RIFTFollow

Yeah, I stalked the forums beforehand (so I knew where the cool people played) and created a froggie warden on Everfrost

As for grouping, I actually enjoy soloing a lot - it was just that I actually had a friend playing WoW with me and I felt like the game penalized us for grouping up... and it felt really awkward - there was no real synergy, just spam a couple skills and the trash is dead. I didn't like the combat either. While long, drawn out fights are not desirable either (*cough* XIV) I do like the fight to feel like a fight... I feel like killing EP/DC in XI is the optimal fight length/reward - actually I just love the leveling curve in XI right now, it feels ideal.

I am really not so into the way WoW does questing - it felt like none of the equipment I got lasted more than 15 minutes - I had no real attachment to it, and I didn't really feel rewarded by it. Also the colour scheme is garish.

I hated the huge rings over the head of people in LotRO, it felt like I was getting directed every 2 steps, I didn't even play the game more than once... warhammer's soundtrack of screams was a little much, and the combat was (again) too much like hit one skill and the prey auto-dies - I lasted longer (with the sound off) than I did on LotRO though

Edited, Apr 4th 2012 11:59am by Olorinus

Old fart.

You will see more of a community once endgame picks up more, as long as they don't implement cross-server LFG.

The LFG tool was really the death of the WoW community (more firmly substantiated by the raid finder tool). Before then, despite the solo-friendliness, there's was definitely a distinct social sphere per server. True, you could choose not to take part, but only if you weren't interested in dungeons or endgame. Even if you only occasionally ran dungeons while leveling, there was a really good chance you'd be seeing a fair number of people you knew. That would certainly be the case if you engaged in endgame content at all.

Once they created the LFG tool, though, they nearly destroyed any reason to meet people while leveling. There wasn't actually any good reason to group with people from your server until you started raiding, and even then you were only going to meet the people in your guild.

I think it was less significant with PVP, because arenas demanded you form local teams, and premades always worked better than randoms. It still faced the same issues, but battlegrounds are vastly less social environments--if you have time to chat (assuming typed), you are SO not doing it right.

I never want to see that in any other MMO I play.

To be fair, the devs realized the beast they created and tried to remedy it by heavily glamorizing guilds with the advent of perks. But that doesn't help repair the broken server community, and most people just joined MASSIVE guilds that made forming a meaningful community impossible. You were there for the perks, not for anything else.

TOR has a decent community, but it's biggest issue right now is how thinly the population has been spread. In order to accommodate launch, they opened up a ton of servers. Which definitely helped a ton, because they were all standard to very heavy in population for the first month. But now that people aren't playing every day, or for as many hours, the density is way down. Makes it much harder to find groups, and there's a lot less conversation in the general channels.

It's unclear whether or not they'll be merging servers, but I wouldn't expect that decision to be made until at least 1-2+ months after they release 1.2, which will be the first really significant update to endgame. It will also add a lot of incentive to level alt characters, which should help increase population levels in lower zones. Crew Skills are being revamped and, finally, it's fixing some of the issues with endgame dungeons, with regards to drops. Overall should buff population density, but perhaps not enough.

It's also adding some important features to guilds, giving players greater reason to join one beyond the social aspects.

As long as they don't add cross-server dungeons, I think we should be fine. Especially if they merge servers so that the lowest pop ones start around standard density. Because they implemented reason to quest in groups (for social points), as well as regular Heroic areas on top of regular dungeons, you have plenty of reason to make friends while leveling.

They really should consider expanding the social system, perhaps in conjunction with the legacy one. If social points aren't simply aesthetic, there would be reason to group while you level. Right now, they pretty much just give you armor skins. But if the character's social level had influence on your legacy, it would encourage group activity across levels. I don't think it should have an obvious influence on endgame, but I'm sure they can come up with something sufficiently attractive that won't destabilize balance. The Legacy system can already get you a mailbox and vendor on your ship, but things like that would be worth unlocking earlier rather than waiting for endgame. Maybe have social-based bag or bank upgrades. Etc.

Grouping Pro-Tip: Less Wynne, more Morrigan/Leliana when talking to your group mates

I've been replaying and Alister just got pissed and left the group taking my best armor and sword with him. **** move, Alister.

I just noticed that "Alister" is included in my Firefox spell check.

Plz run my post through ur spellcheck...

Btw, Game Informer has an article in this months issue about Rift as it turns one year old. From what I read, it seemed pretty positive.

Best of both worlds! I romanced Morrigan, then Leliana to the first point (saying she's keen, not sleeping with her). Then Morrigan demanded that I end it with Leliana so I did but Leliana stayed friendly and said she was happy for Morrigan & I. Then I did the "harden Leliana" side quest and she told me she loved me and I slept with her. Morrigan is still at +100 (Love) with me and all that entails and doesn't mention it to me.

This leads to entertaining dialogue chains where one minute Morrigan tells Leliana she doesn't share and making veiled threats while Leliana says "huh?" and the next minute Leliana is offering to go shoe shopping with Morrigan like they're besties

Although L no longer says "how cute!" if I kiss Morrigan in front of her and instead glares and loses affection.

Somewhere in all this Sim-Dating, there's something about darkspawn or a blight or some shit.


SpoilerAlistar is a whiny tard. I'd go female on my next play through to get the last romance badge but I don't know if I could put up with him in that context.

I don't wanna be king!
Ok, so marry Anora and you just have to look pretty while she does the heavy lifting
I don't wanna marry Anora!
Ok, so let Anora rule instead
You're being mean to me by not letting me be king!

I tried to marry Anora but she's all racist and shit and won't bang a dwarf.

Edited, Apr 4th 2012 3:06pm by Jophiel

If you harden Alistair, Spoilerhe actually looks forward to being king. If you choose him to duel Loghain, he'll execute him without even looking to you for approval.

He's also a lot more decisive. When you have to figure out what to do with Anora, he makes a really rational choice and backs it up. He doesn't do the "BUT I DON'T KNOW!" stuff. He still puts her in the tower, but does so without hesitation, saying that he is well aware he might die in the blight, and that she'd be the best choice if that happened. But if he doesn't, he'll figure out what to do with her later (and she seems surprised that he showed himself to be so capable, possibly foreshadowing that she would later swear allegiance).

Unhardened (giggity) Alistair bothers me sometimes, but I like hardened (giggity) Alistair a lot. Female wardens always romance him, for me, because Zevran and Leliana bug the hell out of me.

My first Warden had the most relationship drama though. He romanced Morrigan, but then refused to kill Flemeth so she broke it off. Then he moved on to Zevran. He later refused to do the ritual with Morrigan, and then sacrificed himself, leaving them both behind, broken hearted.

Maybe next time I go around, I'll have to pay Alister more attention and see if he can't be worthwhile. He annoyed me enough the last two times that he gets back-burnered just so I can avoid talking to him. The only one who gets mothballed worse is Zevran.

If his general dialogue annoys you, he won't get better. But Spoilerhe's less stupid at/after the Landsmeet if you harden him. Also of note, you can have a threesome with Isabela if he's hardened. If you aren't a female noble, and are romancing him, he will break it off after becoming king if he is unhardened.

[EDIT]


It's still a great game, and has nice replay value. Particularly for an RPG.

Edited, Apr 4th 2012 5:06pm by idiggory

The lack of this these days in WOW is what crippled the game for me. I feel that the automated looking for group tool has ruined the game.