Rift criticisms

As with any major new game (or any game in general) there are those who feel that RIFT isn't all that it's cracked up to be. One of the biggest criticisms is that it seems to be a World of warcraft clone and that it offers nothing original to the gamer.

Now, in my opinion, when one of your biggest criticisms is that you're too much like one of the best selling games of all time then you're probably doing pretty well for yourself. That aside let's see if there's any validity to these claims.

1. The UI
The UI (or user interface) in both games are very similar. Both place the action bars in the same place and the mini map in the top right corner. Both place the character portraits in the top left and the target you're attacking/healing next to it. All in all the UI is almost identical to Wow.

2. Skill ranks
How you get stronger spells is different in each game but WoW in Rift have almost identical rank up systems. Each time you reach a certain level you go to a trainer and buy a skill up for certain spells or abilities. It's the exact same thing in both games

3. Auction House
Both games allow the selling of in game items through an auction house. Another thing they have in common.

4. Bank storage
Each game allows for storage of items in banks. This would be a big deal if it wasn't for the feature where you can buy a bag and store it in a special area of the bank for further access. Something in WoW that is also available in Rift.

5. Professions skill ups
The numbers of skill points you need to progress to the next level of your professions are actually identical. 75 points for level 2. 150 points for level 3.

Each of these things (and more) point to Rift being a WoW clone. But here's the thing; most of what I just posted can be found in almost all MMOs whether they came before or after WoW. There are certain things that are staple in any genre (like guns in first person shooters) that will make an appearance in almost all the games in that genre. Drawing those parallels between the game and then calling them clones is like saying Tina Fey is a clone of Anne Hathaway because they are both brunette females.

Usually to dissuade this argument you bring out all the new things Rift has to offer.

1. Custom Class System
Rift allows it's players to choose from among many different talent trees to mix and match different playstyles to suit their needs. WoW only has 3 per class and most classes have only 1 or 2 viable trees for a specific role.

2. Rift system
Rift has frequent world PVE events as a staple part of it's games. Wow has a few here and there that don't even come close to the level of the rifts.

3. Distinct art style
This is a minor point but at least you can say rift doesn't LOOK like WoW. Rift's realistic landscapes are completely different from WoW's cartoonish style characters and zones.

4. Public questing
You can join a "public group" without having to be invited by a group leader. This isn't original to Rift (props to warhammer online) but it is one thing that separates Rift from WoW.

5. Dedicated PvP Talent trees
Instead of trying to balance PvE and PvP in one soul they made specific pvp souls to give PvP players something that won't break the game PVE wise

All in all I think RIFt is different enough from WoW to be it's own game and expand from the genre. While the similarities exist they are nothing that would indicate Rift of being a clone.

Professions

Now I have been playing Rift throughout the week but before I get into the adventures of Stuart and Foxy I want to expand on something that you won't find a lot of information about in the game.

That would be professions.

Professions, in MMOs, are side projects/jobs you can take on to further customize your character and adds another facet of the game. You are usually limited to a certain amount of primary professions (in this game you can have 3) which include both gathering and crafting professions. In most cases the materials you gather from gathering professions (herbs from herbalism or meat from foraging) can be used to make things within a crafting profession (armor from blacksmiths or potions from alchemy).

Now, in the early stages of the game you come across quests that explain and teach you about professions but the explanations weren't sufficient enough for me to know if I was making the right choice (professions are something that you level up with your character. You can change them later of course but leveling a professions is usually tedious unless you do it while leveling.)

It was at this point I decided to access an outside source.
http://telarapedia.com/wiki/Rift_Wiki
I love wikipedia-related info sources. Since I'm not going to be citing this source in a paper I consider it a completely valid source of information.

Now the first thing I find when I search for "Professions" is this handy little graph/map
http://telarapedia.com/wiki/File:Rift_Profession_Map.png
(I would post the image but Blogger has issues with .png apparently)

The three in the center of the chart are gathering professions and the ones on the outside are crafting professions. The lines show which gathering professions give materials for each crafting professions. Since you are allowed 3 you can do a combination like Foraging+Butchery+Apothecary so that your 2 gatehring professions feed the same crafting profession
or
Butchery+Outfitting+Runecrafting since outfitting only needs one gathering profession which leaves you free to take runecrafting (which doesn't need any)

Already, just on the first page of this professions guide, I know how to organize which professions to take and how each one works with the others.

You can also click on specific professions to gather more information on them. I'm going to click on runecrafting so that I can figure out what it is exactly

Runecrafting:

Runecrafting is a crafting profession to creates runeshards and runes which are used to augment equipment with bonuses such as +dexterity and +spell crit. The raw materials required are obtained from other magical items that have had the runebreak skill used on them.

So basically you break/destroy pieces of gear or weapons to make other pieces of gear or weapons stronger. Basic enough
Also on the page are locations of trainers on both the Defiant and Guardian side and also a list of "recipes" you can acquire.

Going through the lists and descriptions I am going to decide on Foraging (collecting plants) Butchery (collecting skins and parts of animals) and Apothecary (making potions out of the plants and animal parts)

Watch out Telara! Stuart the druidic alchemist is coming to save you!

Character Creation

Today's post will cover the first thing you do in any MMO: creating your character. In Rift there are a large amount of options when it comes to customizing your character. But before you do anything you must first choose your faction.



The two factions in this game are the Defiant and the Guardians.

The Guardians are a collection of races that are loyal to and worship the Gods. The races that make up this faction are the three races chosen by the Gods to save Telara (the world we will be exploring).

The Defiant are comprised of three races that have shunned the Gods. They feel the Gods are useless and have turned to Magitech instead (Magical technology) which goes against the Gods' wishes.

Standard religion versus science fight but on a much larger scale.

For the purpose of this blog I will start with a Guardian character and do the Defiant Side later.

Next you pick your race.
Like I mentioned before The Guardians are made up of three races


The Mathsonians are this game's humans. They have a monarchy system and the game begins after their civil war where the King's brother tried to dethrone the king and the king responded by tearing "rifts" in between the elemental planes and causing widespread destruction and the invasion of Regulos (this game's big baddie).

The Dwarves are just your standard dwarves. It wouldn't be a fantasy game without them. I don't know much about them but I'm guessing they allied themselves with the humans out of a shared religion.

High elves are another staple of the fantasy genre (books, movies, and videogames included) and like dwarves I don't know much about them besides the face that they have pointy ears and worship the Gods of this world.

I ended up choosing a male elf (Mathosians have a weird head to body ratio that makes me uncomfortable)

Next up you choose a class/archetype.


Now, those of you who are savvy to the MMO genre might be thinking "What? Only four classes?! I thought you said this game had a lot of customization options!" and to that I'd respond, "You don't even know."

Yes, there are only four classes but the choice you make here only limits what kind of souls you get

"Souls? What are those?"

Each class has 8 souls (and a few pvp souls) that you can choose from that act like talent trees.

(Talent trees are common in MMOs as a way to customize your character. Each class usually has around 3 talent trees and you can spend points in each tree to unlock certain abilities within that tree. However you have a limited amount of points so you end up with Mage A being more fire heavy with Mage B being more frost heavy which leads to individuality and all that jazz.)

you can have 3 souls activated at a time but you can choose any combination of souls you wish. And you aren't necessarilly limited to a certain role with a certain class. Clerics have tanking, melee, healing, and mage like souls. Mages have healing souls. Rogues have support and tanking souls. Warriors even have a magic-ish soul and a support soul. The customization that comes with the soul choices are one of the major talking points about rift and give it a lot of depth

Here's an example of what i'm talking about


The more points you spend in the upper branches the more abilities you unlock in the "roots" of the tree. (example: you spend two points in the druid tree and you get a wood shield)

Now that that explanation is out of the way Let's get back to character creation.

Unfortunately I can't show you the last slide because The screen shots didn't save. It was just your standard hair and skin color choices.

After you create your character a nice cutscene runs which explains the history of the guardians and why you're there. It explanes the civil war and shows the insane king open the first rift (which leads to many more opening up) and it cuts to a scene with just piles of bodies which youa re apparently in. It turns out you died in the first invasion.
But wait! The Gods have chosen you to fight again!

And then angel boy carries you to a terrace where you start the game and get your first quest.

Now meet Stuart! The avatar of the GODS

Isn't he pretty? (He's bald because I didn't particularly enjoy the elf hairstyles. Too many leaves and braids for my tastes)

Here is my elf cleric. I immediately talk to the first quest giver I see and talk to another angel to get my first soul.
Now I've always been a druid man myself but in this game druids are a bit different. In other MMOs druids have always been one of the classes most in-tune with nature. In some games they even shapeshift into animals to gain new powers. In this game they are melee fighters who summon support pets. I figure I'll just get used to it and pick druid and proceed to summon my spirit companion.


Here's what summoning looks like in case you wondering.

Now
Let's see who will help me conquer evil.


Well... She has a nice afro. I'm sure me and faerie girl will have tons of fun adventures.
Ms. Faerie currently has 2 abilities. A heal and an attack. The way she works is she stays in the back while I melee the enemy and she will periodically heal me and attack the monster in the meantime. It's a reversal from what pet classes usually fight like.

In most MMOs pet classes would usually fight by letting the pet "tank" (tank= being a meat shield) the monster while the character stands far away and attacks with spells or ranged weapons.

In this game you also have the option of naming your pet. It is clear what I should name mine.

Don't judge. Me and Foxy will be together forever. We will fight evil, close rifts, and kick ass in the name of the Gods!

I'll end this here for now. I'm hoping this gave you a taste of all the customization available in this game. See you next week!