Rift!

So, I've been playing the beta of Rift for the last few days. It's an MMO so, really, if you don't know what that means, you aren't interested and should probably just head off to the next blog in your reading list.

Alright, all the non-mmo fans are gone now, right?

MMO's are weird because, in terms of subscribers, there's WoW with it's 12 million, or whatever it is now, subscribers, and then there's ALL the other MMO's added together with about 25% of the income of WoW split between them. Lots of those WoW players have been playing for years and they are burnt out, or just bored. This situation leads to people constantly hyping new MMO's as "WoW Killers". First there was EQ2, then Warhammer online, Aion, Conan, Lotro, none as successful, in terms of sunscribers, as WoW although all profitable and successful in their own ways. And yet, the hunt for the "WoW killer" continues and Rift is the current candidate. And that's really a shame because Rift is not a WoW killer. There is no WoW killer.

And it's really too bad that people are looking at Rift in comparison to WoW because the game is clearly a mashup of all of the greatest features from most of the best MMO's of the past ten or so years. It's got a friendly, useful, customizable, ui. A gentle learning curve. Actually useful Help. A story driven solo questing experience. Shinies, collections, PvP, battle-grounds, public quests, armor dyes, excellent music, beautiful vista's, etc. The list is really too long to enumerate. The important thing to know is that it's all done thoughtfully and in a way that is more bug free than many games that have been on the market for years.

Remember Richard Garriot's abortion Tabula Rasa? Remember how it was supposed to revolutionize everything about MMO's? And, remember how it was painfully exactly the same as all the other MMO's in the world but with guns! In space! And with an extra clunky first person / third person abortion of an interface! Well, Rift is NOT a revolutionary game. It is an evolutionary game. It gets a lot of the stuff right that all the other MMO's leave half developed, poorly thought out, and ineptly QA tested. It's a fantasy MMO, that part is nothing revolutionary. But, only having to click on one mobs body to loot the enormous pile of them laying dead at your feet? Now that's a welcome evolution.

So, should you buy Rift?

If you are looking for a "WoW killer", you should probably skip it because your expectations are going to prevent you from enjoying the game. Just keep playing wow.

If you are looking for a finely crafted mmo then you should check it out. Rift is an honest contender.

Let me use a music metaphor, if Rift were a band it would be a band that isn't unique or original but makes up for it by being honest, fun, interesting, well rounded and performed with the love of a craftsman.


--Abe