Rift: Rolling On The River
April 11, 2011
With the first phase of River of Souls extended, I can relax a bit.
Along with many others, I logged into Rift this Saturday afternoon eagerly awaiting phase 2 of the world event, only to find out that it had been delayed. Apparently, complications had occurred on the European shards…
With the opening of the final phases of the River of Souls World Event in Europe we have identified several issues that only came to light in a live server environment. Due to this we have had to temporarily disable the World Event in Europe and are delaying the opening of the event on North American shards until a full investigation and corrections can be made.
Ah, bummer. But hey, it happens. And so with the hold on the final phases, Trion has decided to extend Phase 1 an additional week.
I won’t deny that I’m a little disappointed, since I’d been very much looking forward to phase 2 and beyond. Still, my unhappiness was in no way directed at Trion over a few hiccups with their event. Rolling out this thing can’t be easy, and I’ve danced the old MMO dance before and know how often snags can occur along the way despite the best laid plans.
To be honest, I just haven’t been entirely “enthusiastic” about phase 1. I mean, I’ll do the dailies and seal a rift or kill an invasion when I see one, but I’ve been pretty ambivalent towards it for the most part.
And yet, there was also a little part of me that gave a sigh of relief when I saw the announcement. I’d been meaning to hit level 50 or close to it before Phase 2 so I can be sure that I’ll be ready for anything by the final stages of the event. By Friday night, however, I knew I wasn’t going to make that goal. I didn’t have as much time to play as I would have liked last week, and it felt like my leveling rate took a huge dive around the mid-40s.
Pushing myself to level is never fun, especially for a game like Rift where there’s so much to do and you’re really meant to take your time. I decided to enjoy my weekend and play everything else by ear.
The extension was a blessing in this regard, and it seems like many others are taking it in stride too. Furthermore, new rewards have been added to the world event merchants and the amount of Otherworldly Sourcestones you can earn from quests, rifts and invasions has been increased. I’ve already gotten my vanity pets, but I did have my eye on the ring and there were a few other items I wouldn’t have minded. Before this extension and the increase in rewards, I don’t think there would have been a chance in hell I could have gotten everything I wanted.
But now this changes things.
MMO Gamer Chick 
I was excited about the event overall, but then found that I wasn’t logging in enough to care, and wasn’t high enough in level to get the “good stuff” in ANY phase. I’m a little sad overall, but I guess I need to shrug it off and treat it just as “content”.
The first phase has been a little lackluster. I find that I want the rewards…but not badly enough. I’ll do the rifts/invasions when I see them, but I won’t go hunting for them. So far I’ve only gotten the vanity pets, and only now that I have some Sourcestones left over am I looking into the equipment. Heh heh, shows you where my priorities are 😛
Its OK I guess. I only have 3 characters that are in their teens. I got them their purple rings and the XP from rifting is a nice break from questing sometimes. It hasn’t really added much for me besides the rings i bought since I’m not nearly high enough to get “the good stuff either”. So that stuff in the sky is for the event? I was wondering what the hell it was LOL.
Yeah, I think that’s the “river of souls” 😛 At least that’s what a guildie told me.
Heh heh, am I the only one who likes vanity pets? Because THAT’S “the good stuff” for me 😛
Ah! I forgot about those! Well I have a week to get them which I’m sure I will because I already got the only Item that I could get that wasn’t a consumable.
Are the pets cool looking? I haven’t seen any.
There’s a hagbrood hatchling, some shade beetle and a shadehound pup. They’re all pretty cool, but the shadehound is my favorite 🙂
The interesting thing is that one dev said they are building the next world event using the lessons they learned at this one.
I think I read that quote too, and about how Trion is planning even more world events for the future. That’s great, I think they’re just going to keep getting better.
Obviously I haven’t had much time for Rifting lately, but I have been collecting rewards as I can. Considering the low impact that the event has had on me (Death rifts in Gloamwood? Amazing! /sarcasm), extending is neither a positive or negative. I understand that others might be frustrated with the delay. But as you said, this is par for the course for an MMO. I still think Trion is due a lot of slack considering how smooth everything else has run.
I think you’re right. I truly expected to see a lot more rage over this (god knows MMO communities have raged over far less) but so far the vitriol has been kept at a minimum. Trion has pulled things off rather smoothly, yes…add to that the fact they’ve been pretty on top of keeping their players up to date with everything that’s going on.
I felt exactly the same. I have to admit it’s difficult to tackle 2 mmo’s at the same time and get into these events. Still I felt happy that I had an extra week to get some more shards and just get a better feel for what’s happening. I don’t understand the hurry to get to the next phases so quickly. For me, I like to take things slow 🙂
I’m still a novice at juggling MMOs…I’ve been doing better lately, but when an event happens, all bets are off 😛 Not surprisingly, Rift has sucked up most of my gaming time these past few weeks, I’m a sucker for unique rewards.
I played again over the freebie weekend. What a wonderful game. I just need to get finished with the most recent LOTRO content, then finish up DA2, and I am going to join in the Rift fun! You and I have been connected a few different ways, but this is the first time I have seen the blog! Nice work!
Thanks for checking out my blog! I noticed our connections too, and recently realized you’re a fellow SWTOR fanatic (though the avatar should have tipped me off right away LOL :P) I very much enjoyed DA2, despite all the grumblings on the internet. I hope you have fun!
Strangely, I have been a bit meh about the whole thing, DGF and I burned out a tad during March. I dislike doing to dailies at max level, and less so while still leveling. I expected more from the event, so phase one was a bit of a let down. I realize they’re ramping up to something bigger, so maybe we’ll get more out of it.
Yeah, I haven’t seen you on lately, but I know you guys have much more invested in WoW so I understand the burning out on Rift thing. Hope you’ll check in for Phase 2 and 3 though, I’ve seen descriptions of it around the net from people who played alpha, and it sounds a lot more exciting than Phase 1.
we might actually be able to afford the Guise of Death now 😉
For me it was the pets first, then ring and trinket. Maybe if I have enough after the event, I’ll pick up the Guise of Death! Not entirely enamored with the idea of walking around looking like an undead! 😛
I always hate when events are delayed, I eagerly await them like Christmas morning! Ok, not quite but almost 😉 At least you have a chance to hit 50 in case anything is aimed for the higher levels. Hope you get it before then!
Well, I’m all prepared for the later phases now, or anything the game has to throw at me! I hit level 50 last night, JOY!
I kind of ignored the whole thing and used the weekend as an extended free trial. I did mess with crafting for the first time, it’s a solid system.
I would have done the same…participating in the rift events as you encounter them is cool, but looking for them can be a pain in the ass and a real time waster 😀