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The Perfect Ten: The movers and shakers of 2010
Even though MMOs are the products of great teams of talented workers -- from sound artists to writers -- it's inevitable that a few of the people behind the curtain step out into the limelight. It's a smart move, really; it provides a personal face for people to associate with the game, it keeps messages consistent, and it draws any potential hate onto one person instead of the team at large. It stands to reason that these public figures end up being some of the major movers and shakers in the industry because of their high-profile positions. From CEOs to community managers, these are the people with power to make decisions, the voice to change opinions, and the personalities to inspire millions. Oh, that last sentence is pure poetry. Let's re-read it again, shall we? So in our last Perfect Ten of the year, I've asked the Massively team to compile a list of the 10 biggest MMO movers and shakers of this year. All of these people now owe us cupcakes of gratitude. (Legal Disclaimer: This does not signify a binding cupcake-blogger contract.)
Trion profiles RIFT's Freemarch zone
Throughout this month, Trion Worlds has been regularly releasing new information on its upcoming fantasy MMO RIFT. With the NDA having been lifted on the first two rounds of closed beta events, excitement has really started to build for what could potentially be a fun and polished MMO. The game's third closed beta event is already underway, allowing selected testers to play through the first 20 levels and explore the new Silverwood and Freemarch zones. For anyone who didn't make it into the third RIFT beta event, Trion has now released several screenshots and pieces of concept art on the Freemarch zone to give us an idea of what we can expect from it. Freemarch is a zone with a chilling storyline. Home of the Defiant faction, its coasts are ravaged by the slimy monsters that clamber out from dangerous water rifts. Its fertile rolling fields are now ravaged by death rifts, and the once-grand Port Scion is completely overrun with the Deathtouched. "Freemarch is the heart of the Defiant faction," Trion tells us. "Their wondrous city of Meridian stands by the coast, its back to the mountains, sending out waves of Defiant to keep Freemarch free. Yet every day new rifts open, new monsters emerge, and the laughter of cultists grows ever more confident and shrill. Undead claw their way from their graves to feast on the living and raze farmsteads, turning the heartland black." Stay tuned to Massively's coverage of RIFT for more updates, reveals and impressions from the beta tests. %Gallery-99479%
Trion details RIFT collector's edition
Start salivating, RIFT fans, as Trion has taken the wraps off its collector's edition plans for the upcoming fantasy MMORPG. The limited packaging will feature the requisite in-game items including a level 20 turtle mount, a satchel that boosts inventory space, and a Bogling Wastrel pet. If you opt to purchase the retail box version of the collector's edition, you'll get the aforementioned items plus the Telara Chronicles graphic novel hardcover, a RIFT-emblazoned gaming mouse, the official game soundtrack, and an 8GB USB drive featuring the RIFT logo. Pre-order customers will be able to select one of three unique pets, and depending on their pre-order retailer of choice, they'll also receive exclusive weapon enhancements. Full details are available via the official RIFT website.
RIFT beta 3 patch notes show major soul changes and more
RIFT's third beta event kicks off today, and Trion Worlds has the novel-sized patch notes to prove that the team's been busy. Many fan sites rushed to repost the beta forum notes, which is allowed now that the NDA has dropped. The biggest change that previous players will see concerns the much-ballyhooed soul system, RIFT's flexible character builder. Previously, players would get only one of three souls at the start, with another at level five, and gain soul points at the rate of one per level. With Beta 3, this has been changed so that you can pick from all of your archetype's souls at the start and will leave the beginner area with three souls instead of two. In addition, Trion is handing out an extra soul point every third level, bringing the total number of soul points for a level 50 character up to 66. Of course, souls aren't the only focus of this patch. Among the many changes are the inclusion of the rest system, the ability to rename your pets, a preview of the soul trees before you purchase them, and a number of new invader boss encounters for both sides. Read up on the patch notes here, and we'll see you on the battlefield!
The Daily Grind: Does RIFT give you MMO deja vu?
The RIFT hype-o-meter is exploding, and of course Massively's got you covered with first impressions, level guides, news, and everything else Trion-centric. As we look around the MMOsphere, one thing we've noticed is that a lot of the press reviews and forum posts share a feeling of deja vu. For good or ill, RIFT seems to remind many of us of earlier games, or at the very least, pieces of them. We've heard sentiments ranging from "WoW and WAR had a baby," to "EQ2.5," to "it's like Vanguard." Vanguard? Really? In any event, we're curious to know your take, Massively readers. With the recent NDA drop, we're even more curious since we won't get scolded for soliciting your opinions. So let's have them. What game does RIFT remind you of? Is that a good or a bad thing? 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: Awaiting the next invasion
With the RIFT beta NDA down today, I couldn't resist sharing this panoramic shot from my own personal experience in the game. (As a bonus, it's also available full-size, since the gallery doesn't like panoramic images.) In this screenshot, my character had stopped to survey a collection of shacks and lean-tos huddling on the shore. The haze hinted that something wasn't quite right with the otherwise-peaceful scene. Sure enough, within a few minutes, a rift popped up between the fishing village and a nearby graveyard, at which point everyone headed toward the rift to defend the village from attack. Thinking we'd beaten them back, I was surprised to find another rift materializing just behind the shadowy castle and graveyard outlined atop the ridge in this screenshot. It certainly proved to be an exciting day in game! If you were part of the RIFT beta and would like to share your own screenshot, pick an awesome one and email it in to us here at oneshots@massively.com along with your name and a description of what we're seeing. Please make sure it's at least 1024px wide and has no visible UI elements. If it's picked, we'll post it out here and give you the credit for sending it in! %Gallery-85937%
Ten levels of RIFT: A guide to your first day in Telara
With two RIFT beta events under my belt, I was given the supreme honor of creating a guide to the first 10 levels of the game. Naturally, I fell apart under the stress, assumed the fetal position for a couple days while whimpering about "frame rates," and then was prodded into action by our editors. That's quite literally "prodded," mind you -- Massively purchased a pair of cattle prods last year at a police auction. It's going to be years until the scorch marks fade from my spine. The purpose of this guide is two-fold. First, we want to give anyone who's interested in RIFT but couldn't get into the beta a chance to vicariously experience RIFT's newbie path. Second, while RIFT is careful to hold your hand during your first steps into Telara, there are always a lot of things that can be easily missed while one is partaking in the wonders of a new virtual world. So this guide is here to share a few tips and pointers that beta testers may have missed. What are you waiting for? Roll up a new character by hitting the jump!
RIFT beta powow with Scott Hartsman
This is, by any measure, a busy week for RIFT. Fresh off the second beta event, Trion Worlds has dropped the NDA for the game and announced a third beta to take place over the holidays. As the process speeds exponentially faster toward launch, Scott Hartsman and his team have a white-knuckled grip on RIFT for all the bumps, shimmies, dips and hills that such a high-profile title offers. Even with a heaping amount of work on its plate, the team has been willing to share its passion for RIFT with the press and community. During this slight lull between betas two and three, Hartsman sat down with us over the phone to jaw about lessons learned from the beta, why Trion has dropped the NDA, how RIFT's already made history, and when we might be seeing this game on the shelves. Hit the jump and let's do this thing. As Hartsman is fond of saying about the game, "S**t just got real."
Enter the Rift on December 28th with RIFT's third beta event
If you haven't heard of RIFT yet, there's a good chance you qualify as medically dead. Trion Worlds has been releasing an absolute ton of information lately on the upcoming fantasy MMO, from epic trailers and gameplay previews to lore posts. So far, Trion has organised two major closed beta events to get feedback on the game. Both events were a big success, with Trion taking a very positive stance on even the more critical feedback the team's been getting. The third round of RIFT's closed beta events is set to go live at 10 a.m. PST on December 28th and will run until 10 a.m. PST on December 31st. Anyone lucky enough to get into this third event will get to play as a member of the Guardian of the Vigil or Defiant factions. The first 20 levels of play will be available, making feedback from this event of critical importance to the new user experience. Players will be able to explore the Silverwood and Freemarch zones as well as take part in the first ever group dungeon tests in the previously revealed Realm of the Fae and Iron Tomb instances. For a chance to get into this third round or future beta events, head over to the official beta signup page. Stay tuned to Massively as we continue rolling out our post-NDA-drop RIFT coverage today!
RIFT beta: Massively's first impressions
When it comes to RIFT, Massively readers have been patiently watching this game for a while. You've seen the trailers of the rift invasions and in-game cinematics, checked out our hands-on coverage, and gobbled up 500 VIP keys in less than 20 minutes. But does the game live up to the hype? We know you have lots of questions, and thankfully, the NDA is officially over, so it's time to talk about our first impressions of RIFT. Read on to get a close look at the two beta events held so far -- Rise of the Defiant and Guardians of the Vigil.
RIFT unveils the starter movies for Guardians and Defiants [Updated]
RIFT has been turning a lot of heads and garnering quite a bit of attention, which is rather unique for a game that starts off by killing the player. (You get better.) But although the game's not going to be available for players over the upcoming holidays, you can at least whet your appetite with the newest releases from Trion Worlds. The development team behind the game has unveiled the two starting cinematics for players, which play immediately after character creation for each faction. Both videos emphasize the thematic split between the two factions, with the Guardians being the defenders of faith and the Defiants focusing on their ingenuity and technology. If you've been lucky enough to get in on the closed events, the videos may feel familiar, but for the many hopeful future RIFT players, you can get your first taste of the game's introduction by watching the videos just after the break. [Updated: Trion has provided an updated, higher-quality version of the Guardian cinematic, so we've updated our copy accordingly!]
Critical feedback on the road to RIFT's launch
Criticism, even well-meaning constructive criticism, is never easy to take. "Dealing with constant, live feedback is not always easy. Sometimes it can be a morale hit when people are overly critical of a feature," Trion Worlds' Russ Brown admits. In a new dev diary over on ZAM, Brown explains just how important feedback is to the development process, and how Trion is handling it as the team fine-tunes RIFT for launch. According to Brown, working on an MMO is different from working on a single-player title because one encounters -- and invites -- a lot more feedback on an ongoing basis. This turns out to be a double-edged sword: It can be disruptive to the team's schedule and require a lot of extra work in response to concerns and issues, but the feedback can also result in a much better product all around. Ultimately, Brown feels as though the team is actually paying attention to the players: "There have been times when I've come into the office in the morning to find work done by an entire group of developers staying late the night before to fix an instance or invasion. Not because some stuffed shirt told them to, but because they care, and just like the players in our alpha/beta, they want to make the best damn product possible. The only way to do that is to listen to your customers and react."
Arithion from The Rift Podcast visits Trion, investigates the endgame
This week, Arithion from the RIFT Podcast temporarily traded in her microphone for a camera and traveled to Trion Worlds to get a firsthand look at RIFT. While we've heard a lot about features like the dynamic invasions and the soul system, Ari was determined to investigate one area of the game that we haven't heard much about -- the endgame. She writes: "A game needs to have Endgame content in order to appeal to me – and with so many recent games failing to deliver precisely that, I was resigned to the fact that RIFT would probably do the same and I'd end up with a game to pass the time for a couple of months before subjecting me to the boredom of nothing to play until the next thing comes out. I was wrong." Happily, she reports that RIFT has some exciting endgame content, including two raid instances and many raid rifts, which she describes as "magnificent, difficult, (and) damn impressive." Head to The RIFT to read more about her visit and details on RIFT's raid content.
Trion reveals RIFT's Iron Tomb dungeon
The new RIFT fantasy MMORPG is generating lots of buzz lately, whether it's for the polish and presentation of the recent beta event or the way the game's dynamic content has fan hearts all a-flutter with excitement and anticipation. Trion Worlds is also trotting out the lore updates with regularity, and the game's backstory is hitting all the right notes. To that end, today we've got a look at the Iron Tomb dungeon, and Trion's description of the crypt is laced with the kind of Tolkien-ish fantasy prose that causes geeks to run to the game store, credit card in hand. "The Wardens of Freemarch are dead and buried in the vast catacombs of the Iron Tomb, but their eternal rest has been undone," says the game's latest press release. Check out the gallery below, then turn the page for more on the history behind this latest RIFT reveal. %Gallery-99479%
QVS to distribute RIFT in Australia
The global distribution picture for Trion Worlds' RIFT MMORPG just got a bit clearer thanks to an announcement made by the developer earlier today. Trion signed a multi-year retail deal with QVS, a renowned publisher in both Australia and New Zealand. Thanks to the new agreement, Kiwis and Aussies alike will be saying g'day to RIFT's dynamic content, familiar class-based gameplay, and lush graphics along with the rest of the world when the title launches in early 2011. "We are excited to join forces with QVS to bring RIFT to gamers throughout Australia and New Zealand. Working with QVS allows us to expand our commitment to deliver quality games to gamers worldwide," says Trion's David Reid.
RIFT Podcast features Gershowitz, Bowens, and beta talk
Episode 23 of the RIFT Podcast is up for your listening pleasure, and its hosts, Arithion and Desikis, have a lot to talk about this week. Joining them are Trion Worlds senior community manager Cindy "Abigale" Bowens and producer Adam Gershowitz. Gershowitz has plenty to say over the course of the podcast, including info on RIFT's soul system, global cooldowns, a brief recap of the first beta weekend (as well as objectives for the second), and tweaks to the title's invasion system. "We're kind of going back, not to the drawing board per se, but we're kind of going back and refining our numbers. Really what our goal is with the invasions is to look at various areas of the game and various areas of the zone [...] and send the appropriate amount of content to that area when we launch an invasion," Gershowitz explains. For more on the RIFT beta process as well as further details about the game, check out earlier episodes of the RIFT Podcast .
Trion Worlds reveals RIFT's Plane of Earth
Trion Worlds is busily prepping its RIFT beta client for another onslaught of tire-kick... er, testers in a few days. Luckily for us, the development studio is still finding the time to release juicy bits of info related to the game's titular rift mechanics. We've already seen reveals covering the Planes of Air and Water, and today we're treated to a look at the Plane of earth. The Plane of Earth, as the name suggests, is all about the ground. Whether that ground is desert sand, crystalline stone, or gravity-defying rock formations, there's plenty to look at in our gallery below, as well as plenty to read about in the lore-centric text after the cut. %Gallery-99479%
RIFT's first closed beta produces "a hell of a sight"
This past weekend, RIFT played host to thousands of brand-new testers with its first closed beta event. The three-day event featured the first 20 levels of the Defiant experience and wrapped up early Monday. According to a forum post by Trion World's Executive Producer Scott Hartsman, the team couldn't be more pleased with the way things panned out. RIFT's team received over 20,000 pieces of feedback from the event and learned quite a few things, including, as Hartsman put it, "answers to some critical questions." These answers included how the servers would hold up with so many people in so few zones, if they could deliver quick patches, and how rifts would happen with the crowd density. In fact, there were so many people that the team had to double the amount of servers almost immediately, although fortunately the servers held up under the strain. Hartsman identified a number of problem areas that would be addressed, such as mob respawn rate. Because of the massive population, RIFT's titular feature had a difficult time being a challenge until the team made some adjustments: "Where we had hoped and expected to see invasions rampaging across the countryside, instead the population density had become far too high, such that invasions weren't even getting off the ground. We updated the game with even more insanely active tuning on Saturday night to give the invaders a chance to come out and play too, and the response in chat and submitted feedbacks was overwhelmingly positive once that started. By the time it worked, it was a hell of a sight -- Huge invasions finally freed up, setting up footholds, wiping out the local populace, and eventually being repelled by defenders." Trion is working on a number of improvements as it prepares for its second closed beta event, which is prepped to start December 17th. Stay tuned to Massively for a special upcoming post-beta interview!
RIFT announces the second beta event
If you got to take part in the closed beta event for RIFT over the weekend... well, don't tell us about it. Seriously, don't; it breaks the NDA to even say you're taking part. But if you enjoyed it, you'll get another shot at playing the game sooner rather than later. The second closed beta event has just been announced to run between 10 a.m. PST on December 17th to 10 a.m. PST on December 20th. For the second testing phase, titled "Guardians of the Vigil," players will be testing the first 20 levels of the game, presumably on the Guardian side. Reborn as ascended souls of the Vigil, players are tasked with stopping the tyrant Aedraxis, although we suspect many players will mostly be focused on whatever cool tricks their characters can do with another 10 levels. RIFT is still allowing players to sign up for the beta, so if you're interested in the second beta, you might be well-advised to give it a shot. Not that you could tell anyone about it.
Epic new Rift video precedes tomorrow's beta test opening
If there's one MMO on the horizon that has everyone excited, it's Rift. Created by Trion Worlds, Rift promises to be the next big AAA launch title and has been drawing its share of attention from players. The game's closed beta begins tomorrow, and Trion has been giving out beta keys in preparation. Some Rift fans were able to grab limited beta keys that give access to several beta events, while others were lucky enough to secure an access-all-areas VIP beta key. Here at Massively, our 500 VIP keys disappeared in record time. For those of you who missed the chance to get in on the Rift beta, you can still sign up at the Rift website for a chance to get in. Rift is being marketed as a fully complete, next-gen MMO. But those are just marketing buzzwords, right? Guess again! In this new video (after the cut below), the Trion team has taken the bold step of defining what exactly those terms mean in a very practical context. Rift is promised to be a highly polished MMO right from launch, with none of those rough edges we've come to expect from new titles. Rather than follow the standard MMO formula wherein monsters are forever bound to respawn and walk around within a small area, Rift aims to create a truly dynamic game world. The demonic rifts that open randomly in the world will radically alter not just the look of the land but also the gameplay of nearby areas. Leave a rift unchecked for too long and you'll soon find they've set up camp and organised an invasion of the local area. If this new video doesn't make you excited for Rift and the future potential of the MMO genre, I don't know what will. Skip past the cut to watch the new Rift beta video in full HD.
