Elrar the Giant is on Trion's Community Team

[AsheMan]

If you were a member of the Vanguard forums prior to launch or a part of SV in the early days then you likely remember Elrar from Vanguard's community team. I noticed today that Elrar is the Assistant Community Manager over at the Rift forums. I sent him a message to ask if he was the same person, and indeed he is!

Hopefully his experience at Trion is going well and I wish him the best of luck!

[Lonestryder]

Small world.

[AsheMan]

Morgan, who worked on the Vanguard lore/diplomacy, is the lore developer for the Defiants in Rift.

Andrew "Avarem", a Vanguard dev. who made Ancient Port Warehouse, is now a Rift developer.

Adam Hetenyi, a Vanguard dev., is now a Rift developer.

[jtoast]

I also sent him a congrats as soon as I realized it was the same Elrar. I still owe him a beer and a game of DDR from the Las Vegas Fanguard...heh.

[Elrar]

I see my old login still works - hai guys :)

So many familiar faces!

[AsheMan]

I see my old login still works - hai guys :)

So many familiar faces!

Welcome! Not so many familiar faces these days. The SilkyVenom community has really dwindled down. There's just a few of us dinosaurs who can't let an old dog lie... and we get to chat about games like Rift!

[Loampounder]

Hi, James, good to see you. Did you come here to answer some probing questions about Rift and Trion, or would you rather keep your job? :)

There's just a few of us dinosaurs who can't let an old dog lie...

Hey, I resemble that remark.

[perfect]

Hi, James, good to see you. Did you come here to answer some probing questions about Rift and Trion, or would you rather keep your job? :)....

What questions would those be?!?

[mmorpeegee]

Yeah. Only thing I wonder is how popular the game really is (not that Elrar could say that). I can't believe how unbelievably depressing the official forum is! Everyone on there is on a total downer. X class sucks. Y feature missing. End game is a grind. My dog died. Etc. I really sympathise because it sucks when you play all the way through a game and then the fun fizzles out.

But really, it's kinda hard to read because people here warned me that it becomes grindy at 50, so I've just been making the most out of the levelling and I already feel like I've got my money's worth. I really think it's a case of everyone who is having fun is busy playing, and the vocal disappointed minority are on the forum. 1-41 has been lots of fun for me. If it all goes boring at 50 then so be it, i'll just play The Witcher 2! :D (I'm quite looking forward to that)

I am interested to know if the game was a success though. I just hope they earned enough to add some more stuff to it. Player homes maybe. More open world PVP, more dungeons, flying mounts. Whatever. Anything would be nice. But that's only because I'm nosey. Really I'm just happy to have a fun game to play with my friends, and I'm kind of relieved that an MMORPG finally showed up that wasn't a total waste of space. I just hope it is considered a success because I want the genre to keep going.

Makes me wonder what the EQ next team are doing and what they learned from Rift. God I hope they can come up with something good.

[AsheMan]

Makes me wonder what the EQ next team are doing and what they learned from Rift. God I hope they can come up with something good.

Don't hold your breath. I have zero faith in SOE and the development of EQ Next.

[mmorpeegee]

Me either lol, their track record says it all. But damn it's EQ! There is just something about it... An intense feeling of "fingers crossed!", and also some hope from the fact that they abandoned a lot of stuff and are just focusing on that and Planetside at the moment. Maybe they could throw a massive curveball and come up with something decent. I also wonder that if that turns out to be yet another failure, could SOE even continue to exist? Seems like they have been given way more second chances than most companies get by their rich parent company. This could be their last chance to really grab a significant piece of that market.

Another thing is that Rift kind of provides an easy to observe template for how to make an MMO that isn't a total mess. Even if they just copied that and added a few features, it could end up something I might want to play. Then again, Rift had a gigantic budget afaik, and I'm not sure if even SOE have that kind of clout anymore. O well. I can dream. In the meantime, at least I have Rift.

[Nepenthia]

I see my old login still works - hai guys :)

So many familiar faces!

Heya Elrar :) Come visit SV on Greybriar sometime!! We're on guardian side.

Lovi

[Elrar]

I'm not dishing out any secret sauce or offering forth any (shall I say?) silky venom ;)

But I will comment to say the official forums are actually the most civil and positive MMO forums for any product I've worked on or followed.

People go to forums to share their concerns primarily, the people enjoying the game or whose issues are resolved by CS have little reason to participate (many will just lurk and read the latest info from us developers.)

So you wind up with only a fraction of your whole community, and keep that in mind with a grain of salt when assessing whether an issue is a personal agenda (re: squeaky wheel) or an actual issue.

That said we are constantly working on new stuff to improve the game in direct response to much of the constructive feedback we've received :)

Going to ramble too much, but good seeing you all and talk to you on the forums!

[AsheMan]

Hopefully you've got a nice long career with Trion. They seem to have a good game on their hands. I definitely enjoyed my time in Telara.

[mmorpeegee]

Yeah I'm having a blast too. It's nice to hear about them working on stuff because I haven't even made 50 yet. So I have plenty more to do, and by the time I max out, there will probably be lots to do then as well.

The forums are quite good, but I don't visit much. I spend all my free time in the game so I don't really have any need to. Definitely looks like you have a lasting game though. I hope so anyway. It's the first time I've been truly hooked on an MMO since EQ, and I've played a dozen or more since then. I'm also playing with RL friends who are WoW veterans and they love it too.

[perfect]

...But I will comment to say the official forums are actually the most civil and positive MMO forums for any product I've worked on or followed....

You mean aside from Silky Venom. This place is a veritable Eden of Good Feelings. It always has been.

Yeah, the official Trion boards are not bad. I'd like them to be less hostile, more involved with trimming the 'bad' posts (mostly the insults) but, as a whole, pretty decent.