is rift the new wow?

[Zappy]

I'm still up in the air on it. My wow accounts are all expiring over this next month with two of them expiring today. I haven't played much wow in the past couple weeks, and I must say, it's been nice to explore some other games. I think more than anything, my time with wow is over. I've been playing it since release with no breaks, so seeing the accounts expire has been a shock to my wife.

/ranton

The introduction of flying mounts and the LFD tool have destroyed world pvp. Battlegrounds were a great idea when they were first introduced, but now it's turned into a complete grind fest. I don't like to be stuck on one toon at level cap, and with the current state of the game, it seems you need to grind nearly 4-5 hours for each piece of gear only to get weaker gear unless you do arenas, and we all know the state of arenas these days. Add that and the horrible game economy due to gold being so abundant, and it's another reason the game has lost its luster. The best thing wow ever did IMO was BC and the isle -- even with flying mounts, you'll still have loads of fun pvp doing dailys for Skettis and the other camp in blades edge.

/rantoff

Now as far as Rift goes, I don't see it as a wow killer, but I do see it making enough of a dent to where blizzard will realize that they have lost a sizable portion of their user base to it. I haven't been fully captured by it yet, but I am having fun in it. I played a rogue up to level 30, and learning the soul system has been quite fun. I learned every soul including the pvp soul, and I must say that his system blows away wows cookie cutter talent system. I started off as a ranger, then went marksmanship, tried assassination, and finally ended up as a nightblade for my main soul. After doing a few bgs, i realized i need a new spec for a bard for those bgs where we don't have enough healers. I was pleasantly suprised that you can change specs on the fly - even in bgs.

I bought the collectors edition on the 6 month founders plan, and decided I'm going to play solo for a while and we'll see where it goes from there. I definitely need to roll on the server with the other boxers, as I could see myself deciding to multibox this as well in the short future.

I find quite a few things that annoy me in the game:

* No addon support yet. At least give us an option to choose 1 big inventory bag vs all the small bags.
* Looting!!! How come when I loot the item appears in a random place in my bags? This makes it hell trying to keep it organized. Perhaps some functionality to sort it.
* Combat sounds. I expect this to get refined over time, but what I've seen (or heard) are sounds that don't lend any clues about their direction or distance from where they are being cast. Some of the noises are very annoying. I can't see myself playing a bard for this one reason alone.
* Animations. While they aren't horrible, they are still in their infancy compared to wow. Anybody with a mount already knows this as the mounts appear to run in slow motion.
* DX9 (or lack of DX10/11 support). I finally added a 3rd 580GTX, and with everything set to ultra @ 2560x1600, my framerate still drops under 35 at times. Without MSAA, it's mostly at 60, so not a huge drawback as the differences are very minor.
* You can chat with opposite faction. This is a bit awkward after a level 37 killed me four times in a row (i was 29), then proeeded to call me a noob. haha

Things I like:
* World pvp is alive and well. From 25-30, I got plenty of action.
* Rifts - at times became boring, but at higher levels, starting seeing some cool rewards
* Instances - Different, but fun
* BGs - Black Garden was refreshing to play. At first I thought it was capture the flag, but with a new innovative idea for it, I found it freshing to play.
* World graphics. After exploring the new areas, I want to see more.
* Artifacts - while silly and mostly meaningless, I don't know why, but I enjoy making these collections.

Looking forward to Thursday, now I just have to decide what class I'm going to start.

[Meeo]

* Artifacts - while silly and mostly meaningless, I don't know why, but I enjoy making these collections.

Artifacts will eventually have a purpose. Your supposedly being able to turn them in for something, that has yet to be seen or revealed, but it was stated in a dev podcast a month or so ago. Im interested in check it out down the road myself.

[Lyonheart]

You could turn them in during beta. I completed a few. You get a lucky coin ( used to by novelty items..ie mounts..pets etc,,) And a loot bag/item with random loots inside it. From what i understand, some of these shinnies on the ground start "puzzle quests". Completing a puzzle quest rewards a level appropriate item. Rumor is you can do low level area puzzle quest when your high level and get a rare or epic item thats is your level.

[Zappy]

You could turn them in during beta. I completed a few. You get a lucky coin ( used to by novelty items..ie mounts..pets etc,,) And a loot bag/item with random loots inside it. From what i understand, some of these shinnies on the ground start "puzzle quests". Completing a puzzle quest rewards a level appropriate item. Rumor is you can do low level area puzzle quest when your high level and get a rare or epic item thats is your level.

That's why I say mostly meaningless. I turned in a few here and there. I also didn't notice, but they are BOE, so expect to make some cash in auction house on your duplicates.