It was just by luck that I heard about phase 2 beginning at all on Saturday, I was convinced the date was set for the 17th (Sunday) – but I happened to tab over to the Rift forums where they announced that the EU event had already taken place, and that the next events would be staged between 1pm-3pm PST. I quickly let friends know, and watched as many of them attempted to log in (and met up with horrible queues). Myself? I decided not to log in at all. I heard that phase three would be taking place in a higher-level zone, a place I would have no access to port to, and I wasn’t about to walk there at level 25. I also didn’t really want to deal with masses of angry players all trying to figure out what was going on.
I happily watched friends participate, take their videos, and it did look like a neat event for those who managed to make it in game and participate. It opened up a new raid rift, which is pretty awesome. After a two week phase one I felt a little let down by the 30 minute phase two and then the nearly instant phase three.
It didn’t take long before the forums were filled with outcries of players who were all upset about how things had run. Trion decided to compensate everyone by making a post stating that if you have an active account, they are going to assume that you meant to take part in the event, and will be mailing you your goodies. These goodies include achievements (minus the final phase three achievement because you can currently go out and bow to the npc required still), goodies ranging from common to ultra rare, and some sort of quest satchel with enough time to complete it – as well as 250 shards, and the shards shall continue to drop for a bit for those players who wanted to collect more items from the vendors (myself, I’d like the companion pets at least. I own one but there’s still three more to collect).
Congratulations, you didn’t even have to log in or do anything (except complete phase one?) in order to end up with a mail box full of goodies. It’s a learning experience, and I appreciate the effort that went into putting on an event like this, but I think simply handing out rewards diminishes the importance of the event to begin with – whether Trion considers portions of it a mistake or not. It may also come to be something players expect, to be handed out free goodies when things don’t go their way.
While it would have been neat to have been involved in something on that large of a scale, I just didn’t want to deal with all of the other headaches that went along with it.
Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.
I have to say — I’m actually pretty excited about the rewards Trion will be mailing — and I don’t really feel that it’s diminishing anything BECAUSE I participated in both Phases 2 and 3 on Saturday. The events were rather disorganized, and the lag was HORRIBLE, so I feel that I didn’t really get the full effect of the events, nor a chance for the rare mount or anything else. So, I am glad I’ll still get a chance at those things, and I’m glad that Trion realized that the event wasn’t executed properly and that they’ve done their best to ensure that everyone that participated will be rewarded. Does it irk me that people that DIDN’T participate will also be rewarded? Eh, not really. As you pointed out, long queues, level requirements, date changes, etc, prevented some people from participating who really wanted to, so… Trion is making an effort to keep their player base happy, and in my book, that’s what really counts.
Plus, I got a blue staff yesterday from a quest I picked up during Phase 2 (weapon cache quest starter), and it was a pretty big upgrade for my freshly-turned-50 Chloro Mage, so… I’m happy. =)