Very nice write-up. I think going to the planes would be epic. Obviously the expansions will have this, but I wonder how.

Interesting patch. Not enough to make me come back, but interesting.  Now I want to know what 1.8 and 1.9 will be doing.  Looking for that ONE patch that cries out to me, Come Play Rift!  Marriages and more chronicles/master dungeons that I never end up doing is not it.

PVP changes on the other hand....good but not enough.  Still gotta run battlegrounds all day. 

I'd like  housing, more zones for my alts to level through, mini games, more alternative endgame activities and so on.

Guarantee you, Rifts first expansion at e3 or randomly in spring. If the dataminers are correct we see a new city and race in 1.8. So who knows? Expansion in may? Early summer?

For me Rifts one of the few mmos still worth a subscription fee . But I have seen a drop off in recent months and I do wonder for how long the will be able to continue with new content before eyeing some sort of free to play model .  I hope it doesn't but I fear its on the cards .

Actually, Rift's population had been steadily increasing due to many reasons. One of them being  people finally realizing how crappy SWTOR really is.

Originally posted by tkoreaper

Actually, Rift's population had been steadily increasing due to many reasons. One of them being  people finally realizing how crappy SWTOR really is.

 

I think there is some truth in that people that left to try StarWars and returned because they didn't like what they see. But I dont think its anywhere near the number they had prior to the release of StarWars . Looking at the the populations in ToR as we speak they have 23 heay or very heavy load servers in the EU right now . So I guess not everyone finds it crappy . To me ToR is more an rpg with some elements of mmo added on  . I think it appeals maybe to a different crowd than a traditional mmo would . I'm suprised its doing so well . I think Trion may be gearing up for a duel pay to play / free to play service . Some servers will be free to play but if you want all the features you'll have to subscribe to move to a pay to play server .

I'm looking forward to this update, especially the revised PVP. Not bothered about the wedding suff which is the first part of an update where I've though what's the point? but I guess some people will enjoy it.

(aside from getting a new computer for this game) the one thing that would make me want to play it more then any other game that's out right now would be if they added a taming/evolution feature to the pet classes, AND instead of making the planes a dungeon (which is what i interpreted from above) make them explorable miniworlds. Why not make them more interesting then just some LFG thing one can do for five minutes and then leave? Just a thought because the instanced dungeoning thing is getting a little boring for me.

Originally posted by DSWBeef

Guarantee you, Rifts first expansion at e3 or randomly in spring. If the dataminers are correct we see a new city and race in 1.8. So who knows? Expansion in may? Early summer?

 

2.0

rise of the pie

Good info, but I found the article was a bit annoying to read. I found myself skipping ahead with the thoughts of "Get on with it".

I downloaded those (and a few more) planar screenshots from the rift-wiki and use them as a Win7 desktop theme.  The art is really nice.  Like I said there are a several more on the rift-wiki if you want to find some nice backgrounds.

I would love it if we could visit those other planes and adventure there.

I'm not so excited about the wedding thing.  There was a lot more meaty and interesting things they could have done to flesh out the world and add RP settings than virtual romances.  Enough said about that though.  Unless they give some idiotic benefit to "marriage" then I'll just ignore it.

In all it's always fun to read your write ups Paul.  Thanks again.