Goodbye World of Warcraft, hello Rift?

[DanielDeFig]

With games like Guild Wars 2, Star Wars: TOR, and Rift, it would seem like WoW's monopoly on MMORPGs is coming to and end. That can only be a good thing.

Still, I don't know much about Rift, but it seems too traditional to be able to make people choose it over WoW, unlike Guild Wars 2 and SW:TOR. It could easily entrap some current WoW players, and along with other new MMORPGs, they will slowly wither away at the WoW player base, until it becomes one of the smaller MMORPGs.

 

[Kwaren]

The zone I started in and all of the surrounding zones I entered were brown. And yes I am sure it is the same game.

Now I know you're full of it. The zone you start in is a basically a tutorial instance. It runs from levels 1-6. Yea, it's fairly dark, but by no means is it "brown." Once you complete it, you're teleported to a zone with forests, beaches, cities, what have you. This of course requires a large range of colors. It should also be noted that the sky changes colors whenever you're under a RIFT, or for the whole zone when invasion events occur. Typically it's the standard blue with white clouds.

I'm "full of it"? Full of what? I'm saying what I saw. I'm describing my experience with what I see as an unremarkable game. I'm sorry MY OPINION offended you so deeply.

 

[teebeeohh]

rift will go the same way as WAR AoC and AION
nothing will kill wow, it will only die when blizz cuts the life support to power their new mmo. till this happens GW2 and TOR will most likely take a chunk of players of wow, especially if the release is timed well. i don't know how well GW2 will be able to keep those players but i trust in Bioware.

edit: i just dislike the trailer and the whole: look how much cooler than wow we are concept.

 

[migo]

World of Warcraft is popular because it runs on almost any PC. The tradeoff is that they have rougher graphics, but that's why they're so big.

With AMD's Fusion line that might change, as mainstream and budget desktops and laptops will have much more capable integrated graphics, starting this year, so going forward we could look at DX11 capable GPU with actual gaming power, Dual-core CPU and 4GB RAM in at least 50% of systems sold. If an MMORPG is made with that in mind, and starts developing a userbase over time, in 5-6 years they might end up as big as WoW with prettier graphics. That's about it.

 

[Kwaren]

The zone I started in and all of the surrounding zones I entered were brown. And yes I am sure it is the same game.

Now I know you're full of it. The zone you start in is a basically a tutorial instance. It runs from levels 1-6. Yea, it's fairly dark, but by no means is it "brown." Once you complete it, you're teleported to a zone with forests, beaches, cities, what have you. This of course requires a large range of colors. It should also be noted that the sky changes colors whenever you're under a RIFT, or for the whole zone when invasion events occur. Typically it's the standard blue with white clouds.

I'm "full of it"? Full of what? I'm saying what I saw. I'm describing my experience with what I see as an unremarkable game. I'm sorry MY OPINION offended you so deeply.

You can call it unremarkable, and that's fully opinion based. But if you're going say that it used almost nothing but the color brown, you should probably back that up with SOMETHING, eh? Screenshots, maybe?


This is the first zone you encounter outside of the tutorial instance:

Brown...psht.

Here you go.

Spoiler: screenshot full of BROWN

Now go crawl back into your cave, troll.

 

[Lizmichi]

Rift will suffer the same fate as any other WoW clone, no matter how much better the interface or the gameplay is.

There's one aspect that MMO developers have overlooked that will make WoW's dominance of the MMORPG market unshakeable. If all of your MMO-playing friends are playing WoW, then you're going to play WoW.

If you have no friends who play WoW but want to play an MMO, go ahead and knock yourself out with Rift, but it's going to be a tough sell for anyone else because in order to get the full experience, they would have to persuade all their friends to switch over.

Yes, but with almost 1 million subscriptions within BETA alone, A massive amount of WoW players are flocking to RIFT like refugees fleeing the sinking ship of WoW.

That always happens then they go back to WoW, I saw it was Aion and it's going to happen with Rift. WoW is massive, gamers aren't going to leave there epic geared rogue to start anew for very long.

I did. 5 level 85s, all fully epic'd. All achievement whored, all raided. I ditched them in not but a moment. As did my 3 brothers, various cousins, my whole guild. Of course a lot of people will return to WoW, but more will leave it. Do you think WoW started off with millions of subscribers on the first day? of course not, it takes time for the community to grow. I am 100% positive RIFT's will bloom

I see that as more of an exception then a point to Rift. New content for WoW comes out all the damn time, just like it did when I played. 2 year ago gamers were calling Aion a WoW killer when really it couldn't touch WoW. WoW is massive in every way, Blizz has far more money to pull players back if they need to, still hold Blizz con and work on the Emerald Dream expansion; all of that with enough money to pay the employees and sit on a throne of cash.

I was part of the Rift beta and I liked it but if I want a game like WoW I'll go to WoW. Take Dark Siders vs. Zelda games. Both have the same mechanics, they're a hack and slash and a puzzle game. Dark Siders was well crap, not saying Rift is bad but classic vs. new, classic wins.

 

[Belgian_Waffles]

I played the beta for as long as I possibly imagined,
christ I'm still in shock from the monotony and complete sameness.

 

[Xenetethrae]

I don't even play WoW, but if I was to play an MMO...

Spoiler

... it would be EVE. And then WAR. But THEN it would be WoW

You sir, are a hero and a saint!

Eh, I only think WoW continues to do so well is because everyone playing it has already invested so much time and effort into it that to "convert" to a new MMO would erase their identity. Most MMO players don't play for fun but for the metagame achievement of grinding long enough to reach the highest level & getting the best gear. Which is generally why many more people find MMOs boring. If its boring then you aren't playing it right (or you aren't playing EVE!)

 

[Nautical Honors Society]

I played the beta and thought it was just WoW done in a pallet of brown.

Hardly. It's just as colorful as WoW is, if not more so. Did you smear peanut butter on your monitor by chance?

I pumped it to max graphics and it was still a bland colorless place.

What the hell are you talking about? Are you sure you've got the right game?

Brown is like the least used color in the entire game.

Looks pretty bleak to me. In the pseudo-realism trying to be pretty kind of way.

This game screams "taking myself too seriously!" While WoW goofs on itself, is approachable, and it quite literally a monster.

WoW is not even going to feel this.

Nothing like the tagline "We're not in Azeroth anymore" to perfectly described yet another failed WoW clone.

 

[WolfEdge]

Rift will suffer the same fate as any other WoW clone, no matter how much better the interface or the gameplay is.

There's one aspect that MMO developers have overlooked that will make WoW's dominance of the MMORPG market unshakeable. If all of your MMO-playing friends are playing WoW, then you're going to play WoW.

If you have no friends who play WoW but want to play an MMO, go ahead and knock yourself out with Rift, but it's going to be a tough sell for anyone else because in order to get the full experience, they would have to persuade all their friends to switch over.

Yes, but with almost 1 million subscriptions within BETA alone, A massive amount of WoW players are flocking to RIFT like refugees fleeing the sinking ship of WoW.

That always happens then they go back to WoW, I saw it was Aion and it's going to happen with Rift. WoW is massive, gamers aren't going to leave there epic geared rogue to start anew for very long.

I did. 5 level 85s, all fully epic'd. All achievement whored, all raided. I ditched them in not but a moment. As did my 3 brothers, various cousins, my whole guild. Of course a lot of people will return to WoW, but more will leave it. Do you think WoW started off with millions of subscribers on the first day? of course not, it takes time for the community to grow. I am 100% positive RIFT's will bloom

They may not have started off with the multiple millions, but WoW has ALWAYS had a considerable player base, that's just a function of the brand behind it. World of Warcraft had the important advantage of starting with the established IP and lore of the Warcraft franchise, as well as the fanbase to go with it. Add to that the simplicity of the game's archaic graphics, and the fact even the most sub-par system that exists in the average household can run it, and you have a recipe that's going to be hard to beat.

My concern is the genre, I don't know if it's the case (as I haven't played RIFT) but it LOOKS an awful lot like your run of the mill fantasy MMO. They can claim all they want that we "aren't in Azeroth anymore!!!" but I can guarantee you that the average person looking at this game is going to see it that way.

I hope I'm wrong. Having more variety in the MMO market can only help it grow, but I have the strangest of feelings that this song and dance has all been done before.

 

[Sejs Cube]

With the release of Rift, many players are amazed at the gameplay, graphics, and similar easy to use interface(virtually the same as WoWs).

[citation needed]

Also, does this feel like attempted viral pandering to drum up interest, Barry?
Yes it does, Other Barry, yes it does.




But hey, good luck with that whole WoW-killer thing you've got going for you. Hope that works out real well. God knows every other MMO that's made that Exact. Same. Claim. has gone on to do just fabulously.

 

[WolfEdge]

Also, does this feel like attempted viral pandering to drum up interest, Barry?
Yes it does, Other Barry, yes it does.

I was just going to comment on that. On closer inspection, the OP, as well as a few of the other posters defending it, seem almost mechanical in their praise.

The more I think on it, the more I suspect you're correct in your assessment.

 

[Nautical Honors Society]

Looks pretty bleak to me. In the pseudo-realism trying to be pretty kind of way.

This game screams "taking myself too seriously!" While WoW goofs on itself, is approachable, and it quite literally a monster.

WoW is not even going to feel this.

Nothing like the tagline "We're not in Azeroth anymore" to perfectly described yet another failed WoW clone.

I don't understand where you're getting the feeling that it's trying to be realistic from. All of a sudden higher polygon counts than WoW = realism? In that case, I guess Okami was going for a realistic look too.

Realism as the shape of the figures, detail of the humanoids, boring color pallet etc etc

I am not talking about the genre.

 

[Ladette]

Why is it that every MMO that comes out is called a WoW killer. You see a bunch of people make threads on the WoW forums that they're qutting for Rift/WAR/Aion/Etc. They always cite "how different it is" or "how amazing the graphics are" then two or three months later 95% of them come back to WoW.

So forgive me for doubting, but Rift is not some special new game. At best it'll surpass Lord of the Rings Online, at worse it's the gold spammer fest that is Aion.

 

[Nicarus]

Interface looks like WoW, classes look like WoW, even the dang talent tree looks like WoW. So why bother leaving WoW to play "I'm Seriously Not Copying WoW"?

 

[Anah'ya]

I don't understand where you're getting the feeling that it's trying to be realistic from. All of a sudden higher polygon counts than WoW = realism? In that case, I guess Okami was going for a realistic look too.

Quit trying, he will not stop defending World of Warcraft.

Realism as the shape of the figures, detail of the humanoids, boring color pallet etc etc

I am not talking about the genre.

If a boring colour pallet is using all the available colours we can possibly see (as that is what RIFT is doing), then yes.. I suppose the colours are boring and bland.

If "Realism" is bad and constitutes of anything that has a higher polygon count than World of Warcraft and lends itself to more detail than that.. then yes, I suppose RIFT has picked a more "realistic" take on things. (Why that is bad I do not understand, I have never liked World of Warcrafts comic style).

However as someone who has actually played (and is still and will until she's exhausted) and saw more than just a handful of screenshots and the starting zone, I can happily say that I have all the right to disagree with you and know that I am in the right.

RIFT does not take itself "too" serious. It might not be poking as much fun at itself as World of Warcraft, but last time I checked World of Warcraft has a fairly grim background story as well, and if you don't just pay attention to the hilarious quests, is actually very depressing.

It is the pot calling the kettle black. Admittedly the pot sees more action, but it doesn't change the fact that they are both made from the same material and have the same colour.

As a disclaimer: I have played World of Warcraft. I have 3 characters at level 80, and I will never return, not even for Cataclysm. Yes, there is alot to do, but most of it is just another "job" next to my actual one and I fancy none of that. Sadly RIFT will be exactly the same thing once I hit the max level, but that is what SWTOR and GW2 will be for.

Will RIFT kill World of Warcraft? Nah. Will it make a dent? Probably not. Here's me hoping though. *crosses fingers*