RIFT Open Beta

[ChaosSlayerZ]

yes, I stand corrected, your multy-classing still bounded within confines of 4 arch classes.

There are still some "gray" lines like cleric/druid, or mage/necro, that In my perspective of fantasy lore should not have been crossed, but to each his own.

[Melandril]

Why do the people who defend Rift all think WoW was the pinacle of MMO perfection?

To say that Rift is a WoW clone is not to make the mistake that WoW was anything special. As pointed out, WoW was EQ for dummies. It did several things well that EQ did poorly from a marketing perspective; however, from a challenge perspective, WoW is not a challenging game the way old EQ was.

In the process of ripping off WoW, did Rift steal from others? Absolutely. Despite this, most of the content, game play and UI were taken directly from WoW. What that means is that while it's more visually pleasing than WoW, it's longevity is doomed unless it can escape the copy-right-infringement comparisons.

To help with the ignorant folks who think WoW is the basis for all MMOs, please look at Rift vs EQ, Rift vs GW, Rift vs UO/Diablo, Rift vs FFXI. In that these are all based on D&D, the share the RPG heritage; however, the above comparisons each did something uniquely different with the genre without being considered clones of one another. Think most heavily upon the Rift vs GW, since the GW team was originally part of the WoW team. If they can escape being called a WoW clone, anyone can escape that moniker.