This week we have some fun discussing some post drama shenanigans with Aneu, GM of VotF and AGM Evoex of LotD. Along with our discussion about the ascendance of Blackgate and the downfall of Sea of Sorrows we discuss the future of the game and touch a little on ArcheAge.
One of the problems with diving back into the world of Telara on an alt or completely new character is the fact that, well, RIFT’s quests aren’t always that exciting. Sure, some of the quest chains are awesome. Some entire maps are awesome. I’m a huge fan of Gloamwood and Iron Pine Peaks, for example. Other maps, for me, prove a little more difficult to muddle through the second or third time around (Scarwood Reach and Scarlet Gorge, I’m looking at you). I don’t know what it is about the 30-40 leveling hurdle, but for some reason, my alts always get stuck there.
I don’t think I’m the only one with similar leveling hurdles, either, because many new players that are trying out RIFT for the first time find themselves a little underwhelmed at around the same levels. Trion was pretty quick to notice one of the glaring issues at these levels and have since changed the entire look of Scarwood Reach. The lush, green surroundings are a huge improvement, believe me, but there’s still… something off about the 30-40 level range.
Some cryptic Trion staff member posts have surfaced on the official RIFT forums this past week. A staff member by the forum name 3 3228466 787 is the main culprit, with posts that are intentionally cryptic, containing poetry, numerical codes, random pictures, and phrases. Fans of the game and forums have banded together in an attempt to muddle through the confusing posts, and figure out what the heck the folks at Trion are up to.
What do we know so far? Here is a summary of the posts, findings, possible theories, and reactions so far. I’ll try and keep this post updated with the latest information, so if you know of any new details, feel free to drop me a line. Special thanks to the awesome people on the official forums who helped come up with this information. It’s all interesting stuff!
RIFT has a decently-sized raiding crew, and there’s a good reason why– Trion’s raids are large, expansive, beautiful, and for the most part, contain some pretty awesome fights. The game’s raiding community is made up of all types of players– those who enjoy a more casual approach to raiding and scheduling raids, those who enjoy the competitive raiding scene, and all kinds of folks in between. With Infernal Dawn (ID) out, and a large portion of those raiders delving deep into the new fights, there’s one large, looming problem that multiple people from multiple groups have experienced– Infernal Dawn, so far, is just too easy.
This is a problem, and not just a problem for the “hardcore” community, that is, the players at the top of the food chain, with the maximum amount of planar attunement (PA) and all the best gear from Hammerknell (HK). Many guilds who don’t even consider themselves hardcore or serious are having the same experience. The fights in ID so far simply don’t have the same oomph, the same adrenaline-punched feeling of not knowing whether this attempt will be the one, the feeling of knowing those couple hours of wipes were worth it after downing a tough boss and listening to the guild explode over voice chat.
That feeling’s pretty damn amazing, and a large part of the reason most raiders enjoy raiding. Hammerknell had a ton of fights that produced those feelings, and many players were expecting to feel the same in ID. Guilds spent months upon months farming HK, farming PA, and building just the right raid force. And now they’re finding themselves a bit underwhelmed, a bit discouraged, and quite confused.
Ten years ago, a California economics professor calculated the real-world size of the economy of EverQuest. Based on the currency value of in-game items on eBay and the like, he found that
if the “EverQuest” universe of Norrath were a country, its per-capita gross national product would be [US]$2,266–comparable to the 77th richest country on Earth and ranking it between Russia and Bulgaria. Platinum pieces, the in-game currency known as pp, end up with an exchange rate of about a penny per pp, making “EverQuest” currency more valuable than the Japanese yen and the Spanish peseta.
Our beloved Rift isn’t competing with the Russian economy, but there are still plenty people out there banking (literally) on persuading you to give them the very real money in your pocket for virtual plat. The #Rift Twitter hashtag is full of tweets worded much the same as the title of this post. Report the spammer, another takes its place. And it seems like every few days the little charge you get seeing an unexpected mail icon in your UI leads to a letdown when it turns out to be a gold spam message. Report the spammer, another takes its place. Googling for ways to make plat isn’t much better. In the time it takes to sift through all the sites trying to get you to buy plat, you could just get rich the hard way.
So, this is not a ‘get rich quick’ guide, but I will tell you how to become Rift Rich in a relatively short amount of time with a bit of effort–and without resorting to enriching spammers.
Last week in Reopening the Rift, I talked a bit about the state of RIFT as a game discovered the second time around and by new players, and how important dynamic events are to the early-game experience. Thanks to some of the more recent updates, RIFT is slowly becoming more enjoyable to replay than it previously was, and that’s a great thing. It’s also becoming increasingly easy to pick up and learn.
Both points will be extremely important in the future, when RIFT adopts its new mentoring system and global Instant Adventures. The game has to be accessible to all types of players in order to attract players from all backgrounds. New players ideally should experience low level adventures that make them want to continue adventuring, and continue exploring the world of Telara.
Trion’s Assistant Community Manager, Walsingham, let us know today that better versions of character nameplates are coming to RIFT, and are up on the PTS currently for player testing. The full scoop can be found here. Continue reading for more information and screenshots!
A couple of weeks ago in an interview with some of Trion’s staff members, we found out about some of the design philosophies the company has discovered, developed, and maintained over the past year that RIFT has been our MMO home. T