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. :)

Would you happen to know if there is an advance class trainer in the sith academy or do I have to progress beyond this point to select an advance job? 

I think I may go sorc

I got my Inquisitor to level 10 today and now am presented with the option of choosing an advance class. I am undecided as to how I want to proceed with this, and have found my inquisitor satisfying up to this point. 

Is it needed that I choose an advance class?

Will my choice be permanent?

Can the Assassin still use force powers like lightning ?

Can the sorcerer use lightsaber powers and melee attacks effectively? 

Dark side or Light side...I have virtually little knowledge of Star wars lore (Have seen one star wars movie where Luke's hand goes bye bye). 

So to me there is no real pull to either side. I will likely base my choices on the number of players of the given side in the server I choose. For this reason I wanted to ask you guys a few questions.

#1. Can you see how many players of each side are in the servers before you permanently sellect them?

#2. How many does it appear to be of each side in your home server?

#3. Does the side you choose matter in terms of gameplay?

#4. Are both sides equally story driven?

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Unrelated question but something that has been bothering me a lot from what I have been hearing about the game. 

#5. I have heard a lot of people on this forum and on youtube mention that the game world feels dead and artificial, there are no critters running around, no butterflies, or bugs that you can see anywhere, no fish in the water, the monsters don't walk around the areas very openly, etc. This has been a major complaint about the game of many forum members and even two channels on youtube that I am currently subscribed to. Do you guys honestly believe the game world lacks any life feeling and has an artificial feel about it? 

Thanks ! 

Originally posted by Kuinn

Do you like themepark mmorpgs? Do you like scifi? Do you like traditional RPG combat (select target, then use ability)? Do you like voiced NPC's and a story in mmo? Do you like to run with AI-controlled ally (optional though if you want to turn it off)?

 

If you answered yes in more than half, go ahead. If you answered no, then dont get this product. What comes to polish, lag, smoothness etc, dont worry about it, this game is working as good as if it would have been out for few years compared to normal mmo launch (at least on my machine and all my friends who play).

I like open world MMORPG games, mainly games with the style of FFXI, Aion, or WoW in terms of world structure. 

sci-fi is meh to me. To be perfectly honest I have always been much more of a fantasy RPG player myself. I DM in real life, play FFXI currently, and almost all the mmos that I have enjoyed have been fantasy Tolkien style.  With that said, I did have a very good time playing PSO on my dreamcast back in 2000, until SEGA shut the game down. 

I do like tradtional RPG combat, it does not bother me one bit. I prefer gamepad combat (ala FFXI) but traditional is fine.

I would LOVE voiced NPC's and a good story in my mmo, it is something I have always wanted in all the mmorpg games I play. 

I hate the idea of running around with an AI-controlled Ally. I never even touched the NPC allies in FFXI even though Iv had mine for over 4 years. 

So.....I'm like 50/50 lol. Maybe I should wait a few months, see how things are by March or April ? I am fairly happy with my current (MMORPG) FFXI. At the same time I am seeking something new. 

 First off I would like to say I am not a star wars fan. I have only seen one star wars movie (where Luke gets his hand chopped off) and my my knowledge of starwars lore is minimal at best. I have never had a huge interest in the star wars franchise but I do enjoy a good mmo. This being said, is this a good mmo to jump into now or is it better for non fans to wait a few months until everything is more polished. 

Was the launch very smooth and without major problems?

Is the content as polished in the middle of the game as it is at the beginning? 

What are some flaws you see with the game that would make you quit after the free month?

What are some positives you can see in this game that may make you return or stick with it past the free month?

Hope to get some good info from yall. 

Thanks. 

RP is not really happening in this game at all.

Every other one of your questions I honestly can't answer all that well. Considering the fact I don't PvP nor do I run a league. 

For this game a USB game pad is the best choice you could make in terms of a comfortable control set up. 

Understand this,

No matter how swiftly they respond, or how much they prepared, nothing will prepare the servers or the developers for an influx of hundreds of thousands of players in a game that was used to seeing some of the lowest player population of any mmo. The infrastructure that was in place was estimated to be able to handle this, but without actually experiencing it first hand there was no way to know for sure. 

Right now the F2P players and the old subscribers are basically beta testing the game all over again. 

Even though you all have to wait, opening up a new server would be a waste of money for them.  Less than one in ten players of F2P games ever stick with the game past the innital few hours. 

Even less actually ever stick with the game for the long run, and even less purchase something. 

It would not be wise of them to spend their resources trying to satisfy a fickle player community that is likely to abandon the game after a few moments fixed or not. If you trully love the game you will wait  in the queue to play it. If you don' t like the game, no server fixes or patches will change the core of the game nor  will it change your mind. 

I have personally been a paying player since launch. (on and off depending on college) I love the game, love the use of a game pad on my PC for an mmorpg, and love the feel of the controls with a game pad. Yesterday while working on some school work I waited in the queue for about 45min (7800+ in queue), after that I got the endless loading screen, at which point I had to re-start my PC and do it all over again. I understand how things are now is not how it used to be, but with time, and when the F2P players that were never going to stick with the game drop off , things will improve. 

yes man "SEROIUSLY!!!!!" - Burnett 

(50 brownie points if anyone can understand the sociopolitical joke here). 

Well the worst I ever played and the one that is still active are not the same game. I would say the worst game I have played was Tabula Rasa.

The worst game I have played that is still active would have to be World of Kung Fu...if that is still active.. Otherwise a very close second would be Shaiya

Looking for a group oriented action mmorpg game with a large population of players, solid game play, and ability to play for free unlimitedly without massive restrictions. The key things I am looking for are decent graphics, large player base, strong community, and ease of playing for free. 

I am actually wondering this exact same thing myself right now. I am a very casual player, quite possibly will never really aspire to end game or anything of the sort. I play mmos for the community and interaction mainly. I like social games like FFXI and games where there is a lot of sitting around and waiting for stuff to happen, group based content where you need to talk with people, coordinate people, and get people together in one spot to get things done. 

Based on this I wonder which mmo would be better suited for my tastes. I am looking for a free mmorpg that fits those characteristics. 

Way to focused on the cash shop to be the right game for me. It's to bad because I really like the turn base combat. 

They should scrap the game now and cut their losses. The only logical reason why they would continue to keep this game running under these miserable conditions, and in this unrecoverable state is to try to save face. 

I am really looking forward to giving this game a second shot now that it will be F2P. I was only able to get to level 8 last time before I got bored with the game, but truthfully I didn't bother to give the game a fair shot like I should have. At least this time I will have the chance to play as long as I want as a premium member and see how I enjoy the game. 

The game is more likely to be a shut down project a year from now than it releasing on ps3. 

Its really a shame considering that this game was by in large looked uppon and anticipated as the best mmorpg to release in 2010. Boy did that go south real quick. Even for people who do play it its really hard to defend it as it stands. I happen to own 4 copies of the game. All 4 given to me by seprate people who quit in the first month of release. As for me?  I decided to try it on one of those accounts that were given to me. I lasted 2 weeks before I was completely bored with it.  Even if the game is substantially fixed I don't know anyone who has quit and has any desire to go back and check it out again. 

SE should just drop it, and focus their energy on FFXI. 

I am willing to be money that it will release Q1 2012.  More specifically If I had to guess I would say March. 

Originally posted by Draron

Originally posted by gaeanprayer

Originally posted by Draron

Weird. FFXI had no AH at the start and a slightly worse UI than XIV. If you wanted XI-2, you got it. I play casually, and am enjoying myself. The UI with a controller doesn't bother me the slightest (though I played XI for years), and I'm not paying a thing, so it's no loss.

The problem is 'at the start' was many moons ago. The ghost town that is FF11 is testament to the fact that it has not aged well. I know someone is bound to come in here and try to say it's not empty, but I actually played it. It is. Unless of course you're paying to get power leveled in Abyssea then sure, lots of people. Sorta.

Anyway back to my original point, gamers evolve and come to expect a certain standard as time goes on. What worked for games in the past doesn't always work for games that come almost a decade later. Just the way it is.

 FFXI a ghost town? It has 17 servers that have ~2000 online at all times. It's still doing well.

And yes, there was no excuse to have the market wards as the sole way to trade at launch. But they way they have them set up now, you can find any item and lowest prices in a minute tops, which is fine enough until they implement the AH (which they mentioned in the last producers letter).

I belive what he means to say is if you don't feel like / or have help to power level a character in Abyssea now days, then basically you are screwed and it has become nearly impossible to find a party level 20-70 in the normal zones. Everyone just power levels now. 

I agree and this is actually the reason I decided to leave FFXI after 6 faithful years. 

As I said in my beginning post, for me the best F2P in terms of fun for me was Sword 2 / Granado Espada, but it was a rip off no doubt.

When it comes to the most balanced F2P game I have ever played I would have to say that Requiem was very balanced back when I used to play it a few years back. All they used to sell on the shop was exp boosters and a few other perks that didn't really matter. I don't know if things changed now though.