Xandaroth had a really great idea on the General Discussion forum, and it really caught my interest. You can see the original post here: http://forums.riftgame.com/showthrea...on-please-read.
Last night I had a guild made confide in me that he liked to tank, but feared that he wasn't that good, so it was only with great trepidation that he queued as the tank for our AP run. I enjoy a great deal of solo play, but most modern MMO's (and Rift included) aren't based around a solo experience. A lot of content requires teamwork: Rifts, instances (regular / expert), and raids. There are a lot of quests that also encourage (and some require) a degree of teamwork.
Here's the problem. Solo play is vastly different from group content. It's not just a matter of skill selection, but confidence and automaticity, both of which come with a great deal of practice.
There are a lot of guilds out there that are wonderful. Players take the time to encourage others, help teach newcomers the tricks of their trade, and build a community that's not based on dps meters and "baddie" judgments. I could be wrong, but I don't think that's enough.
Trion has a really unique ability to do something really innovative that I feel would help encourage player retention and brand loyalty; The Rift Academy. There are obviously a lot of skilled artists and programmers on board, and while it may take a bit of development time, I think that the potential rewards would be a worthwhile investment.
It doesn't have to be elaborate. It could be an instanced room the size of a Gatekeeper Kaleida's arena, but with four NPC's that would offer a series of scenarios for adventurers to test their skills with. Ideally it would focus more on role than class, since Rift's soul system offers such a varied playstyle. Each scenario would become progressively more challenging, but matched relative to the character's level (similar to how the "soul" quests work).
Anyway, I'd like to get some feedback from the community. I know Xandaroth is also pretty excited about it, and I bet he has a really great vision for what he'd like it to be. I think it's a great idea, and hopefully the development team will kick the idea around and see if it resonates with any of their production goals and available resources to do so.
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