RIFT is now 5 years old. Time for a nostalgic look back. What did the game look like before the release.
Many Name Changes Until the Goal
Trionworlds is now celebrating the 5th birthday of the MMORPG RIFT. The site riftgrate has taken this as an opportunity to take a look back at the game’s past, documenting its development history and highlighting some special events. We’ve outlined the most interesting points for you.
The Heroes of Trion
In its infancy, in 2007, at an early stage of development, the game still had the rather uninspired name “Heroes of Trion“. At that time, not much more could be showcased than the “Battle of Castle Bay” – a dynamic event where players had to investigate incidents and then reclaim the namesake city. At that time, there were hardly any abilities – only basic skills and some emotes were available. The sole purpose was to showcase the possibilities of dynamic events.
Castle Bay – an early concept drawing.
Heroes of Telara
Two years later, in 2009 at E3, more of the game was showcased. By now, the name had changed to “Heroes of Telara“. However, there was still no mention of the later important “Rifts”. Instead, the game revolved around dynamic events primarily undertaken by groups of players ranging from 5 to 25 – everything sounded very similar to what would later be seen in Guild Wars 2.
RIFT: Planes of Telara
The game got its “real” name only in 2010 when the principle of the rifts, the “Rifts”, was introduced with “RIFT: Planes of Telara“. They were to be a central element of the storyline and connect players more closely with the world. The principle of “Heroes” from the previous names was partly discarded, as they did not want to force players into the role of an overly powerful character.
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Only with the beta was the long name shortened again, and RIFT became what it is today and is still loved by a loyal player base. You can find the entire article from the fan site on the development in the sources.
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...
