With Summerfest behind us, it seems like now’s a good time to begin wondering about the future of RIFT’s world events. Trion is adopting an annual model for many events, including Summerfest, and there’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that the developer team definitely tried out something different for the summer holiday. Will the trend continue for the next event? Should it?
To begin answering that question, first we must ask ourselves if Summerfest was enjoyable. Everyone has their own opinions, of course, but let’s face the facts– a lot of folks were disappointed over Summerfest, and that disappointment became pretty evident early on. Many players had issues with the original mazes, and there was a solid number of buggy quests and quests that really needed some more tweaking before they were released on live servers. A few of the scavenger hunt quests in particular. What’s truly disappointing is the fact that many of these issues were reported during the PTS phase.
Even discounting those issues, a handful of the hotfixed scavenger hunt quests remained rather time-consuming. The pet trapping event feature was also rather time-consuming. Even the fishing dailies seemed a little unpolished due to the fact that Sunplants ended up being rarer than the fish (which we were given lures for). Summerfest’s rewards came with a higher price, many of which were underwhelming, and quite a few players were disappointed about a mount being unavailable. On top of all that, Summerfest currency was a bit more difficult to obtain this time around– intentionally so.
All this adds up to some interesting player impressions of the overall event. Let’s look at a few, shall we? They’re taken from this thread.
“Summerfest was a cool idea in my mind and I liked how it felt more casual/laid-back with the dailies and whatnot. It felt like it wasn’t really given enough time to be developed and really shine though. Even with hotfixes some of the scavenger hunts were just downright painful/annoying when it seemed like the Scavenger Event stuff was primarily supposed to be random fun exploration-based activities. Also felt that they could have offered more variety in the dailies, since all but one of them required working on your fishing/survival professions. The bug stomping was a good step (pun not intended) in the right direction, but we’ve already seen that done in the Carnival Ascended with the balloon popping. . . Plus it seemed odd/out of place for there to be two dailies that mandated you having the Ascend-a-Friend mount + pet.
I guess overall it didn’t really scream “Summer event” to me, outside of the misc. fun items you could get from the vendor, the name of the event, and the fact that it does take place during summer. Would’ve been fun to see some summer-themed cosmetics/pets, for instance.”
“I think the scavenger hunts came across as a little more frustrating than they should have been. Problem I think is, the idea of long-drawn obscure hunts would be very acceptable in a game like Everquest. This game has never seem to be about the idea of “search for this item with vague clues, it may take 30m – 1hr+”. I don’t think many who play this are into those puzzles. Whereas I know Eq2 was popular for puzzles that made the scavenger hunt look like easter egg hunts in someones backyard. But, that just doesn’t seem to be what this game is after.”
Some solid impressions. Here’s a look at the other side:
“I liked it.
Could it have been better? Yes, it always could be.
The hedge maze didn’t bother me ’cause I just pointed my camera straight down.
The fishing didn’t bother me (love fishing) except for the crappy drop rate of the plants. I ended up with so many fish I don’t need the stupid lures for sandwiches.
Gorging on Gold should have been renamed “Gouging Your Eyes” or “Fists Through Screen”"
“Yes I liked the event quite a lot, I enjoyed the scavenger hunts with the exception of Scarwood part 1.
I do hope that it is improved and expanded upon for next year and that the hedge maze makes a return in some form as a daily quest or something.
I love the costume and fluff items and Po’boys that might turn me into a frog or a tree or lord knows what.”
Opinions seem to be quite varied, which is understandable given the fact that the scavenger hunt quests were a bit of an experiment for Trion. I personally enjoyed the event for the most part and loved the idea of the scavenger hunt quests, but definitely agree some of the quests (like Gorging on Gold) should have been tweaked a little more before release. I did, however, love the exploration that the event encouraged.
It will be interesting to see what Trion does with our feedback, and what we’ll see next from RIFT’s world events. Feel free to share your own impressions of Summerfest in the comments section below.
