Guild Wars 2 isn’t the only game to have recently been smacked with a spate of raiding guild drama: The normally unassuming MMO themepark RIFT was embroiled in spectacle over the holiday.
Major RIFT raiding guild Apotheosys concocted a 13-minute goodbye video and 3400-word blog post slamming developer Trion Worlds, comparing it to the “Nazi regime,” and declaring RIFT “dead.” Trion’s supposed crimes worthy of parody comparison to promulgators of the Holocaust? Bugs, raid progression problems, and heavy-handed moderation.
As to the moderation charge, Trion apparently suspended a number of players for posting the link to the video in-game and on the forums, causing additional outrage and prompting RIFT Community Manager Ocho to issue an official statement on the game’s forums:
Recently we’ve run into a situation where a few more folks than usual have been suspended from the forums for violations of our forum guidelines and I thought I’d take this opportunity to remind folks there are rules here so that no one gets in unnecessary trouble.
At the top of the forums there is a post labeled “Announcement: Official RIFT Forum Rules”. Please read and review it and if you have any questions please post them to this thread. The intent of the rules is to promote productive conversations that provide actionable feedback and a healthy community.
A few key take aways for those that don’t want to read it at the moment: Don’t call people names, Don’t troll, Don’t try to get around a ban by creating an alternate account or posting on a different account.
If you have questions about something the moderators did, please PM me. I’m happy to answer any questions, and correct their choices if they made a mistake.
As to the current kerfuffle, I’ve watched the video (obviously unacceptable for the forums) and while I think there are some fair bits (mostly relating to bosses being unavailable due to bugs, something that’s never acceptable to us) most of it is hyperbole or a distortion of the truth. We’re not going to discuss it further, because of the content we can’t really have a full discussion, but we are happy to answer questions and talk about RIFT. That will pick up more as the holidays end and we all get back in office.
Some enforcement has also happened based on in game behavior around this situation, with a small number of temporary suspensions as a result.
Apotheosys is apparently setting up shop Horde-side in World of Warcraft.
