights so really haven't been able to play since Friday afternoon. There really isn't enough time between when I wake up and leave for work to sit in the queue. But I'm ok with it since I will be able to play when everyone else is at work. I might consider a transfer if given the option, but probably not since queues will most likely disappear in a few weeks to a month at most.

This is an excellent game for people bored with WoW. The rifts and invasions are a nice departure from ordinary questing. Mixing the two together has been working very well for me. I've also been enjoying the reading in the game. The quest text is good. There's informative text all over the place. I'm having an easy time to be immersed.

I'm playing Rift while maintaining (however tenuously) a subscription to WAR. Tomorrow's the big day where I try PvP in Rift. I'd like to leave WAR behind if the PvP in Rift is fun.

I would have thought that the fact that "the last few years have been rocky territory for many new AAA titles" would have taught you exactly why you should NOT take a flurry of early box sales as compelling evidence that a new MMO is "pulling it off."

Now devils advocate time. Trion has gotten in the habit of deleting tickets (from the thousands of complaints on the forums) and stating basically sorry, if you really need this looked at resubmit. This isnt a good thing. 7 servers are the pit of Que death for several hours, the rest are fast login as some gamers have stated, still Trion has not done enough to punish the people causing the ques firmly enough.

Exp exploits are still there, the summoner exploit reported back in beta 3 wasnt fixed and thousands ripped to level 50 in two days, no word on Trion rolling these people back.

Once in the game runs like a champ, just dont expect Trion CS to help as they are more in the test and tune phase during this headstart in prep for the main bash March.

We that purchased headstart knew the risk and have found Trion taking advantage of the experience by pointing out their Eula "you may or may not be able to login" and "you may or may not be able to play" last page, thereabouts.

I simply shake my head at what will happen come opening day. (Grin)