Rift has Soul and More

I’m still enjoying Rift albeit because of business trips and workload, I haven’t played as much I’d like over the past couple of weeks.  Guild instance runs, rift excursions and event participation, coupled with the large breath of content in each zone make it convenient and enjoyable for me to level.  At level 44.5, the end game is near.

I’ve yet to encounter a zone I didn’t like.  I’ve yet to quest in a zone where I needed more than ¾ of the content available.  In some zones I needed much less.  I still haven't stepped foot in a warfront, so there's that to look forward to when I have time.  

I log into the game with an expectation that I will be extremely entertained, highly engaged by the zone aesthetics, motivated by the quest content and moved to want to know more about the story unfolding around me. That’s what the previous zones have instilled in me as an expectation and that is precisely what Trion is delivering.

Where is the perfect MMO you speak of?

Is Rift a perfect game? No.  Is every class balanced versus another? No.  Is the death event taking place as great as it could be? No.  But I haven’t played a perfect game, seen a perfect movie, been invited to a perfect dinner party or had perfection in other form of entertainment the first time around.  Even so, Rift is pretty freakin close.   

The more that I’d like to have is player housing or guild halls, cooking as a crafting profession, guild banks and account-shared bank slots.  For gawd’s sake, I’m also in desperate need of appearance slots. One of my favorite gear sets of all time has come and gone.  It would have been great to keep the look while upgrading.  *Tears* 

I’d also like to have fishing added but if they do, there’s a distinct likelihood that I’ll never get anything else accomplished.  The scenery surrounding several of the lakes is so breathtaking.  I’d probably find myself mesmerized and lulled into a stupor if allowed to fish from them.

The end is a new beginning

When my leveling days are behind me, I still have a lot of content left to do.  I will go back to the zones I left prematurely, participate in warfronts, gear up to raid, raid, continue exploring, find and complete the puzzles, complete collections, etc.  It will still be as it is now – so much to do in so little time for the working class.  *Smile*

I’m not an achievement chaser but knowing that I’ll get them when going back to lower level content is good.  Seeing all that I missed is the motivation.  Knowing that I’ll get achievement dings instead of XP is little bit of sugar.  Diabetics notwithstanding, who doesn’t want a little sugar?

I usually skip a majority of quests in a game.  I’m all about killing mobs, interacting with objects and finding things.  Wizard101 was the first game to make me change my ways.  Warhammer was a close second.  In World of Warcraft, I often chose to grind, as do many others.  Rather than chasing down quests, searching for AOE grinding specs was popular as far back as vanilla WOW.  I’ve yet to do that in Rift to level. I do the quests while they’re level appropriate and then I move on.

Rift has Soul

Soul – a quality that arouses emotional sentiment, strong positive feeling or reaction

I’m too excited by the prospect of seeing the next zone to stay once the quests mobs are white to me. I can’t wait to see and do what’s over the next hill, mountain and horizon.  I have not been this enthused by the virtual world around me since Asheron’s Call 2.  I’m sorry if others don’t find the game to their liking.  For me however, the art direction, music, ambient sounds, Steampunk elements not sprinkled but consistently interwoven throughout the game, busy NPC communities, active surrounding mobs, invasions and rifts make this world feel alive! And I'm playing a mutherfuckingkickassclass where I can change roles to suit the situation.  When we enter an instance we can ask who WANTS to heal, tank or DPS versus  who MUST.  

The Telara zones feel like a real place.  Each zone is better, more polished than the previous one. Some games take whole expansions to improve, Trion was applying knowledge gained as they created the zones and they continue to improve the game at an unprecedented rate.  Granted, NPC quest-givers are still standing around with enemy mobs in reach yet they do nothing until I come along but NO MMO has cracked that nut yet.  I leave it to suspended disbelief and move on.

The biggest disappointment of my second world tour will be that while I can go see the Guardian zones, I can’t experience them on my character.  But that’s on me and is because I have no intention of ever being anything other than Defiant.  Seeing but not touching will have to suffice.  *Sniff*

If by having soul people are looking for the breadth of lore and infamous characters like they have in WOW or LOTRO, they’re kidding themselves.  Those games have lore from the preexisting IPs, not the games.   For those games, the egg was certainly there long before the chicken.  Even so, as much as I love Lord of the Rings and have read the books multiple times, the strong IP couldn’t get me to stomach the game.  Lore isn’t enough.  

No lack of players here

I’m definitely still enthralled and in for the long run with Rift.  It’s nice to be excited and satisfied by the MMO I’m playing.  It’s even better be doing it with players equally as happy and entertained.  Our server at least, still has small queues on certain days during prime time and I’ve yet to encounter a dead zone.  And RP is alive and well in Merdian to say the least.  I don’t participate but it’s another layer of immersion that adds authenticity to the world.  It’s also rather funny to read while you’re doing small tasks in the city.  Rift is still scratching my itch and I’m not going anywhere any time soon.

P.S. Excuse typos or grammatical errors.  I wanted to give a quick update - nothing I post is quick and I have little time for editing.  Cheers!

Comments

[Elementalistly]

Hmm. A common sense post with reasonable deductions and sound commitment.

Is this real life?

As I noted in my commentary (http://simple-n-complex.blogspot.com/2011/03/rift-30-days-and-30-nights.html), I really think it is how a player approaches the game. Play it like you have been playing MMO's forever, and yes, you will not have fun. Treat it as a chance to explore, find friends and enjoy the world as it was created, you will have a blast.

Thank you for a great post!

[Bhagpuss]

Instead of my usual wall of text comment, I'll just say that I heartily endorse everthing you've said above.

Except for one thing! Other than for reasons of time I can't see why you'd deprive yourself of the additional pleasure of playing both sides. I'm playing on two servers now, Guardian on one and Defiant on the other. I wouldn't play them on the same server - that would just be weird - but I'm very glad I'm getting to see both sides.

[Alysianah aka Saylah]

Thanks and good read on your end. I have been following your posts. I was curious to see if the stats reflect what I see in game. And so far, just a bit. Like I said, my server is still going quite strong.

I've wanted to comment in the past. Glad you have the Typepad option there now. I don't have Google and refuse to create one just cuz. Too many log in names and passwords in my world as it is. :-)

[Alysianah aka Saylah]

Generally speaking, I don't do alts. WOW is the biggest exception because I played it for so long. I had one alt in WAR because I couldn't decide between Bright Wizard and the Warrior Priest. So when T4 was a bore and became dead, I flipped the WP for a while.

For me, the true mark of an engrossing MMO is the attachment to the main character. That is what I'm there for, it's part of my play style.

If I'm playing a single char you know I'm all in it - it feels like an extension of me in that world. That's how I feel about my Cleric in Rift. I even bailed on guild alt night. I'm SO into her, I have eyes for no one else. :-) And there's so much I've missed on Defiant side, I'd want another run through there first.

Plus my guild, Casualties of WAR, contributes to why I'm having so much fun. I have no intention of rolling else where for now. Who knows, if I ended up playing as long as I played WOW, trying the other side will happen ... some day.