In lieu of hearing a simple announcement regarding an arrival date for Patch 2.3, we received some other big news yesterday along with that patch date announcement. Yep, RIFT’s going free-to-play on June 12th, which is also when 2.3 will be opening its doors (and Dendrome). Most of us saw the hints of this move coming months ago in between the layoffs at Trion, the addition of the in-game shop, and Scott Hartsman’s departure. Yesterday’s news still came as a surprise to many of us, however, especially given the timing of the news.

Bill “Daglar” Fisher mentioned yesterday that the team had been planning this move for more than a year, but despite the fact that the team pushed one-year subscription plans during the launch of Storm Legion, veteran players were only given one month to absorb the F2P news. Many one-year subscribers are understandably feeling a little let down by this move, especially considering the fact that some are paid up with over 300 days remaining on their accounts.

RIFT’s Hellbugs– they come in pretty colors, look awesome when they jump, and are currently helping fire rifts see a lot of action. One problem, however. The drop rates on these little and not-so-little guys are very random and a little low for many players’ tastes. The combination of the two makes completing a Hellbug mount/pet collection fairly time consuming. Unless, of course, the RNG gods are on your side so to speak.

RNG, which stands for ‘random number generation’, is the acronym us gamers like to use when our odds of obtaining goodies are purely left to the virtual dice. By now, most of us are familiar with the concept of RNG mount drops in RIFT and remember it from past world events where players were either lucky or, well, weren’t. Trion took a hint from players after Waves of Madness and promptly started offering mount rewards during world events that didn’t require a whole lot of luck. The past few world events mounts have been really easy to nab, in fact.

Despite the fact that we’re right in the middle of RIFT’s second anniversary and Sanctum, Meridian, and the dock area of Tempest Bay are full of cheerful NPCs, colorful balloons, and carnival games galore, there’s one thing missing among the festivities on many shards. One group of things, rather. Well, okay, not things exactly. People. Despite the popularity of last year’s Carnival of the Ascended, this year our carnival grounds seem a little sparse.

Not all shards are experiencing this sparseness, of course, but even on high and medium population shards, folks are noticing the lack of carnival goers. I know I have. It was hard to miss the giant raids of balloon stompers last year even on low population shards. This year, the first day had a few smaller raids forming up on the two PvE shards I frequent, but now even during peak hours there are rarely more than three people wandering through any of the carnival attractions. So, what gives? Why aren’t the carnival games as popular as they were last year?

When Trion added Conquest to RIFT, one of the team’s stated goals was that they wanted to help build a bridge between dedicated PvP players and dedicated PvE players. Conquest was planned as the perfect large-scale playground for players who enjoyed slaying other players, of course, but it was also designed with PvE players in mind. The roles of crafting and objective taking were going to be brought to the forefront, and the developer team hoped that small, organized groups would play a vital part. The plan was to make Conquest’s rewards worthwhile to both PvE players and PvP players.

During the first months of Conquest, this plan went fairly well. Without taking the early catastrophes of Conquest into consideration, everyone at least tried out the new feature, even players who weren’t known to PvP. Despite Trion’s hopes, Conquest quickly delved into a large-scale zerg fest where small groups generally weren’t formed and Conquest became a battle between which side had the most players clumped up. A large portion of PvE players still took part despite the lack of PvE gameplay for two reasons– Conquest Point perks and the stat trinket– both of which were great for PvE purposes.

Now we find ourselves three months into Storm Legion. Our Conquest map hasn’t changed. We’ve seen some quality-of-life updates to Conquest including a better queue system, but for the most part, the three-faction system plays similar to how it played at level 50. It’s a PvP zerg fest, essentially, which is great for players who enjoy that type of PvP action. For other players, those two desirable rewards still stand out. The problem with the perks and trinket this time around, however, is far more pronounced and is beginning to leave a sour taste is many PvE players’ mouths.

Storm Legion is almost upon us, and thanks to the fun-filled beta weekends, Patch 1.11, and Trion’s media coverage and live streams, the last few weeks have literally been a storm of new information for fans to digest. There’s no denying the fact that there are some cool, new features headed our way in Storm Legion, but what about what’s already changed in 1.11? We’ve just seen some major changes to our favorite callings, and some of the new Storm Legion souls are quite impressive. At times like this it’s almost inevitable that many players will rethink their main classes.

There’s also the fact that many of our current souls have seen complete playstyle shifts. One of most challenging aspects about RIFT’s intricate soul system is the fact that Trion has to almost keep constant watch on balance, and be ready to tweak certain callings if necessary (and they certainly aren’t afraid to do so!). The tweaks aren’t always to everyone’s liking, naturally, but perfect balance between every single calling is something we may never see, unfortunately, which is part of the reason why we see constant tweaks.

The good news? RIFT’s complex soul system does have some obvious perks, and one of those is the fact that since we have so many options available to us, if we’re unhappy with a particular role, spec, or soul, it’s fairly simple to change things up and try our hands at a new playstyle. And if that doesn’t work? With Storm Legion upon our doorstep, now’s the perfect time to consider changing mains.

With RIFT 1.11 close around the corner, one very interesting change is coming to us as a result of the major class changes– some souls will find it difficult to keep the same abilities macroed together. Across the board, Trion has attempted to remove some of the macro automation, and has basically done away with a large number of cooldowns on Warrior, Rogue, and Cleric abilities specifically, which in turn makes it difficult for players to plug these abilities into macros. Warrior players will probably notice this the most, since many Warrior builders and finishers currently have convenient cooldowns.

Trion has previously stated that they would like to change the way macros work for certain souls, and it seems they’ve followed through with that goal. The problem? RIFT 1.11 still has a ton of abilities. Plenty of players are on each side of the macro debate coin. Many enjoy using macros and see them as necessary, yet just as many dislike them. However, the fact of the matter remains– most players started using macros in the first place because of how many active abilities certain souls have to juggle.

So, now we have our convenient, in-game RIFT store, also known as Deeps’ Depot. In response to the tinfoil-wearing buzz surrounding the discovery of the shopping cart icon during PAX Prime, Trion was quick to announce their immediate goal for the store, which is to merely give players an easy way to pick up Storm Legion and time cards, CE extras, etc. This quick response was a good sign. It was also a good sign that the team then turned around and added it to the live game, reinforcing their announcement.

Also added to Deeps’ Depot yesterday was the addition of paid name changes and guild name changes. The service will undoubtedly be useful for players who wish to change their names yet don’t want to hassle with server transferring and being away from their server for a week (upon returning, they would be given the option to change their name). This may also help a few guilds out there.

Now, there’s no denying the fact that the entire setup of Deeps’ Depot looks, well, a lot like a typical free-to-play cash shop. There’s room for plenty of other categories. With any luck we won’t need too many of them, but Trion definitely has some options here, even standing strong within the game’s current subscription model.

Free-to-play (and its cousin buy-to-play) are undeniably the hot payment methods right now for games. Subscription MMOs are becoming the minority and yet RIFT and Trion seem to be holding firm in their support of the subscription model. Is this a good decision for the game and its players? I would argue despite the current trend that yes, subscriptions certainly suit RIFT and F2P would actually detract from the game’s charms.

MMOs Are a Service

It’s tempting to think of an MMO as a piece of software, but that’s ignoring its most important element: the persistent world. The software you install is merely a beginning — players also expect regular content updates, which makes it more of a service.

RIFT of course is pretty infamous for its aggressive update schedule, even amongst folks who have never visited Telara. While I’m certain that in part Trion just likes making cool things, it’s also relevant that their business model relies on regular, sustained subscribers. We pay our subscription each month, and in return we get regular content. Releasing large frequent updates makes the players happy and supports the game’s payment model.

With F2P games, the company generates its income from cash store purchases. Suddenly, large frequent content patches no longer support the business model and instead the company would be better served by creating eye-catching store items. That’s not to say that RIFT would totally abandon the update schedule that made their name in the MMO marketplace, but if we’re no longer paying for a service I wouldn’t blame them for no longer being entirely focused on giving us one.

Subscriptions Help with Group Content

One of the neat aspects of F2P games is that they require less commitment. You can show up and play for a bit and then wander away for a month and not feel obligated to get value out of your subscription. That’s great, but it’s also nice to have games like RIFT that might support a different playstyle.

RIFT was made from old school game DNA, and I would argue that it’s a lot more like WoW’s The Burning Crusade expansion than, say, newcomer Guild Wars 2. It has a heavy emphasis on group content at level cap (dungeons or raids) and some of the most challenging bleeding edge raid content available right now in any game. This content that requires a coordinated group is best taken on by people who play together regularly and who possibly have some communication structures outside of the game, like guild forums or a Mumble server.

While it’s great that F2P encourages a more flexible playstyle, that flexibility hurts the chances of making a stable, committed team to tackle content. (And you can ask any guild leader — recruitment is a pain in the butt under the best of circumstances.) A subscription game, on the other hand, encourages a more consistent player base and more commitment to a title, two things that suit RIFT’s high level content extremely well.

Signs of the Future?

Despite these things, RIFT’s future payment model is not set in stone.

An eagle-eyed player spotted an in-game shopping cart icon on the screen during one of the PAX livestreams. Rumors of imminent F2P madness hit the official forums, but Scott Hartsman himself explained that the new button would just be used to buy things like the expansion from inside the game. That’s all well and good, and I’m certainly not saying that there are more nefarious plans in the works, but adding a shopping cart icon and an in-game way to buy things seems useful infrastructure should Trion wish to offer a free-to-play option in the future.

The addition of dimensions is also possibly a sign of the future. Before Storm Legion, I’d have been hard-pressed to come up with small items that RIFT could sell consistently in a cash shop. Dimensions are certainly a new awesome feature for players, but they also really open up the potential for an in-game store — would I buy a new skin for a table or a flowering plant? It depends, but I can’t say it wouldn’t be tempting. Again, after the launch of Storm Legion RIFT will possibly be in a good place to try other payment models.

There’s nothing necessarily wrong with free-to-play and buy-to-play and similar systems, and in fact they can introduce some neat diversity to the MMO market. In my opinion, though, a subscription model best suits RIFT’s amazing patch schedule and focus on group content at level cap, and I hope a year from now when my annual subscription runs out I’ll have the option to renew.

Platinum. Planarite. Inscribed Sourcestones. Plaques. Marks. Greater Marks. Special Event Currency…

Rift has a boggling number of currencies — far more than I have ever seen in any game, MMO or otherwise — and up until this point, each has had a serious flaw. At a certain point, each becomes mostly obsolete, continuing to accumulate, but with little, if anything, left to buy with it.

With the Rift 1.7 patch on the horizon though, it looks like Trion is finally beginning to address this problem. In the most recent PTS Set (#2), Trion has added new sinks for almost every currency. Those thousands of expert dungeon plaques you had saved up, or the hundreds of raid marks that sat in your vault collecting virtual dust can now be traded in for planar attunement xp. This is a perfect sink. The gains from PA levels are extremely incremental, but desirable enough to be worth something, and it will remain something that players will continue to be able to benefit by purchasing for a long time to come. [If you are interested, current exchange rates on the PTS are included at the bottom of this article.]

If you’ve been listening to RIFTception often you’ll know that I’ve been complaining about the Rogue calling for quite some time. Hell, I’ve even written a book about here and here on how I’d improve Bards if given the chance. Recently with the introduction of the PVP gear changes, it was mentioned that Rogues will be given a once over for the release of patch 1.5. We have no idea what these changes will be, but I feel like pontificating a bit and giving you my opinion and what I’d love to see.