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Rift Lite launches today, play the first 20 levels free photo

Trion Worlds has announced Rift Lite, allowing players to try the MMO Rift without any payments or time restrictions for the first 20 levels. The maximum level within the game is 50, so 20 free levels is more than generous if you ask me. Rift Lite is launching alongside a new patch, Carnival of the Ascended, which you can read about here

It's been almost a year since Rift launched and I think Rift Lite is the correct move. There are those of us who have always been interested in Rift's world, but not enough to actually shell out the initial investment. Rift Lite fixes this by creating what is, in essence, an extremely long demo. This is a great alternative to the free-to-play model since there aren't any restrictions on what you can do before level 20.

In fact, my experience has shown that the first 20 levels of an MMO are generally the best produced; they're so crucial to the game. If you don't hook the player in this phase, chances are they won't stick around and pay that monthly fee for very long. 

You can get in on this action by heading to the website.








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15 comments | showing # 1 to 15
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Patrick Hancock's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/01/2012 07:06
Patrick Hancock
Note: website for Rift Lite is down now, I expect it to be up very soon :)
Chris Carter's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/01/2012 07:13
Chris Carter
I played Rift until around the mid 30s and stopped. It was a pretty solid game; the aesthetics just didn't hook me.
Evan Schultz's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/01/2012 08:06
Evan Schultz
Played the beta for a bit and kind of enjoyed it. Purchased a full copy of the game in a Steam Sale, but never activated an account. Think I may take advantage of this Rift Lite. Wasn't quite sure if I was sold on the game or not - but I think 20 levels is good 'demo'.

I hate the time-limited trials of MMO's - usually, at the time I activate my account - I get too busy to play much, and the 7/14 days go by and I've only played twice.
Ethermal's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/01/2012 08:22
Ethermal
Had fun with rift for a while, hit max level but the endgame felt too much like the things i have been doing in wow for the past few years
Soulcage's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/01/2012 08:51
Soulcage
Bad news for The Old Republic. 3 MMOs have announced F2P this week. They won't hurt SWTOR much, but certainly doesn't help to have potential customer attention pulled away.

I haven't tried Rift yet, but I will if it's free. I was going to try EQ again for old times sake, but the grind is too much.
JoeTheProYaKnow's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/01/2012 08:57
JoeTheProYaKnow
Color me interested. I have wanted to play Rift, but did not want to shell out the moola only to realize es no bueno. This and reliving the days of EQ should keep me busy.
hardy83's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/01/2012 09:14
hardy83
Rift is hands down (my opinion) the best MMO out right now.
Ffordesoon's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/01/2012 09:20
Ffordesoon
Well, I'll be trying this.
Rodeo Danza's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/01/2012 09:40
Rodeo Danza
Rift is caught between casual and hardcore and has yet to offer enough content of either. I loved the game early on, and although they pump out content pretty fast, very little of it interested me since they try to please everyone.

Their plan was great in theory, I just think they lacked the manpower to pull it off.
bluemeep's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/01/2012 12:28
bluemeep
I enjoyed Rift for what it was: WoW with a completely different set of zones and talent trees. It's beautifully crafted, has solid gameplay mechanics, but it never really developed it's own soul.

My rogue was chucking flaming daggers at faces as a regular attack in his rotation, though. So it evens out.
BoomingEchoes's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/01/2012 14:32
BoomingEchoes
Don't think this is a great idea for Trion to do right now. I know they've added a mass amount of end game content (and I just got an email telling me they've tweaked PVP) but its still too early for this game to do something like this.

If they had an expansion under their belt that gave more varied areas, maybe. But where it sits right now, even with the rest of the end game stuff they've added, the 50 level experience of the game is not only pretty fast, but its also pretty generic. Solid, yes, but 20 levels in you pretty much know what to expect for the other 30, and still have a grind.

Game is great, and I absolutely loved not only exploring it, but the implimenting of puzzles and hidden cache's, and I left it with no ill will, but once you hit 50 it gets BORING, and there's little reason to stick around unless you've found yourself a good guild or have friends playing with you. 20 levels for free doesn't help that like new content (like actual zones and even more story elements would) would.

Actually, this reminds me of FFXI, where they held out on raising the level caps, but kept adding endgame content, but in this case no new Zones that I know of, where FFXI kept adding those and classes. Still, FFXI didn't go "free levels!" nor did it make such a move in less then 1 years time.

@Chris Carter

Just out of curiosity, not trying to be snarky or anything, but other then WoW (I believe you've mentioned you've played WoW for a long time) what MMO's have hooked you? I know TOR hasn't, since you've mentioned it a ton, and I'm just curious about what others actually have.
Achromatis's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/01/2012 15:06
Achromatis
Eh I might give it a whirl, but Im already subd to TOR.

I have to say though that I much prefer the idea of extended demos instead of those old "14 Day Trial" things, because you need a bit of time to get the feel for an MMO and being able to play at your leisure is important for your enjoyment.
Soulcage's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/01/2012 15:09
Soulcage
@BoomingEchoes:

DCUO on PS3 or PC is great, whenever you want to just smack around some bad guys or run/fly around. The quests are marginally interesting. The login que for free people is kind of long at times, but if you spend 5 bucks on anything then your accounr gets turned into a premium. The login waits for premium are basically nothing. I bought the DLC for a few bucks, and that's it. Fun time killer.
mateo's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/02/2012 14:57
mateo
I want to hear a Japanese person say Rift Lite.
Orcrist's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/03/2012 05:55
Orcrist
Shareware coming back ?!
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