In a debut column at MMORPG.com, Joseph Sanicky wends his way back into World of Warcraft's Azeroth after a long time away and after finding a spectacular community in, of all places, Rift. Check out Joseph's thoughts about MMOs, community and World of Warcraft in his debut column. Leave your thoughts in the comments.

However, now a hole has been left in my life, an MMO sized hole that was left there when a game named Rift forced its way in where no MMO had before. What happened was the group of tight-knit friends I play League of Legends religiously with all pre-ordered Rift and said “Okay, we’ll see you in a few months if ever again!” This left me kind of devastated, so I immediately bought the deluxe version of Trion’s flagship game. Long story short, I leveled to max twice on two different servers, found a great guild, was working on progression material, and generally adoring the social aspect of the game. My vague, most likely incorrect memories of the boring gameplay World of Warcraft contained were being abolished by this new game and I couldn’t decipher a reason why it was so. Then when the world came crashing down around my cleric and she was left alone in the middle of a raid full of angry enemies it hit me, albeit with the force of a boss’ massive fist.

Read more of Joseph Sanicky's The WoW Factor: Rifting into Azeroth.

Spectacular community? Rift? I never played it myself but a friend has asked me several times already to come to his house to check it out. Whenever I did I noticed no chat whatsoever. Even when one of those rift things opened, there were only 3-4 players around and neither one of them said a signle word. A caster with a pet started attacking the elite mob without notice, without being buffed up -friend plays a cleric also- and got swiftly dealt with. After a few deaths another person joins the group -again no words have been spoken- and again starts attacking without buffs. He died, the caster died again and so did my friend. By the time they got back a highlvl had slain the mob right in front of their eyes.

So much for world content. Show me those battleground-thingies then. Again, not a word had been said except when a blue item got rolled for and the guy who couldn't even use it won. That's the first time I noticed any action in chat.

Show me a city then. Aaaah, chat at least. WTB this and WTS that. No LFG, no LFM, just WTS and WTB. It was a very uninspirational grey-ish looking square with what seemed like a few gazeboos here and there with trainers etc. in them.

No thank you. I'll stick to Lord of the Rings Online with a League of Legends game in between. Good luck to those in Rift.

Originally posted by EzequielBE

Spectacular community? Rift? I never played it myself but a friend has asked me several times already to come to his house to check it out. Whenever I did I noticed no chat whatsoever. Even when one of those rift things opened, there were only 3-4 players around and neither one of them said a signle word. A caster with a pet started attacking the elite mob without notice, without being buffed up -friend plays a cleric also- and got swiftly dealt with. After a few deaths another person joins the group -again no words have been spoken- and again starts attacking without buffs. He died, the caster died again and so did my friend. By the time they got back a highlvl had slain the mob right in front of their eyes.

So much for world content. Show me those battleground-thingies then. Again, not a word had been said except when a blue item got rolled for and the guy who couldn't even use it won. That's the first time I noticed any action in chat.

Show me a city then. Aaaah, chat at least. WTB this and WTS that. No LFG, no LFM, just WTS and WTB. It was a very uninspirational grey-ish looking square with what seemed like a few gazeboos here and there with trainers etc. in them.

 

No thank you. I'll stick to Lord of the Rings Online with a League of Legends game in between. Good luck to those in Rift.

 

in all fairness if your only experience of Rift is watching a friend play then your not really qualified to pass judgement on it.

Everyone has their own experiences, and frankly, population and it's chat can be booming on one server and extinct on the next.

Tonight, I will try the new PvP server on AoC. If that fails me, I might just hop back into WoW (Atleast for 7 days :)).

I have played Wow since it released i have 20 level 85 characters on two servers plus about 15 more 40ish to 60ish characters on 3 other servers and i am completely burned out on wow and stopped playing it a few months ago..

However i still think its the greatest mmo ever made and would advise anyone who has never tried it to give it a go, or anyone that hasnt played it in years to give it a go because a lot has changed and the game is fun from beginning to end game now...

Since leaving Wow no other mmo has even came close to filling the gap..

I've been playing MMO's since NWN on AOL, the first MMO years before UO or EQ. I have to say, WoW is one of the worst MMO's I've ever played hands down bar none. It's an insult as a role playing game. They copied EQ and didn't even copy the good parts of it. That's what you get when you hire EQ Uber guild leaders that don't understand what a role playing game is. Rift is an ok game, but again, it's more cut and paste of other games. It's an improvement over WoW, but it also has it's own issues. Again because they copied what everyone else has already done. The mistakes of EQ have left a long painful legacy in it's wake. Someday someone will make a game that will be new and invigorating and grind all these pretender role playing games under their feet. Maybe we'll get some glimpse of that in The Old Republic, but we'll have to wait and see.

Must confess that I'm tempted to try WoW again... its been four years since I last logged in.

But that is all for the contest, classes and races... how they've actually changed the game with the LFG tool, raid set focus, pvp arena, etc doesn't appeal to me, so keeps me from making the leap.

Tempted to return to Rift too, I miss the flexibility of the soul system.

Originally posted by Banegrivm

I've been playing MMO's since NWN on AOL, the first MMO years before UO or EQ. I have to say, WoW is one of the worst MMO's I've ever played hands down bar none. It's an insult as a role playing game. They copied EQ and didn't even copy the good parts of it. That's what you get when you hire EQ Uber guild leaders that don't understand what a role playing game is. Rift is an ok game, but again, it's more cut and paste of other games. It's an improvement over WoW, but it also has it's own issues. Again because they copied what everyone else has already done. The mistakes of EQ have left a long painful legacy in it's wake. Someday someone will make a game that will be new and invigorating and grind all these pretender role playing games under their feet. Maybe we'll get some glimpse of that in The Old Republic, but we'll have to wait and see.

Wait....what?  What parts of EQ that were so good did they not copy?  From my experience, Wow took EQ and got rid of all the BS and finally gave us a fun game that wasn't just about sitting in a party camping mobs and chatting with people, since in those days, that what that type of game was more about.  A glorified chatroom.  I would love to hear what you thought was so great that is missing in today's games.

Originally posted by elocke

Originally posted by Banegrivm

I've been playing MMO's since NWN on AOL, the first MMO years before UO or EQ. I have to say, WoW is one of the worst MMO's I've ever played hands down bar none. It's an insult as a role playing game. They copied EQ and didn't even copy the good parts of it. That's what you get when you hire EQ Uber guild leaders that don't understand what a role playing game is. Rift is an ok game, but again, it's more cut and paste of other games. It's an improvement over WoW, but it also has it's own issues. Again because they copied what everyone else has already done. The mistakes of EQ have left a long painful legacy in it's wake. Someday someone will make a game that will be new and invigorating and grind all these pretender role playing games under their feet. Maybe we'll get some glimpse of that in The Old Republic, but we'll have to wait and see.

Wait....what?  What parts of EQ that were so good did they not copy?  From my experience, Wow took EQ and got rid of all the BS and finally gave us a fun game that wasn't just about sitting in a party camping mobs and chatting with people, since in those days, that what that type of game was more about.  A glorified chatroom.  I would love to hear what you thought was so great that is missing in today's games.

 

 You know what? That what I miss from MMO. I never tried EQ but in SWG ( before all the change ) just getting a group, going to kill some rancor or killing tusken for Crystal,waiting for the respawn, chatting in a player city, its what I want to find in a MMO. Doing dungeon, back to back , it's boring in long term. People are just talking to tell you do this and dont do that. There's no real community.  There's no real communication because you can port to the dungeon directly.You don't have time to speak with the group because you teleport, you pull ,you kill. Rinse and repeat.

I loved to walk 5 min in a desert to go somewhere, giving you time to chat with the other persone before doing something.

You can call that a glorified chatroom, I call that an amazing experience that I can't find in any game.

Haven't read the full thing yet, but you said

"Then when the world came crashing down around my cleric and she was left alone in the middle of a raid full of angry enemies it hit me, albeit with the force of a boss’ massive fist."

Does that mean all those people you were gaming with up and left outa the blue also? I see a trend that most people that play Rift, just one day get up and say, the heck is Rift? They do not care one bit about logging in.

Originally posted by XiThRyL

Haven't read the full thing yet, but you said

"Then when the world came crashing down around my cleric and she was left alone in the middle of a raid full of angry enemies it hit me, albeit with the force of a boss’ massive fist."

Does that mean all those people you were gaming with up and left outa the blue also? I see a trend that most people that play Rift, just one day get up and say, the heck is Rift? They do not care one bit about logging in.

 

Yup.  We had 16 for Greenscale's Blight, so we were going to clear the first boss (because it was possible with 16).  We got to the boss and half our raid just up and logged out becuase they were frustrated/bored, and we wiped.

It was very abrupt.  Apparently my guild in Rift has been getting a lot of new recruits, but again that is just the same thing I was doing back then, gearing up recruits to have the quit and join a bigger guild.  That was no fun at all.

Originally posted by sanman7890

Originally posted by XiThRyL

Haven't read the full thing yet, but you said

"Then when the world came crashing down around my cleric and she was left alone in the middle of a raid full of angry enemies it hit me, albeit with the force of a boss’ massive fist."

Does that mean all those people you were gaming with up and left outa the blue also? I see a trend that most people that play Rift, just one day get up and say, the heck is Rift? They do not care one bit about logging in.

 

 

Yup.  We had 16 for Greenscale's Blight, so we were going to clear the first boss (because it was possible with 16).  We got to the boss and half our raid just up and logged out becuase they were frustrated/bored, and we wiped.

 

It was very abrupt.  Apparently my guild in Rift has been getting a lot of new recruits, but again that is just the same thing I was doing back then, gearing up recruits to have the quit and join a bigger guild.  That was no fun at all.

 

oops, if I really did put an empty post :\

Yah that kinda stinks, I was enjoying my time in Rift, but everyone I played with just up and left the game then it happened to me :\

At any rate, I claimed the 7 days free back into WoW, but only did the new thrall quest in Hyjal and it was cool and all, but after so much time in WoW it has just become redundant.

Its a catch 22 though, because at the same time after playing WoW nothing measures up to it, and I am in a game for if a day and I leave it. I am gonna be trying Guild Wars soon in anticipation for the sequel, but I have had that game installe for 2 days and have yet to try it -_- ugh.

Bottom line is all of us have not seen anything new. If it's new to you great, but people that have played many MMO's past and present, have seen nothing short of a rehashing of almost everything we seen before. I'm just jaded, it's just getting very strange we have not seen one innovative game ever.

TOR: Will be like wow with glow sticks.

RIFT: is like wow but with a twist in classes.

GW2: Will try something different but so far almost in the trying they will revert to the same way of making core systems and mechanics minus the hard trinity.

WOW: is a mess. always has been. it combines systems and mechanics that make no sense whatsoever. It was a fluke in the game industry and somehow it's considered the greatest MMO ever.It's the template for a vast series or boring clones, and game developers follow it's pattern of design like it's a command from the game gods.

I mention these because of the big bugets and hype.

When will we see a game with a class system that does not stop you from mixing any number of other classes? Why do they restrict armor/weapons for certain classes anymore? can't i pick up any weapons and use it?

Why the great focus on gear/weapons? Why not make it pure skill based and weapons/armor/trinkets allow for a person to extend those skill or stats? Why the focus away from character development to character progression based on gear?

Why do they need an end game? so they can control how a players is progressing or is it becasue they can't think of anything more immersive and innovative for players to do when they run out of content?.

Why do i log in to a modern MMO and instantly i have a set of training wheels? why are they holding my hands for the first ten levels? where are the days when you had a learning curve? did everyone go stupid like that movie with luke wilson Idiocracy?.

So many rants i have about MMO's and you know in the end of it all it's really about being powerful and that is fun to some. but i can't understand why making everything so easy to attain, and easy as hitting one button makes it "fun?".

If we don't see game companys take a risk and move away from Wow type systems and mechaics soon, forever will it control are gaming destiny. But no offense to anyone here it's just my view on it. and sometimes I just want a game that breaks all the mediocre clones i have played.

Well written article, great to read. I had a similar experience with Rift, however I just held out for the free char. transfers and it was worth it. Changed servers, LFG channels were active everywhere and jumped right in and didn't miss a beat. This is a solid game, but if you don't care for this style of mmo it will not be a good experience. I however am loving it.

Originally posted by jeremyjodes

Bottom line is all of us have not seen anything new. If it's new to you great, but people that have played many MMO's past and present, have seen nothing short of a rehashing of almost everything we seen before. I'm just jaded, it's just getting very strange we have not seen one innovative game ever.

TOR: Will be like wow with glow sticks.

RIFT: is like wow but with a twist in classes.

GW2: Will try something different but so far almost in the trying they will revert to the same way of making core systems and mechanics minus the hard trinity.

WOW: is a mess. always has been. it combines systems and mechanics that make no sense whatsoever. It was a fluke in the game industry and somehow it's considered the greatest MMO ever.It's the template for a vast series or boring clones, and game developers follow it's pattern of design like it's a command from the game gods.

I mention these because of the big bugets and hype.

When will we see a game with a class system that does not stop you from mixing any number of other classes? Why do they restrict armor/weapons for certain classes anymore? can't i pick up any weapons and use it?

Why the great focus on gear/weapons? Why not make it pure skill based and weapons/armor/trinkets allow for a person to extend those skill or stats? Why the focus away from character development to character progression based on gear?

Why do they need an end game? so they can control how a players is progressing or is it becasue they can't think of anything more immersive and innovative for players to do when they run out of content?.

Why do i log in to a modern MMO and instantly i have a set of training wheels? why are they holding my hands for the first ten levels? where are the days when you had a learning curve? did everyone go stupid like that movie with luke wilson Idiocracy?.

So many rants i have about MMO's and you know in the end of it all it's really about being powerful and that is fun to some. but i can't understand why making everything so easy to attain, and easy as hitting one button makes it "fun?".

If we don't see game companys take a risk and move away from Wow type systems and mechaics soon, forever will it control are gaming destiny. But no offense to anyone here it's just my view on it. and sometimes I just want a game that breaks all the mediocre clones i have played.

I think as freemium becomes more and more popular, the design philosophy will change to something more dynamic as it will be cheaper and more sustainable in the long run.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Originally posted by EzequielBE

Spectacular community? Rift? I never played it myself but a friend has asked me several times already to come to his house to check it out. Whenever I did I noticed no chat whatsoever. Even when one of those rift things opened, there were only 3-4 players around and neither one of them said a signle word. A caster with a pet started attacking the elite mob without notice, without being buffed up -friend plays a cleric also- and got swiftly dealt with. After a few deaths another person joins the group -again no words have been spoken- and again starts attacking without buffs. He died, the caster died again and so did my friend. By the time they got back a highlvl had slain the mob right in front of their eyes.

So much for world content. Show me those battleground-thingies then. Again, not a word had been said except when a blue item got rolled for and the guy who couldn't even use it won. That's the first time I noticed any action in chat.

Show me a city then. Aaaah, chat at least. WTB this and WTS that. No LFG, no LFM, just WTS and WTB. It was a very uninspirational grey-ish looking square with what seemed like a few gazeboos here and there with trainers etc. in them.

 

No thank you. I'll stick to Lord of the Rings Online with a League of Legends game in between. Good luck to those in Rift.

 

Funny enough that's exactly how leveling in WoW can feel especially at lower lvls up!   I am very surprised that you would hold this against Rift, if anything it is something that both games have in common.  I mean... seriously.... I cannot thing of a game with more alts and "all knowing" players just running around mechanically minimizing the lvling time and where two words of conversation are avoided as they would slow things down

 

Originally posted by dageeza

I have played Wow since it released i have 20 level 85 characters on two servers plus about 15 more 40ish to 60ish characters on 3 other servers and i am completely burned out on wow and stopped playing it a few months ago..

However i still think its the greatest mmo ever made and would advise anyone who has never tried it to give it a go, or anyone that hasnt played it in years to give it a go because a lot has changed and the game is fun from beginning to end game now...

Since leaving Wow no other mmo has even came close to filling the gap..

 

I don't have that many alts but I've played WoW for an accumulated 5 years now off and on and I too have been unable to find a game that can fill the void of emptiness in my gamer-soul.. :(

I played WOW soon after it launched, was playing Lineage II at the time.  I started on a brand new server (Ursin) PVP server.  and played Aliance, Horde out numbered us on that server big time.

Remember going to strangle vale for the first time and all that was at the camp by the river was horde.  I loved that game back then, when there was only 60 levels. 

If Blizzard would launch a server, call it a "Classic" server where you could play the original game  levels 1-60 only,  I would start all over again and make a character and play WOW once more.

I have all the expansions, played 4 Allies up to lv 85, 4 horde up to lv 85, many lv 70+ characters, .. I liked to do the quest but seemed like the excitement i had when the game first launched is gone, and they never could get that back with each x-pack.

I went to Rift, enjoy it, but there is nothing new, i like the pvp and souls a lot better than other MMO systems, but i dont care for the Gear grind and thats all WOW and other MMO's have become, a way to keep u hooked into playing for years, but that kind of carrot isnt for me.

I wish Warhammer would have better reasons to world PVP and I'd be happy.

maybe Planetside 2, i didnt play the first one, so who knows.  ill keep looking. hoping, for an MMO that gives us fun things to do instead of grinding for T 1,2,3,4,5,& 6 gear.  

let me add, one thing i do like about RIFT, the events do make the world more alive, and gives you tihngs to do, i was on 2 very populated servers, and yes, if u went to one that wasnt it makes it a bit harder to enjoy IMHO, but  i always liked going to the events in the diff zones.

beets the static worlds you get from most MMO's today.

Ah, it would be nice to have the magic back of first discovering an MMO that you can really get into.  Unfortunately, I am bored with WoW and while I also love Rift, it just isn't different enough for me to feel like I haven't already done this before. 

The only hope on the horizon is SWToR and GW2, but I will wait and see if either of them give me that feeling again.  Right now I am just logging on to WoW or Rift and wandering around not doing much and logging back off after just a short while.