I stopped playing Rift a few months ago because I had reached level 50 and not being a fan of raids I found myself with very little to do. Those months were not spend idle, and Trion has added a lot of content to the game since then so I decided to log in for free on my lower level characters to poke around. Needless to say the sirens call was too strong for me to avoid, and I ended up signing up for 3 months (I love multi month deals).
One of the current in-game festivals is their one year birthday celebration, and Meridian is decked out with a fair for players to enjoy. The fair reminds me a lot of the one you find in World of Warcraft, with games for players to enjoy. One game in specific is almost exactly alike, where you toss a ring on a critter that is penned up running around in circles. They do have a unique game that I absolutely loved, it involves the screen shot above. You speak to the NPC and pick a team to cheer for (I picked the red team). As the horses run around the tracks, you jump on the platform and the horse pulls forward. Jump too much and your horse will run out of steam and fall behind. I had no one against me, so I naturally won (woohoo). I loved this little game and found it a lot of fun. In the background of the screen shot to the left hand side you can see players mounted up jumping on balloons. Pop 30 balloons and win a prize, was the basics of that game. There are also vendors with treats for players, and fortune tellers, and even an NPC who will try to guess your weight if you stand before him. He of course has nothing but snarky comments to toss your way in return.
The fair is not the only new thing pulling me in game, there’s also Ember Isle, which I have never explored before. I headed to the zone briefly yesterday to poke around and was astonished to realize that it is actually an entire zone. I thought perhaps it was just a small area. I did a few of the beginning quests, and then headed back to Meridian, content that there’s enough content to last me a little while (not to mention my alts, and all of those quests I never did).
Getting a feel for the game again is a bit difficult, I wouldn’t want to jump right back into a dungeon without at least re-familiarizing myself with my class. I’m also contemplating moving to a heavier server, for now I’m on a medium population. There’s also my guardian characters that I haven’t played yet, they’re sitting at level 4. All in all? I’m quite happy to be playing again.
Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!
I just restarted playing Rift myself (Faeblight server). I am only level 23 but I am really enjoying it so far. (I unsubscribed previously because I was too busy with work.) I am enjoying the festival games too, I am a bigger fan of the balloon poping then the horse jumping one though. I am hoping I can reach level cap with this character because she is so enjoyable to play (and I hope it stays that way!).
My husband and I actually resubbed to Rift last night after leaving two months or so after release. I’m excited to be back in game, and of course, we jumped head first into the carnival games. After we discovered the amazing things you can buy from the world event merchant, we spent most of the evening doing rifts and killing pinatas to accumulate as many glass beads as possible. I really love world events so this was the absolute best time for us to come back to the game!
*gasp* I was pondering about rift just before I clicked over to my reader and saw this article!