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Enter at Your Own Rift: Six things I learned about leveling via instant adventures
With a few weeks to blow before Storm Legion arrives to give us a wealth of new content to explore, I decided to roll up an alt in RIFT and see just how far I could get him in the meantime. The character is a mage, and the Harbinger soul looks wicked awesome, so I figured, why not? I wasn't that interested in going back through all of the quests and zones, however. I've done them, explored them, and made peace with them, and I knew that chugging back through all of those quests would drive me nuts (and take too long!). So instead, I figured I might as well try a new tactic: I resolved to just use instant adventures augmented by dungeon runs for the entirety of my leveling experience. It's a huge plus in RIFT's favor that this is an actual option, and I quite enjoy IAs anyway, so that choice felt right. Over the past week of doing this, I've learned a few interesting lessons about chugging through IAs as a character's sole source of XP, loot, and advancement. For anyone who might be following this path, I'd like to share those lessons.
Enter at Your Own Rift: Macro this!
You know that saying about never discussing religion or politics around the dinner table? I'd like to add one more to the list: RIFT macros. Some players love them, and some players hate them, to the point that the topic completely turns them off from the game. Each camp has some very valid arguments, and there doesn't seem to be too much of a middle ground on the subject. In this week's Enter at Your Own Rift, I'd like to take a look at that polarizing issue and explain why I grew to love macros.
Enter at Your Own Rift: Fall colors... and more mead!
It wasn't that long ago that if you ever asked me what my favorite season was, I'd respond without hesitation, "Spring!" Being a Midwesterner means that spring is the rescue of winter doldrums and the march to summer. However, the past few years have swayed me to a different answer. I honestly feel that autumn has so much more to offer. Maybe it's that my favorite holiday, Halloween, lies smack-dab in the middle of it. Perhaps it's the fragrant smells and gorgeous sights of leaves turning. Definitely it has something to do with bonfires, hot apple cider, hayrides, and fleece jackets. So even while the last vestiges of 80-degree weather clings to my state, I'm already eager to dive head-first into a pile of leaves. Barring that, I'm more than content to revel in RIFT's newest festival, Autumn Harvest. Now with 100% more MEAD!
Enter at Your Own Rift: The calm before the storm
You had me at "I've slept so long." Seriously, I rarely pay any attention to MMO trailers because they tend to be heavy on CGI, so what you see on the screen has nothing to do with what you'll actually see in the game. But with the Storm Legion trailer, a lot of it looks exactly like what we've seen in demos and gameplay videos that the RIFT team has shown at recent conventions. In other words, I can't wait for November to arrive. But before the storm comes the calm, and before the expansion comes one last game update. RIFT launched about a year and a half ago and is closing in on its 10th update, a nice round number leading into the first expansion. That's an aggressive schedule by any MMO standard, but it's particularly impressive when you dig into the patch notes and see exactly what's changed each time. With the imminent arrival of the last update before the first expansion, I made my way back over to the test server to get a glimpse of some of the changes. Some of them are coming any day now with update 1.10, while others hint at what's coming in the lead-up to the expansion.
Enter at Your Own Rift: Is the subscription justified?
I wonder whether the folks at Trion Worlds feel as if they're on an ever-shrinking island, holding fast to the subscription-only model while the world erodes into the sea of free-to-play. It's got to be an unsettling feeling, particularly as the competition continues to press in from all sides. Is clinging to RIFT's subscription worth it? When even Star Wars: The Old Republic flinched and buckled to F2P, what chance does RIFT have to stay its course? Is Trion hurting or helping this game by holding fast to the business model? It's a tricky question that's made trickier by the scarcity of facts. Trion's expressed strong confidence in the way it's steered RIFT so far, and I wonder whether that's a genuine confidence based on numbers that I don't see or a brave front for a duck that's paddling furiously under the calm pond surface. So is RIFT really so good that it justifies a monthly subscription, and if so, what makes it OK to stay above the F2P waters on that tiny island?
Enter at Your Own Rift: What's in your bag?
I have a little confession to make. When it comes to random clicky items, unusual vanity pets, eccentric appearance items, and other quirky stuff in RIFT, I'm completely obsessed. During world events, while everyone else is eyeing the essences and new mounts, I'm scanning the appearance outfits and the clicky-effect items. I'll even do quests and content that I'm not necessarily interested in if the reward is something out of the ordinary. Clickies and odd items are great ways to lighten the mood when your group or raid has hit a wall, and they're a good way to liven up downtime in game. There's nothing like the sudden appearance of fireworks or the instant transformation of your raid leader into foliage. For this week's Enter at Your Own Rift, I'm diving into my RIFT bags and bank vault to highlight a few of my favorite clickies. Share some of yours!
Enter at Your Own Rift: RIFT's upcoming housing boom
Have no doubt, it's been an absolutely barnburner of a week or so for RIFT. As Trion Worlds chugs toward the unknown release date for Storm Legion, we've seen the reveal of the first new soul (the Harbinger), a special annual subscription offer, a tour of several areas of the expansion from Gamescom, and oh yeah, news that Trion's all but eliminating factional barriers. And with all that, do you know what everyone's jabbering on about in the forums? Housing. Housing, housing, housing! It doesn't surprise me; as a long-time proponent of player housing, I know full well the powerful attraction and appeal housing has when done right (emphasis on the last three words there). Housing gives players a sense of attachment to the game world, an outlet for creativity, and a personalized place to socialize. And finally we've heard the first concrete details (with video footage!) of RIFT's dimensions. There's no avoiding it; there's going to be a huge housing boom in RIFT come this fall. So what will it look like?
Enter at Your Own Rift: First impressions from returning players
What do a statistician, a tinkerer, a party guy, a time-challenged player, and my better half all have in common? They're a handful of gamers who have recently been playing RIFT with me, and many of them have come back after a break from the game. It's pretty much been one coincidence after another that they've all come back around the same time, and while we all get along swimmingly, we all have differences in our playstyles that make this group a decent representation of the RIFT demographic on the whole. Would the game hook in everyone? Would the second time be the charm? Hear their impressions in this week's Enter at Your Own Rift.
Enter at Your Own Rift: Wardrobe blues
One of the aspects of RIFT that I keep trumpeting to friends and strangers alike is just how wonderfully quick, responsive, and engaging Trion Worlds' updates have been. It's almost as if the dev team is engaging in a pillow fight with players, swinging away and trying to pummel us into submission with great content that's not always perfect but usually is great. In comparison, many other MMOs have become stodgy dinosaurs, creaking along with long-promised but never-arriving features. So while I praise Trion for the bounty of nine major updates since launch, there's one feature that I've felt discontented with every since its inclusion: the wardrobe. For me to say this is kind of a big thing; anyone who knows me knows that I adore it when MMOs give us the option to dress up our characters the way we like. An appearance system was a big wish list item for me, and when Trion casually tossed it in the game early on, I was ecstatic. Yet over the months, I've grown to dislike the system as a whole, especially in comparison to cosmetic gear systems in other titles that I play. It's a little difficult to put a finger on why, but I've got another 1000 words or so to make the attempt and then discuss solutions. Let's get to it!
Enter at Your Own Rift: What Scott Hartsman's AMA portends for RIFT
The Trion team is nothing if not persistent. In an elaborate plot involving Dr. Pepper and a one-way locked office, the devs were able to finally get Trion CCO and RIFT Executive Producer Scott Hartsman to participate in an Ask Me Anything session on Reddit. It was an engaging discussion that touched on a variety of topics, from up and coming titles such as End of Nations to Hartsman's journey from GM of the MUD Scepter of Goth to his time with SOE and his current endeavors with Trion. We learned that he's a pretty hardcore raider, that he plays incognito, and that his raid drink of choice is Grimbergen Blonde. But the focus of the conversation was RIFT, and while he didn't shed too much light on the upcoming expansion, he did drop a few hints about what we might see in the future. In this week's Enter at Your Own Rift, we'll look at some of the highlights!
Enter at Your Own Rift: The RIFT mobile app
In this day and age, it's a complete mystery to me that pretty much everything in the world has an official mobile app except for most MMOs. If there was ever a clear call for mobile synergy, here it is, and yet most developers keep such a project on extremely low priority if they're even considering it at all. Fortunately, some studios seem to be coming around in this respect, and Trion's ahead of most of them with its portable connection to the game. Available for both iOS and Android devices, the RIFT mobile app was an extremely pleasant surprise when it came out early this year. I know Karen's touched on it already, but I've been spending a good deal of time with it lately and thought I'd give it my own overview. Is this "eternally in beta" application a useful tool, a silly toy, or something in the middle? What could this app expand to include in the future? And what does Trion have to say about its continuing development? The answers you seek are on their way... now.
Enter at Your Own Rift: The joy of mentoring
One of the reasons I like RIFT so much is that it has similar features to my other favorite MMO, EverQuest II. That's not really surprising, since RIFT's Executive Producer is Scott Hartsman, who was formerly EQII's Senior Producer and Creative Director. Since mentoring is one of the cornerstones of Norrath, it's something I was hoping would make its way into the world of Telara. But mentoring in RIFT is a little different what's in EQII, and it's worth taking a closer look at those changes because they've broken the major hurdle to allowing high- and low-level players to do things together. In fact, I think mentoring is something that every level-based MMO should add as a standard feature.
Enter at Your Own Rift: Leveling the achievements way
In this week's Soapbox on Massively, I explained why I admire achievement systems in MMOs. Today I'd like to continue that discussion with a specific case study in RIFT. Consider it a companion piece. When I came back to RIFT last month and started a new character, I had a choice as to how I would level back up through the game. There was the traditional questing path, pursuing dynamic events, running endless streams of dungeons, engaging in (shudder) PvP, or queuing up for instant adventures. I decided to blend them all together like premium yogurt and use the achievements system as a guide. I don't tether myself to achievement systems in all MMOs I play, but RIFT's makes it fun and natural. It's easy to parse what's left to be done on a zone by zone or system by system basis, and the little noise and graphic that pops up makes me feel like a good doggy, indeed. It's turned out to be an incredibly good decision. I've had so much more fun this time around than the first, greatly in part to achievements nudging me off the path well-traveled.
Enter at Your Own Rift: Why Summerfest is the best
Over the past few weeks, I've been over on RIFT's test shard to preview some of the changes arriving with update 1.9, like Summerfest. So now that it's live, it was fun to spend some time on the live servers to see it launch. And since I didn't get the chance to spend a lot of time with the Summerfest event, I decided to roll up my sleeves, break out my fishing pole and cooking pan, and try a few of the events and scavenger hunts. I mentioned in a previous column that I thought 1.9 would be the biggest one yet and that it would bring some really important game changes, but my recent adventures in game this past week were even more eye-opening than I expected. Read on!
Enter at Your Own Rift: Going from zero to Storm Legion in a summer
As a returning player, I appreciated Karen's last column, which outlined some of the big changes to the game since last I played. While I had a level 50 Rogue sitting in Sanctum, I just couldn't connect with her because it had been so long. Even though I knew it would require a bucketload of time and effort, I rerolled a fresh-faced Cleric to go through the game all over again. Was I insane? Probably. My biggest worry at this juncture is that I won't be ready for Storm Legion when it comes this fall. When you've been at the level cap for a while, you probably don't even think about the amount of content you need to chew through to get there. I didn't want to be caught flat-footed when the expansion released, shouting, "Wait up guys!" as I fell behind. Re-rolling was good for me for two reasons. One, it's allowing me to connect with this new character and feel out all of the changes in the game. Two, it's giving me the chance to prove that anyone could start RIFT right now and be totally prepared for the expansion -- even if you're just a casual player. Today I want to share a few of my experiences on the leveling game and why it's not too late to get ready for Storm Legion, even if you're a newbie.
Enter at Your Own Rift: A guide for new and returning RIFT players
We're on the eve of update 1.9 in RIFT, and I think it's full of great changes that will bring back returning players. But if you're one of the many who tried the game at launch and left a few months later, it might feel daunting to make a comeback because so much has changed. Fear not! In this week's Enter at Your Own Rift, we'll gently introduce you to some of the biggest changes to the new player experience and provide a condensed rundown of the updates since launch. If you're seeking out a tl;dr version of the game since launch, you've come to the right place!
Enter at Your Own Rift: How will Storm Legion change the face of RIFT?
Expansions are always a great time to get back into a game. Just ask me, Mr. Former-and-Now-Current RIFT Player. That's right -- I've leaped back into RIFT and have rejoined Karen to co-host this column. I know you're just a-shiver with excitement, but keep it together: We've got higher peaks to summit, my friend. Two weeks ago, RIFT muscled back into the spotlight with the announcement of its first-ever expansion, Storm Legion. I don't know if any of you felt like this when you heard it, but I was surprised, considering just how much work Trion Worlds spends on updates. When did they devs have time to squeeze in work on a full-blown expansion as well? But it's no myth. Storm Legion is coming this fall, and it's destined to change the face of RIFT as we know it. The world's about to triple in size, and the team is building on the lessons learned in the first year or so of this MMO's lifespan. Will it bolster RIFT against the current and coming competition? Do we need two more continents? And what, pray tell, are those four new souls?
Enter at Your Own Rift: Why update 1.9 could be the best one yet
In the most recent Enter at Your Own Rift, we looked at Conquest, an exciting new opportunity for instanced three-faction PvP. It's been generating a lot of buzz, and players have had two chances to check it out its development on the test server. Conquest is scheduled to be part of RIFT's Update 1.9, which is probably just around the corner if past update schedules are any indication. But that's not all that's planned for the next game update, and there are two additions that I think could very well be gamechangers for RIFT. The first is a mentoring system, and the second is the addition of lower-level instant adventures. In this week's column, we'll look at both through last week's test event and explore why they could make update 1.9 the best one yet.
Enter at Your Own Rift: Conquest PvP
RIFT fans wracked their brains trying to decipher the cryptic message on the forums a few weeks ago, and it turned out they were right: RIFT is on the verge of seeing the arrival of three faction PvP, and the game took its first step toward that with a test session on PTS last week. If you missed it, take heart because this week's Enter at Your Own Rift gives a recap of the event and a beginning look at how Conquest plays out. Read on for handy primer on three-faction PvP in Telara!
Enter at Your Own Rift: Rift evolution
RIFT has seen a great deal of new content and features over the past year, and each update tends to generate a lot of buzz about things like new raid zones, new warzones, world events, and yes, even fishing. But there have been quite a few subtle (and not so subtle) changes to the core of the game -- that is, the rifts themselves. Last summer, Justin wrote a great piece wondering whether rifts were in "danger of collapsing," and his point was that they were a good idea on paper but needed tweaks in order to stay relevant to the game. It's worth looking back at the evolution of rifts over the past year to see what's changed since launch day. Read on for a look at what's new with rifts!
