RIFT's Trion Worlds hijacked by SIMU management?

[Atlanteax]

Not sure who plays but...

http://ascendedchronicle.blogspot.com/2013/02/is-rift-heading-for-bleak-future.html

What was particularly interesting is after a promising start, Rift (due to issues at Trion) is now struggling despite the Storm Legion expansion ... likely due in part to three 'rounds' of layoffs at Trion.

Included in this article was link to:

http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Trion-Worlds-Reviews-E273663.htm

Some of these reviews sounds *just like SIMU* management of Gemstone... (hence subject title)

Especially this one: http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Employee-Review-Trion-Worlds-RVW2297968.htm

[AnticorRifling]

I don't play anymore, played some beta and during initial launch, got to cap...got bored and stopped.

[Bobmuhthol]

I don't understand how someone could play WoW for more than a week and get bored of Rift.

[AnticorRifling]

Because there was ZERO end game and it was missing every "standard" feature that an MMO should have at this stage?

[diethx]

Yeah, Rift end game was nil. Bo-ring.

[Taernath]

Doesn't Trion make a point of not releasing subscription numbers for Rift?

[Tolwynn]

Few companies release their MMO subscription numbers, so it's not that unusual that Trion wouldn't either.

[Androidpk]

The companies have to release the numbers at their quarterly reports.

[Bobmuhthol]

Except it's a private company, so there is no quarterly report.

[Taernath]

I meant that Trion is deliberately vague when it comes to subscription numbers. When Rift first launched, they made a point of saying they were draining subs from WoW, but refused to list any kind of numbers. The last I heard was that they had "a large amount" of subscribers, whatever that means.

[Gelston]

Most MMOs don't release sub numbers unless they are trying to prove something (like WoW).

[Bobmuhthol]

Blizzard is a public company.

[AnticorRifling]

I meant that Trion is deliberately vague when it comes to subscription numbers. When Rift first launched, they made a point of saying they were draining subs from WoW, but refused to list any kind of numbers. The last I heard was that they had "a large amount" of subscribers, whatever that means.

I thought there was a big hoopla about hitting 1mil, but that was real early in the launch and I've heard nothing since then.

[TheEschaton]

RIFT is an okay game. Some might even argue that their raiding (now) is better than WoW's. But for some reason, it doesn't have the stickiness of WoW. It bores people. Maybe it's because they don't have much depth to their universe. I don't know. I know people who were like, compared to killing the Lich King in WoW, RIFT couldn't hold a candle to anything like that.

[Gelston]

Blizzard is a public company.

So is Sony, but they never gave out numbers for some of their games, ie PotBS. Infact, the company that just bought that particular game isn't allowed to disclose past numbers due to contract when they bought it.

[subzero]

But for some reason, it doesn't have the stickiness of WoW. It bores people. Maybe it's because they don't have much depth to their universe. I don't know. I know people who were like, compared to killing the Lich King in WoW, RIFT couldn't hold a candle to anything like that.

I think that has a lot to do with it. The world itself just kinda feels flat. They have, what, 8 races? Aside from their look, there's nothing that separates one from another. The factions are pretty much the same; one side thinks they can protect the world their way while the other thinks it should be done a different way and they hate each other because the other guys' idea is stupid. I never really got into the endgame so I can't comment much on that, but to me there seemed to be no real story behind any of the bosses for pretty much anything. They just showed up because they're badass and what are you gonna do to stop'em?

[Taernath]

I think that has a lot to do with it. The world itself just kinda feels flat. They have, what, 8 races? Aside from their look, there's nothing that separates one from another. The factions are pretty much the same; one side thinks they can protect the world their way while the other thinks it should be done a different way and they hate each other because the other guys' idea is stupid.

From what I remember, it was dark skinned human/elf/big guys vs. light-skinned human/elf/dwarves, so technically 6. It was almost as lazy as TOR.

[Bobmuhthol]

I will again defer to wondering what the "story" is in WoW that makes it worth playing.

[subzero]

I will again defer to wondering what the "story" is in WoW that makes it worth playing.

I don't know what you know about the history of Warcraft, but prior to the MMO version it was an RTS franchise. It started with two 'traditional'-style RTS games/expansions and then they changed things up a bit in WC3 by adding some RPG elements to their RTS model. For what the game (WC1) was at the time, they put a fairly detailed story behind both the human and orc races to explain the conflict in the game manual. They could have tossed together a simple, tired theme (Orc world is running out of resources, want a better place, etc) that sent the Orcs to invading the human world, but instead they chose to flesh things out.

As new games were released, the story progressed and new heroes, villains, and alliances were forged. Some of these were seen in the games while others were only in the manuals and/or later in the books to help build the 'world of Warcraft' (world here including the two planets and other celestial or demonic entities, places/dimensions). I think Blizzard picked up on the popularity of some of their characters and storylines and eventually began to put them into the games themselves along with the standard units each side had access to. I believe that started in the WC2 expansion. Then they started publishing books, announced the World of Warcraft project, and released WC3.

In the third release, the focus was on various 'heroes' from different races/factions that you could control, level, and gear (somewhat) similar to RPGs. At various places, you're given control of different heroes and the game progresses via their storyline cutscenes and you being able to complete whatever objectives are given for that particular arc. A lot of these characters became really popular with people and the MMO was eventually released a couple years later. Everyone will have their own opinions on what made the story, particular characters, races, etc compelling, but regardless of their reasons, Warcraft had picked up quite a fan-base.

What about all that makes World of Warcraft worth playing? The story has been evolving over the past ~18 years which a lot of the playerbase has sort of grown up with. People had nearly ten years of Warcraft gaming history and lore (including aforementioned books) by the time the MMO was released. With the release of the MMO, fans of the Warcraft games were able to explore the world of Azeroth (and later, the remains of the Orc world of Draenor) in 3D. There you not only just see the world of Azeroth, which picks up a couple years after WC3, but you often interact with numerous high profile characters the world has been built around. Sometimes it's simply doing quests they give you, other times you'll fight alongside various heroes, kings, or those who will find themselves in such position in their future. There are also places in the game that take you back in time that allows you to take part in some of the historical, world-shaping events; sometimes it's not much more than to allow players to experience some of these things and others serve to continue the storyline. Many of the high profile locations from Warcraft lore were also implemented in the form of dungeons complete with many well-known bosses to destroy (Stratholme, Scholomance, Medivh's Tower/Karazhan, Black Temple, etc).

Thanks to all of the characters that have been developed over time, the playable races aren't just simple model-changes like they are with a game like Rift. They have their own identity and goals with nearly 20 years of material being created and digested that help give life to a game world that others might lack. In-game, each has its own starting area that does a good job introducing them and illustrating the state of things for that race (which has changed since initial launch; one of the cool things about MMOs. Which brings to mind something similar that happened, though much more subtle, in Rift that I really enjoyed, simple as it was. There was a particular town-like area near the south-central part of the Defiant starting map that was large enough to be annoying to go around and populated with crap enough to not want to try and run through. It was placed along the base of a big rocky hill, though, and you could manage to climb over the hill and pass along part of the wall before getting back on the hill and to the other side. Well, apparently a lot of people used that same route because in a later patch, they'd actually smoothed out that area a bit, altered the graphics, and made it into a naturally worn path that was easier to traverse).

As to the story itself, there's far more than the quick synopsis I'm going to give, but here's the essence of what started things off. Young Guardian-to-be's (Medivh) powers manifest and he loses it. Somehow manages to make contact with powerful extra-planar demons. Demons had been corrupting planet of orcs making them savages. Medivh and demons make deal, open portal for orcs to invade Azeroth. Orcs and humans fight over several years with the humans eventually pinning the orc clans, who don't really get along well, in the swamps. An Orc Warchief unites and organizes the clans in preparation to strike at the humans again. The first game takes places around this point.

World of Warcraft is as popular as it is because someone made the right decision to develop a decent story for a rather simple game. As the game got more popular, they continued to develop the story and actually created an in-depth Warcraft universe. Of course the game had to be good as well, but I think when you have a game with the history Warcraft has, it's in for a much longer lifespan than other games. If they had gone with some simple story just to make a fantasy-based RTS with orcs vs humans, none of this would be here today.

[Gelston]

tl;dr

[Jarvan]

Long story short..

All MMO's have the same endgame. Raid or pvp for better gear. Wait for expansion to rush those next 5-10 levels, raid and pvp for new gear, rinse repeat.

I laughed my ass off when people hit cap in SWTOR and were like, "there is nothing to do -whine whine whine-. I am going back to WoW."

The only game I remember that had any real endgame were DAoC -three faction warfare, with multiple maps to take control of- Asheron's Call gets a fun mention tho. Talk about affecting the world.. They would literally have 1 boss for a server for an event, and generally whomever killed it got the super item of the month/quarter.

[subzero]

All MMO's have the same endgame. Raid or pvp for better gear. Wait for expansion to rush those next 5-10 levels, raid and pvp for new gear, rinse repeat.

I laughed my ass off when people hit cap in SWTOR and were like, "there is nothing to do -whine whine whine-. I am going back to WoW."

The only game I remember that had any real endgame were DAoC -three faction warfare, with multiple maps to take control of- Asheron's Call gets a fun mention tho. Talk about affecting the world.. They would literally have 1 boss for a server for an event, and generally whomever killed it got the super item of the month/quarter.

The difference is that people care about the characters/bosses among other things within the Warcraft universe. I can barely name a couple Rift NPCs, can't tell ya much about why anyone is doing what they're doing other than world is invaded and one side thinks defense = x, the other thinks it should be y, I can name two of the races (Kelari and Bahmi, which may or may not be spelled right), and honestly don't give a flying fuck about any of them.

[Bobmuhthol]

I don't know what you know about the history of Warcraft, but prior to the MMO version it was an RTS franchise. It started with two 'traditional'-style RTS games/expansions and then they changed things up a bit in WC3 by adding some RPG elements to their RTS model. For what the game (WC1) was at the time, they put a fairly detailed story behind both the human and orc races to explain the conflict in the game manual. They could have tossed together a simple, tired theme (Orc world is running out of resources, want a better place, etc) that sent the Orcs to invading the human world, but instead they chose to flesh things out.

As new games were released, the story progressed and new heroes, villains, and alliances were forged. Some of these were seen in the games while others were only in the manuals and/or later in the books to help build the 'world of Warcraft' (world here including the two planets and other celestial or demonic entities, places/dimensions). I think Blizzard picked up on the popularity of some of their characters and storylines and eventually began to put them into the games themselves along with the standard units each side had access to. I believe that started in the WC2 expansion. Then they started publishing books, announced the World of Warcraft project, and released WC3.

In the third release, the focus was on various 'heroes' from different races/factions that you could control, level, and gear (somewhat) similar to RPGs. At various places, you're given control of different heroes and the game progresses via their storyline cutscenes and you being able to complete whatever objectives are given for that particular arc. A lot of these characters became really popular with people and the MMO was eventually released a couple years later. Everyone will have their own opinions on what made the story, particular characters, races, etc compelling, but regardless of their reasons, Warcraft had picked up quite a fan-base.

What about all that makes World of Warcraft worth playing? The story has been evolving over the past ~18 years which a lot of the playerbase has sort of grown up with. People had nearly ten years of Warcraft gaming history and lore (including aforementioned books) by the time the MMO was released. With the release of the MMO, fans of the Warcraft games were able to explore the world of Azeroth (and later, the remains of the Orc world of Draenor) in 3D. There you not only just see the world of Azeroth, which picks up a couple years after WC3, but you often interact with numerous high profile characters the world has been built around. Sometimes it's simply doing quests they give you, other times you'll fight alongside various heroes, kings, or those who will find themselves in such position in their future. There are also places in the game that take you back in time that allows you to take part in some of the historical, world-shaping events; sometimes it's not much more than to allow players to experience some of these things and others serve to continue the storyline. Many of the high profile locations from Warcraft lore were also implemented in the form of dungeons complete with many well-known bosses to destroy (Stratholme, Scholomance, Medivh's Tower/Karazhan, Black Temple, etc).

Thanks to all of the characters that have been developed over time, the playable races aren't just simple model-changes like they are with a game like Rift. They have their own identity and goals with nearly 20 years of material being created and digested that help give life to a game world that others might lack. In-game, each has its own starting area that does a good job introducing them and illustrating the state of things for that race (which has changed since initial launch; one of the cool things about MMOs. Which brings to mind something similar that happened, though much more subtle, in Rift that I really enjoyed, simple as it was. There was a particular town-like area near the south-central part of the Defiant starting map that was large enough to be annoying to go around and populated with crap enough to not want to try and run through. It was placed along the base of a big rocky hill, though, and you could manage to climb over the hill and pass along part of the wall before getting back on the hill and to the other side. Well, apparently a lot of people used that same route because in a later patch, they'd actually smoothed out that area a bit, altered the graphics, and made it into a naturally worn path that was easier to traverse).

As to the story itself, there's far more than the quick synopsis I'm going to give, but here's the essence of what started things off. Young Guardian-to-be's (Medivh) powers manifest and he loses it. Somehow manages to make contact with powerful extra-planar demons. Demons had been corrupting planet of orcs making them savages. Medivh and demons make deal, open portal for orcs to invade Azeroth. Orcs and humans fight over several years with the humans eventually pinning the orc clans, who don't really get along well, in the swamps. An Orc Warchief unites and organizes the clans in preparation to strike at the humans again. The first game takes places around this point.

World of Warcraft is as popular as it is because someone made the right decision to develop a decent story for a rather simple game. As the game got more popular, they continued to develop the story and actually created an in-depth Warcraft universe. Of course the game had to be good as well, but I think when you have a game with the history Warcraft has, it's in for a much longer lifespan than other games. If they had gone with some simple story just to make a fantasy-based RTS with orcs vs humans, none of this would be here today. There is a panda race in WoW.

[subzero]

There is a panda race in WoW.

Yep. They were an April Fool's joke prior to WC3 and people flipped out over it which led them to actually putting them in WC3 and eventually WoW.