Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Rift isn't 'the one'. It's waiting for something.
Rift's main problem is that it plays too much like a game that people have gone to for their mmo fix for the past 6 years. Most of these people are not going to stick around when the shiney wears off. Those of them who played warhammer will get tired of it even faster.
I honestly don't care if they use the same names for things, the same concepts, same abilities with the same limitations (sap and sheep etc), I really don't. I find it funny when people say that wow copied as much as rift did, because there's simply no comparison, but to me it doesn't matter. What matters is that I'm starting at cast timers, worrying about dps meters, watching a global cooldown reset over and over, moving from place to place very slowly. The first horse's animation is hilarious because it looks like slow motion.
I'm tired of running at the skytopus, or queueing for the same pvp instance, or doing the same fedex/murder questgrind over and over again. These things are boring. How can it be better? Storylines, traditional rpg questing, grouping where people get together with little regard to 'roles', world pvp, action based combat, transportation that isn't instant but fairly quick, ability to just farm a dungeon with friends casually. When will we see a persistent non-instanced mmo that goes beyond the standard formula?
Early mmo's had the excuse of limited graphics engines, low budgets, and people playing with high pings over dialup. Those days are long gone, and there's just no excuse for the mmo genre to be nothing but sub-par gameplay experiences when compared to single/lobby games.
Sorry Rift, you aren't the one. You are a good fix for people who liked WoW but want something new. But WoW did it better even at release, just so you know.
Comments
What WoW version did you play? I logged into WoW for a good year after hitting max level and
never left Dalaran and just watched general chat for LFG blah blah instance.
I do NOT EVER EVER remember walking down a road in WoW and having mobs chase me down the street because they spawned from an alternate death dimension.
It plays similar for a reason, but two very different games.
Also WoW crashed for 6 months straight and had massiev bugs. uh so no they did not do it "better"
Rift is to the Dreamcast as SW:TOR, GW2, and TERA are to the PS2, Xbox, and Gamecube
This^^
{mod edit} Anyway, I loved WoW but I'm finding Rift at launch having more depth and things to do and immersion than WoW ever had. Can't wait to see the game grow from here.
{mod edit} he has a point. Being too similar to something that has 3 expansions and 6 years of polish and tweaking is a better choise for new players, there's just so much more in the 6 years old content-wise, unless the graphics matter a world to the new players.
Then, if you are old player and want something new because you are just plain bored at the six years old, the new one is way too similar to the old one, so you feel the "same boredom" right at the start of the new game, unless you mostly just want a new world to settle in.
Rift is not a bad game. At least I dont think it is. It's one of the most polished mmorpgs at launch I have ever played, with very little to complain technical-wise. It's just way too familiar with almost everything it has compared to those older games you have already gotten bored of. Anyway, Rift has time to develop untill something really new and fun comes out, since it is the only option for those bored of the older titles at the moment, in many cases.
I'm not saying this is the universal truth, just the way I see it, but I think quite many others do think this too who I've heard talking of Rift.
Rift is better than Warcraft. Got it. Thanks for the review! Heading out to buy Rift now!
"But WoW did it better even at release, just so you know."
It's weird how most people have short term memories and remember that release with rose colored glasses. People forget the LONG ques, servers going down, 3 classes who's talents changed or were thrown in a week before release, bugs, ect.
You didn't play WoW at release.
It plays similar to WoW, but it does several things a lot better than WoW.
If you're tired of WoW at the core, then you probably won't like Rift. But, if that's the case anyways, you're probably burnt out on MMOs as a whole.
I honestly don't understand what some people are expecting in future MMOs. It's like they want developers to re-invent the genre from the ground up. I'm convinced that some people will never be happy with future MMOs because they burned themselves out on them.
People also forget the loot bug or item dup trick or zone bug when all the mobs in a zone would used to vanish forcing a server restart or the awful chat system at launch. CoH had much smoother launch than WoW but where WoW exceled was the content and amount of new content they pushed.
I honestly don't understand how you don't understand.
Think about it: Some people on these forums have already played a type of MMO they loved - years back. Say, AC for some, UO for others and SWG (PRE-CU) for yet others. So coming up with an MMO they like would not require reinvention, more like a re-discovery or a re-implementation. It's likely they were expecting back then that their favourite MMO paradigm would evolve, get better coding and graphics and polish on the WOW or Rift level...
Many people played one of these games more than five years ago and thought: "Wow, I wonder how these games are going to be ten years down the road, the sky's the limit!" And yet, we see the WOW paradigm reign absolutely these days. No sign of the polished, evolved, big-production descendants of UO and SWG people were expecting. So, understandably, some people are frustrated with how the story of the genre is playing out.
I'm not exactly one of them and even I can see that.
And I'd say this is but a part of the "MMO discontents" picture. There are several other fractions, like the really burnt out, or the "I've never seen a truely great MMO, but the genre has huge potential so I'm still hopeful" ones - the latter of which I would be part of.
Just like everything else in the world, if you chose to view something superficially then you will see superficial things. On its surface you can find a plethora RIFT has in common with other games; Van, WAR, WoW, and DAoC. The differences are there beneath the graphics, movement speed, and such- but it’s obvious that the OP and others like OP don’t want to see it. You have a completely different definition of what an mmo is.
It would be pointless for people to quite various differences because those wouldn't matter to the OP. You know how I know it is different? Because I can honestly say that any game that gets old DAoC vets together for the first time since they left that game years ago, is simply different. It might not be in the animations or the way the legs of a horse move…it’s in something else. And if you are looking at horse animations…then you’re not playing the right game.
Alot of people aren't looking for another game they're searching for a second life and these people expect a game to fill that void.
Developers are afraid to do anything too revolutionary. There is comfort and financial stability for them in "more of the same".
IMO the next big MMO will be open world action MMO GTA style (throw in a alien invasion think Battle:LA). I don't think anyone other than Blizzard can pull it off (supposedly CCP is also working on it(.
If you'd like to compare Rift to WoW, there's a stickied thread at the top of this forum for that purpose. Please continue discussion there if you'd like. Locking.
To give feedback on moderation, contact mikeb@mmorpg.com