The WoW Killer?

So Syp is already asking if Rift is a success. People have already chimed in. I'll be honest, I've never gotten in on a headstart. I started playing WoW over a year after it was released. I got into STO a few days after it hit the stores. But I've never seen the polish that this game has, right out the gate. And the enthusiasm players seem to have for it.

It *is* hard to say, at this stage, how successful it will be in the long run. But I hear very little negativity about Rift, other than habitual doomsayers. They are basically saying saying it can't take on WoW because nothing else has been able to.  Others can only complain about the long queues (for some servers, while others are no wait). Few people seem to remember that EQ2 was gonna dominate the MMO genre, until WoW steamrolled over it on it's path to MMO glory. Is Rift a WoW killer? Probably not, but did anyone imagine that WoW would be a EQ killer?

Beau Hindman, commenting on Syp's post, said, "When a game is already being heralded as “nothing new, but that’s OK” then it simply cannot be anything new. We already have old." Going back to 2004, World of Warcraft did not break new any MMO ground, other than perhaps making some things easier. Blizzard took a fairly established genre and gave it polish. WoW was playable on some pretty crappy machines, but looked great on gaming rig of the time. It is still playable on a wide range of systems. Travel was made easier--quicker, but then some complained that Azeroth was too small. Death was less costly, and some said it was less meaningful. But I digress. Blizzard has made an incredible amount of money from polishing older ideas.

Trion may have hit on that formula. The game has some different stuff. More choices of combat mechanics. You can finally have that rogue tank you always wanted. Or that healing mage.Your priest can wear chain. The Rifts themselves are cool dynamic content. But mostly it's the same questing, crafting, and killing as before. Only. With. More. Polish.

That may just be enough.