Rift Message Board

They said it would happen in the ancient texts of May 2013, and lo, it has come to pass. RIFT, the previously not free MMO is now a free MMO. And they promise “no trials, no tricks and no traps.”

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Trion Worlds' PC fantasy MMO Rift is now officially and fully free-to-play. Lovely day for it, what with nothing else going on and all. You can poke at it here.

We're hearing of big layoffs at Trion Worlds, the company behind big online games like Rift and Defiance. One person connected to the company tells us that the layoffs have affected over 100 people, and that they were triggered by the underwhelming performances of both Defiance and Rift's first expansion, Storm Legion. The layoffs affect about 70% of the company, according to that person. IGN reports that employees are being escorted out of the building and that some severance packages may be denied. Just a few days ago, Trion announced that Rift would go free-to-play. But Defiance, the sci-fi experiment that consists of both an MMO and a television show, was just renewed for a second season.

If past me – Nathan the Younger, EverQuest fiend extraordinaire – knew that I/we would eventually be complaining about having access to too many free MMOs, he’d probably shake his head in shame and see if there was still time to have a traumatic experience that’d turn him into a dystopic totalitarian dictator. But here I am – kind, vaguely humble, and only prone to conquering the most formidable of grilled cheese sandwiches – and now Rift’s shedding its subscription in favor of something a bit more comfortable. Truth be told, I kind of assumed it had already flipped the switch. Hm. Well, anyway, explanatory “don’t worry guys seriously no buying power never mind that everyone always says this” trailer after the break.

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Trion Worlds' fantasy MMO Rift goes free-to-play on June 12, giving new players access to the entire game for free, limited only by character slots and inventory size, while subscribers will get extra goodies. Check it out here.

Rift’s big expansion, Storm Legion, is now available to play. You can tell because there’s a launch trailer posted beneath my words. Storm Legion, it seems, contains a catalogue of giant demons and evil magical robot things, as well as fancy boats, fancy cloaks, fancy mounts, and fancy fancies. I quite fancy it, to be honest, but I’ve been wearing my anti-timesink harness for the past year, and so far it has deflected the nightmare gravitational pull of MMOs.

But what about you lot? Anyone still playing Rift? Anyone going back to fight these giant beasties?(more…)

I’d be lying if I suggest that I am posting this for any other reason than the demon. He’s a large demon (not pictured, but damn, look at that dude!), and he’s not happy. Apparently he’s miffed because he overslept. I know how that feels. And so that’s the premise of the Storm Legion pre-order trailer, which you can see below. You might also be able to infer that the Rift expansion is now available for the pre-purchasing masses, who will no doubt be aroused to learn that they will not only secure themselves a fight with Ol’ Sleepy, but they also get early access to “Exodus of the Storm Queen”, which is one of the new dungeons in which exotic and unlikely beasts are waiting to be clubbed for their loot. You also get an “exclusive cape.” Presumably a digital one. If it were a real cape, all silky and flowing, then they might have been on to something. I’d wear it whenever RPS had an exclusive. Like today! Yes.

Anyway. Storm Legion is out on November 13th.(more…)

If there’s a surefire way to improve your fantasy MMO, it must surely be to add one continent of techno-magical robots, and one continent of bony mega-fiends, consequently tripling the size of your playable world. That, by pure chance, is exactly what Rift is doing with Storm Legion, which seems imminent, but does not yet have a release date. There’s been some game footage released, along with the developers blathering about their creation, which you can see below. As well as raising the level cap, and expanding the character creation stuff, they’ve made some incredible-looking locations and populated them with intricate dimension-skipping hyperbosses. And I have to admit it looks pretty dreamy. I can see why so many people have stuck with Rift, especially when stuff like this is in the pipeline. Go take a look.(more…)

#guildwars In whatever he chose to play, Roger Rall was a keystone member of his guild, the consummate teammate. As much as reveled in PvP in Warhammer Online, Dark Age of Camelot or Rift, his voice was unmistakably calm, clear and authoritative above the din of the battle. He went by "Oldroar," and, at 65, he was unquestionably a mentor of the Gaiscioch MMO community. More »

VP of Development, Russ Brown, discusses the increased level cap, growing world size and other content updates coming in the Rift: Storm Legion expansion.

You can call Crucia a "dragon", yet her powers are far more terrible in the Storm Legion Expansion for Rift.

#rift Trion Worlds takes its massively-multiplayer online role-playing game expansions seriously. Tripling the size of the game's landmass, adding 10 new levels and four new classes, guild and player-housing; if Storm Legion's massive influx of new content doesn't satisfy you, you probably shouldn't be playing Rift. More »

Trion World's MMO rift has done well enough for itself, but with Tera underway and The Secret World and Guild Wars 2 looming, they've got to be feeling some heat. Can the newly-revamped three-faction Conquest system keep folks playing? More »

Goodness. Rift‘s PvP may not have managed to set the world on fire straight out of the box, but now it seems to be upgrading from a wet match to a full-sized flamethrower. In short, Conquest pits three new cross-dimensional factions against each other in open world battles where “everyone can contribute.” Even crafters “play a vital role,” apparently. So basically, pick a side, venture over to Stillmoor, and join the impressively multifaceted three-way fray. Somewhere along the way, points get captured and everyone dies. Yeah, it sounds kind of Guild-Wars-y, but it’s still quite a sizable shift in philosophy for a free update to an MMO that’s been around for more than a year.

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Trion have introduced a taste of a future to their Rift client (at least if you are on a 5mbps+ connection) which streams the client as you play. You can still download patches and apply as normal, but if your connection is fast enough and you don’t want to have to wait, the option is now there. They explain: “Streaming Client allows you the option to launch the game from the patcher without having to wait for the full data download to complete. You’ll be able to start playing within a few minutes even after a large update, and the game will download the necessary data in the background while you play.” There’s even an in-game patchometer which states the progress, and tells you whether you aren’t seeing characters and objects because they’re slow to load.

Fancy, that.

#rift Love was in the air in the world of massively multiplayer online role-playing game Rift last week, where players set a Guinness World Record for most in-game marriages in a 24-hour period. More »

Tapping into the rich vein of lonely people playing video games and their desire to establish world records, Rift -- which recently just added a free-to-play option -- held a day-long event on Valentine's Day seeking to marry as many in-game characters as possible. It was a success, and now Rift has the Guinness World Record for most in-game marriages in a 24-hour period.

21,879 marriages took place on February 14, starting at 9am PST. Marriage was introduced in Rift's seventh major update, Carnival of the Ascended. Each participating player earned a unique in-game title, "The Avowed," and quite possibly a nagging significant other.

#rift I was going to title this post "The Romance and Enchantment of Rift's In-Game Marriage System Makes Me Throw Up a Little in My Mouth", but that's far too long, and while spoil the cake? More »

Trion today launched "Rift Lite," an endless trial version of their popular fantasy MMORPG Rift. Rift Lite follows a similar model to the endless World of Warcraft free trial, allowing players to advance up to level 20, experiencing up to four of the game's (rather large) zones and each faction's ca...

What do you give the man who owns everything but is missing the first 20 levels of Rift? Trion Worlds the makers of the rather good MMO Rift, have the answer for you: Rift Lite gives you unrestricted access to the game’s first 20 levels for free. I actually do own everything, so I’m now furious that they’ve undermined my achievement.(more…)

#rift Have you ever wished you could play the first 20 levels of Trion World's massively multiplayer online role-playing game Rift with no time limit at no cost to yourself whatsoever? Damn, that's a very specific wish. Also, you're in luck, as Trion launches Rift Lite, which is exactly what you wanted. More »

The iOS App that extends aspects of Trion's MMO makes its debut on the Android Market today. As Mike Fahey reported earlier, you can chat with Guild members, engage in mini-games and glance at event schedules from Rift Mobile. Find it here. More »

#rift Marriage, ladies and gentlemen. Marriage is a game mechanic, or at least it will be early next month when update 1.7 goes live for Trion Worlds' MMO Rift. They'll be celebrating the new feature on February 14 by attempting to establish the World Record for most in-game marriages in a 24-hour period. Where's that Divorce Paper vendor again? More »

Rift pulled in over $100 million last year, according to a press release from developer and publisher Trion Worlds. Rift was released in February last year and was well-received by critics. Over one million Rift accounts were activated within four months of Rift's launch...

#rift Massively multiplayer gamers that haven't taken a break from Trion World's Rift to go play The Old Republic are a special sort of people. Now you can stay in touch with them via Rift Mobile, a free iOS app that allows players to chat with their friends and win fabulous prizes on the go. More »

We were starting to think we'd make it through the rest of the year without once again worrying about having our social security numbers stolen, Tweeted and written in the sky. How foolish of us! Trion Worlds has announced on its blog that it, "recently discovered that unauthorized intruders gained access to a Trion Worlds account database," a list which included "user names, encrypted passwords, dates of birth, email addresses, billing addresses, and the first and last four digits and expiration dates of customer credit cards."

Trion added that there's no evidence that that credit card info was taken, and that the company has "taken further action to strengthen our systems, even as we, with external security experts, continue to research the extent of the unauthorized access." In the meantime, Trion game users will want to change their password, which they'll be prompted to do the next time you try to login to the company's site, or one of its titles.

We'd also suggest that Trion change its logo, because that open-door-looking letter "I" is starting to seem a tad prophetic.

Here’s a 2011 trend I’d hoped had wound down by now: the hacking of games, game services and game websites. Seems Trion Worlds, makers of Rift, suffered an incursion lately, with hackers finding their way into a database containing “user names, encrypted passwords, dates of birth, email addresses, billing addresses, and the first and last four digits and expiration dates of customer credit cards.” Aieee!

However, Trion have declared that “There is no evidence, and we have no reason to believe, that full credit card information was accessed or compromised in any way.” Phew?(more…)

#rift Developer Trion Worlds has sent emails out to its subscribers warning them that accounts for its MMO Rift - which some people think is a damn fine game - have been compromised by "unauthorized intruders". More »

#otherpeoplesgoty "What is Kotaku's game of the year?" you may be asking yourself. Well, I'm certainly not going to spoil the surprise. But in the meantime, we're sharing the GOTY winners from other sites around the web. More »

#rift Plenty of massively multiplayer online role-playing games attempt to fulfill the promise of easy-in, easy-out gameplay to appease folks that don't have a great deal of time on their hands and just want a quick fighting fix. Rift might be the first MMORPG to deliver. More »