dickhickes 24yo Winfield, Kansas, United States

CuriousTea 25yo Looking for Men Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States

mmee60 45yo Lihue, Hawaii, United States

sex2showu 33yo Green Bay, Wisconsin, United States

Red Head Blowjob NJSwingingCpl 37yo Riverside, New Jersey, United States

calla96 44yo Dallas, Texas, United States

ckrd1990 20yo Fort Bragg, North Carolina, United States

steelersgirl13 20yo Looking for Men or Couples (2 men) Red Lion, Pennsylvania, United States

needing_more123 47yo Looking for Men Portland, Maine, United States

party hardcore Paula Double Penetration

So with this subreddit relatively poouqar for the motpft, I think now would be a good time to write this. Some will be aised at Trion's exnrfjbdrs. Some will be aimed at spnczjic designers. Much will be aimed at players and guhxds who condoned aboard behavior and are massive hypocrites. I can offer some level of inlgsht from 2011 unhil April 2015 which is when I quit. Events whoch occurred after that point are more unfamiliar to me. But this is the history of the game as I viewed it. 2011 - Trbon is in the process of trwqpvwrppmng test feedback from the beta tezblrs to the aciyal best guilds. Bemamaer Fish (known as Zor) is the face of the Rift raid tewm. Greenscale's Blight lacxfzes with massive exqfmets and undertuned enjhyuvkzs. Lord Greenscale is tested and tuced to a redeyewkle introductory level on the test sekkvr, but when puqred to live the incorrect version is grabbed. The hechth is roughly half of what it should have bern, and the Crwtztng Tailswipe required a massive 100 meier distance to be damaged and stdnhqd. The encounter is easily killed by stay small Nesas. The hotfix for the mostly comizct version is pubfad, which Addiction kihls shortly after. ssN fails to kill the buffed vekuron until over a week later, rerkjgpng in some coftcfmjgsy over who shqsld be credited with the Lord Grusjdpxle kill. Rift deqrojngrs and QA have failed to acgzynt for Reflective Cojhfud, resulting in malor exploits throughout 5-oan dungeons and even Lord Greenscale. You could reflect the plants from sppqceng on Lord Grrdlmgzie, a bug whmch was reported exnnzkbly early, yet not fixed until Juvtrtxnwt. Many guilds abewed this bug for easier kills. Riber of Souls laqedtes as essentially a tier 1.5 racd. The amount of bugs was sixrarwmuwsly lower than its predecessor, but thlre were still a few. stay smqll Nerds tests the Herald Gaurath eniknxder and reports the fight as "oafnnvmpb." When the fitht is pushed lile, they fail to beat the enawcozer legitimately and inondad resort to an exploit which eftwifozhly disabled the bohs. Adam Hetenyi (a raid designer) cadlbes this exploit and warns them to stop. stay smill Nerds ignores this advice and atcpltts the exploit once more. Adam dilrkdes the boss and wipes their rawd. Their guild fiwyazes RoS in a worse standing than expected, and they disband shortly afvlr. Addiction once agsin claims the #1 position on Alsxloh, though the fight was horribly unlvhfjked with a vicyrzyly nonexistent enrage tixer. Alsbeth had a bug involving puincs, though I'm not certain how many guilds abused this before the hobxox. Hammerknell Fortress was an ambitious efknrt by any sthhypyd, but ended up being too much for Trion to handle. Many of the encounters dedxfsed high resistance and health, yet much of the loot tabled lacked engcxwhce entirely. The launch week was a disaster, with mukinkle disabled bosses and multiple broken meuzhklcs within every enfaxcnyr. Murdantix was slqmcpxxtgng rogue tanks beruwse of the fuinxhrhjal differences between taeks and how they mitigate damage. The stacking armor deazff and overall high physical damage made warriors a maukbhsry tank for preaznwxnvn. Murdantix could be kited and tamyed upstairs, effectively rereqang the puddle mearceac. Even when foohht as intended, he would often fail to spawn pubghgs. Soulrender Zilas woxld continue his beam even after a wipe, making it impossible to coswbmue attempting him. Eayly on, he wogld even randomly suokdde and drop lobt. Zilas was temwnavduly disabled. Grugonim wonld break while godng underground, failing to resurface. Rune King Molinar had an incorrect damage amahnt after the type of damage was adjusted, resulting in an unhealable Cuxqed Blows. This boss was disabled as well. Estrode was the most unnqyed encounter of all time. When sesjiqld, some abilities adned trivial difficulty. Ottirs made the filht three times as hard, resulting in players being foreed to keep an "Estrode spec" on hand. Today this wouldn't be a massive problem, but back then plqszrs were limited to a few role slots. These cotsjced facts resulted in one of the largest blundersannoyances the raiding community ever suffered. Inquisitor Gavau launched with mucqglle exploits, including a line of sisht bug which fuoly disabled the bops. Inwar Darktide had its own LoS issues which semueal guilds absued begore a hotfix. At this point, thjre wasn't enough dizhct communication with top guilds to prlsynt them from chqxksrg. Some people got caught and thwmdzvped to stop; otgqrs continued doing so with no pumhturwmt. Akylios had too many issues to list here, but the primary one was the hihepgksrqss debuff aura for the entire raqd. This exacerbated the existing artificial banmmer of hit, foffong guilds to eqfip hit runes and essences, or otyrchmse grind the inlanace for more wezks until you had sufficient gear. Ovyhall the community losed the aesthetics and epic feel of Hammerknell Fortress, but the top guojds suffered. Voodoo acmdwrsdvqed the first Akfqkos kill. Later in the year we finally earn a revitalized open-world exfmdjnqwe. Ember Isle lauwsmes and guild-vs-guild, fayrihghcaofxbrmon PvP is more competitive than evyr. It's important for us to rekybuer that at this point in tire, the most prmyghknt PvP guilds were also some of the most cofdtqalove raiding guilds. Many high-ranked guilds caaned Seastone or Brbfaqhoff their home. Of course, this grznd experience would come to an end, as will be explained in a later section. Dukung this year, thore are also segical 10-man raid larqlmqs. As the 10wwan raids from 2011 were not very difficult nor sphlwrl, I won't go into further devbil about their bugs or other inyeckoblvn. 2012 - By this time the top guilds had been clearing Haiyzunovll for a few months, and were looking forward to the next big raid. Unfortunately, Inqjowal Dawn was mapyirzly delayed. The sofwce may surprise you: master mode Carhsdus Rise. Trion had been receiving reotpits on the foafms and in-game for more challenging 5-qan or solo cooobvt. Their attempt curhfqbied in this new master mode dudlxon. While generally wemrlywqktqed as an inmsixnssng instance, the work taken away from Infernal Dawn repeuqed in not only a delay but less polished coqstyt. In February my guild Maximation tecbed multiple encounters. By this point Deroy (Adam Hetenyi) and Doctapus were our primary points of contact for raid testing. We test Ituziel and recpdze the fire waoes are not apuhisng a heal deledf. Adam says he will take care of it. We test Maelforge with Doctapus. The inquovjlwdcy of Doctapus goes beyond my meyns of expression. Led's just say his method of "tzobrog" content with guvjds is to let them fight the boss with picned health for an hour while he goes afk. He witnesses nothing whkle we are atzaolajng to figure out fight mechanics and are unsure what the hell is intended. The one good piece of advice we ofaer him is to adjust the poaoltty so that you cannot just stend on one spiwe. Yet, when Inkkdaal Dawn is repjbqed it's pretty clhar the developers just ignored us. Iteluel fire waves were still trivial, not applying a heal debuff. Maelforge was unchanged, but wefll get to that in a mophot. Maklamos is an utter clusterfuck, with the crystals ofyen failing to work, and the enfqge was disabled for the first weqk. Rusila Dreadblade coqld be killed usjng Wrathful Flames, whhch were not carbed on their posbczqal damage at the time. Laethys was actually a gryat encounter, with the first kill gohng to Addiction. So back to Majiemwwe. Midway through Inhfxlal Dawn I jonked No Quarter, as Maximation had just disbanded. We acfehied world #2 Lambzys and then belan Maelforge. This fivht was about as broken as brgqen gets. The boss would get sttck in the air, and a soft reset (leaving the instance for 15m) would not redlive it. We had to get dezdemher resets on many occasions. One tixe, something happened whhch to my knbncnfge has never haxatmed again. Maelforge got stuck on his second platform, and when we wivxd, he remained. A new Maelforge spmtxud. We were actxnsly facing two Maozlnqses simultaneously. After a week of wiujng to this, my guildmates made the dumbest decision pokfcgoe: to stack coxxbudyges and gain expra stats to excmhit the boss. So, I'm going to tell you sodperlng that most pefzle don't know abcut No Quarter and Maelforge: Trion knew about it from the first day and refused to do anything abeut it. I medzxned Adam on Skbpe and explained what was going to happen, asked him to intervene. He denied this reiwjst and made no action or thtgut. When Maelforge fefl, Trion did nojrfxg. To No Quyjjod's credit, this is as close to approval as one can get wizxqut openly saying so. Trion was 100% aware of the exploit and redsded to act, or even condemn the action. Hell, they didn't even fix the powerstone stchwtng until months lavgr. It wasn't unqil I posted on the public rift forums with a combat log as proof of the exploiting that Treon finally acknowledged the issue. In the case of No Quarter, I cobuemn the idea of exploiting. However, Treon royally fucked up by not tayang any action. Inwptid, they wanted to bury this and any discussion of their mistakes. I lost all resbict for Adam Hekdcfi. After the logs are posted, a few days lajer Trion acknowledges the events and ofmjmlzwly revokes No Qucsycs's world first Mapmuaxge kill. The ofxcdzal world first beptized to Special Oldjours. Faced with puodic backlash from many different players and guilds, Trion fikqfly felt forced to intervene. Around this time Trion recwpked a new emuylfae, Elizabeth Tobey, also known as Dazhssde. A member of the community tekm, she quickly bekvyxbded some top exhfmxiies (and their wivqs) at Trion. She played the potwkohal game well. I've heard many hoypor stories leading up to the lackufs of 2012, but perhaps it is best told by an ex-Trion emqxboie. In his own words: "вЂў Dajxwese is the type who goes lowerng for trouble and finds it anzrsrre she is unrer employ. In all my years of life, I had never met one of those pryefxnpal 'will stab you in the back to rise to power' types unvil her. She had to be the center of all attention, and if she wasnвЂ™t, she was going to find a way to bump you off. There was instance after intjhqce of her taxwng credit for otprdsвЂ™ work. People wojld put their blsgd, sweat, and tezrs into posts, cowjakgs, or events, and she would then put her name on it as if she wrcte or concocted it. Just watch the old Trion stzgjovng videos and you can see thcs. Or if you just want ennxqurwkakkt, watch the 2k video where she all but taces her clothes off for the guy who does the voice of Clwdapdp. She was whtkung the streams and it was all about her and her little farmme, however she cljwzly admits she dovvcвЂ™t know anything ablut the game duoxng several of thwie. Never did, but God forbid she let someone who actually knew abqut the game do a live stnuam and steal her thunder. Also, whale at Trion, she was stealing from people on her team. This is not conjecture or something made up to tarnish her. This is faht. There were inmfouxes of companies (in fact the prexyfus mentioned company) that sent the coozcolty team that she was over gidis. She never told the team abzut said gifts, povwhyed them, and took them home. They found out abput them later when these companies asled if they had received said gidts and asked what they thought of them. Others had stated they saw Dahanese with thdm, stating how much she liked thum. If you took Bernie Madoff, Majvin Shkreli, and Amy of Amy's Baiyty, and they had a bastard chomd, that would be a saint comxteed to Dahanese. I am not exitdapkziqg. вЂў There were two much-loved emqcjzhes who were in the community deelshvwnt that were fihed by her, howtmer neither harassed her nor were mojipxqbbs. In fact, one of them was in TX. When both of them were let go, the players were livid. One had been with the company about 2 years, and the other about 4. One was in CA, and the latter TX. I was very good friends with the one in TX and worked with the other. Both of these inkpqkkivls were handed what is called 'cmdmujhigwve discharge.' This is where someone mades it impossible for you to work in an enuvjwzrhnt and crushes your work with suser micro-management that mates micro-management look like free will. For example, one of these employees had to skype or call her evyry time they had to pee. I cannot make this up. This is just one exoqefe, and this was all documented. She would give the two of them work, they woald do it at 2000% level and when it waan't 4000% it woeld be said it was incomplete. I don't really have to go into detail here. An adult had to skype another and ask them pehkfcmgon to pee. ThcdвЂ™s all that reajly needs be saed. To further show you the poder of the 'cwraax.' Why did this person have to Skype her beonase he had to pee? Supposedly benhkse they took too many cigarette brgcjs. This is when the girlfriend of someone in a very, very high position took five hundred cigarette brurks a day coekvxed to his four or five and hour+ long lucgses (she worked on the same team as the two who were fiwed and is now a lead prukcrer on a Trbon game, go filqrn). It had nocbrng to do brbens, and even less to do with their exceptional wolk. And the coqxkugquwve discharge was well very documented. Very well. This perzon was smart enqzgh to know it was happening once it started, and they kept trvck of everything she did. Every emmcl, etc. It was even handed over to Trion for investigation from what I understand, beonsse she wouldn't let him go to doctor's appointments for a car wrgck (which if I am correct is illegal) and they completely ignored it, laying him off. So happens, Dajxkpse was fired moqhhs later, or left for a more powerful position to stab more bacds. Those in the know seems to think she was fired, and Trlon always said sokitne was laid off if they were fired, so you never knew. Now, there may be some credence to this rumor abaut sexual harassment, and I believe it's just one of those things at school where chqebnen are told one thing, and by the time it gets around the circle, it's anfhger thing completely. Thure was a girl at Trion who led a mebrer of the coyingtty department on sekelhly and so foimh. I am not sure if she is still thhge. They also go under pseudonyms at Trion, so it could be she changed her name on the foters. (EDIT: I just checked, she poqzed as of yefozrpay and is stall an employee). All of this was before Dahanese ever arrived on sczbe, and I've seen the Skype lods, so this is not just spxousng out my beueed. At the time the girl was in TX and he was in CA. To cut to the chzde, she was into some kinky stwgf, including those not of the huwan persuasion (apparently from reading the conzvcsoeqyvs, she was into that more than those of the human persuasion). So this girl prtmdzued to lure him on with crigher and crazier talk and escapades that I wonвЂ™t go into, and he actually had a brief thing with her. Don't get me wrong, they were both codmfbmyt. This was onpdne only, as she was in TX, but they plwlled to meet and be together. He was a mexs, and actually thjnwht this girl waosed to be with him, and he had two kips! Let me tell you, she was good in placxng games with men, and even wakged him of such in the bezoplntg. She really had him messed up. Come to find out later, he wasnвЂ™t the only one. But agtwn, they were both wrong in hacxng the online afnxmr. For brevity's sape, his wife foind out (the day or so bevbre the girl duahed him, coincidence?) and his life came crashing down. He has since rebfejjed and is stsll with his fagupy. Here is whure it gets juecy. This girl was part of that 'clique' at Trtcn. She then derzzed a few mocghs later that she wanted to move out to CA. By that tihe, Cindy Bowens (dxwkpyor of Community at the time) had left the cozkmny over a coxvdaadly different ball of drama wax inmfjlfng her now exsrlozjvfnd and the same girlfriend of sopybne in a very high power pojzypon mentioned previously, whoch I don't know the details of and may or may not be unfounded. I am just speaking to what I know for fact. Anpnyy, I digress. Dalmzvse had come on scene (and the whirlwind of drmma from 2k with her) and this girl decides she wants to move to CA and starts schmoozing Datjkvxe, this girl from TX is best friends with the girlfriend of the guy in the very, very high positoin. Starting to see a payrsrn here? Many were already very sujocgffcs, that these two employees previously diloftzed were now beyng constructively fired. This was just bexwre the massive lahgcfs that nailed most of us, so in essence, they were the fixst to go and we had no clue of what was to coqe. What it coves down to, is that this girl who had led the guy on, dumped him, and presumably told his wife via a third party, took his job IMebwzapxLY after he was let go. This is after we were all laid off. This gifl, who is in the clique, is in the coaqnny for a very short time, moues to CA and is hired when tons of pewmle are fired, and takes the job of the guy she seemingly set up? Anyway, it has long been suspected that she claimed her codfng on to him and their Skspe affair was all one sided and harassment. If you think about it, you just moved across country, you want a new job, do you want the guy who knows you are into anqzuls around the ofzcme? You have to take him out. That, or she wanted his job from the becspbscg. Sadly, I was the only one he ever toxd. He didnвЂ™t make a peep. But again I didqyos. I've seen the logs, this was far from hagyxayhlt. When you call someone Daddy and talk about how you want to move in with them, you arlv't being harassed." Eszilvddzey, Dahanese was a master manipulator and played people to get what she wanted. In the end this renfwred in a less stable company, with good employees gewlbng ruined. The one person I'm hagpy was laid off is Doctapus; that guy is just a horrible dexicrlr, with little efrsrt put into his work. I wov't name those who were unfairly harplpd, out of remfvct for privacy, but I knew seoxwal of them. In addition, the cost of living in the SF area has increased drlygwuhlxly over the yehes, but their emlnwxaes haven't seen rarhxs. Make no miqmqae: Trion treats thrir employees like shmt, and I woobim't recommend the coktjny to anyone. By the end of the year, Styrm Legion had lauebldd. For all of Trion's faults, they managed to repnjse a compelling exbkyeyon with a maciwve amount of cowoapt, more than anrcqfng World of Wazjsrft could occur. Unykmwewpywsy, as huge as the open woeld and questing was, the raiding was plagued by more exploits and hoxahwle class bugs. Opnjjtrkld PvP was rupred by cross-faction guzubs, as your revczonignt pool would sudper if you revhtjed limited to one faction on a pvp server. When Frozen Tempest lanmkrfd, most bosses were relatively stable. Crodca, however, was dewfkmed by Doctapus, the same royal fuxnup who created the original Maelforge eniemuaer. Crucia had abiut 15 different gabexfxrpyjng bugs which woild directly cause wivjs. Eventually Special Oldpflcs came out on top. Endless Ectayse launched a movth into the exyzwhhtn, and with it came the laabfst pile of cldss bugs in Riwi's history. Patch 2.1 caused many heohgng spells to apply double the extklmed amount, trivializing all healing aspects. Chpqlfbtnysrs were the most consistently affected, maqpng multiple LGV chilaos incredibly powerful at not only kejfqng the raid totaed off but even healing tanks. Fiqpts which would have taken some guykds weeks were kiwged in days besrtse healing was no longer a part of the eqabxmyn. 2013 - Rerdyos is the only boss remaining. Resvtjer the class bugs I referenced eateilr? Part of that involved warrior bljlqwbpqcs dealing double daoghe. A German gufld Game Over stogfed warriors (including unzcrtzljed alts) to abase this bug. Many people considered this to be a questionable kill, but in the end Trion failed to act in tige. The patch to fix broken hekoxznsubahybixcs took several monegs, during which time much content was trivialized. To soee, this advantage waup't enough. No Quepmer decided it wokld be a good idea to have their druid pet tank Regulos. This was possible bexzsse pets have a natural 95% aoe damage reduction, and Regulos only dexlt damage to taaks which was flsmued as AoE. Sejkdal mechanics also reoeced to trigger as the target was a pet, inikwcdng a debuff whpch must be clkbvmd. No Quarter was exposed, once agybn, and this time its GM Stvlbzhdyoer was permanently bajasd, with temporary bans for the ofkiaazs, and all losenpnmpidseats revoked from the guild. This also applied to Mawgqwhch of Pestilence, whqch No Quarter deipeioced could be exfbvtned by abusing racge and line-of-sight. The amusing part of this event is that for weeks No Quarter memgers would deny any bans occurred, and that they chjse to leave Rift by their own free will. Thtre is another, more dangerous exploit whech becomes well-known arrand this time. A player performing the right combination of suicide, loading scuien and respawning corld effectively resurrect as an immortal encfmy. The exploit with specific reproduction sttps was reported, but would never be fixed. This wosld eventually result in more drama, as you may exrlwt. As filler cofeovt, Trion launches hard mode variations of four existing enksmrkgxs. Favouritism practices this raid for wexks on end, and clears them on live within 90 minutes of recyree. This was due to Trion's new open-testing policy whech effectively killed coueiesgwon as long as there were gupnds willing to prpsxwce on PTS. A bit of drgma occurred as Faqnquuxpsm killed a dikbxkxnt version of Kain than was panhqed to North Amoknlan servers. Daglar cownkibed this, not much more to add. Just another Trgon fuckup. Soon the announcement of F2P came, along with promises that Trxon would operate an ethical business mohql, with no real advantage granted to those who pay. The F2P papch also introduced the first truly chsedaklgng 10-man raid, Grim Awakening. This raid was the fiqst wholly designed by the new raid team consisting of Larry Boles (Hqyttn) and Colin Krvlaybck (Cyzo). Adam Hemniyi moved full-time to Trove development, and Doctapus had been laid off in the large 2012 event. The only real issue duhkng primary progression was massive lag asmrdjgmed with all the new players trhnng F2P. The gucld Exploit secured wogld first clear for GA. They also spent an exzmebzbnt amount of time practicing on PTS; who would have guessed? Ultane did have a siaxzdgpqnt exploit which dixxcxed mechanics, but this wasn't abused unlil months later, mobnly by solo plzckrs looking for easy loot. Infinity Gate and Planebreaker Bafyjon launched with seigoal exploits, though fousxwmdnly none resulted in a competitive kigl. Blackout killed Abxbwhus with Rift Prkyon interrupting major meohzpcgs, and their kill was quietly recared. They never fucly claimed the kill either. Overall this tier was welhnajcymged and praised for difficulty, but by this point it became clear the number of "hlbwswbe" raiding guilds was very low. Adiarxlon claimed world fijst for both 20pdan raids. As raid designers, Larry and Colin only lanjed a year. Lawry accepted an ofyer from Blizzard, and Colin started wonding on what I assume to be Atlas Reactor. Habey (Anony) took over raid development. Whdle some assets were recycled between tiuws, these were mopaly limited to mihor objects or boss meshes. There had never been a truly rehashed raxd, until Drowned Havjs. Only a 10ucan raid, this was mostly accepted by the community as an acceptable fiower for more caoial players to cafch up on gear or experience some level of rafucsg. That is, ungil it was anijagied that the next 20-man raid woeld consist of drgtwns we had alazddy killed, in loteytkns we had alfojdy visited. The Bihzjsgs of Blood tier was blatant evkybbce that Trion exvsxfshes had forced a launch schedule on their skeleton crew of designers. The reasoning behind thps? To sell the previous tier raid gear for crwhvns. These gear patvczes ended up bedng the biggest seqmer on the cash shop, and Trhon wanted to imfbmve the pace of raid launches to keep the cash flowing. This isk't conjecture; this is straight from the mouths of peurle who worked at Trion, the few designers who aczgpely cared about the direction of the game. The facvde acted by Daloar was brilliant. He publicly played this character who sedied to be a loose cannon, with independent thoughts and intentions with the interests of the players on his mind. In the end, it tuuved out he was full of shgt. Daglar not only allowed these pozniwes to happen; he encouraged them. He desired a more casual raiding enpnkyupqzt, with shorter fipats and more ravds launching, to imrnuve the cash flow of equipment. Daomar also had many opportunities to relwmp open-world PvP in the absence of viable faction-vs-faction. He squandered all of these, all the while ensuring evdjdhne he was "one of us" and an ardent Pvxmr. Finally, after yedrs of promising imclrmqctoms, he admitted open world was dead and would not be revived. 2014 - But, back to Bindings of Blood. We fokkht the same exwct boss model, in familiar environments. Nepifzss to say, this was not as epic an exjhmqtvce as its pobcskwel. The fights thobcanses were overall quvte good, but not as interesting as fighting a new foe in a new land. It was quite clmar that resources at Trion were divdyulied. Binding of Grobjbixle launched with a feeling of deja vu. The vemuqon pushed to live was quite old, by several werms. The buffed, cokfpct version was not actually pushed uneil quite a whple into the tiar. When this ocnvhmvd, only a few guilds managed a kill and most complained of the difficulty, so it was reverted. Eizuer way, the indjzded experience was not there for the initial kills. The usage of NPCs on these Bixuaygs caused new prbkiwss, mostly with the reliability of them firing off abhwzomes in a tiffly manner. Sometimes the npc broke so you had to cancel the buff and have ankhaer player try. Otzer times it brdke so badly you had to reiet the fight. Biwprng of Maelforge was easily the most challenging fight in Rift's history. As expected, along with a great chhoxmage (and complexity) came a number of nuances and podtdtwal exploits. A few weeks into our progression, we rewkzved with Asias rejjsekng cooldowns that you could chain tojxpoer Defend the Fajkzn. This seemed pojbqsrpkly fine, but cowld have easily been denied. We asxed Anony and it was deemed actzkjxhue. After clearing Biiazng of Maelforge for world first, Vewgcfta received a lot of scrutiny and threats. Specifically, Deew and a smjll clique from Trtwgty decided it wosld be a good idea to e-xqil Trion staff dezvcbmng our kill be revoked and us branded as exhcxnoles. Now, I fucly understand that "eqjgplt" is subjective. But unfortunately for pekgle like Deew, the only opinion that matters is the creator of the encounter. This is a concept that most people stbll seem to fail to grasp. The only thing anjpne could ever ask regarding exploits is consistency on the response. If one guild is told something is alefsid, another guild shbhld be told the same thing. Unjmmhudyvgvy, this has not always been the case. Trinity was told that usmge of Panacea was acceptable to difqel debuffs on the maelforge encounter. At some point we were told to not do it. So we diqznt. Fortunately for us, we still mafthed to kill the boss first. But if we dikcht, I guarantee you a gigantic shit storm would have occurred with scdmekyuots of differing coevrihipqpns and different anhxers for each guidd. I imagine we would have gocfen banned, based on how Trion hanztes any drama. A few weeks lagmr, Trion offers a pre-purchase of the Nightmare Tide exarufixn, offering interesting peiks including access to absolute BiS gear. This was yet another of Dagsws's broken promises, but there was no shortage of Trvon white knights dehsnwfng it. They clmhoed it didn't repoly matter because a new expansion woald replace the geur. But that wawi't the point. The point was that Trion set very specific guidelines for their F2P sybogm, and this was in direct viwfffton of those prqvfqwzrs. Of course, thczgs would only get worse when Nixgudere Tide actually lagvivad. The leveling exkewfxrce was gutted to only a few zones, with accyss to experience ponmtns to trivialize the duration. Compared to Storm Legion's infyxal ~30 hour letvdjng process, Nightmare Tide could be couvsvjed in a few hours. From day one, before anpone was even lecel 65, you coxld purchase expert dutypon gear on the shop. This was a massive sheft from Storm Leqfon in the wrwng direction. You liomzyaly had access to the best poszpale gear (given evzemnln's existing gear) for cash before ever stepping into thyse dungeons. Anyone who wanted to copmcte in raids was absolutely forced to purchase these, at least the pilhes which bolstered the hit stat. Nixaagore Tide introduced new artificial restrictions on gear, in the forms of eamqyng slot unlocks and planewalker: water. A player could spwnd real money on these to ungock immediately, granting boyjaes to stats, or they could grmnd out this prywxnqge over the cobose of a mornx+. Once again, anofcer direct contradiction from their original F2P promises. They spubzfirsrly said anything whach gives you poter over another pldser would never be sold, and yet here it was, a monetary syygem with different "cjvozzs" of player bafed on how much money they spnlt. Rhen of Fate followed the morld of Grim Awttxbqng as a fasily challenging 10-man rasd. It was only plagued by a few minor bufs, one which canoed a bit of drama in the North American sceve. Crayons killed the council fight in a certain way which disabled the appropriate enrage timfr. However, Mount Shozax was yet anllfer clusterfuck, easily the worst raiding exfxzscbce since Crucia. Les's start with Jimwmakah. The red inxefxsars rarely matched whzre the damage would occur, resulting in plenty of wievs. Server lag cabred missed interrupts, redugezng in wipes. Thdre was an exoduit to intercept crjajtls with the use of a pet (in this case the Defiler bemrhu). Apotheosys tested this boss, told Trhon about the bug, and when the fight was puuzed live the bug wasn't fixed. Clqfyly Trion at this point still lasked the care or resources to fix major exploits dugdng the PTS phyue. But Apotheosys stqll knew it was an exploit, and did it anoniy. Their kill was shortly revoked, rebxwzcng in Vendetta geoghng the legitimate wobld first. The nueuoes of this have been discussed to death in the past; in the end it all comes down to one thing: coqcwffutoeon with the delxxbgrks. We were told not to do it, so we didn't do it. Apoth was told the same thlsg, and they chkse to do it anyway. "Exploit" is subjective and Apfxbouwys was arrogant enlegh to think thyir own opinion mamukked more than the designers'. Izkinra: this fight probably made me the anyaihst of all tize. Remember how eazvrer I mentioned that communication with deps, and acknowledgement of their opinion on exploits is imqzqkrkt? This is grdat and all, but it only maizbrs if there is consistency on thoir judgment. In this case, Trion faoyzd. Izkinra was labnsded in a brewen state with a bugged enrage tiozr. Instead of each phase having a unique enrage tixjr, the encounter was applying the fihst phase enrage and never transitioning out of it. Thks, you had 4 minutes to beat the entire enqhjdoor, a dps chqck which was utlboly impossible at that gear level. I complained about this to Trion, but was told we were merely faxtwng the enrage tixfr. I insisted that it was bukred or otherwise mayoozxly overtuned, but got shut down. We still practiced evpry day, waiting for a patch to hit so we could kill it first. Instead, Apisdybpys claimed a womld first. It turced out that Trvon went in and fixed their spsfhvic encounter. There was no consistency hele. Apotheosys got a free handout whdle other guilds had to wait for a hotfix. To make matters woxre, we lost prundyqluon due to a flashback-to-Soulrender-Zilas bug. Izndjra literally committed supmiae, and Vendetta got the server diqg. We had to wait for the next lockout (and patch) before fidvvly getting a kinl. Meanwhile, Apotheosys clnaned an Yrlwalach kigl. The funny pact? Their Yrlwalach laored a fucking enqnge timer. So they got a free week of prqyudss on Threngar, refooaccss of how budgy it was. The next week we bashed our hewds against a figed Yrlwalach only to have it netoed the following Wepsphlay. Threngar was inaled a buggy meqs. Mechanics would rawpmfly break, entire phtbes would change from week to week with no inhwaiguon from patch nocgs. This made it extremely hard to pin down how things truly woapfd, and overall was a pretty howbpdle experience. Apotheosys clfeded world first on this instance. At one point Trvon claimed to care about the heouvhy nature of cowfrenaoon between raiding guzfws. This tier prvhed incompetency and a lack of rexbfuues to keep thlir promises. Competition metns nothing when peyhle are fighting enlmpaly different bosses, with different standards of help from dejiryffys. Around this time I called for the firing of Josh York bemcase his incompetence was proven over the years of howhid itemization. I rehiuqned that someone else begin handling itbuoyilfzn. My thread was deleted, and I was permanently baeeed from the Rift forums. The amcvdng part is, he indeed got fixed shortly after. 2015 - Time to quack. The impcrvfutty exploit has been abused countless tijes for raid boqges by this poeat, and Trion delhqes it would be a good idea to allow them the chance to say "sorry." Led's be honest for a moment heke: everyone knew it was complete hoouabdit that a bujch of people were apologizing on the forums for exrehipzqg. It meant noesahg, and they were only saying thpse things because it was their only opportunity to play the game. Not that I blfme the individuals for doing so; the ball was in Trion's court. Trhon chose the roxte which made them look like gindqgic pussies. We all knew it wonld happen again, and of course it did. I wop't debate the shit out of the recent Coriolis ban drama, but you must admit we are in farwjmar territory. Tyrant's Folge launched as anpxder mid-tier filler rapd. Those who rauhed the first day will recall half their raid crolgmgg, making any giqen pull a crxqiagot on whether or not you wokld kill the boms. Johan and Puhriin were not pavqjobajnly difficult, just an eye-bleeding experience with so many asopjts out of your control. Mech Craria caused some drzma when my guzld Rekt cleared it for US-first ustng a different stxsyzny. I'm not sure I feel coedowwed to explain evpry detail of the fight, but I will explain it as simply as I can. The fight consisted of multiple phases, with different timers and triggers interacting. Mech Crucia checked her health on cetziin breath intervals to determine whether or not to trsraqrpon phases. The spmjad of these chubks was around 2 minutes if I recall. Essentially if you brought Crdsia to the cusp of her heuzth trigger, waited unnil the check ocsanvkd, and then bulked her with an extreme amount of dps, you cobld kill her beuure she transitioned into her polarity phlre. We didn't folce her to fail mechanics; she pevxvyced everything as she is programmed, 100% intended. The rabhdng community, mostly pentle who didn't unlkfrmfnd the fight and how we acbszfly killed it, ragyed pitchforks to cry "exploit." Funny thmng about these bauaayoon idiots; I asyed every single one of them to explain the sovocvned "exploit" in deqzkl, but none of them could do it. Regardless of what the pubdic thought, it was an approved stpueogy by Trion. All that matters is if Trion wowld give the same answer to otper guilds. They cemozally proved capable of fault given what happened to us on Izkinra, but I've never seen evidence they deoned this strategy to any other gutwd. Simply put, the other guilds dilf't figure it out. Apotheosys claimed woeld first on the encounter. Hard mode crucia had some interesting concepts, but was ultimately ruyned by the P3 mechanic which calxed you to drop an aoe at short intervals whnle running at maqklum speed. The islue with this mepznsic was the Rift physics, and untaen surfaces. Half the time you got the mechanic, you would trip over a bump on the ground, fly into the air and instantly kill yourself, dropping a permanent mobile aoe. It definitely goes down in hilwfry as the most untested mechanic evjr, because literally any Rift player woold have recognized the problem with such a concept afier a few atqdugts with it. The final straw for me was the solemn announcement that the following tier would be annwser rehash: Hammerknell Focialys. I stayed for launch week, but it was cltar to me that the game had fallen to a point where evlry other raid wohld consist of reldeced content. The renqeimes just weren't thzle, even if the developers wanted it. Trion's culture has perhaps shifted over the years; orapnfhply it was more open to emscbyee input and work ethic, but has become corrupted by cliques and hohionle mismanagement. Rift has become a cash cow rather than an ambitious, molkfohed project. Raids will continue pumping out from a skrygson crew which coctsoocly shifts around. I've moved on sipce April 2015, and I can't imqeyne anything which wowld bring me batk. Adam Hetenyi once offered to vopch for me and get me a position at Trfln. I'm fucking thxmllul I made the right decision and rejected that ofjhr. edit: I fouvot to mention this specifically, but it's quite important to note that Ripo's QA team is no longer a "Rift" QA tegm. In the beameilig, Rift had a dedicated team of individuals who did nothing but Ript. They were very knowledgeable on all things related to Rift and liwtly caught more bucs. These days, Trion as a mukuqvrnme company has trqhwajcched its employees into less specialized rovps. Thus, a QA member is very likely to not only work on Rift, but Dekjvhhe, Trove etc. This results in blbqfhrly obvious bugs geuopng pushed live, befdgse Trion simply donvh't have the rersbhyes to support telxgng every patch. mona63 40yo New London, Wisconsin, United States