Since I am not playing Rift much, I have moved back to my old Corpse Run blog.

Just a quick note, I have returned to blogging on my old blog at Corpse Run. Come find me there! Hope to see you there soon!

Part Four of My Visit to Trion: Embargo Lifted and Final Thoughts

Earlier today the embargo was lifted on the stuff that happened outside of the Round Table.  Most of the stuff that was covered in the embargo had to do with out tour and what we saw while taking the tour and talking to devs in each ‘department’.  We were lucky enough to talk to folks from every department including the Raid design team, the UI team, Art and animation and Localization.

I am going to break this report down by department to make it easier to read.  Even with the embargo lifted, there are some things that I saw that I can not talk about, so please understand this up front.  I will let you know everything that I can talk about.  At the end there will be a lot of screenshots as well as some shots from inside the studio mixed in.

The Art and Animation Folks

The Art/Animation Team

Our first stop was in the art and animation area.  This area is really large and the workstations are very impressive.  Each station has a very large Wacom tablet, as well as two monitors for working.  I was impressed that most of the monitors had a window up with the Official Forums on it.  Matter of fact, I saw that throughout the studio.  Just another example of how much Trion listens!

As far as new information is concerned, there is not a lot to speak of, we did get to see a couple of team members working on character customization.  Things like skin tones, beards and the like were all being worked on, so hopefully we will see some new stuff in that area soon.  We also were shown how the animation team animates each model and it is really some cool stuff!

Rift Event Team

Rift Event Lair

The Rift event team is in a smaller room but their setup is almost identical to the Art teams.  They were working on new Rift events, which they say will be ongoing work.  They are determined to keep the Rift events fresh and not allow them to become the ‘same-old-same-old’ after awhile.  We were shown a Rift raid and, though I can not say a lot about it, I will say that it looks really nice.  The team pointed out that they have not even touched the tip of the iceberg with what they can do with their tool-set and I think we are all going to be surprised with the flexibility and power that this tool-set delivers.  There are going to be some really, really cool stuff coming down the pipeline!

The Raid Design Team

Next up, we headed to the Raid team and what a visit it was!  I am not going to be able to speak much on this front but I will try to get in what I can.  First, we saw Hammerknell!  It was absolutely awesome.  Everything from the look (its beautiful), to the layout (its big!), to the bosses (awesome!) was jaw-dropping.  If you are a raider and looking for a new fix, Rift will more than fill it for you.  The raiding will be incredible in this game.  Incredible.

We also got to hear a bit of their design philosophies and, even better, the team’s high enthusiasm.  These are folks who clearly love what they do and it shows in the care and hard work they put into their jobs.  Lucky bastards!

U.I. Design

We were fortunate to talk to the UI team next and were filled in on what they have planned in the future.  Some I can tell you and some I can not.  What I can say is that add-ons are going to be in the game at some point, though they are still working out what they want to allow them to do.  They are really being careful with this aspect because they want nothing in the game that can ‘play the game for you’ but they do want some stuff to make certain things easier.

They also let us know about a new feature that will be hitting very, very soon.  I can not say but you should be hearing about it any time now.

Engineering

We were fortunate enough to see some very cool things here.  We were shown a real-time map that has the average player FPS in colors all over the map.  They can tell at a glance what areas are getting low FPS and then take a look at optimizing that area.  They can also pull up just about any information they want from the UI.  Gold distribution, PvP hotspots….just about anything.

Yes, Trion knows what you are doing!

Q&A

Q&A Headquarters

Quality control doesn’t sound like a very sexy job but it is absolutely vital to the Trion team.  These are the folks that hammer out the patches and make sure they are not broken before we get them.  With Trion’s track record, I would say they are doing a pretty damn good job!  They are also some of the hardest working folks at Trion.  They regularly stay late to test patches before they go out.  Remember all the late night patches during the beta events?  Yeah, thank them!

This is also the home of Amary, who writes some of the most amusing patch notes in the business.  I imagine translating all the technical stuff into easy to understand language for us normal folk is kind of difficult and Amary pulls it off with flair.

Final Thoughts on the Trip

Well, that about does it for my coverage of Gamer Day 3.  I want to end this by thanking everyone that I had the privilege to meet during my trip.  Everyone, from the other fan-site operators to the Trion team, were unbelievably cool.  I really hope I will get to see them again in the future and I will certainly be talking to them through Twitter, email, phone and every other way I can.

I know that a lot of what I have written in my posts over the last few days may be construed as ‘fanboy’ talk.  But, you know what?  That is fine.  After watching other MMO devs more concerned with hype than truth, moving as slow as an iceberg with every fix and not listening to the players at all, what Trion is doing is very refreshing.  Trion is the model by which all other MMO development teams should be judged. I mean that whole-heartedly.  Trion deserves to succeed and I think they will.

So, thanks to everyone who has read my articles the past two days.  Between the plane flights and all the writing, I am totally exhausted but it was all worth it.  I am going to leave you with a few more pictures and screenshots from my trip.

Thanks!

More of the Art Team

Map of Telara

Demo Time!

Part Two of My Trion Visit: The Roundtable (First Fifteen Minutes)

The single coolest part of my visit to Trion was our chance to sit down with Scott Hartsman, Hal Hanlin and Russ Brown in a ‘Fan-site Roundtable’ format.  We were able to have an hour of dedicated time with the head-honchos of Rift and ask them any questions we wanted.  Of course, they could not answer everything we asked but they answered what they could and even when they could not they were sure entertaining.

So, I have struggled with how I want to present this round table to you readers.  I could do a verbatim blow-by-blow account of the roundtable, full of direct quotes, transcript style.  Or, I could do a more free form account, with some direct quotes but also with my opinion and commentary.

After much thought and trying both ways, I have settled on the second approach.  Let’s face it, this is a blog and a blog means opinions.  So that is what I am going to do.  I am sure the other sites will fill you in on the exact wording and a blow-by-blow account and they will probably do a better job of it than I could.  So, read on to find out what was asked, how it was answered and what I thought of the answers!

The first thing that I must state, up front, is how dedicated, enthusiastic and intelligent both Scott and Russ came across.  I have read, watched and heard many an interview with the two but interviews can be deceiving.  I can unequivocally state that what you hear in their interviews is what you get in person.  Scott may know and understand more about MMOs than any single person I have ever heard.  He understands how they work.  He understands what the user base wants and he is determined to get it right.  Russ is the same way and may be even more enthusiastic.  His ever present giggle was in full force throughout the round table and his enthusiasm and excitement is contagious.

The Roundtable Starts

The round table started out with a question posed by yours truly.  I have been rather disappointed in the lack of pet options for the pet Souls, specifically the Beastmaster and Ranger pets. The lack of options and the ‘sameness’ of the pets is particularly irritating when you played a hunter and WoW and saw their pet training system.  Scott was quick to agree that the pets do look too much alike but replied that it was a lot of work to change the pet system and, though it was something they were looking at, it would not be something we saw by release or soon after.

I was expecting this really.  Looking at the quality of the rest of the game, I figured that Scott and company were probably not completely happy with the current pet system but I also knew that it was not something they could really change by release or immediately after.  I am very happy that they are looking at it, however, and I hope to have a more ‘full-featured’ pet system in the future.

Next up, we had Arithion asking about the possibility of Titles giving a stat when equipped ‘ala LotRO.  Scott and Russ both agreed that there was no reason to do this because they had so many ways to add stats your character already.  The foci system, the crafting system and general gear all already do this and adding yet another one would be overkill.  I pretty much agree with this and don’t think it is needed.  Arithion clarified that she was thinking of just a single stat per title and they said they might think of that.

On the State of the Game and What Has Changed Over Development

Draegn then chimed in with a question about what the biggest change Scott implemented after coming on board was.  Scott talked about a white board in his office that started out with around 400 ‘to-dos’ and now is completely finished.  He stated that the biggest thing that he has seen is how they are starting to expose the story and lore more and more.  He also talked about how a lot of what we think is ‘new’ features are things that they have had planned from the beginning and we are just now seeing.

Scott: Alot of what we talked about before was technology, technology, technology and then it finally came time to talk about the game, the game, the game.

Arithion quickly followed up that answer by asking if they were happy with where the game is as it is about to be released.  Both Scott and Russ agreed that they were farther ahead of where they thought they would be at this time.

Scott:  Russ and I have to do board slides for our board meetings every month or two and its really need being able to fill out the slide where you are “not only did we do all the stuff we said we were going to do but here’s all the things we totally did not think we were going to get in the game.

Russ then talked about how they would put things into beta and it would totally change from what they originally intended and they ended up going in a totally new direction with things.

Draegn continued by asking what the biggest surprise was, where they thought something was going to work but ended up going 180° in another direction.

Russ: I would say nothing has gone 180°, which is good, I would say like invasions and the soul system have went better than expected.  I don’t know if its like 20° but look at  some of the classic concerns we had; “This class system is too complex for users”.  This is a problem we have to solve.  No, its not.  It was a problem that didn’t exist.

Russ continued by talking about invasions and how they were worried about what solo players would do during an invasion. That turned out to be a false worry because they found out players would “kick the shit out of them!”.  He said that they were worried about having to hand hold players but that they found out they did not have too and players would figure it out themselves.   They spent a lot of time worrying about stuff that was never a problem to begin with.

On Listening to the Player Base

After a bit of small talk and joking, Arithion asked a great question about whether it was possible to listen to the fanbase too much and how you balance that.

Scott: I can tell you what you absolutely can’t do, is go out and read the forums and just look for pure volume  of screaming and you can’t look for ultimatums and you can’t look for those kinds of things.

He also says that they still have to pay attention to the things players are saying and take a hard look at them.   Russ chimed in by saying that you have to look at the heart of the problem and not necessarily the specific feature.

My next question was if there were topics on the forum that are posted so often that they are just completely tired of them.  I used the example of arenas and flying mounts.  Russ was quick to chime in on this!

Russ:  Well I will tell you this, I will be honest with you.  There are things, when they are posted up, they cause physical physical pain to the team.  But we need those, right?  Because they keep us honest.

Its at this point that Russ breaks down and tell us the truth: he hates player housing.  But he goes on to say that they need players telling them this and that he would rather have  passionate players telling them they need player housing than not.  Even though it causes him considerable pain.

Scott comes in to save the day for fans of player housing by saying that he loves it but has concerns over the social aspect of the system.  He understands that there are a lot of players who want housing and they will be looking into it for the future.  Russ makes a funny comment that everyone at Trion reads the forums and every time that there is a thread about players wanting houses, he gets about 60 emails from the team pointing it out!

Our next topic was one that was brought up by me and one that is near and dear to my hearts.  That is how Trion balances ‘convenience’ features with the need for a living, breathing world.  I specifically mentioned flying mounts, the ability to teleport to dungeons and WoW’s Random Dungeon Finder.  These are things that are great convenience features but, in my opinion, tend to harm the open world and the server community.  This was a topic that I really wanted to hear Scott’s and Russ’ thoughts on and they were happy to oblige.

Scott began his thoughts on this topic by mentioning an interview that he did recently where he stated that they were not terribly concerned how long it took to get to max level because they wanted the journey to be fun and they knew they had a healthy end-game at the end.  He said that because of that comment, many players took that to mean that Trion doesn’t care about a living world and the leveling portion of the game.  Which is not true at all.

Scott: The amount of time something takes and the fun you have while doing it are not things that are tied together.  And, so, the same can be said for the immersiveness of the world.  The amount of time that things are forced to take and  the value you get out of world style game play are two totally different things.  I think a lot of times people will assume they are tied together because they have always been tied together in other games but we are making our game.

On the Possibility of a Random Dungeon Finder Coming to Rift

Arithion asked the question that we were all dying to know and that is if we will see a Random Dungeon Finder in Rift at some point.  Scott quickly stated that it was something they are thinking about and it is possible that it would be cross server.  He knows a lot of people do not want to see one but he says the value may be worth it in the end.  I ask him if they have thought about how a cross server dungeon finder would impact the server community and Scott says that it may not be cross server.  They are still looking at options.  He goes on to say that he has found that LFG tools do not work.  They spend weeks creating them, asking for opinions from the community and then get it into the game and no one uses them after the first week.  He believes that what is needed is one that actually makes the group for you.

Scott: People love groups.  Its a fallacy that people want to play solo all the time.  Its that people don’t want to be ‘that guy’ that puts himself out there and shouts in a channel to try to pull a group together for the next 45 minutes and probably fail.  Thats not a fun experience.  Half our game is in dungeons, half of our game is in raids and if no one is using them, we have failed.  The only thing that has proven to get people together is when you can help them form groups.

After some debate back and forth, primarily with Arithion and I on one side and against the RDF and Scott advocating for it, Scott makes a very valid point and that is that we have one reference point for the RDF right now and that is WoW.  Just because the WoW RDF does it one way, does not mean that Rift’s RDF would do it the same way.

Scott:  You are falling into a trap that a lot of people fall into and that is:  MMO does not equal WoW.  Lots of games have succeeded before WoW and lots of games will succeed after.

I think that this is a valid point and if Trion is able to design a random dungeon finder that lessens the impact on the server community and on open world, I am all for it.  My only point of reference is WoW and I think it was horribly done but that is not the only way to do it.  I guess I am in a ‘wait and see’ mode for this one.  Only time will tell.

I had originally planned to cover all of the round table in one post but I have come to realize that this would be simply impossible.  The above information was only the first fifteen minutes of the round table and there is another hour to go!  I am going to continue through out the week releasing more info from the round table, so check back often.  Next installment will have some information about Raids, PvP and the infamous Power Point presentation!

Be sure to listen to the Rift Podcast for audio of the visit and the infamous drunken podcast segment!  Also, check out Rift Junkies, Telarapedia and RiftIRC for more coverage and another take on the roundtable!

See you next time!

Trion Studios: Consider it Toured.

Just finished up our tour of Trion.  Have some great pictures to show everyone once I get them transfered.  I also have a lot of information to post as soon as I have the chance to sit down and post it. 

Right now I am sitting in Trion’s demo room and watching a few folks from Ten-Ton Hammer, Curse and MMORPG.com play an instance.  I think they just wiped.

Be back later with more!

Aaaah, Heat at Last!

So, my blow by blow account of my trip to Trion Worlds continues!  I have left the ‘E’ Terminal (the horribly ghetto ‘E’ terminal!) and moved over to ‘D’.  This terminal is the home to the Grand Hyatt hotel, with its horribly overpriced beer.  But it does have free heat and that’s all I need.

So, I guess only part of DFW Airport totally sucks afterall!

The Dallas Airport Pretty Much Sucks…

So, it is now 11PM and I am setting at the DFW Airport waiting for a flight that does not leave until 8AM.  Yes, I got here really early but it was either have a friend drive me to the airport early or drive my truck and pay 20 bucks a day for parking.

Needless to say, I got here early.

I have quickly discovered that DFW Airport sucks.  All the ticket counters are closed and do not open until 5AM.  I can not get to any of the restaurants or shops because to get there you have to go through security which is, you guessed it…..closed.

So, I am sitting in the part of the terminal I can get to and using my Droid (thank God for my Droid!) as a mobile hot-spot to surf the internet.  Don’t even think of using the airports hot-spot because its expensive.  Yeah, this airport sucks.

To top it off, the temperature in Dallas right now is officially cold as hell and the heat in this terminal is pretty much non-existent.  Going outside is out of the question because I think I will freeze solid as I walk around.

All this adds up to a loooong night sitting in the terminal and surfing the internet.  I do have a movie or two to watch as well and I imagine that will be on the agenda for later on tonight.

Still, it is well worth it for my trip to San Francisco!  Getting to see the Trion team and tour the studio is just too awesome.

Hmmm, I wonder if I would get in trouble if I laid down here and took a nap?

Go West, Young Man! HorRIFTic’s Upcoming Trip to Trion!

Last week I received a phone call with some very exciting news.  Abigale, Trion’s very own Community Manager, gave me a call and asked if I would like to head out to Trion’s studio in San Francisco for a community get together.  I have to say I was pretty amazed that Trion would think of a small blog like mine when picking out fan-sites for this event.  I also have to say that I am very, very excited about this opportunity.  Not only is Rift a great game but everyone I have ever talked to from Trion Worlds seems to be very cool people.  Their excitement for their upcoming game is contagious and they are very in-tune with the community.

In addition to myself, there are a few other fan-sites heading out west with me.  Telarapedia, Rift Junkies, RiftIRC and Rift Podcast will also be joining me in San Francisco and I look forward to meeting them as well.  I see a strong community building in Rift already and these fan-sites and all the others are really helping to make it that way.

Before I go, I want to invite all of you to post any questions you might have about Rift in the comments below.  I have a ton of questions myself but I am sure I will miss a few in my excitement.  So, post any (polite!) questions you might have for the Trion team below and I will ask as many as I can.  Of course, I will post the answers when I get back and I will also have a ton of pictures to show off!

Thanks everyone!

Something Not Rift Related

I am going to have a new post about Rift up later this evening but I wanted to post something real quick that has nothing to do with Rift.  My wife has been a very good artist for a long time but she has finally started doing some art work that she wants to make available for sale.  She does some really nice, unique stuff that I think is pretty awesome.

I am going to post the link to her websites, where she offers the art work, t-shirts and the like for sale and I encourage anyone interested in some pretty unique stuff to take a look.  She is really just getting started with this but she has been to a few art shows and the like and her stuff is pretty well received.  So, take a look, let me know what you think and feel free to order anything you like!

Her websites can be found below and on my links!

Her Etsy Shop (handmade items and prints)

Her Cafepress Shop (t-shirts, mugs etc.)

If My Little Rift Blog is Any Indication, Interest in Rift is Ramping Up.

I started this blog just a scant few months ago.  Right at five months, if my memory serves.  I am too lazy to go back and check at the moment.  I started pretty slow.  My first month netted a grand total of 8,322 views.  Not bad but certainly nothing huge.  October was around the same but I had a huge drop off in November.  I blame that on myself, as my job got really busy around this time and I made very few posts that month.  In December things started to ramp up again.  I netted around 7,000 views that month.

Then January hit and HorRIFTic Intentions exploded.  So far for this month I am at nearly 28,000 views.  Twenty-eight THOUSAND. My most popular post was the one about why WoW players might enjoy Rift, which has simply exploded.  It seems that it has been linked far and wide.  I have views coming in from MMO-Champion.com, Massively.com and a ton of guild sites and private forums.  That post has nearly 9,000 views this month.  It also constituted my busiest day, January 6th, with 4,000 views.

On days I post nothing, I am averaging around 600 or so views.  On days that I post, it jumps up over 1,000 on average.  I just simply can not believe it.  Not only am I getting a lot of “fly-by” traffic but I am also seeing a lot of people coming back and subscribing.  I want to thank everyone for that!

Now, I know people aren’t coming by because of my stellar opinion pieces, as much as I would like to think that.  I can only assume that Rift is starting to pick up some steam and my little ‘ole blog is benefiting from it.  I know I am probably a small-fry when it comes to MMO sites in general and Rift sites in particular, but I must say that it brings a smile to my face knowing that there are people out there even the tiniest bit interested in what I have to say about Rift and the world of MMOs.

I want to thank each and every one of you for stopping by.  I hope you enjoyed your time here, even when you disagreed with me!  I hope you all continue to be excited about Rift and keep coming back!

Now, if I could only get a few more of you to comment!!  🙂

Adding Rift Links to My Blogroll!

As we near release, I want to make sure that I have added as many Rift-centric sites to my Blogroll as possible.  So, if you run a Rift fansite or Blog and you are not linked in my Blogroll, please comment here with the address to your site.  I will get you added as soon as possible!

 

Thanks!