14 DAY TRIAL // Trion World Networks has announced that it is changing the name of its fantasy-themed MMO from Heroes of Telara to Rift: Planes of Telara, in an effort to more accurately tell players what the game is all about. Trion says that development of the MMO is well underway and that alpha testing for Rift will be launched in the near future, although no clear dates have been revealed.
The concept that distinguishes the world of Telara from other MMO fantasy settings is that the game world is in a unique position at a confluence of planes, where the current reality blends at certain points with other planes.
Trion is saying that all players will be able to actually summon inter dimensional rifts that will then allow gamers to move through them in order to get to quests. Trion states focusing on the rift concept will allow to show off how unique Telara can be.
Nick Beliaeff, the senior vice president of development at Trion, told Gamasutra, “We've learned in the past year to really narrow down what makes the game special. We figured out one of the best ways to leverage our technological advantage happened to tie in with the mythology of the rifts. When we had people play the game, we talked about the different features they gravitated towards, and players told us rifts were the coolest part.”
Rift: Planes of Telara will not suffer from the problem field leader World of Warcraft has: players never visiting some areas of the game after clearing out the quests they find there and leveling up. Rifts, which are linked to actions coming from the players, create new realities as the game progresses and allow Trion to sustain a more dynamic MMO. Of course, the game will need more than planes and rifts in order to convince players but the foundation for the project seems solid at this initial stage.