On Pets: After Rift

I realize i'm not really a fan of collecting in-game pets. Atleast the way that Trion implemented them in Rift, it wasn't too big a draw for me as some bloggers I read about. Besides getting an achievement eventually, you can only display one pet at a time. They don't provide any boosts, barely look cool and because of this, I normally forget about summoning them when I play.

Even worse was that death rift glow item from the first Live Event. It looked very cool, but you'd forget to use it often. After I purchased it for all my characters, I couldn't have used it more than 5 times. Not to mention most people bought that item too, so it wasn't that special.

Warhammer Online also didn't do a very good job in regards to companion pets.. only giving them as rewards for getting people to signup for the game. Their equivalent to companion pets (I imagine) was the trinkets which could be displayed on the character. Great idea, rather unique b/c it was hard to acquire these trinkets, BUT barely visible on the character. Only if you were doing nothing (ie. waiting in keeps during defence locks) would you be inspecting other players, and even then, you're not doing it straight on the screen; you're doing this via their paperdoll.
Useless.

Quiet Farewell

I guess last night was the last time i'd log into Rift. I figured with my continued night shift schedule that I'd have little time to give out little gift bags personally to my guildies. Sorry if I missed you, I actually sent so many messages, that the system warned me that I sent out too many.

Take care friends and have fun!

Onto new adventures!

Elusive

Its interesting: feeling the need to hit max level in a game that no longer interests me.

I'm extremely excited to play some more of the new Magic the Gathering game, pay 10$ and get a new Fallout: New Vegas expansion.

2 levels is all I need. Two.
But for what? To say that I actually did it. That I wasn't a total alt-oholic and had billions of avatars without hitting the max level and finding out what the end-game was like. To set the record straight, had I not regressed and made (only one)a character of each class, I would have easily hit lvl 50 a while ago. It was just a really fun game that made nearly (I made a cleric but didn't get to play much of it) every class a fun and refreshing experience.

It does feel a bit empty having hyped Rift so much, and to only stop my journey at lvl 48, only 3 months in.
I feel that Rift didn't allow me to be too unique, I couldnt' really stand out in the crowd. The dye system wasn't the best. Mounts were relatively cheap when you got to higher lvls (and if you utilized the AH). Companion pets were a dime a dozen if you spent the time hunting/buying artifacts or doing Live Events or even rifted alot. I remembered the big guilds, but what did they really do, other than keep to themselves?
People seem to be much more in a rush to get that next shiney, than to help each other, shoot the breeze, etc.

What have I accomplished?
Met some great guildies and played with bloggers I follow.
Found a new game I could enjoy exploring with my girlfriend.
Discovered unique locations and unlocked achievements that (possibly I imagine) few gamers did.
Dominated pvp matches and was a vital part of a team when organized.

I'll phrase it like my girlfriend and ask: Is it bad that I place getting to max level higher than some of those other achievements?

The Same Numbers

A few more minutes in Rift led to many minutes last night, a whole lot of grinding, lvl 48, and a new soul specc that I'll need to try out again. Still, it feels like a chore to level up my character... almost there.

Duel of the Planeswalkers 2012 is available on Steam in about 5 minutes from time of writing.. I'll let you know soon how it is..

Tron-ish

Now armed with Photoshop, I've found less time to complete the quest to lvl 50 in Rift...

Atleast i'm doing something productive ;)
Happy Friday everyone!

Up close and personal

Haven't had much time to game these days; leveling my 46.5 Mage in Rift feels like a chore.
I finally got Photoshop and was able to touch up some photos such as this macro shot.

I'm testing a theory out (since i'm still a macro newbie), but with a higher f-number I should have more of the shot in focus. There seems to be a very small area of detail in focus when using a macro lens versus other lens.
It was kind disheartening that I took over 100 photos over the weekend at the cottage only to find about 4 that were ok.
Practice practice practice I suppose.

We missed the Anime North 2 weekends ago... FanExpo is at the end of August. Don't Forget!

Beneath my Feet

After looking at Hunter's entry and looking at the first concept art,

the thought occured to me: mmo's map design is always horizontal and never truly vertical. Very infrequently are we spending time on different levels such as an underground, ground-level and above ground area. There will be small areas in which there is an underground area, but the whole of mmo design doesn't accomodate that.

Think of WoW, there is the Undercity which is underground and has different 'levels'. It still takes up a separate area than the rest of the map as in, nothing occupies the highest lvl of Undercity, just invisible walls.

When I think of Rift, there are castles in which corridors have multiple levels. The Defiant captial, Meridian, has a mage tower with multiple levels separated with teleporters and tries to give the sense that you're going higher up. There is Lantern Hook, a high lvl city which had levels hollowed into a huge rockface. Scarlet Gorge was a great example of giving a sense of depth; being at the top of the gorge or at the very bottom, or even areas underground.

Aion did a cool job with flight and having items of interest floating in the air.

But look back at that photo.


Imagine an mmo world where (say, for example) you started off in the underground area with plot talking about how one day instead of looking up into the sky, you'll find a way to the surface and be able to look down from where you came from. A truly two-plus level game world. Instead of looking at how big a mmo's land mass is, one will need to take into consideration of the underground AND above ground areas that occupy the same space. Sure, this concept (especially above ground areas: think floating islands) may not be applicable to some lore, but it can in many fantasy settings.

This reminds me of rpg Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark. You started off in a tavern of sorts and you are forced to dig deeper and deeper in the dungeons/maze to find the villan. It felt like you were getting incredibly deeper instead of going farther in distance away from your origin. But as a D&D type of game, its levels are not truly connected as an mmo world normally is (no loading screens).

I understand the trepidation of designing such a world though; people have a hard enough time navigating the normal game world, hence the need to indicate waypoints or have a map that shows where to complete quests. And that is only on one plane of design; I myself get confused sometimes when a quest navigator shows me where to complete the quest and I don't realize the quest components are hidden underground. That, and for some people navigating different levels without a defined 'ground' and 'sky' may cause nausea.

Monotony

Most people will never look up in Shimmersand, and they will miss a view/design such as that.

I wish the rifts in RIFT was a bit more robust; it is a very one-dimensional mechanic of the game. Monsters spawn, you kill it, and another wave comes. Keep killing them until the end boss comes and then once you kill the boss, the rift is sealed.

Invasions require a bit more thought; balancing your raid between offensive (sealing rifts) and defensive (protecting wardstones) duties. But in the end, its always the same: 50 people beating up on one boss with a huge amount of life. No thinking, no strategy, just spam. Spam that attack or heal like crazy. If you die thats just one less person providing dps, so the boss just dies a bit slower (glass half empty).

Warhammer Online got the public quests right in that they were all different and seemed like there was some story behind it. It wasn't well implemented as PvP was king, but for those that liked doing PvE, it did provide pretty nice incentives. In the first Live Event for Rift, there were two special rifts that seemed almost like a PQ a la WAR, where you had to kill werewolves or golems.. but it quickly reverted to the normal rifts of old :P

You've got mail

After reading an article by Hunter, I'd like to throw out my option on a different mail system.

A system built into your character inventory UI or a separate window that doesn't require the user to be at a mailbox. It would granted unlimited access to both the mail system AND the auction house. Mail would not expire, but would require you to select either to keep the mail, delete the mail, or send back the mail.

I disagree on the need to have mailboxes and auction houses to have social hubs; i've used the mailbox and auction house system more in Rift than I have in any other mmo combined (literally), and i've never found it to be a very social experience. Most people silently open their mail, send out what the need, sell or buy from the auction house and thats it. With zonewide, lvl-wide and worldwide chat (among others), there is little social interaction at these hubs. If anything, it is a bit of an annoyance of having to go to a mailbox or auction house to get what you need; it may break immersion a bit, but alot of people aren't fully reading the story or soaking in the views of the mmo anyways. Convenience and shiney's is what most people are seeking. It is the same thing at the crafting stations in the capital cities; its not social at all. People are silently crafting and lvling their skill; there is the odd poke when you spot a guild member that hasn't noticed you crafting right next to them. When they're done, they just log out or do something else; but they're not doing anything while they craft, and if they're socializing, it must be via guild chat channels b/c I don't see anything on the normal channels.

How, would you make an mmo a more social experience? I think that is what these Live Events are for; to get people working together in the same goal, talking about how to tackle it and just in general. Rifts, i suppose, was supposed to foster this, but there is little social aspects to it as people usually just mark on the map where to head to for the next rift. I find there is actually more social aspects when participating in pvp than there is in rifting. People are usually barking out orders, trying to devise a counter-strategy or complaining during pvp.

Dedication

I was reading Tipa's entry on the Sony debacle and it got me thinking; if the PSN system has been down for so long, what happens to the gamers, in particular the mmo gamers? Unlike other console games, where if they were for some reason prevented from playing a certain game, they would put in another game and play that in the meanwhile. An mmo gamer is typically different, are they not? Some people have a huge stable of games they play per fellow bloggers like Tipa. Most of them I notice though, all require internet connection. Similar to my entries on Steam, if you don't have internet connection, or Steam is down, you can't get access to your game even if you just want to play single player.

If you lose access to all your games for such a long time (2+ weeks now?), what do you think will happen to your interest? Will it increase exponentially making you crave it even more and have a binge-fest when its available again? Or will your interest drop as you find different things to occupy your time? What would you do if your favorite form of entertainment was unavailable to you for a long time period?

Rift is my main and only game at this time; a week before it came out, I had upgraded my pc, ram, video card and operating system. I enjoyed the smoothness of Borderlands, liked how L4D2 didn't crash constantly, and was pleased as punch that Dungeons (by Kalypso) would actually load the map! But then came Rift and that changed.

I generally spend 'a bit' of time every day of Rift and just like the other day's thought.. i wondered what would happen if I stopped Rift, what would I do? I know i'd spend more time on msn talking to the gf instead. I'd be on Steam looking for new upcoming games. I'd spend more time taking photos and touching them up on Lightroom or Photoshop. I may do more research on Guild Wars 2, but heres the catch, I think my interest in mmo's would fade; ever since the days of UO, Shadowbane, etc has mmo's been at the top of my interest. Nothing is more rewarding or fun. And now, I don't think i'd return to one if I ended Rift. There is a fantastic community aspect to mmo's which I truly enjoy, but there is a boatload of upcoming games that need to be experienced. And with each iteration/generation (?) of game, the quality increases to a very interesting level; never one to play first person shooters, I fell in love with Borderlands and enjoyed the freshness of Left for Dead. Feeling nostalgic, I got Dungeons. Hoping for the best, I look forward to Diablo 3, Dungeon Seige 3 and Heroes 6. Fallout 3 and New Vegas brought rpgs to a new level of detail, graphics and story that had me at 100+ hrs played and was forced to stop due to bugs (which reminds me of another game to go back to).

If your game system was inoperable for an extended period of time, what do you think you'll do instead?

Lacking Character

I was thinking today how much life would change if I stopped playing Rift and mmo's in general. It was a thought I took back right away, but I figure i'd write about it to flesh out my feelings on the matter.

Something changed from WAR to Rift in that I didn't enjoy pvp or atleast Rift's version of pvp that I didn't start doing it until my friend or gf wanted to do so. I am/was perfectly content in doing pve and rifting. The rifts were enjoyable with the big swirly colors, the dynamics of the invasions that were always random, it wasn't perfect, but it was different. Artifact collection was a more tangible and unique reward in Rift and reminded me of the collections in Farmville. When I didn't feel rushed, I would read the quest text and learn the interesting story of the war between the Guardians and Defiants.

Unfortunately my gf loves pvp and I can't blame her, she loves to heal as her bard and she's very good at it (typically top dps by 50k). It also didn't help that I did very well myself in whatever role I picked (dps, healing, tanking/harassing) as it would perpetuate the pvp matches. Granted we won alot, it wasn't my cup of tea. Winning (actually) can get boring; but losing gets boring even more. Then you run into disorganized warfronts where everyone is being rather selfish and just doing what they want (say, all dps and no healers, or tanks). No one has a strategy, or everyone is spouting their own orders. Everyone is complaining, pointing fingers and it turns into a chat room (chatting instead of playing) instead of being a competitive warfront. Then you encounter cases like last night; snotty teens (?) that taunt you from your opponent's side who tell you to "L2P" and make other rude remarks. Although I try not to let it bother me, it does, me being a rather competitive person and don't like to get into verbal sparring matches.

When I step back from it all; there should be no reason to be upset at cases like above; wherever you are, whether in an mmo, console online game or real life, we're bound to encounter griefers aka douches. They win if you get upset. Think of it differently: big talk from stealth pvp rogues. I need to classify that kind of player versus other kinds of rogues. There are rogues like my gf who play the helpful bard to heal their companions, or the ranger rogue who likes to have a companion on their travels (meat shield). There are the rogues that I play that are used to properly contain a group of monsters into manageable sizes or used to explore and find puzzles and artifacts while bypassing mobs. These stealth pvp rogues are people that are selfish and rude, that must hide in the dark and stab people from the back instead of in their face, and then laugh about it out loud. For your information, there is a very nice squirrel build waiting for you next time.

Whatever happened to "GG" at the end of the match, or giving thanks to the healers for the good job they did? Thanking the leader and party for a good raid and good loot/rewards. Being satisfied with the way a game is built, not being so obsessed with rewards but with intrinsic rewards instead. Saluting, waving, bowing and other emotes that do not including giving the bird or tea-bagging. High levels helping or being generous to lowbies. Having courteous and polite dialogues.

There are alot of good games out (Dungeons 2, Borderlands, L4D2, etc) and even more coming out (Diablo 3, Dungeon Seige 3, Heroes of Might and Magic 5/6 whichever). Today when I had my thought, I wanted a change; I wanted to try something new for a while without having to pay for a service i'm not currently using. I knew I would miss my guildies, my new friends. Knew that it was my primary form of entertainment which felt like it (mmo's vs non-mmo) gave better relaxation. Knew that this was a shared interest between my gf and I that we could do over a distance. Alot of plusses that make the minor irritants seem small.

I think what ill do is play the way I like; to not get bristled by people's rudeness (karma will find a way). To play pve and do rifting. To not be too worried about the race to lvl 50 but enjoy the journey there. To do pvp only when I feel like it and change the circumstance to be more favorable (organized premades). To spend time chasing those elusive shineys but to find time in RL for other important activities.

Shifting Sands

I was making at comment over the Mmogamerchick's blog, and noticed her second screenshot. It was her and some other raiders on their mounts, chasing after a fire rift. What came to mind was the desert sand... it all looked the same..

What i'd like to see in a future iteration of an mmo is being able to see that tracks of other players. Games these days all talk about dynamic events and breakable buildings. How about seeing the tracks of other players? How nifty would it be to try to track the player that killed you out in the wilderness by follow his/her trail through the grass? Or finding a cool landmark/achievement by following what someone else has done. I'd love to see this feature implemented; i'm one to go off the beaten path and explore every inch of the map; its one of the things I really have come to appreciate in playing my first melee dps stealth class.

If one wants to look at it as an area of immersion, how realistic is it that your raid/warband has just finished a massive fight/invasion of rift creatures, and the land doesn't appear as if there was a war going on? All there is are spotches on the landscape of the corrupted/altered lands where rift portals were. There were a few hundred people, animals and creatures rampaging about, and you're going to tell me there is no other trace of that?

Trion's implementation of artifact hunting was very well done and implementing a footprint/tracking system would work hand-in-hand.

Need or Greed, that is the question..

To add to Syp's entry (people lining up to get access to a non-bugged gold sack); I find the Rift is either a) a game with a different breed of players, b) generous/non-greedy players, c) full of noobs.

My guildie was trying to get our opinion the other night on what we do when those small packages (that can contain planarite, rift consumables, or rift essences etc) drop from rifting: whether we Need or Greed them. In many mmo's that i've played, people are very greedy and always Need them, whether they actually need them or not. In Rift, i've found the majority (80%+) of players just Greed them. Maybe its the fact that if you do alot of rifting that they drop like candy, that the rewards within aren't that great anyways, or that you get them anyways and these ones are just extras, but people really don't seem too interested in rolling for them.

I guess if the rewards within were more precious and rare, people would be selecting Need more often. My general rule of thumb has always been to select Greed unless there is one person that is always selecting Need, then ill select Need as well.

I kinda wish Trion would implement a loot system similar to the one they implemented in WAR where you can set your loot threshold. That would be cool; nothing is worse that accumulating loot to be rolled for and when selecting an option, an additional popup warns you that it will bind to you as well.

Dear Forum Trolls

Thats what I think of you. :P

Everything can't be perfect with a game. And we've been spoiled by Trion's low amount of bugs and high amount of polish. Maybe its the fact that it is something that appears quickly and disappears quickly too due to high population, but bugged cursed coin bags is annoying.

Happy Friday, and it's Mother's Day this weekend.(another commercialized day, but you should still try to do something special for your mum)

Cloned Rifts

I would like in future iterations of Rift (aka patches) to have different looks to both the rift itself and the monsters that come out of it.

For example, there is a rift in Scarwood which you can tell right off the bat that it is badass. Big rocks being suspended in the air, huge monsters flying about. And when you actually select the monsters, they are that scary devil horns icon meaning you better run far far away. Or take pictures:

It is my opinion that rifts should look different and evolve as you gain experience as an Ascended.
Stop giving me the standard look of monsters; the same kind you grind in quest areas. Last night while questing with my girlfriend, I blindly tackled a group of life rift invaders. Only, they didn't die very quickly. I was specced to be my aoe tank (and thus dismissed that thought), so when i saw another group of life invaders, I didn't make an effort to move out of the way and just aggroed them as well. Only then did I realize that I just tackled elites. Ever hear of elite mini spiders? Me neither. And thus I died.

How many times have I ran into an elite monster thinking it was just a standard rift monster? Too many times.
Shouldn't they sparkle or have some kind of appearance change?

For players of Heroes of Might and Magic, you could upgrade your creatures. Granted they nearly looked identical to the un-upgraded form, they were atleast different colors.

Once you've closed one kind of rift, you've closed them all. Every death, life, water, fire, etc rift look the same. Some have water rifts have a conch or water flora, while the death rifts have those spikes coming out at random and i can accept it b/c there are so many rifts that spawn. BUT. There should be differences in appearances between standard and elite rifts as well as a Freemarch (lvl 1-15+)rift and (say) Droughtlands (35+) rifts. Maybe we're taking it for granted (already) but I feel like these rifts are like the monster generators from Gauntlet.

Pitiful monsters stream out of the generator until they're destroyed. I do feel that the game can tell how many people are participating in rifting as the monsters do seem to be a bit stronger/more spawn. But I don't think it can tell when people leave the area, nor does it get strong enough to repel a zerg (say a raid that defeated the invasion boss). Maybe that is the point, that as a zerg, you can destroy everything and it isn't challenging. Its times like that I wish I was in a pvp server and there were tiers a la WAR which would make all lvl 50 Guardians in Scarwood turn into chickens in which I could one-shot :P

But I digress: Trion, when you have time, to increase immersion, change the looks of rifts and rift creatures.
Thanks

A Simpler Time

I can barely remember now these days what the UI in Ultima Online was like. Can you?
It was mostly a bare screen.. a radar/map..maybe your health & mana bar?

I never even had that many things open at one time.. only the radar and the screen was full, and not occupying the top left :P

Trion implemented a nice area map (via M) which goes transparent when you move which is a nice touch. I was thinking of maybe taking that a step further by making your whole UI go transparent whenever you are travelling. The only things that should possibly stay visible are instant cast spells, and possibly the radar. If you took damage, maybe your health bar would re-appear.

More appreciating the scenery than cuttering up your screen with gaudy windows and text.

Its just like everything else..

And just like that, *click* i'm not having too much fun with Rift.
Maybe its just the mood i'm in, or the lowered guild attendance, but I just don't seem to enjoy it as much as I normally do.
I spent one night trying to get the "Dances with Squirrels" title for my Dominator specc, only to die constantly and waste a good hour in lowbie areas (still couldn't find the squirrels either).
The past two nights i've been losing every single warfront. Granted they're all pugs, but when its your own teammates *cough Mclovin@Sunrest cough* that is the most annoying part, there is a problem.
Lack of healers.. whiney turtlers.. and complainey rogues... just makes for a not fun night.

le sigh

Having enough healers is one of the most important things imho to winning pvp.
I picked Defiant on Faeblight so that I could (1) join my fellow bloggers in a guild and (2) because Defiants seemed to be alot cooler than the zealot Guardians.
What I failed to realize, just like Warhammer Online, in my opinion, the 'good' side tends to have more people inclined to heal rather than dps. In most matches, there is only 1 or 2 clerics, and most rogues don't use bard. Remember, a dead dps does zero dps.

My brother's interesting take: It doesn't matter how good you are, what matters is how bad your worst players are.
My brother and his friends play Modern Warfare 2 online and slaughters his competition. He normally has a 5:1 kill ratio and in the original Modern Warfare, he got 2 nuclear bombs (like a 25 kill steak NON sniper) in consecutive matches. He says, that even though him and his friends are killing machines, they occasionally lose b/c their teammates die so much and drag the team down.
Observing what is happening in these warfronts, I do agree, these people that complain in the warfront does a double whammy: 1) they aren't playing, so thats like being short one player and 2) their negativity can/will affect other players on the SAME team.

I'm taking a break for a short while.

Mass Exodus

Numbers are deceptive

A decrease in number of hours (via XFire) can mean many things which does include people quitting the game. Quitting the game isn't always a negative ding to Trion. Just take last night when I had logged into my rogue and found my long lost friend had sent 25 pieces of mail: his whole wealth accumulated in a little over a month. It was my signal that he had quit the game. Had he lost interest, did something turn him off? He partially lost interest in the genre (mmo) and wanted more balance in his life.

A decrease in number of hours can mean other positive things such as:
- hitting the level cap and doing other things that don't require alot of time put in

- making alts and knowing how to complete quests and lvling faster than the first time
- logging in to complete dailies or focusing on certain areas of the game that they enjoy
- logging in to chit chat with guildies

This is not the flag you're looking for......

Myself, I try to play less these days and have more control (RL balance). There is less urgency to get to max level and i'm enjoying questing and pvp with my gf. It/Rift has grown to become more popular and more enjoyable for me but at the same time, missing a day or two isn't the end of the world or mean that i've lost interest.

In mmo's numbers is king and server population is key. I like it that 99% of the time these nights there is no queue but is still rather busy. The zones could use a handful more players, but when you concentrate on questing and enjoy rifting, having more players in the same area makes it harder. I think we need to stop stressing so much about the decreasing numbers in our mmo's and just enjoy the time and the game. Let the developers worry about the numbers.

Some Awareness

If I was a bit more artistically inclined, I'd design, print and wear some shirts to promote my political party of choice as I don't want the Canadian Conservatives back in power with all the controversies and the lack of cooperation that they are showing. I also didn't realize how short the political campaign is (like a month). In the US it felt like 3 months of campaigning across the country. Unfortunately right now the best I can do is blog about it and throw in a gaming article too so it doesn't get too political!

My shirt would read: After what i've seen, I'd rather vote Bloc than Conservatives!
The back would say: Vote Liberal!

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And now back to our regularly scheduled program...

Why do game developers bother with Tattoos?

unless your character is female, when you have full armor on your character, you will never see those tattoos again. I would spend more time designing more armor sets and cosmetic dyes than designing tats.

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If you like buying funny shirts, try going here

My coworker Wolfman buys from there and says the only drawback is you can only ship one item at a time... odd..

WHAT?: Better Communication

I agree with Pete from Dragonchasers; a good idea of Trion would be to make better use of the Patch UI when loading up the game. Not everyone spends their time on the forums or on the official website to look for news. The only reason I knew of the original live event to a great detail is because I went to a fellow blogger's site and read up on it. We all need to go through the patcher to open the game, so putting news there just makes logical sense.

Another idea would be to have news and information on the loading screens; whether it is the giant Rift beginning loading screen, or the screen when you login with your character or while you transition between zones via Porticulum. Having news posted there would get the word out alot more effectively than previously used methods.

I'm not too upset about missing the Stage 2/3 of the Live Event, just thought these would be some good improvements for a company that seems to be making an honest attempt at improving a game that I thoroughly enjoy already.

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Thank you guildies for running us through Foul Cascade!

I had recalled when Warhammer Online had the special promotion for WAR bloggers, where if they signed up for it, would get a nice in-game title. I kinda wish Trion would do the same. I've obviously been blogging about it ever since it launched and have given positive reviews which were honest opinions of my own experience. I think it would be nice to get some more traffic on this blog and enjoy a nice reward from Trion for helping promote their game.

I can think of two things off the top of my head that i'd want as a reward/perk:
1. An emote of your character pulling out a pad of parchment and writing something down.

2. Special in-game title

Any good suggestions of titles?