OnRPG recently had a chance to interview Simon Ffinch, Senior Design Director of RIFT. During the interview, the OnRPG team tried to garner some information about what the next year will hold for RIFT. There weren’t too many new tidbits of info discovered in the interview, sadly, but there were a couple of interesting details. Here are two of the questions that were asked, along with their answers:

Can you tell us a bit about what you have planned for this year?

Well I don’t want to give away too much right now so I will keep this a little vague. We do have updates planned out for RIFT well into next year with some really exciting and much requested things for the players to experience. We will be expanding on all the features we have in the game right now and exploring a host of new ones. With the death of the dragons things will be changing around Telara. Players will discover that the denizens of the plane of life are not so bad after all with the corruption of Greenscale removed, although they can be a little mischievous. I will just say that nature abhors a vacuum and the Dragons have left a very large vacuum and of course the true meaning and power of the infinity gate is still to be revealed.

What can we look forward to in Dendrome when it comes out with 2.3?

In the immediate future players can look forward to the world event that will lead to the opening of The Dendrome. Small cracks in the barrier between Ashora and the Dendrome can be widened by players, the better they do the easier the access to the Dendrome will become. As well as a large amount of area to explore this zone will add a really radical new type of dynamic content called Strongholds, plus a whole lot more that will be revealed over the coming weeks. The players will also get to learn a lot more about the Architects and their history and place in Telara.

While this isn’t quite as promising as an official state-of-the-game address listing more specifics on Trion’s yearly plans, at least this bit is something. The plans for opening Dendrome sound pretty interesting. It will be nice to see another world event that’s tied to the current story in a major way. Make sure to check out the full interview over at OnRPG.

RIFT Patch 1.9 is hitting live servers this week, and Rift Junkies got a chance to participate in a press conference call with Hal Hanlin and Scott Hartsman, who chatted a bit about why the team at Trion is so excited to unleash all the cool features of Conquest– and how that excitement will carry on into the future. One of the underlying themes of Patch 1.9 seems to have a lot to with accessibility– bringing players closer together, and creating content that all types of players can dive right into, enjoying it for months to come.

What feature are the staff at Trion most excited about? That question’s pretty easy to answer, at least when it comes to Hal Hanlin and Scott Hartsman. Conquest, of course! It isn’t the patch’s namesake for no reason. The team’s excited about Conquest for many reasons, the most notable reason, however, is because it has the capability of bridging players together. PvPers who enjoy going up against other players have a place in Conquest, as well as anyone who likes multiple objectives, teamwork, or crafting. Everyone can take part. And as a bonus, the rewards have a place on everyone’s wish list.

Scott Hartsman mentioned that his entire goal for Conquest is to make a character “Conquest-passive” by only participating in non-PvP goals and objectives. That is, focusing on crafting, collecting empowered resources, running sourcestone, and upgrading turrets. It’s an odd twist on the usual instanced PvP experience, but the cool part? It’s actually possible with the right team, viable, and sounds quite fun. It’s often extremely rewarding to be the behind-the-scenes fighter in battles of Conquest’s size. The team also plans on clarifying some of the non-PvP objectives in Conquest.

Speaking of behind the scenes, Hal Hanlin was excited to reveal his favorite role in Conquest– the behind the scenes “distraction” ninja. He enjoys grabbing a small team of players and sneaking behind enemy lines, capturing extractors left unguarded. Since Conquest is very much open-world focused, objectives are fluid and don’t become permanently capped. This lets small teams of smart players sneak around and put pressure on the enemies from behind. In many MMOs, tactics like this won’t have a large effect, but here, they will. Small groups of players can make a large impact in Conquest, and that, according to Trion’s team (and us)– is awesome.

The rewards in Conquest are also intentionally different from many other PvP rewards. The team doesn’t want RIFT players to feel like they have to grind out 20 hours of Conquest per week. They’d rather see players hopping into Conquest every so often because they enjoy it, not because it is a place to grind out special, hard-to-get rewards or currency.

All three factions of Conquest will be eligible to receive the same rewards, and as a bonus to the winning team, the colossi fight will grant a special buff. In this manner, Conquest is ideal for both dedicated and casual PvPers (Hanlin used other words. He went on record as saying “hardcore” and “softcore” in the same sentence. Yep, you heard it here, folks. Check your cable listings for hardcore and softcore “content” in RIFT).

When asked about the intended length for Conquest battles, the team replied that they don’t actually have a set time frame in mind. It’s more important for them to ensure team balance is in place, which is why we saw some important balance adjustments being tested during the third Conquest testing event. As long as the teams are properly balanced, the team noted, the match’s time length will depend solely on the back-and-forth struggles of the battle itself– this struggle is the very essence of Conquest, and shouldn’t be controlled by a timer. And in the case of an actual stalemate, there’s always attrition.

Another bridge being built between players in Patch 1.9 is, of course, the mentoring system. Along with low-level Instant Adventures, new players will find it easier to vary their leveling paths and find leveling partners. Trion’s team has had a lot of fun working on the mentoring system and adding new Instant Adventures, and it’s definitely their goal to continue creating IAs in the future. They’re fantastic places to insert fun lore characters, and they take players right to the action.

Hanlin and Hartsman mentioned a new feature the team recently added to the PTS, which gives grouped players using mentoring the ability to ride around at the mount speed of the fastest mount in the group. We’ll be seeing this on live servers in 1.9. This feature, along with all the other perks that mentoring brings, should help new players quite a bit.

One of the best “developer” perks about adding new Instant Adventures, the team says, is that the system is a perfect canvas for innovation. New quest types and fight mechanics can easily be tested within Instant Adventures, allowing the team to find new ways of introducing these innovations into later material, such as during raids. Innovation is essential in any MMO, and along with Trion’s rapid rate of delivering new content to its playerbase, innovation will definitely be key in RIFT’s continued success in the years to come.

Patch 1.9 offers bridges that are built between players, but the patch itself is also a bridge leading to Storm Legion. Players eager to hop back into RIFT when the expansion launches will be closely inspecting the game between now and then. Part of that inspection will doubtlessly focus on two things– future innovations to RIFT, and comparisons to other games on the market. What features is RIFT lacking that other games have? What does RIFT offer that blows other games out of the water? These are questions gamers new to RIFT ask themselves, and Trion, very smartly, is beginning to place some features on radar for the months to come.

During the press conference, we asked a few questions about some of the features fans might like to see for Storm Legion’s launch, or even before. Some of them have to do with 1.9′s additions, but not all. With Trion and Syfy’s Defiance currently in development, we found out that Trion is beginning to think about some sort of cross-game chat functionality. The team’s priority will remain on delivering the highest amount of quality possible to both titles, however, so a system like this definitely takes the backseat. RIFT has seen some quality updates, and it doesn’t sound like that will change anytime soon.

When asked about a possible addition of raids and slivers to the Looking for Group tool, the team responded that while there are no immediate plans to add large-group activities to the tool, it’s time to start thinking about doing so. The game has enough content now, and it would be interesting to see Trion’s take on something that has caused World of Warcraft players to share a mixed bundle of reviews. When asked about future barbershop additions such as new hairstyles and customization options, the team said additions will be gradual, but headed our way. The team is also talking about adding some new weather effects in the future.

With Summerfest, Conquest, the barbershop, mentoring, new IAs, global chat and Primeval Feast around the corner along with plenty of Storm Legion talk on the horizon, the future is looking bright for RIFT and for Trion. Now is the perfect time for the team to concentrate on building bridges between RIFT players, and that’s exactly the focus on Patch 1.9– Conquest. Enjoy the patch, folks!

Another small bit of possible expansion speculation was found yesterday on the official forums, when one curious RIFT player took a look at Trion’s recent trademark entries. Trademark purchases are easily accessible, thanks to the existence of public records, and yep, turns out Trion did recently purchase a trademark: Storm Legion.

The entries For Storm Legion can be found here, here, and here. This trademark could mean a few things, of course, but it’s probably safe to say that Trion intends something pretty major here– something that will see more of the public eye than other RIFT patches. An expansion named ‘RIFT: Storm Legion’? Quite possibly.

Editor’s Note: In the tradition of many other MMORPGs, expansion names are often discovered by trademark registration. However, there are some instances where the trademark leads to the names of books or boardgames.

Whether the trademark has to do with an official expansion or not remains to be seen, but either way, it’s also probably safe to say that the content will have to do with the arrival of Crucia, the addition of the next major raid instance, perhaps a major city, and whatever else Trion has in store for us.

One thing’s for sure– there’s certainly a lot of buzz going around the community regarding these speculative bits. In the community thread where this information was discovered, some RIFT players questioned whether or not Trion would leave the thread open. I think this response pretty much summarizes Trion’s take on all of the speculation:

“Posting this just creates more anticipation hype and buzz. I don’t think they have a problem with that.”

Pretty much. All of the speculation, ideas, and rumors add to the hype we’re seeing. The little hints on the PTS, the PCGamer article, the hints in lore we’ve seen– it all adds to the hype, and makes the experience of waiting just a little more exciting. All we can hope for is that the news, whenever it is finally revealed, actually lives up to the hype. Knowing Trion, it will.

With all of the speculation about a possible RIFT expansion happening sometime this year, one of the most hotly-debated topics within the community is the idea of Trion raising the current level cap. Will they give us another 10 levels of content to plow through, or will they keep lining up content packages for the current endgame? There are definitely key arguments on either side of the fence. Here are a few opinions, straight from this thread, where a large portion of the speculation is currently happening:

“New zones are fun, but seeing all that gear you strove so hard for become useless overnight and superseded by level 51 greens will probably be too much to bear. Went through this a couple of times in other MMOs; as much as I love Rift, I don’t think I can do that again.

They’ll also have to find a way to keep the old content from becoming totally irrelevant. The mentoring feature will keep downlevel zones (somewhat) relevant in case of a level-cap increase. However, no such feature yet exists that would keep the current dungeons and raids from becoming obsolete before a majority of the playerbase ever experiences them.”

This is a very solid reason to be against a level increase cap. Increases often make gear, entire maps, entire cities (Shattrath, anyone?), and entire raids and instance zones obsolete, except when it comes to nostalgia and achievements. Many MMO players like the fact that expansions force an in-game wipe of sorts that knock entire raids out of the ballpark, others don’t. Mentoring may solve this issue somewhat in RIFT, but possibly not, since the reward factors may not line up unless Trion adjusts how rewards scale from older content.

And here’s the other angle of the argument:

“New level 50 player, post expansions: Rift is awesome! I’m now level 50, how do I gear up?
Longtime Rift Player: You have to do Expert Dungeons, GSB, HK, Inferno Dawn, Crucia’s Temple, Regulos’s Fortress of Dread, etc, etc.
New 50: K… I’m goin back to WoW.

Raising the content cap in this sort of game system means you have to raise the level cap. If you don’t the game becomes inaccessible.”

“Content iteration is the key. If you stack too much content in front of a new player they won’t do it.”

New players need content to be accessible in order to play ‘catch up’, otherwise they may quickly lose interest in the game. Higher level caps accomplish this nicely, and actually even the playing field, at least for a short time while everyone is leveling and exploring the new expansion content. This allows developers to adjust stats, introduce new abilities, mechanics, loot systems, and more without upsetting current content progression.

RIFT doesn’t have to go this route, but many players feel a level cap increase is just the ticket for getting new players to try out the game:

I feel Rift really needs an expansion to draw some players back in potentially and breathe some new life into the game.

Expansions are exciting. New content to devour is exciting. New soul points to allocate, and new skills to play with is exciting. But do we need a level cap increase to generate this sort of excitement? Hard to say.

RIFT’s unique soul system also offers a unique spin on this issue. By implementing a new level cap, players will, of course, be granted new soul points. Since the system is so wonderfully flexible, it seems possible that unless major balance adjustments are made, some specs may be a little difficult to balance. Trion may be able to handle this, however, and any new abilities or souls added may make up for this balance issue. There’s also PA to handle.

Either way, Trion has their work cut out for them. The community seems pretty split on the matter. What do you think?

This is a bit of video datamining that actually came out a couple months ago, but since we’ve been hearing about possible RIFT expansion content and all sorts of other speculation goodies lately, we thought we’d highlight it again. In March, G4 took a studio tour over at Trion Worlds, releasing a video that displayed a whiteboard with a barely-visible list of RIFT’s future patch releases and a list of some of the designs they’re currently aiming toward.

Click “continue reading” to find out more!

Here’s the video. The whiteboard scene takes place at around the 3 minute mark:

It’s difficult to read the boards while watching the video, but here’s the patch release date list:

Seems pretty on-par for what we’re seeing so far on live servers and on the PTS.

And here’s the design list, basically a loose list of goals:

Interesting stuff! It all seems to go hand-in-hand with what we’re seeing arrive on the PTS. Mentoring? Check. Item slots? First we saw seals, now we may be getting cloaks.

One interesting point– that “Double secret” concealed part on the whiteboard? Expansion rumors? E3 in June? Yep, lots of possibilities there. Here’s the latest community forum thread where players are speculating about what all this means. We’ll definitely keep you updated!

The folks at PCGamer received an interesting package in the mail yesterday. In it were a strange assortment of items that seemed to hint at some details about a RIFT expansion of sorts. Now, we’ve heard a few times now from Trion staff members that we probably won’t need to purchase a separate expansion, but that we will definitely see content warranting an expansion. Free expansion with awesome content? I’m in.

So, what was in the box? I’m just going to leave the link to the article here. Click “continue reading” to see a summary. It’s um, kinda cryptic.

The box contained the following items:

• Two posters: One depicting the Polesti Raid in World War II, and one depicting Stuart’s Confederate cavalry raiding Pennsylvania in the Civil War.
  Amazing Detective Skills say: That’s two “raids.” So, this seems to be MMO related…
• A liquid level, with a sticker on it bearing the number 10.
  Amazing Detective Skills say: 10 levels? Must be a level cap increase, which usually means big expansion
• Four soles of shoes. This is what tipped me off that it was Rift I was dealing with.
  Amazing Detective Skills say: Rift calls its classes “souls,” and this seems to indicate that four new ones are being added.
• Six rusty keys on a ring, and one golden one labeled “Port Tempest.”
  Amazing Detective Skills say: This likely indicates to a new capital/hub city called Port Tempest, and six new smaller cities or zones.
• A felt bag containing five glass prisms, all of different sizes. No, they do not fit together (I tried that already).
  Amazing Detective Skills say: There are items in Rift called Prism Fragments, five of which (the same number that came in the bag) can be combined to form an Inert Prism. These Prisms are currently only used for a few crafting recipes. Maybe they’re about to become more important? Hmmm
• An incredibly stylish, red, hooded cloak.
  Amazing Detective Skills say: This was probably just here to get people like me posting pictures of ourselves in it on the internet. Mission accomplished, Trion!

Yeah. And we thought the three-faction mumbo-jumbo leading up the Conquest was weird?

I’m… just gonna let you guys decide what to make out of this information. It’s certainly interesting. And hey, that cloak could be in there to represent the idea that we may finally end up getting cloaks in this expansion. Just a thought!

RIFT’s Public Test Shard is useful for all kinds of things: testing out new features like Conquest, playing with new builds, and keeping tabs on world events. Oh, and datamining! Since the PTS client is closer to the client Trion’s development team works on, every now and then PTS players are able to glimpse into the world of Telara as imagined in the future, and find out about the cool things headed our way that haven’t been announced publicly. Most of the information datamined is pure speculation at this point, but that’s half the fun!

This past week, a couple PTS players noticed some very interesting additions to the achievements tab. One of which is pictured above, and was located under the “Zones” section. Yep, that’s right. Six new zones. Six. Dusken Spires, Eternal City, Pelladane, Seratos, Morban, and Steppes of Infinity. Interestingly enough, there are six planes. Could these possibly be the new zones in the next huge content addition?

Trion, in the past, has talked about the addition of expansion-type content that will eventually allow players to move through the planes, and take part in battles in a world we are unfamiliar with. It’s possible that these zones are connected to that content, since the numbers match. It’s also possible that these zones are connected to content located in Planetouched Wilds, which is an area discovered on the PTS last year, or a new continent entirely.

Planetouched Wilds is rumored to be the area to the north of Droughtlands and to the east of Freemarch. The area is circled in the image above. The area is definitely visible on current maps, just displayed greyed out, as seen in maps like this. Last August, the area was briefly available on the PTS for players to explore its half-developed state.

Here is one of the videos captured during that time:

While it seems possible that the new six zones have to do with Wildtouched Planes (and maybe even probable, given the fact that players have been to the zone, and know it’s in development), it seems a little unlikely that six zones worth of achievements will be found within that peninsula. This has led a few players to believe the zones may be part of a larger continent.

The new continent theory has been around a while now, too, first seen last November, when images of Infernal Dawn and a new city in development were datamined from the PTS. The name “Shi-Ming” was also discovered, which may be the continent’s name. It seems likely that we will see another continent at some point in RIFT’s future, especially given the implementation of Ember Isle. The team at Trion has also mentioned the fact that RIFT’s world expands far beyond one continent. Here is an image of the datamined continent (click to bring up a larger version):

If a new continent is indeed the home for these six zones, it may be a while before we see their implementation. That’s also true with the theory about traveling across the planes to new elemental zones. Still, all three theories are rather exciting to think about. New zone achievements weren’t the only discoveries made last week, either. Players also discovered a new achievement category under “Planes”, called Hunt Rifts. It seems we have another type of rifts headed our way! Will they be a new tier of raid/group rifts, or are they a new type altogether?

The name makes me think of the rare creature quests from Scarwood Reach, and my first thought was a new type of rift that starts a scavenger hunt of sorts, requiring players to kill a particular creature from the rift, that might dash off into the environment. This would add a little more dynamism into RIFT’s dymanic content. It’s also possible that hunt rifts are actually connected to the new zones, and act as a portal of sorts that enable players to hunt across the planes.

A couple new dungeon names were also discovered: Empyrean Core and Golem Foundry. Since both dungeons and chronicles are located in the same achievement tab, these places may end up being either chronicles or dungeons at this point. It would be very awesome to see another dungeon similar to Caduceus Rise, both in difficulty and environment, although more chronicles would be welcome additions as well.

A new meta category for world events also popped up: Summerfest. This one’s fairly self-explanatory. After the implementation of Fae Yule, a new summer-themed holiday event doesn’t surprise me in the least, and my only hope is that it’s as creative as the Carnival of the Ascended if not more so. The good thing? There’s really a ton of creative room when it comes to implementing a summer-based event. Fishing and camping (using survival) events come to mind in particular.

These achievements were quickly taken off the PTS, so once again we are left to speculate among ourselves. Interesting stuff, though, and interesting times ahead! Special thanks to the players in this thread and others who have taken the time to share these PTS goodies with us.

A couple of weeks ago in an interview with some of Trion’s staff members, we found out about some of the design philosophies the company has discovered, developed, and maintained over the past year that RIFT has been our MMO home. Trion has learned a lot about what their fanbase wants when it comes to raid design, dynamic content, endgame activities, and everything else in between.

It seems that their philosophies and lessons learned as far as raid design have worked out well– Infernal Dawn seems to, so far, be a huge success. Patch 1.8 in general seems to have been a success. It had a little something for everyone. But as most MMO gamers know, a successful patch begs one question in particular: What’s coming up next?

It’s not that we’re a greedy bunch. Well, maybe some gamers are, but for the most part, we simply embrace and know quite well that the future of our favorite MMOs remains an issue of vital importance. An MMO is nothing without a future. Without a promising future, it stagnates, becoming a desolate world full of desolate locations. None of us want that for RIFT, and neither do its developers.

The first step in ensuring a game remains active, alive, and enjoyable for everyone of all levels is to ensure there are players of all levels. RIFT, as an endgame-focused MMO, has done rather well in building up its endgame population. But there’s more to the game than endgame. Leveling players are just as important to the success of RIFT as endgame players, and the reason for this is simple– players will always leave, journey onward to different-colored pastures. To ensure a healthy population, other players must replace them. In order to reach endgame, the new players must level.

If Telara’s leveling maps are desolate and devoid of life, new players will find it particularly hard to reach endgame. They’ll get bored of being the only player on their current map, and grow tired of being unable to find groups. It’s only common sense.

This is one of the large reasons behind Trion’s addition of RIFT Lite, and also one of the reasons why 1.8 was a huge success– fishing. Fishing brings life to all of Telara, and gives reasons for players of all levels to return to maps that may be rarely used.

Trion is continuing this same train of thought for future updates, as revealed in this recent interview. Developers talked briefly about a mentoring system that’s currently in development. Such a system would allow players to assist friends while leveling by adjusting their own level to match the lower-level character.

Under a mentoring system, once a level adjustment is made, it is only temporary, and adjusts current base stats, stats on gear, and ability power to the chosen level. The adjustment is generally made using a simple menu, command, or toggle. It would allow friends to group up for instances, quests, zone events, and PvP warzones without experiencing a major and sometimes detrimental level gap.

The system would presumably have additional perks for both players, as well. The lower-level player will probably gain additional experience, and the player originally at level cap would receive PA (Planar Attunement) experience. This is a unique option when it comes to gaining PA levels, and one that hopefully many players will take advantage of to help friends and guildmates level.

EverQuest II has a similar system in place, and is very successful. The game features Alternative Advancement XP, which is quite similar to RIFT’s own Planar Attunement system. The two systems work extremely well together when paired, and offer players more options for endgame.

Other MMORPGs also make use of a similar mentoring system. Final Fantasy XI has a very successful system which was almost necessary in order to attract new players to a game that is focused around players grouping up even while leveling. RIFT’s system, similarly, will be great during large zone events across all maps of Telara. Level 50 players who use the mentoring system can help out in lower-level areas, gain the rewards, yet still experience an event that isn’t ridiculously simplified due to their high level.

The mentoring system also offers other perks besides the ability to assist players that are leveling. A level 50 player could, for example, use it to complete lower-level daily quests for notoriety farming, finish up quest chains they’d missed while leveling, and solo farm rifts and invasions for achievements and currency. The best part? They’d still be earning PA experience.

Within the past few months, Trion has recognized the success and popularity of the Instant Adventure (IA) system, and has decided to plan future, global additions of the system for lower-level areas. This is great news for players already looking forward to the mentoring system. Tired of the same few IAs? Mentor yourself to a lower level, then try some others. Players of all levels will be able to group up for IAs, which should ensure all areas remain populated, and everyone will get to enjoy the battles, lore, and scenery from areas that are currently unused by level 50 players.

The other great part about lower-level IAs is, of course, the fact that leveling players will have another alternative way of leveling. Questing isn’t always exciting, and it’s never a bad idea to offer players different ways of leveling up alts, and different ways to approach the game altogether. It also ensures that leveling players are offered a taste of the different flavors endgame has to offer. IAs are just one flavor of a multifaceted endgame. Leveling should be no different.

It’s fantastic to see players of all levels enjoying Telara and the additions that 1.8 brought. It’s even more fantastic to hear about the mentoring system and the addition of global IAs. RIFT is shaping up to be a game that’s increasingly welcoming new players as well as producing content for endgame players. Trion’s key to success lays in how well they can pull off this balance. So far, they’re doing fairly well.

For many of us, it was around this time one year ago that we first heard about RIFT, eagerly dived into beta, then started our adventures across Telara. For others, their adventures would begin later, but would be no less exciting than ours. We’ve all had some pretty crazy adventures by now, and it’s hard to believe that RIFT has been out an entire year. But yet, here we are, celebrating alongside the folks at Trion– who, might I add, have some reasons to celebrate.

RIFT started off the show with a smooth launch and a flood of players who hungered for that MMO experience with more to offer. Do you remember the first few days spent leveling in Silverwood and Freemarch? The roar of an epic zone event taking place, the rush of people as they made their way across the map to slay a huge beast, and the cheers sounding out across every chat channel as it was defeated? I think most of us do, and it’s safe to say that for many of us, that memory will always be among our favorite MMO moments.

After the leveling rush, players began gearing up to experience the game’s first raiding content, Greenscale’s Blight. Expert dungeons back then were challenging, but extremely fun with the right group of players. Shortly after release, we saw our first major content addition with the River of Souls raid and world event.

This introduced one of the fun, unique features in RIFT– its world events. Events in-game don’t just surround real life holidays and feel tacked on. They surround content additions and actual storyline advancements. They provide a dose of fun for players to enjoy at any level. Since RIFT’s launch, they have been a constant source of goodies, collectibles, and lots and lots of currency.

A few months later, we saw the next major content addition– the Gilded Prophecy 10-man sliver. This gave smaller guilds the ability to raid on days unexpected attendance issues came up. RIFT’s raiding content has since stood a bar above most other MMOs because of the ways in which full-size raids, raid rifts, and sliver raids complement the many playstyles that guilds often encompass. Guilds aren’t forced to run the same raid instance on multiple difficulty levels just to have something to keep them busy. Instead, Trion gives us actual new content.

Around this time, we also saw many quality-of-life advancements in RIFT. We gained the ability to seek out dungeon groups using a looking-for-group tool. We received the ability to create wardrobe outfits. We gained the ability to utilize guild banks, summon new types of rifts, hunt for additional artifacts, and craft new items that are useful for endgame.

Hammerknell, our next major 20-man raid was then added, along with an exciting world event, Waves of Madness. Hammerknell stepped up the difficulty of the current raiding tier, and many raiding guilds made RIFT their game of choice after its release. We then saw the addition of another new 10-man sliver, Drowned Halls.

We also received the planar attunement system and the chronicles feature. Chronicles gave endgame solo and small group players more activities to choose from, and tossed in a unique way to see the lore behind some of RIFT’s raids instances.

There’s also, of course, no forgetting about the huge addition of Ember Isle, which not only gave us a whole slew of endgame questing material, but new factions, items, collectables, lore, and dynamic events to discover and experience. Along with it, we also received a new warzone, a new 5-man expert dungeon, and master modes, which let players experience a higher difficulty tier of existing expert dungeons.

More quality-of-life advancements occurred after the 1.6 content push, and we saw the addition of the Fae Yule event, some major PvP changes, a dose of itemization and expert dungeon tweaking, RIFT Lite, RIFT Mobile, a new feature to assist players in experimenting with character builds, some revamps to the low-level areas, and the ability to marry in-game. Somewhere in there, we also received our first 2nd tier 10-man sliver, Rise of the Phoenix.

Whew. That pretty much brings us up to speed. Now we’re enjoying the Carnival of the Ascended world event, and the anticipation of our next major 20-man raid addition– Infernal Dawn. It’s been one hell of a year as far as content additions go, and I’m sure I forgot to mention at least a couple of things.

In looking back, we also can’t forget about all of the internal class balancing, ability balancing, server population adjustments, and itemization balancing that occurs during every patch and in between patches. Trion’s certainly had their hands full this year, and really, I think that’s one of the largest reasons why RIFT is doing so well. Trion doesn’t hesitant to tell us what their plans are, where they intend on taking us, and do so in a timely manner. They let their game speak for itself.

RIFT does a pretty damn good job of speaking for itself. The vast amount of content available after a year of being released assures us of that fact. Content is good stuff. It’s where we, as gamers, obtain our best MMO moments from. Those difficult, new pulls, the cool items to plan for, and the new areas to explore– that’s what gaming is all about.

We can’t help but love that first terrifying pull of a new raid boss, where we expect our raid to blow up within the first two minutes. That first victory kill, and the cheers over voice chat, always make up for the repair bill. The rush of players making their way toward a new event boss make us realize, once again, why we love RIFT.

The game isn’t without its faults, but looking back on this past year, the overall experience has been an awesome ride. Trion has their work cut out for them in the years to come, especially given the extreme amount of competition in the MMO field right now, but I have nothing but confidence in their ability to keep up the good work.

Enjoy RIFT’s birthday, Trion! And to the folks of Telara– enjoy the celebration, and look forward to the adventures yet to come.

The MMO market is larger than it’s ever been. There are quite a few quality games available now for MMO fans, and more are scheduled for release this coming year. With this kind of competition, many MMO developers are taking steps to attract new players and keep the attention of veteran players. The first step? Creating a quality game. Trion has succeeded there. The second step? Making that game accessible.

Some MMO companies are converting their games to a free-to-play model in order to make their game more accessible to their player base and still bring in a profit. Other companies, like Trion, are taking a different route– the trial version route. RIFT is now free, up to level 20, for new players and returning players. This announcement was made a few days ago. The details about this free version, also known as RIFT Lite, can be found on Trion’s official site.

Trion isn’t the first company to go this route. Following in the footsteps of World of Warcraft and Warhammer, RIFT Lite will allow players to explore Telara up to level 20 without the restriction of a timed trial. This is great for players who are searching for that special ‘something’ in an MMO but are on the fence about the game, or wish to explore more than one character. This is also great for players who are thinking about returning to RIFT. The game has gone through a ton of changes since its release, and players may find the current game more enjoyable.

Whatever the reasons players have for choosing to try out RIFT Lite, the goal’s simple– to attract more players to RIFT. Considering the recent revamping of the starter areas, Trion picked the perfect time for this addition. Sliverwood and Freemarch mobs don’t aggro as easily as they used to, and the addition of soul presets will grant players a simple way to experiment with different souls.

There’s no mistaking the fact that simplicity often attracts players to a new MMO. When RIFT was first released, many players complained about the heavy mob densities. Not all classes are able to deal with multiple pulls easily during early levels, and rough pulls are often made more difficult if players are still learning the game. Those players may find the starter areas more to their liking now, and may give the game another shot. Other players may have found the initial soul placement decisions a little complicated, and will love the idea of being able to experiment with suggested builds.

This will hopefully create a surge of life in the starting areas of Telara, and encourage players of all levels to stick with the game. Some of the best RIFT moments we’ve all shared are the moments where a map is full of life, conflict, invasions, rifts, and zone events. A dynamic world needs players, and the early level maps can especially benefit from a higher population.

There’s also the fact that after the recent release of Star Wars: The Old Republic, some MMO gamers are seeking an alternative home. The Old Republic experienced a successful release, but isn’t for everyone who tried it. No game is perfect for everyone. The beauty of the expansive MMO market is the fact that players are able to seek out alternative homes. There’s something for everyone out there. The timing for RIFT Lite really couldn’t be any better given this little piece of information.

Many players understandably wonder about the future of RIFT given the release of RIFT Lite. Many ask themselves if this is perhaps the first step to Trion taking the game in a free-to-play direction. Let’s look at World of Warcraft for a second. WoW’s starter version has been around for a while, and is utilized constantly by returning players curious about the game’s current state. It does not mean Blizzard plans to go free-to-play with it. All it means is that they’re offering players a trial version without a timed restriction.

This is exactly the route Trion is going, and it’s a smart move in my opinion. Players are able to constantly keep tabs on RIFT with this trial model, and if a player is interested enough in RIFT to keep tabs on it, they may be willing to resubscribe to it at a future date. And that’s where everyone wins. Trion gains the possibility of players subscribing or resubscribing, and players are able to keep tabs on RIFT without having to feel pressured to make a decision within a certain time limit.

The other obvious benefit to this system is the fact that a trial version doesn’t include any type of microtransaction system that incorporates actual game-changing items. This leaves Trion free to keep focusing on developing new content additions and fixes to current game issues instead of spending time making trinkets of +4 experience boosting or whatever. This also leaves RIFT’s community free from any of the glaring issues many free-to-play games currently experience.

A trial version is not the same thing as an entire game that is free-to-play. In a trial version, the emphasis is still placed on garnering interest in the game itself. If players enjoy the game enough to level to endgame, they will subscribe. In a free-to-play model, the emphasis is often placed on the socialization and leveling aspects of the game, so players will buy temporary items in order to enjoy the game for a little while, then move on to something new.

In a subscription model, endgame matters. And RIFT is very much about endgame. The emphasis of this is based on all of the content expansions we’ve experienced since the game’s launch. The sheer amount of raid content alone is staggering in comparison to many other MMOs on the market. The fact that we’ve already seen a major new endgame area added, Ember Isle, shows us that Trion is serious about endgame.

Simply put, all the trial version does is let RIFT speak for itself in a manner that is easily and widely accessible. It displays the game for everything it has to offer. Nothing more, and nothing less. Either players will enjoy RIFT or they won’t– RIFT Lite lets them explore Telara on their own time, and find out if it’s the game for them. The end result can only bring some new life into Telara, and new life can be an awesome thing for an MMO.