In a tug of war between WoW & Rift..

[Deleted]

Note: This thread isn't for bashing either games, i'm looking for helpful opinions on each games on what to do from people who have experience with both games (In terms of endgame & co-op/social experience). So please don't post a response if it isn't going to be helpful.

I'm pretty much stuck on what to do, i've played WoW since just before the implementation of Battlegrounds both casually and spending way too many hours on a night raiding or just chillin' on vent doing some PvP. But with the recent direction the game has been taking since late Wrath, i've found myself less inclined to play.

With people expecting MoP out this year and some friends being interested in MMO's, my question is:

Is Rift currently successful (As in, will it last long and is it popular?), whats the end game like in comparison to WoWs (Both in terms of fun, length and difficulty for raids/pvp)? Would WoW be better with friends - And does MoP make WoW worth playing again? (I haven't really looked at any details on MoP, if I do go to it I don't want any big spoilers)

I apologize for WoW questions on the Rift forum page, but I felt like you guys would have experience with both games as appose to the WoW forums experience.

And please give me honest detailed opinions, not "Rift is good wow is bad" many thanks!

[Butterland]

WoW is still good. Rift is a change of pace, but essentially similar to WoW. I don't think Rift will ever beat WoW, but for now it's cheaper and still fresh.

[Tarien]

With people expecting MoP out this year and some friends being interested in MMO's, my question is:

Is Rift currently successful (As in, will it last long and is it popular?), whats the end game like in comparison to WoWs (Both in terms of fun, length and difficulty for raids/pvp)? Would WoW be better with friends - And does MoP make WoW worth playing again? (I haven't really looked at any details on MoP, if I do go to it I don't want any big spoilers)

While WoW and RIFT share a great many features the differences boil down to this:

WoW is a much more casual/altoholic game, it's easier to access, easier to customise, it's features benefit from seven years of polish under a world class developer. However, in recent years development has slowed down, and much time has been spent satisfying the needs of the overwhelmingly casual playerbase, everything from world events like the Darkmoon Fair revamp to the Looking For Raid feature which gives ever more casual players access to raiding.

RIFT shares a lot with WoW, it's UI borrows heavily from what would be considered standard in MMOs, a standard that Blizzard helped define, and it is set in a fantasy world with elves and dwarves and so many people's first impression of RIFT is that it is 100% WoW clone. This impression is not massively helped by some fairly dull questing/levelling. However, at max level you will find that the game is a diamond in the rough. Raw and uncut by a developer with no previous MMO experience RIFT never the less offers a Burning Crusade style of gameplay with all the modern features one would expect from a triple-A MMO, and with easily the most relentless and exciting update schedule in any MMO ever. Dungeons are challenging for new players, reputations will take time to earn, PvP ranks are the result of dozens of hours of piling up enemy skulls, and even the first Tier of raids can wipe raids if someone isn't paying attention. The second tier is regularly compared to Ulduar for it's beauty - and it's challenges.

The question you really have to ask is, what kind of gamer are you? Do you enjoy challenge, does it bother you if something takes a long time to earn, or if some home comforts you have gotten used to are missing? Because RIFT is like camping in the wilderness, a lot of people get all manly and enthusiastic about it but after a few nights of cold and rain give up and head back home.

You also need to think about your friends, if this is their first MMO maybe they want something a little easier or more casual friendly? Or perhaps they prefer something a little more challenging and (graphically) realistic?

I haven't really touched on specific features and will gladly expand on any that you want to know about for MoP or RIFT, but that's generally the state of the games as of now. I have a little bias for RIFT, but I think you may have guessed that that is the game I choose to play

[Deleted]

I dont really think anyone can answer this for you, Rift is very successful and a recent interview with scott hinted at an expansion and he pretty much flat out said "this game wont go f2p". SWTOR didn't put a dent in it as much as people thought and i actually think it's made the population increase as more people are open to trying different games, i doubt GW2 will effect it much either as it's a b2p game, i can see people just buying it once while staying subbed to their game of choice.

It's very similar to wow in both the levelling and raiding (BC style progression) but then again it's the same genre so that's to be expected, personally the thing that tipped me over onto the side of rift was the fact that they release content patches/class balance changes in lightning speed. Nothing is worse than playing a broken spec for 6 months while you wait for a fix or being stuck without any changes to the game for up to a year.

This is all just my opinion, i'm not saying wow sucks or rift is perfect but i feel that with WoW my money goes down the drain while with Rift my money goes toward new content.

[Azuri]

I've played both games from launch and each game has it's own unique qualities. While on the onset they are similar in UI type fashion many of the similarities take different approaches at end game. Rift is not really geared at being alt friendly, saying that you can level alts but Rift but is more grindy in the sense and may appeal more to the gamer of the TBC timeline in wow. If you want to do everything in the game then you will struggle to do it beyond one character and it may become a challenge for some people.

Skill talent choices (souls) are more complex in Rift which may put some WoW players off but as all play styles will prove there is always the "bread & butter" abilities. In WoW's current state and MoP may change it it's very que based in a PVE/PVP fashion and Rift is similar to that too but Rift does have more content the pushes players out in the world so at max level there are more players in all the max level areas doing various activities. Another example is reputation grinding, you can't throw a tabbard on and max out your reputation out in a week or two of running heroic dungeons. Instant gratification in many aspects of Rift are not evident other then say crafting.

You really need to sort through some of the threads here and visit www.riftgame.com and view their content, videos and other various FAQ type info. A couple things to keep in mind, Rift puts much more of demand on your PC (higher end rig recommended), it's currently not available in MAC format and is really not geared to a player who wants to just play extremely casual if you want to min/max your character.


As far as Rift being here for the long haul, no one has a crystal ball it's approaching it's 1 year anniversary and has a healthy passionate player base and evidence points to it still growing. Outside investors have seen this and recently invested another 85 million in to the company to expand it's reach to Asia and other markets.

Source

Basically you're going to have make some decisions based on subjective reviews from posters here and any evidence or lack of they can provide.

Good Luck!

[Fencers]

Is Rift currently successful (As in, will it last long and is it popular?)

Of course. It's one of the most successful MMOs not called World of Warcraft. MMOs go on for years with less than 10 million subs, no reason why Rift would not considering it was the first AAA MMO released & immediately successful in years prior to The Old Republic.

whats the end game like in comparison to WoWs (Both in terms of fun, length and difficulty for raids/pvp)?

Somewhat subjective, but on average Rift endgame is more difficult than Warcraft's endgame.

Endgame PVE design is objectively superb in Rift.

No comment on PVP.

Would WoW be better with friends - And does MoP make WoW worth playing again?

I feel Warcraft is much better as a social game. For a number of reasons, but most importantly due to establishment. Warcraft is popular. Really popular.

Rift is somewhat less casual friendly than either Warcraft or SWTOR. Rift is tougher, requires a better PC, requires more grinding, learning curve is steeper and there are more intricate systems than those other two AAA MMOs.

---

If I can offer a bit of opinion, I would say Rift is def. more of a "hardcore/veteran" skewed MMO. The method of Rift's macros, controls, encounter and class design are very granular.

Rift also lacks a lot of what I would say is coddling in other MMOs. For example, Rift has no "modes" in it's raiding structure-- they are all Heroic Mode, so to speak. Having a single difficulty setting per tier often leads to steep requirements at initial thresholds as a point of design. Where by contrast, WOW/TOR offer players an ease of access by completing lesser content progressively.

I generally do not recommend Rift for players not interested in progressive raiding. TOR/WOW are great bets if you wanna just "hang out" with friends and play an MMO less intensely.

[I am actively subbed to TOR/Rift/WOW and enjoy them all. If I had to pick one, TOR would be the hot ticket.]

[Deleted]

Some really helpful posts thank you, my friends do have experience with MMO's and we were kinda looking for one to stick too (hence is it going to last long question). I don't see many posts about the PvP in Rift, is it not very good? And what is the world pvp like?

[Tarien]

Some really helpful posts thank you, my friends do have experience with MMO's and we were kinda looking for one to stick too (hence is it going to last long question). I don't see many posts about the PvP in Rift, is it not very good? And what is the world pvp like?

World PvP is great. Because it's open world you can of course get zerged into the ground... but then again you can steamroll the enemy by weight of numbers too. The game encourages it, invasions, events, instant adventures, PvP Rifts, they are all designed to push the two factions together to create conflict. As a result there is a lot of it going on, even on my PvE server I get regular world PvP on an almost daily basis. There are Defiant players that I will go out of my way to kill, and vice versa and it is awesome to have that kind of feud going. You can use /say and /yell to taunt and smack talk the enemy, which really helps drive things I think.

PvP in Warfronts (battlegrounds) is mixed. The grind to get max rank is long and there are times when Rank 8 players (changing to a more incremental system soon with 40 ranks, but same thing really) will stomp you just because their gear is so much better. There are changes coming to help this though, lower rank gear is getting a stat boost, low ranking players get a temporary buff to help them survive when playing against high level players, and the game tries to match low rank players with other low rank players.

The Warfronts themselves are well designed and fun though, and look great. I personally really enjoy PvP in RIFT, but that is because 95% of the time I play with guildies and friends while on Vent and that makes all the difference. No one should ever PvP alone.

[Azuri]

I don't PVP and when I do, I do it with guildies for the lolz mostly. I can't really give an objective opinion on PVP since it's not my focus. At this time there is no arenas or rated BG's but Tarien's commentary above seems accurate.

This video is getting a bit dated now and by dated it can be as soon as two months with content releases from Trion but this kind of gives you an overview what the PVP looks like at least.

[Deleted]

I think Rift is doing quite well, and I'm pretty sure it's not going F2P anytime soon. There are a lot of people on many servers, so it's nowhere near dead.

The end game in Rift is brilliant. In WoW you often find yourself sitting in Orgrimmar os Stormwind, but in Rift there is a lot more stuff to do with all the rifts and things like that. And raiding is fun too. Many people find the beginning of Rift a bit dull and grindy (personally I like questing in Rift, which is very strange, as I usually hate questing), but it gets better in the end.

But WoW might be a better social game than Rift, because there are a lot more people playing WoW. On the other hand, I think Rift's community is just a tad better than WoW's. Not so many trolls and idiots. But, maybe it's just me imagining things.

Rift is very similar to WoW, but maybe a bit more 'complex', or 'hardcore', as some people might say. It's not too hard, not at all, but e.g. the talent trees are full of possibilities. Many people might think they are TOO complicated, but I like them very much. You can create exactly the kind of character you want to. There is no 'cookie cutter' build, which is pretty fantastic. Also, Rift's graphics are pretty nice compared to WoW's, and it does make the playing more fun, at least for me.

I haven't played a whole lot of PvP, but so far it's been great fun. And I'm not a huge fan of PvP in WoW. I have heard there are some balance issues, but that hasn't made it any less fun for me. Oh, and World PvP is pretty great. There are always people out there.

I just realized that I sound like some awful Rift fanboy, but that's not the case. I've played WoW for years, and I'm considering re-subbing (amg two MMOs at the same time?!).

Anyway, I'd definitely try Rift out if I were in your position. It's kinda like WoW, but still different enough to make it fun even after you're all fed up with WoW. At least that's what happened to me!

Hmh, I think this message is longer than my yet-to-be-written English essay that I'm supposed to be doing.

[Deleted]

Going to upgrade from my Trial account on Monday then, thanks!

[Clevername]

I too struggle, I have an active account for both but do to the nature of my job I can only play once every 3 months but for that month that I get to play I can play as much as I want so I nerd out hardcore for a month but don't like splitting my time between the two. On one hand WoW is like an old friend, I know everywhere, I still have people on the server I know, it sort of feels like home. On the other Rift is new and exciting and the populace is much cooler (just from my observations). I have only spent my time leveling and doing some dungeons so far but it's all new and cool to me.

So like you I need to figure out what the hell I'm going to do because my one month break is edging closer... Do I go back to my orc warrior and blow up some bg's and see what the DS is all about OR Do I finish leveling my cleric and see what endgame rift is all about?

[Deleted]

Of course. It's one of the most successful MMOs not called World of Warcraft. MMOs go on for years with less than 10 million subs, no reason why Rift would not considering it was the first AAA MMO released & immediately successful in years prior to The Old Republic.

Somewhat subjective, but on average Rift endgame is more difficult than Warcraft's endgame.

Endgame PVE design is objectively superb in Rift.

No comment on PVP.

I feel Warcraft is much better as a social game. For a number of reasons, but most importantly due to establishment. Warcraft is popular. Really popular.

Rift is somewhat less casual friendly than either Warcraft or SWTOR. Rift is tougher, requires a better PC, requires more grinding, learning curve is steeper and there are more intricate systems than those other two AAA MMOs.

---

If I can offer a bit of opinion, I would say Rift is def. more of a "hardcore/veteran" skewed MMO. The method of Rift's macros, controls, encounter and class design are very granular.

Rift also lacks a lot of what I would say is coddling in other MMOs. For example, Rift has no "modes" in it's raiding structure-- they are all Heroic Mode, so to speak. Having a single difficulty setting per tier often leads to steep requirements at initial thresholds as a point of design. Where by contrast, WOW/TOR offer players an ease of access by completing lesser content progressively.

I generally do not recommend Rift for players not interested in progressive raiding. TOR/WOW are great bets if you wanna just "hang out" with friends and play an MMO less intensely.

[I am actively subbed to TOR/Rift/WOW and enjoy them all. If I had to pick one, TOR would be the hot ticket.]

As a casual non raiding player, I can say that I enjoy Rift way more than TOR/WoW. When you say that Rift isn't as casual friendly as TOR/Wow in my opinion you are wrong. I can't really say anything about the difficulties of the raids since I've only done GSB once but I don't feel a need to raid in Rift, since it has so much more to offer for a casual than wow/tor has by miles.

Atm Im playing all three games actively, wow since beta but I prefer Rift. Will cancel my Swtor sub after this month and maybe Wow.
Played Rift since release and still haven't found any need to raid at all like I do in other MMOs since it's not lacking fun stuff to do outside instances.

[Fencers]

That's nice.

But non-raiding in Rift has a longer grind than TOR or WOW and there is less ease of play in Rift than those two. Causal play doesn't mean you don't have stuff to do. It means Rift is a lot tougher than those other two.

For example, on EI one can get their ass kicked fairly easily depending on where you roam on the island. TOR may have heroic areas. However, just the nature of having a companion and singularity in class purpose lends TOR's heroic areas as much more forgiving than Rift's elite areas.

Ease of play is an important distinction. Most gamers don't really understand game design, but do notice "feel" in a nebulous sense.

[Deleted]

. I don't see many posts about the PvP in Rift, is it not very good?

The actual pvp its self i found to be pretty good. The gear disparity however was just metal. Untill you got upto prestige rank 6 out of a possible rank 8 you were cannon fodder. All that is about to change tho

They are about to put in a massive overhaul of the pvp system. As seen http://forums.riftgame.com/public-te...iscussion.html here...

[Roose]

It seems that the main thing stopping people from playing Rift is this uncertainty that they seem to have with the future. Imo, Rift has a bright future. It has a company that wants to keep their players happy and it is still pretty new.

- found it. Swear it was not there the other day

Think imma give it a whirl in the next few days.

[Acquiesce of Telara]

Jaffa,

If you're not currently trying to achieve something in WoW, take a break for a month and play Rift. Everyone's waiting on MoP, so there's really no better time to invest in another game and see what it's worth to you.

You'll either immediately feel refreshed, or you'll head back to WoW and realize how much you took for granted before. Either way, it's win-win for you.

[Deleted]

Jaffa,

If you're not currently trying to achieve something in WoW, take a break for a month and play Rift. Everyone's waiting on MoP, so there's really no better time to invest in another game and see what it's worth to you.

You'll either immediately feel refreshed, or you'll head back to WoW and realize how much you took for granted before. Either way, it's win-win for you.

Thats not the point I want a game I can stay on and grow with a community, I dont want to play an MMO on a character I will only have for a month

It seems that the main thing stopping people from playing Rift is this uncertainty that they seem to have with the future. Imo, Rift has a bright future. It has a company that wants to keep their players happy and it is still pretty new.

I have been thinking about trying it again since I have upgraded my PC. Is there any sort of free trial? I saw the free weekend, but I can't find anything about a trial and I do not want to buy it just to see the difference in performance.

Theres a free trial which I tried because of getting bored of WoW and trying swtor and not liking it - It gets you to level 20

[Roose]

Jaffa,

If you're not currently trying to achieve something in WoW, take a break for a month and play Rift. Everyone's waiting on MoP, so there's really no better time to invest in another game and see what it's worth to you.

You'll either immediately feel refreshed, or you'll head back to WoW and realize how much you took for granted before. Either way, it's win-win for you.

Very true. Really can't lose if you try it. I am about to download the trial now.

---------- Post added 2012-01-29 at 02:37 PM ----------

Thats not the point I want a game I can stay on and grow with a community, I dont want to play an MMO on a character I will only have for a month

Theres a free trial which I tried because of getting bored of WoW and trying swtor and not liking it - It gets you to level 20

Well, you should be able to decide whether or not you want to stick around. Try out what is important to you. I realize that getting to level 20 is not the best gauge, but it can at least give a pretty good idea.

I guess it is easier for me to swap games. None of my rl friends play PC games anymore.

[Acquiesce of Telara]

Thats not the point I want a game I can stay on and grow with a community, I dont want to play an MMO on a character I will only have for a month

My point was, there's simply no better time to see if Rift will be that game. WoW is probably fast approaching its lowest activity point prior to MoP. Worst case, you lose a month of WoW playtime. Best case, you've found yourself a new game to truly invest in. My one month recommendation means don't put any less time into the game. Play a month, test classes, find a guild, hit 50, mess around and see what the game offers. Any less time and you're not really seeing everything.