This week's SotW comes courtesy of Trion's charismatic and emphatic CEO, Lars Buttler. In a recent interview, Lars spoke on Rift being the only real WoW contender, and how they're simply not afraid of SWTOR.

"So I expect many people will try it and even people who haven’t tried Rift will try Star Wars and then we’ll see where they end up in the long run. I’m actually extremely excited about what’s happening in our space. When we started five years ago, there was only WoW. Now there’s Rift as an absolute serious contender, with the most dynamic gameplay ever. Then there’s Star Wars, then there’s End of Nations coming. Then there’s Defiance coming, which was MMORPG’s MMO of E3, ahead of Star Wars. So we’re not afraid at all. We actually look forward to it with great excitement. It makes our point."

Read the rest of this week's Story of the Week: Rift Ain't Skeered.

Ah, boundless foolish optimism! I like it!

The guy had the right to is opinion, of course being the boss his not gonna say our game suck.  However after trying Rift and seing how similar it is to WOW, a game which i'm utterly burned out of, i got bored of Rift before the end of my free month.

I'm really not sure what I think about this.  I still think that RIFT is still trying to target WoW but since they actually haven't released any sub numbers, all we have is talk at this point.  I'd love to see some more data to back up these words.

Rift gameplay is ok, textbook almost. Content and art direction are a matter of taste, of course. It seems to be a solid down to earth title with a good outlook for the future never the less.

But Rift being a, quote: 'absolute serious contender, with the most dynamic gameplay ever.' in apparent comparison to WoW makes me think the good man should perhaps lay off the marching powder for a bit there.

With the poor economic situation globally and more job being lost maybe the cheaper subscibtion game could survive.

To me, Rift was a slightly less good version of WoW, which made it pointless. However they got one thing right which is why the have been so sucessful, it simply worked at launch.

Imagine if innovative games would have done this.....

I think by "serious contender [to WoW]", Lars means "trying to copy WoW in every aspect".

And, yeah - in that respect he is right. Rift really is the only game that not only could be called WoW 2.0, but is inferior to the original in most aspects as well. I've played it for two months, and it seriously is the one MMO I can't see myself returning to at some point.

It's not that it's bad. It's just completely superfluous. The people they are ostensibly catering to are the WoW vets burned out of WoW. And to those, they offer the same old, same old.

I know many people who play (or used to play) Rift. All of them former WoW players. They were looking for something different to pass the time until TOR came out. Some still play, most quit even before me, but one thing is certain for me : When TOR hits, Rift will face a major problem.

But, yeah, sure. In the aspect of being a copy of WoW, they really have no competition.

debbie downers indeed. Why is everyone so critical of everything. If you dont like Rift and games like it why comment on it? makes you seem a little petty. Anyways I enjoy Rift. Good fun. Good Guild, great mates.

you know the rules of internet,if many people hate a game for not a serious reason(serious being NGE for example)then there must be something good in that game

I certainly can't blame the man for trying to be optimistic in interviews, and if there's one thing you can't fault Trion for it's having great (oftentimes too good, they play things up so much dissapointement is inevitable) PR, but if he really believes the BS he's spewing Rift is in even more trouble than it seems on the face.

The lack of released sub number milestones speaks volumes. Frankly ToR is going to decimate this game, and GW2 will have what's left of the carcass.

Serious contender? Hardly. Stop over on the way to hopefully better games. And if they're not better? It's not Rift people are going to be going back to.

Dunno WoW, Rift and SWTOR can be lumped together. Most players I know only have time for one MMO with similar mechanics.

Also, the small amount of people I know already quit Rift and pre-ordered SWTOR.

So...don't be scared...remain calm.

Originally posted by Myria

I certainly can't blame the man for trying to be optimistic in interviews, and if there's one thing you can't fault Trion for it's having great (oftentimes too good, they play things up so much dissapointement is inevitable) PR, but if he really believes the BS he's spewing Rift is in even more trouble than it seems on the face.

The lack of released sub number milestones speaks volumes. Frankly ToR is going to decimate this game, and GW2 will have what's left of the carcass.

Serious contender? Hardly. Stop over on the way to hopefully better games. And if they're not better? It's not Rift people are going to be going back to.

 

TOR will not decimate Rift at all, sure it will take some numbers as it will from all other subscription mmos. Disapointment will follow for alot that have their hopes too high for TOR and GW2. Oh and GW2 just like the original will be dull and boring, I have no faith at all in arenanet.

Originally posted by Terronte

Dunno WoW, Rift and SWTOR can be lumped together. Most players I know only have time for one MMO with similar mechanics.

Also, the small amount of people I know already quit Rift and pre-ordered SWTOR.

So...don't be scared...remain calm.

 Rift and SWTOR are two different kinds of games. Not sure why Rift would be bothered by a sci-fi mmo

 one game of the same mechanics can be said of almost every game ever. I am playing two fps right now. same mechanics.

I am also playing AOC and Rift.  

This has got to be a joke. Drowned in his own imaginary world of success. 

Originally posted by Himshim

This has got to be a joke. Drowned in his own imaginary world of success. 

 explain

Market positioning and public image.  A general rule in business is that when entering a realm of competition, position yourself as if your company invented the field and has only minor competition in it.  This way consumers coming into the realm without background knowledge simply accept that your company is a "major player" in the field.

Sort of like "the world's first true gaming laptop".  There are dozens of companies with this positioning.

On the other side, would you really expect them to say "Yeah, SW:TOR is going to be huge competition and we're going to get stomped"?  No marketer in the world would do that.

RIFT is a good game, it does what it is designed to do very well.

That having been said, it has it's share of issues no doubt. I was a closed beta tester selected by Trion during phase one, and I participated in every other phase, as well as open beta, right up until headstart where I was ingame the minute the servers went live.

I talked the game up pretty seriously at the time, because I believed it was going to be a very new experience for people used to the same old thing. However, after a few months the game turned out to be "same old, same old".

PvP has some extremely serious balance issues, and with each large patch a new calling or role becomes FoTM until the next big update. PvE is just your average gear treadmill, nothing special.

The Rifts themselves are the best part of the game, but become very repetitive after awhile.

The thing that gets me though, is that players have been saying right from the beginning that RIFT was just a layover stop while they waited for GW2 or SWTOR. It's a very common thing to read in general chat, and not just on certain servers. I played on three different shards and the above opinion was shared amongst the playerbase on each of them.

Trion doesn't need to be scared, they need to design some seriously innovative content using the systems they have in place. That is the only way they have a hope of competing with SWTOR and GW2, they need to pull a Harry Houdini and make something truly magical occur if they want to hang on to those subs after SWTOR and GW2 launch.

Originally posted by Terronte

Dunno WoW, Rift and SWTOR can be lumped together. Most players I know only have time for one MMO with similar mechanics.

Also, the small amount of people I know already quit Rift and pre-ordered SWTOR.

So...don't be scared...remain calm.

Agreed. Rift was a solid stopgap for those players that were entirely bored with WoW and wanted nothing more than different content and looks with everything else being the same. SWTOR is Rift's biggest upcoming competition as they offer the same thing- solo to endgame then raid, plus SWTOR dresses it all up with far more frills than Rift has available with more in-depth story choices, companions that actually have a function, and a pretty beloved IP. SWTOR is going to be THE "MMORPG" for single players, none out there come close (even with Rift 1.5) and small groups will be pleased that the group size is even smaller.

The only thing imo Rift has on SWTOR is combat because Rift's looks/feels faster and by association the PvP would be more gratifying. With that, even Rift's combat is more of the sos and I'm not complimenting it, just saying TOR's is worse. And regarding Sci-fi (SWTOR) vs fantasy (Rift): Really? Have you even been to a Defiant city, or played through any of their starting area? Because it's pretty sci-fi, if only steampunk-ish.