The March 1st launch of Rift
may have been the most successful of any MMOG in history, but in the
shadow of WoWs current subscription numbers you may have a tough time
convincing most gamers of that fact. It seems as we grow older in our
journey with these online virtual worlds our memories grow shorter,
expecting brand new games to have more features than the highly evolved
titles they compete against. With such hyper realistic expectations can
anyone ever have a successful launch again?
When Rift
launched 10 days ago it did so to some of the highest population counts
of all time. Over 90 servers went live that day to
handle the load, most of which were
full to capacity with many having login queues. Amazingly enough there
were no major incidences of server crashes, widespread lag or other
typical calamities that are so common with an MMOG launch. Yet to
peruse the games official forums you would never know it. Fueled by
mostly petty bickering and thinly veiled insults from fanboys of other
games, the threads being generated would make one think that Trion was
responsible for the recession, 9/11 and rising oil prices.
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Secret agents of al-Qaeda?
How have our expectations morphed so much in the past decade that we
expect nothing less than 5 years worth of content and features from a
brand new game? If we held UO, EQ or
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these standards at their inceptions then the genre very well may have
died in its infancy. Hell, if we held WoW to these standards TODAY it
would likely fall short. Is there any pleasing the majority of gamers
these days, or are we all simply too spoiled and jaded to give credit
where credit is due?
Certainly not everyone shares these sentiments, most of the happy
players were far too busy enjoying themselves to waste precious moments
of their lives railing away about this or that perceived flaw. And
while honest, constructive and measured criticism is absolutely vital
in keeping a game healthy and growing it is highly doubtful that any
in-depth analysis of game mechanics and end-game content occurred on
that first day.
Complaints ranged from the valid to the absurd in-game, with most valid
complaints being given with a grain of salt. Thankfully I didnt have
to endure cries of the game being a WoW clone on my server, but I did
hear moaning about a lack of player housing I think newly resurrected
heroes attempting to prevent the complete and total destruction of
their planet may have a few more things to worry about than
decorations, wainscoting and trophy racks.
While most of the discontent was laughable or dismissible, the team is
taking bug reporting seriously and is working to replicate and repair
as many issues as they can. But the real issue here isnt the standard
glitches and gripes that crop up with the highly technical beast that a
vast persistent world game is, its the unrealistic expectations of the
vocal minority who flood the interwebs with their bogus claims.
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Common sense, I stab at thee!
The truth of the matter here is that the only people we are ultimately
hurting by behaving like a bunch of spoiled brats is ourselves. We have
already seen numerous MMOGs fail miserably for straying too far from
the WoW path, all the while the same nutjobs who cry out about a
perceived lack of features will, out of the other side of their mouths,
bash the game for being a clone if it doesnt. Leaving developers in
this virtual catch-22 only serves to ensure that we will continue to be
served up the same steaming pile of crap year after year.
Here is a perfect example of this double talk:
Rift Falls
Short - Lore, Quests, & Original Content:
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Going to get right to
the point here.
I've played WoW for a
good while, and I guess I took it for granted. Bought Rift after a
pretty short beta experience because I didn't realize the necessities
that it lacked.
Rifts lore is plain bad
and lacks dept in a serious way.
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I don't feel apart of
Telara because of this. The questing feels pointless and empty .
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Can't even read the
goal/point of the quest after I've accepted it (as far as I know).
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People are running out
of quests to do in each zone and are forced to seek alternatives,
especially if you're questing with a friend.
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Although there are a lot
of things I like about Rift, like how profession system works and what
not... The lack of overall originality in Rift is shocking.
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They've taken far too
many direct concepts from WoW, but the worst part is the exact
calibrations.
We all know that
Blizzard used ideas from other MMOs (Battlegrounds for example) in WoW.
But WoW maintains a very distinct level of individuality, which I've
also taken for granted.
Using ideas if fine. I'm
just wondering why they've followed the calibrations of WoW so
precisely. Examples:
Rogues have combo
points, but why do they have 5 combo points instead of 4 or 6?
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Why are all modules
bound to the exact same keys? (O for social, etc)
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Why are the all the
slash commands the same, even though it would be easy to make WoW
commands more logical. Like instead of /who... Why not /find?
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Why not 4 slots for bags
instead of 5? Make bags bigger.
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Why not 2 or 4 active
talent trees instead of 3? Make trees more versatile or smaller.
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Why do we have to buy
talents/ranks from trainers, even though method is proven to be
worthless
Why are uncommon items
green, rare blue, and epic purple?
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Even some major lore
concepts are just far too similar.
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How Telara revolves
around elemental dragon aspects, as presented in the trailer (if I
remember correctly) Might also be an Everquest thing.
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The crisis that dawns
upon Telara is caused by The Blood Storm (Which is basically the
burning legion)
The biggest shocker for
me was the Defiant race of Elves called the Kelari. I was pleased with
the originality of the Defiant faction up til this point.
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"The elves of the lost
Kelari isles have been tainted by generations of exposure to raw planar
magic."
I'm sure the magic
addiction/abuse story sounds familiar to many of you. Yes yes, good ole
Blood Elves.
It's one thing to be
influenced by, but it's another to copy.
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Even though I dig a lot
of things in Rift, like the class system and the profession system..
Rift still falls short in a big way. Fortunately there's Guild Wars 2
to look forward to, am I right? :P But this has been a refreshing
experience. If they improve, I'll remain a customer (or come back) but
that probably wont be for a while.
See what I mean? Perhaps this lad is ignorant of the lawsuit Games
Workshop had against Blizzard in the early days for their blatant
ripoff of the story premise, or perhaps he didnt know that the /who
command has been around since MMOG antiquity. Maybe he isnt familiar
with Tolkien and the general style of high fantasy treatments of elves
and dwarves, but I have a sneaking suspicion he is and he is simply
attempting to troll the masses and start a flame war.
Rift is by
no means a completely original nor perfect game, but its been live for
10 days and no one should expect it to be. Hopefully the level of
discontent people are feeling in their other games will help temper
their patience with Rift.
Feel free to call me a shill, but this game has all the
necessary components for long term success as
long as we give it the time to grow and evolve that it deserves.
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