Rift is currently in a bit of a crisis – players are going on the barricades, as certain armors can now only be unlocked with real money.
Keeping the Business Alive
RIFT has drawn the wrath of players last week and provoked a medium-sized shitstorm. Since January 27, certain equipment has effectively been behind a paywall. Over a year ago, new earrings and armors were introduced with “Nightmare Tide” that required “Plainswalker: Water” badges to wear them. These were either available if you purchased a specific version of the game, directly acquired in the in-game shop, or farmed for a long time with in-game currency. And this last option has now been removed.
From now on, it is only possible to directly purchase the corresponding items from the in-game shop. The Pay2Win accusations – which are not entirely unfounded – followed immediately. Other players predicted that this change clearly shows that “Rift is dying” and that they just want to milk the players until they bury the MMO.
Linda Carlson, who holds the position of Director of Community Relations and is better known in the forum as “Brasse”, responded to accusations on another front of the same battle (Refer-Coins can no longer be exchanged for REX) and explained in an extensive forum post:
“Rift is not dying, not in the slightest. We are changing how we ask our players for support so that the game remains healthy in the future and we move in the right direction.”
Also intriguing is a figure she mentions, as even good Free2Play games only have 7-15% of players ever spending real money. “The truth is, the more you give away for free, the harder it is to keep game development going.” Patron players, people with monthly subscriptions, cannot finance the game alone, nor should they. And a company cannot survive by selling only cosmetic items in the shop – these are only for 5-10% of players.
She even resorts to bold text as she states: “This decision was not made out of greed. It was a decision based on the reality of running a business – as is the case with any kind of business.”
Fueling Gambling Addiction
They also justified the purchasable lockboxes. Numerous players complained about the system, as the items contained in the boxes are heavily dependent on chance – and this greatly bothers some players. Carlson writes:
“Lockboxes work [as a sales item] because they contain an element of surprise and anticipation that people (and dwarves) love. Countless data support the fact that people enjoy being surprised and therefore are more inclined to accept lockboxes than to buy individual items in the shop.”
Ultimately, she even compares the system to card packs from other games: “As a comparison, consider that other games like Magic: The Gathering and Hearthstone also sell ‘lockboxes’ in the form of card packs – that would never work if they sold the cards individually and directly. Don’t ask me how much money I have spent on these games. A lot.”
Rift by Trion Worlds is a high-quality free-to-play MMORPG that belongs to the leading representatives in the genre in terms of scope. The dark fantasy world of...
