Scott Harstsman Executive Producer and TRION’S CCO
It’s been quite a mental day for the TRION team if you have been keeping an eye on the Dev Tracker, so to wrap things up, Scott Hartsman issued a statement regarding the world event this evening. TRION readily admit things didn’t quite go to plan, and for many, it was all over too quickly with phase 2 and 3 being rushed.
With this being the first event of its type for the RIFT, issues were to be expected, and after the false start last weekend, I’m pretty sure TRION were crossing their fingers that today would have gone smoother than it did. I think most people were disappointed by the timing of the phases, running an event like this over a short period of a matter of hours seems a little hasty after the event has such big billing. The problem with the timing was not helped by the queues with players eager to get on to take part in the event actually missing it because they were in a queue.
This was a the first time TRION has attempted an event like this, and to be honest, I was not expecting things to run like a charm today. In the world of MMOs large events in general never run that smoothly but valuable lessons are usually learned and TRION has taken that on-board. It was a valiant attempt at a first large scale world event nevertheless.
Take it away Scott…
When we set out to get this unveil event in front of you, it was all about some serious ambitions.
Great new types of content to unveil a brand new raid zone. Events that really push the edge of what’s possible not just in Rift, but in any MMO of its kind. All within an incredibly rapid amount of time following launch.
In this case, while we did get to “what’s possible” we didn’t get to “solid gameplay for the entire game universe.” The later phases of the event were too concentrated and time-compressed, which caused issues on a number of worlds.
Ambition is important — It’s what keeps us improving day to day, week to week, month to month. But, it’s equally important to know when you walked too close to the edge and got cut.
Between our previous experience with zone events and now with world events, we have a much better idea of the range we can create “fun” for at a mass scale in the future, and the steps we need to take to continue progressing the more solid gameplay experiences that only happen in RIFT.
As I had posted earlier, our next world events will already be taking everything we learned, as well as all of your comments about the event, into account. Please do keep them coming — I guarantee we’re here reading them all, weekend or not.
As developers, none of us are happy when anyone who chooses to spend their valuable time in our game feels like they got the short end of our aspirations.
To that end, even if something goes great for some, when it doesn’t go great for all, we’re going to go out of our way to make it up in some way wherever we can.
We’re going to assume that if you are an active subscriber you were intending to participate in the final stages.
1) Operating on that assumption, later this week everyone will be receiving an in-game mail with the River of Souls Event Reward Pack containing:
Symbol of Purity – This item starts a quest you can complete to obtain
- 250 Otherworldly Sourcestone
- 1x – Purified Treasure Cache – Contains a random chance of obtaining one of the special world drop event rewards from the day of the event
- Common – Grave Goods Bag -Unique 20 Slot Bag (NEW ITEM)
- Uncommon – Shroud of Anti-Life – Lorn non combat Polymorph
- Rare – Nimble Spectral Horse – 90% Speed Mount
- Ultra Rare – Swift Spectral Warhorse – 110% Speed Mount
- Shadetouched Weapon Cache – The starter item for the Rare Death weapon quests. You can choose whichever level appropriate one you’d like.
- The following two Achievements, since not everyone who was (or wanted to be) present was able to obtain them.
2) The achievement for kneeling to Alsbeth will remain available in her incarnation inside the River of Souls.
3) Additionally, we’re also going to continue the Otherworldly Sourcestone drops for the next few days, for those who haven’t yet finished off their collections and would care to.
4) And since the question has come up quite a few times — the ability to complete the quests from the Shadetouched Weapon Cache will continue, such that you’re always able to finish them.
We do thank you for your patience with us during this first ever World Event. We know that patience isn’t infinite. We do respect that fact greatly, and you have our word that we’re listening and reacting smartly for the next round.
- Scott
