I've been pretty entertained as of late. Following Rift's development over the past couple months as well as their massive influx of information released at E3. Though one thing has started to shine through the haze of fandom. I'm a bad pre-release forum poster according to many people.

I suppose I'm just simply fed up with the consistent effort to increase the gap between developers and players. For some reason players have got it in their head that everything that comes out of the marketing department of any game is the word of god and must be praised. What is even worse, is that I disagree with this statement. Early on in a game's development, when the cement hasn't hardened, is the best time to voice concern regarding systems or mechanics that a potential customer doesn't agree with.

Some might say, then you are playing the game for the wrong reasons. You should play the game for what it is, not what you want it to be. And I would most definitely agree with that, but it's simply not possible. Marketing departments leave things vague because they want players to believe the game is what they want. It's simply more profit friendly to let things develop this way. 

Being aware of something like this, and voicing my opinion be it negative or positive has garnered me much undue rage and even some lovely titles. Even today I answered someone's post politely and then called them out later for being rude to certain audiences only to be called a "lonely troll". The mechanisms of a pre-release game community are like a hair trigger. If you say anything that someone doesn't agree with then you've basically put yourself up for execution. Voicing any negativity makes you a troll, and the word of the developer is god, praise be to him. 

The Shrines of Bori were recently added to Age of Conan. What seemed like a pretty sound concept, really didn't turn out well on live.  Given guilds with their alliances, and generally one highly skilled guild attracts the rest of the decent player base to them. 

Now the Shrines, are basically controlled by this leading guild and whomever falls into their alliance. On Wiccana that guild is Meridian, they are basically out there all day making sacrifices. Farming PvP XP and tokens for any members who want to. In comparison, my guild doesn't seem to really PvP all that much. It's frustrating at times not being able to farm PvP XP at the same rate. 

But there's not a whole lot that can be done, the system is prone to producing results like this. Players would rather cooperate than kill each other. 

I think (wow how amazing) that part of what creates such a strong bond to a player's first MMORPG is that noob factor. Everyone was a noob at one point, and one of the things I've come to realize is that the game we are always incredibly fond of after we move on to something else is that first game that brought us up through the ranks of noob and taught us how to play. 

For me I got to experience that twice, first with World of Warcraft, then again with Final Fantasy XI. World of Warcraft was my very first MMORPG, I logged in for the very first time in Red Cloud Mesa the Tauren starting zone. I was a Tauren Shaman, and I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I proceeded to attempt to run to Thunderbluff and died multiple times on the way there. I don't think I ever made it there, but as I got frustrated with dieing repeatedly I decided that I'd start over. 

Every time I think back to that, and what World of Warcraft did for me I realize that part of the reason I'm so fond of those old days back in 2004 is that I learned to play there. Since then each and every MMORPG other than FFXI hasn't really taught me anything, as if the developers assume I know how to play already and now I'm just jumping through hoops for no good reason, as if they have nothing better to do than force me to level a character without any real learning curve. 

With Final Fantasy XI I had all these general concepts of an MMORPG already learned, I had played World of Warcraft, Warhammer Online, Age of Conan, Vanguard, EverQuest 2, and when I stepped into this game they were all meaningless. Certainly some of the concepts still played a part but the thing about Final Fantasy XI was that it was radically different than what I had come to accept as a general norm in the industry. The user interface was entirely different, I wasn't mashing buttons, I wasn't even using my mouse.. this was so new to me that I just had to play more to experience a new learning curve that was actually teaching me, and I saw myself becoming more and more proficient with this system. 

Now, I have these fond memories of both World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XI and honest to god I think I'd still be playing Final Fantasy XI if my friends were still playing. What I'm getting at here is that, World of Warcraft wasn't really doing anything new, they were just teaching players to play their game through the levels. Final Fantasy takes time to do this as well, but most games that have released after World of Warcraft's wake have been so similar in gameplay that the teaching really has no effect on players who are versed in the industry standard. 

I suppose my point is that if games aren't changing anything or "reinventing the wheel" then why are they putting players on the wheel in-game instead of skipping what many players view as wasted development time? Well, because it would be a terrible practice to assume the entire player base already knows how to play. However, without deviating from the norm those of us who are experienced feel like our time is wasted. I ask anyone who may read this to deviate from the standard in the industry. Give us something new, make us feel like noobs (even the most battle hardened MMO vet) get out of this complacency with the standard, and makes us all learn to play.

Rift: Planes of Telara

Formerly known as Heroes of Telara, is my new baby. The last time I felt this kind of excitement towards an MMORPG was back when Paul Barnett was running his mouth for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. I don't know what it is about these fantasy games that border the line of World of Warcraft, and yet deviate enough for me to see potential, but I just can't get enough of them. 

Perhaps it has something to do with me really not enjoying World of Warcraft but seeing the population and market impact it has made across the globe. I suppose, I don't need that kind of success to enjoy a new game but some people do, and by some, I mean most people want to play the next "WoW Killer". Rift will definitely not be the one to stab World of Warcraft to death repeatedly, but hopefully it will do well enough that players aren't skittish when it comes to subscribing to the game. Players want to feel some kind of reassurance that their time and effort that they've placed in the game isn't all for nothing. 

I personally feel comfortable with a population of around 300,000 but most people see the 1,000,000 mark as the safe point. I hope Trion can make a game to reach, and maintain, that mark because without it today's fickle mmo-er isn't going to see their game as a successful product. It's not a realistic measure of success, but in the wake of the giant that is World of Warcraft, many first time gamers don't know what is. As Blizzard takes their prized pig down the path of no return (looking at you changes to raid lockout) I can only see more and more upset players looking for an alternative. One of my best friends from the WoW space of gaming has been talking to me about how she doesn't like the changes and really doesn't even feel like playing much anymore. Truth be told, I hope there are more people feeling this urge to play something else because I'm tired of the fantasy king. 

Okay.. I think.. is it on? 

Woot, I think it's working! 

This is, the first post of my own blog system. Written from scratch to do who knows what, but it does stuff! If you click on the post title's bar it minimizes the post. How crazy is that? Not really that crazy but I just thought it would be more fun to play around and write my own system instead of using all the ones out there.

My other site here is http://rift.ayonyx.net which features a forum tracker for Rift: Planes of Telara.