In an announcement put out in a press release, Rift will go free to play starting June 12, 2013.

PLAY ALL YOU WANT AND PAY WHAT YOU WANT AS RIFT® GOES FREE-TO-PLAY!

Trion Responds to Community Demand;
Trion’s Proven MTX Engine to Power Free-to-Play RIFT

Redwood Shores, CA (May 14, 2013) - RIFT®, the award-winning online game from Trion Worlds, will adopt a free-to-play business model starting June 12, 2013. Players will be able to experience the entire game world; every dungeon, every zone, and every level and get full access to all current and future game updates.

“We have been listening to feedback from our players and watching the continuously developing MMO community, and are now ready to launch RIFT as a premium free-to-play experience,” said Bill Fisher, Creative Director of RIFT. “After taking our time and planning a careful transition; we are very excited to bring an enhanced game experience to everyone, without barriers.”

All players will be able to explore the entire world of Telara for free and will have access to the expanded in-game RIFT Store where a variety of services–mounts, boosts, wardrobe items, and more–will be available for purchase. An optional subscription will still be available that grants a slew of “Patron” benefits and bonuses to maximize the RIFT experience. Trion will celebrate its current and previous subscribers with loyalty and currency rewards for their time spent playing RIFT thus far.

“As a gamer’s game, a super fun and fair experience is of the utmost importance to us,” said Fisher. “Players will have the opportunity to buy customizations and boosts to heighten their play experience; however the best gear in the game will always have to be earned through playing RIFT.”

RIFT free-to-play kicks off with massive content update 2.3, Empyreal Assault, which will open up an unforgettable new zone, world event, chronicle and much more. Empyreal Assault launches on June 12th, 2013 for all Ascended of Telara.

For full details on RIFT F2P visit: www.riftgame.com/free

Does this change your opinion of RIFT? Will this make you stop playing or start again? What does the community think?

Remember a couple weeks ago when Elrar showed off this little yellow guy during Trion’s weekly live stream? Raptr’s making his debut leap onto our RIFT shards today with the addition of a handful of new Raptr rewards.

What is Raptr, you ask? Raptr is this nifty gaming site and software that’s free and can be used to connect with other gamers, share screenshots, news, etc., and track your gaming time. Raptr often pairs up with game companies like Trion to give away in-game goodies and promotions as a reward for being a member.

For the Raptr pet, you’ll need to have an Elite Raptr rating in RIFT or higher. The good news is that if you’re new to Raptr, you have plenty of time to obtain that rating since this promotion will run from April 23rd to June 11th. Other than the cute yellow guy, Trion and Raptr are offering a new pair of Wardrobe-specific Stone Spaulders and this Storm Legion Arbiter Helm that was also offered at the beginning of the expansion.

Oh, yeah, and there’s also a promotion for a free copy of RIFT and Storm Legion if you’re a little late on picking up the game and/or expansion. For more information, check out Raptr’s information page on this offer as well as Trion’s announcement regarding the promotion. Raptr herd, assemble!

There are some interesting changes and additions coming in 2.3 including a new chronicle. When will we see new souls though? Hints and more hints.

Originally posted by Daglar (Source)

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More chronicles are in the works. You should expect one with 2.3.

~Daglar

In response to this question: Even if these new souls are not to be expected within the next weeks, I’m looking forward to that!
Anyway… the one new soul in SL was no reason for Trion to give us another role slot… will the second new soul now finally be reason enough for a few more???
THAT would be nice!

Originally posted by Daglar (Source)

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2.3

Originally posted by Ailion (Source)

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Just a heads up, some Bladedancer and Ranger changes are already up on PTS. Patch notes haven’t been posted yet.

1. Bladedancer: Dauntless Strike: No longer increases the Critical Hit chance of group members. It now applies a debuff to the target, increasing the target’s chance to be critically hit by 5%.
2. Bladedancer: Blade Hustle: An additional effect has been added. You now gain Blade Hustle every 3s, increasing the damage of your next Quick Strike or Precision Strike 3-9%. Stacks up to 10 times.
3. Bladedancer: Disengage: Can now be used anytime. Now on GCD.
4. Bladedancer: Dancing Steel, Hundred Blades: Now on a 30s cooldown, down from 60s.
5. Ranger: New ability added to the Blood Raptor. The Blood Raptor can now charge at the enemy, dealing physical damage.
6. Ranger: Escape Artist: Cooldown has been reduced to 1 min, down from 2 min.
7. Ranger: Fleeting Instinct: Effect can now be applied both in and out of combat.

Do you enjoy writing RIFT guides for your fellow guildmates or on the official forums? Are you always maximizing your list of macros and coming up with new, awesome ideas for DPS rotations? If so, we want to hear from you! Rift Junkies is looking to add a few more enthusiastic, talented volunteer writers to our team. This time around we’re looking for calling experts specifically. If you know your calling like the back of your own hand and constantly hope for more role slots (we can never have enough!), you might be the Ascended we’re looking for.

All that we ask is that you’re a true fan of the game and can show us that you know a thing or two about writing. You’re more than welcome to set your own schedule and write whenever your feel inspired. If you do an awesome, consistent job, there may even be opportunities for this to become a paid position.

If you have any questions or would like to apply to become a writer for Junkies Nation and RIFT Junkies, please feel free to contact Jason Dodge at dreagon@rerollz.net or Laura Hardgrave at laurah@rerollz.com. Make sure to have a writing sample handy when you contact us!

You could always guess that new souls were always coming to RIFT, but in the first two years of life they were only hinted at by going into an expansion. With the shake-up with senior management that hit recently, are we going to be getting more souls sooner than the next expansion?

Will we finally see some of the original Telara design where souls are treated as rewards or loot drops? Interesting times ahead.

Originally posted by Daglar (Source)

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There is a difference between being unaware and having to many other tasks on him to address it. His full time job is not to read and respond to the forums and address every issue – though he does an absolutely amazing job of making additional time to do so. I on the other hand can go ask him to re-adjust his priority for the day and modify something.

I hate talking about things that are not close to being ready, but Kervik and Aillion are pretty busy working on brand new souls and other class related features for the future right now.

Daglar
Creative Director: RIFT

Free month of subscription time if someone can guess what those souls are.

As part of RIFT‘s second anniversary celebration, Trion is holding another free weekend event for returning players from March 21st to March 26th. Also at this time (not quite coincidentally), Trion is offering players a special 25%-off promotion for both the Standard and Infinity editions of Storm Legion.

Both the returning player and new player versions of the expansion are on sale for this promotion. This 25%-off sales event will run the same length as the free event, from March 21st to March 26th. This might be a good weekend to talk a friend or two into trying Storm Legion.

For more details, check out the full pricing details as well as Trion’s official announcement.

RIFT 2.2: Carnival of the Ascended went live today, and as part of RIFT’s second anniversary celebration, Trion released a brand new video as well as a new Carnival of the Ascended-specific RIFT Mobile app scratcher mini-game. Now, in case you hadn’t heard, the actual Carnival of the Ascended world event won’t be starting until tomorrow. Elrar posted the specifics on the forum earlier today, stating that the event (like most of the RIFT’s world events) will kick off at 3:30 PM server time on Thursday, February 28th. The event will begin in Phase 0, which means we’ll get some parade prep and the ability to hunt down Dragon Pinatas for a week or so before the entire event rolls on out. Elrar also posted the planned timetable for this year’s Carnival of the Ascended:

Phase 1 – March 7th
Phase 2 – March 21st
Event End – 4/4

Keep reading to take a look at the special Carnival of the Ascended 2013 video.

Hey everyone, many of you might be familiar with the full Junkies Nation network where we attempt to create fansites from every MMOG out there. As our network grows, so do my responsibilities. Because of this we have begun our very own Affiliate Operator program.

To break it down simply, Junkies Nation is looking for people who have the desire to run, operate and create content for Defiance Junkies. This means Defiance Junkies is your site to run as you see fit under our guidelines. In turn you get web development, hosting, developer access (Hi Lance!), promotional support that includes cross-platform with our sites as well as outside sources of promotion.

As the Senior Editor of Junkies Nation, I can’t be across our network every day, all the time and we’re looking for a bright, creative and hard working person to run Defiance Junkies for us. In return for all your hardwork, you then begin to share in the site’s profits earning up to 60% of the revenue generated on the site.

If you are interested in finding out more about this program, along with the details, please contact me at Draegan@Rerollz.com.

Thanks everyone!

Are you an avid fan and theorycrafter in the RIFT community? Do your fellow guildmates come to you for help with macros and their latest, goofy specs? Do you answer the question, “Do you even RIFT, bro?” with a wholehearted, chest-thumping “YES!”? Are you a fountain of knowledge when it comes to PvP or raid strats? Do you want to share that knowledge and be a part of the largest RIFT fansite on the Internet?

You might just be in luck. Rift Junkies is looking to add a few more enthusiastic, talented volunteer writers to our team. All that we ask is that you’re a true fan of the game and can show us that you know a thing or two about writing. Oh, yeah, and if you love to take in-game videos, that’s an even bigger plus! You’re more than welcome to set your own schedule and write whenever your feel inspired. We especially need a couple of raid and calling experts, but we’re interested in hearing about your ideas first and foremost. If you do an awesome, consistent job, there may even be opportunities for this to become a paid position. The Junkies Nation network is currently looking to expand. You might just be who we’re looking for!

If you have any questions or would like to apply to become a writer for Junkies Nation and RIFT Junkies, please feel free to contact Jason Dodge at dreagon@rerollz.net or Laura Hardgrave at laurah@rerollz.com. Make sure to have a writing sample handy when you contact us!