Tag: Trion

Rift Sending Free Copies To Founders


If you are a founder of Rift (bought the game very early or signed up for the founder’s multi-month package), you should be receiving a free copy of Rift to gift someone you know. Each copy comes with the standard edition plus five days of free game time.

RIFT is always more fun when friends can share in the glory of battle. To thank you for your continuing support as one of RIFT’s multi-month subscription founders, here is a free copy of RIFT you can gift to a friend. Spread the excitement and raise another ally in the fight against the dragons! Make sure your friend signs up through the Ascend-a-Friend program to enjoy linked accounts and bring you one step closer to your Ember Steed. Forward this email to your soon-to-be Ascended friend today, because this code is only good until July 31, 2011.
Regards,
The RIFT Team

The code is only good until July 31st, offering plenty of time to decide upon, or go hunting for, a friend to give the code to.

Rift Welcome Back Week Not Quite Working Yet


Former rift players, you’ve likely received an email from Trion regarding a welcome back week beginning today and lasting until July 19th. Excitedly (or with a simple motion of interest), you probably went to log in only to find yourself blocked by a “thank you for your interest, but you need to resubscribe” message. Trion is in the process of reactivating old accounts, and unfortunately the email was sent out earlier than expected to a lot of people. The following was posted by Trion’s Elrar on the forums:

Hey all,

We’re currently working to enable the 7 free days on all returning players accounts. The emails jumped the gun a bit as activating all accounts may take some time to complete, we’ll provide an announcement once all returning players can take advantage of the event.

Apologies for the confusion, but you do not need to setup a subscription, once your account is re-activated the only thing you’ll need to do is log in to the game – hang tight until the activations are complete.

Thanks!

I will update this once the process is complete, or you can just wait until later on to try and log in.

What Happened This Week: Macrotransaction Edition


I skipped This Week in Review last week because I only had three days worth of posts for the previous week. This week, I want to continue the Week in Review articles by starting out with a question, and it pertains to Star Wars Galaxies. It’s always a downer to hear that an MMO you play is shutting down. If you currently play the game. do you continue playing until the game shuts down, or do you consider any more invested money a waste? If you were an ex-player, do you rejoin to savor some memories or to see the game off, or do you stay away? If there is free time, do you take advantage of it?

But enough of that, what happened this week?

1. What Does Star Wars Say For Sony’s Other Titles?

This one is obvious: not much. It’s important to remember that Star Wars was canned because Sony and Lucas Arts decided it to be the best decision rather than renew the contract at the end of the year, likely partially because LA doesn’t want two full Star Wars MMOs on the market, even if they wouldn’t really compete (two completely different points in time).

Looking at Sony’s other lineup, it’s safe to say neither Everquest nor Everquest II are going anywhere, the two games just make too much money. Free Realms makes a lump of  cash, as does Pirates of the Burning Sea and Clone Wars Adventures. DC Universe is still trucking along with the server meld bringing the community closer together.

My only title of note is Vanguard. Although Sony has expressed interest in taking Vanguard free to play, doing so would require a good investment of capital, one that the company could deem not worth it ultimately. If I had to choose one game from the list, Vanguard would be high on the list, although likely not #1 as the game has barely any overhead left. Most likely, I would say Planetside, although I believe Sony will time Planetside shutting down with the release of Planetside Next.

2. Rift Shuts Down Servers…Subtly

Trion reminds me of Blake from Glengarry Glen Ross with his ability to tie “good news” and “you’re fired” in the same sentence. If you haven’t been paying attention, Trion recently announced that a few servers would be transferred over to “trial” status, where free trial players would be segregated off to. Of course players have the option, and you will be suggested to do so upon logging in, to transfer off of the server, free of charge.

Who says Trion doesn’t know innovation? This is probably one of the most subtle ways to merge servers I’ve seen in the history of MMO Fallout, nay, the history of the genre. Character creation has been disabled for non-trial users on those servers, and the restrictions for under level 15 characters are being removed in the near future so all of your currently made characters can leave the server. There are a lot of trial-tagged servers, too. Around twenty, from my understanding.

3. Eve Players Are Overloading Perpetuum

Perpetuum Online! That game I talked about that one time with the place and the thing. With all the talk of people leaving Eve (Over four thousand committed to unsubscribing so far, according to the Eve forums), their natural destination should be Perpetuum Online, right? The game is essentially Eve on the ground, and with mechs instead of space ships. If you said yes, you would be correct.

Over in the forums, Perpetuum has been hit with some good, healthy (for the wallet) overpopulation, resulting in queue lines to log in. I don’t normally laugh at MMO drama, but this is pretty funny. It’s like a picture of a concert, where the band is giving the middle finger to the audience who are, in turn, giving it back.

4. Maybe CCP Just Bit Off Too Much

Thinking back, perhaps CCP is in the same situation as Cryptic Studios. Sure, the game they run is raking in the cash, but that profit may be dwarfed by the development costs of their other games. CCP has DUST 514 in development for the PS3, and we all know how expensive PS3 development is, as well as World of Darkness. The cash shop may be a way to supplement their income and get the games out faster, but it’s a prescription that is not fitting well with the community.

But as many Eve players have noted, the price of the cash shop items barely factors in. Where the players are getting angry isn’t in CCP’s initial action, but in the response given to the controversy. You can read the events in the Eve Online category on this blog but for a quicker image, just go back to my concert analogy.

Down to brass tacks, if as many players are leaving as committed (over four thousand and growing) and stay gone, this could put a serious damper in CCP’s development of DUST 514 and World of Darkness.

5. Funny Fifth Thing.

Trying On Trion: Happiness And (Almost) A Million Sales


So much for the forum users claiming Rift had sold over a million copies since launch. According to Trion in an interview with Gamasutra, Rift is nearing its 1 millionth sale. Interestingly enough, VP of publishing David Reid also revealed that the 1 millionth customer, and whoever they refer, will get something special from Trion.

“We are on the verge of selling our 1 millionth unit of Rift,”

For some members of the community, Rift’s health has been in question since Trion announced the introduction of weekly allowed server transfers for no fee. With this announcement, Trion hopes to alleviate those concerns, while planting the idea that the free transfers are simply intended to be a convenience for players.

 “The subscription market is not dying, we’re clearly seeing that. The MMORPG market is not declining. We believe a quality product is going to continue to be something that gamers are willing to pay for as long as we continue to run the service as we should,”

In an interview with Gamefront, Scott Hartsman made a great point on the evolution of the community:

Back in the day, WAY back in the day, in the Everquest, Ultima Online days, nobody had real life friends that played online games, so you made all your friends online. These days, you have friends all over the place, and you probably do have real life friends playing the game. The world has changed a little bit. For us, we want to make sure that when you suddenly discover that your buddy from college or from the old job is playing on another server, you can click a button and go play with him. Chances are, you’re going to be happy, you’re going to stick around longer, and then everybody wins.

More on Rift as it appears.

Rift: Free Weekly Transfers Coming in 1.3


[Update]

I apparently picked the worst time to write this. The news is in, and server transfers will be allowed once a week, for free, and will allow even entire guilds to transfer including all of their items, titles, and achievements. Guild Leaders can move their guild and levels and perks.

Hey, Rifters. It’s been a couple months since Rift launched, and your server may be feeling the effects of what doctors refer to as “a lack of population.” Currently (11:59am EST on a Monday) all of the servers are on medium, with two servers at high load. That being said, Trion is still listening, and is working on allowing players to transfer servers. In a post on the forums, Elrar stated:

We’ve seen renewed discussion lately asking about character transfers and how we plan to allow more of you to play together and enjoy RIFT with friends. While it has been mentioned in interviews we wanted to clearly state that a character transfer feature is currently under development. We’re still ironing out the details which we will share as we get closer to its release, however, we wanted to let you know today that it is something we’re actively working on.

Server transfers. No doubt Rift has a lot of servers, and hopefully the transfers will keep the community active and interacting.

Rift: Flash Sale, 50% Off Both Digital Versions


Good news, potential Rifters! For the next 24 hours, you can get Rift standard and digital editions for 50% off. This sale ends soon, so if you’re going to buy, do it now. Amazon is also having this sale for the standard and digital collector’s editions.

Head over to http://www.direct2drive.com/promos/rift/ and you’ll also receive a package with a 10 slot bag, scrolls, potions, and more.

If you make use of the Ascend-a-Friend program, you can also obtain 7 free days, and an exclusive title. So if you’re planning on buying Rift, you can always buy the code before the sale expires tomorrow, then sign up with the above link, and use your code at the end of the seven days.

Rift 7-Day Trial: Alienware/Friend Referral


Wanted to try out Rift, but didn’t know anyone who owned the game? Missed the ally weekends? Well do I have good news for you: Alienware is giving away keys for seven day trials to Rift, and you can get one.

Just head over to http://www.alienwarearena.com/giveaway/rift/, and create an Alienware account to get your key. Follow the instructions, and you’ll be all set up to start your seven day trial.

Alternatively, if you didn’t want to sign up for an Alienware account, you are welcome to use my referral link: Here.

Rift: South Korea, and Let’s Talk China


Before I begin, I wanted to talk about Rift and China, namely the statement flying around that Rift will never have a snowball’s chance at matching Blizzard’s subscriber numbers unless they release in China. The above statement is, of course, completely true. The issue this raises, however, is Rift’s odds at releasing in China, which don’t seem all that likely in the near future, or really ever. The main problem Rift faces is the concept of the undead, especially since the game already carried the River of Souls event, that based its entire concept around the idea of souls being plucked from the river of souls (where everyone goes at death) to serve as an undead army.

China and the undead don’t got along well, and World of Warcraft’s expansions were delayed for multiple years, following extensive censorship, before the games could be released. Skeletons are replaced by sacks of flour and scarecrows, blood is green, even undead insignia are replaced or removed outright.

Anyway, Rift is releasing in South Korea! Running through CJ E&M Games, Rift will makes it break into the east. According to Trion’s Lars Buttler:

 “We take the Korean market very seriously as it is driven by innovation and growth in the online gaming space. By working with CJ E&M we are able to bring deep, immersive online gaming experiences to the east, and continue delivering quality games to gamers worldwide.”

Well hopefully Rift will take the Korean community better than some Korean companies take the western community. Rift was the top selling PC retail game in North American in March, according to NPD. We’ll see if this success can transition over to Korea.

Rift: South Korea, and Let's Talk China


Before I begin, I wanted to talk about Rift and China, namely the statement flying around that Rift will never have a snowball’s chance at matching Blizzard’s subscriber numbers unless they release in China. The above statement is, of course, completely true. The issue this raises, however, is Rift’s odds at releasing in China, which don’t seem all that likely in the near future, or really ever. The main problem Rift faces is the concept of the undead, especially since the game already carried the River of Souls event, that based its entire concept around the idea of souls being plucked from the river of souls (where everyone goes at death) to serve as an undead army.

China and the undead don’t got along well, and World of Warcraft’s expansions were delayed for multiple years, following extensive censorship, before the games could be released. Skeletons are replaced by sacks of flour and scarecrows, blood is green, even undead insignia are replaced or removed outright.

Anyway, Rift is releasing in South Korea! Running through CJ E&M Games, Rift will makes it break into the east. According to Trion’s Lars Buttler:

 “We take the Korean market very seriously as it is driven by innovation and growth in the online gaming space. By working with CJ E&M we are able to bring deep, immersive online gaming experiences to the east, and continue delivering quality games to gamers worldwide.”

Well hopefully Rift will take the Korean community better than some Korean companies take the western community. Rift was the top selling PC retail game in North American in March, according to NPD. We’ll see if this success can transition over to Korea.

Rift: River Of Souls Goes Out With A Fizzle…


For all intent and purpose, the River of Souls event on Rift went rather smoothly, minus some intermittent issues with a few servers. On the other hand, the much touted second and third phase that the game had been working toward lasted all of a half hour last night. As one of the players who logged off to go eat dinner at around 6pm EST, I logged back in barely a half hour later to find that the event was over, the bosses killed, the death rifts not giving items, and the world event page over.

I guess what was disappointing was not the speed of the second and third phase of the event (about a half hour for both phases compared to several weeks for phase 1), but that there were some old developers on Rift from past MMOs that such an oversight should not have been passed over, and I’m guessing it was because none of those names had a part in the event. The event itself was well maintained, phase 1 at least, and continues to show Trion’s quick response to player criticism and suggestions. Perhaps part of the mistake was having the phase 2/3 events on a weekend, and not just any weekend, the “invite a friend” weekend, that set a lot of servers back into queues when they were brought down to launch the final phases of the event.

All is not lost, and assuredly the events that took place will have a lasting effect on future updates. To compensate players (like myself) who either ate dinner at the time, or were doing something else assuming phase 2/3 would be at least a few days long, Trion is offering compensation in the form of 250 otherworldly essence, a treasure box containing a random item from the event, an item to start a quest, and two achievements. The otherworldy source stones (currency for the death rifts) will continue to drop, and so will the shadetouch weapon quest.

More on Rift as it appears.