Worst MMO Ever? - RIFT

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From being sold as a physical game in major gaming shops, to a free steam game run by Gamigo, oh how the mighty have fallen.

So, is RIFT the Worst MMO Ever?

Many thanks to the Patron and Twitch subs who make my content possible

[jimjones]

Rift was one of the best mmos that was run by one of the worst companies. It had so much promise that was squandered because of incompetent management.

[Ea_Rapture]

"The burning village looks fine"

Me after every dnd session.

[marcinjanke]

One of the best MMOs I ever played. Played at launch. It was packed and fun! I miss it. Now it's an empty shell of what it used to be.

[daddyespressodepresso]

had to come back to this one to mention this

"Have you ever had a hobby that you really enjoyed, but then one day you stopped, and you just have no interest in returning? You don't dislike the hobby and you'll speak of it fondly you've just not got any burning desire to pick it up again"

Until the first time I watched this video I hadn't found the words to describe how I feel about Graphic Design ever since I stopped working in the field, but this, this is it. This is *exactly* how I've felt about Graphic Design for the past several years and I just wanted to thank you for putting words to a sentiment I hadn't found the words fer yet.

[Shiirow]

" You've committed the cardinal sin of _boring me_ " - Emet-selch after playing Rift.

[evilsdemise]

Rift was good when it released, then SWTOR came out. People forget how huge SWTOR's release was. And GW2 came out too. We all left for those games. In other words, Rift was a rebound MMO after breaking up with WoW at the time, and like most rebounds you're only there until something better comes along.

[kalorathekau]

All things considered, this struck me as actually quite a positive review. I think that there are so many BAD mmos, that even being "good but not great" is something of a rarity.

[NighttimeNubbs]

To their credit I was able to remember the villain's name purely because how bad it was, which tops plenty of games whose villain or even characters I forget shortly after.

[Rhaevyn]

I miss this game so much. When it came out, zones were PACKED with rifts and the quick, popup join was so refreshing, big groups of people taking down rifts. Ended up forming raids and you could do this for hours if there was an invasion going on. There were some serious RPers to be found almost all the time in the Taverns, it was just a FUN game. Then it died and part of me went with it. It's a graveyard. I would play this again in a heartbeat if the game was somehow revived. No game ever has offered a wardrobe system like RIFT. It should be an industry standard IMHO.

[dusksentry]

"What was the bad guys name"
Me: regulos.
"I said it at the start of the video"
Me: regulos.
"Can you remember?"
Me: regulos.
"No. Exactly. So I award this video regulos out of 10"
Me: goddamnit that's not even a picture of regulos!

[vepristhorn]

I played a tank in this game and my most memorable tanking moment ever was in the is game:
I was the only tank fighting an open world boss with a crap tone of healers and and unknown number of DPS, I went head to head with this Giant scorpion with my HP bouncing around so wildly from so many healers as I worked to keep aggro.

[greyed]

In a later video you talk about the quit moment. Here's my quit moment with Rift.

I had leveled my chosen class to max level. Sorted the abilities on my bar in a way that made sense to me. Then realized that I would never, under any circumstances, use the abilities out of a certain priority list. So, I set about making a macro which triggered those abilities in that specific order. I literally was playing max level Rift doing this:
1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1

I even PvPed with that macro and never was there a time that I wanted those abilities to fire in another order.

I was, and am, a fan of MMOs that provide a way to reduce the massive button clutter than is the poor legacy from the early MMOs onward. I'm glad that I could have a 2-skill combo where I don't have to take 2 separate keys to fire them off. It is one of the pain points I have with FFXIV. But on the flip side, if your abilities have no situation where you would want to fire any of them out of order? There's no thought to be had there.

That was when I quit Rift.

[Quiiescent]

I still think RIFT’s soul system was one of the most creative designs I’ve ever seen. There was so much opportunity for self expression, especially in PVP. It left such a strong base to be built on, as well—shame the management of the game wasn’t quite there. I still miss it.

[terraglade]

Rift was my "mmo for a summer" i got invested into a roleplaying guild with twice a week meetups. It was a fond memory at best after so many years. I stuck with it for 2 or 3 months and slowly drifted away as another semester of high school started. Here i am, probly 9 years later, smiling and remembering those simpler days.

[BM]

This game did so many things ahead of it's time, it felt like The WoW Clone WoW Kept Cloning.
Did things like AoE looting, crafting from bank and wardrobe system where anything you pick gets added to your collection way, way before WoW did.
The dye system was better than what I've seen in MMOs around still, I have yet to meet with a housing system (dimensions) that allows it's amazing amount of freedom, the class tree was impressively robust in options AND it had not just "that one support class that people are still having second thoughts about inviting (AKA "The Bard"), it was a DEDICATED party slot.

It's worth mentioning it's key binding system should be standard. I know I kinda recently saw it elsewhere (I think WoW?) but being able to change keybindings by hovering the mouse over the hotkey on the screen instead of going down a list should be the NORM with how quick and intuitive it is. And they did it since day 1.

I honestly feel like if I had known it was going to just DIE, I would've actually "mained" this MMO back then and gone super hard on it. Because now, the experience just can't be re-lived...
So much regret.

[lairdmichaelscott]

I recall in the early days we had a valley below us where the bad guys were pouring through from a magic gate. I was charging down to fight them and looked around. Hundreds of other players were with me -- and there was no lag, none. It was amazing.

I finally stopped playing when I had trouble keeping up with what to do after switching between three totally different builds (in addition to all the other games I was playing).

[Sarkubocael]

The thing that stunned me as a wow player at the time i was playing/trying this game out, the spell casting, the mages/casters actually use the staff when you have one equiped to cast a spell, while on wow its been a decoration since 2004...

[normalmighty]

I remember RIFT making for easily my most fun weekend of the year when I first played it brand new.

After a 30 hour straight session, I closed the game feeling like I absolutely loved the experience, and then I never opened the game again.

I don't even know why anymore, for some reason the game just didn't leave me wanting more.

[schroecat]

That lack of emotional engagement you highlighted was introduced later, after the game had significantly decayed. Originally there was no instant adventure option, but finding things to do with other players in a disorganised fashion wasn't hard because the Rifts and Invasions happen constantly. The most epic MMO experience I've ever had was my first zone-wide Invasion event. Rifts open up all across the zone, monsters come flooding out of them and they make it impossible to continue questing normally until the invasion is contained. They would literally take over towns and mass murder the NPCs until they were stopped, and the game emotionally incentivised you to do it. It felt like a big deal, like the characters really were fighting off the apocalypse. And every zone had several different events like this that could occur in them, so it wasn't the same thing over and over. You could also just join and leave other people's groups with the click of a single button, and the game incentivised you to do so. Additionally, the core storyline quests were fantastic, leading the player to explore the world and learn about what was happening and why. As I'm sure you can tell I'm passionate about this game, but I don't play it anymore because every time I go back it just feels empty and reminds me of the great times of the past that will never come back.

[rickcharlespersonal]

What I love most about these videos is that although MMOs are not my thing, I enjoy exploring the often well-crafted fantasy worlds while having Josh slog through the actual game so I don't have to.