Great For Bringing Players Back

At least for these two MMORPGs, having these servers are a great way to bring players back to their games. In comparison to what’s out there in the market today, RIFT and Anarchy Online can be considered as classics. Many players have probably moved on to greener pastures, so having a temporary server to play does ring the nostalgia bell somewhat. At least for me, I’m pretty excited at checking both out to see if I can recapture that magic of vanilla, especially for RIFT before the F2P hell broke loose.

The pricing however, is going to determine just how many players are in favor of what these MMORPGs are trying to do. Is this becoming a new way to earn revenue than just the micronstransactions from in-game cash shops? If so, many players wouldn’t mind it all. Cash shops have given MMOs a bad name – Pay to Win is a phrase thrown around too often, and just as often, MMORPGs don’t help themselves by selling advantages. So why not monetize nostalgia, if these servers do as they are advertised? Most of the games that have them will benefit from a reinvigorated player base.

Will More Classic MMORPGs Use Limited Time Servers?

More MMORPGs definitely should, especially for those that have been around for about ten years or more. Last year was a great year for fresh start servers, and even games like LOTRO decided its time to cash in on nostalgia. Other games like the first Guild Wars and a few others could perhaps release their own as an additional means of revenue. As long as developers have the resources to execute, these event servers are good – for both publicity, and really, for keeping the game relevant and alive.

The post Why Are MMORPGs and Progression Servers Becoming Popular? appeared first on Mmos World.

Transfering Characters From Prime To Live

All transferred characters will be available on Reclaimer (Trial Only Server) in the US environment, and players will be able to transfer those characters to any other US live shard. We currently do not support character transfers between the US and EU environments.

All accounts who have at least one character who reached level 50 on Prime will be able to claim the following on live once character/credit transfers have been completed (Can be claimed once):
• Level 65 Character Boost Pack
• 1 million loyalty

On Exceeding Character Slot Limits

Current limits cannot be exceeded, players concerned will need to have less than 12 characters (13 for those who purchase the original Wilds Pack) on any shard they wish to move characters off Reclaimer.

Name Duplicates

Characters who have name conflicts will be given the opportunity to choose a new name (they will have additional characters appended to the end of their current name when a conflict appears). This is really straightforward, so be sure to check your live shards in advanced if you’ve used your Prime character’s name on live. Prime players from EU, no worries as you probably don’t have any characters on the NA shards.

On Guilds

Guilds will not be transferred to live environments. While unfortunate, it’s understandable. Luckily, there’s still numerous active guilds on the Rift live servers so this is a non issue. Most guilds are in touch with its members through Discord or Websites anyway, so its not like everyone goes dark all of a sudden.

Actionable Preparation

Players may want to remove items from guild banks that you wish to transfer from Prime. Additionally, items like Mounts that are tradeable on Prime, will not be on Live. Therefore, be sure to take them off the auction house and either consume them or sell them. On live NA Shards, if you have a full shard with characters, either transfer a few off in prep for your Prime characters, or delete any unplayed low level alt.

The post Rift Prime Is Shutting Down: Here’s What You Need To Know appeared first on Mmos World.

World of Warcraft: Classic

Announced at BlizzCon 2017, WoW Classic is the end product from the devs to stop private nostalgia servers like Nostalrius and many others like it. Classic will be an official throwback server to the past, using game systems and content appropriate to that era. It’s something plenty of WoW players have wanted, as an official Blizzard server would simply mean better support and regular updates. Players attending this year’s BlizzCon either physically or virtually via a ticket can play the WoW Classic demo. Needless to say, we’re all excited about this one, and its announcement has sparked many other MMORPG’s to follow suit. However, it’s also going to be a premium, as Blizzard doesn’t do things for free. Expect to be on a WoW subscription to play this in the future, whenever it launches.

Lord of the Rings Online: Legendary Worlds

One of the latest MMORPG’s to join the bandwagon, The Lord of the Rings Online will launch it’s fresh start progression server in November 2018. Legendary Worlds will transport players back to 2007’s Shadows of Angmar vanilla content. It’s a period that many will fondly remember due to the difficulty, lack of modern headache inducing systems and the plethora of group content. Simply put, the LOTRO’s vanilla content is what put it on the map. While the live servers are free, the Legendary Worlds will not follow suit. Players will need a $15 monthly subscription to play on it. Since its announcement last week, there’s a real buzz surrounding LOTRO’s community and among former players to return.

RIFT Prime Server

Another classic MMORPG from the ‘golden age’ of MMOs, RIFT, also offers its own nostalgia progression server. RIFT Prime like LOTRO’s, costs $15 a month to play on it, and its been out since February 2018. Its initial popularity brought in a surge of players to experience RIFT from the beginning, and Trion admittedly did enjoy its early success. Regardless of what’s going on right now (Trion’s sale to Gamigo), the Prime server is still popular for its on-level raiding and lack of pay to win in the cash shop. However, the long drought between content updates on both Live and Prime is what’s hurting them at the moment.

Age of Conan: Saga Server

Funcom’s Age of Conan is one of the earliest MMORPGs to adopt and offer a fun limited time progression server. Planned in 2017 and executed this year, the Saga of Zath server is a full free to play server with a cash shop that’s been one of the best experiences we’ve had in Age of Conan for a long time. The server saw plenty of players return, and the best part about it is players could earn tangible rewards for completing challenges on the server. This can then be taken back to the Live servers once the Saga server ends. It was a success, and we hope more Saga servers will emerge in the future.

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Trion Worlds, the studio behind RIFT has released its summer 2018 producer’s letter. Coming six weeks after their spring letter, the studio appears to be hard at work, tweaking balance issues for souls and content.

For players who like the Warrior class, it has been given some love with its Souls being tuned, so apparently its fun to play again. Other classes did get fixes as well. The letter starts of with these balances as a priority and mentions that it is an on-going process. High on the list of RIFT’s next to do’s are tweak Legendary Abilities and revamp Cleric healing and DPS. As someone who plays a Cleric, I am happy to hear this, especially for the Prime server.

The Live version of the game is also getting some love, and the short term focuses are listed below:

RIFT Live Short Term Focus

• Bring more exciting rewards to the Daily Reward Calendar on Live, more in line with the Prime rewards.
• Add rare mount drops to Expert Dungeons and Raids on Live.  These extra rewards for play have been great on Prime, and this one is an idea that’s definitely worth taking to all servers.
• Revamp and reduce the credit store on Live. We’re looking keenly at player feedback, especially some recent well-presented player discussions, to improve this area. While we view the store as a place for cosmetics, convenience, and some amount of ability for newer players to catch up with their friends, we don’t want it to be perceived as gameplay replacement, so we’ll be making upcoming changes with that in mind.
• Some may have noticed the recent trend on the Rift store to offer the latest mounts without releasing them inside of a lockbox, and you should expect more of that.
• As an advanced Soul Balance topic, revisiting the Eternal Weapons and their impact on builds.
• Planar Fragments, addressing their level of RNG and costs to upgrade.
• Warfront queue level banding is going to be getting a look in an upcoming test.  The more level bands and warfronts there are, the longer queueing takes.  Our goal here is to speed up the queues while keeping gameplay fun.

For more information, check out the full post here.

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Trion Worlds is excited to announce that the RIFT Prime server is now live! Players worldwide can go back to where it all began on an exciting progression server that offers tons of amazing RIFT content for one easy subscription fee.

Created with the goal of presenting players with an alternative way to experience the game, RIFT Prime offers an all-new fresh start server with a subscription model for progressively unlocked content. Seven years of exciting RIFT content and expansions will be unlocked throughout the lifetime of the server, so jump in and see what the world of Telara has in store!

The number of purchasables in RIFT Prime has been greatly reduced, with cosmetic goods and a small number of services like Name Change scrolls or guild Rally Banners available for purchase with in-game currency or credits, and absolutely no loot boxes. Equipment and gear are obtained through gameplay.

Vigil, the first RIFT Prime server, is scheduled to be open for at least one year. Upon the end of the progression server, players will be able to migrate their character to a RIFT Live server, keeping all of the progress, items and gear they have accumulated over their time playing through RIFT Prime.

The Prime server will feature monthly “community challenges”, which are milestones for characters to complete that can reward them with bonus cosmetic items like mounts or costumes. Challenges include being the first to complete the designated milestone or a random selection from the characters who complete the milestone by the end of the monthly challenge period. Rewards will be distributed in-game to the winning characters and are permanently acquired by that character, including if transferred back to RIFT Live servers later.

The new RIFT Prime progression server is live now. Visit the RIFT Prime store here: https://www.trionworlds.com/rift/en/store/prime/ .

For more information on RIFT Prime, please visit https://www.trionworlds.com/riftprime .

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In celebration of RIFT’s 7th anniversary, Trion Worlds is excited to reveal that RIFT Prime, the highly-anticipated progression server that allows players to experience a bevy of amazing RIFT content for one low monthly subscription fee, will launch on March 7. RIFT fans and newcomers alike who are looking forward to getting into the upcoming server can pre-order the Primogenitor Pack, which includes a ton of great goodies along with Prime access for $29.99!

The Primogenitor Pack contains 30 days of Patron and two additional 15-day Patron vouchers that can be given to friends to prep them prior to the server going live or used on alts. The pack also has a Cloak of the Void, a “Primogenitor” prefix title, an Armoured White War Tiger mount, and a Rift Prime portrait frame; these four items are specific to the Prime-created character and can only be used in RIFT Prime!

Additionally, Trion Worlds is currently running a server name challenge! From February 23 through 25, players can use the hashtag #NameRiftPrime to submit their ideas for the name of the new RIFT Prime server via the RIFT forums. From February 26 through 28, players will be polled on the top 5 names, with the winner announced on the weekly RIFT livestream on March 2. Visit the RIFT blogfor more details.

Created with the goal of offering players a sought after alternative way to play through years of classic RIFT content, RIFT Prime offers an all-new fresh start server with a subscription model for progressively unlocked content. Players can experience exciting content and expansions that have been created and released across seven years of RIFT!

In RIFT Prime, current store-based items like equipment can be obtained through gameplay, with only cosmetic goods and a small number of services like Name Change scrolls or guild Rally Banners being purchasable with in-game currency or credits (absolutely no lockboxes). Dozens of existing in-game updates and content will be available to RIFT Prime subscribers, as well as regular milestones and achievement rewards.

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Apparently, that’s enough to raise some buzz about RIFT again. The free to play MMORPG has undoubtedly lost some of its magic over the years since arriving in 2011. The game was well known for its then intuitive open world Rift events, in addition to its deep class customization system. Unfortunately, it could no longer hold on to its subscription model and went free to play, ushering in a new age of microtransactions that drove players away.

The same can also be said about Funcom’s Age of Conan. Not to be outdone by RIFT, AoC also announced a limited time server called the Saga of Zath, which actually went live this week. The difference is, it’s free to play, and players get cool rewards for completing milestones that they can then transfer over to the live Crom servers. Both are limited time, which means they will end. So, what’s the deal?

Great For Bringing Players Back

At least for these two MMORPGs, having these servers are a great way to bring players back to their games. In comparison to what’s out there in the market today, RIFT and Age of Conan can be considered as classics. Many players have probably moved on to greener pastures, so having a temporary server to play does ring the nostalgia bell somewhat. At least for me, I’m pretty excited at checking both out to see if I can recapture that magic of vanilla, especially for RIFT before the F2P hell broke loose.

The pricing however, is going to determine just how many players are in favor of what Trion Worlds is trying to do. Let’s be honest here, there are many reasons why players aren’t happy with Trion. And it’s not just about RIFT, but the other MMORPGs that they have too (Archeage anyone?). Will RIFT Prime justify a subscription fee? Considering it’s the same old content that returning players have to chug through again? At least Age of Conan has the right idea. It’s not charging a dime for its Saga server, and I think more returning players will feel a lot more welcome to check out the game again without having the developers asking for money at every turn.

Will More Classic MMORPGs Use Limited Time Servers?

I think more definitely should, especially for those that have been around for about ten years or more. For instance, I see The Lord of the Rings Online as the perfect MMORPG to introduce an ‘event’ server of some sort, where the developers SSG can introduce short stories from a different age in Middle Earth. While that may be lore-breaking, the truth is, anything new and fresh in that game will be more than welcomed. Heck even a vanilla only Shadows of Angmar challenge server would be nice.

Other games I can think of are probably the first Guild Wars and a few others as well. As long as developers have the resources to execute, I definitely think these event servers are good – for both publicity, and really, for keeping the game relevant and alive.

The post Currently Trending For MMORPGs In 2018: Limited Time Servers appeared first on Mmos World.

Trion Worlds is excited to offer players an all-new way to experience RIFT. Launching this spring, the RIFT Prime service was born of discussions with our players about desirable new types of servers, and the gaming community as a whole focusing on business models within MMOs and the games industry, and presents RIFT players with a new model in which to see what the game has to offer.

The main goal behind the service is to offer players a sought after alternative way to play the game, utilizing an all-new fresh start server featuring a heavily requested subscription model with progressively unlocked content. It will also include a cosmetic-only store with no lockboxes, allowing for current store-based items to be obtained through gameplay.

Players who subscribe to the new service will have access to a huge amount of content, with dozens of existing in-game updates and content available to them for only the cost of their subscription. Explore full continents and expansions that have been created and released over RIFT’s rich history.

In addition to these revisions, RIFT Prime will offer sequential progression through in-game content, including monthly milestones and achievement rewards.

RIFT Prime will be available this spring, and more details, including subscription pricing and release date, will be revealed soon. Additionally, there will be more announcements and content arriving in RIFT in the coming year, so stay tuned!

For more information, check out the official website here.

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