Transitioning from a Subscription to Free-to-Play
When I hear that a game is free to play or has gone free to play, I become concerned about the quality of the content being released. Is the game going to be a horrible grind, nickel and diming its players, having terrible gating to prevent players from accessing a vast majority of the game without paying? So when Trion announced that Rift was going free to play, I became concerned.
While I'm still not an advocate for the free to play model, I do believe Trion did free to play right. You can access all zones and raids and for free. You can hit level cap and gear for top tier raiding without spending a dime. The fact that Trion also made it possible for players to access goods on the store through the REX system also speaks volumes about their intent.
Coming from a game where the only thing you paid for was access to the game and expansions, it can be off-putting initially to see that you have to pay extra for different specs, hairstyles, mounts, armor skins, experience boosts and whatever else is on the store. Keep in mind when you feel overwhelmed by the store that this is Trion's way of paying for expansions and features that they are pushing for free. The great thing is that you can buy items off the store (if you feel the need) at your own pace when you want to. You can even prioritize what you want to buy. The game is completely functional and viable with just the original 32 souls. No one will kick you from group because you didn't buy the new souls.
What about patches? What are their patches like? Are their patches frequent? Are they substanial? Will I ever be left 18 months without any content?
Trion is incredibly dependent on putting out quality content on a regular basis. If Trion were to ever go 18 months without a single content update, Rift would sink. If you are ever curious about what their patches look like, I would strongly suggest you check out their patch notes on the forums.
To give you an idea of how frequently Trion puts out patches for Rift, Cataclysm launched December 7th 2010, and the original Rift client launched on March 1st 2011. From March 1st, 2011 to September 12th, 2012 Rift pushed 10 major patches (1.1, 1.2, 1.3, ect.) packed with content, features, gear, zones, raids, new progression systems, new PvP maps, new systems, and everything else you would expect to see with patches. Mists of Pandaria launched on September 25th of 2012.
Trion produced 10 major patches while Blizzard produced 3. This happened again during the Mists of Pandaria patch cycle with Storm Legion, and I suspect it will happen again during the Warlords of Draenor patch cycle with Nightmare Tide.
The beauty of Rift being free to play, if you download and try the game out right now and do not enjoy it, is that you can uninstall it and you have lost nothing. You do not have to pay to log in, you do not have to pay to create a character. You do not even have to pay to reach level cap. So if you're still unsure, just download the game and try it. I could write articles and guides all day until I fell over dead but unless you try it you will never know if Rift is worth it.
