Choose My Adventure: Seriia

If you missed the results from the vote in last week's Choose My Adventure, then you would not know that female Eth DPS Cleric won the votes. I did not make the livestream schedule last week, which was totally my fault. I apologize. However, I did go ahead and do a stream on my Justin.TV channel that you are welcome to watch. In that video, the viewers and I created the character you see above here. She is named Seriia. She lives on the Faeblight server and currently wanders near the Ark of the Ascended in Freemarch. Feel free to add her to your friends list and say hello when you see her online.

I did enjoy my first steps in RIFT, but as with any MMO experience there were ups and downs. As you can see, I documented parts of the story with screenshots in the gallery below. I can certainly see why RIFT appeals to many MMO players, but at the same time, multiple facets of the game could turn some players off. But I don't want to talk about that on this front page. Jump past the cut as I weave the tale of Seriia, the Chosen.

Like the birth of all Defiant Ascended, Seriia's birth was one of science and technology mixed with magic. The Kelari scientist Sylver Valis infused the soul from the Plane of Death into the athletic form of Seriia. When that life was breathed back into her, immediately her destiny was sealed. No sooner had she awakened than Valis sent her on a task.

"You, friend, will be our last and greatest project. This world is ending, you see. Regulos has consumed all of the world save this one last stronghold. Any day now, he will likely finish the work," Valis confessed solemnly. Seriia ran her fingers through her wild, auburn hair as the violet-skinned Elf explained. "Fortunately, we have a Orphiel's Failsafe. This Failsafe will send you, our engineered soldier, and others like you back in time to the moment it was built. This moment should hopefully be long enough before the chain of events that led to Regulos' victory that you can effect meaningful change."

Better late than never. As if it were natural for her, Seriia called on her Faerie pet named Kitter and set on her way to find High General Asha Catari and Orphiel's Failsafe.

In an MMO, the beginning stages are paramount to your understanding of how the game works and (if you're a lore nut like I am) the understanding of your character's motivation. In RIFT, the basic mechanics remain straightforward, but the confusion sets in when you're deciding which souls to take. This proceeds to get more confusing when you are required to choose between which sets of armor or weapon you want as a quest reward. Thankfully, I had a clear idea what I was getting into before I started to play, and I also had a couple of players who were watching the livestream join me as well. Unfortunately, the only way I can see this soul system being less confusing for the beginner would be to look at it the way I looked at the voting system: This soul plus this other soul plus this third soul gives you this group role. However, that becomes quickly obsolete when you ask people who actually play the game which souls they would choose. Everyone has a different idea about what makes a great combination for specific roles.

On the positive side, RIFT is a very gorgeous game. When I livestreamed the game, I had to move the settings to low. (I had to run in windowed mode for Justin.TV.) Yet the quality was still amazing. Screenshots still turned out nice enough to post, and I could increase the quality on the fly. I was also impressed with the character models as well. When I created Seriia, I was happy to see that the Eth body types and facial features were not just varying degrees of "photoshopped supermodel." As you can see from the screenshots, Seriia actually looks like a real person, not some throwback to a bad anime series. Bravo to Trion's artists.

For now, I am going to hold back on talking about gameplay because I truly have not experienced enough of it to accurately pass judgment. So for now, let's just say everything works like I expected.

Seriia completed the beginning quests in the Terminus Zone but has not obtained a high enough level to do much other than rifts and basic quests. I do not believe I will have leveled her enough by the end of the week to join dungeons or PvP with any kind of prowess. This week, I thought crafting and resource gathering would be a good thing for us to pursue. I hope you agree. At very least, this will give me something else to do while I'm following the questlines.

From what I have read, it is not necessary for a single player to have complementing gathering and crafting professions. Although certain professions are codependent, resources for crafting are available through other in-game means. That being said, I would like to have at least one gathering profession and one crafting profession. My available third profession will be completely up to you. Don't gimp me.



The livestream starts at 6 p.m. EDT on the Massively livestream channel; please, come out to see it! I would also like to have people join me on some quests. If you have any characters around level 8 to 10, feel free to join me throughout the week or on the livestream Friday. Only together can we save Telara!

Larry Everett is a nut who loves to play MMOs. Sure, he really wants to be playing Star Wars: The Old Republic, but alas, it's not out yet. In the meantime, he needs your help: Tell him what and how to play while he waits! Direct his game time in Choose My Adventure on Wednesdays and the livestream on Fridays!