I’m in a weird spot with RIFT right now. Like many beta testers who are planning to purchase and play post-launch, I’ve grown reluctant to log in during the beta events after the first few. Not because I’m bored with it — quite the opposite! — but because I simply want to be going through all of this content with characters that I’ll actually get to keep. I know, it makes me a bad beta tester, but that’s kind of how it is.
So I’m hunkering down for the time being, counting down the 24 days left until RIFT’s head start launch. Should make for a long month, but I’ve got my hands plenty full with Guild Wars and LOTRO, so I shan’t be bored. In a couple of days, Michigan’s in for that nasty snowstorm that’s going to drop what weather forecasters are predicting to be the biggest snowfall in 6 years here, so “hunkering down” is a mentality I’m certainly familiar with.
But that doesn’t mean I’m avoiding RIFT entirely, just saving up a bulk of that energy and enthusiasm for release. I did log on last weekend just to check out the new changes (I particularly like the updated character screen and currency tracker), and with any luck, it’ll just get better from here. I know RIFT isn’t for everyone, but I just really love how silky smooth it feels and how easy it is to slip on, like a frilly nightie that you now can’t stop imagine me wearing. FRILLS.
So what is there to do between now and launch? Quite a few things, mostly in terms of personal planning:
- Pre-order (check!)
- Decide on a faction, race and archetype (Guardian Dwarf Cleric)
- Find a guild (still shopping around for that — any blogger guilds forming?)
- Stay up to date on the changes from patch to patch
- Decide what my goals are for the first month of play
This last point occupies a small but dedicated portion of my mind. I know a lot of people are going to be rushing to the top, and that’s always stressful if you get caught up in that wake, so I’ll be swimming out to clear waters. Honestly, I want to just take my time, explore, read the quest text, craft — you know, the new game resolutions we all make before we log in, give a gibbering scream and start swinging at everything that moves.
At least I’m avoiding all of the theorycrafters and detailed dungeon run guides (for the time being). Do we really need to know every little detail before ever stepping foot into that world? Some explorers we are if so, refusing to sail to the New World until someone’s been there and Google Mapped the streets.
Bio Break 
I’m trying to avoid too much of the higher level content, so I reroll constantly to test the new changes at a low level. (Like I rolled a melee rogue in B5 to test the energy changes.)
I’m running with an established guild, but we’re recruiting if you’re looking for something on a PvP server and such.
I’ll send you an email for the guild I plan on rolling with in Rift
I’m using this time to play around with my builds though.
I’ve been rolling and rerolling on lowbie toons as well, trying to avoid doing quests once I’m out of the tutorial, preferring to save them for after launch. I don’t think I have a single character above level 10. Maybe not even that high.
As for goals post-launch… On the first night I’ll likely be running from the starter area to the end-game zones like a suicidal maniac, just for kicks and giggles. Other than that, I have no goals.
I’d really love to get the game but I’m having my last exams at university and, naturally, those are more important. So I’ll just read what bloggers have to say about the game post-release and will treat myself to the game once exams are over (if I’m successful only, of course ^^).
I’d probably play on the Defiant side. Mainly because I like the character models there better – with the exception of the female dwarves. Those are adorable!
Quote of the day:
At least I’m avoiding all of the theorycrafters and detailed dungeon run guides (for the time being). Do we really need to know every little detail before ever stepping foot into that world? Some explorers we are if so, refusing to sail to the New World until someone’s been there and Google Mapped the streets.
just my 2 cents
Rift has me interested for sure, but I’m going to wait until April/May – that has me avoiding the main rush, the large bugs, the inevitable Day 1 nerf, the outcry on the forums, and get some real reviews under its belt. Then I’ll make my decision whether to part with my cash or not.
I should be telling that Rift won’t last long when people are worried about ‘seeing all the content’ through tiny 3 day beta event windows. In 15 days of ‘beta’ time, you will have max leveled, probably a few toons, been to all the dungeons, done all the content… a recipe for failure IMO.
Brindle — DOOM!
I’m going Defiant Eth Warrior…but like you I can’t seem to find a guild. Either they raid too late, but the people seem like folks I’d get along with, or there playstyle suits mine but they’re full of 30/40-somethings who are well beyond my, well, age. Granted I’ve been in guilds with them before and they were a blast, but a guild where I’d be the youngest person by a significant margin doesn’t really appeal to me.
Oh well, I can but hope.
Hehe! Not sure I want to be in a guild with a lot of young whippersnappers in their 30s and 40s either. Best I look for a more mature guild nearer my own age 😛
My not-getting-stale-in-beta plan is a) don’t play any Defiant side content at all b) don’t level any further c) don’t try any more classes or crafts. I’ve done most of Silverwood and Gloamwood, although I keep finding new quests I’d missed. Everything else will be new at launch.
I’m in the same boat… I like the game, love playing in the beta, wish I could have been playing it all the way through the weekend, but don’t want to get very far on a character that’s gonna get wiped anyway, so I just kept blasting through various builds in the tutorial zone. Found a cleric healer spec I like becuz it’s still got a bit of dps. Found a tankier version of my cleric tank spec. Found a mage spec I liked even more than my pyromancer. Decided the Ranger/Marksman/whatever rogue build is FOTM for a reason — it’s damn fun! Still can’t find a warrior build I really like though. Champions/Paragon ain’t bad, but it’s not really compelling to me either.
But I’ve got time, not only in future betas but once the game launches too.
I’ve been doing quite a bit, but mainly checking out the souls and how they play out. Which does include doing lots of rifts and such, but I’m pretty much blindly ripping through the quests I have, saving the actual story for launch.
For Beta 5, I think I spent the majority of my time queuing up and running through the Black Garden PvP arena.
I did not know that Rivs came around here..but just a few weeks ago only a couple of our guild planned on playing mainly due to the fact that most had not really heard of it. Now that a lot decided to give Beta 5 a go last week we have a fair number of converts!
I think it alll boils down to that we as a guild really wants to start something new at the beginning of a new MMO gaming cycle and not try to get off our feet in an already established game.
It should be a fun ride.
Well Syp you convinced me to jump into Rift based on your blog with no beta experience at all. If someone is creating a more casual, learn as you go, guardian guild that would be cool and hopefully Syp will post here.
lexfire
Well, I’ve also pre-ordered it (for both me and my girlfriend, I love her for gaming ^_^) and am as reluctant to keep playing the beta events as you seem to be.
I want most stuff to be fresh when I’m going live.
Still need to find myself a guild too, but seeing as I’m in Europe, I think I’ll find one on the EU servers.
Ow, right: Defiant, Cleric, race not sure.
I’m going Bahmi Warrior (defiant). And since there are four souls, I can don’t have to worry about role, just gear. I can do it all.
I played Beta 4 and just thought it was a WoW meets Warhammer clone. But after playing Beta 5, I’m now in love with the game. Who cares if it borrows good parts from other games, that’s what innovation is all about. Take the best of other things, and improve upon them in your own way, add your own flare (Souls and Rifts).
I’m loving it though. Really looking forward to it.
I’m rolling a Defiant Cleric (not fully decided on race yet, though leading toward Bahmi) on a PvE server, and will also be taking my time, actually reading the quests this time around and maybe even making notes as to who I see in the “future” and encounter again in the “past” for hilarity to ensue.
I’m leaning towards going with The Older Gamers as a guild, since I had fun with them in WAR, but I tend to hold off on guilding up for a while when playing with my husband, since he treats MMOs even more like multi-player RPGs than I do! We’re also hoping to recruit another RL friend over from Warhammer, so he might bring his guild with him. In short, guild selection is very much up in the air.
What I do know is that I’ll be taking it very slow and trying to stay away from the forums and bloggers who inhale content. That might leave me with a blog reading list of 3 or so for the first several months ;). I don’t intend to reach max level for quite some time, since in 6 months of Warhammer I only attained level 26 and 21 on my two “main” characters.
Syp we’ve seen this with you before. Come three months you will be bored with RIFT and back to LotRO. Why don’t you just accept you’re a LotRO player and be done with it?
I… can’t be both? Huh. I’m not leaving LotRO, but I’m going to play RIFT and quite likely for a long time.
Oh I don’t know, you seem to do this often with WAR, CoH, Fallen Earth, DDO, WoW now and then yet it seems you always go back to LotRO.
After reading your blog for so long I feel like I’m taking up your mother’s role. I just want to see you settle down.
The beauty of MMOs is that you don’t have to settle down. You can enjoy being a crime fighter one week, and a powerful sorcerer the next.
I’ve played almost every major MMO released, and since I’ve gone “back” to a few games one could say I should just “admit” to being a player of that game.
Instead I’ll admit to enjoying the genre. Nothing wrong with that.
a.k.a. you’re always “shopping around” Corwynn Mailstrom? 😉
I like to take some “test drives” now and then. 😉
Hehe, well I stopped doing that.
Started to cost too much money at some point…
Anyways, I’ll be playing with the guild “Tranquility”, dunno what server yet, but it will be EU PvE.
@Loire – It’s not a sense of disatisfaction, just how I play these days. I genuinely like trying out different MMOs and rotating through them to keep things fresh and stave off burnout. I think I’m well past the days of just playing one MMO and one MMO only. I think it gives me better perspective to try these games.
But I’ve stuck with and played LotRO regularly since February of last year, so I have settled down in that game. I just have mistresses on the side.
@Syp:
Better not let the wife hear about those mistresses though 😉
I liked the Rift beta a lot (I just posted my own blog entry about it), but I didn’t want to get too far in and then have to do it all over again. It comes out, unfortunately, four days before my wedding… but I still pre-ordered, hee hee.
As for guilds — I will be running a guild called the Red Knights on Briarcliff, Defiant side. It’s a gaming clan, so a group of us have played a lot of games together. ^^
First off: Congrats Dagraisdumb! That it may be for the rest of your lives!
Second off: Tsk tsk tsk @ buying a game that launched 4 days before your wedding… 😉