RIFT subscription deals available through March 31

@LunarAura If you really want to save, its $35 on amazon right now, download only though:

http://www.amazon.com/Trion-Worlds-40577Rift1-Rift-Download/dp/B004M191RQ/ref=pd_sim_vg_3

@Peril It's really excellent, and took me completely by surprise. It's incredibly polished, the developer is very responsive, the game has a ton of great game mechanics, the servers are stable, and the game is just plain FUN! That said, the difference between founder's pricing and non-founder's pricing is only like $1/month, which isn't huge. But I'd still encourage people on the fence to check it out.

@Billlop Well duh, WoW was the first MMO eva.

@Weiji

Im not ragging on Rift, im just saying i prefer WoW. Time will tell if Rift will be sucessful, but i wish it the best of luck. More competition is only a good thing as it will make Blizzard work even harder on WoW :)

@Billlop

While "essentially" true, you can't say "a rip off of WoW" without it having negative undertones-- which means to anyone reading your comment you DID rip on Rift.

Rift is a funny beast. If you step back and look at the game as a whole, it feels like a bunch of Vanilla WoW players stepped back and said "You know what. This is great... but here's what I would do different". And then went on to make a game much like WoW, but different in the ways they wanted.

I personally don't think this is a bad thing. I feel like they made the types of decsions I would have, had I had a say in WoW, so I think in the end you either "get" Rift or you "don't", and see nothing but a clone.

Here's a few notable differences that I feel make Rift make more sense on paper.
-Professions feel more balanced than WoW. I remember how amazing it sounded to know that you could enter into 'specializations' of your crafting profession at a point. Blizz did basically nothing with these, and eventually dropped them from SOME but kept them in others. This creates a huge divide in what professions can do and leaves some to be "more powerful" than others.
-- For instance- why is there one profession for crafting mail and plate and weapons (Blacksmithing), but then leather and cloth armors are separate professions (Leatherworker and Tailor, respectively), and neither can craft a weapon. This just seems crazy to me.
Also, while a leatherworker could make SOME bags, most were regulated to Tailors-- giving them a unique item they could make that EVERYONE needs. It's unbalanced.

In Rift, things seem so much cleaner.
Outfitters (not the greatest name) can make all "soft armor"-- Leather and Cloth
Armorers (not the greatest name either) can make all the "metal armor"-- Chain and Plate.
This seems much more straight forward. Further more, with only 4 "callings or classes" in the game, things are more straight forward. All cloth is for Mages. All leather is for Rogues. All chain is for Clerics. All plate is for warriors. Simple. This means if you pick up an armor profession, you can make armor for half the class population. Much better, in my opinion.
Also, in Wow, certain professions relied on static items in the environment (forges and anvils, for example), while others could craft anywhere. I won't get into the debate as to which is best, but I'm glad to see every profession is on the same page. There's a "station" you have to go to for crafting, and it doesn't matter which profession you are. This seems again, more balanced in my opinion.
Continuing, Weapons. Two professions. Weaponsmith for physical weapon items (swords, axes, mace, etc) and Artificing for staffs, wands, implements, etc.
There are two 'accessory' professions- Apothecary and Runecrafting.
One makes "enchants", one makes "potions". It just seems more balanced.
Each gathering profession is helpful to more than one crafting profession (since they bundled wood in with the "Foraging" profession), and each profession has a "DE" ability to break up the items they make back into their prospective elements.
No longer is DE the king of unwanted greens and blues. If its a piece of armor, a armor making profession can "salvage" the item and get mats from it. Weapons- same goes for the weapon professions. They can break them back down into their base elements.
All in all, it feels more balanced. Only time will tell if they continue to stay this way as time goes on, but so far we have reason to hope.

Classes feel better too. Consider the class scale from weakest to toughest.
Mage-Rogue-Cleric-Warrior
The two outside classes (Mage & Warrior) are more specialized- they can heal or dps, or dps or tank... but they can't really fill the opposing classes third role. The inner two classes (Rogue and Cleric), are a bit more versitle, and can do some form of tanking or healing or dps, but aren't purely as good at those roles as the outsides can be.
Also, there physical classes (Rogue & Warrior) use focus, while the magic classes (Mage & Cleric) use Mana. A nice clear divide.
There is a magic and physical user for each half of the spectrum, so the armor and weapon representations split evenly across the board.

Overall, it just seems balanced. Every profession has a unique job, and each job has equal representation with what populations they can serve. There's a clear idea of what classes can do, but nothing is so cookie cutter you're severely handicapped unless you spec EXACTLY a certain way.

Also, I love the absence of flight points (and flying mounts). This gives each zone life, and once you're in zone you're forced to travel within the zone to quest and close rifts. I also like the lack of dungeon finder, but I understand that this is a hot topic, so I won't act as if that is best for the game, or when it will change and why.

Still, most of the functions of the game have close roots to WoW... of this there can be no doubt. But the assertion by players that there is nothing different about the game, and nothing in the game to like more than WoW, I think is unfair.
If you want a new, bit more refined "WoW-esc" experience, I think you'll enjoy Rift.
If you're looking for something totally different... I think you're shopping in the wrong section of the store. This game isn't something totally different... and for the players it's meant to serve, it doesn't have to be, and isn't trying to be. Don't go to the amusement park and be surprised that all you see is roller coasters.

@rahnyc4

It's called micro-transactions, and they suck.

@rahnyc4

F2P for the most part have quality issues and the economy is usually completely messed up (why should I have to pay for an epic weapon, when I can pay monthly and get all the cool stuff included?). Played a lot of F2P and all the cash shoppers were the richest and were the only ones who could do the best parts of the game.

I'm happy this game is P2P because it's a quality MMO and I like knowing that my money is actually being used towards the game. I'm not saying F2P don't earn enough money to keep the game alive (it's obviously been shown otherwise) but it makes the game completely unbalanced.

@Drakkenfyre

Plenty of end game content in Rift.

@Drakkenfyre

What type of endgame content is there? Harder rifts to battle? I don't know a lot about the game, I'll admit, but the concept seems a bit limiting.

@Drakkenfyre

It's not like $60 (for six months) is a huge cost.

A lift pass for six hours of skiing costs $90. Green fees for a single day of golfing is more than $100. Even a two hour movie costs $10 these days!

$60 will barely buy a new game. And most new games these days take only 10 to 20 hours to complete, right?

No matter how you slice it, you're going to get much more entertainment value from that $60 that you will almost anywhere else. Even if you only play for three hours a month (for six months), you're still getting more value than you would have gotten just going to see one movie a month for the same timeframe.

Anyone who regrets paying a $60/6month fee, but owns a $1000+ gaming computer needs a reality check.

@Martin C

Raids, expert dungeons, the just introduced raid rifts.

It's an MMO, so everything that is always in MMO end game content but with some differences that make the game unique for a change.

It's refreshing.

@TheRealStupid

You missed my "or lifetime subscription."

Those cost $300 for STO. Some people paid them, and immediately regretted it.

RIFT doesn't have that as far as I know, but whenever a new MMO comes out and offers long-term subscription plans, it's always a risk whether or not it's going to be worth it. $60 may not seem like alot, but if you buy into the hype, and spend it, then get into the game and absolutely HATE it, you just screwed up, and that $60 is going to annoy you for the rest of your life.