Well the day has finally come and the floodgates have opened, style="font-style: italic;">Rift
headstart opened to the pre-ordering public at 10am PST and the results
have been staggering to say the least. Servers filled up within moments
of going online and players not fortunate enough to be in the initial
push were relegated to queues that ranged from minutes to days. Not
surprisingly the reaction on the official forums and Facebook was
swift, vocal and often times angry as players reacted to the
“injustice” of not being able to play the game the very moment they
wanted to. While this sort of vitriol has become the norm on game
forums, it belies an even more pressing issue within the gaming
community – the hyper achievement mentality that has come to define the
genre in the post WoW world.

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/91989"> style="border: 0px solid ; width: 400px; height: 250px;"
alt="Rift Terminus"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/91989">

Many of the frustrations being voiced to Trion are from players who
took time off work or changed their daily routines in some way to
facilitate playing Rift hard
and heavy for the next week in an attempt
to hit the max level or get as close as possible.  Energy
drinks have been stockpiled, Twinkies have been hoarded and the local
Pizza Hut has been put on advanced notice of a regular delivery
schedule. You may think I am exaggerating, and well, maybe I am – but
only a little.  As someone who has raided at the highest level
in every MMOG that I have invested time in, I understand the thrill of
the end game, in fact with 175 attempts to kill the heroic version of
Arthas, I would say I am a bit addicted to it. But the prevailing
mentality of speeding headlong to level cap is like ordering the $75.00
filet at Ruth’s Chris and then swallowing it in one bite. 
There is much to be savored, especially in a brand new game, so why not
slow down a bit and taste your food?




Some of my most treasured MMOG memories happened at lower levels, my
cleric went from the 6th member of the party to MVP in Castle Mistmoore
and my enchanter went from a placeholder to a virtual savior in the
Estate of Unrest. The folks at Trion have laid out a
wonderful world in terms of community building with the rift system,
its inclusion system of auto grouping were instrumental in helping me
make new friends and find a great group of folks that I hope to build a
long term guild with.  My fear is that the new breed of solo
heavy bunny levelers will shrug off these mechanics and miss out on
some wonderful opportunities in their haste to hit level 50.

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/95001"> style="border: 0px solid ; width: 400px; height: 250px;"
alt="Rift Well Spun Hat"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/95001">

Have some fun with your Well
Spun Hat

In addition to missing out on some prime opportunities to make new
friends and forge new alliances, players who race to the top tend to
miss out on some of the finer points of their callings abilities and
talents.  Rift
has a bevy of soul combinations and a higher
level of complexity than most WoW players are used to, and while this
isn’t rocket surgery – it is still far too easy to gloss over some of
the intricacies that the soul system has if you rush through the game
too quickly. Another risk that is run when you complete the leveling
process in under a week is that you may find yourself with a whole lot
of free time if others don’t share in your sprinting pace.



So hopefully you will heed my advice and take some time to explore the
game, learn its nuances, close some rifts and make some new friends. if
not, then enjoy your time at the top, we will be up there with you soon
enough – and we will come with friends and better grasp of our
characters mechanics.