I was chit-chatting with longtime MOP reader Bruno the other day when we starting yawing about RIFT and EverQuest II and which one was better. I have a hard time answering this question because I like parts of both of them and wish I could smoosh them together – like EverQuest II’s crafting smooshed into RIFT’s character building. That’d be epic!
Anyhow, during the convo I blurted out that no matter which game was functionally superior, RIFT never got the attention and population it deserved – and it might still be a top five MMO if only it had launched a few years later. The way I see it, the game launched with an old-school business model and struggled to convert during the free-to-play onslaught, which meant it struggled to keep up period. By the time of the Trion implosion, it was too late to make it a contender again. But if it had launched after the F2P wave, it might still be in the fight with some of the other major MMOs that launched in the 2012-2014 period.
Am I bonkers? Are there other MMOs that just came out before – or after – their time? What MMORPG would’ve performed better had it launched in a different year?
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
