Seeing that its playerbase was getting into a rut with its choice of gear, Warframe’s team decided to introduce a new type of mod that contains randomized stats and “quirks” to prompt players to try something new in their combat encounters.
“Riven mods were added to incentivize end-game players to revisit old weapons and to change up their play style,” the teams explained on the forums. “This system gives players new challenges that require them to test the creative limits of their arsenal in their quest to unveil their new mods […] What they can do is add an interesting buff to a comparatively underpowered weapon in order to encourage players to think outside of that meta box.”
Will it work or will players reject the RNG out of hand? The devs say that they will be watching the use and community reaction to Riven mods, as the team’s approach to Warframe is always “changing and adapting.”
Digital Extremes said that the recent War Within update pushed Warframe to its highest level of popularity yet, hitting an all-time high in concurrent Steam users and landing on the top three Steam games list over last weekend. Warframe has racked up over 26 million registered users since its 2013 launch and currently has more than one million active unique players.
