What is Happening with Rift?

[Necalli]

Hello all, I hope you're all doing well in these uncertain times.

I've been apart of the Rift experience since the Vanilla launch all those years ago. I've watched this game begin to fall into disrepair with problem after problem, with Trion making mistake after mistake. With the purchase by Gamingo I was nervous with their intentions, and so far it seems the fear was well founded with no new genuine content since October of 2017.

I dearly miss this game but refuse to pay Gamingo a penny until they actually produce some content. Not skins, not weak battle pass attempts. Actual content. Is there any information about the future of this game other than "Gamingo has plans"?

[Merlin666]

*crickets chirping ...*

[PickeledPossum]

they just released 2 new world bosses yesterday.

[TigerhawkT3]

they just released 2 new world bosses yesterday.

OP asked when Gamigo was going to produce content, and I'm not sure giving a critter more damage and health qualifies as production of content, new or otherwise.

[Necalli]

they just released 2 new world bosses yesterday.

If they were bosses like say Volan, then I wouldn't have posted anything. Blowing up the model for squirrels and spiders with large health pools doesn't qualify as new content. It would be fine if there hasn't been a two and half year drought of content. This doesn't read as something fun or new, it just seems lazy.

[Acidik58]

I have a feeling, its going to be a "wait and see" which is how its been with another mmo. One that hasn't had any major content drops yet still going 16 years later

[imjake]

Theyre following the model of other trash: As long as they are profiting off of idiots who refuse to stop funding these disgusting companies, they're not going to do any thing but put a carrot on a string and watch the lemmings follow it to no where.

NO BUSINESS is going to lose money, so logic dictates the cost of maintenance and the very sparse and sporadic content additions in recent years (even before Trashigo bought it out) and servers is less than what they are making.

So they'll keep giving mediocrity to people and apparently people will take any scraps they get instead of teaching s*** companies a lesson.

If people would stop paying these horrible companies, the companies would have 2 choices: Make the game better or shut it down. I met my wife on this game almost 10 years ago. I have no desire to see it shut down. But my wife and I have barely touched it since roughly 2013. Maybe 2014. This game is so dead I've taken over several guilds because of activity rule. Some of those guilds I didnt bother kicking every one out, meaning they could easily come in when i havent been active and take the guild back over. It has literally happened ONE time in about 5 guilds. I eventually wised-up and booted every one in the guilds I took over so i wouldn't lose them lol.

Any who, go look at trash like Champions Online, which is another great game with amazing potential that was left to rot worse than worm filled milk in the desert sun. Gamigo and Trion used the same pathetic "as long as we profit who cares about the people playing it" philosophy.

People never learn. Some companies, like DE (warframe) and Bioware/EA and others actually over haul their crappy games and the games get better. I hope EA/Bioware makes good on its promise to over haul Anthem.

This game needs a complete graphics over haul, new animations, and a large expansion. Meanwhile, old games like WoW and LOTRO, and even ESO, GW2, TERA, Blade and Soul, continue chugging along. Rift is the same game it was in 2011, except with new classes and mounts and aesthetics. What kills me about all of the games that are successful vs the ones that aren't: The dungeons/raids/expansions with full blown stories and level increases vs games like Rift, Champions Online, and other failures who do nothing except add cosmetics and aesthetics and the occasional class. You dont need to be an expert in game design and coding to see that. That is LITERALLY the ONE huge difference between the failed games and successful ones. FFXIV is another example of success, or even SWTOR. Meanwhile, Rift's devs are like "Durrrrr we made some critters be moar tuff, fite them!"

[Necalli]

Theyre following the model of other trash: As long as they are profiting off of idiots who refuse to stop funding these disgusting companies, they're not going to do any thing but put a carrot on a string and watch the lemmings follow it to no where.

NO BUSINESS is going to lose money, so logic dictates the cost of maintenance and the very sparse and sporadic content additions in recent years (even before Trashigo bought it out) and servers is less than what they are making.

So they'll keep giving mediocrity to people and apparently people will take any scraps they get instead of teaching s*** companies a lesson.

If people would stop paying these horrible companies, the companies would have 2 choices: Make the game better or shut it down. I met my wife on this game almost 10 years ago. I have no desire to see it shut down. But my wife and I have barely touched it since roughly 2013. Maybe 2014. This game is so dead I've taken over several guilds because of activity rule. Some of those guilds I didnt bother kicking every one out, meaning they could easily come in when i havent been active and take the guild back over. It has literally happened ONE time in about 5 guilds. I eventually wised-up and booted every one in the guilds I took over so i wouldn't lose them lol.

Any who, go look at trash like Champions Online, which is another great game with amazing potential that was left to rot worse than worm filled milk in the desert sun. Gamigo and Trion used the same pathetic "as long as we profit who cares about the people playing it" philosophy.

People never learn. Some companies, like DE (warframe) and Bioware/EA and others actually over haul their crappy games and the games get better. I hope EA/Bioware makes good on its promise to over haul Anthem.

This game needs a complete graphics over haul, new animations, and a large expansion. Meanwhile, old games like WoW and LOTRO, and even ESO, GW2, TERA, Blade and Soul, continue chugging along. Rift is the same game it was in 2011, except with new classes and mounts and aesthetics. What kills me about all of the games that are successful vs the ones that aren't: The dungeons/raids/expansions with full blown stories and level increases vs games like Rift, Champions Online, and other failures who do nothing except add cosmetics and aesthetics and the occasional class. You dont need to be an expert in game design and coding to see that. That is LITERALLY the ONE huge difference between the failed games and successful ones. FFXIV is another example of success, or even SWTOR. Meanwhile, Rift's devs are like "Durrrrr we made some critters be moar tuff, fite them!"

This has been a problem since SL for this game. I firmly believe the choice to go F2P was the wrong decision for company and sent them down this path. I would rather have a healthy game with small regular updates than this where Gamingo is just sitting around doing nothing and communicating in no way.

[Omerr]

Theyre following the model of other trash: As long as they are profiting off of idiots who refuse to stop funding these disgusting companies, they're not going to do any thing but put a carrot on a string and watch the lemmings follow it to no where.

NO BUSINESS is going to lose money, so logic dictates the cost of maintenance and the very sparse and sporadic content additions in recent years (even before Trashigo bought it out) and servers is less than what they are making.

So they'll keep giving mediocrity to people and apparently people will take any scraps they get instead of teaching s*** companies a lesson.

If people would stop paying these horrible companies, the companies would have 2 choices: Make the game better or shut it down. I met my wife on this game almost 10 years ago. I have no desire to see it shut down. But my wife and I have barely touched it since roughly 2013. Maybe 2014. This game is so dead I've taken over several guilds because of activity rule. Some of those guilds I didnt bother kicking every one out, meaning they could easily come in when i havent been active and take the guild back over. It has literally happened ONE time in about 5 guilds. I eventually wised-up and booted every one in the guilds I took over so i wouldn't lose them lol.

Any who, go look at trash like Champions Online, which is another great game with amazing potential that was left to rot worse than worm filled milk in the desert sun. Gamigo and Trion used the same pathetic "as long as we profit who cares about the people playing it" philosophy.

People never learn. Some companies, like DE (warframe) and Bioware/EA and others actually over haul their crappy games and the games get better. I hope EA/Bioware makes good on its promise to over haul Anthem.

This game needs a complete graphics over haul, new animations, and a large expansion. Meanwhile, old games like WoW and LOTRO, and even ESO, GW2, TERA, Blade and Soul, continue chugging along. Rift is the same game it was in 2011, except with new classes and mounts and aesthetics. What kills me about all of the games that are successful vs the ones that aren't: The dungeons/raids/expansions with full blown stories and level increases vs games like Rift, Champions Online, and other failures who do nothing except add cosmetics and aesthetics and the occasional class. You dont need to be an expert in game design and coding to see that. That is LITERALLY the ONE huge difference between the failed games and successful ones. FFXIV is another example of success, or even SWTOR. Meanwhile, Rift's devs are like "Durrrrr we made some critters be moar tuff, fite them!"

You touch so many good points but ''current'' community of Rift doesnt care as you do. I've tried the explain same things on discord etc but they are not caring or even listening at all.

Lotro explained 2020 plan, Everquest 2 getting xpac, Wow xpac coming soon same for ESO but what for Rift = Nothing, They cant even share a Road map because they have kinda no clue about what they are doing or what to do

[Necalli]

You touch so many good points but ''current'' community of Rift doesnt care as you do. I've tried the explain same things on discord etc but they are not caring or even listening at all.

Lotro explained 2020 plan, Everquest 2 getting xpac, Wow xpac coming soon same for ESO but what for Rift = Nothing, They cant even share a Road map because they have kinda no clue about what they are doing or what to do

They either have no clue or there is no plan and intention to correct the current miserable state of the game.

[TigerhawkT3]

This has been a problem since SL for this game. I firmly believe the choice to go F2P was the wrong decision for company and sent them down this path. I would rather have a healthy game with small regular updates than this where Gamingo is just sitting around doing nothing and communicating in no way.

Considering that Trion ran out of money even with the more profitable F2P model, I think we can safely say that if they'd stuck with the P2P model we not only wouldn't have a healthy game with small regular updates, we wouldn't have a game at all at this point. I doubt most players pay more than $15/month for this game.

[Necalli]

Considering that Trion ran out of money even with the more profitable F2P model, I think we can safely say that if they'd stuck with the P2P model we not only wouldn't have a healthy game with small regular updates, we wouldn't have a game at all at this point. I doubt most players pay more than $15/month for this game.

As far as I'm aware, there's no way to actually track if the the F2P model was more profitable. What we can track is quality of the game. NMT being the first example we can clearly point to as a product of the F2P model. The PoA expansion being the second expansion produced under that model. I don't think I need to say anything about the quality of those two expansions.

Correct, they likely wouldn't pay for the game as it is now but the game as it is now is fundamentally different from what we would have if the game had stayed P2P. What we have now is a something that has seen the damage caused by the F2P for years now.

[TigerhawkT3]

As far as I'm aware, there's no way to actually track if the the F2P model was more profitable. What we can track is quality of the game. NMT being the first example we can clearly point to as a product of the F2P model. The PoA expansion being the second expansion produced under that model. I don't think I need to say anything about the quality of those two expansions.

Correct, they likely wouldn't pay for the game as it is now but the game as it is now is fundamentally different from what we would have if the game had stayed P2P. What we have now is a something that has seen the damage caused by the F2P for years now.

Rift started to hemorrhage players and then went F2P, not the other way around. The population continued to fall (has it stabilized lately? hard to tell), but eliminating the barrier to entry brings in more players, allowing games like this to generate some profit and stay online. The thing is, not all F2P is created equal. Some games thrive on it because the way it's implemented seems fair and unintrusive, with free players feeling that they can succeed (win, get cool stuff, whatever) and paying players feeling that they're spending their money effectively. Trion, on the other hand, ended up lying whenever convenient and treating players like idiots ("Patron gets even better!" translation: non-Patron gets worse). Some free players feel that the odds are stacked against them (loot being balanced around IRCs, earring slots, PW:W, PoA quest exp being balanced around Patron bonuses, etc.), and some paying players feel that they're not getting enough out of their expenditures ($100 mount crate, expansion that goes F2P seven months later, etc.).

I wish I could tell you that you're wrong about PoA being produced under the F2P model as it was initially F2P, but I think it's more likely that it was produced with F2P in mind and Trion just wanted to get some quick cash out of anyone willing to pay for it up front. =\

[Necalli]

Rift started to hemorrhage players and then went F2P, not the other way around. The population continued to fall (has it stabilized lately? hard to tell), but eliminating the barrier to entry brings in more players, allowing games like this to generate some profit and stay online. The thing is, not all F2P is created equal. Some games thrive on it because the way it's implemented seems fair and unintrusive, with free players feeling that they can succeed (win, get cool stuff, whatever) and paying players feeling that they're spending their money effectively. Trion, on the other hand, ended up lying whenever convenient and treating players like idiots ("Patron gets even better!" translation: non-Patron gets worse). Some free players feel that the odds are stacked against them (loot being balanced around IRCs, earring slots, PW:W, PoA quest exp being balanced around Patron bonuses, etc.), and some paying players feel that they're not getting enough out of their expenditures ($100 mount crate, expansion that goes F2P seven months later, etc.).

I wish I could tell you that you're wrong about PoA being produced under the F2P model as it was initially F2P, but I think it's more likely that it was produced with F2P in mind and Trion just wanted to get some quick cash out of anyone willing to pay for it up front. =\

Yeah, the F2P has been an absolute nightmare. The pernicious part of the F2P model is that just because more people are logging in to play the game doesn't actually mean more revenue is actually coming in for the team. I wouldn't be surprised if they initially saw a bump in more income but clearly it didn't last long, and judging by how hard they pushed the patron status the $15/month fee was their best income stream.

[TigerhawkT3]

Yeah, the F2P has been an absolute nightmare. The pernicious part of the F2P model is that just because more people are logging in to play the game doesn't actually mean more revenue is actually coming in for the team. I wouldn't be surprised if they initially saw a bump in more income but clearly it didn't last long, and judging by how hard they pushed the patron status the $15/month fee was their best income stream.

More users doesn't necessarily mean more customers, but that's what ends up happening. It's the same reason advertising exists, and merchandising, and so on. Free content gets people in the door, and then they see people with cool items, and they ask "where'd you get that?" and maybe that $5 is worth it for the cool item. If those people weren't allowed in without being locked into $15 a month, they wouldn't see that $5 item. And it's possible to buy more than $15 worth of items and services a month - a lot more, enough that it outweighs the people who don't pay anything. In the end, it works out. That's why it's popular.

Unless people aren't interested in the content, or if they can't get into groups for the content without paying for earring slots, or if the $5 item is $100, or if the $5 item is $1 but you have a 0.5% chance of getting it, or a host of other potential issues. Then people leave or simply never start to begin with. And that's what happened with Rift: F2P can help, but it's not a silver bullet that guarantees huge financial success. Trion pushed not only Patron subscriptions, but also anything and everything else they possibly could even if it made a mockery of the "no tricks, no traps" line that was trotted out when the game went F2P.

F2P isn't harmful per se. It's just a tool. If it's not used correctly, the result might be bad.