Last week, Trion’s MMO RIFT went free to play. I don’t really mind paying subscription fees for high quality games, but in this case I was excited to return because I know this will bring a slew of new players to the game. One thing about Rift is that there are public events (called ‘rifts’) all over the game and often times they can’t be completed solo. Or if they can, it takes a very long and tedious time. RIFT is truly a better game when it’s lively and full of players at all levels, so now is the perfect time to hop in and give it a go.
I made a new cleric on the Deepwood server and played her to level 10 and had an okay time of it. She seemed to level rather slow and I didn’t feel like a cleric. She felt more like a mage/necro, since my damage spells were all primarily nukes. I did however have some interesting bugs in which my face and head were missing…
Who needs a head anyway?
I also discovered the Dimensions system, which is Rift’s player housing. It’s obviously very inspired by EverQuest 2, though I actually think it’s even more user friendly and robust. It basically feels like EQ2’s housing system with better graphics. It features the ability to rate other players’ dimensions and view the top rated, and I know that much of my day is going to be spent just browsing homes created by other players for ideas for my own dimension. Since I am a ‘patron’ (aka a subscriber) I got almost 15,000 free credits to play with and a number of veteran rewards such as a couple dimensions to play around in. My first one is completely empty and very tiny (I think everyone gets this dimension for free).
My other dimension is much better and features an indoor and an outdoor area to decorate. It’s a jumbled mess right now…basically just everything I’ve ever gotten plopped down in the space to get it out of my inventory.
I ended up deciding to try out a rogue. The Ranger class to be exact, which gives me a pet to play with and some more DPS so I can power through monsters and level quicker while solo. I might end up regretting rerolling but I have a ton of characters spread out all over the level range so I can always go back and try something else if I get bored with the Ranger. I decided to try out the Guardian side since apparently faction no longer matters in Rift. You can group, guild, and talk to people across faction now. So, yeah.
I joined up with a guild called Deviant which is basically an LGBT/kink/misfit guild that so far feels very welcoming, talkative, helpful, and friendly. I think I made the right choice to switch to a new server, as Faeblight is the unofficial LGBT server and seems to have a lot of accepting guilds and nice people so far.
Here’s my screenshot dump for today. RIFT is really a beautiful game and I always enjoy my time spent playing it. I couldn’t care less about the story and the lore, but I like the combat, the features, and UI, the polish, the music, and the environment. Click to enlarge!
CuppyVille 
Leave a Reply