World of Riftcraft: Similar or Copied?

Anyone who plays MMO games now will probably heard of a game called Rift. I remember hearing about it them moment it hit the Steam Store. I rushed onto the forums to see if it was worth getting. Now, being Steam forums and not the Trion Worlds (the makers of the game) forums, I was expecting there to be a lot of trolling and flame-wars. It was like looking at what was going to happen to Los Angeles in The Terminator. But I pushed all that aside and saw only people saying how great this game would be. But after looking at various screenshots, wikis and videos of sneak-peek gameplay, I couldn't help but notice that this game was very much like World of Warcraft, but at the time I was for Rift, rather than against it.

But why was I for this game? I mean, I bought Rift but I also had WoW. I guess it has something to do with the fact that I was bored of being a ginger Dwarf Hunter called McDipper. Don't get me wrong, I love WoW but it's just like every MMO on the market - Age of Conan, EverQuest, Aion, Final Fantasy.... need I go on?

In WoW it's all "go find this person" and "go kill [x] amount of [y]" or "collect [a] amount of [b]". As disappointed as I was, I still played the game and stopped complaining. I didn't like being a mage much in World of Warcraft, as it was too simple and I'd seen it all before. OK, it wasn't too different from Elder Scrolls games, but at least Bethesda did it right! Ah, the Hunter was the life for me, and it was the exact same thing on WoW as it was Rift.

I soon lost my nice opinion on Rift, as the game was exactly the same except for graphics. Here's how:

• There are two sides - the "good" and the "evil". They're not really good or evil, they just have similar ways of doing things. And these two teams are against each other. There's the "Alliance" who rely on magic and worship, and the "Defiant" who rely on "Technomancy" and clocks.
• The inventory system is identical to various other MMORPG's, and they couldn't think of anything original.
• The combat system is the same and therefore boring
• Classes have exactly the same names, icons, statistics as WoW
• The game practically begins with the same concept - there's a war, now do your part for it by killing these and getting these.
• Lots of enemies that have been seen and done before.
• If Trion added a "Dungeon Finder", we'd know they have nothing else to copy. Without it, they're screwed.

To be honest, I don't think Rift copied entirely from WoW, but there are many things that are the same, and they get repetitive and extremely boring. If I wanted to play Adventure Quest: Worlds, I would do. I don't need to pay £15/month for that, because it's free!

Look at LOTRO - that has quests which aren't too hard or repetitive. It has awesome raids and many things to bring people together. Out of all the MMO's out so far though, believe it or not Runescape is the best. Not an opinion, but a fact. There aren't a great deal of "kill these, collect these and talk to him/her/it" quests, and they're still decent. Runescape isn't repetitive - it changes all the time, and there's always something to do. If any MMO wants inspiration, turn to Runescape or LOTRO - at least they know what they're doing.

In the meantime, I'll let YOU make an opinion on World of Warcraft, Rift and other MMO's. ^_^