I appreciate the rapid pace of patching. It’s impressive, even by “first month of a new MMO” standards. And as we saw with 1.1, the updates are not all just bug fixes but actual content additions. Major bonus points for keeping downtimes very short, and actually bringing the servers back up in 30 minutes when you say 30 minutes. The service standards might be pretty low in MMO land, but even still it’s nice that someone is raising the bar. One month in, zero complaints.
But it not only should continue, it more or less has to if Trion really is going to accomplish what many AAA titles before it failed to do (retain more than 1m subs past 6 months).
It has to because while Rift does what it does at a best-in-class level, it’s still doing stuff similar (but not the same) to other big-name games, and the current crop of ADD gamers not only needs new shinies, they need them delivered at a furious pace. Or, at something called furious when your current expectations are a rehash every 6 months plus a cash shop not-so-micro my-little-pony update.
If Rift is at version 1.5 after six months, and we have events similar to what 1.1 introduced each month, is anyone going to be talking about Rift being just another clone? And while on the surface that might seem like an impossible task, I don’t believe it really is. Asheron’s Call had monthly updates that actually altered the game world in permanent ways, and CCP puts out two free expansions a year for EVE. EQ1 had an expansion released weekly (more or less). This “it takes two years to update a few zones” stuff is pathetic, and MMO fans tolerating it for so long is even worse.
Trion has shown that they know exactly how a themepark works, and I doubt that understanding only went up to launching flawlessly. Players consume themepark content fast, and most will no longer entertain themselves by bashing their head into a wall for a few months (Rag 1.0-style raiding). Some emjoy that, and it should be provided, but it’s not the be-all-end-all of providing content. Trion has already hinted (and shown with 1.1?) that the tools they have created for Rift allow for easier content additions, and that the type of content produced is more than just adding another Kill X daily.
Seven years later we look back at WoW and credit Blizzard with bringing polish to the AAA MMO space. In another seven, hopefully we will look back at Rift and credit Trion with bringing (back) a high rate of content delivery.
For now, we can track progress on a monthly basis. One down, 83 to go.
Hardcore Casual 
Yep high rate of content delivery goes hand and hand with EASE of content creation AND deployment.
Rift is going to make peoples head spin in a few months. When Wow will be on 4.1 and thinking 3+ month point releases are as good as it gets. By that time Trion may be on 1.6 version and a healthy dynamic endgame.
I seriously can’t see people who supposedly “played” the beta NOT see the vision Rift is weaving.
It’s like Clinton said to Yasser Arafat after the collapse of the 1999 peace talks.
Clinton said, “I always thought you would make an agreement one minute to midnight but now I see your watch has stopped.”
I suppose that some people have never seen true change in an industry so they don’t know it’s happened until the wave passes. When SWTOR comes out we will see how big monolithic content creations fair against dynamic content…
I’m betting on Rift more and more… because Rift will have monthly chances to “get it right”. SWTOR can only get one at bat AND they need to hit a MEGA HOMERUN!
Yeah good luck with that.
Some people just didn’t like the Beta enough to buy it you know.
It seems a little presumptuous to assume that anyone who really played the Beta should be in love with the game.
For many years Everquest produced a full expansion every six months. Between those expansions were many content updates that introduced full new zones or dungeons and many zone-wide or game-wide events. New content was frequent, significant and memorable. Even now, years later, I can remember in good detail many of the events, like the Rude Individuals storyline or the demonic invasion of Lesser Faydark.
Perhaps surprisingly, however, neither the frequency of this content nor the change it brought to the gamewiorld were universally popular. There were as many complaints about disruption to normal gameplay as there were plaudits for variety and when SoE eventually moved to an annual expansion schedule it was at least partly in response to player complaints that an expansion every six months was just too much.
Rift has been designed and sold on the concept of continual change and endless new content. Based on what they’ve done so far, I’m willing to believe they will offer what they’ve said they will. I’m not yet convinced that the mass of players will turn out to be as enthusuaistic about a true dynamic world with continual change as they claim they would be. There’s that thing about being careful what you wish for…
Tobold said something very wise: that MMOs have to match the bar set by WoW.
What is interesting is that in this area the bar is actually very low. WoW’s content delivery is dire. Reskinning two old dungeons that everyone was bored of already? As their major content push to compete with Rift? That’s really pathetic.
When they started this process of reskinning content they used the excuse that most raiders had missed Naxx the first time around. Less than 1% of raiders (who themselves were only some small fraction of the end game population) made it to the end. But what raiders didn’t see ZA and ZG?
What’s more it takes 6 months for them to do each content patch. So if one does suck (as 3.2 did) that’s it for a year.
They’ve used the excuse it takes time to develop content but that really is nonsense. It takes money. If all it took were time they could have guys working now on the content patch for Jan 2014.
But they get boatloads of money from their 12 million (sic) customers. Why are they running it down?
I half-think they want WoW to falter so their next releases don’t get “WoW touristed” for a month then dumped. It’s an incredibly high risk strategy if true.
When Tobold said that WoW “set the bar”, that doesn’t mean they can do the minimum and just match it. Some games use that bar as a “we don’t want to be WoW” bar and that is a good thing.
As for whether people will stick around for the disruptions from content updates and patches? The thing I am absolutely loving in Rift is that there is rarely an interrupt due to a patch or update. In WoW, you would get a little message telling you the server would be going down in 5 minutes for an update. In Rift, you get a little message telling you that a patch is available and to log out when you are ready to download it. It is almost like they are more concerned about you enjoying your time in-game with few disruptions!
Now, I’ve only been playing for about 3 weeks, so previous to this, I don’t know. This is just my experience.
Lol get it, 7×12=84, 84 months! 7 years! GET IT?!
Rift truly needs to put steam in delivering content to its players to keep them happy and in the game.
I just hope they manage to introduce more variety to World PvP and sort out immunities, buff limits and stuff like that to PvP as well.
But if they keep this insane pace for the next half an year and manage to produce an expansion for when TOR or GW2 come out then they’ll manage to sustain a healthy population.
And I am happy to see that they are bringing variety fast. It gives people less time to complain about lack of things to do.