This has actually be going for a few days, but there still seem to be "3000+" codes remaining.
All you have to do to qualify is download the Raptr client and run a Rift free trial for roughly 14 hours. Raptr then gives you a code that you can apply to a Rift account. Only free trial accounts get 30 day subscription.
Yes, and this will give you founder benefits such as extra character and bag slots as long as you redeem it before the F2P date. Taken from http://au.riftgame.com/en/promo/freetoplay.php
Character slots: 6 (vs. 2)
Bag slots: 5 (vs. 3)
Edit: also the souls available to Storm Legion expansion pack.
An awesome game, no idea why so many still play WoW when a game this good has to go F2P due to low player pop. Check it out, you wont be disappointed.
Because 'so many still play WoW'. The main draw of an MMO is playing with a huge number of other players.
I personally think 'there will never be another WoW' simply because there are now too many MMO's to split player bases. It was the first MMO that was really easily assessable to a mass crowd so back then if you wanted to play an MMO like that, WoW was your only choice.
It's like ebay. Everyone uses ebay, because everyone else uses ebay. If you want to knock ebay off it's throne you'll have to do way better than simply making a marginally better product to get people to switch.
people still play wow? I played on and off since it was first released many years ago. But I stopped a few years ago now, it was just rehashing the same game over and over. I do miss some aspects of online gaming though, like chatting to cool people. I met both my current and past boyfriend in wow and another game!
now if only they would go outside with me….
anyway, I think a lot of other online mmo's are too similiar to wow. There has been nothing that has caught my interest for a long time.
http://users.telenet.be/mmodata/Charts/Subs-1.png If this is accurate wow still had 12,000,000 active players as of last year.
http://users.telenet.be/mmodata/Charts/Subs-2.png rift at it's peak 2 years ago had 600,000 shortly after release, and lost half of that about a year later.
There's two more graphs for games with an even smaller y-axis and some discussion on how they got their numbers and the how accurate they may be at http://mmodata.blogspot.com.au/
Sure it's rehashing the same game over and over, but they do add new features slowly over time. I haven't played for almost 5 years now and I still kind of want to try it again for the pokemon battles thing. But really pretty much every single game that comes out is rehashing of some previous already made game. Which is why I say I think there will never be another wow. It already has a strangle hold over the MMO genre and you can't exactly revolutionize it so much to get the majority of players to switch and leave their friends behind. It's not about the game being superior, it's just it was there first, and now any game that comes out has to compete with it.
Although they did have years and years to improve the game where as any new game that comes out only had a few years development under it's belt with little bug fixing and released too early with little end game content because they assume people will take a while to reach end game (all the while when a game releases a huge crowd watches streams of games and groups race to get to max level then reports 'oh high down there, I got to the top of the hill and there's nothing to do up here).
However if you'd like to try something that brings some new things to the table I would say Guild Wars 2 (though I don't know how many still play it). What I liked and found new about it was active targeting (ie you had to manually aim your attacks instead of pressing a button and your char runs up to your target for you and manually moving your char out of the way to dodge attacks), little reliance on specific classes (no need for dedicated healers or tanks) and the group quest.
I think the same publisher is bringing out a new one soon too called Wild Star. Which has a similar combat system, but is also boasting 'paths' where you can play an warrior, and explorer, or a builder. And can also build your own house etc, though it's still in development so details on it are thin. I highly doubt it will be that successful active players wise but it should be fun to play for a year or two before the population dies out like every other game.
Whenver an mmorpg is "free", it opens up the doors to fake accounts for the purposes of gold selling, spamming and griefing whilst making the culture of little to no accountability for actions more rewarding for online trolls. These things exist in games like wow, however those that are caught lose.
Those things exist in every game, free or not, provided it is profitable to do so.
I've even seen gold sellers spamming in monthly fee games on the day of release. This includes games like rift and swtor. wow had gold spam way before they had the free level to 20 thing.
Hacked accounts to bot, spam, or even simply buying a new game code every time the old one gets banned as the price for advertising will be done as long as it's profitable to do so.
What stops that behavior is based on how good the game policing system is, how popular the game is and also the intricacies of the game's economy. For example in guild wars 2 you can literally buy a currency with real money that only works for items in the cash shop. But there is also a stock market where you can easily trade that currency with the normal game currency with other players so there was less incentive to use a gold seller. Whilst in swtor there were spammers early, but they were filtered out extremely quickly and then died out when the game didn't really rely that much on currency, though you'll still get the odd spam mail every now and then. Even after it went free to play the situation is pretty much the same.
Being able to make free accounts is part of the equation sure, but it's a very small part.
Because the ingame physics are laughable?
well it is a wow clone tbh, second best clone after swtor, bought it day one played for a bit then quit and went back 2 wow, thought it would kill my wow obsession but alas it did not, that honor went to Guild Wars 2 :P
but its really worth a try decent enough game if ppl play
I tried claiming the link posted, but only get a blank url.
Edit: I need to sign up to raptr first.
u need 2 sign up 2 raptr, download there desktop app, install and open, then play rift 4 a while also if u have a rift account and link it like i did u have 2 reactivate your account to claim it =/
im just gunna wait till it gos f2p
what are advantages of doing this when its going ftp in a few weeks?
When it goes ftp there will still be the subscription option with extra benefits. Also I believe ftp accounts still need to buy the expansion if they want it. This gives you the lot :)
I see, thank you - worth checking out then says the former wow addict
Cool, thanks OP.
"Experienced or above in RIFT"
Darn :( None of the time during the Beta got counted towards :'( Loooks like its Rift for a few nights :)
There is something sinister(and amusing) about the psychology behind this promotion. It's like Winfield dangling free cigarettes for a month in front of people who smoke a different brand (say B+H) only if you (and up to 3,000 others) can smoke a large amount (to become experienced) in a limited period of time (14 hours). By the end of the promotion the brand is hoping there will be enough people taking part that those residuals (who missed out on becoming experienced in the time-frame for the promotion) bother to pay to play the game (keep buying the cigarettes) because they are addicted to it (converted from WoW - B+H in this analogy to Rift, or Winfield). Of course there is the value of market presence about getting the game out there by giving away free subs, but this seems like a somewhat more nuanced technique targeted at 'experienced' gamers or those who are already addicted to other games.
When you say "run a Rift free trial for roughly 14 hours" can we just leave the game on overnight and do nothing?
Or do we actually have to play the game for 14 hours?
I'm just downloading the trial now but was hoping I can just let it run.. Thanks =)
Yep you can just let it run. It'll try to kick you for being AFK after a while, but the client doesn't actually close until you hit "Ok", so that doesn't matter.
Thanks for the info =)
I played the game for a few hours last night and left it on overnight but on my raptr account it is saying 0 hours played.
I was definitely running the app while playing.
Is this normal? Will it eventually update the time played?
Hmm it should instantly update when you close the game.
Haha that was the problem.. I still had it running..
Although it was running for at least 12 hours and its only saying 6 hours played
I did this and have now claimed it having only actually "played" for a couple of hours :P
Anyone got a suggestion as to the best calling to choose and why?
Thanks
Free to play soon too.