After seeing a handful of posts over the past couple of days throwing out the idea that Trion’s Rift is now becoming over-hyped and/or over-exposed, I must admit to throwing my hands up in frustration. As I posted over at Bio Break:
I don’t understand it. Gamers are playing themselves sick on limited beta weekends, and the problem is with the company in any way? (not that you’re saying this, Syp, but it seems to be the impression I’m taking away from several comments on the blogosphere)
Sometimes I think I’ll never understand some of my fellow MMO players. I sometimes feel that this is purely a side-effect of our fast-moving internet and blogging culture, where people feel compelled to say something every so often (we don’t want to fall off of those blogrolls!), and so play themselves sick on games so that they have something to report on, and if they can’t (goodness forbid) play, speculate themselves into a frenzy of hype and delusion, the outcome of which can only be PR disaster.
That’s… not on the company. That’s on us.
I’m impressed at the culture we as MMO gamers have created for ourselves. We have the people who won’t buy at launch without a free trial (thus risking impacting a company’s ability to use money acquired through initial sales to improve and/or continue to develop the product); we have the people who are concerned about endgame and scoff at betas that don’t allow access to the higher levels of content. We have the people who scoff at betas because they are glorified marketing ploys/”soft launches”; we have the people who worry that a company who actually implements suggestions or makes changes due to feedback during beta lack vision.
So we have a game that used beta testers to beta test, limited beta access (presumably in part to build hype, and in part to restrict testing to targeted systems) but increased access with each beta event, increased the level cap with each event, opening up the map and dungeons for scrutiny, will show off near-endgame content to an open beta audience, giving us plenty of time to not only pre-order, but pre-order with discounts, and even lock in a reduced subscription rate after launch, and our problem is that now we’re over-exposed and wish Trion would turn it down a notch.
No, maybe our problem is that we have to talk about everything so much and so often that we’ve already played Rift for three years in our heads. Next!
Now, make no mistake: it is absolutely in the best interest of gaming companies to help us manage our expectations, whether that be by limiting content or revealing it. It is also true that we as a general gaggle of gamers have little to no idea what we really want; transparancy apparently leads to over-exposure and “over”-hype; a tight-lipped stance leads to ArenaNet having to post a blog in which they simply re-iterate that they’re still working on the game, or BioWare having to address rumors of a budget for SW:TOR many times larger than reality allows, impending doom and gloom, etc.
It would seem the only thing that hasn’t, in fact, been sped up by the internet is the actual development time of a quality MMO. Given the number of times I’ve now seen comments posted on various sites saying Trion should “just release Rift already,” I’m not sure we’re far off from forgetting that as well.
But what do I know? I’m talking about Rift, too, already as sick of the controversies about endgame and nerfing of racials and open PvP changes as everyone else. If Trion relied on my blog to generate hype, Rift would have already failed, since I no longer participate in the beta weekends, saving that content for launch – and as such, I haven’t much to say. Except, of course, to complain like the old, crotchety gamer that I am.
Next!
Casual Is As Casual Does 
I’ve long come to accept that there is no middle ground when it comes to gamers and exposure. Too little, and people get antsy. Too much, and folks claim things get stale. I read all sides for interest, as it’s always good to get another point of view, but for the most part, I know in my own heart how I feel about a game and that’s all that matters.
I am going to have agree with GeeCee on this. All the nay-saying vs. fanboism doesn’t change the fact that Rift has tickled me in a way that other fairly popular games have not. I will be there launch day (for the first time, thanks to betas) excited to start my adventures anew in Telara.
Spot on. A lot of people really have no self-control; they want it all, and should they get it, they complain later on that nothing is new.
That quote above on the post is spot on. And i really believe that. I’m going to blame allot of the attitude problems on players how indeed have no self control and over information everywhere.
I played in RIFT Beta 5 first time. It captivated me even though overall much wan’t really all that new. I had allot of fun. But it was also a new environment and community to play in inside the game. I actually enjoyed the game making a mental analysis playing the game the entire time, looking at how well the world was, game stability etc. I was impressed way more than lots of other game beta past. And i enjoyed it enough to pre-order the game in that I will be playing it at launch.
Now i did also get invited to Beta 6. And even though I did, i only logged in to play just a few short hours for Beta 6, less than 3 hrs in fact. Why? I already know I’m going to be playing the game! I really don’t need to log in and play all that much to see or play in Beta 6. I’m saving it for when the game goes live where my playtime more matters.
I just went and spend more time being productive in another game I’ve already been playing and saving up rest of RIFT for when it launch officially.
[…] Casual is as Casual Does — And now for something completely predictable “No, maybe our problem is that we have to talk about everything so much and so often that we’ve already played Rift for three years in our heads.” […]
From a purely selfish point of view, my main concern about Rift is that it’s going to be too successful. I had it pegged from about a year ago as probably the next MMO I’d play as a “main” game. I was interested in it entirely because of Scott Hartsman’s involvement, since I’d played EQ2 before, during and after his tenure there and seen what a huge, positive influence he’d been on the direction and execution of that game.
I thought Rift would be a small, under-the-radar MMO, coming as it did from a relatively little-known studio and not using a pre-existing I.P. I was expecting that it would be somewhere around the scale of Fallen Earth, small-but-stable with potential for long-term growth. That would have been perfect for me as a player; a nice, quiet backwater where I could play enjoyably and peacefully, relatively protected from the unwanted attentions of goldsellers, add-on providers and the like.
Instead, Rift has somehow become The Next Big Thing and we are in for the typical MMO roller-coaster ride of hype, hysteria and overkill. Nothing I can do about it as a player. I’ve pre-ordered and subbed up. With luck, in three months the hype will have died, the unconvinced and unimpressed will have moved on to the next Next Big Thing, the servers will have consolidated and Rift will be able to settle down.
Or it will become the new WoW. That’s the thought that really scares me!