The Rift Podcast

Today, in our final episode, we have Scott Hartsman and Cindy Abigale Bowens join us to talk a bit about the game from back when no one knew about it, through to today. We also reminisce about the podcast origins and touch on some pertinent subjects for the game * The path of Rift and the Podcast * Guild Banks * Server Transfers coming soon * Dungeon Finder tweaking * Not necessarily the end, just a goodbye * Haha Rapture Thank you, to everyone

This week James 'Elrar' Nichols, Amanda 'Amary' Fry, Erick 'Zann' Adams and Cindy 'Abigale' Bowens join Arithion and Desikis to talk about their many different playstyles and the adaptability of the soul system as well as the process of creating the podcast. • Podcast preparation • Casual to hardcore playstyles • Soul system adaptability • Appropriate preparedness of roles for group content • Fun versus versatility

Will Cook, Rift and Events lead and Cindy 'Abigale' Bowens join Arithion & Desikis in today's episode to talk about the following and more: • Learning from World Event 1 • The Future of World Events • Dynamic Content Expanded • 1.2 and Rifts • Authenticators Make sure to check out the potential changes up and coming in Patch 1.2!

Elrar and Abigale join Shyntyrr and Arithion to talk about the prospects of patch 1.2, and the unfolding of the world event. • Patch 1.2 potential changes • Guild Bank Soon™ • River of Trash Souls • World Event • CSR & Authenticators • Funny Phishing Emails With the prospective changes to several souls, the outlook for 1.2 is currently positive. Stay tuned for a lot more information about this looming patch. Hope everyone is enjoying RoS.

Adam ‘Gersh' Gershowitz joins the podcast team today in order to clarify and answer some things which arose with Patch 1.1 • Class Balance and Changes • Raid Healing Alterations • Corrupted Soul scarcity • New Rift contribution system • World Event • Profession Plaques • Dungeons Plaques • The Missing Dye Vendor

Joined by Cindy 'Abigale' Bowens, James 'Elrar' Nichols and Cody 'Micajah' Bye from ZAM, the podcast talks about a few of the concerns and topics brought up by Patch 1.1 • Class Changes • Dailies and Plaques • World Event • Scarring Telara • Customer Service Improvements Next week Adam Gershowitz will be on the Podcast. Don't forget to send in any questions regarding Patch 1.1 you might have for him.

As Patch 1.1 approahces, we sit down with Adam Hetenyi from the Rift Dungeons and Raids team to talk about the release of their new Raid instance: River of Souls, and get some questions answered about it and the current state of endgame dungeons and raids. * River of Souls detailed * Raid rewards and gearing guidelines * Dungeon rewards post 1.1 * Content patch abilities and intentions * Players and loopholes The first live content update looks promising.

Cindy 'Abigale' Bowens and James 'Elrar' Nichols join the podcast team this week to discuss things post launch, including: • Hacked and compromised accounts • Account Security • Ingame Spam • Fansites • Potential server transfers • and more! We hope you enjoy the podcast

Esloan from HorRiftic Intentions and BC from RIFTIrc join Ari and Desi today to discuss some of the hot topics surrounding the launch game - including: • Hacked Accounts • Customer Service • AFK in Warfronts • EndGame concerns • & some ingame stories! We hope you enjoy a laid back version of the podcast this week.

Today Ari and Desi are joined by - Cindy 'Abigale' Bowens, Karen Bryan of Massively, and Esloan from HorRiftic intentions to discuss and comment on the headstart, launch and ingame experiences. • Server Queues on Headstart • Hacking and Spamming • Expectations versus Reality • Likes and Dislikes • Community Expansion Keep having fun in game, and make sure you feedback anything buggy to Trion!

Esloan from HorRiftic Intentions co-hosts this week's podcast with Ari. Cindy 'Abigale' Bowens joins them to discuss the community, forums and the game's launch. They also present the 2nd half of the Dev Roundtable from last week and discuss some of the elements from it: • Character Customization • Contested Dungeons • Server Names • Dynamic Elements • Preparation for Launch There will be no podcast on Feb 28th due to the release of the game. We'll be back on March 7th with a roundtable discussion of launch.

After Ari's Trion visit last week, we have the first half of a Dev Round Table with Scott Hartsman, Russ Brown and Hal Hanlin for everyone. They cover a lot of ground including the following: • Botting, Hacking & Spam • Autoface target • Game goals and exceeding them • Pet classes and their pets • Balancing game design and player demands • Random Dungeon Finder or not • We're not in Azeroth anymore • And much more! Stay tuned to the podcast for a tiny glimpse of the Drunken Podcast Hope you enjoyed the show! ~The Rift Podcast Team

Berenger Fish - RIFT Instance and Raid Lead joins us today and covers the following topics and more: • Tiered Raiding and Progression • Instance and Raid Lockout Timers • Multiclassing • Group composition in Dungeons • Hit, Spell Focus, Valor & Toughness • Buffs and Debuffs • and more Cindy 'Abigale' Bowens also drops by and chats about changes in the forums, the community and the up and coming fansite visit to Trion. Remember if you have questions you'd like us to ask on the visit – feel free to email them to riftpodcast at gmail dot com titled: Trion Visit Questions or you can contact us via twitter - @RiftPodcast - or facebook - RiftPodcast.. I'll do my best to get them answered but cannot guarantee anything.

The podcast team is joined by Cindy ‘Abigale' Bowens, Karen Bryan of Massively and Shut up We're Talking, and Yak from Yakcast – to talk about Beta 5 and RIFT as a whole. • Beta 5 • Soul Combinations • Racial changes incoming • Expectations and Reality • Private Chat Channels • Ben & Jerry's • And more! Desi and Ari discuss many things, both good and bad, about the game with their guests. Next weeks guest is Berenger – who'll discuss raid instances with the team.

Chris Junior, Senior Systems Designer for RIFT, joins us today to talk about PVP, PVP and did we mention PVP? • Raid Queues • Post 50 PVP • PVP: Valor, Prestige and how it works • PVP Souls, Crowd Control and Gear • OpenWorld PVP • Warfronts incl. Port Scion He talks about everything in detail and branches off into some other minor pvp areas as well. Not to mention the revolutionary cake-pie. Cindy ‘Abigale' Bowens joins us as well and talks about the lead up to Beta 5 and the growing community. Our Enjin Sponsored Guild Screenshot Competition launches tomorrow, with Beta 5

BloodPact officer Apatheus, and members Rival and Vekna join us to discuss RIFT pvp. Cindy 'Abigale' Bowens stops by to take notes on the feedback. We also announce a great guild contest! We talk about the good and the bad of: * PvP Warfronts * OpenWorld PvP * Soul versatility, PvP and the game * And More!

David Reid, Senior VP of Publishing and Cindy 'Abigale' Bowens join us today to look at the following: -Publishing and expectations for release -Pre-order and founder packages -Releasing a polished game -The growth of the community and the direction of the forums -Why we're not in Azeroth anymore -and more We also go on to discuss the Rift and Invasion system in the game and how much it may impact people's chosen style of play. Today is the launch of our revamped podcast site, we hope people enjoy the changes and it's great to have Desikis back.

We Kick the new year off with a mini roundtable discussion about the state of the RIFT betas so far. Kaelistis, Ananiah and Aimgar join Arithion to talk about: • Overall impression of the game • Soul system and the recent changes • Rifts, Invasions, Footholds – the dynamic content • Crafting • Needed improvements Beta three is behind us now, Beta Four starts on Jan 7 and the beta NDA has been lifted. It's full steam ahead to release now – soon is closer than it ever was.

Beta NDA is lifted Scott Hartsman - Rift's Studio General Manager, Chief Creative Officer and Executive Producer; Alyvian - forum and irc regular, beta tester and Tranquility Guild Leader and Cindy 'Abigale' Bowens - Sr. Community Manager for RIFT join Arithion to talk about the following: • Beta NDA Lift • Rift system scaling • Fullscale Invasion of the masses • Soul choices overhauled • More than 51 Soul Points • Beta 3 • Kelari Roll! The lifting of the NDA is refreshing. Especially after a surprisingly impressive round of Mega Rift invasions – where we can now talk about the one aspect of RIFT that is literally living up to it's name.

Both Scott Hartsman - Rift's Studio General Manager, Chief Creative Officer and Executive Producer - and Cameron McNeil - Senior System's Lead - sat down with Ari while she was at Trion and discussed some of, but not limited to, the following: • PvP vs PvE Gear • Soul design and Itemization • PvP Rankings and Achievements • Email Login • Testing Process • Beta • No Pie ☹ In Desi's absence, Shyntyrr gets coaxed on as co-host for the podcast away from his usual behind the scenes work.

Berenger Fish - the instance and raid team leader Adam Hetenyi and Billy Shaughnessy - instance and raid content deisgners - made time to do a short interview with me which touches on: * Raid Instances will be present at launch * There are 10 standard and 10 expert dungeons * expert dungeons are level 50 content * some expert dungeons must be geared up before they're possible * Instances and Raids are designed with the versatility of the soul system in mind * And More! Don't shoot me - I forgot to ask about Pie :( We'll be back on the 20th

Adam Gershowitz, Producer for TrionWorld's RIFT, takes time out of his busy schedule to join us for the second time. He talks to us about a lot of things, including but not limited to: * Some of the changes being made due to Beta 1 Feedback * Objectives for Beta 2 testing * Rifts and Invasions System * Starter Souls and Soul Flexibility * Soul System still being improved and worked on * Global CoolDown (GCD) and its place in Rift * Soft Ability Queues * Server launch types * Pie & Ice Cream! Cindy drops by to check in too. And yes! We're High-elfen it!

Abigale talks to the Podcast team about Beta and what it's like from the other side - ie: behind the scenes. She touches on the following: * VIP Invites etc * How the servers held up * The overall response to invites * How the CSR programme was received * What they learned from the process * How what they learned can make the next events better * Ice Cream This week the team also welcomes Dooc to its members as our German translator. Send in questions you have for the Trion team - Ari is going up to visit them on December 14.

The Podcast Interviews Hal Hanlin, Rift's design Producer. He talks to us about, but not limited to, the following: * Soul system and its diversity * Soul acquirement * Rifts in all their forms * Rewards from Rifts * Endgame from Day 1 * Adding content after launch * Pie! Cindy also talks briefly about the First Beta event and the applicability of the NDA. Today we also launch our final random Beta VIP Pass contest. We will be randoming off 3 VIP Beta Keys. It involves Haiku's, comments and hopefully a lot of fun. Take a listen to the podcast to find out the instructions and the topic.

It's our 20th Podcast - a longer episode commemorating Gamer Day at Trion. We were lucky enough to talk to Darcnova, Delith and Rabbit while they were still at Trion's Offices with Cindy. And we managed to catch up with Doc over the weekend. Our guests go into detail about their experience meeting the devs, playing the game, pvping, Closing Rifts and playing with the soul system. And we announce our random drawing winners for VIP Beta Event Passes

It's a Community Team Invasion! Cindy 'Abigale' Bowens, Amanda 'Amary' Fry and Erick 'Zann' Adams join us to talk about: * Managing Community through all the different social media like Facebook, Twitter and the Forums * Up and Coming Gamer Day and the community gathering * The rapid growth of the Rift community * Pie! and more! We also announce another random drawing contest for one or two VIP Beta Keys - just listen to the Podcast and comment with your answer.

Will Cook, Trion's Rift Events Lead, joins us to talk about everything to do with rifts. He covers many things including, and not limited to: Rift Rewards, Rift contribution, Rift dynamic content, different types of Rifts, Endgame Rifts and how rifts do differ from the WAR public Quest system. Cindy joins us for a quick chat too - and we announce the winners of our Bumper Sticker and Create a Soul contests!

Cindy ‘Abigale' Bowens joins us to chat about her own experiences in Alpha, the recent contention about beta on the official Forums and the up and coming Trion Gamer Day. And - we announce our random comment contest winner for the 'When did Scott say Beta would be?" Question!

Scott Hartsman talks about game scope, dungeons, EndGame (RaidRifts), level curves, pvp, rare drop rewards and plans to deal with gold spam/bots. Abi also drops by to say hi and we announce a short random VIP beta pass contest giveaway !

This week we meet Amanda 'Amary' Fry our Community Coordinator. Abigale talks a bit about Beta And we launch our first two contests to win a VIP Beta Key

Simon 'Dead Simon' Ffinch, Trion's Sr. Design Director, talks to us all about the Questing system in Rift: Planes of Telara including: Dynamic Quests, Epic Quests, Daily Quests, Hidden quests, Endgame Content and Reputation Quests. Abi also drops by to say hi.

This week we're joined by Morgan 'MissDoomCookie' Lockhart and Nick 'CaptainCursor' McDowell. They talk to us about all aspect of the Lore of Rift: Planes of Telara - and even have a few little surprises in store for us.

Cindy 'Abigale' Bowens joins us to chat about the recent conventions, feedback received, the expanding community and up and coming dev interaction. Karen (winner of massiveonlinegamers contest) also joins us to talk about her experience in the Rift offices.

AutomaticZen joins us to share his PAX experience and touches on Responsiveness of the controls, Character Customization and Individuality, the class system and Rift Invasions - the overall playability of Rift.

Kalbuir and Ciovala join us today to go over their experience of Rift at Gamescom and what impressions (both good and bad) they got of the game during the experience.

Gamescom week gives the community a heap of new information and fans the chance to experience gameplay at the Con. Abi and Kalbuir join us, and Kal talks about his experience playing the actual game.

Eric Vignola joins us to talk about the behind the scenes process of 'rigging'. An enlightening view of what it takes to make our character thrust, jump and roll. Cindy pops by to say hi and remind us Gamescom is around the corner.

Abigale joins Arithion to clarify questions about the upcoming beta. She goes into detail about the different selection processes and avenues beta chances will be available from.

Joshua Kurtz, designer of the Paladin Class, joins Ari and Desi to discuss the newly released Paladin soul. Cindy 'Abigale' Bowens also stops by to chat briefly about the famous soon (tm)

Cindy "Abigale" Bowens joins Arithion and Desikis to discuss the day to day schedule of a Community Manager and what the responsibilities entail. She also goes into some detail about playing the game, encountering rifts and wandering mobs - as well as touching on her gaming set up, potential Rift gatherings, and that mmo's are actually good for you.

This week we have rift systems content designer Larry Boles clarify a few things about the rifts for us. We discuss some of the most recent articles and Rift news and chat to Cindy "Abigale" Bowens about the 'sacrifices' she makes to be able to play the game.

Abigale, Jives and Ciovala join Arithion and Desikis to talk about the community as it was and as it is now. Abigale goes into detail about the Future Official FanSite program.

The introductory episode of: The Rift - a podcast all about Trion World's upcoming AAA MMO release - Rift: Planes of Telara. In this episode we introduce you to the hosts, briefly to the game and have Cindy Bowen aka Abigale (Sr Community Manager of Rift) take part in an interview all about her experiences in Rift, as a CM and what she has planned for the future of the game's community.