Rift Players Enjoy the Summer Festival in Telara

For players of the popular MMORPG, Rift, it’s summer and everyone is taking a break from their daily lives to relax and have a little fun.  The Ascended are no exception.  Up until recently, Telara hosted the Summer Festival where players could take a break from dungeoning or questing and go adventuring on scavenger hunts or miscellaneous event quests.  The festivities really emphasized Trion’s emphasis on multiplayer and cooperation among groups because the scavenger hunts were decidedly difficult and vague, so hunting in groups was essentially the most efficient and enjoyable way to find what everyone was so desperately looking for.  I have to say, it was an extremely refreshing experience to be able to just hang out with people, all with a common goal to solve the scavenger hunt riddles.  Perhaps the biggest incentive to join in the festivities was the Summer Fest currency you acquired by being an active member in the games.  With these exclusive tokens you could find vendors who would sell limited-time items such as mounts and other vanity items.

Aside from the scavenger hunt, there were also quests that people could complete for even more tokens, though they were typically level 50 quests that only end game Ascended could complete – being just shy of end game, I was unable to take part in this side of the Summer Festival festivities.  From what I saw when I mistakenly accepted these quests, some of them involved traveling to many of the different cities in Telara and joining in aid there in some fashion.  I wish I could go in depth more about what these quests entailed specifically, but like I said, I did not have the express pleasure of taking part in these quests myself.

Along with the Summer Festival, Telara also has some huge changes coming in the near future.  Storm Legion is just around the corner, with Trion releasing information about the upcoming souls in press releases in the coming weeks.  With this in mind, the community is eagerly awaiting news on the 1.10 patch, otherwise known as the last pre-Storm Legion patch to be introduced to the Rift universe.  Trion has been understandably hesitant on releasing more information, though they have been scheduling conferences or sessions to release bits of information here and there.  With the Guild Wars 2 and Mist of Pandaria releases on the horizon, Trion wants to avoid being pushed to the wayside by these highly anticipated games.  This is an extremely smart move in my opinion, regardless of the fact that people in the community will be annoyed or aggravated by this decision – in the end, this choice will help Rift much more than it will hurt it, mainly by avoiding direct press competition with these majorly hyped titles.