Date: Jan 24, 2013  |  Written by Laura Hardgrave  |  Posted Under: Buzz, News  |  DISQUS With Us: 2 comments

2.2 carnival

Many members of the RIFT community waited apprehensively yesterday for Daglar’s second half of 2013′s State of the Game letter. After Scott Hartsman’s sudden departure from Trion Worlds, some were afraid that news of the coming year would be sprinkled with hints of free-to-play. Instead, we received a brief letter from Daglar in which he thanked RIFT’s community and expressed enthusiasm over the months of updates to come.

Specifically, he talked about what we’ll be seeing in RIFT 2.2 and 2.3. In 2.2, we’ll finally be getting the third tier for Planar Attunement, new zone events on the Storm Legion continents, and our first Storm Legion raid Hard Modes. An updated Carnival of the Ascended will also be making a return, marking RIFT’s second anniversary. Not much is known about the 2.3 update yet, but Daglar did throw out a pretty big hint– it involves the opening of Dendrome!

Keep reading to take a look.

Date: Jan 23, 2013  |  Written by Laura Hardgrave  |  Posted Under: News  |  DISQUS With Us: 2 comments

scott hartsman

A rather large bombshell was dropped during yesterday’s first half of RIFT’s second annual State of the Game address (also known as Producer’s Letter). Scott Hartsman, who has been the Executive Producer for RIFT since the beginning, is stepping down from the position and leaving Trion. He left Dahanese with this letter for the RIFT community:

I wanted to let you know that I’m stepping down from my position here at Trion. It’s been an amazing time, working with some of the best developers anywhere, getting the company’s first game off the ground, taking it all the way through a multitude of amazing updates, then to Storm Legion, and even a little bit beyond.

Thanks for all of your support and dedication throughout.

The good news is that if you enjoy what’s been going on in RIFT lately, the folks who are now in charge are the same ones who have been making all of the game-impacting decisions, both to content and gameplay, for some time now. You’ll definitely be hearing from Bill Fisher, the lead game designer soon with some exciting updates. They love and play the game a lot as well and I feel strongly that RIFT couldn’t be in better hands.

This time at Trion has truly been an amazing journey. It’s been my great privilege to have been a part of it.

And I’ll still see you in RIFT.
Scott Hartsman

Daglar will be finishing off the continuation of the Producer’s Letter later today, where we’ll undoubtedly find out more about what Trion has in store for us in the coming year. Best of luck to Scott Hartsman in his future endeavors. He’ll be missed.