I played Rift Beta 6 last weekend. I really liked it. It's broadly familiar to anyone who has played a diku MMO (WoW, AoC, EQ2, Lotro, etc) but with just enough that is distinctive to make it very fresh. It's very playable, avoiding some of the roughness that accompanied some of the other launches.
It's been quite interesting to watch the blogosphere agonise over it. A lot of bloggers have recently panicked at the realisation that it's rather good and they're quite excited. It’s like for no apparent reason all of the antelopes on the savannah have looked up at once and started twitching their noses.
Remember the 90s? Before games were online? I bought about 2 games a month, some really stuck and I played the hell out of them, some I played for a couple of days and thought "ho hum".
We've shifted from that paradigm to an outlook that approaches a new game as if one were getting married to it. It really shouldn't be a massive commitment just to try a new game.
I think part of the problem is that the obsession with max level has permeated the MMO culture. It's a daft way to approach a new game. The chances are end game is actually the end of your game not a gear shift to a better and more enjoyable playstyle. You won't enjoy many games unless you slow down a little. And Rift really supports a more laid back approach. It has the Soul system which allows you to mess about trying out the different subclasses and combinations, it has its warfronts (instanced pvp), dungeons, a pretty interesting backstory that's told through quests. It has different types of servers so if you max out on your pve server, try pvp or rp or both.
But playing it to death in Beta then zerging up to max level and whining that the game lacks raid content is a recipe for failure. Not Rift's failure, yours.
"We've shifted from that paradigm to an outlook that approaches a new game as if one were getting married to it. It really shouldn't be a massive commitment just to try a new game."
ReplyDeleteI completely agree. Approaching every game as if it is going to be your life long soul mate is a recipe for disappointment.
Hurm... so, "The journey is the destination"? :)
ReplyDelete"It’s like for no apparent reason all of the antelopes on the savannah have looked up at once and started twitching their noses."
ReplyDeleteThat made my day with a good humorous laugh, because its so true right now.
"But playing it to death in Beta then zerging up to max level and whining that the game lacks raid content is a recipe for failure. Not Rift's failure, yours."
Again so so true. But it wont stop a bunch of people that will eventually complain they run out of content 1 day after the game officially launched trying to get to the max level asap on launch day as the servers open vs trying to enjoy the journey playing the game. The failure and disappointment in such a circumstance is with the player who cant exercise self control and play in moderation.
@ Yeebo Thanks. I realise I'm preaching to the choir with you as you've tried almost everything.
ReplyDelete@ Shatterednewb It's more about realising what a tool does. WoW is a hammer and Rift is a spanner. You can pick up a spanner and bang nails into wood but it's not that good a tool for the job. If being max level and doing arenas or raids is where it's at for you then playing Rift will be like banging nails into wood with a spanner.
Rift mainly offers a fresh class system, fresh leveling content and (if you like it) world pvp. It offers those things much better than WoW does for those of us who have played enough WoW to make zones like The Barrens stale and Hellfire Peninsula boring. But if you don't recognise that that is what this tool is optimal for you're likely to have a frustrating experience.
@ Ardent Yeah, forums and even blogs are going to be horrible. That's because bad news is easier to write than good news. Remember Darkfall? Dozens of people wrote how unpleasant they found it and only Syncaine really wrote positive things. But I'd trust Syncaine's opinion much more than I'd trust some guy who played it for a day and got ganked a lot.
There will be fun to be found in Rift and some will find it but others won't and will turn bitter.