I was surprised to find that Trion and Rift had put together a mobile app for the iOS.  One, because as a player of the game it somehow eluded me that they were making this, and two because the damned thing ended up being kind of awesome for a free app.  There are a lot of things it could improve on, functionality it could deliver, but from what I understand this is just the first stepping stone to a larger mobile experience in Telara.  Looks like ArenaNet isn’t the only company who realizes the power phones and tablets can have to keep players connected to the game world on the go.

Essentially, the Rift Mobile app does a handful of useful things:

• Alerts of you zone events, depending on the settings you determine
• Keeps you connected to your friends and guild through chat
• Let’s you view Guild Info (MotD, etc.)
• Play a few lottery scratch-card mini-games for the chance as planar loot drops

Now that may not seem like a whole hell of a lot, but if you’re in an active guild that plays together often, this suddenly takes on a new meaning.  Now, no matter where I am, I can keep chatting with my guild-mates and make plans for when I get home.  I can see when my friends are online and then decide with them if I should hop on and play a bit too.  I can also see when there’s something interesting going on in the zones I haunt and decide to hop in then.

The mini-games are simple little scratch lottery games that are “Telara” themed.  Crafty Critters, Planar Invasion, and Shinies! each allow you a chance to win different kinds of loot.  Crafti Critters obviously can get you crafting materials, while Planar Invasion will get you planar loot, and Shinies! will get you artifacts for your collections.  You can play a total of up to six times in succession before you run out of “credits” and have to wait for them to recharge.  Think of this like “energy” in any number of Facebook games, and you get the idea.  The difference here is that Rift Mobile is entirely free and won’t be asking you to “buy energy” any time soon. The time limit is there just to make sure that industrious players couldn’t constantly farm Shinies! for said shiny things. 

Sure there are things I wish it did beyond these few early steps.  I’d love to be able to play the auctions, do some crafting, or maybe some sort of exploration/map-related game that could gain my character points towards Planar Attunement.  The options are limitless outside of actually playing the game.  But for now, considering the fact that Rift Mobile is a free addition to any player’s iOS devices and Androids as well, it’s another welcome feature to the ever-expanding set of additions that Trion seems intent on coming up with.  You don’t even need to be subscribed to use it right now (though this will likely change as it gains traction, I’d be willing to bet). 

If you’re playing Rift, and wish you could live in Telara even when you’re not at home, Rift Mobile is here to help.  Have you tried it out yet, aside from wanting more features, what do you think of its functionality?

ED: Apologies for the confusion, but the Android version is still forthcoming, but it IS on the way!