Rift Articles

[Morreion]

Rift Beta NDA Is Lifted Edition!

Overall summary: there is less new to the game than many people thought- it seemed familiar to play. It is very polished, and Trion Worlds listens to the beta testers. Performance was generally good. Some people liked it, some people disliked it. leveling seemed fast, and some thought it was easy. The visuals were generally liked, the quest system was the 'same old same old'. The soul system got good reviews, rifts were neat but some thought that they would get old. The massive invasion at the end of beta 2 was enjoyed by most players. The MMO sites gave it good reviews, while on the official forums there were some poor reviews.

Beta 3 Announcement and NDA Drop (Rift Junkies)

Beta 3 will start Dec. 28th; the beta NDA has been lifted!

Ten levels of RIFT: A guide to your first day in Telara (Massively)

As you chew through the introductory zone, your most important mission is to be upgrading your character's threads. Quests (and occasionally drops) will reward you with better gear, not to mention additional bags. One of the reasons I advise not buying bags early on is that you'll be getting them for free from quests and drops -- I had four additional bags by level 8.

RIFT beta: Massively's first impressions

RIFT isn't perfect, and there's a lot that might feel all-to-familiar, but the rift invasions and the soul system address the two biggest problems in MMOs today: lack of player interaction and the limitations of the holy trinity in groups. Rifts encourage players to band together, include each other, and fight against a common enemy. The soul system encourages five people, regardless of class, to group up and still have the tools to make progress together. If rift invasions are tuned correctly, and if the soul system realizes its potential, RIFT has a real opportunity to breathe new life into the MMO genre.

Rift: Beta Preview
MMORPG.com columnist Bill Murphy has spent some time with Rift during recent beta events. Bill gives our readers a look at the game and offers a few thoughts about his experiences in Telara. Check them out and then let us know what you think in the comments section below.

It’s starting to sound like I didn’t enjoy my time with Rift, and that couldn’t be further from the truth. The game is absolutely filled to the brim with content and things to see and do, and in that regard Trion is likely on the right path towards a successful and traditional MMORPG. I just can’t escape the feeling that I’ve played most of it before. Luckily the soul attunement system, combined with the potential of the rifts have me thinking this is a game to watch when it launches next year and I’ll likely be picking it up on day one. Why? Despite the faults I’ve listed? Because it’s rare that a truly playable, complex, and fun MMO comes out, and Rift is definitely that much.

Rift Unsealed – Level 1-20 Beta Impressions (Ten Ton Hammer)
Reflections and impressions of the closed beta thus far.

Very few games lately have been able to convey so much in their first 20 levels, but with so much depth and such a quick leveling curve Rift has done an excellent job of immersing me in its world. The combination of so many good elements along with a difficulty level that provides a solid challenge without being oppressively difficult has me wanting to see more and anticipating the next 20 levels and beyond.

RIFT: The Closed Beta Experience (IGN)

If you are looking for a new game to blow you away with groundbreaking features and genre defining innovation, you are not going to find that here. However, if you are looking for a game that takes everything right with the genre and adds a little bit more, Trion World’s RIFT is full of promise for the spring of 2011 (our guess). It is really the polish, at launch, that defines RIFT as a major contender. If we had yet another partially completed MMO game from a company most people haven’t heard of, then who would pay attention? RIFT will release with all of the fluff ready to go, things that have taken years to reach some of your favorite MMOs. That means you will be earning achievements, collecting artifacts, trying out dual class specs, adding dye to your armor, moving UI panels around, and all those little tiny things that you don’t think about until they are missing.

Rift NDA Dropped- Here Are The Goods (Rift Watchers)

As I watched the forums, I saw a pretty clear definition rise amongst players. People that wanted something familiar and polished loved it. People that were tired of quests and action bar combat hated it. Deciding which camp you fall into will pretty much decide whether this is the game for you...After playing these two weekends, I’m planning on buying the game. It’s a PvE fan’s game. It’s the MMO player’s game. It’s polished and on the right track. More than anything, this beta has given me more faith in Trion than I’ve ever had in an MMO company.

Reviews and Critiques of Rift (Aion Source)

Headings:
What's Special about Rift
The Good Stuff
The Meh Stuff
Potential Game Breakers

From the Rift official forums:

Thread: My Beta Experience... Quick Summary

Thread: NDA lifted, beta 1 & 2 impressions.

Thread: A Review: Broad Early Rift Review (Beta Events 1 &2)

Thread: Now that the NDA is gone here are some screenshots

[Morreion]

Rift: Working As Intended
With the NDA lifted on Rift, MMORPG.com columnist Bill Murphy wrote a preview of his experiences in Telara. Reading the comments after, however, set Bill to wondering why it is that folks are surprised by what they've read from writers and fans across the web. What exactly is it that was expected and were those expectations misplaced? Check out Bill's thoughts and then let us know what you're thinking in the comments below.

But just remember that Trion always said exactly what they planned Rift to be, and we always did our best to convey that to you, our reader. You may like the game, and you may not. Just try to keep in mind that the wool was never pulled over your eyes, unless you yourself did the pulling.

Rift Impressions (Keen & Graev's Gaming Blog)

* Good game, but nothing revolutionary or evolutionary.
* The Class System (Soul System, whatever) is more like a very diverse and customizable talent spec than it is a true multi-classing system.
* Questing sucks and burns you out quickly.
* Dungeons (instances) are fun.
* Rifts are fun the first time but have a pattern, are not dynamic beyond appearing random places, and aren’t integral to the game. Think of PQ’s and how they were good until they weren’t.
* The world is standard themepark with more options than WAR but with less options than WoW.

...If you want a good game (that isn’t WoW) that is more of the same then Rift does a great job of delivering probably the best available.

I think it is curious how people say it's not that interesting at the same time that they say it's the best game released since WoW. To me this says that our expectations have a lot to say about the games we try!

Rift Podcast Notes

They are looking at more of a mini queue system so when you hit a button close to the end of a cast, or when the GCD is almost done, the next ability will queue up.

Podcast 24: Scott Hartsman, Cameron McNeil, Beta, Itemization and more (Rift Podcast)

Both Scott Hartsman – Rift’s Studio General Manager, Chief Creative Officer and Executive Producer – and Cameron McNeil – Senior System’s Lead – sat down with Ari while she was at Trion.

RIFT unveils the starter movies for Guardians and Defiants [Updated] (Massively)

Both video trailers (about 1:20 each) are at the link. The Guardian voice actor is over the top!

Scott Hartsman on Beta 2: Once Upon a Time (Rift Junkies)

ONCE UPON A TIME in a land called Telara, 573 Guardian players were minding their own business in a region called Silverwood. They were frolicking and levelling, and levelling and questing, and looting and laughing, collecting and crafting…. Ah! What a peaceful time it was.

And then, the world exploded.

Dozens of rifts, invasions, bosses, real gameplay objectives (and rewards coming soon!), dramatic skies, music shifts — the whole package. Our first event on a truly massive scale.

Rift’s Endgame – Progression and Raids Explained (Rift Junkies)

We are now beginning to grasp the big picture on what we will be doing once we ding 50. So now we have two tiers of Expert Dungeons, we have Raids (at least two for release) and it doesn’t end there. You will also have Group Rated Rifts, and Raid Rated Rifts and faction grinds to help supplement gear.

Rift: Scott Hartsman Interview
MMORPG.com Community Manager Mike Bitton recently had the opportunity to sit down with Trion Worlds CCO Scott Hartsman to talk about the company's inaugural title, Rift. Check out our exclusive interview and then let us know what you think!

The overall stability has been far greater than we could have hoped for in our wildest expectations. It's precisely because of that stability that our engineers have been able to focus on a lot of the gameplay improvements that we've been trying to make and the gameplay tuning that we're doing right now.

Beta 2 Wrapup (Telara Central)

Classes and Souls: People like the system. They want more of it. They want to be able to play with more options, sooner — Both in terms of the numbers of points they can invest, as well as the numbers of souls and how they roll out. We hear you, and we agree.

RIFT beta powow with Scott Hartsman (Massively)

For a closed beta, RIFT is running on an impressive 15 servers, divided between the U.S. and Europe. As the team monitored the server load and performance carefully, it was also processing a lot of feedback from the players about every subject under the virtual sun. In fact, Scott told us that even before the first beta was finished, members of the team were hard at work on features and improvements for beta two. One was an engineer who saw the demand for skill queuing in the game and worked up a "soft queue" system over the space of a weekend to be included in the next version.

Looking to the Future After Beta 2 (Rift Watchers)

* Scott mentioning that the patch notes from Beta 1 to Beta 2 are over 8000 words. Tell me again how this is “just a promotional beta?”
* Adam mentioning that “in a few months when we’re released or on Beta 7.” Speculate as you will but it perked my ears up.

The Daily Grind: Does RIFT give you MMO deja vu? (Massively)

Lots of commenters say that Rift reminds them of a WoW & WAR hybrid.

One Shots: Awaiting the next invasion (Massively)

Rift Newbie “Raiding” Video (Rift Junkies)

2:12 video of a beta 2 rift boss encounter.

ZAM Talks with Scott Hartsman About Beta Feedback (ZAM)

We haven't really been talking about the huge, mass-gigantor events. It's mostly because we didn't want to go bragging that we'd have all of this until it actually worked.

RIFT unveils four new souls (Massively)

The team at Trion Worlds has recently revealed four new souls, one for each of the game's four classes -- the Riftblade for Warriors, the Marksman for Rogues, the Necromancer for Mages, and the Warden for the Clerics.

[Regolyth]

...If you want a good game (that isn’t WoW) that is more of the same then Rift does a great job of delivering probably the best available.

I think this sums it up pretty good, although I think it's a little better than this. I also agree with that WoW/WAR hybrid comment.

I think it is curious how people say it's not that interesting at the same time that they say it's the best game released since WoW. To me this says that our expectations have a lot to say about the games we try!

Agreed

[Morreion]

Rift Beta – Impressions (The Common Sense Gamer)

Graphically the game is gorgeous. Think AoC and you’re just about there. The sound and world around you are very well done as well. Certainly a AAA title when it comes you presentation. The UI has everything where it should be, although there are some areas of the UI that I think need some work….like the paper doll screen.

Beta Screenshots (Secret Cloud)

Beta 2 Realm of the Fae HD footage (Rift Forums)

9:41 video of gameplay footage of the Realm of the Fae instance.

Report: Trion's Debut Game Costs Over $50M (Gamasutra)

"Rift: Planes of Telara is already very ambitious because it is over $50 million in development," he said in an interview with Develop.

RIFT beta 3 patch notes show major soul changes and more (Massively)

Of course, souls aren't the only focus of this patch. Among the many changes are the inclusion of the rest system, the ability to rename your pets, a preview of the soul trees before you purchase them, and a number of new invader boss encounters for both sides.

Beta 3 Patch Notes (Rift Junkies)

Trion details RIFT collector's edition (Massively)

Start salivating, RIFT fans, as Trion has taken the wraps off its collector's edition plans for the upcoming fantasy MMORPG.

Exclusive Items (Rift official site)

Grouping: Ok, Mr. Hartsman…You’ve Convinced Me. (Horriftic Intentions)

I believe Rift will do for PvE grouping what Warhammer Online did for PvP grouping. It will make grouping a natural extension of game play. Watching the Beta Rift events unfold, it became very obvious that the Rifts encouraged grouping more than a few scattered Elite group areas ever could. People joined groups because they needed to do so to survive. They joined groups because it was fun and they joined them because they were rewarding.

In Rift, the ride comes to you! (Horriftic Intentions)

The world of Rift is a dangerous place. Much more so than any other MMO I can think of that is not named Darkfall or, perhaps, Everquest. There are constantly invasions happening and an invasion will wipe the floor with a solo player of the same level. It is really a whole new experience.

Includes a 4:24 video, 'Fire and Life Invasion Outside Sanctum'.

Rift’s biggest issue? The hype (Hardcore Casual)

If you have a solid product, just ship it honestly. Players will respect the honesty, and go in with measured expectations. Hell, maybe you will over-deliver based on your tame hype, and the players themselves will pick up the hype banner and run with it for you.

Rift Junkie Guides (Rift Junkie)

4 newbie survival guides, one for each archetype. Pretty neat!

[Regolyth]

Great info Gack.

[Morreion]

Trion profiles RIFT's Freemarch zone (Massively)

"Freemarch is the heart of the Defiant faction," Trion tells us. "Their wondrous city of Meridian stands by the coast, its back to the mountains, sending out waves of Defiant to keep Freemarch free. Yet every day new rifts open, new monsters emerge, and the laughter of cultists grows ever more confident and shrill. Undead claw their way from their graves to feast on the living and raze farmsteads, turning the heartland black."

Rift: David Reid Interview
Recently, MMORPG.com Industry Relations Manager Garrett Fuller had the opportunity to sit down David Reid, Senior Vice President of Publishing and publishing at Trion. The two spent time discussing some of the marketing aspects that Trion is using or plans to use to bring Rift to as wide an audience as possible. Read on and then comment below.

Rift : New Comic Set to Hit Stands (MMORPG.com)

RIFT MMO Beta Impressions and How to Fix What’s Wrong (Wolfshead Online)

My big concern with rifts is what will happen once players tire of them? Personally, I’d like to see towns completely obliterated by the invaders until such a time as the players oust them. The big problem is that since Trion has opted to copy the WoW quest advancement system you’ll never see this happen and that’s a shame. MMO developers are too afraid to anger or inconvenience subscribers that have grown accustomed to the ease and security of the Blizzard quest system.

On RIFT : Reservations, Concerns, Expectations and Longevity (Rift Podcast)

If Trion:

* continues to listen to their testing community about all the most griped about aspects
* truly has this Invasion and Rift system in place that will provide gameplay like on Dec 19th
* continues to make changes at the speed they have been
* delivers on all of its endgame content
* manage a satisfactory pvp environment
* expands customization and itemization
* keeps the polish and stability at its current level or better

Then I truly believe this game will have more than a chance at being great.

Torn By Rift: Beta Impressions (MMO Gamer Chick)

Overall, there’s nothing all that markedly different about Rift that sets it apart from its peers in the genre, but when it comes to execution and polish, this game certainly has a leg up on the competition — especially when you consider the fact that it’s still in such an early stage. And really, I don’t mind more of the same as long as it’s well-presented and playable, and Rift has got that part covered.

Rift soul system impressions (Tobold's MMORPG Blog)

The harder task for Trion is how to balance that all.

Rift discovers the secret of MMO success (Tobold's MMORPG Blog)

Being polished these days is a necessary (but not sufficient) condition for any MMORPG wanting to enter the market. Trion's Rift fulfills that condition, and thus I do think the game will do just fine. Not a "WoW Killer", but a game that will sell well and keep up a good number of subscribers.

A Collection of Rift Beta Three Videos (HorRiftic Intentions)

8 videos!

Beta Leaps and Thoughts on Rift Longevity (Rift Watchers)

What most intrigues me is that Trion has consistently hinted that there is a whole lot they can do with this system that we haven’t even thought of. They’ve referred to it as a content delivery system more than once. That’s more than simply dynamic content, that’s a means for streaming new and exciting stuff to us. It’s probably one of the most innovative and under-highlighted aspects to the whole game. There is the potential there for more than just rifts and footholds.

Beta Event #4 – Warfronts! – to Begin January 7th! (Rift Watchers)

They are moving right along! This will be the instanced PvP beta. I wonder if release is nearing?

[Regolyth]

Rift soul system impressions (Tobold's MMORPG Blog)

The harder task for Trion is how to balance that all.

This is my biggest concern, especially being a PvPer.

[Morreion]

They seem to have a fatalistic view on class balance, or maybe they plan to buff up the weaker side with NPCs or stat boosts. In an interview Scott Hartsman seemed to not be overly concerned. It will be interesting to see how they handle this.

[Morreion]

Thread: Rift Set to Launch March 1, 2011 (Rift official forums)

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif. – January 4, 2011 – Trion Worlds, a global publisher and developer of premium online games, today announced that the upcoming MMORPG Rift™ is scheduled to launch in North America on March 1st and in Europe on March 4th. Today also marks the start of the game’s pre-order program through both digital and retail channels.

Subscription Information (Rift official site)

Thread: Rift Collector's Edition Details! (Rift official site)

Thread: Rift Pre-Order FAQ- UPDATED (Rift official site)

Preview- Rift (Paragus Rants Blog on MMORPG.com)

The newbie areas kind of surprised me with the shear amount of chaos going on around you when you walk outside the starting building. For a game that seemed hell bent on holding my hand and coddling me in the tutorial, the starter areas drops new players in the middle of some sort of massive battle where monsters seem to be mounting some sort of assault. These standard quests lead you through pushing through their line ultimately up to a rift encounter which introduces you to one of the key mechanics the game is based around. Overall graphically, the game struck me as a little underwhelming at first. The graphics are clearly nowhere near the Aion level, but on par or slightly better then Warhammer Online (although its been a while since I've played WAR so I could be mistaken). I think once I got out of the chaos of the starter area, the graphics and performance seemed to increase substantially. By the time you step foot in the real world, your character will have chosen 2 more souls (classes) to accompany your primary class you originally picked.

Them's fightin' words: RIFT commercial takes on WoW (Massively)

Includes the 30-second commercial video!

Crafting in Rift : Part 1 – Reader Submitted Q&A (Ten Ton Hammer)
Rift devs crack open the recipe book on crafting, rarity, guild benefits, and augments.

Your skilling up recipes that you will use to level up will come from your trainers. There will be recipes in other parts of the world. They can drop off of mobs, rift vendors, reputation vendors, and crafting daily quests, which will reward you with recipes. To get through crafting, you can just use the trainer recipes. If you want to be the best in your craft and have the most diverse amount of recipes, you’re going to be out in the world doing quests and searching for drops.

Crafting in Rift: Part 2 – Reader Submitted Q&A (Ten Ton Hammer)
Rift devs crack open the recipe book on crafting, rarity, guild benefits, and augments.

There are rare components that are rare drops throughout the world. We have drops off of rifts that can be rare. We also do have certain harvest nodes that spawn very infrequently in the highest level areas or in instances, so we can get very rare with those. There also will be rarer hides and cloths that will drop off of mobs. It’s just the frequency with which you can harvest them or their drop rate.

Gardening gone bad: RIFT's Runic Descent revealed (Massively)

Runic Descent challenges teams of five players to band together and cull the bad weeds of a twisted garden that sits beside the ancient Dwarven city of Hammerknell. In so doing, the players will aid the Dwarves' attempt to reclaim their heritage while uprooting world-corrupting magic. And if there's madcap looting in the process? Nobody will complain.

RIFT beta events: Impressions from the staff (Massively)

The polished UI, the fun character-building system, the familiar feel and the terrific animations are little things that add up to a worthwhile package, so I'm certainly inclined to keep on playing at this point. I just want to see more massive rift invasions and tackle a few dungeons before I come to any long-lasting opinion on the game.

Enter at Your Own Rift: Community guide to RIFT (Massively)

If you couldn't tell, this is the maiden voyage of Massively's weekly column devoted to Trion World's upcoming MMO, RIFT. We've been excited about this game for a while now, and with the NDA drop, the announcement of the launch date, news of the collector's edition, and upcoming beta events, it's as good a time as any to start talking about this addictive fantasy experience. Karen Bryan and I will be trading off weeks to cover RIFT from our different vantage points, and we're pretty geeked at the prospect.

How to Have Fun in Rift (Ace of Grapes Wine Co.)

The reason the MMOs have become so formulaic, is because the reasons why we play them have never changed. We look forward to Guild Wars 2, Tera, Blade and Soul and others, for the exact same reasons. We have enjoyed games like Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Oblivion and others, for the exact same reasons. We loved EverQuest, Dark Age of Camelot, StarWars: Galaxies, Neverwinter Nights, Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, and others, for the exact same reasons. Notice, not all of those are MMOs. The point of that is to illustrate that MMOs aren't the only games who present that formula to us, and aren't the only ways to enjoy them.

MMOs are not complicated. We are not hard to market to.

We're just hard to please.

On Souls (Ace of Grapes Wine Co.)

Think of all the RPGs you have ever played. Which character did you enjoy the most? Chances are, you can recreate a play style that is similar in this game. So again, the actual names of the souls themselves aren't quite as relevant as people expect them to be.

[Guide] A Warrior's Soul (Ace of Grapes Wine Co.)

Warriors are a great calling in Rift. They provide ample amounts of the three roles assigned to their calling. Tanks (Paladin, Reaver, Void Knight), DPS (Paragon, Champion, Riftblade, Beastmaster), and support (Warlord). The ability to fashion almost any sort of play style you desire, is there within each calling, and the Warrior offers up some very interesting possibilities. I encourage people to look at the souls as tools, tools which they can use to fashion the kind of play style they wish to have with their character.

[Build] The Battle Cleric (Ace of Grapes Wine Co.)

Shamans also get a shield at level 10. It worked out to be anywhere from 20-40% of my hp at any given time depending on buffs. It's a fixed value, but the fixed value of new ranks was pretty awesome (towards the 30-40% area) while coming down as I leveled up into and past that rank (the 20-30% area).

[Morreion]

Will Trion World’s Rift online game kill World of WarCraft? (interview) (Venture Beat)

VB: What is your marketing message these days about your game being the “WOW killer”?

DR: Well, to be clear, no one in Trion has ever said that, and I don’t think anybody in Trion ever will. If you look at the lineage of great MMOs, starting with Ultima Online, you see generational improvements. Ultima Online was the first commercial success in the MMO business, but it was two-dimensional and weighted toward players fighting other players. That wasn’t much fun for the new players. EverQuest came along with 3D animation and players fighting against the environment. It was a real commercial success and it was prettier. Still, it had its bugs. World of WarCraft came along in 2004. It was an improvement on what came before and it was very polished. Within that game, you could have some great solo experiences. Other games have tried to emulate it.

We think of Rift as the next step in that evolution of product.

Why Should a WoW Player Give Rift a Shot? (HorRiftic Intentions)

Do you want to see a game in which you can be almost anything you can think of? A tank one second, a healer the next and DPS after that. WoW has that in Druid and Paladins. Rift has that everywhere. Do you want a game in which you can pick from multiple talent trees and build a character to your strengths? Rift has that and with a lot more control than WoW.

Why Rift is the First Real “Answer” to World of Warcraft (Rift Watchers)

Little Caveat: I’m not saying that Rift is perfect or “the answer” to what everyone wants in an MMO. Or that it’s necessarily better than any of the games listed below. I’m a lifetimer to LotRO and have found things to enjoy in each of the other ones. This is really just about design and target audience.

Response: How Rift Answers WoW – Specifically (Rift Watchers)

I think the main differences between WAR and Rift, and where the “answer” part of it comes in specifically, is:

- Rift focuses on PvE. Quests are pretty standard, but Rifts, very similar to PQs, break things up a bit and can’t be ignored. Rifts (not footholds/invasions) are also dynamic based on the people in zone, so you won’t wind up being overrun when there’s too few people around… like 2AM.

Rift Dev Blog #4: The Challenge of Dynamic Content (ZAM)
In the latest installment of our exclusive dev blog series, Content Designer Will Cook explains the challenges and perks of adding dynamic content to Rift.

The Greatness that is Trion Continues. (HorRiftic Intentions)

I love Trion Worlds. I really, really do. I have never, ever seen a MMO developer that is as receptive to the community and as caring. They not only communicate, the listen. Take a look at past patch notes if you don’t believe me. They want to get this game right and they are doing everything they can to do it.

MMO Design Lessons from Hannibal Lecter and Why Combat Needs Fixing in RIFT (Wolfshead Online)

Too often we’ve seen new MMOs enjoy a burst of popularity only to end up in obscurity after a few months after the novelty is gone and the MMO tourists return home. The only way for Trion to avert disaster is to prioritize their resources on a few key features and polish them to perfection. This should be done in this order: combat, classes and dynamic content. All three of these things will either make or break this MMO. I hope they are humble enough to realize this and address these problems before RIFT goes live in March of this year.

The Codex added to RIFT's PvP weekend (Massively)

Aside from the already-announced Black Garden warfront, players in the 20-29 level range will be able to take part in the Codex battle. It's a chance for Defiants and Guardians to cross swords for control of the eponymous artifact with unknown purpose.

Warfronts star in the RIFT beta 4 patch notes (Massively)

The most significant change to RIFT's beta is the increase of the level cap -- to 27 -- and the unlocking of the Stonefield and Gloamwood zones.

Rift: The Righteous Justicar
Trion Worlds and the Rift development team have partnered with MMORPG.com to bring you a continuing lore series. This week is the final episode of "Defiant to the End" and is subtitled "The Righteous Justicar". It's an action-packed story that comes with exclusive screenshots. Read on!

Cool “Moments” are not “Dynamic Content” (Keen & Graev)

The same thing is going to happen in GW2. The events will be really awesome little moments with zero lasting impact on the world or the players. A bridge will fall, an NPC killed, and moments later it will all mean nothing to the next player who walks by. That isn’t dynamic content, at least by my definition.

Trion totally has the right idea here. I think what they have implemented so far is fantastic. Now just do with it what needs to be done and go that extra mile so that it actually matters.

Reflections On My First Day In Rift Beta #4 (Game By Night)

So, I re-rolled a cleric. Apparently, everyone else had the same idea because you couldn’t go more than ten feet without running into one of the Free Realms fairies. That’s our pet. They’re good for healing, which is why most people spec into them, but they look less than heroic.

Rift PvP: A look at Warfronts and Destroying! (Rift Watchers)

Overall I think the pvp is a nice touch in Rift. I think the differences in soul combos and the inability to size up an opponent by their gear is awesome. The preview of the Warfront experience was nice, although I think Black Garden needs some tweaking. I have a hard time defining or predicting how important pvp will be to the Rift player base. I can say that there is enough there so far to keep those who enjoy some pvp really happy. Those who want to play pvp exclusively in Rift will have a harder time carving out your experience, but should have a lot of fun if you are willing to look for some world pvp whilst waiting for your Warfront Queues. Overall, the experience has made me excited to see more and I will be watching how pvp in Rift develops.

Jack's Black Book of Rogues: The Assassin (Ace of Grapes Wine Co.)

All of that reminiscing about stabbing people while wearing a robe and wizard hat is to say, that Assassins are a very solid soul, that many people will probably instantly be familliar with, that will prove to become nastier and nastier as the great ones start distinguishing themselves.