RiFT: Best Expansion 2012 Massively

[Lypo]

I don't really think Rift is the "most improved" MMO I have played over a year. Rift launched with the most robust out-of-box feature set and dev support I have ever seen. Many QoLs aspects other MMOs implement over the course of years or via addon was day 1 native in Rift or incrementally added at a 1 1/2 month pace alongside content.

Really can't say most improved because the initial and base game of Rift [pre-Xpac] was always at a quality level & robustness eclipsing every MMO. Aside from a 7 year old monolith still running a shade higher than Warcraft 3. Natch.

TSW and SWTOR [yea, SWTOR] are stronger picks for most improved MMO over the course of a year or so. Those games at launch were pretty incomplete or otherwise lacking in QOL features they now have. Which have made TSW/SWTOR certainly better than at launch.

It doesn't seem logically possible for Rift to be "most improved". It's always been like the way it is now, basically.

Most improved MMO over it's first year has to be Anarchy Online. Going from that launch to Notum Wars, the booster pack that added PvP Land Control that's still being fought over 10 years later, simply astounding.

However, over the last year, WoW would be my choice for most improved due to the Cata -> MoP change.

[Azuri]

I think you can look at Most Improved as "the greatest change in absolute score" or as "the most improvements added". Rift has had the most improvements added - as TheWocky has most elegantly highlighted. Sure, this has "only" taken a very good game to great, but that's still the most improvements.

I'd have to agree with the statement above. I don't think SWTOR has come close to the most improved game it's still playing catch up. Some basic features like player character initiated transfer or copy a character to a test server still don't exist in the game. I can't say to the fine details what has changed in SWTOR but the fact there's a sizable and movable UI and few other "should be there" QoL features added in it certainly doesn't get most improved.

Here's a few things that fall to the wayside that are just taken for granted and added in the first year and I've just picked a few at random btw:

• In-game video can now be recorded as well as posted on YouTube!
• COINLOCK FEATURE -- Account Security
• Brand new Wardrobe slots allow you to customize the appearance of your character and even save whole outfits to swap between.
• Added the option to purchase a fifth & sixth Role from your Calling trainer!
• Use RiftConnect to easily manage options for the various social networks you can integrate with RIFT. Settings for Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and YouTube can now be accessed via a button on the lower left corner of the patcher as well as the Settings menu in-game.
• Seamless Character & Guild Transfers
• New Crafting Rifts offer additional ways to obtain materials and crafting skill-specific Plaques!
• A new type of Rift - PvP Rifts - can now be opened at Raid Tear locations with a special Ascended Power.
• New Chronicles, epic storyline experiences for solo and duo players.
• New Planar Attunement system lets you continue to grow your character past level 50 and choose how you want to enhance their abilities
• Veteran Rewards are being added as a bonus for longtime Ascended
• Master-mode Dungeons
• AddOns for RIFT
• LIBRARY OF THE RUNEMASTERS - Warfront
• Ember Isle, a new zone
• Caduceus Rise, the largest dungeon to date
• In-Game Weddings
• Name Plate Color Changes
• Enemy Name Plates Added To UI (In a hotfix even not a patch)
• Soul Preset system
• Fishing and Survival skills
• Guild Finder
• Leaderboards

I didn't even bother touching on content and UI improvements made over the last year or it would take me a month to make this post

[Kelimbror]

I'd have to agree with the statement above.

Except using this method is exactly why Rift shouldn't even be nominated. Going from an 8 to a 10 is not the same as going from below zero to 6-10 depending on your preference.

I will say the things you list do present a very heavy argument, but perfecting an already smooth sailing ship and righting an old, broken one headed for the brink of a waterfall are two totally different things. I would just have to agree that it is overwhelmingly the MMO of the year, but just can't accept it being Most Improved.

It's like saying Lebron James is the most improved player this year because he increased all of his averages by 1 or 2 of that stat per game.

Then you have an aging veteran who spent most of last season in a slump, posting the worst numbers of his entire career and this year has returned to being as good as he was when he was a rookie.

Look at that analogy and tell me how Rift can be most improved. MVP, hell yeah. Improved? Nooooo.

[Antipathy]

Except using this method is exactly why Rift shouldn't even be nominated. Going from an 8 to a 10 is not the same as going from below zero to 6-10 depending on your preference.

I think this is a fair assessment with the implication being, ofc, that you are one of those players that disliked cataclysm and felt it was a (negative) mark on the WoW ledger; which I can understand.

I do however, feel that cata introduced a truckload of features into the WOW universe as well (2 races, revamped starter zones, new profession, LFR, updated old world content, new zones, etc.) and not everyone reviles those changes.

Bottom line, methinks, is whether or not u sit in the "Cata sucked" or "Cata was adequate" camps. to everyone's shock and horror, I liked the expansion. I disliked some of the things the developer did (nerfing Hmode Firelands while it was current, for example) but I liked it overall - just thought they didn't give me my money's worth with the "patch" content.

[Ryme]

I just can't really fathom that given that I played Cataclsym and it almost destroyed my soul and ability to play MMOs. Did you play every iteration of WoW until Cata? whoo boy I did. That was a fall of Greek Tragic proportions. It was so bad, I'm starting to wonder if they did it on purpose to come out with Mists and reinvigorate their own product. *tin foil hat off*

People said the same thing coming out of Wrath, they'll say the same thing coming out of Mists too. WoW's audience is too vast.

[RoninaThorstone]

People said the same thing coming out of Wrath, they'll say the same thing coming out of Mists too. WoW's audience is too vast.

Except wrath/tbc didn't cost wow 25% of its players like cata did.

Cata was terrible.

[Requiemcliff]

Except using this method is exactly why Rift shouldn't even be nominated. Going from an 8 to a 10 is not the same as going from below zero to 6-10 depending on your preference.

I will say the things you list do present a very heavy argument, but perfecting an already smooth sailing ship and righting an old, broken one headed for the brink of a waterfall are two totally different things. I would just have to agree that it is overwhelmingly the MMO of the year, but just can't accept it being Most Improved.

It's like saying Lebron James is the most improved player this year because he increased all of his averages by 1 or 2 of that stat per game.

Then you have an aging veteran who spent most of last season in a slump, posting the worst numbers of his entire career and this year has returned to being as good as he was when he was a rookie.

Look at that analogy and tell me how Rift can be most improved. MVP, hell yeah. Improved? Nooooo.

]

Well, honestly, I won't go into a sheer argument style, but I didn't think Cataclysm was that terrible an expansion. Ok, I can agree that it wasn't a very good one, and fairly weak in comparison to the other two, especially Wrath. But by no means was it in the negatives. (This is somebody who played since basically 3-4 months before BC)

I mean, revamping the world, was awesome, completely awesome. There were definite issues, -especially- in the terms of amount of content releaseds sans that, I mean, and well, there is a laundry list of issues I had with the expansion regarding storylines, and just sheer lack of content updates, especially compared to RIFT.

Now, most improved MMO in 2012, yeah, I actually can agree that RIFT wasn't that great in that catagory, yes there was a fair amount of content, a few fun events, but I think as people said, I think what I would consider when RIFT started picking up a fair amount was 1.5-1.6. Ember Isles, Planar Attunement, and just as things went, more and more things got interesting with the game. The thing is though, they were both in late 2011. Yes, RIFT has improved a fair amount in some ways, well, I suppose you could as well argue with RIFT compared to WoW over the majority over the past year RIFT had about 6 major patches adding a fair amount of new content including new raids, new dungeons I believe, some big events (non-holiday) and a fair amount of QoL improvements. (Hell, they added Fishing and Survival, which is pretty awesome). WoW...didn't even have any patches till pre-MoP...

Also, in the concept of MMOs that came out this year regarding Guild Wars 2 paying them off...How many MMORPGs came out this year, realistically, we had TERA, Secret World, and GW2 this year as big MMORPG (Emphasis on RPGs). TERA had an amazing combat system, but the game was pretty meh...Secret Worlds, I think the quest style was awesome, but the combat was pretty bleh. Guild Wars 2 came out and was decent, not bad, and for new MMOs, probably I consider the best of the three.

Anyway, sorry for that, but on sheer on topic stuff, I enjoyed the RIFT expansion and I think it's fine to be top on Massivelys list. Though in the end, meh, it's a list, doesn't mean much sans some free publicity for the company.

[Jeleh]

• In-game video can now be recorded as well as posted on YouTube!
• COINLOCK FEATURE -- Account Security
• Brand new Wardrobe slots allow you to customize the appearance of your character and even save whole outfits to swap between.
• Added the option to purchase a fifth & sixth Role from your Calling trainer!
• Use RiftConnect to easily manage options for the various social networks you can integrate with RIFT. Settings for Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and YouTube can now be accessed via a button on the lower left corner of the patcher as well as the Settings menu in-game.
• Seamless Character & Guild Transfers
• New Crafting Rifts offer additional ways to obtain materials and crafting skill-specific Plaques!
• A new type of Rift - PvP Rifts - can now be opened at Raid Tear locations with a special Ascended Power.
• New Chronicles, epic storyline experiences for solo and duo players.
• New Planar Attunement system lets you continue to grow your character past level 50 and choose how you want to enhance their abilities
• Veteran Rewards are being added as a bonus for longtime Ascended
• Master-mode Dungeons
• AddOns for RIFT
• LIBRARY OF THE RUNEMASTERS - Warfront
• Ember Isle, a new zone
• Caduceus Rise, the largest dungeon to date
• In-Game Weddings
• Name Plate Color Changes
• Enemy Name Plates Added To UI (In a hotfix even not a patch)
• Soul Preset system
• Fishing and Survival skills
• Guild Finder
• Leaderboards

I didn't even bother touching on content and UI improvements made over the last year or it would take me a month to make this post

Trion are a damn good company, the work and content they put out for the price point is amazing and they deserve every credit and accolade they are given imo. Having never really got into rift much and just played it on and off for a month every few, each time i go back to the game it has evolved leaps and bounds. Over the last year the most significant change for me has been the ease of access with the changes to soul trees and the ability to pick the game up and go.

Top company in my book and a deserved award.

[Madruga]

People said the same thing coming out of Wrath, they'll say the same thing coming out of Mists too. WoW's audience is too vast.

Oh I don't think Cataclysm will have that kindness of rose tinged glasses. I remember very well the amount of crap it represented.

Not that it was ALL bad, some parts of it were well done... But all in all, it was not a good expansion.

I think WoW might even be the nominee for Best Improvement instead of Rift because of that... Rift was already good, Storm Legion just got it to another step.

[Queen of Hamsters]

Meh, can't say I agree on any of the points. Especially not on the "Most improved" part, for obvious reasons. MoP has made me see what a disaster Cata was in many aspects, and we're only 3 months in...not even that. And I still had enough fun in Cata to never feel like unsubbing. For me, WoW went from a fair 5 to a 9.5 with MoP. I still wanna see improvements made to certain areas.

Probably well deserved award though, no doubt. Rift is about the only new mmorpg I've tried and played that feels like it's going places and will continue to go places when other current mmorpgs have crumbled back down.

[zito]

Cata had to be the worst expansion ever. Had to deal with OP burst warriors first season of PvP and endgame the only thing to do was raid. Zones got a makeover but most of them kept their horrible quests. Herioc deathwing was hardly a challenge, it took people 2 weeks? to finish spine because it was a burst dps check. Deathwing was a "kill this new add" check.

Rift deserves this reward

[Terahertz]

If only Rift had active PvP, then I would try it out. But I absolutely disgust games that are purely focused around PvE (and from the forum posts I read, RiFT doesn't focus around PvP AT ALL. It's not that I don't like PvE, I just want to have the possibility to do both with PvP being my main priority.

[RoninaThorstone]

If only Rift had active PvP, then I would try it out. But I absolutely disgust games that are purely focused around PvE (and from the forum posts I read, RiFT doesn't focus around PvP AT ALL. It's not that I don't like PvE, I just want to have the possibility to do both with PvP being my main priority.

While I totally get your post...
Consider the following,
PVP focus MMOs tend to take two routes or a hybrid of the two in an effort to balance their game. Homogenization and simplification.
First, homogenization occurs in an effort to remove niche classes. When one class has an ability everyone else does not have, someone will eventually figure out a way to exploit it in a PVP setting and people will find it unfair. Developers do their best to either equip everyone with similar set of abilities or flat out remove abilities they consider "abusive". These leads to fairness through blandness. I, for one, would rather have interesting classes and weird specs. I did not come to this conclusion quickly. For years I supported giving people similar tool sets in the name of fairness only to later discover that the differences are what made the classes interesting and fun.
The second type is simplification. By reducing the number of available specs, customization, and wonky abilities developers limit the number out comes a match can have and thus balance it better. For example, in guild wars 2 you have a small selection of abilities and the idea is that knowing when to use them is where the skill comes from. While I do not contest that, I point out that it is much easier to balance a game where there are limited abilities to account for. If double axes ability 4 is too strong, its very easy for a developer to address that. When classes have 40-50 relevant abilities it is harder to balance out PVP encounters compared to 5-10. However, having bare bones tool kits makes people feel like they have no control over their play style. They have only a few viable choices and of those choices only a few abilities. If their play style isn't addressed in those sets, they aren't going to have fun.

Now, Rift is certainly not the pinnacle of PVP... but its interesting and fun. Personally, I play video games for those exact reasons.
You might be a 2400 rated ball swinging keyboard warrior and that might not sound like your cup of tea. In which case, yeah. This is not the game for you.

[Fencers]

It's okay for games to not appeal to everyone equally. That's how we [the marketplace] get interesting games in the first place. There are other games & genres that provide actual PVP in better service than an MMO. The idea and desire is misplaced in the MMO genre to start.

[zito]

Now, Rift is certainly not the pinnacle of PVP... but its interesting and fun.

It would be fine if they tuned numbers more and not make it as much of a gear check as it is now.

Once next rankings appear all hell is going to break loose again.

[vizzle]

Yes but it does beg the question..by what metrics are they going?

For expansion of the year they are certainly not going by popularity, number of subscribers, most profitable, most features..in the end the only common metric I can find for all the award is the publishers own personal opinions. That's fine, because that is how most awards go out, but the gaming news industry is so bloated with biased writings its hard to take anything they say seriously.

By this logic, any music awards that doesn't give Justin Bieber all of their awards shouldn't be taken seriously.

[Lypo]

By this logic, any music awards that doesn't give Justin Bieber all of their awards shouldn't be taken seriously.

You mean PSY, right?

[Reubane]

I've been thinking about getting into Rift as of late. Wanted to know if you can make a ranged rogue like class that's viable. Played through Skyrim at least 3 times as a stealthy archer. Don't care if it's with a pet or not.

[Deleted]

I've been thinking about getting into Rift as of late. Wanted to know if you can make a ranged rogue like class that's viable. Played through Skyrim at least 3 times as a stealthy archer. Don't care if it's with a pet or not.

you can, what you are looking for is either a mix of marksman, ranger and assassin. stealth with arrows and pets, also with melee if you like. here take a look
http://rift.magelo.com/en/soultree#/

[Acquiesce of Telara]

I've been thinking about getting into Rift as of late. Wanted to know if you can make a ranged rogue like class that's viable. Played through Skyrim at least 3 times as a stealthy archer. Don't care if it's with a pet or not.

Nykolas' link should provide you with most of the details you need.

The Rogue Calling consists of 9 different souls (talent trees) that incorporate the ubiquitous Hunter specs from other games, and additional ranged specs that aren't found in WoW. Additionally, Rogues can tank or play a buff/support spec as well.