Portal:News/IRC Transcripts/23 July 2010

IRC Chat Q&A with Cindy "Abigale" Bowens about her experiences playing the game.


 * Abigale: Hello, All! :)
 * Abigale: Nice to see you all today! :)
 * Abigale: So.... to kick things off, let me answer the most important question of all. I don't have any new Beta info yet. But announcement will be coming SOON. I just don't know when
 * Abigale: Now that that's out of the way... I thought I would just pop in today and answer what questions I can about the game. Now remember, I am not a developer. So I can't answer a lot of dev type questions. But I am an MMO freak getting to play the game. SO I'll try to answer what I can :)
 * Abigale: Do you guys already know what stage of testing we are in right now?
 * Abigale: Right now, I guess you could say we are in pre-alpha. It's just Trion folks and their spouses for the most part.
 * Abigale: The next stage is Friends and family.... where we open it to people we know
 * Abigale: Then after that stage, we will start opening up Beta
 * Abigale: Right now, I am not hearing dates. I am hearing about tasks to be completed before beta starts


 * Marsupilami asks: which tasks would that be :) ?
 * Abigale: I can't really go into that. Remember Iam under NDA. I have been given special permission to talk to you guys about my gameplay experience. But I can't go into details like that. Sorry


 * Maxxy-HD asks: Are you finding lots to do in the game so far? Have you tried any crafting?
 * Abigale: I have tried some crafting. But I have to admit, I am not all that into crafting. So I haven't concentrated much on that. My husband is a crafting freak and he has been tryign it out. Still details being worked on for that but I think it's going to be a good system. I am hoping we can talk about it soon. I know you guys want to hear more on it


 * Draegan asks: What level are you up to now?
 * Abigale: I have a lvl 32 ranger/Blade Dancer and a lvl 23 elementalist/warlock. Ranger is my solo character, the other I group with my husband
 * Abigale: Now before you guys point out how fast my lvling is, remember. That has not been adjusted yet. That's one of the things that will be adjusted as the game moves through testing. Right now, it's all about just making sure everythign works correctly


 * WarpCode asks: do you have enough bag space or are you finding yourself needing to run back to town often?
 * Abigale: They ar still experimenting with bags. There weren't enough at first, then there were bags dropping everywhere. So they are still adjusting thise things


 * Zinn asks: When do you think we will get the next major update of new information?
 * Abigale: It's actually already started. You saw the two things this week on MMORPG and Massively. There is going to be a steady stream of info coming out from now until release.


 * Milkdrop asks: Any clues yet who of the Rift staff will attend the Gamescom?
 * Abigale: Right now, the attendees from the Rift team are Hal Hanlin, Russ Brown, Adam Gershowitz, Chris Junior and me. I am really looking forward to meeting some of you there! :)


 * Kara asks: Will the interviews, Q&As, IRC chats, etc continue with the Trion staff after the game is release? (hopefully for years!)
 * Abigale: That's my plan! I have had the advantage of meeting all of you folks this early and getting to know the fansites and the community leaders. My hope has always been to form a strong relationship with the community that will continue and grow long after launch! :)


 * anagain asks: what's the most beautiful place you have seen so far in game...if you can tell? And can we have a screenshot of it?
 * Abigale: There have been several times I have had to stop what I was doing and just look around at the beautiful world. There is a place in Gloamwood where you are coming up a trail and you look off to the left and see a magnificant waterfall. When you go closer to it, you even see a rainbow over where the water is crashing down. It was stunning
 * Abigale: And I will see about getting a screenshot of that waterfall for you :)


 * Githil-FPI asks: have you came across any named monsters yet in rift?
 * Abigale: Yes! There have been several I have encountered. I just recently recorded next week's podcats with Arithion and I told her about one of those. You'll have to listen to get the whole story. But they have made it very exciting!


 * Pharone asks: sorry if this has been asked before, this is my first time to come to a IRC Friday event. I was curious what kind of system you run the game on at home, and how well it performs on that system? cpu, memory, graphics card. Thanks.
 * Abigale: I am very un-techie... so I don't know my specs off the top of my head....
 * Abigale: I have a two year old machine and video card. They wre decent when I got them but not top end either
 * Abigale: I have all my settings on high and I can play fine. I get a little bit of a reduced frame rate when a whole bunch of stuff is happening at once
 * Abigale: So I MIGHT get a new video card. But I wouldn't have to. It's playable now


 * SugaTPO asks: Is there an eye on robust guild tools? notes, storage with logs, guild commerce tools, etc?
 * Abigale: There is definitely a lot of attention being given to guilds and guild tools. And while I can't give you specific info yet, just know that the team is very aware of the need to provide good guild tools


 * Art asks: how is group play? how will roles affect group make up?
 * Abigale: I haven't experienced a lot of group play with more than just the duo of me and my husband. Which is good for me to test because we always play as a duo. We have been learning to play using our duo strategies like we always do. It's been a lot of fun for me to be able to play duo and solo.
 * Abigale: I do have plans to join a group this weekend to take on a dungeon some of us want to complete. So ask me next week on the forum and I'll tell you how that went ;)


 * starspun asks: Will we be getting more screenshots in addition to updates?
 * Abigale: Yes. There are plans for more screenshots and..... VIDEO to come soon! :)


 * Zinn asks: Now that you are level 30 you can equip 3 souls. BTW grats on 32 :) How is that working out for you? Can you give us any details to the complexity and fun?
 * Abigale: It's definitle interesting having 3 souls. It's challenging to spend your points to decide where you want most of your strengths. It's also exciting to have more than one way to fight. I have expereimented with a couple of different layouts and am looking forward to trying out a few ways to spend those points
 * Abigale: That's one of the really cool things... I can experiment until I get my character just the way I want it :)


 * Thekk_HD asks: Any word on if we will be able to see the Soul Trees in more detail, aka posted up on the website?
 * Abigale: I believe that is planned for the future. Once we have revealed more of the classes. I don't have a timeline for that but I have heard talk about it happening


 * WarpCode asks: has the marketing/PR department been easy to work with as far as releasing information or are they pretty strict?
 * Abigale: I have really enjoyed workign with our Marketing/PR team. Of course, they have the final say on when stuff is released. But they have worked really well with me to get as much to you as I can.
 * Abigale: The things is, they can't release something before it is "set in stone." And then they have to be able to offer exclusives to mags and news sites far in advance. So then I can't say anything until those things are published
 * Abigale: That's just the way the business goes. I have been doing this a long time and I know the routine. But I have to say that these guys here are very open to community. They are very supportive. And they are gamers ;)


 * Abigale: So let me ask you guys something. You are the real, hardcore fans. How did you find out about Rift?


 * Marsupilami asks: Did you run into rifts on somewhat unusual places like at townborders or even inside a village or will they be located only at safe distance to create the usual boring safe zones?
 * Abigale: From what I understand, Rifts can open anywhere. I saw one very close to a town. It was pretty freakin awesome. But I can't tell you the details as it's something I talked about in the podcast. Sorry, but again, you'll have to catch the podcast for that one ;)


 * Thujone_X asks: Hello! I'm just curious as to any PvP information... Do the devs consider PvP balance an important part of the game? Or will PvP be a simple side game in Rift?
 * Abigale: There is certainly work and attention on PVP. Now to be honest, I haven't kept up with that much since I don't really enjoy PVP. But some of the guys around here LIVE for it and they are makign sure it's done well. I can't go into any details yet but I know they are planning on when that info will be available


 * Draegan asks: When will we see the daily screenshot start up again? Loved those.
 * Abigale: I'm not sure if daily screenshots will continue. Now that we are getting closer to release, we don't want to give away EVERYTHING! Kind of like showing the end of the movie in a trailer. I hate when they do that!
 * Abigale: But we will continue to release them from time to time. I'm just not sure right now how often.


 * Ciovala asks: Any ETA on the applications to the fansite program?
 * Abigale: Yes! I have been through all of the emails and have started contacting the individual sites. I am hoping to have a list posted next week of our first Official Rift sites. :)


 * Abigale: Folks, thank you for being here today. I appreciate your enthusiasm so much! It keeps me loving my job to know we have such a great community who really cares about the future of this game :)
 * Abigale: I think we will have a dev in next time. But when they can't make it, I am always happy to be here :)
 * Abigale: And thanks to all of you mods! You do a fantastic job! :)
 * Abigale waves bye

Original logs on ReplayIRC: here.