Why does WoW maintain it's hold on some?

[Slipmat]

btw OP: there are MANY MANY more things that are in WOW, that you can't find in Rift: I'll just limit myself to 2 "techniques"

- Phasing: hold on ... without phasing you couldn't even implement the present day pet Battles OR the growing Farmville side games in WOW, since phasing is personal WORLD changing ... without loading screens...

- Cross realm open world play: In WOW you now play with region wide open worlds... Meaning: your 1.000 people playing on one server are opened to multi millions at the same time in the WORLD of Azeroth

Please, enlighten us to all the innovative things WoW has over Rift and other games

Phasing exists in Rift, from doing dailies to current content with the Storm Legion invasions in Sanctum and Meridian

No need for cross realm phasing to disguise the fact that 99.9% of a WoW's server population sit on their mounts in Stormwind and Orgrimmar, Rift's open world is thriving with up to five full 20-man groups running around the lowbie zones doing Instant Adventures, doing zone events, there is always a reason for people to be out in the open World and not just sitting in the cities

Anyhow, please keep listing all the features you think WoW has or does better than Rift, i'd be very interested..unless of course you mean the concept of Scenarios and Challenge modes that were 'borrowed' from Rift? surely not

[Splatter]

I think wow maintains its hold on people because it is still fun to play. I tried rift when it first came out and i did enjoy it a lot, some of the mechanics were really good, such as i loved tanking as a rogue like class (wish bliz would let wow rogues tank) Rift graphics were also quite good although my PC wasn't quite up to running high settings. The reason I stopped playing is rift just felt like the same old quest and level mechanics as every other mmo and basically felt like i was trading wow for a flashier wow. I got to lvl 42ish from memory and just stopped playing. It didn't offer anything to hold my interest and all my friends went back to wow so I didnt feel it was worth continuing with.

[Deleted]

I read a thread on here called one feature you would like to be implemented in wow and I just kept thinking after nearly everyone rift has that or we are getting it in SL but I knew if I posted it I would get flamed, I asked friends at work who plays wow and he said he hasn't tried rift because all he has read is negative but he only reads wow releted sites, I played wow for 5 years started to not enjoy it and tried other games ended up liking rift some people play what they are used to and enjoy it others play other games because they enjoy them then there are those that don't like change

[Valeron]

This thread is still open? Needs to be closed since it violates forum rules eh?

[florestan]

I played RIFT for a few months but ultimately came back to WoW for MoP. My reasons were:

(1) I don't have any friends that play RIFT - MMOs are a social experience and playing them alone grows boring really fast. I didn't feel like joining some guild I don't know anything about and build a social network from scratch.

(2) Character Control/Movement feels much tighter in WoW than in RIFT. I'm no expert but it's probably both related to the animations themselves and the way WoW deals with latency. Character control never felt natural to me in RIFT.

(3) Art style and zone design. In WoW each zone has a very recognizable feel. Zone-specific lighting and music give the zones a unique (and often very emotional) quality. Zone design and progression is also very well designed and contributes towards this effect:
e.g. Swamp of Sorrows puts you into a contemplative/sad mood long before you reach the "Death of a Friend" questline, the quests up to that point are nothing special (kill some animals, some horde vs alliance conflict, discover sunken temple) but lighting/music/sound create a very subdued atmosphere; After you have completed that quest chain and are probably quite blue, Blizzard doesn't let you linger in the depressing atmosphere but instantly sends you off to the Blasted Lands which is a complete change of scenery, atmosphere and pacing that keeps you from dwelling on the Swamp of Sorrows experience for too long.
(Another example for this by someone who actually knows what he is talking about.)
That style of deliberate themepark design creates very strong and memorable experiences and RIFT felt pale in comparison.

(4) System requirements. I started playing RIFT and thought "wow, this game is beautiful". Then I entered Meridian for the first time.
I spent much of my spare time during the next 2 days doing driver up- (and down-)grades, following various workarounds and fixes (most of which didn't provide any improvement) and changing just about every option available in rift.cfg.
In the end I managed to find a configuration that was playable in Meridian but looked worse than current WoW.
It was especially infuriating to see threads on the support forums in which many players told of similar performance issues with ATI cards starting directly after release but were all very confident that Trion would improve performance within the next few weeks. Turns out their hopes were misplaced.

To end on a positive note: I was very impressed by the many quality of life improvements RIFT had over its big rival (each improvement is small but they add up!) and I really liked the mentoring system (one step closer towards MMORPGs without levels )

[mmines]

Well rift is actually a really good game, but when I tried it I just didn't have the same feel like when I played wow. Me and my friend both agreed when we tried rift that if we had played rift first before wow we probably would have stayed on rift.

---------- Post added 2012-11-13 at 03:37 AM ----------

I played RIFT for a few months but ultimately came back to WoW for MoP. My reasons were:

(1) I don't have any friends that play RIFT - MMOs are a social experience and playing them alone grows boring really fast. I didn't feel like joining some guild I don't know anything about and build a social network from scratch.

(2) Character Control/Movement feels much tighter in WoW than in RIFT. I'm no expert but it's probably both related to the animations themselves and the way WoW deals with latency. Character control never felt natural to me in RIFT.

(3) Art style and zone design. In WoW each zones has a very recognizable feel. Especially zone-specific lighting and music give the zones a unique (and often very emotional) quality.
Zone design and progression is very well designed and amplifies this effect:
e.g. Swamp of Sorrows puts you into a contemplative/sad mood long before you reach the "Death of a Friend" questline, the quests up to that point are nothing special (kill some animals, some horde vs alliance conflict, discover sunken temple) but lighting/music/sound create a very subdued atmosphere; After you have completed that quest chain and are probably quite blue, Blizzard doesn't let you linger in the depressing atmosphere but instantly sends you off to the Blasted Lands which is a complete change of scenery, atmosphere and pacing that keeps you from dwelling on the Swamp of Sorrows experience for too long.
That style of very deliberate themepark design creates very strong and memorable experiences and RIFT felt pale in comparison.

(4) System requirements. I started playing RIFT and thought "wow, this game is beautiful". Then I entered Meridian for the first time.
I spent much of my spare time during the next 2 days doing driver up- (and down-)grades, following various workarounds and fixes (most of which didn't provide any improvement) and changing just about every option available in rift.cfg.
In the end I managed to find a configuration that was playable in Meridian but looked worse than current WoW.
It was especially infuriating to see threads on the support forums in which many players told of similar performance issues with ATI cards starting directly after release but were all very confident that Trion would improve performance within the next few weeks. Turns out their hopes were misplaced.

Basically this for me actually pretty right on.

[Deleted]

I think that when putting up threads like these, you will end up with diffrent answers, I mean, heck, I don't understand why people like Twilight ( Yes sparkle vampires ) But apparently alot of people do, it just happens to not be my cup of tea.

As for my personal reasons to as to why I still play Wow.

1: I have been playing MMo's since Everquest 1, tried pretty much everything that came to the market since then, Age of Conan, Eve, Project Entropia, Warhammer, Starwars, Everquest 2, and I am quite sure that I am missing a few, but thats a sample atleast. Most of the formentioned games, have in my opinion, eighter left me feeling the lack of gameplay or simply what you could actually do in the game. One of the problems for me with new MMO's is, even though they might be more graphicaly pleasing to the eye, why would I change to a new MMO, that in my eyes does what wow does, just, it's filled to the brim with bugs and those classical early problems that new MMO's tend to have. To me, Wow is simply the best out there still, this does not mean that Wow does not have flaws, because it does.

2: I played the game since launch, back in the 'good old' days when people stood around shouting in Orgrimmar for groups to Scholomance and Ubrs, and then even more shouting for someone who actually had the seal od Ascention to open the damn door. I invested alot of time in the game, over the years I have made many friends from all over the world, that is not something I am just about to throw out the window, and convinsing all your friends to try something new is not as easy as it might sound, in my experience that is.

3: I play on an RP realm, I have spent years creating and developing my characters, for me that has a very large value, I often enjoy that more then the game itself, not that it would really matter what game it is when it comes to roleplaying, but in the end, the people are what keeps me playing.

4: I am still, belive it or not, having fun in the game, and as I am enjoyig my time, I see little reason to jump ship so to speak.

[Notos]

I have a lot of ties to my friends and guildmates in WoW. I like the atmosphere and art direction of the game compared to Rift. Rift has its own good qualities and I periodically come back to try out new stuff but I mainly stick to WoW.

[Deleted]

Why i prefere Wow over Rift:

It comes down to the PvE. (Mind you i play in a rank10~ 10man hc guild) Nothing beats the the Hardmode progression encounters in WoW, the raids in rift cant even begin to compare with the complexity.

PvE rotations/class design: To me, wow have a more refined ability rotation for each class that makes min/maxing a whole other level during movement/boss mechanics and what not. Last time i played rift basically every class could do 2-3macros and just keep spamming those, sadly.

Game engine: Rift's game engine feels clunky, movement feels dull, abilities/sounds doesn't match and up give you that 'oumpf'-feeling.. There's just something off and missing, and i see this in almost every game except for wow (gw2 was good on this, it was really fluid and nice)

Hmm, im sure i can come up with more but its too early at work right now.

However, dont get me wrong, Rift is a.. Lets say, decent game. I've played it pretty much and i've been raiding in it.

Rifts strong points is to me:

Specalization variation - This fucking owns, i love how you can spec your character in so many ways depending on what you want to do.
Instant Adventures - This is a really awesome feature, which helped leveling up become easy as fuck, which i like.
PvE linear progression - I Actually prefere a linear approach to pve better than a "lets release 3 instances at the same fucking time!"


What both WoW and Rift is missing:

Pretty much all elements from Daoc.
- 3 way factions
- Big ass mass-crowd controlls for world pvp
- A massive frontier (battleground which matters for pve, castle siege and what not)
- The chance for a good 5-8man group to take out 40+ ppl (not possible without the unlimited mass-aoe-crowd controlls that DaoC had)
- Faster ways to level new character, i fucking hate leveling, i want it to be in like diablo2 or daoc where you could get a decent level in lets say, one night.
- I want to to be a viable way to level by just grinding mobs (now rift do allow this to some extent)
- Worth exploring the world to find good exp-camps for grinding (nothing beats daoc when it comes to this. fucking epic)


Well that's my point of view. Im sure i missed some legit points but yeah. I basically like both games, but wow gets out ahead dude to fluidity and pve complexity.
Both games should take a look at how daoc worked out

<3 Daoc, Best mmo ever made.

/Armleg

[Budong]

WoW is like a steady girlfriend who's ok looking but nothing fancy or exciting. You have a lot of time invested so you stick it out. Every now and then a hot sexy chick walks by and winks at you, promising something new and exciting but when you jump in bed you realize it's not much different so you go back to what you know best because at least she doesn't bitch about how you brush your teeth anymore and lets you watch football on Sundays.

And honestly what more do you need?

[LonestarHero]

I don't play WoW anymore, but...

1) WoW has racial starting areas that introduces noobies to the game world unlike any other MMO I've played with the exception of LOTRO.

2) Warcraft is a great intellectual property with special memories to many. Warcraft 2 introduced me to the world of RTS's during the days I was playing against cheating computers in Civ.

3) Blizzard knows what it is doing and doesn't bumble their great intellectual property with amateurish ineptitude. Content patches may be slow, but Blizzard doesn't launch anything that falls below current MMO industry standards.

[Fencers]

I tried Rift and could not stand it.

My question to you is why does Rift maintain its hold on some?

This is a fair question and I think worthy of response.

I believe a lot of the draw of Rift is that it is essentially a Warcraft style MMO w/o necessarily being World of Warcraft. Or in other words, it's WoW for people that don't really like WOW for whatever reason.

It's a pretty niche audience. From my experiences in Rift since beta stages the above aspect seems to be a constant among players whom have stuck with the game for this time.

Rapidity of content updates is another strong factor. As Rift is flatly the most robustly updated MMO in the Western market. I know of not a single AAA MMO on the current market that introduced more features and content over the same time span as Rift.

I have actually looked around to see if anyone has out done Trion on this. Could not find anything concrete.

To speak personally to the first part about appealing to those dissatisfied with WOW:

For me, I just do not enjoy the way World of Warcraft looks or operates.

WoW's art style is a major turn off to my tastes. I disliked Warcraft's style since the original RTS games. Too cartoony, too childish looking. High contrast lines. Do not enjoy. Prefer Asian arts styles such as Aion or Tera or realistic styles such as Everquest or Secret World.

The armor and weapon models in WoW are the worst for me. I never found any of them appealing or exciting to obtain.

I HATE singular class design in games- much more prefer mix & match classes. With my ideal class systems being things close to Guild Wars 1 [dual class any combination of classes], Radiant Arcana [dual class like GW1], FF11 [swap between a multitude of jobs], Secret World [no classes! just skills!]. The idea pf playing a Prot Warrior/Sometimes Fury is immensely uninteresting for me.

Greatly dislike the slow content pacing in WOW, multiple mode raids and dungeons, macros and addons. All of Which Rift directly counters in the most pleasing manner to me but also in what I had long felt was the ideal.

For example, in Guild Wars 1 I was used to being able to move my UI around/resize/organize on the fly. GW1 had no addons. It had it's limits for the time, of course. For the most part I felt GW1's UI modding was ideal.

When Rift launched, their UI was clear and very crisp. A single press of the OPTIONS button revealed the Edit UI button. My jaw hit my desktop. It was not only all that Guild Wars 1 provided but offered awesome tools that I had to use addons in WOW for or could only dream of in GW1. The fact this was a basic out of the box feature in Rift went a long way for me as a picky player of their UI.

I played WOW from its beta to the end of TBC. While I enjoyed the raiding/dungeons, the overall look & feel of World of Warcraft was to me secondary to Everquest [my true MMO love], Final Fantasy 11 and Guild Wars 1.

Really the only aspect I adored of Warcraft was Blizzard's superb dungeon and raid design. And I would still name Blizzard's raids and dungeons among the finest ever made to this very day.

However, that's all I was getting for my sub out of Warcraft-- a few dungeons made trivial by gear inflation and expiring raids.

By contrast, Rift provided me exactly what I wanted out of the box;

- Discrete raids
- Dungeons
- Modular class
- Built-in UI customization
- Wardrobe function
- Modern looking graphics
- Rapid content and feature updates

I am totally fine with World of Warcraft style MMOs. But find no joy in playing World of Warcraft itself.

[eschatological]

WoW is like a steady girlfriend who's ok looking but nothing fancy or exciting. You have a lot of time invested so you stick it out. Every now and then a hot sexy chick walks by and winks at you, promising something new and exciting but when you jump in bed you realize it's not much different so you go back to what you know best because at least she doesn't bitch about how you brush your teeth anymore and lets you watch football on Sundays.

And honestly what more do you need?

/thread

10char

[Azuri]

Yeah game vs game thread. People are allowed to like and play whatever game they choose. Having multiple games in the same genre wait for it....is a good thing for the industry as whole. Opinions are opinions which will always conflict in these type of threads.

Once again game vs game threads are against the forum rules. Closed.