Is RIFT redefining what an expansion pack should..well...pack?

[Kantor]

I pose that question to you, forumites, is Trion Worlds raising the bar for how much content a first expansion should contain? With 4 new souls and the large landmass being added to Telara, I am curious as to what you all think.

(Note: this is NOT about Trions excellent rate of pushing out content patches, this is about how Storm Legion could potentially change the MMO industry standard for expansions.)

[Edge-]

I'm hoping others take notice, but nobody seems to have the courage to attempt to match their content release rate so I doubt anyone could match their expansion size (especially while proving regular content updates).

Honestly, I don't think anyone else out there can do what Trion does. Period. I'd love for their kind of mentality where they treat players awesomely and deliver an insanely awesome product for the sub fee, to bleed over to other developers. But it's damn hard to do and I'd be surprised if most other devs could come close.

[fizzbob]

rift has done pretty much everything right and we're at the 1.5 year mark

i don't play rift, i can't get into any game's lore and honestly i'm just too lazy to learn a new game the way i know wow, but i can't find fault with rift or gw2 and rift has raised the bar

it just doesn't seem to be having an effect on wow yet

[uberdork]

rift has done pretty much everything right and we're at the 1.5 year mark

i don't play rift, i can't get into any game's lore and honestly i'm just too lazy to learn a new game the way i know wow, but i can't find fault with rift or gw2 and rift has raised the bar

it just doesn't seem to be having an effect on wow yet

It's not as hard as you might think to get into it. I played at launch and felt the same way, combined with all my friends jumping ship and going back to WoW. Fast forward a little more than a year and I was bored outta my head with WoW and saw posts raving about Rift so I did the free version (Rift Lite) for a bit and was having a blast. I think if you actually give it a chance you'll be surprised.

And it has actually affected WoW. Things like area looting etc. are now in WoW. Rift may or may not have originated it but it was the first game I played that had it.

[russykh]

I'm hoping others take notice, but nobody seems to have the courage to attempt to match their content release rate so I doubt anyone could match their expansion size (especially while proving regular content updates).

Honestly, I don't think anyone else out there can do what Trion does. Period. I'd love for their kind of mentality where they treat players awesomely and deliver an insanely awesome product for the sub fee, to bleed over to other developers. But it's damn hard to do and I'd be surprised if most other devs could come close.

It helps that they have an engine which was built with how fast they could do stuff in mind. Wow devs have to work with a pretty ancient engine all things considering, and I've seen interviews with them where they were almost complaining about how much of a ballache it was doing something relatively simple. Even testing stuff is easier for the Rift Devs - I saw a thing with them once where they were saying how they could code something then instantly transfer that to a personal test server to see if it worked. I dont buy that the difference is how hard Trion work (thats not to say that they dont work hard of course!), but they're set up to facilitate creating content fast. It was one of their mission statements when making the game, pretty much.

[Deleted]

I always liked Rift, they definetly give you alot for your money, the only 2 things I didn't really like was that it only had 1 starting area (per faction) making an alt is less fun because of this, granted the way soultrees worked you could practically make 3 classes out of your one, and secondly that it takes a pretty good machine to get good performance in this game, but yes it is very good in lots of ways.

[theredviola]

I would like to really get into Rift as well, but I'm not jazzed at the idea of paying another $15/mo to play another game. 1 is enough for me right now.

But good for Trion! I have heard lots of good, and to be fair lots of bad, things about Rift... but they're mostly good. That's a ton of content for one xpac, I hope they continue to do well.

[Fencers]

Have to agree with Edge here. Trion are just a cut above at this point. By no means would I say Rift is a perfect game- it has ups & downs like any other. The company that develops and supports Rift? Spectacular.

Very unlikely we'll see many if any developers on par with Trion or CDProjekt, IMO. I feel it is to the shame of the wider MMO player base to not support the game.

[Lathais]

It helps that they have an engine which was built with how fast they could do stuff in mind. Wow devs have to work with a pretty ancient engine all things considering, and I've seen interviews with them where they were almost complaining about how much of a ballache it was doing something relatively simple. Even testing stuff is easier for the Rift Devs - I saw a thing with them once where they were saying how they could code something then instantly transfer that to a personal test server to see if it worked. I dont buy that the difference is how hard Trion work (thats not to say that they dont work hard of course!), but they're set up to facilitate creating content fast. It was one of their mission statements when making the game, pretty much.

I think another big reason is that they are a private company. If they have an idea, and want to try something out, it's a bit easier to just bring it up at a weekly meeting, boss says ok, give it a go, and they spend some time implementing it on a private test server. They like what they see, they run with it. They don't have to go through any other steps for approval or anything like that. I mean I am sure everything still has to go through a lead designer or some such, but there probably isn't as much red tape because they are privately owned. I think this has a lot to do with how fast they can do things though I am not really sure.

[gonterf]

Hmm, at risk of getting flamed... first let me say that I love Rift and I can't wait for SL. That being said, I don't think SL is going to be as huge compared to other expansions as you make it seem. In terms of dungeons and raids, MOP and SL are neck and neck. 4 new souls is great, but MOP added an entire new class (equivalent to maybe 2 or 3 new souls?). Obviously SL is adding far more landmass than Pandaria, but realistically we have no idea how content-filled SL's landmass will be, since Trion stated that much of it was intended to be used for future patch content. Also it's hard to dismiss CRZ as an amazing new feature, even if it isn't 'content'.

The other fall expansion, Riders of Rohan, is adding mounted combat, which seems like a pretty huge deal to me probably on par with dimensions or pet battles (opinions over which one is better aside). Trion hasn't said anything about PvP content yet either, other than that they had originally planned for conquest to be an expansion feature (is it 2 new BGs that MOP is adding? Seems kinda half-hearted to me, but no idea if Trion will do better). Also, don't forget how massively huge Cata was (phased terrain anyone?), problem was that most of that content was levelling content that few people cared about.

On balance, it seems obvious that SL will indeed be adding more than either MOP or Riders of Rohan in terms of content, especially when you consider the likelihood of extensive patch content over the next year, but I would like to advocate balance and information-seeking in one's pursuit of fanboism

[Acquiesce of Telara]

I pose that question to you, forumites, is Trion Worlds raising the bar for how much content a first expansion should contain? With 4 new souls and the large landmass being added to Telara, I am curious as to what you all think.

(Note: this is NOT about Trions excellent rate of pushing out content patches, this is about how Storm Legion could potentially change the MMO industry standard for expansions.)

It's funny you asked this. I was in game yesterday, doing some fishing in Hammerknell, and realized all those in-game pictures of SL looked too generic. Until you're playing and in a particular zone, you don't feel the mood or notice the subtle details in lighting or the minor scratches and barely audible effects.

I mention this because, in total honesty, I wasn't quite certain how good SL might be. We've heard the major talking points, but it's the details and interactions with the world that make or break a game. "Generic" zone samples and second hand video don't provide an accurate sense of how deep the content truly goes.

Like I was saying, I was fishing in Hammerknell, and the amount of detail that went into something as simple as a fishing profession blew me away. I was a big WoW fisher, having won the STV tourney multiple times on multiple characters, and fishing in that game just pales in comparison to what has already been implemented in Rift... and that's just a freakin' novelty profession.

When you think in those terms, you just have to marvel at how far Trion pushes zone design, quest implementation, dynamic content and rich character builds.

Until we're hands-on with the product, we can't swear that Storm Legion is reinventing expansions, but at this point, if anyone can, it's definitely Trion.

[theWocky]

We will see. ONLY WISH THERE WAS A DAMN BETA, so I would not have to guess and we could do actual comparisons instead of constant guess work.

Oh, there is. You're just not in it.

[Onorvele]

As a Rift player, I can't help but hope that my WoW playing friends end up feeling bamboozled by MoP, so that they finally move over to my game. However, as Gonterf pointed out, there's fairly similar level of content being added, as least based on the metrics that are available. Proportionally, this means relatively more content for Rift. So I'm optimistic.

[iceberg265]

I have always been very impressed with the amount of content Rift is pushing out and wish other games could duplicate it. Unfortunately it just...hasn't been content I have any interest in.

Hopefully SWTOR is going to be able to keep its new "content every six weeks" idea going, but until then /jelly

[theWocky]

As a Rift player, I can't help but hope that my WoW playing friends end up feeling bamboozled by MoP, so that they finally move over to my game. However, as Gonterf pointed out, there's fairly similar level of content being added, as least based on the metrics that are available. Proportionally, this means relatively more content for Rift. So I'm optimistic.

I think we're all going to be pretty impressed on Rift's Storm Legion launch. Game is a lot bigger than most people think and a lot of space to put in a lot more content.

[Deleted]

Trion is the gaming market equivalent to Apple, quality, innovation/innovative improvements and good service <3

[notorious98]

I have always been very impressed with the amount of content Rift is pushing out and wish other games could duplicate it. Unfortunately it just...hasn't been content I have any interest in.

Hopefully SWTOR is going to be able to keep its new "content every six weeks" idea going, but until then /jelly

Even if they do, they've only promised shit like a new WZ or a new FP every six weeks. Is it possible they'll deliver more? Yeah, it's possible. But going on track record, I would say doubtful. On the other hand, in the beginning, Rift was adding content every six weeks that makes a new WZ or FP look like one star on a map of the Milky Way.

[sanaubia]

I pose that question to you, forumites, is Trion Worlds raising the bar for how much content a first expansion should contain? With 4 new souls and the large landmass being added to Telara, I am curious as to what you all think.

(Note: this is NOT about Trions excellent rate of pushing out content patches, this is about how Storm Legion could potentially change the MMO industry standard for expansions.)

yes... rift has done everything really good, but that combat is same shit as wow... cba to play it

[Nobleshield]

rift has done pretty much everything right and we're at the 1.5 year mark

i don't play rift, i can't get into any game's lore and honestly i'm just too lazy to learn a new game the way i know wow, but i can't find fault with rift or gw2 and rift has raised the bar

it just doesn't seem to be having an effect on wow yet

The only fault I have with Rift is: A) My computer barely plays it, and B) All the people I know play WoW and won't switch (or switched at launch and didn't like it). Thus, I remain with WoW although I really want to abandon it entirely, it's just hard going from a game where you are friendly with people to a game where you know pretty much nobody.

[Tarien]

They role out raids that hardly anyone is doing. ID, PF, RotP are hardly being pug'd. Most pugs are still on tier 1 raid content.

"Waaa waaaa waaaaa, Trion aren't catering content to what I want to do so I'll try to devalue the content I don't like by endlessly whinging about it".

Change the record please.