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Enter at Your Own Rift: Five advantages RIFT has over WoW
From its inception, RIFT has taken the position of being both a World of Warcraft clone and a direct competitor for its playerbase. It's not as if Trion Worlds has been subtle about it: The early campaign slogan of "You're not in Azeroth anymore" all but reached over and tweaked Blizzard's nose. While some didn't like the direct comparison, I thought it was a wise move for RIFT to acknowledge its obvious ancestry and its position as a cocky upstart. While I've never been of the opinion that only one MMO can "win" or that we should always disparage games other than the ones we play, I won't deny that comparisons get made. Listen, World of Warcraft is a fun, slick game, one I spent many years playing. But just because it's one of the most popular MMOs in the world and stuffed full of 10 years of content doesn't mean it holds all of the cards (nor is it the MMO that currently grabs most of my gaming time). In fact, RIFT has several distinct advantages that it's used and continues to use against Big Blizz, and it's those advantages that I want to praise today.
Enter at Your Own Rift: How to tell a great story in an MMO
My character still hasn't (ahem) ascended to Nightmare Tide levels yet, so today's RIFT story will instead be about Storm Legion. I had been working my way through the Eastern Holdings in Brevane when I encountered a quest chain that floored me with brilliant storytelling that showed exactly how MMOs can utilize this platform to tell tales in ways that other mediums cannot. It is audacious, bold, and incredibly dark, especially for RIFT. And I cannot praise it enough, especially in light of long-held claims that RIFT is often weak on story. I have two caveats before we go through what made this quest chain so great. First, I'm going to spoil it from start to finish, so if you haven't played it and want to remain innocent, just bookmark this column to read later on. Second, there are some truly edgy themes in this recap. Got it? Let's go!
Enter at Your Own Rift: Do my bidding, minions!
RIFT: Nightmare Tide is here at last, and the one overriding thought that permeates my every gaming minute is this: I am going to get totally addicted to minions. Heck, I already am. I'll be getting into other aspects of the expansion in coming weeks (spoiler: sidekicking is way tubular), but since this one feature is available to everyone right now and it's completely new to the game, I wanted to discuss minions today. There isn't a lot of information out there on the minion system thus far, which is surprising considering how much I've seen guildmates and general chat buzz on about it. Perhaps it's simple enough not to require detailed explanations, but there's still enough depth to elicit a few questions. So what's the minion system like? How does it benefit players? How much money does it require of free players? What are some good strategies for it? I'm all over this today, so let's get into it!
Hyperspace Beacon: Five tips for making SWTOR conquests work for smaller guilds
In my last column, I explained the shortcomings of the conquest system in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Despite the issues I have with the system, I still think it's a great way to encourage players to revisit older content, and most importantly, to build guild unity. I know there are some guilds on my server in which members don't even have to participate at all in conquests for that guild to appear on the top ten. But what about those guilds who don't have hundreds of members? What about those guilds who have maybe 20 or so members? Can they even compete? My guild has about 20 people who log in on raid nights; when the raid is done, maybe five or six will stick around. Now, I'm not saying that this is a healthy state for a guild (we are looking for more members!), but the few dedicated members pulled us ahead. For the last two weeks, our guild was in the top 10, and not barely in the top 10 either. This week we hit number seven, and the week before we were six. Here are my tips for how your small guild can get ahead in conquests, too.
RIFT's got a new conquest map and a new rogue soul on the way
RIFT's Steppes of Infinity features "all-new objectives and opportunities for exciting PvP action," according to an update on the free-to-play fantasy MMO's website. Combatants may choose to battle for control of the Brevo and Antapo forts or ferry charges between them, and "powerful rewards for the winning team" are at stake, Trion says. The studio also confirmed the next soul reveal: the Physician, a healing-centric soul for Rogues.
RIFT gives the new Steppes of Infinity Conquest map a spin
This past weekend, RIFT players and devs alike jumped into the new Steppes of Infinity Conquest to try out the PvP map on the test server. On the forums, a dev gave players an idea of what to expect from the map, saying that teams will be ferrying stones between upgradable forts for points. However, once 1,750 player deaths occur, players have a five-minute timer to score as much as possible followed by loot for the winners. The devs followed up the playtest with a peek at some of the upcoming goodies for the game, including an Umbral Budgie mount, a mech mount, and a new powerful focus.
Why do we still have separate PvP and PvE gear?
While seeking out questions to a Queue I wrote, I was asked by a Twitter follower why we had separate PvE and PvP gear in the first place. A question I love, and that I wouldn't be able to respond to briefly enough for The Queue. I'm not going to go into a complete, exhaustive history of PvP gear. For starters, I didn't play in Classic, so I can't really comment on the gear then, but I gather that there was a lot more overlap between the two. Then, with Burning Crusade, back in 2006, the combat rating system and Resilience were both introduced, along with arenas. PvP gear was born. It's been through many different iterations since then -- too easy to get, too hard to get, too bad for PvE, too good for PvE, different effects, stat budgets, you name it. But history, while it merits repetition, shouldn't have too much bearing on this question in today's game.
Patch 5.4: Answers to Frequently Re-Asked Questions
We here at WoW Insider see a few questions pretty much every time a new patch is announced. Often, we see these same questions asked repeatedly, many times after we've answered them. So, out of a desire to be helpful (and to have a place to point folks) here are a few of those questions, answered for you here. Q: What is happening to my Valor/Conquest points in patch 5.4? A: Your Conquest points will be converted to Honor. If you have 4000 honor already, or will be pushed over the 4000 honor mark by the conversion, they will be converted to gold. All other points, be they Valor, Justice, or Honor points will not be converted. Q: What new gear can I get for Valor points? A: None. There is no new Valor gear. Shado-Pan Assault gear will still cost Valor, but will be discounted by 34%. All other current Valor gear (from the original reputation gear to the Patch 5.1 items) will now cost Justice Points instead. More questions answered following the jump.
Patch 5.4: RBG and Arena cap finally fixed
Now, don't get over excited here, people. They haven't "fixed" the "bug" where you have to get the last 400 conquest points from rated battlegrounds instead of arenas, and by the looks of things that isn't going to change any time soon. However, they have finally fixed another, far more annoying bug in the conquest point system. It's only taken 8 months. So what was the bug? Basically, you can cap out to 1800 with arena, and to get to your 2200 conquest for the week, you have to get the last 400 from a rated battleground. However, you had to do it in that order. Do a rated battleground on the day of the reset before you capped arena? Well, that will count towards your arena total of 1800. What you have to do in 5.3 is get to 1800 with arenas, and then do a rated battleground. But, in patch 5.4, it's finally fixed. At last, you can do arenas and your one rated battleground to fully cap out conquest in any order you like. Quite why it's taken so long for this to be sorted out, I can only imagine, but I'm really glad it has been. It's so frustrating to forget about it and grab an early-week PuG for a rated battleground, not having maxed out your arena cap.
Civilization Online not currently planned for North America
You might be tremendously excited about Civilization Online right now, especially if you read our interview with Jake Song yesterday. But if you live in North America, it's time to crank that excitement down to a dull interest because XLGAMES and 2K Games are not currently looking at a release in the region. 2K Games PR Manager Brian Roundy delivered the bad news: "Civilization Online is developed by South Korea-based XL Games in partnership with 2K, and will be available first in Korea. No release date has been set. There are no plans for a North American release at this time." This doesn't mean all hope is lost, of course. It might be that the studios are holding their cards close to their chest or that they don't want to commit until they see how it performs in Korea. But if you were camping in front of a retail store (why?) for this release in America, you should probably go home for now.
Massively Exclusive: Jake Song introduces Civilization Online
You might have heard about a little project called Civilization Online, a new MMO in development based on the popular Civilization series of turn-based strategy games. You also might have heard that XL Games CEO Jake Song, of ArcheAge and Lineage fame, is overseeing the project as Executive Producer. But chances are, that's really all you have heard. Until now, that is. We had the opportunity to sit down with Song, XL Games Senior VP Jung Hwan Kim, and Producer Garrett Bittner from 2K Games to get the scoop on the project. Follow along for all the juicy details about building up civilizations in a new open world environment, including crafting, PvP, and more!%Gallery-195539%
The Daily Grind: What MMO projects have you started lately?
Summertime always seems to bring out the altoholic in me. The stretch of largely release-free months between spring and fall is the perfect time to try out a new character and see a different angle of the game. I'm currently doing this in just about every MMO I'm playing. I'm leveling up a new Dragon in The Secret World after completing all of the quests on my Templar, I'm planning to roll a Hobbit Minstrel on a new server in Lord of the Rings Online to start from scratch, and I've jumped back into RIFT with a baby Mage. Whether or not these projects go anywhere is almost irrelevant as long as I'm enjoying them right now. Which I am. So what MMO projects have you started lately? Any lofty goals you're looking to achieve by the end of August? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
One Shots: Video games are bad for you
I love the snarky billboards in superhero MMOs. I don't know why, exactly, these games became the place to place them, but I'm not complaining. Reader Elliot sent in one of my favorite billboards from Champions Online. I'm honestly tempted to make this into a business card. "I am not sure if this is up to par for One Shots," he wrote, "but I ran into this sign outside RenCenter in Millennium City and couldn't resist snapping the pic." We now return you to a feedback loop of irony. A sign in a video game warning you about playing video games? My head spinneth. Let's check out the rest of this week's player-submitted screenshots before I need to go lie down, OK?
The Daily Grind: What should MMO tutorials include?
A couple of weeks ago I jumped back into RIFT because of, well, its free-to-playness. I couldn't help it; it was as if there was a party going on and I had to go or else feel forever alone. Apart from the massive crowds that come with F2P launches, RIFT featured another surprising change from the last time I was there: Its tutorial was shortened. Trimmed down. Cut in half and then some. So what used to take me around 45 minutes to go through the opening tutorial zone now took me less than 20. It made me think a lot about what MMO tutorials should include. Obviously, you need to show the ropes to players who have never picked up an MMO before. You can't overwhelm those folks, either, so the ins and outs of the game need to come in measured doses. You also need to inform MMO vets as to what is different about this particular game than other ones. And it's probably a good idea to, y'know, allow players to skip tutorials if they've done them a couple of dozen times already. What should MMO tutorials include? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
The Daily Grind: What's motivating your return to RIFT?
RIFT went free-to-play recently, and judging by the server queues and the number of people who tipped Massively about Trion's response to all the shenanigans, it seems like the business model switcheroo had the desired effect of bringing people back in droves. As an outsider, I can't really wrap my brain around the phenomenon. If the game was good before, my inner cynic says, surely it was worth paying for, no? I can understand the excitement if you've never played RIFT (and if financials were the reason why), but I've seen a few commenters and even a blogger or two who seem to be coming back because they're afraid of missing a deal rather than because they really dig the game. I could be wrong, though, so that's why I'm throwing today's Daily Grind out there. Assuming you're returning to RIFT, are you doing so because you love the game or is it because you don't want to miss out on a perceived good deal? In short, what's motivating your return to RIFT? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Free for All: How free-to-play affected how I feel about RIFT
Back in April of 2011, I asked myself whether I would play RIFT if it were a free game. I know that I was impressed with its build quality but not so much with its lack of spirit. It seemed like a hollow game, one that used gimmicks to take the place of true adventure. At the same time, I didn't want to downplay how well it was made. I still agree with this sentiment; the game is great and has only improved over time, but I still wish it had a little something more. Did the recent switch to free-to-play change how I felt about the game? Why would a payment model affect how I felt while playing the game? After all, I champion the idea that a payment model does not define a game, but I still have to recognize how a payment model affects people. Including me.
RIFT adds warfront modes on a daddy's day off
While most fathers were enjoying brand-new ties and meals out on the town this past Sunday, RIFT Lead Game Designer Bill Fisher decided that he'd be a papa to the PvP game community and take care of their needs. Fisher went into the office on his day off, asked players what they wanted added, and whipped up two new game modes for warfronts. The Black Garden warfront got a domination mode added, which allows players to wrest for the control of two key points. Also sporting a new domination mode is the Karthan Ridge warfront, although this one is a little more complex. Players in Karthan Ridge have to fight over five control points; the control points on the enemy's side of the map award more score points than do those on the on the home team side. The hotfix also reinstated the second dimension option to players which had been disabled after the 2.3 patch.
It's like launch day all over again for RIFT
If you decided to take advantage of RIFT's new free-to-play status yesterday, you were probably met with a big fat server queue message that may have ruined your entire life (according to the RIFT forums). While this is certainly bad for anyone wanting to play the game, it's an ironically good problem to have for Trion Worlds and the two-year-old MMO. The team at Trion monitored the situation throughout the day and night, raising server caps and converting the EU Icewatch server to a Trial Only Shard, but commented that opening new clusters today might be a necessity for North American shards. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
RIFT is now completely free for everyone
The game that once denounced free-to-play has gone free-to-play. Trion Worlds' RIFT can now be enjoyed with "no trials, no tricks, and no traps" for anyone who wants to explore the game. "The aim is to keep free and paid players on the same level - this is not pay-to-win," said Creative Director Bill Fisher. "Players will see key differences between RIFT and other MMOs that have adopted free-to-play: we don't restrict content, and we don't offer pay-to-win items." To help celebrate the new content in RIFT 2.3 and its new F2P status, Trion has also released a brand new trailer and set of screenshots that can be seen below. [Source: Trion Worlds press release]%Gallery-101448%
RIFT tops Raptr's May most-played list
Is RIFT taking the charts by storm? At first glance when it comes to Raptr's most-played PC and Xbox 360 titles in May, it would appear so. However, just as with everything else associated with statistics, it's important to know the full story before jumping to conclusions. RIFT jumped up 13 spots to garner a 7.76% share of player hours in May, topping even League of Legends and World of Warcraft. This was largely thanks to a reward campaign that quadrupled the number of players from March. The company notes that Neverwinter was also a "big mover" in the month among Raptr players, netting 11th place.
