I'm at a crossroads

[the_real_seebs]

I would like to hear what you think Rift has that WoW does not. Aside from Rifts and Invasions (Which no one seems to bother with these days as the rewards are not that great and once you've done them once, there is nothing new)

As to the latter part: I pretty much do most of the invasion events I encounter, and I usually end up in one of multiple 20-player raids. So they're something.

A lot of it isn't things RIFT has that WoW doesn't, it's things that are present in both, but where I like the RIFT version better. Crafting, for instance. There are a number of ways in which I like crafting better in RIFT. Salvaging, a decent mix of usable equipment while levelling, the augment system, and the more interesting interactions between gathering and crafting, all definite improvements from my point of view.

Wardrobe. Call it silly if you want; I love it. I desperately wanted that feature for five years, and RIFT gave it to us in their second patch.

The option of disabling PvP auto-flag. Again, spent years requesting it, never got it. Came here and it was added during beta.

Cross-faction communication.

Much, much, MUCH better support for the addon API; it may be more primitive, but the RIFT devs are providing crazy things like actual documentation. Very very cool.

Support roles as such. I love this mechanically, and I'm quite happy with it.

Generally more flexible character design; the soul system, the variety of roles available to each class, and the convenience of role switching. Oh, and the much better handling of itemization for different roles. Compare Faith in Action to the godawful mess of different gear types that WoW always used.

Artifact-hunting, cairns, puzzles. Instead of exploring being a bannable offense, exploring is rewarded with phat lewt.

Solo/duo content.

And coming back to rifts and invasions... I love 'em. I like that doing my crafting dailies can result in dying five times and getting epic loot. I like it a lot.

And finally, last but not least, a money chain that doesn't lead to Robby Kotick.

[wingedkitten]

I played WoW from launch up unti about 1 month after Cataclysm came out. I loved vanilla WoW. I liked BC a lot, WotLK somewhat, but by Cataclysm, I just couldn't do it anymore. I leveled 2 toons up to 85, but shortly thereafter couldn't log back into them again.

The only way I could see myself resubbing with WoW would be to start with a fresh character and level through all the new stuff, but honestly, even that sounds awful to me.

Why am I rambling on about all this? Because games, as much as we like them, get old and stale, and we move on eventually. If you're missing WoW, go back and play it a bit and see how it is for you. Chances are, you'll enjoy it, but may start to miss Rift. If so, logi into Rift for a time.

It's not an either/or world.

I did the same thing. I beta tested Rift, played headstart, got my char to 40ish and then went back to WoW. Why? I have no freaking idea because all I did was log on, check auctions, log out. I finally realized there was nothing left for me there anymore. It was like breaking up with someone and then finally being able to move on rofl Will I be with Rift forever? Who knows, but it's fun for me right now and that's all that counts. OP do what's in your heart =)

[Jordell]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I think I'll do what I was leaning toward, stay subbed with Rift and buy a WoW timecard if I get the itch to play. I may take your advice too Fresh from hell and go buy Christie Golden's new novel.

[Maeloda]

Watch WoW lore on Youtube, since several major Youtubers post it.

And keep on in Rift if you enjoy it.

Solved

[EranB]

OP, I'm sorry to hear that you missed out on Vanilla WoW.

If you liked BC WoW, imagine it about a million times better, and you have Vanilla.
That is what you missed on.

[the_real_seebs]

OP, I'm sorry to hear that you missed out on Vanilla WoW.

If you liked BC WoW, imagine it about a million times better, and you have Vanilla.
That is what you missed on.

In this thread: Nostalgia makes things look better than they were.

[Amberarrow]

I play the one I can play without Bobby Kotick getting any of my money.

Blizzard's done some really crappy things in the last year or two. I was still liking the game as a game, but when they declared that cross-faction friend functionality was going to be in the game, but only for people who used your legal name when talking to you... well, that was pretty much the beginning of the end. Just went downhill from there.

I cant agree more i played wow during vanella and it was great BC was awsume and i kinda like WOLK due to being a horror film fanatic and all the zombies gave me a great experiance. But cataclysm was so horrible i just could not stand it no more Activision / Bobby kotick ruined WOW. now its so obvious they are just trying to milk a dead horse for all they can before Titan comes out.

As far as Rift goes i get that vanella feeling but the game constantly feels fresh to me and theres always something to do in the game its not a stagnent world. I have allot of Faith in the Trion Dev team and so much so i am a one year founder subscriber.

in a nut shell OP if you are happy playing WOW then play wow if you are happy playing rift play rift. but in life there will always be choices... this one is yours

Amber

[titansgrip]

If you are a casual player or raider, WOW is your best bet. The game is extremely mature in variety & ease of access to casual players; yet has a rich metagame and challenging heroic raid encounters.

Warcraft is simply very well developed.

Rift is much sleeker and modern. With a lot less baggage to it's 6 month design than Warcraft. However, the overall effect is Rift is very sparse; game world is small, lore is thin, questing is v. linear and challenge is light. Most damningly is Rift's metagame is atrocious. Due again, to the game's newness.

Give Rift a few months and maybe an expansion and it will be at least WotLK era Warcraft if never totally TBC era.

Outside of Warcraft, Rift is the best MMO of merit on the market.

[Rakkasa]

First some background, I played WoW from beginning of Burning Crusade to Launch of Firelands, about 4 yrs. Now, I love the lore in WoW. It's the reason I played for as long as I did. I'm a huge fan of Warcraft 3, I still play it to this day. But I got burned out on endgame, cancelled my sub, and decided to try Rift. Now I really like Rift, but I'm hearing the siren's call of WoW lore again and I can't decide what to do. My options are keep Rift sub and buy WoW time card or cancel Rift sub and resub to WoW. I refuse to sub to 2 different MMOs at one time. THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!

Try WoW again with a timecard, I think you'll find you come back to Rift fairly quickly.

[the_real_seebs]

See, I don't totally buy that. WoW has more of the stuff it's got, but there are whole classes of stuff where it's just plain not as well done. I love crafting, and while neither WoW nor Rift has incredibly deep crafting, Rift's clearly got a huge advantage in the more elaborate relations between gathering and crafting.

And, well. There's Kotick, and Activision, and the last couple of years of Blizzard selling their subscriber base to Facebook.

[Scormus]

Once upon a time I told myself I'd never pay a subscription to play a video game. Then once upon a time I told myself I'd never pay for more than one MMO subscription at a time. Then once upon a time I told myself I'd never play more than two MMOs at the same time...

Things change.

I actively play four different MMOs now, one as a subscription (Rift), three others I have bought Lifetime subscriptions for (Champions Online, Lord of the Rings Online, Star Trek Online). For a while I had both Rift and WoW on subscription, but dropped WoW a few months back after nearly six years with that game. It will be replaced in due time by Guild Wars 2.

The point is, play what you enjoy. The OP can continue to play Rift on subscription if that is what they prefer, then make a free WoW account if they want the nostalgia. Or switch back and forth between the two games, whatever floats their boat.

Oh, note to Trion: Anytime you feel like selling Lifetime accounts, let me know. My wife and I will both buy one.

[Loxy41]

WoW stopped being good after BC. if you miss wotlk and firelands, go back. if you liked vanilla and BC, stay here.

Well I stopped after BC, just before WoTLK hit as said before I resubbed to Rift anyways.

[Evalee]

As to the latter part: I pretty much do most of the invasion events I encounter, and I usually end up in one of multiple 20-player raids. So they're something.

A lot of it isn't things RIFT has that WoW doesn't, it's things that are present in both, but where I like the RIFT version better. Crafting, for instance. There are a number of ways in which I like crafting better in RIFT. Salvaging, a decent mix of usable equipment while levelling, the augment system, and the more interesting interactions between gathering and crafting, all definite improvements from my point of view.

Wardrobe. Call it silly if you want; I love it. I desperately wanted that feature for five years, and RIFT gave it to us in their second patch.

The option of disabling PvP auto-flag. Again, spent years requesting it, never got it. Came here and it was added during beta.

Cross-faction communication.

Much, much, MUCH better support for the addon API; it may be more primitive, but the RIFT devs are providing crazy things like actual documentation. Very very cool.

Support roles as such. I love this mechanically, and I'm quite happy with it.

Generally more flexible character design; the soul system, the variety of roles available to each class, and the convenience of role switching. Oh, and the much better handling of itemization for different roles. Compare Faith in Action to the godawful mess of different gear types that WoW always used.

Artifact-hunting, cairns, puzzles. Instead of exploring being a bannable offense, exploring is rewarded with phat lewt.

Solo/duo content.

And coming back to rifts and invasions... I love 'em. I like that doing my crafting dailies can result in dying five times and getting epic loot. I like it a lot.

And finally, last but not least, a money chain that doesn't lead to Robby Kotick.

You took the time to reply to my post, you make some good points, I think that from what you have pointed out I should realise Rift is not the game for me. Firstly the wardrobe is a nice feature, I do not personally use it other than to store armour sets I have collected, I also have a real issue with throwing things away I made through the crafting proccess, I just have to keep all my shard firsts, its rather insane.

PvP auto flag is not an issue for myself as I am a PvP player, even though I level and reside on a PvE realm, as such if I die through world PvP I do not mind.

Cross faction communication is fine, its obvious why its allowed due to the lore of the game, its neither here nor there for me, I do not generally engage in conversation in the game unless spoken to first or with the few friends I have left on my friend list. Thats one issue for me, my friend list and people I enjoyed conversing with is getting smaller and smaller. And all I am running into these days are people who are only out for themselves. Dont get me wrong Rift still has a fine community, after spending last night in WoW Warfronts, I have never seen so much hatred and obnoxious behavior in a video game before (I am getting old) But saying that, the great community spirit that was here in Rift 6 months ago is slipping away and the elitists are coming out of the woodwork (Maybe because they're finally getting the equipment needed to behave like a ..... they can be more vocal about others)

Addons I have never used in WoW and I never will, as a PvP'er I have never needed them, I dont need an extra addon to tell me when ability x is ready, an addon to direct me north on the map to complete a quest etc etc. Its something I do not want, do not need and will not use

The soul system is fine, artifacts are ok but I have a lot of sets now, I am close to completion there and would never do it again, if I levelled an alt which I have no desire to do,.

Solo/Duo content is something that interests me greatly, I am slightly antisocial in game, I have no faith in my own ability to complete a role in a group, even though I have done PvE with my guild, been told I am amongst the best healers they have seen, have not lost many tanks along the way, I still lack self confidence, thats a me issue though not a game issue. But the rewards from the solo/duo content are useless. I am sure they're fine for a new level 50 who wants some blue items before he goes to the first dungeon, but how many players do you see these days that do not want to jump straight into the T2 que?

Anyway that went on far too long, if you read all of that you're a star and deserve a medal. I still like Rift, I just feel I have reached the end of the road with it (Ie there is nothing left to do for me) I will continue to keep an eye on the game, and will probably subscribe for another month on the 13th even though I dont see me logging into the game for a while. I wish every player thats enjoying Rift the best of luck with the game and hope you continue to enjoy it for far longer than I have.

[jocool32]

It totally depends on what u crave more to enjoy your gaming time. I for one had a small crossover window of a WoW sub ending and I had srarted Rift, and no matter how hard I tried the 2 - 3 times I went back to WoW I got bored...to each their own! Just remember, enjoy whatever u play because if u don't then what is the point?

Later,
J

[Sorreah]

Please tell me it was all a bad joke when you said you played WoW for Blizzard's lollor... I mean "lore."