I noticed this game is on sale at my  local walmart  for $4,99.  I had looked at rift in the past and dismissed it as yet another attempt to capitalize on wow's popularity. That being said, its been over a year since the game came out and I am now a bit bored of WoW and FFXI which have been my two primary mmo games for the past 5 years. Some freinds and myself have been actively looking for a new home mmo. I was wondering if now is a good time for new players to come to Rift. I do have some questions about the game before I make the tremendous $5 commitment.

All kidding aside I am just curous about the following things.

How would this game run on my PC. It is an old gaming machine from early 2008.

My system specs are

6GB DDR2 Ram

Windows 7 64 bit

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual core processor 6000+ 3.2GHz

I believe my card is an overclocked Nvidia 9600 1GB (Forgot but almost sure this is it).

My PC generally runs games like the new game Star wars the old republic, as well as games like  Aion, and Age of Conan at high settings without much lag in solo play. Medium/high mix  settings for raids and large group events.

Would rift be able to run well on medium settings with my machine?

Secondly, does rift have a mature player community like older mmos such as FFXI, EQ1, or is the community in the game a lot more like WoW's kid community?

These are my main questions about the game.

Hope to get some good replies. :)

just gonna cut/paste this from the trion site:

Minimum System Specifications
Operating system: Windows XP, Vista, or 7
Processor: Dual Core 2.0 GHz or better
Memory: 2 GB
Hard disk space: 15.0 GB available
Video: Nvidia GeForce FX 5900, ATI/AMD Radeon X300, Intel GMA X4500, or better
Sound: DirectX 8.1 compliant card
DirectX®: 9.0c, June 2010 update
Broadband internet connection (DSL, cable modem, or other high speed connection)

Recommended System Specifications
Operating system: Windows XP, Vista, or 7
Processor: Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz or better
Memory: 4 GB
Hard disk space: 15.0 GB available
Desktop Video: Nvidia GTS 250 or better
Notebook Video: Nvidia GTX 200M series or better
Sound: DirectX 8.1 compliant card
DirectX®: 9.0c, June 2010 update
Broadband internet connection (DSL, cable modem, or other high speed connection)

player base is really cool in general. there are some trolls every once in a while, but they tend to leave game due to not getting any love. player base doesn't seam to be full of children if that's what you're asking. very cool people in game as i have seen. i've been playing non stop since betas/launch.

Originally posted by Daddydazzle

player base is really cool in general. there are some trolls every once in a while, but they tend to leave game due to not getting any love. player base doesn't seam to be full of children if that's what you're asking. very cool people in game as i have seen. i've been playing non stop since betas/launch.

I recently started over a week ago, and have to agree with the above as it's been my exact experience.

I just joined a new guild on Faeblight server and have really been enjoying the community and the game. 

EDIT - They have a free trial I think. You should look into that.

Rift is a quality game. Little short of the PVP side due to some imbalance but they are finally trying to work that out. Tons to do and player base is pretty good overall. Like the other said you get your troll here and there. It's as polished an MMO as you'll find these days. It doesn't do anything new really so if thats what your looking for you might not be up for it.

Suprisingly one of the better communities iv been in, and played nearly all MMO's. You wll of course always get the odd one fo two now and then trying to upset this but never really lasts long :)

For timing, anytime is right to get into it :)

honestly?

i would wait till 1.7 goes live before jumping in simply cause of the improvements to the newby experience that are coming then

The game has come a long way, Trion pushes content like no other developer, and yes theres still plenty of people playing, ofcourse not as many as at launch.

Its fine to level up right now, there are a few tweaks coming to the first 18 levels, but nothing major, but gearing at 50 will definatly be better after 1.7.

They are doing a really good deal at the moment aswell where you get 1 month free when you do a multi month sub. Took 3 months myself.

I still like it and would love to see more people join. Been with it since launch and my server actually didn't get hit as hard (from TOR) as I thought it would.

Free trial aside you still can't go wrong with a $5 box price and 30days free. It is one of my favorite MMOs..and worth the $15 monthly sub. I play it and SWTOR right now and even RIFT had a smoother launch and has the best customer service of any game I've played. Their update cycle and content schedule is comparable to none imo. If you play WOW you probably won't be too surprised by anything but I doubt you'll be disappointed either. You should be able to run it with some tweaks to graphic settings..at max settings it can be a bit hoggish only because it looks amazing.

Rift should be easier on your system than SWTOR (although it will look much better- go figure), so if you can play that than you'll be fine with Rift (and looking at your specs you should be).