Briarcliff and PvP Servers

[Tankendog]

Hey all,

After browsing this website for many years as a WoW player, i finally decided to join, but this time, I am playing rift. I have been playing rift on and off since release, now with 2 level 50s. Now to the ontopic of my post:

I play on Briarcliff, a server that is marked as PvP. It is a recurring theme of PvP servers to have very low population.

What are other's thoughts on what the cross faction changes will bring to PvP servers, and how about the expansion? With hope of more balanced PvP, and hopefully more players, Do others think that my server will survive? Or is it the case that PvP will remain a tag of forgotten servers?

I should note that i dont think a game needs millions of players to be successful, but i would like more to see how solid of a game Rift is.

[Puremallace]

GW2 is like the holy jesus of pvp mmo's right now, so it is eating up the pvp populations of a crap ton of games. Some games like Tera and Aion saw heavy hits in population after GW2 launched.

Saw a guy link this video of what pvp will be like in SL. I have not watched it myself

http://www.twitch.tv/mmorpgcom/b/332181688

The pvp population is known to be very flimsy. We will see how it goes. Stuff like Conquest is constantly packed whenever the timer goes off. I assume they will push the Conquest concept further and expand on it

[Antipathy]

Hey all,

After browsing this website for many years as a WoW player, i finally decided to join, but this time, I am playing rift. I have been playing rift on and off since release, now with 2 level 50s. Now to the ontopic of my post:

I play on Briarcliff, a server that is marked as PvP. It is a recurring theme of PvP servers to have very low population.

What are other's thoughts on what the cross faction changes will bring to PvP servers, and how about the expansion? With hope of more balanced PvP, and hopefully more players, Do others think that my server will survive? Or is it the case that PvP will remain a tag of forgotten servers?

I should note that i dont think a game needs millions of players to be successful, but i would like more to see how solid of a game Rift is.

Rift's Developers have introduced many PvP mechanics and features into the game with what I believe has been very little return or interest from the PvP community. (as casual PvPer, I think conquest is the most fun feature I have ever played in any MMO from a PvP perspective) Many of the very serious PvP players have left the game for GW2, and I think this has driven guilds on PvP realms to migrate to PvE servers, since they can balance the loss with the recruitment of players from cross factions.

It is my honest belief that a game as diverse as rift with its many Soul Options and with SL looming on the horizon and adding what is frankly going to be game changing soul options (Melee Mages and Range DPS warriors have been revealed so far), the act of balancing PvP becomes more and more tedious and difficult, and the devs seem to have chosen to focus on PvE balance.

I will add, to answer your question, that I believe the game is growing. every day I log in I find more and more players on my server (Blightweald EU isn't exactly the most popular shard) with a whole bunch of players working to complete achievements, reputation and other feats before Storm Legion Launches. This has made it a lot of fun for me to play at this point in time since the activity levels in general chat are really high, with people pugging raids, calling out for achieves, and announcing rare spawns and things of that sort.

Trion have never given information on Subscription counts, but considering the MMO sphere and the features announced with SL, I think that there has been more and more interest in the game than ever before.

in case you missed it, here's what we can look forward to in SL. and the music rocks.

[Puremallace]

My general theory is Conquest is the future of pvp in Rift. They could introduce a Ember Isle conquest map and it would be amazing. Iron Pine peak would be epic also. This current version is just something need to get bug free and then you can drop it onto any map. I barely ever pvp'd in WoW, but I did do Wintergrasp every time because it was fun and had objectives.

[Pachycrocuta]

My general theory is Conquest is the future of pvp in Rift. They could introduce a Ember Isle conquest map and it would be amazing. Iron Pine peak would be epic also. This current version is just something need to get bug free and then you can drop it onto any map. I barely ever pvp'd in WoW, but I did do Wintergrasp every time because it was fun and had objectives.

Honestly, they should have made a map specifically for Conquest, instead of taking a previous zone. And a zone that isn't exactly the greatest in layout. And in my opinion, the map should be huge like the WvWvW map in GW2 (the size, not an exact copy). But I agree that Conquest is probably going to be the future of Rift pvp, so long as the player-base will actively choose any of the 3 factions equally, instead of everyone queuing up for Nightfall or Oathsworn, and leaving Dominion empty. On the last couple free weekends they provided, I heard a lot of complaints about people not being able to join Conquest, yet when I opened my window Dominion had plenty of room for members.

[Tankendog]

I do enjoy conquest, but it makes the game feel much more like a role playing game when i have to compete with the other faction for the order in the world. This is only fun though when servers are balanced, and currently they are not. This is the same problem with conquest and the sides are very uneven at times.

I am not a RPer, but i do enjoy some depth of game play. I love the ideas of cross faction from a PvE standpoint, but on a PvP side out in the world, it does feel a bit different.

[Pachycrocuta]

I do enjoy conquest, but it makes the game feel much more like a role playing game when i have to compete with the other faction for the order in the world. This is only fun though when servers are balanced, and currently they are not. This is the same problem with conquest and the sides are very uneven at times.

I am not a RPer, but i do enjoy some depth of game play. I love the ideas of cross faction from a PvE standpoint, but on a PvP side out in the world, it does feel a bit different.

MANY pvp people do not like being on the smaller "losing" side. It's why (for the most part) pvp servers in WoW are so 1-sided, and it was bound to happen in Rift as well. Same with every other game with pvp servers. It's why people usually don't believe anyone who is into PVP when they say they want a fair fight (number wise or personal strength-wise). It's why people didn't believe all those twinks who say they do it to fight other twinks, yet when they were removed from normal queue they basically vanished. As is evident when it comes to other pve "conveniences", people will take the path of least resistance/more ease (same with all facets of real life), and in pvp that's usually the side with the bigger numbers if there is no availability of twinks.

[Deleted]

The major blow RIFT received from GW2 was situated in PVP servers. I have alts only on Bloodiron but this server alone, had over 50% population on line reduction, combared to prior GW2 release days.
Comparing the fact that most present PvP as Rift's weak point while they present PvP as GW2's strong point, i cant say i am very amazed.

The bet for Rift now is to survive the success of GW2 and the potential surge of people that will wanna give MoP a go. After that, the ball is on Trion's hands, with their own brand new expansion!

[DeltrusDisc]

Yeah, to the original point of the thread and also people talking about GW2's effect.... PVP shards are I think a dying breed for Rift, very few players have such a need or an issue with Guardians in their 50 chat (from a Defiant perspective) and vice versa, to truly keep those shards very popular. I can say that GW2's release went totally unnoticed on Deepwood US.

[Tankendog]

I know many of my friends had purchased GW2 and have already beaten all of the PvE dungeons. I am not trying to gamebash at all, but GW2 isnt for me. I enjoy in depth PvE, and doing PvP as an extra. I can see people looking at Rift as a new option if they are looking for the same. From people i have talked to though, they discount Rift as a second rate game, due to lack of information available, and in in my reading, a strong, third party site community site dedicated souly to rift.

I do enjoy my PvP server, as it makes me feel special for picking guardian. I like the since of identity very much so. Really, what is a game if one is not immersed

[notorious98]

Hey all,

After browsing this website for many years as a WoW player, i finally decided to join, but this time, I am playing rift. I have been playing rift on and off since release, now with 2 level 50s. Now to the ontopic of my post:

I play on Briarcliff, a server that is marked as PvP. It is a recurring theme of PvP servers to have very low population.

What are other's thoughts on what the cross faction changes will bring to PvP servers, and how about the expansion? With hope of more balanced PvP, and hopefully more players, Do others think that my server will survive? Or is it the case that PvP will remain a tag of forgotten servers?

I should note that i dont think a game needs millions of players to be successful, but i would like more to see how solid of a game Rift is.

I don't believe anybody answered your first question, but cross faction will bring nothing to PvP servers, to be honest. The only thing cross faction will do for you is allow you to group up with the other side for random dungeons. The cross faction feature is only relevant on PvE servers. As for the PvP in this game, I enjoy doing my PvP thing, but it seems to be, easily, the weakest point of the game. It's a fun aside to the great PvE content, but that's about it. I believe that your PvP servers will remain the forgotten ones. But that's just my personal opinion.