I don't think there is any reasons to believe that Rifts will be cancelled anytime soon.

The question is more "what do Rifts need to do to continue being one of the 5 largest MMOs"?

That is possible, but they would have to add a lot more content. Some of it needs to be less classical and more new thinking. They also needs to make the quests in the new content to feel different and more interesting.

Rifts coding is rather good and the graphics is fine enough. The problem is that few things in Rifts surprises you and almost every quest feels like you already done them a zillion times.

Can they fix this before GW2 comes out do I think Rift will regain some of the players that left it.

If they also could add a new endgame feature or 2 (raiding, dungeons and PvP have more or less been the same for many years) it would seriously raise the games points.

I don't think however that they totally succeeds with all this but I think Rift will be the new EQ2, a medium sized MMO with enough faithful fans but not something that can threaten the top games.

First off, while 'clone' may not be exactly correct, anyone who looks at things with an unbiased view would have to admit Rift borrow heavily from WoW, and not just in MMO basics.

Compare EQ and WoW side by side and they truly are remarkably different.   EQ is a slower paced, more cerebral game.  It isnt even a themepark game.   There werent quest hubs to be strung along between

Now compare WoW and Rift sude by side.  Obviously the UIs are very similar.  Both games are the faster pace style, where you are often meant to fight multiple enemies at once.  In EQ the average enemy was fearsome, in WoW/Rift design the average enemy is a joke.

WoW and Rift share so many gameplay things that arent present or a big factor in EQ.  Yes, Rift branched out a bit with the soul system, btu when you elvel you still set your abilities by choosing one of the three trees.  In both games once you hit max level your only progression is through gear.    Your character will never get any stronger until the next level increase.  Max level content in both games consists largely of daily quests, trying to appease various factions, and running souped up versions of recycled dungeons to get gear/currency for gear.  Or you can raid (both games feature a tiny raid cap of 25 with focus on 10 man raids too).  PvP is done almost exculsively through battlegrounds and you earn currency to buy PvP gear by participating.

These are all things that WoW and Rift share, but not EQ, or even EQ2 for most of them.  Yes, Rift has WAR style public quests and EQ2 style collections, improved on both, but sadly there really isnt much originality to be found and public quests into Rifts are the only real evolution to be found.

Not saying Rift is bad, but the whole argument that Rift did the same thing to WoW as WoW did to EQ is just not even remotely accurate.

Originally posted by teakbois

These are all things that WoW and Rift share, but not EQ, or even EQ2 for most of them.  Yes, Rift has WAR style public quests and EQ2 style collections, improved on both, but sadly there really isnt much originality to be found and public quests into Rifts are the only real evolution to be found.

Agreed, and at the level cap this entire mechanic (the rifts/PQs) is thrown aside for the traditional dungeon grind. While there are still rifts and invasions that occur in the later zones there is little to no focus on them, compared to grinding T1s & T2s or WFs.

Originally posted by Loke666

 

I don't think however that they totally succeeds with all this but I think Rift will be the new EQ2, a medium sized MMO with enough faithful fans but not something that can threaten the top games.

Before the hack debacle, EQ2 IS one of the top games, at least in terms of the US/EU market.  Games like Lineage, Aion and FFXI (and WoW) are greatly bolstered by the asian market.  Taking out the asian market, and you have:

WoW with a huge lead

EvE 

Lotro (if counting F2P players add DDO too)

and then...EQ2

what would be above EQ2?  Obviously not WAR.  Outside shot at Conan but doubtful.  I dont think FFXI or Aion has enough of the market either.

I dont even know how much of an edge Lotro has on EQ2 either, in the monthly subs department that is.  Their F2P system is more popular but I dont know if the P2P is.

I play on an apparently low pop shard, and playing the much lower pop defiant side) and it is insanely hard to find groups to do anything.  Even now with the dungeon finder tool, it's still a 2-3 hour wait to find a group, during peak time play,  and once you do, the group quickly descovers we work horribly togther and then disbands.  So I basically have 2 lvl 50's (mage and warrior) that are twiddling their thumbs at max level.  I'm max crafter, have many of the max recipes, and have done just about all the rep grinding I can take. 

If Trion wants to keep RIFT going, theyhave to do server mergers now.  The pop's aren't going to grow anymore.  The whole premise of rift relies on people being able to group in the PVE world to conquer these invasions that spawn at any moment.  If your running through a ghost town, your not going be to able solo anything higher than the minor rifts.  I know most companies see merging servers as some kind of let down or ego bust, but to save the playablitly of the game for us low pop's it has to be done.

And as for the updates, 1.1 was a joke.  Three dailies for an event that kept being delayed, and then basically blew it's wad on one day?  And has anyone else noticed that the game is getting way buggier than it was at launch?  For a game that had such a smooth launch, everything seems to have rapidly gone down hill.

Originally posted by goingwylde

I play on an apparently low pop shard, and playing the much lower pop defiant side) and it is insanely hard to find groups to do anything.  Even now with the dungeon finder tool, it's still a 2-3 hour wait to find a group, during peak time play,  and once you do, the group quickly descovers we work horribly togther and then disbands.  So I basically have 2 lvl 50's (mage and warrior) that are twiddling their thumbs at max level.  I'm max crafter, have many of the max recipes, and have done just about all the rep grinding I can take. 

If Trion wants to keep RIFT going, theyhave to do server mergers now.  The pop's aren't going to grow anymore.  The whole premise of rift relies on people being able to group in the PVE world to conquer these invasions that spawn at any moment.  If your running through a ghost town, your not going be to able solo anything higher than the minor rifts.  I know most companies see merging servers as some kind of let down or ego bust, but to save the playablitly of the game for us low pop's it has to be done.

And as for the updates, 1.1 was a joke.  Three dailies for an event that kept being delayed, and then basically blew it's wad on one day?  And has anyone else noticed that the game is getting way buggier than it was at launch?  For a game that had such a smooth launch, everything seems to have rapidly gone down hill.

Your so dramatic lol Population being low on a server is nothing new but its also nothing that can be fixed over night. Fixing how the game is run is more important than server merges right now. I think most people (if they are really that bothered) would have moved by now.  So have patients my friend or join a new server either way merging is the less important than the game working correctly.

IMO ..go f2p with cash shops..with gw2 / new starwars mmo it will be hard to survive ..it plays / looks like f2p..so why not roll out the cash shops..im not knocking rift..its imo

btw im playing rift trial and it isnt too bad..but the gather / kill  X amount and bring back to quest giver does get old ..but im injoying it

Rift is a game that should have never been made. In order for it to survive, it would have to be remade from the ground up with entirely different mechanics. It's not a bad game, it's just so unoriginal that it is not nearly competitive enough to even exist. And when GW2 and SWTOR comes out, nobody is going to want to play Rift at all, no matter how much they refine their style simply because people are tired of this style entirely. People are already tired of it, there just aren't any reasonable alternatives out yet so they keep playing.

Rift is the last of a dying breed of MMOs.

Originally posted by Lathander81

Originally posted by goingwylde

I play on an apparently low pop shard, and playing the much lower pop defiant side) and it is insanely hard to find groups to do anything.  Even now with the dungeon finder tool, it's still a 2-3 hour wait to find a group, during peak time play,  and once you do, the group quickly descovers we work horribly togther and then disbands.  So I basically have 2 lvl 50's (mage and warrior) that are twiddling their thumbs at max level.  I'm max crafter, have many of the max recipes, and have done just about all the rep grinding I can take. 

If Trion wants to keep RIFT going, theyhave to do server mergers now.  The pop's aren't going to grow anymore.  The whole premise of rift relies on people being able to group in the PVE world to conquer these invasions that spawn at any moment.  If your running through a ghost town, your not going be to able solo anything higher than the minor rifts.  I know most companies see merging servers as some kind of let down or ego bust, but to save the playablitly of the game for us low pop's it has to be done.

And as for the updates, 1.1 was a joke.  Three dailies for an event that kept being delayed, and then basically blew it's wad on one day?  And has anyone else noticed that the game is getting way buggier than it was at launch?  For a game that had such a smooth launch, everything seems to have rapidly gone down hill.

Your so dramatic lol Population being low on a server is nothing new but its also nothing that can be fixed over night. Fixing how the game is run is more important than server merges right now. I think most people (if they are really that bothered) would have moved by now.  So have patients my friend or join a new server either way merging is the less important than the game working correctly.

 The thing is though as more n more people call quites (which seems to be the trend) the worse off the servers are and people remaining will be negatively impacted.  Telling some one "just reroll lol" is not an acceptable standard, people will say "fuuuu this" and cancle sub.  It's not like server merges are really all that difficult, hell of a lot less difficult and less manpower than fixing whatever issues are in-game.  Which I'm assuming they are totally seperat teams, not a techie person so could be wrong.  I'd say server merges are of importance because if they don't then they run the risk of losing players like the above Mr. Stormtrooper on the john.

Honestly, this game just needs more engaging content. Even at end game the game gets horribly repetative. Nearly everyone Qs for Battle of Port Scion, or runs tier dungeons (which are identical to the normal dungeons, just with the monsters made harder).

Short-term, they could try merging servers, but the pops aren't hurting too much on the whole. I don't see many servers with 'low' populations, and the few that do get that low usually don't stay there for long. Merging servers, may have the effect of just adding Q times to a few of the more popular servers, and thus turning more players away, instead of keeping the ones they have. It's a tricky boat to be in, but as was mentioned earlier, Rift propably won't be going anywhere for a while. If they added more engaging content, I think the players that have left would return fairly quickly, as Rift doesn't really have any competition atm. There just aren't that many good MMOs with a healthy player base atm. However, with SWToR and GW2 around the corner, that is likely to change.

Servers just seem like an outdated mechanic to me.  If a game can't support a single server as GW and EVE do, I'd like to see more games follow the EQ2 route with multiple instances for different zones or perhaps some sort of creative use of phasing which allows either you or you and members of your party to seamlessly enter a certain version of a zone.

Originally posted by Aquazen

Originally posted by ChochoD

Or stop playing it and start meeting with real people and go to real places and have fun with your friends :)

    I play Rift 5 - 10 hours a week.  I have two toons, one is 14 the other is 26.  You are mistaken friend, I leave for Tokyo in a week on business where I am bringing my whole family for two weeks.  Last Year I went to Ireland and Spain.  I co own a bar/restaurant which I spend most of my time out side of my programming job.  I do alot more during the week too.  You sir have missed the point :/

yes i dislike these answers aswell where some peeps more or less assume that all everyone is doing is just playing online games, many online game tend to be that way you are best more time you waste on em alltho.

but peeps saying these real life comments should maybe look into mirror first =)

cheers, and btw i dont think rift can survive, you should have all that at the start what you discribed there.

in my opinion its going to be a graveyard mmo like happen so many others along the path. sad but true

Originally posted by m0lly

Originally posted by Aquazen

Originally posted by ChochoD

Or stop playing it and start meeting with real people and go to real places and have fun with your friends :)

    I play Rift 5 - 10 hours a week.  I have two toons, one is 14 the other is 26.  You are mistaken friend, I leave for Tokyo in a week on business where I am bringing my whole family for two weeks.  Last Year I went to Ireland and Spain.  I co own a bar/restaurant which I spend most of my time out side of my programming job.  I do alot more during the week too.  You sir have missed the point :/

yes i dislike these answers aswell where some peeps more or less assume that all everyone is doing is just playing online games, many online game tend to be that way you are best more time you waste on em alltho.

but peeps saying these real life comments should maybe look into mirror first =)

 

cheers, and btw i dont think rift can survive, you should have all that at the start what you discribed there.

in my opinion its going to be a graveyard mmo like happen so many others along the path. sad but true

Based on what? I think GW will fail....see its easy to make assumption based off of no facts. At least give a reason why you think it will.

Originally posted by m0lly

Originally posted by Aquazen

Originally posted by ChochoD

Or stop playing it and start meeting with real people and go to real places and have fun with your friends :)

    I play Rift 5 - 10 hours a week.  I have two toons, one is 14 the other is 26.  You are mistaken friend, I leave for Tokyo in a week on business where I am bringing my whole family for two weeks.  Last Year I went to Ireland and Spain.  I co own a bar/restaurant which I spend most of my time out side of my programming job.  I do alot more during the week too.  You sir have missed the point :/

yes i dislike these answers aswell where some peeps more or less assume that all everyone is doing is just playing online games, many online game tend to be that way you are best more time you waste on em alltho.

but peeps saying these real life comments should maybe look into mirror first =)

 

cheers, and btw i dont think rift can survive, you should have all that at the start what you discribed there.

in my opinion its going to be a graveyard mmo like happen so many others along the path. sad but true

I think Rift's survivability will depend on how long it takes Anet to release GW2 and how long it takes BioWare to release SW:TOR.

Originally posted by darlok6666

Originally posted by Lathander81

Originally posted by goingwylde

I play on an apparently low pop shard, and playing the much lower pop defiant side) and it is insanely hard to find groups to do anything.  Even now with the dungeon finder tool, it's still a 2-3 hour wait to find a group, during peak time play,  and once you do, the group quickly descovers we work horribly togther and then disbands.  So I basically have 2 lvl 50's (mage and warrior) that are twiddling their thumbs at max level.  I'm max crafter, have many of the max recipes, and have done just about all the rep grinding I can take. 

If Trion wants to keep RIFT going, theyhave to do server mergers now.  The pop's aren't going to grow anymore.  The whole premise of rift relies on people being able to group in the PVE world to conquer these invasions that spawn at any moment.  If your running through a ghost town, your not going be to able solo anything higher than the minor rifts.  I know most companies see merging servers as some kind of let down or ego bust, but to save the playablitly of the game for us low pop's it has to be done.

And as for the updates, 1.1 was a joke.  Three dailies for an event that kept being delayed, and then basically blew it's wad on one day?  And has anyone else noticed that the game is getting way buggier than it was at launch?  For a game that had such a smooth launch, everything seems to have rapidly gone down hill.

Your so dramatic lol Population being low on a server is nothing new but its also nothing that can be fixed over night. Fixing how the game is run is more important than server merges right now. I think most people (if they are really that bothered) would have moved by now.  So have patients my friend or join a new server either way merging is the less important than the game working correctly.

 The thing is though as more n more people call quites (which seems to be the trend) the worse off the servers are and people remaining will be negatively impacted.  Telling some one "just reroll lol" is not an acceptable standard, people will say "fuuuu this" and cancle sub.  It's not like server merges are really all that difficult, hell of a lot less difficult and less manpower than fixing whatever issues are in-game.  Which I'm assuming they are totally seperat teams, not a techie person so could be wrong.  I'd say server merges are of importance because if they don't then they run the risk of losing players like the above Mr. Stormtrooper on the john.

So what does it take to merge servers? I mean you seem like you know exactly what it takes by calling it easy....

Originally posted by aesperus

Honestly, this game just needs more engaging content. Even at end game the game gets horribly repetative. Nearly everyone Qs for Battle of Port Scion, or runs tier dungeons (which are identical to the normal dungeons, just with the monsters made harder).

Short-term, they could try merging servers, but the pops aren't hurting too much on the whole. I don't see many servers with 'low' populations, and the few that do get that low usually don't stay there for long. Merging servers, may have the effect of just adding Q times to a few of the more popular servers, and thus turning more players away, instead of keeping the ones they have. It's a tricky boat to be in, but as was mentioned earlier, Rift propably won't be going anywhere for a while. If they added more engaging content, I think the players that have left would return fairly quickly, as Rift doesn't really have any competition atm. There just aren't that many good MMOs with a healthy player base atm. However, with SWToR and GW2 around the corner, that is likely to change.

What do you mean by more engaging content? Also what an example of a current game that has more enganging content than RIft? I thought that the invasion system was pretty engaging or the new sliver system or the events they have were.

Originally posted by Lathander81

Originally posted by m0lly

Originally posted by Aquazen

Originally posted by ChochoD

Or stop playing it and start meeting with real people and go to real places and have fun with your friends :)

    I play Rift 5 - 10 hours a week.  I have two toons, one is 14 the other is 26.  You are mistaken friend, I leave for Tokyo in a week on business where I am bringing my whole family for two weeks.  Last Year I went to Ireland and Spain.  I co own a bar/restaurant which I spend most of my time out side of my programming job.  I do alot more during the week too.  You sir have missed the point :/

yes i dislike these answers aswell where some peeps more or less assume that all everyone is doing is just playing online games, many online game tend to be that way you are best more time you waste on em alltho.

but peeps saying these real life comments should maybe look into mirror first =)

 

cheers, and btw i dont think rift can survive, you should have all that at the start what you discribed there.

in my opinion its going to be a graveyard mmo like happen so many others along the path. sad but true

Based on what? I think GW will fail....see its easy to make assumption based off of no facts. At least give a reason why you think it will.

will what? , didnt get your post?

Originally posted by Lathander81

Originally posted by aesperus

Honestly, this game just needs more engaging content. Even at end game the game gets horribly repetative. Nearly everyone Qs for Battle of Port Scion, or runs tier dungeons (which are identical to the normal dungeons, just with the monsters made harder).

Short-term, they could try merging servers, but the pops aren't hurting too much on the whole. I don't see many servers with 'low' populations, and the few that do get that low usually don't stay there for long. Merging servers, may have the effect of just adding Q times to a few of the more popular servers, and thus turning more players away, instead of keeping the ones they have. It's a tricky boat to be in, but as was mentioned earlier, Rift propably won't be going anywhere for a while. If they added more engaging content, I think the players that have left would return fairly quickly, as Rift doesn't really have any competition atm. There just aren't that many good MMOs with a healthy player base atm. However, with SWToR and GW2 around the corner, that is likely to change.

What do you mean by more engaging content? Also what an example of a current game that has more enganging content than RIft? I thought that the invasion system was pretty engaging or the new sliver system or the events they have were.

Most people consider "new" or "challenging" content an engaging content (and now please do not call the expert dungeons challenging). Also "social" activities have to be considered engaging. As Trion is denying this, Rift is doomed imho.

The technical potential of Rift is soooo big, not only the invasions, the whole dynamic stuff that they could have done with their system, and the execution is soooo shallow, it saddens me everyday I jump on these forums.

Originally posted by Lathander81

Originally posted by aesperus

Honestly, this game just needs more engaging content. Even at end game the game gets horribly repetative. Nearly everyone Qs for Battle of Port Scion, or runs tier dungeons (which are identical to the normal dungeons, just with the monsters made harder).

Short-term, they could try merging servers, but the pops aren't hurting too much on the whole. I don't see many servers with 'low' populations, and the few that do get that low usually don't stay there for long. Merging servers, may have the effect of just adding Q times to a few of the more popular servers, and thus turning more players away, instead of keeping the ones they have. It's a tricky boat to be in, but as was mentioned earlier, Rift propably won't be going anywhere for a while. If they added more engaging content, I think the players that have left would return fairly quickly, as Rift doesn't really have any competition atm. There just aren't that many good MMOs with a healthy player base atm. However, with SWToR and GW2 around the corner, that is likely to change.

What do you mean by more engaging content? Also what an example of a current game that has more enganging content than RIft? I thought that the invasion system was pretty engaging or the new sliver system or the events they have were.

 Hmmm, there is none that is more engaging but neither is Rift.  Rift uses the same formula which might be it's downfall considering there is a trend of non-standard MMOs coming out not to mention Blizz's new MMO that'll be out in a few years.  These are the considerations Trion needs to consider and not "lets look at WoW and CC it."

Rift uses the same formula thats be tried and used many times, however they are coming in at the tail end of the standard MMO age though..speculative.

I'll admitt the invasions were fun in Beta but even in Beta I knew that was limited time only and after the newbness wears off it'll become more of a hassle than anything.  PvP is a joke so that leaves out a huge portion of content (PvP IS end-game content as it's never scripted and always different) and the reality of the matter is that no MMO company has never surpassed Blizz in content.  Love or hate it, thats the truth of the matter.

Originally posted by darlok6666

Originally posted by Lathander81

Originally posted by aesperus

Honestly, this game just needs more engaging content. Even at end game the game gets horribly repetative. Nearly everyone Qs for Battle of Port Scion, or runs tier dungeons (which are identical to the normal dungeons, just with the monsters made harder).

Short-term, they could try merging servers, but the pops aren't hurting too much on the whole. I don't see many servers with 'low' populations, and the few that do get that low usually don't stay there for long. Merging servers, may have the effect of just adding Q times to a few of the more popular servers, and thus turning more players away, instead of keeping the ones they have. It's a tricky boat to be in, but as was mentioned earlier, Rift propably won't be going anywhere for a while. If they added more engaging content, I think the players that have left would return fairly quickly, as Rift doesn't really have any competition atm. There just aren't that many good MMOs with a healthy player base atm. However, with SWToR and GW2 around the corner, that is likely to change.

What do you mean by more engaging content? Also what an example of a current game that has more enganging content than RIft? I thought that the invasion system was pretty engaging or the new sliver system or the events they have were.

 Hmmm, there is none that is more engaging but neither is Rift.  Rift uses the same formula which might be it's downfall considering there is a trend of non-standard MMOs coming out not to mention Blizz's new MMO that'll be out in a few years.  These are the considerations Trion needs to consider and not "lets look at WoW and CC it."

Rift uses the same formula thats be tried and used many times, however they are coming in at the tail end of the standard MMO age though..speculative.

I'll admitt the invasions were fun in Beta but even in Beta I knew that was limited time only and after the newbness wears off it'll become more of a hassle than anything.  PvP is a joke so that leaves out a huge portion of content (PvP IS end-game content as it's never scripted and always different) and the reality of the matter is that no MMO company has never surpassed Blizz in content.  Love or hate it, thats the truth of the matter.

Not 100% about this, but i believe EQ 2 still has more content than WoW (i have not played them imho)