Trion’s RIFT: Communication and Honesty – a refreshing experience

by on Feb.14, 2011, under Blog, Trion Visit

One of the reception areas

Pre-launch MMORPG’s often get a bad reputation, at least after the fact. They promise everything, and deliver very little of it.

Trion, it seems, has decided to throw off the stereotype and be the company that doesn’t beat around the bush.

Over the last eight months, I’ve had the opportunity to interview and record with the team on a pretty regular basis. They’ve never answered anything they weren’t 100% sure of at the time, and if that answer changes down the path, they’re the first to admit it and get the change out to their fans. Inviting Fansites to their offices along with the Press, just reiterates their stance.

When we sat down on Friday with Scott Hartsman, Russ Brown, and Hal Hanlin (not to mention the community team and several media attendees), it became very obvious they weren’t holding back. It doesn’t matter if you’re not going to like their answer, they will still tell it to you like it is. I personally dislike Dungeon Finders, but Scott assured us, if it’s needed, they will deal with it.

Add-ons will be allowed, the preparation just isn’t there for launch yet. They’ve been concentrating on getting the game out with as much polish and finish as they can.

They will be releasing more Endgame content than any game that’s been released in a long time. Two level 50 dungones. Ten expert Dungeons as well as expert Rifts. Then there are Raid Rifts and the Greenscale Dungeon. This will be followed shortly by another dungeon – and a little bit later by Hammerknell. And Hammerknell is not a myth. We all saw it, it does exist, and all we can say is it’s Imposing and quite awesome. But it’s definitely there.

Not forgetting there are factions to grind, recipes to craft and puzzles to find that award level appropriate gear when you complete them.

There are already remedies in place for botters, hackers and spammers. Accounts will and have been banned and preorders canceled because of this already. And that spam text we all hate? Just report it and the spam filter will learn what to filter out.

This company knows when to push their own ideal of the game and when to listen to the player base. They make changes quickly and efficiently, incorporating a surprising amount of vocal feedback by the player base. Want all souls at the start? Done. Want public groups? Done. Just to name a couple. Although these changes are indicative of beta and the game in a not quite finished state – it still shows a lot of willingness on behalf of Trion to listen to their player base. They see every issue that gets brought up on the forums, they’re just too busy working on remedies and fixes to answer.

To Trion’s RIFT Team, their community is everything.

Now this article is a personal opinion and I know I’m going to get called a fangirl. But you know what? I guess I am.

It’s not that I agree with everything in the game. Hell, I despise the possibility of RDF’s, I wish the customization could be prettier and more varied, even though I now know that would take away the awesome fps I get in most zones (except Meridian – evil Meridian). I want more emotes, I’d like the rest of endgame definitely in sooner rather than later. The lower level armour design really gets to me and frankly I want individual race starting areas.

But the gameplay, the soul system, the little reasons to explore hidden all over the world, and the mass of endgame they already have in, not to mention the invasion and event system that can all operate automated or manually… Those are much bigger and more important elements in a game for me. The things I love in the game far outweigh those I don’t. And the Team’s attitude about their game and the reasoning behind their processes makes the little things seem insignificant.

The Fansites got a reward for having faith when there wasn’t much to build faith on. I think the team sells themselves a little short – Their histories, passion, and dedication to the game they’re building has shown through since the beginning.

Placing faith in Rift was placing faith in their team. And I, for one, am happy I did.

Written by Arithion

Arithion was insane enough to start the production of The Rift Podcast back in June 2010. Apart from hosting The Rift with Desikis she also writes articles for the site and has a fascination with corgis.


14 Comments for this entry

  • Nervallah
    February 14th, 2011 on 1:10 pm

    That was a good re-affirming and clarifying read after listening to the podcast where some of the finer points can be lost, maybe I am just a fan of text :P I am glad that I have kept paying attention to rift and having a bit of faith in them to pull off what I hoped they would and so far they have not disappointed me much. There is some little things I would of liked differently like greater possible character customisation (also better looking male dwarves :P ) and an account friendslist so I dont have to go adding the new name of every character my friend creates but they are just minor in comparision to the great things Rift does offer. In the podcast the guys from Trion really did seem upfront and honest in their answers and what they could and couldn’t answer which is refreshing. Anyway thanks for the good read and keep doing what your doing as it is appreciated :)

  • Isadore
    February 14th, 2011 on 3:25 pm

    Great read Ari. Thank you for your dedication in bringing us such great information about this game. The future is looking very promising.

  • Istherion
    February 14th, 2011 on 3:52 pm

    “Add-ons will be allowed, the preparation just isn’t there for launch yet. They’ve been concentrating on getting the game out with as much polish and finish as they can.”

    Any chance for an actual quote on this? If it’s true, best news ever for me :p

    • Arithion
      February 14th, 2011 on 5:19 pm

      It’s in the round table – I’ll include it next week :D Sadly the round table was almost 75 minutes long – couldn’t put it all out at once :D

  • Istherion
    February 14th, 2011 on 5:42 pm

    Sweet, thanks for the write-up and the latest podcast.

  • Istherion
    February 14th, 2011 on 8:02 pm

    Hm, checked the other fansites write-ups, couldn’t see anything about add-ons being mentioned there at all, why did the other sites leave that out? :o

  • Istherion
    February 14th, 2011 on 8:20 pm

    Yeah well they talked alot about post launch stuff, but left that important (imo) statement out? :p

    Oh well, I’ll just pull myself together and wait for the next podcast then. xD

  • Karmagiana
    February 14th, 2011 on 9:13 pm

    This podcast has just been an amazing resource. While I disagree that character and armor customization should be so low on the list (well designed armor takes no more resources than badly designed), this team does seem to listen to its player base.

    Keep up the great work, Ari and team.

  • Mike
    February 14th, 2011 on 10:53 pm

    aww i was sad when i found out the podcast was only half of the whole :(

  • Cromus
    February 15th, 2011 on 7:24 am

    Your podcast is amazing and these writeups just add to the perfect package. Keep up the great work and know that it is all so very much appreciated!

  • Nadili
    February 16th, 2011 on 7:53 pm

    Good stuff Ari.

    You know what I am a fangirl too but it doesn’t mean I don’t question how things are done. I am a fangirl because Trion made me that way they have been so amazing I find the brutal honesty refreshing for a change even if it’s at the cost of some subs.

  • Ian M. Walker
    February 16th, 2011 on 8:55 pm

    Anything firm on housing yet please?

  • Yak
    February 17th, 2011 on 2:24 pm

    @Ari: Thanks for clearing that up about the end game. This was my main worry for Rift, getting to end game and being bored. Let’s just hope that Trion will bust out it’s first expansive by the end of the year. I am also glad that they are listening and going to add support for addons at some point. :)

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