I enjoyed Rift very much when I played it. I am actually a fan of the game and Trion. I believe those guys actually care about the game and want to make it the best they can.
But have to step into reality. Rift is no threat to any game ( released or not ).
IMO it is a fun game to play and well polished, but nothing new or innovative and nothing thats gonna threaten Blizzard by any stretch.
I hope they succeed and keep enough subs to continue development for expansion, updates and whatever their next game release is. But when the new crop of MMOs releases only a fanboy could say they wont be taking a big hit to their numbers.
When it came to LOTRO everything had to be read when it came to quest (I never made it passed 20 so my knowlege is limited) While in TOR you have a Bioware story telling excperiance.
I have yet to beat Morrowind because of the lack of VO when compared to Oblivion. AOC was concidered a fun game until level 20 when the VO stopped and a lot of people quit.
No. The book quests always had cut scenes you could watch and most skipped them.
Did you get to make choices that effected your character in the long run? Or beyond the Accept/Cancle optoins?
I hope your game is everything you hope it to be. But I doubt it.
So no I take it?
In LOTRO/AOC there was no reason to watch the cut scenes unlinke TOR and GW2
Everyone knows what the TOR talking points are. My point stands, if people dont have the patience to watch a cutscene why do you think they will sit around and listen to an NPC talk, then click, and listen to more talk? Most people want to play a the game, not listen to NPC's talk. No reason to watch the cutscenes in LOTRO/AOC? Isnt that the "story" part of a game that EA is counting on to draw subs?
If what you're saying is true then people would never buy games like Mass Effect, Dragon Age and I would throw Half Life into the mix. I think people don't pay attention to the story in an MMO because it has yet to be presented in a fun and engaging way, and instead what we get is a cut scene here and there, not an engaging story if you ask me.
There is no reason to lesson the VO in AOC but everyone I talked to who played the game said it was a welcomed feature while it lasted.
Yep, BW has fans. How many WOW players find story driven games appealing I wonder? How many MMO players actually pay attention to story? Or are they there to interact with others? TOR has been said to be the game that takes millions of subs from WOW, I just dont see it. Ive played WOW and have seen the community first hand for quite a few years. I think there will be people who enjoy the type of MMO to come out of BW but I dont think its the majority of MMO gamers.
I believe many MMO players would listen to story if it was presented in a fun and engaging way. WoW only makes up a small fraction of the MMO playerbase so to judge anything by its community isn't wise.
Considering the general consensus among TOR fans is that it will will take a huge portion of the WOW playerbase I think my comments were appropriate. Here is a "pie" graph that shows just how much of the MMO playerbase WOW has and its not fraction by any means Its from three years ago but......http://www.mmogchart.com/Chart7.html
Really? This game sucks and Im not having fun? Im going to unsub right now. Thanks for the tip.
When it came to LOTRO everything had to be read when it came to quest (I never made it passed 20 so my knowlege is limited) While in TOR you have a Bioware story telling excperiance.
I have yet to beat Morrowind because of the lack of VO when compared to Oblivion. AOC was concidered a fun game until level 20 when the VO stopped and a lot of people quit.
No. The book quests always had cut scenes you could watch and most skipped them.
Did you get to make choices that effected your character in the long run? Or beyond the Accept/Cancle optoins?
I hope your game is everything you hope it to be. But I doubt it.
So no I take it?
In LOTRO/AOC there was no reason to watch the cut scenes unlinke TOR and GW2
Everyone knows what the TOR talking points are. My point stands, if people dont have the patience to watch a cutscene why do you think they will sit around and listen to an NPC talk, then click, and listen to more talk? Most people want to play a the game, not listen to NPC's talk. No reason to watch the cutscenes in LOTRO/AOC? Isnt that the "story" part of a game that EA is counting on to draw subs?
If what you're saying is true then people would never buy games like Mass Effect, Dragon Age and I would throw Half Life into the mix. I think people don't pay attention to the story in an MMO because it has yet to be presented in a fun and engaging way, and instead what we get is a cut scene here and there, not an engaging story if you ask me.
There is no reason to lesson the VO in AOC but everyone I talked to who played the game said it was a welcomed feature while it lasted.
Yep, BW has fans. How many WOW players find story driven games appealing I wonder? How many MMO players actually pay attention to story? Or are they there to interact with others? TOR has been said to be the game that takes millions of subs from WOW, I just dont see it. Ive played WOW and have seen the community first hand for quite a few years. I think there will be people who enjoy the type of MMO to come out of BW but I dont think its the majority of MMO gamers.
I believe many MMO players would listen to story if it was presented in a fun and engaging way. WoW only makes up a small fraction of the MMO playerbase so to judge anything by its community isn't wise.
Considering the general consensus among TOR fans is that it will will take a huge portion of the WOW playerbase I think my comments were appropriate. Here is a "pie" graph that shows just how much of the MMO playerbase WOW has and its not fraction by any means Its from three years ago but......http://www.mmogchart.com/Chart7.html
if they have part and another company has a part it has to be a fraction of some type....
When it came to LOTRO everything had to be read when it came to quest (I never made it passed 20 so my knowlege is limited) While in TOR you have a Bioware story telling excperiance.
I have yet to beat Morrowind because of the lack of VO when compared to Oblivion. AOC was concidered a fun game until level 20 when the VO stopped and a lot of people quit.
No. The book quests always had cut scenes you could watch and most skipped them.
Did you get to make choices that effected your character in the long run? Or beyond the Accept/Cancle optoins?
I hope your game is everything you hope it to be. But I doubt it.
So no I take it?
In LOTRO/AOC there was no reason to watch the cut scenes unlinke TOR and GW2
Everyone knows what the TOR talking points are. My point stands, if people dont have the patience to watch a cutscene why do you think they will sit around and listen to an NPC talk, then click, and listen to more talk? Most people want to play a the game, not listen to NPC's talk. No reason to watch the cutscenes in LOTRO/AOC? Isnt that the "story" part of a game that EA is counting on to draw subs?
If what you're saying is true then people would never buy games like Mass Effect, Dragon Age and I would throw Half Life into the mix. I think people don't pay attention to the story in an MMO because it has yet to be presented in a fun and engaging way, and instead what we get is a cut scene here and there, not an engaging story if you ask me.
There is no reason to lesson the VO in AOC but everyone I talked to who played the game said it was a welcomed feature while it lasted.
Yep, BW has fans. How many WOW players find story driven games appealing I wonder? How many MMO players actually pay attention to story? Or are they there to interact with others? TOR has been said to be the game that takes millions of subs from WOW, I just dont see it. Ive played WOW and have seen the community first hand for quite a few years. I think there will be people who enjoy the type of MMO to come out of BW but I dont think its the majority of MMO gamers.
I believe many MMO players would listen to story if it was presented in a fun and engaging way. WoW only makes up a small fraction of the MMO playerbase so to judge anything by its community isn't wise.
Considering the general consensus among TOR fans is that it will will take a huge portion of the WOW playerbase I think my comments were appropriate. Here is a "pie" graph that shows just how much of the MMO playerbase WOW has and its not fraction by any means Its from three years ago but......http://www.mmogchart.com/Chart7.html
if they have part and another company has a part it has to be a fraction of some type....
I beleive when someone states that something is just a "small fraction" of something, that means its well, small, dont you? Nice try.
Really? This game sucks and Im not having fun? Im going to unsub right now. Thanks for the tip.
When it came to LOTRO everything had to be read when it came to quest (I never made it passed 20 so my knowlege is limited) While in TOR you have a Bioware story telling excperiance.
I have yet to beat Morrowind because of the lack of VO when compared to Oblivion. AOC was concidered a fun game until level 20 when the VO stopped and a lot of people quit.
No. The book quests always had cut scenes you could watch and most skipped them.
Did you get to make choices that effected your character in the long run? Or beyond the Accept/Cancle optoins?
I hope your game is everything you hope it to be. But I doubt it.
So no I take it?
In LOTRO/AOC there was no reason to watch the cut scenes unlinke TOR and GW2
Everyone knows what the TOR talking points are. My point stands, if people dont have the patience to watch a cutscene why do you think they will sit around and listen to an NPC talk, then click, and listen to more talk? Most people want to play a the game, not listen to NPC's talk. No reason to watch the cutscenes in LOTRO/AOC? Isnt that the "story" part of a game that EA is counting on to draw subs?
If what you're saying is true then people would never buy games like Mass Effect, Dragon Age and I would throw Half Life into the mix. I think people don't pay attention to the story in an MMO because it has yet to be presented in a fun and engaging way, and instead what we get is a cut scene here and there, not an engaging story if you ask me.
There is no reason to lesson the VO in AOC but everyone I talked to who played the game said it was a welcomed feature while it lasted.
Yep, BW has fans. How many WOW players find story driven games appealing I wonder? How many MMO players actually pay attention to story? Or are they there to interact with others? TOR has been said to be the game that takes millions of subs from WOW, I just dont see it. Ive played WOW and have seen the community first hand for quite a few years. I think there will be people who enjoy the type of MMO to come out of BW but I dont think its the majority of MMO gamers.
I believe many MMO players would listen to story if it was presented in a fun and engaging way. WoW only makes up a small fraction of the MMO playerbase so to judge anything by its community isn't wise.
Considering the general consensus among TOR fans is that it will will take a huge portion of the WOW playerbase I think my comments were appropriate. Here is a "pie" graph that shows just how much of the MMO playerbase WOW has and its not fraction by any means Its from three years ago but......http://www.mmogchart.com/Chart7.html
You should note the title in that link. "Subscriptions". I was refering to MMO gamers as a whole. Subscription wise WoW dominates, no arguement there.
Considering the general consensus among TOR fans is that it will will take a huge portion of the WOW playerbase I think my comments were appropriate. Here is a "pie" graph that shows just how much of the MMO playerbase WOW has and its not fraction by any means Its from three years ago but......http://www.mmogchart.com/Chart7.html
You should note the title in that link. "Subscriptions". I was refering to MMO gamers as a whole. Subscription wise WoW dominates, no arguement there.
I suppose TOR could convince some F2P fans to pony up the box price and a sub fee.
Really? This game sucks and Im not having fun? Im going to unsub right now. Thanks for the tip.
competition huh? well i recently played rift, talked with a bunch of guilds of different types, all i saw was bored people waiting for swtor and tsw to come out and that wasnt my assumption they were pretty clear about it :P
I admit at first i liked rift but i(just like them) got bored fairly fast, end game was crappy and after 22 lvl everything was pretty much the same....
how exactly is that competition... all i see is a game that didn't do a good job at copying WoW.... sure they took UI and combat aspects(which pretty much every mmo be4 and after wow has) but they didn't make it addictive like WoW :P
Anyway..my point is they just call themselves competition to draw some more players before the new mmos come out...and thats propably what will happen with the next mmo and the one after that.... GW2 has a chance because of their payment methods...
The only competion WoW will ever have is blizzards next mmo.
I played Rift from launch until a month or two ago. Did all the content up to HK and got down a bit in there before I stopped playing.
It was fun... the class system was the best part of the game... the ability to mix and match weird builds was pretty fun.
My problem was primarily in the PvP, where I felt it offered too little. PvP was always how I kept a game fresh, and in Rift, it was just mindless BG grinding and I couldn't handle that.
All that being said, the game was, at least for me, more enjoyable than WoW by quite a bit. The speed of updates and what they contain suggests to me that in another 6 months, Rift may have enough features to appeal to just about anyone once you get to level cap.
The problem is, getting to level cap is just boring. As previous posters pointed out, the game feels pretty fresh until 22, at which point you realize the world invasions etc just end up being kinda blah.
RIFT IS AWESOME, IT IS EQ2 AND WOW COMBINED TO MAKE ITS OWN FORM...BEST MMO EVERRRRR!!!!!!!!
I am VERY happy that you're happy. However.....I played both WoW and EQ2 for six years each (yes, I played them both together with my family). And after I got burnt out on WoW I happened to get in on the beta weekends for RIFT. While the beta was technically smooth....one of the best betas I have ever been in, to be fair....the game itself bored me to near death. I didn't think it was even POSSIBLE to be more bored than I was playing WoW. I was wrong. So while you obviously love the game....and that is good....just know that not everyone experiences RIFT the same way. I never played past level 23 (or 27...I don't remember) or past the last open beta weekend. I played every weekend up to that point and I just could NOT make myself like the game.
RIFT in NO WAY is like EQ2 either.....WoW maybe in a few ways....EQ2? No fuckin' way. The two games couldn't be further apart in style or gameplay.
Anyway.....more power to ya and keep lovin' your favorite game! Seriously. I'm excited and proud when I have a favorite game too.
The biggest competitior I found Rift to be was to wood. It was a toss up between those two as what to burn first.
I guess Lars has to say these things to boost Rift, but this is so far from the truth that it is laughable. Face it, Rift was a pile of baloney.
I've not been overly expectant of TOR at all and until recently I was very dubious about the game. It could never be as shallow as Rift though, so it has to have that going for it.
I suppose, actually, he does state one truth, if I'm really honest about it. He says that Rift is the biggest competitor that WoW has had. He's sort of right, but let's face it, the last 4 or 5 years in MMO land have been absolute cack and Trion could have made anything and been a better competitor (or as good as EQ2/LotRO etc) than what had come before. It doesn't mean Rift is good at all.
Rift is really the only solid mmo I've played since WoW started nearly 7 years ago which had a strong pvp element in it .I'm very impressed at how fast Trion impliment decent new content but I think if TOR is any good they will lose a lot of thier playerbase but so will Blizzard . I think the game that has most to lose is WoW but the loses will be survivable . Everything at present points to TOR being a major player on a scale we've only seen once before in mmo history . I think it could take anything between 3-5 million subs from WoW in the first 6 months.
Think of it Trion will a game that no one had heard of managed to contribute in no small way to the loss of 1 in 12 of Blizzards player base imagine whats going to happen when the worlds biggest franchise comes along with an mmo developed the highly respected Bioware team with a budget never seen before . It all does depend on the game itself but the reports I've read thus far seam to be glowing .
The force is strong with this one it seams just at a time when the smallest amount of force in Azeroth will bring down pretty much anything you want it too its so easy and lacking any depth .
Despite what I wrote above, I did read the the full interview with lars about Red Door and Trion's aspirations to improve the technology of MMOs. I can not deny that they have done a hell of a lot of good work in improving this aspect of MMOs, or at least they did for Rift. I do fully hope that other companies can continue to work on server stability and release betas as 'complete' as Rift's was.
If GW2 launches in as complete a state as Rift did then it will blow the former out of the water, because it offers a more complete game than Rift could ever be. The same goes for TOR.
Your tech may be changing MMOs, Lars, but if your company had made a game that changed MMOs in terms of gameplay then we might all be nodding our heads and agreeing with evrything you say about Rift as a success.
I wish for nothing more than that Rift had been an amazing game that changed the genre and turned heads, because I needed that when it shipped. It wasn't that though. Far from it.
They should be scared to death of swtor. I cant tell you how many people in game are leaving when it comes out. DOn't believe me? Its ok I will let the numbers pseaka for themselves when they come out.
Rift was a pretty solid game. Not sure why they are that concerned about being a "WoW Competitor". In the list of what's hot or not, Warcraft has slowly been falling into the "not" category.
TBH, I don't think there will ever be any singe game that is a wow killer. Wow will be like every other game at some point where people will just want a change. As more and more games keep coming out, each will take some away from WoW....
Incognito www.incognito-gaming.us "You're either with us or against us"
Rift become much better with Ashes of History. Lots of people are playing it now and lots of new ones every day. when i was playing it in spring i thought it was finished, servers were empty, but now im really impressed how they reanimated the game. So i think that rift has a bright future.
RIFT IS AWESOME, IT IS EQ2 AND WOW COMBINED TO MAKE ITS OWN FORM...BEST MMO EVERRRRR!!!!!!!!
I am VERY happy that you're happy. However.....I played both WoW and EQ2 for six years each (yes, I played them both together with my family). And after I got burnt out on WoW I happened to get in on the beta weekends for RIFT. While the beta was technically smooth....one of the best betas I have ever been in, to be fair....the game itself bored me to near death. I didn't think it was even POSSIBLE to be more bored than I was playing WoW. I was wrong. So while you obviously love the game....and that is good....just know that not everyone experiences RIFT the same way. I never played past level 23 (or 27...I don't remember) or past the last open beta weekend. I played every weekend up to that point and I just could NOT make myself like the game.
RIFT in NO WAY is like EQ2 either.....WoW maybe in a few ways....EQ2? No fuckin' way. The two games couldn't be further apart in style or gameplay.
Anyway.....more power to ya and keep lovin' your favorite game! Seriously. I'm excited and proud when I have a favorite game too.
This sums up my experience as well... But I didn't make it to the last beta, I played the first two betas often and it was the third beta that I petered out and realized, I don't like the game. The RIFTs and Invasions were dull, the Public quests in WAR had story and were better implemented in my opinion... and I hate WAR
Rift was the game that made me lose my all hopes with the current MMORPGs.
I was always a f2p guy since subscriptions get a bit expensive in my country and I was just not that interested. I used to hear a lot how p2p games were not mindless grindfests like those generic Korean free games. Then there was that Rift anniversary promotion in which they allowed people to play the game for free for 5 days.
Man, I was disapointed. The game began as always, in front of some person who has that exclamation on his head that gave me some quest to talk to another NPC, and soon I was doing lots of the quest that has always been haunting my dreams: "Go there and kill X of those mobs!" And it followed like that always. I was like "If people say this game is a wow clone, so that's what wow and p2p are? A polished grindfest with better community?"
Still, I liked some stuff like the way you can customize your profession with 3 sub-classes, but all in all, there were better things to do with $15. I've got to try that WoW trial but now I'm not that motivated.
Comments
To me, the leveling was great. When I got to end-game content, I got bored FAST.
Also, the GCD time annoys me, beyond comprehension.
RIFT IS AWESOME, IT IS EQ2 AND WOW COMBINED TO MAKE ITS OWN FORM...BEST MMO EVERRRRR!!!!!!!!
playing eq2 and two worlds
I enjoyed Rift very much when I played it. I am actually a fan of the game and Trion. I believe those guys actually care about the game and want to make it the best they can.
But have to step into reality. Rift is no threat to any game ( released or not ).
IMO it is a fun game to play and well polished, but nothing new or innovative and nothing thats gonna threaten Blizzard by any stretch.
I hope they succeed and keep enough subs to continue development for expansion, updates and whatever their next game release is. But when the new crop of MMOs releases only a fanboy could say they wont be taking a big hit to their numbers.
Just my 2cp
Considering the general consensus among TOR fans is that it will will take a huge portion of the WOW playerbase I think my comments were appropriate. Here is a "pie" graph that shows just how much of the MMO playerbase WOW has and its not fraction by any means Its from three years ago but......http://www.mmogchart.com/Chart7.html
Really? This game sucks and Im not having fun? Im going to unsub right now. Thanks for the tip.
playing eq2 and two worlds
Really? This game sucks and Im not having fun? Im going to unsub right now. Thanks for the tip.
You should note the title in that link. "Subscriptions". I was refering to MMO gamers as a whole. Subscription wise WoW dominates, no arguement there.
I suppose TOR could convince some F2P fans to pony up the box price and a sub fee.
Really? This game sucks and Im not having fun? Im going to unsub right now. Thanks for the tip.
competition huh? well i recently played rift, talked with a bunch of guilds of different types, all i saw was bored people waiting for swtor and tsw to come out and that wasnt my assumption they were pretty clear about it :P
I admit at first i liked rift but i(just like them) got bored fairly fast, end game was crappy and after 22 lvl everything was pretty much the same....
how exactly is that competition... all i see is a game that didn't do a good job at copying WoW.... sure they took UI and combat aspects(which pretty much every mmo be4 and after wow has) but they didn't make it addictive like WoW :P
Anyway..my point is they just call themselves competition to draw some more players before the new mmos come out...and thats propably what will happen with the next mmo and the one after that.... GW2 has a chance because of their payment methods...
The only competion WoW will ever have is blizzards next mmo.
I played Rift from launch until a month or two ago. Did all the content up to HK and got down a bit in there before I stopped playing.
It was fun... the class system was the best part of the game... the ability to mix and match weird builds was pretty fun.
My problem was primarily in the PvP, where I felt it offered too little. PvP was always how I kept a game fresh, and in Rift, it was just mindless BG grinding and I couldn't handle that.
All that being said, the game was, at least for me, more enjoyable than WoW by quite a bit. The speed of updates and what they contain suggests to me that in another 6 months, Rift may have enough features to appeal to just about anyone once you get to level cap.
The problem is, getting to level cap is just boring. As previous posters pointed out, the game feels pretty fresh until 22, at which point you realize the world invasions etc just end up being kinda blah.
just wait for the release of GW2 and TOR; no one will care about Rift
I am VERY happy that you're happy. However.....I played both WoW and EQ2 for six years each (yes, I played them both together with my family). And after I got burnt out on WoW I happened to get in on the beta weekends for RIFT. While the beta was technically smooth....one of the best betas I have ever been in, to be fair....the game itself bored me to near death. I didn't think it was even POSSIBLE to be more bored than I was playing WoW. I was wrong. So while you obviously love the game....and that is good....just know that not everyone experiences RIFT the same way. I never played past level 23 (or 27...I don't remember) or past the last open beta weekend. I played every weekend up to that point and I just could NOT make myself like the game.
RIFT in NO WAY is like EQ2 either.....WoW maybe in a few ways....EQ2? No fuckin' way. The two games couldn't be further apart in style or gameplay.
Anyway.....more power to ya and keep lovin' your favorite game! Seriously. I'm excited and proud when I have a favorite game too.
President of The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club
Anyone want to play some Rif...HUTTBALL!
The biggest competitior I found Rift to be was to wood. It was a toss up between those two as what to burn first.
I guess Lars has to say these things to boost Rift, but this is so far from the truth that it is laughable. Face it, Rift was a pile of baloney.
I've not been overly expectant of TOR at all and until recently I was very dubious about the game. It could never be as shallow as Rift though, so it has to have that going for it.
I suppose, actually, he does state one truth, if I'm really honest about it. He says that Rift is the biggest competitor that WoW has had. He's sort of right, but let's face it, the last 4 or 5 years in MMO land have been absolute cack and Trion could have made anything and been a better competitor (or as good as EQ2/LotRO etc) than what had come before. It doesn't mean Rift is good at all.
.
Rift is really the only solid mmo I've played since WoW started nearly 7 years ago which had a strong pvp element in it .I'm very impressed at how fast Trion impliment decent new content but I think if TOR is any good they will lose a lot of thier playerbase but so will Blizzard . I think the game that has most to lose is WoW but the loses will be survivable . Everything at present points to TOR being a major player on a scale we've only seen once before in mmo history . I think it could take anything between 3-5 million subs from WoW in the first 6 months.
Think of it Trion will a game that no one had heard of managed to contribute in no small way to the loss of 1 in 12 of Blizzards player base imagine whats going to happen when the worlds biggest franchise comes along with an mmo developed the highly respected Bioware team with a budget never seen before . It all does depend on the game itself but the reports I've read thus far seam to be glowing .
The force is strong with this one it seams just at a time when the smallest amount of force in Azeroth will bring down pretty much anything you want it too its so easy and lacking any depth .
Ok the other angle...
Despite what I wrote above, I did read the the full interview with lars about Red Door and Trion's aspirations to improve the technology of MMOs. I can not deny that they have done a hell of a lot of good work in improving this aspect of MMOs, or at least they did for Rift. I do fully hope that other companies can continue to work on server stability and release betas as 'complete' as Rift's was.
If GW2 launches in as complete a state as Rift did then it will blow the former out of the water, because it offers a more complete game than Rift could ever be. The same goes for TOR.
Your tech may be changing MMOs, Lars, but if your company had made a game that changed MMOs in terms of gameplay then we might all be nodding our heads and agreeing with evrything you say about Rift as a success.
I wish for nothing more than that Rift had been an amazing game that changed the genre and turned heads, because I needed that when it shipped. It wasn't that though. Far from it.
.
They should be scared to death of swtor. I cant tell you how many people in game are leaving when it comes out. DOn't believe me? Its ok I will let the numbers pseaka for themselves when they come out.
Rift was a pretty solid game. Not sure why they are that concerned about being a "WoW Competitor". In the list of what's hot or not, Warcraft has slowly been falling into the "not" category.
TBH, I don't think there will ever be any singe game that is a wow killer. Wow will be like every other game at some point where people will just want a change. As more and more games keep coming out, each will take some away from WoW....
Incognito
www.incognito-gaming.us
"You're either with us or against us"
Rift become much better with Ashes of History. Lots of people are playing it now and lots of new ones every day. when i was playing it in spring i thought it was finished, servers were empty, but now im really impressed how they reanimated the game. So i think that rift has a bright future.
This sums up my experience as well... But I didn't make it to the last beta, I played the first two betas often and it was the third beta that I petered out and realized, I don't like the game. The RIFTs and Invasions were dull, the Public quests in WAR had story and were better implemented in my opinion... and I hate WAR
Rift was the game that made me lose my all hopes with the current MMORPGs.
I was always a f2p guy since subscriptions get a bit expensive in my country and I was just not that interested. I used to hear a lot how p2p games were not mindless grindfests like those generic Korean free games. Then there was that Rift anniversary promotion in which they allowed people to play the game for free for 5 days.
Man, I was disapointed. The game began as always, in front of some person who has that exclamation on his head that gave me some quest to talk to another NPC, and soon I was doing lots of the quest that has always been haunting my dreams: "Go there and kill X of those mobs!" And it followed like that always. I was like "If people say this game is a wow clone, so that's what wow and p2p are? A polished grindfest with better community?"
Still, I liked some stuff like the way you can customize your profession with 3 sub-classes, but all in all, there were better things to do with $15. I've got to try that WoW trial but now I'm not that motivated.
Boy, those guys at Trion are some cocky suckers.