Rift getting abandoned?

[lokoma]

i'm surprised Slipmat didn't tell us yet but i got some wonderful news ARCHONIX’S has gone CRAZ! he had too much sugar in his coffee or something like that and gave us a RARE MOUNT SALE! get out your credit cards friends time to buy this virtual goods......and never mine the game breaking bugs get hyped

http://www.trionworlds.com/rift/en/2...t-minute-sale/

[Manabomb]

Generation Snowflake is now an accepted term:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Snowflake

It's even an accepted Dictionary entry, sometimes called Snowflake Generation:

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us...ake-generation

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/d...ake-generation

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/u...ake-generation

You can go to any Game Forum, including this site, and instantly see examples of it.

It's an accepted term if you're an old fuckwit that uses blanket statements to paint entire generations.

What's cute is this idea that being a special snowflake is unique and new only to the millennial generation like your wiki links state, where it's the baby boomers that are currently ignorant of their mothers and fathers sacrifice in the greatest war our world has ever seen and demand special treatment like it's a human right.

[Deleted]

People getting banned on Rift forums for speaking in constructive manner *gasps*
And they wonder why no one wants to touch their game

[StrawberryZebra]

http://www.trionworlds.com/rift/en/2...t-minute-sale/

[Eleccybubb]

i'm surprised Slipmat didn't tell us yet but i got some wonderful news ARCHONIX’S has gone CRAZ! he had too much sugar in his coffee or something like that and gave us a RARE MOUNT SALE! get out your credit cards friends time to buy this virtual goods......and never mine the game breaking bugs get hyped

http://www.trionworlds.com/rift/en/2...t-minute-sale/

Honestly throwing cosmetics on sale isn't so bad. But you can tell they were in need of money when they reduced the cost of the soul packs.

[Selah]

Honestly throwing cosmetics on sale isn't so bad. But you can tell they were in need of money when they reduced the cost of the soul packs.

Haven't been paying attention to the game too terribly much lately but the soul packs being reduced in price might not be a cash thing. I know I several times pointed out on the forums and on here that the entry cost to Rift was far too steep. If I remember right to unlock all of the gear slots and the souls/callings in the game it ran something like $120. Not counting bag slots or anything of the like. Compared to WoW who is in the middle of a killer expansion and the entry cost was running about $70 at the time. It may very well have been that they realized how stupid expensive it was and they did something about it, especially considering they can't seem to make a good game worth shit now.

[lokoma]

Honestly throwing cosmetics on sale isn't so bad. But you can tell they were in need of money when they reduced the cost of the soul packs.

cosmetics for sale in a mmo is terrible to begin with. especially in rift right now they still have reputations with nothing rewarding in the game.

[Mellrod]

Oh man, I forgot Rift existed. Hearing this makes me wonder just how well Aion is floating about these days.

[Eleccybubb]

cosmetics for sale in a mmo is terrible to begin with. especially in rift right now they still have reputations with nothing rewarding in the game.

Cosmetics are fine in any MMO. It's optional content. I'm cool with style being paid for because I know I don't have to. Example. There are loads of attires in GW2 and FF14 and I bought about 2 from each game. Not because I had to but because I wanted to. Cash shops are fine when done right. Rift's just isn't because it has bonus rolls and other stupid stuff in there. If it was a purely cosmetic cash shop then that would be fine imo since it's a F2P/B2P game.

[Edge-]

cosmetics for sale in a mmo is terrible to begin with. especially in rift right now they still have reputations with nothing rewarding in the game.

...what would you rather they monetize? All content? Account features? Cosmetics are the least intrusive thing to monetize when it comes to MMO's, as they don't impact gameplay at all.

Oh man, I forgot Rift existed. Hearing this makes me wonder just how well Aion is floating about these days.

Still around. Low pop, but actually pretty great with all the changes they've made since launch (at least the NA side, EU side still sucks cause Gameforge).

[lokoma]

i would prefer to monetize content such as patches cosmetics for sale always gets out of control
prime example ⇊

[Selah]

i would prefer to monetize content such as patches cosmetics for sale always gets out of control
prime example ⇊

That cancer tho....

[Edge-]

i would prefer to monetize content such as patches cosmetics for sale always gets out of control
prime example ⇊

What about it? TERA is a game that doesn't take itself too seriously, and hasn't for a while. It's been pretty absurd from the early days, and they've more or less run with it with their cosmetics. And a lot of the fans love it because of it. Plenty hate the immersion breaking stuff, sure, but clearly enough like it and buy those things that they decide to keep making them. Personally, I love all that shit, and En Masse can make some hilarious trailers to sell that shit.

The issue you run into with monetizing content is what content to monetize and how to monetize it. Monetize too much, and you've got a potentially hyper-segmented playerbase who often don't have access to the same content, while providing a larger and larger barrier of entry for newer players (both in costs and confusion) unless you're also constantly dropping the price of content significantly or folding it into bundles, potentially pissing off regular players who feel "ripped off" that the content they pay full for regularly gets discounted.

Because remember, the developer needs a constant flow of revenue, they need something they can count on, so they'd need to have a very, very fast content delivery schedule. That would either mean they're putting out content even faster than Rift was during chocolate, but selling each content patch individually, that would require a huge team constantly working on the game. Alternatively, release it in smaller slices, but run the risk of players feeling like content is overpriced for how much it delivers.

That's why MMO's take multiple approaches nowadays, often times selling content (expansions or DLC), having optional (or mandatory) subscriptions, and having cash shops that sell costmetics, convenience items, and account services. Because for the majority of bigger MMO's, it's simply not enough to monetize a single avenue, they need to utilize multiple avenues.

[Eleccybubb]

What about it? TERA is a game that doesn't take itself too seriously, and hasn't for a while. It's been pretty absurd from the early days, and they've more or less run with it with their cosmetics. And a lot of the fans love it because of it. Plenty hate the immersion breaking stuff, sure, but clearly enough like it and buy those things that they decide to keep making them. Personally, I love all that shit, and En Masse can make some hilarious trailers to sell that shit.

The issue you run into with monetizing content is what content to monetize and how to monetize it. Monetize too much, and you've got a potentially hyper-segmented playerbase who often don't have access to the same content, while providing a larger and larger barrier of entry for newer players (both in costs and confusion) unless you're also constantly dropping the price of content significantly or folding it into bundles, potentially pissing off regular players who feel "ripped off" that the content they pay full for regularly gets discounted.

Because remember, the developer needs a constant flow of revenue, they need something they can count on, so they'd need to have a very, very fast content delivery schedule. That would either mean they're putting out content even faster than Rift was during chocolate, but selling each content patch individually, that would require a huge team constantly working on the game. Alternatively, release it in smaller slices, but run the risk of players feeling like content is overpriced for how much it delivers.

That's why MMO's take multiple approaches nowadays, often times selling content (expansions or DLC), having optional (or mandatory) subscriptions, and having cash shops that sell costmetics, convenience items, and account services. Because for the majority of bigger MMO's, it's simply not enough to monetize a single avenue, they need to utilize multiple avenues.

I said this earlier in another thread about models. Make a too fair model then you risk revenue but make a model like Rift has then you just lose players. Although the model alone is not to blame in Rifts downfall. It's all about balance in a F2P/B2P model and some MMOs overdo it but some have the perfect balance. GW2 is perfect imo. Purely cosmetic cash shop with XP boosters that do not deteriorate leveling too hard so there is no incentive to buy those unless you want to quickly do a Crafter but even then Crafting XP without them is insane if you use a guide. Whereas with Rift you kind of need the boosters. Especially since Crafting dailies had their XP removed recently because they didn't want people using a decent method of gaining XP.

http://forums.riftgame.com/general-d...o-exp-now.html

Hey folks,

We appreciate all of the feedback offered here. As Tacitus responded already, there are no plans to roll back this method of fast leveling through crafting, at least for the forseeable future.
We understand that some folks diagree with the decision, but it was made was made based on the design intention of the crafting dailies, which was not to powerlevel alts.

We are going to close this thread now.
Brasse

Sorry but no. It has nothing to do with "powerleveling alts". It's to do with the game wanting to sell more XP pots. Because without them you cannot ding 70 through the story alone. I've done it on alt and I conked out around 68-69.

[Edge-]

Because without them you cannot ding 70 through the story alone. I've done it on alt and I conked out around 68-69.

Was it ever stated that hitting 70 through story alone was the goal, or even possible? When has that ever been what leveled you to cap in Rift? I've heard plenty of issues about the lack of a smooth leveling curve in SFP, and NT definitely had its issues that made it feel far grindier than it actually was, but to my knowledge, leveling in Rift has always been designed around a mixture of story questing, dungeons, open world events, (now) instant adventures, and some carnage and open world quests.

I'm plenty critical of how Trion have handled Rift lately, but without having experience SFP leveling I'm skeptical about some of the criticisms when I read stuff like that.

[Eleccybubb]

Was it ever stated that hitting 70 through story alone was the goal, or even possible? When has that ever been what leveled you to cap in Rift? I've heard plenty of issues about the lack of a smooth leveling curve in SFP, and NT definitely had its issues that made it feel far grindier than it actually was, but to my knowledge, leveling in Rift has always been designed around a mixture of story questing, dungeons, open world events, (now) instant adventures, and some carnage and open world quests.

I'm plenty critical of how Trion have handled Rift lately, but without having experience SFP leveling I'm skeptical about some of the criticisms when I read stuff like that.

To be honest I don't think it was. But that much of a buffer without an XP pot is stupid. My main dinged 70 just fine with XP pots is the point I'm making. It's more of a personal critique here I'll admit. I think the story alone should be enough.

Worst part is IA gives shit XP, Planar Assault is no better and the 2 SFP normal dungeons are meh XP at best. So the buffer is made worse by the fact that your sources of XP are garbage. And with crafting daily XP removed it's even worse.

[lokoma]

i am for buying the game not the shit in it Buy-to-play and subscription are good ways to monetize a pair of wings or armor dye is crap in any game video games aren't like cars you shouldn't need to buy all this extra flashy crap it's not the core reason why rift is shit right now but it's one of them

[Tierbook]

Hey if Rift shuts down there are some other games that could take its spot in the game forums *wink wink nudge nudge*

Please post productively and on-topic. Infracted. -Edge

[Eleccybubb]

i am for buying the game not the shit in it Buy-to-play and subscription are good ways to monetize a pair of wings or armor dye is crap in any game video games aren't like cars you shouldn't need to buy all this extra flashy crap it's not the core reason why rift is shit right now but it's one of them

Again cosmetics are fine. Things such as bonus rolls are not. There are games that pride their stores on cosmetics and do well because of it. Cosmetic purchases are certainly not a reason why the game is in a bad spot now. I'm all for criticizing Rift but this is just attacking something that doesn't need attacking.

- - - Updated - - -

Hey if Rift shuts down there are some other games that could take its spot in the game forums *wink wink nudge nudge*

As savage as this sounds there is kind of a point here. There are way more popular games that could replace not only this but a few sub forums with a megathread but alas that's an entirely different topic.

[Edge-]

i am for buying the game not the shit in it Buy-to-play and subscription are good ways to monetize a pair of wings or armor dye is crap in any game video games aren't like cars you shouldn't need to buy all this extra flashy crap it's not the core reason why rift is shit right now but it's one of them

There was never really a true B2P MMO that did not sell anything beyond that. GW1 may have briefly existed in said form, but they sold account services pretty early on, and eventually got a cash shop. Beyond that, all B2P games have cash shops in them (unless I've missed one somewhere). Subscription based games have cash shops nowadays too - EVE (which is now F2P, even), FFXIV, WoW all sell cosmetic items in their cash shops. I don't believe there's a single P2P MMO without some form of cash shop anymore, outside of maybe some hyper-niche little game somewhere.

And you're right, we don't need to buy all that extra flashy crap. That's the whole point to selling it. Rather than piss people off by monetizing necessary aspects of the game, which eventually creates longterm problems if older content isn't eventually made free or included for free with purchases of newer content, they're monetizing something that does not impact ones ability to play the game. Sure, you may enjoy the game more with the fabulous purple hat from the cash shop, but not having that hat doesn't negatively impact your ability to play the game or your in-game performance.

Not to mention, unlike new content, making cosmetics is comparatively cheap. Whipping up a dozen mounts using existing skeletons, even if you create some brand new models in addition to re-using older ones, is a helluva lot cheaper than needing to create a brand new dungeon and put it through QA etc. It's also something that doesn't really take development time away from making playable content like a new dungeon, so that can continue to be in development largely in parallel with new cosmetic items for the cash shop.