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Well well well, week 2 is almost a
wrap and Rift is still going strong
– take that
naysayers! Ok, I know I should save the victory dance for mid-April,
but I like
to think positive when it comes to a new game.

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The second week of sealing rifts,
soul walking and leveling
was actually a lot more fun than the headstart week and I think mages
(and
clerics) may be the main reason why. 
You
see in my rush to recreate my EQ Beastlord of yore, I totally forgot to
take my
own advice and stop and smell the flowers – and by flowers I mean
rolling alts.
I took up arms this past week with both a cleric and a mage and I have
to say
that the results have been so positive that Medawky the
Beastmaster/Paragon/Riftblade
may be relegated to backburner alt status for a while.

What class and souls have you been
enjoying the most lately?
Let us know on our forums and join in our Rift discussion, we promise
to keep
the flame settings on low.  This
week’s
Soulwalker takes a look at some of the banter between folks on both
sides of
the Rift aisle – its defenders and detractors and examines what this
discourse
may have to say about the game’s future.  We
also have a user created video that I felt
deserved some front page style props, plus his European accent seems to
have
the sites female population all aflutter.


Have you ever been in a relationship that was going along
well enough, but the spark just wasn’t what it used to be? The long
meaningful
conversations were replaced by blank stares and uncomfortable silences
and
while you still liked each other well enough, you just weren’t in love
anymore?
 



Unlike hot and steamy romances that
come on fast and burn
out quickly, long term relationships that slowly die off are usually
the ones
with the messiest breakups. One partner finds someone new and decides
to take a
chance on the unknown, leaving the jilted lover feeling blindsided and
hurt.

MMOGs are a lot like relationships,
and the evidence of a
potential breakup has been percolating on forums for both
Rift
and WoW.  Insults
have
been flying back and forth with folks in both camps accusing the other
of being
blinded fanboys and delusional sycophants.  While
I don’t think WoW is any real danger of
losing a large chunk of fans to Rift, it is at that 6 year point where
interest
seems to naturally wane.

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While I am usually loathe using forum
trends as an indicator
for future success of a new game, there are some encouraging signs -
many of Rifts fans aren’t WoW
players at all.
Now I would have to be crazier than Charlie Sheen to believe that style="">Rift can sustain a large playerbase
without capturing at least a few WoW players, but I think it can easily
hold
onto a couple million players. With a team like Trion Worlds that knows
that 2
million subs is a huge success, the future should be very bright.

Another encouraging point of note
about Rift is the large amount
of fansites and information databases that have been cropping up. style="">  Many of them got their
start in beta but the quality
has kept pace with the quantity and that bodes well for the long term.
I
remember searching for information about Warhammer
Online
and AoC in the weeks after launch and not being able
to find much
more than thinly veiled gold selling sites. Aion
had a ton of resources, but sadly my Korean wasn’t adequate enough to
glean
much info from them.

One of our own premium members even
got in on the action,
producing his very own video blog that gave an overview of the game.
While it
does suffer some minor technical difficulties at the end, it is a
definite must
see if for no other reason than the sporting of one of the infamous TTH
hockey
jerseys:




Thanks to Stefman123 for the video, keep up the good work.



Make sure to check back next week when we take a closer look at some of
the game's early issues and some player concerns that have merit. Until
then, happy gaming and keep sealing those rifts.


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 This
dragon got sick of the fanboy bickering - so he ate them.







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style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">Latest
Rift Articles

Rift
Commander - Rift Commands and Macros


Rift:
Lock Down -
Headstart Servers Locked at Launch


Rift:
6 Things To Do
Your First Week in Rift


Rift
Revealed – Ten
Ton Hammer’s First Impressions


Rift
Soul Overviews:
Warrior Calling - The Paragon


Stuck
in the Queue:
Learning to Slow Down and Enjoy the Ride


Updated:
Rift
Official Server List Announced


Rift Head
Start
Kicks Off Today, Trion Adds New Server Forums


href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/rift/interviews/hal-hanlin-2-22-11/story">Light
at the End of
the Rift - A Launch Q&A with Hal Hanlin




To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our RIFT Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

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