There is no question that World of Warcraft has been the top dog in the pack for many years. But we contend that Rift is beginning to beat the leader at its own game. Find out why we say that and then let us know what you think in the comments.

This is going to be a short column because my point is pretty simple: Trion Worlds’ Rift, especially with Storm Legion coming out in November, is surpassing World of Warcraft at its own game.  For what it’s worth, this is not a matter of liking one more than the other.  I’ve spent plenty of time in both and enjoy each title for its own reasons.  The theme park versus sandbox argument we see everywhere aside, both games are made quite well.  Certainly WoW might have more personality in its IP.  I can’t deny that.  But what I see from my game pundit’s chair is that Trion is making leaps and bounds while Blizzard is content resting on their laurels.

Read more of Bill Murphy's Tripping the Rift: Surpassing Azeroth.

"....Find out why we say that and then let us know what you think in the comments..."

- and..mmorpg just blew up the internets forum.

Trion done better job in a year than Blizzard did in 5 years. And they only get better at it.

It feels like rift started as Themepark and moves more and more towards hybrid themepark/sandbox.

Its good move, as fun as wow was/is for some its getting old fast. After what they did to talent system in wow i dotn even want to go there anymore.

Nice read, thanks.  I tend to agree with Mr. Hartsman in that too many MMORPG developers are forgeting the RPG elements as well as the player community in general.  Nice to see Rift step up with player housing.

Wonder if we will see an announcement from Blizzard that WoW will "magically" have player housing.

Originally posted by AC1074
Sorry but Rift is just crap. Character customization is just weak, the whole "you're not in Azeroth" slogan they had was just hilarious. Yes, the new term/thing in MMOs is "dynamics" now and one MMO from the next is ripping that off each oher. Keep taking pot shots at WoW but WoW could probably beat any mmo on its worst day than Rift or some of these other titles can on their best day. 

Nice a whole 6 posts before flame throwing instead of reading the article and seeing what Trion is bringing to the MMORPG genre. 

Which is what Bill Murphy stated in line 2 or 3 of his article : "For what it’s worth, this is not a matter of liking one more than the other."

Originally posted by GeezerGamer
Rift is on an edge right now. They can either fly or plummet. I hope they fly. They have a good chance to make it happen. But I've seen so many "Coulda, Shoulda, Wouldas" recently, I'm not putting any faith in anything until I see it. Nor will I pre order this expansion until I have more info on what it's really like. Not just what everyone thinks it should be like. I like Rift. I am currently subbed to it, But the appearance of "Deep's Depot" is just a bit more than disturbing. There is nothing that is usable on a character in there now, but that's not to say it won't happen in the expansion. The CE edition mounts are already a thorn in my side as it is. A full fledged Cash Shop in a Sub Based game, simply undermines the whole concept of working for something. I boycotted TSW for this reason and I'll not hesitate to drop Rift in a heartbeat for it too. 

just the way of the times it seems.. don't really expect this to go away though in any upcomming games. I'm guessing most will either go GW2 model or stick with P2P with an optional cash shop. honestly can't really see the harm in a CS as long as you have ways to get any item in the CS without real money.

Originally posted by AC1074
Sorry but Rift is just crap. Character customization is just weak, the whole "you're not in Azeroth" slogan they had was just hilarious. Yes, the new term/thing in MMOs is "dynamics" now and one MMO from the next is ripping that off each oher. Keep taking pot shots at WoW but WoW could probably beat any mmo on its worst day than Rift or some of these other titles can on their best day. 

WoW imho does many things better than Rift but imho character customization is surely not one of them.. one of the reasons I played Rift for so long was the incredible amount of options you had with soul builds.

Originally posted by Aerowyn

Originally posted by AC1074
Sorry but Rift is just crap. Character customization is just weak, the whole "you're not in Azeroth" slogan they had was just hilarious. Yes, the new term/thing in MMOs is "dynamics" now and one MMO from the next is ripping that off each oher. Keep taking pot shots at WoW but WoW could probably beat any mmo on its worst day than Rift or some of these other titles can on their best day. 

WoW imho does many things better than Rift but imho character customization is surely not one of them.. one of the reasons I played Rift for so long was the incredible amount of options you had with soul builds.

And where is WoW with that now? LOL

Its funny that you describe "Dynamic" as being a buzzword.

Merriam Webster - an important-sounding usually technical word or phrase often of little meaning used chiefly to impress laymen

Yeah, I'd say that accurately describes "dynamic". Especially when you consider that Rift(and GW2) has been criticized for how static its dynamic content is.

Also, yeah, everyone loves housing. Yay housing. But I would like to see how Trion works on it long term.

Trion seems to be only able to focus on one feature(thats not endgame PvE) at a time.

When Conquest was first introduced everyone made a huge deal about it. Now its largely ignored by the players and Trion, especially after they patched it so that its now more PvE based.

Also, when Conquest came out Chronicles and Instant Adventures were being ignored by Trion. Now Trion is focusing on Instant Adventures and ignoring Chronicles and Conquest.

So, are they going to do the same with Dimensions? Is this going to be yet another feature they introduce and promptly forget about?

WoW has a spell over a lot of people who don't even know Rift exists.  People who don't come to this website and never will come to this website.  Who don't thirst for gaming news or information on "other titles".  Who have no interest in trying something else...  I've witnessed it on a personal level in several different individuals.

Rift will never have that.

And thats WoW's unfair advantage.

I played Rift during the beta weekends and I absolutely HATED the game.  It's one of only a handful of games that I felt that strongly about.  Everything about it annoyed me.  I hate the rifts, they're a pain in my ass.  I hate the soul trees (or whatever they were called, it's been a long time), I just hated it ALL. 

I feel so negatively about this game that there is absolutely no convincing me that it's "great."  I will never return to "experience" any more of it.  BUT, having said that, I am happy for the people that enjoy it.  Everyone should have a game they enjoy, but we do all have differing likes and dislikes.  Good thing there are plenty of games to choose from.  Good column though, Bill, and I did read it, even though it was about Rift. So....apparently I still have some flicker of interest, though it's inperceivable to me.

edit: format

Originally posted by Aerowyn

Originally posted by GeezerGamer
Rift is on an edge right now. They can either fly or plummet. I hope they fly. They have a good chance to make it happen. But I've seen so many "Coulda, Shoulda, Wouldas" recently, I'm not putting any faith in anything until I see it. Nor will I pre order this expansion until I have more info on what it's really like. Not just what everyone thinks it should be like. I like Rift. I am currently subbed to it, But the appearance of "Deep's Depot" is just a bit more than disturbing. There is nothing that is usable on a character in there now, but that's not to say it won't happen in the expansion. The CE edition mounts are already a thorn in my side as it is. A full fledged Cash Shop in a Sub Based game, simply undermines the whole concept of working for something. I boycotted TSW for this reason and I'll not hesitate to drop Rift in a heartbeat for it too. 

just the way of the times it seems.. don't really expect this to go away though in any upcomming games. I'm guessing most will either go GW2 model or stick with P2P with an optional cash shop. honestly can't really see the harm in a CS as long as you have ways to get any item in the CS without real money.

I despise Cash Shops in MMOs. My favorite game of all time was Anarchy Online. I quit the game after FC decided to rape it's existing And dare aI say loyal fan base to wring even more money out of us. As it was, we all had at least 2 full accounts in the game. But that wasn't enough for Funcom. They absolutely destroyed what was left of that once awesome game with their greed. One of my biggest gripes about GW2 was the cash shop. But after the game released, I had to admit that my pre conceptions about ANET and NCSOFT were off. I was fully prepared for a "WTF" cash shop reveal with shit in the CS that was going to piss people off. I was wrong about that and ANET proved to be responsible with their offerings. I will fully acknowlege that. But even still. It was the revenue model they built the game on. And we all knew it. Rift was not so. This cash shop is an after thought. and Frankly, I really don't care if all they sell in it is Aviator Sunglasses and red Boxing Gloves. I am paying a Sub for the game. All itmes in the game should be obtained from within the game. That's my feeling and if it means I have to find a new hobby, so be it. The game's that I once loved are all but gone and so are the reasons I loved them. And that is because Activision and Turbine "F"'d up this whole genre to what we have now.

Originally posted by Yamota
Rift still lacks in one fundamental aspects of MMORPGs and that is PvP where WoW is better and WoW is not even good at doing PvP so that is saying a lot about how poorly PvP is implemented in Rift.

PvP in themepark PvE games sucks across the board.  If players want PvP as the main option there are games located on MMORPG.com for that.

Yamota , who cares about pvp ? If you want pvp go play Gw or fps games like firefall or planeside.

PvP argument is bad imo. Rift have all you expect from clasic mmo game pvp wise. And it never was a pvp game to begin with. And hopefuly never will. The moment developers try to make game for everyone its game for no one and it fails.

Best example is pve group content in Gw2, compared to spvp and WvW. Its like day and night.