Fun fact: RIFT wasn’t always known as RIFT. Trion Worlds’ fantasy MMO went through many name permutations during its development, including titles such as Heroes of Trion and Heroes of Telara.
To celebrate RIFT’s fifth anniversary this year, fan site RiftGrate has put together a retrospective to look at the strange and interesting development history of this title. One of RIFT’s first demonstrations of its dynamic event system came with a scenario called the Siege of Castle Bay. Castle Bay eventually became Port Scion, a city that was later cut from the game, only to be seen at a distance as a besieged town.
The article touches on the changes of the game’s primary focus (from heroes to rifts), the alterations of the world map, and even gives a glimpse of a different Defiant starting zone that happened to be on a moon orbiting Telara. It’s a fascinating read, especially if you weren’t paying attention to the title at the time.
