trying the free trial of Rift

[Sukurachi]

Kay. It mysteriously made the charry I was playing on yesterday disappear, kinda dumb...
...snip...
Seriously, guys, dwarves and elves aren't humans.

For myself, I just found that the various races - dwarf, human or elven - resembled each other far too much.

There are 6 races.
2 of them are "elves" (High Elves, and Kelari).
1 is dwarven.
2 are "human" (Mathosian and Eth)
1 is "Bahmi"

Each side gets humans and elves of some sort, and then each side has its "non-human" race.
But starting out as any of those ended up feeling exactly the same. For me. I missed actually having a different home from which to start. If you start a Guardian toon, well, no matter the race, the opening is the same. The entire first zone is the same. The first quests are all the same. For me, that took away some of the "wonder and magic". I guess that - even if it's for such a very short while - starting out in an independent zone for each race in WoW makes those first few levels more meaningful to me. If I start a Gnome (gawd forbid I would, but what if...), well, it would at least immerse me into the character completely. I would feel more invested in that character as a simulacrum of a living breathing entity. It doesn't matter that a few levels later, I'd just join the great unwashed masses of "every other race in the Alliance" doing the same quests.

Likewise, those first 9-10 levels as a Night Elf really impart what the race is about. The first 9-10 levels of being a Blood Elf are so completely different that I just cannot reconcile Night Elves and Blood Elves as being offshoots of the same race. To me, that alone justifies the "racial similarity vs social disparity" aspect. As it turns out, as much as I loved the opening levels of Night Elf, I fell totally in love with being a Blood Elf.

In Rift, I felt no difference regardless of which race I chose from a single faction. All the minute details of character customization were entirely lost for me once I jumped into the "sameness" of the opening quests. I just felt no attachment to my character. I think this is one spot that Trion needs to work on. Giving players a bit more to chew on when the first start. The promise of "epic end game" isn't enough to compensate for lackluster newby zones.

I'm only speaking about my own impressions of the game from what I tried.
There were some really beautiful aspects to it.
As I said before, if WoW died tomorrow, I'd probably switch to Rift instead of one of the surviving Final Fantasy games.
I'm quite sure that with a few years under its belt Rift will truly become a magnificent game. I'm not a hater, but I'm definitely not jumping ships to the Rift side, on the lone merit that "it's new".

[Raydex-of-the-dawn]

Kay. It mysteriously made the charry I was playing on yesterday disappear, kinda dumb...
...snip...
Seriously, guys, dwarves and elves aren't humans.

For myself, I just found that the various races - dwarf, human or elven - resembled each other far too much.

There are 6 races.
2 of them are "elves" (High Elves, and Kelari).
1 is dwarven.
2 are "human" (Mathosian and Eth)
1 is "Bahmi"

Each side gets humans and elves of some sort, and then each side has its "non-human" race.
But starting out as any of those ended up feeling exactly the same. For me. I missed actually having a different home from which to start. If you start a Guardian toon, well, no matter the race, the opening is the same. The entire first zone is the same. The first quests are all the same. For me, that took away some of the "wonder and magic". I guess that - even if it's for such a very short while - starting out in an independent zone for each race in WoW makes those first few levels more meaningful to me. If I start a Gnome (gawd forbid I would, but what if...), well, it would at least immerse me into the character completely. I would feel more invested in that character as a simulacrum of a living breathing entity. It doesn't matter that a few levels later, I'd just join the great unwashed masses of "every other race in the Alliance" doing the same quests.

Likewise, those first 9-10 levels as a Night Elf really impart what the race is about. The first 9-10 levels of being a Blood Elf are so completely different that I just cannot reconcile Night Elves and Blood Elves as being offshoots of the same race. To me, that alone justifies the "racial similarity vs social disparity" aspect. As it turns out, as much as I loved the opening levels of Night Elf, I fell totally in love with being a Blood Elf.

In Rift, I felt no difference regardless of which race I chose from a single faction. All the minute details of character customization were entirely lost for me once I jumped into the "sameness" of the opening quests. I just felt no attachment to my character. I think this is one spot that Trion needs to work on. Giving players a bit more to chew on when the first start. The promise of "epic end game" isn't enough to compensate for lackluster newby zones.

I'm only speaking about my own impressions of the game from what I tried.
There were some really beautiful aspects to it.
As I said before, if WoW died tomorrow, I'd probably switch to Rift instead of one of the surviving Final Fantasy games.
I'm quite sure that with a few years under its belt Rift will truly become a magnificent game. I'm not a hater, but I'm definitely not jumping ships to the Rift side, on the lone merit that "it's new".

Everything being the same was honesty a point of irritation for me, too. :C The first few levels just make such a huge difference when you play WoW...But yeah. The two elf species are different enough that I like them both, but the humans are like "do you want to play a white person or a darker Asian person".

It feels a lot like Perfect World, honestly.

[TygerDarkstorm]

I've been mulling over this and I think I have found the response I was looking for.

The races in Rift are vastly different from WoW in the way that they function; at least from the way I see it. It's not presented to you of each race having a home land that you start out in and move your way into the world--it is much more faction based.

In the case of the Defiants you are brought back from the dead as one of the Ascended. You start off in the future in a ravaged, war torn world in which the planet is losing to Regulos (the main villain). You are then sent back in time so you can try to prevent this devastation using your newly acquired powers.

With the Guardians, you are, again, a soul risen from the dead (I believe), chosen by The Vigil (their religious system) to be a hero and protect the world from the destructions of Regulos.

Each race has its own story, but those don't pertain to the world the way the ones in WoW do. It's two very different systems and I feel they should be respected as such.

Besides, in all honesty, if they did copy WoW's system of individual racial starting zones, people would just piss and moan that Rift copied them. I personally think the starting zones get boring anyway and it's just a matter of mindlessly going through the process of them for the first 5 levels. I can't think of another game that has racial based starting zones (never played EQ) except WoW--CoH/V doesn't have them, I don't think GW did (can't remember), Vindictus only lets you play as a human, etc etc.

You're all welcome to your opinions of course, I just wanted to point out that Rift isn't meant to be like WoW's system with the races.

[Silivren]

I've been mulling over this and I think I have found the response I was looking for.

The races in Rift are vastly different from WoW in the way that they function; at least from the way I see it. It's not presented to you of each race having a home land that you start out in and move your way into the world--it is much more faction based.

In the case of the Defiants you are brought back from the dead as one of the Ascended. You start off in the future in a ravaged, war torn world in which the planet is losing to Regulos (the main villain). You are then sent back in time so you can try to prevent this devastation using your newly acquired powers.

With the Guardians, you are, again, a soul risen from the dead (I believe), chosen by The Vigil (their religious system) to be a hero and protect the world from the destructions of Regulos.

Each race has its own story, but those don't pertain to the world the way the ones in WoW do. It's two very different systems and I feel they should be respected as such.

Besides, in all honesty, if they did copy WoW's system of individual racial starting zones, people would just piss and moan that Rift copied them. I personally think the starting zones get boring anyway and it's just a matter of mindlessly going through the process of them for the first 5 levels. I can't think of another game that has racial based starting zones (never played EQ) except WoW--CoH/V doesn't have them, I don't think GW did (can't remember), Vindictus only lets you play as a human, etc etc.

You're all welcome to your opinions of course, I just wanted to point out that Rift isn't meant to be like WoW's system with the races.

Thats it! You summed it up perfectly! The Vigil are a system underneath the Gods(Im a Guardian)and as a Guardian they choose to Ascend you and bring you back. I personally love the game... Its different than WoW in its own ways and similar still in some but its an mmo some of the systems will be the same. I tried Defiant too and while I liked it I found the Guardian zones to be far more fun! Also Bahmi are "Air People" kind of like an elemental race...its weird and I'm foggy on al the details.

[TygerDarkstorm]

Yeah, I haven't read up on all the lore yet, and I've been playing mostly Defiant since that's what one of my coworkers plays, and he's in one of the largest guilds on the server so I couldn't say no to some free help.

I did play Guardian a little bit and it's not bad from what I experienced so far. But I'm glad I mostly got the feel of the races and factions down. ^_^

I personally kind of like the faction feel the game has to it. It's less focused on race and more like "We need to work together to defeat this threat to our world."

Like, with WoW, Blizzard's messing around with the races so much anymore that the Horde only appears to be together still due to game play purposes. The Forsaken could technically split off into their faction, I'm sure the tauren aren't thrilled with Garrosh, and we already know Vol'jin wants to kill Garrosh.

[Silivren]

Thats another good way to put it! If you see Sanctum the Guardian city..its just as amazing as Meridian(Defiant city).. Its this giant melting pot of all races and the game really has a "We cant do this without each other" feel to it. ALSO a quick did you know - That Defiant and Guardian can speak to each other. We cant trade or group but we can talk to one another! I have a Defiant friend who sits outside Sanctum sometimes and chats with me

[TygerDarkstorm]

That's interesting, I didn't know they could speak to one another. :O

City of Heroes/Villains does something like that I think--even have a neutral area where both sides can go and for the holiday events heroes and villains can group together which was kind of fun.

[Sukurachi]

Like I said, it was my personal take on the races/faction thing.
For me, it seemed to take a bit away from the experience. There's no need to become defensive. After all, I also brought up some positive things about Rift.

I came from Finale Fantasy before WoW, and to a lesser extent, the races had their own homes. The experience of starting as one of the races had a very distinct feel, despite the eventual homogenization that occurs later on in gameplay. Of course, FFXI isn't "faction based", not PvP, technically.

To be perfectly honest, I don't mind if a game "steals" good ideas from another one. What works in one game, generally works in another. It's up to the game maker to create the elements which will differ and set the two apart. As I also said, I think Trion have something good on their hands, which, with eventual tweaking, really set it apart from other game developers.

At this time, for me, WoW is ample.

Also, I think it is important for anyone posting on comments in this thread to understand that this thread was started regarding the TRIAL version of Rift. So nothing from endgame or more advanced levels really has relevance on the impressions of someone who has only been able to get through the first 10 levels or so.

[TygerDarkstorm]

Nobody was becoming defensive. All I did was offer a different perspective on the take of races and factions in Rift compared to WoW. =/

I even made sure to think it over really well and type it in as objective a manner as possible and not inserting my opinion 'til the end. I respect that some others may not like the style, and that's fine, to each their own.

[cowmuflage]

I have just found out like every other MMO theres some real crazy nutjobs on rift. You know the type lol

[TygerDarkstorm]

Well yeah, but every game is going to have its fair share of people that are mean, aggressive, weird, crazy, etc etc. That's just part of human nature and occurs in real life too.

That was sort of random though...

[cowmuflage]

Just saying that as some Rift playerss act like theres not anyone like that it's very odd.

[TygerDarkstorm]

Er, what? I'm sorry, no offense to you Cow, but I'm not sure what you mean in that sentence. There's going to be strange people in every game--look at WoW, it has one of the worst communities out there. From what I've seen so far, most of the Rift community on my Shard has been pleasant. A few trolls here and there but nothing to complain about.

One random tidbit of my own: I like that when you tab a herbalism or mining node, that node immediately becomes unclickable for every other player to help lesson the chance for node jacking.

[cowmuflage]

I'm saying people on Rift act like theres no crazy nutters on it. WHen there is. lol

[TygerDarkstorm]

Every fanatic of their given game acts like there's no crazies on it. That's a pretty given thing with any game that gives you internet access to speak with dozens of people you'll never meet in real life.

There's weirdos in every facet of life.

[cowmuflage]

That's what I was saying lol

[Sukurachi]

being "defensive" isn't necessarily a bad thing.
we do tend to defend the things we love when we perceive them being attacked ("attack" in this sense can mean anything from a mildly critical comment, to full-on bashing) in some form or other.

I often find myself being "defensive" when things I enjoy are criticized, whether fairly or not. It is human nature.

And your "different take" was appreciated.

As I said, I can only speak from my limited experience with Rift, as this thread was started regarding the very limited demo version available at the time.

Just to let you know what prompted my "defensive" comment: your comment regarding Blizzard's treatment of WoW's races. Comparison is good. But the "Burger Doctrine" is often the safest approach when presenting contrasting comparison in a discussion. (meat between two slices of bread - the meat of your comparative example, between two slices of "neutral" or "harmless" comment to alleviate any impression the "meat" was direct criticism ).

Nobody was becoming defensive. All I did was offer a different perspective on the take of races and factions in Rift compared to WoW. =/

I even made sure to think it over really well and type it in as objective a manner as possible and not inserting my opinion 'til the end. I respect that some others may not like the style, and that's fine, to each their own.

[TygerDarkstorm]

I think part of the appeal and fun of the game for me is that it's new. I didn't get to play WoW during Vanilla when it was new and I'm sad that I didn't. I look forward to seeing how Rift will grow.

I'm enjoying that it plays similarly enough to WoW that I don't feel anxious about having to relearn keybindings and such, and yet it has a different enough feel to be its own game.

I know my bf isn't fond of the graphics in Rift, but I think after staring at WoW for seven years I can imagine how he feels. They're a little wonky at first but I'm growing to really like them just because they're so smooth and the animations are so nice. It's lovely not to see a ton of clipping issues. XD

I admire the efforts they're putting in to try and help keep the gold farmers at bay as well. No system is perfect, but they're making a good start.

[Sukurachi]

are the areas after the opening any "brighter"? I only got to get to the first "boss fight" of the free trial version last month. At that level, and in that trial version, there was nowhere else to go. At least, none that I could find. I found the entire starting zone too dark (it reminded me of Tirisfal Glades.. a starter zone I absolutely detest, and one of the reasons I have not a single Undead character).

Who knows, maybe I'll get Rift next year.

[cowmuflage]

I do wish more MMOs did not go down the "realistic" graphics road I just can't stand that kind of graphics it never works out in MMOs for some reason.