Rift Follows World of Warcraft, Offers First 20 Levels Free
Rift has introduced a "lite" version similar to World of Warcraft Starter Edition, offering free gameplay for the first twenty levels.
You can't really call it free-to-play, but it's not quite a demo either. Call it an extended trial that doesn't feature playtime restrictions or a monthly fee, allowing gamers to play the first twenty levels worry-free for as long as they want. That's what Rift Lite now offers, following the footsteps of Blizzard's World of Warcraft which introduced a similar feature-limited "trial" called the Starter Edition back in June 2011.
"In the past ten months, Rift has evolved at a breakneck pace, through seven massive updates that set new expectations for live MMOs, in features, in content, and in service," said Scott Hartsman, Executive Producer of Rift and Trion’s CCO. "We think a Lite edition with no time limit is the best way for players to see what an amazing experience Rift continues to be."
Developer Trion Worlds reports that Rift Lite is accessible across all servers to anyone with a Trion account. Players can create a character and experience the first 20 levels in the plane-besieged world of Telara, working their way through the zones of Terminus, Mathosia, Freemarch, Silverwood, and visiting their faction’s capital cities.
Rift Lite arrives along with Trion's latest patch for its "World of Warcraft killer," updating the MMORPG to v1.7. The patch includes improvements to the PvP system, Ascended weddings (!), an Undead adventure for two called River of Souls Chronicle, an Expert Dungeon overhaul and more.
"Today’s update marks the initial stage of the Carnival of the Ascended. In a few weeks, the largest and most spectacular World Event Telara has ever witnessed will kick off, celebrating the heroic feats of the Ascended," Trion said on Wednesday. "Amazing in-game events, special loot, and prizes will make the Carnival World Event something that won’t be soon forgotten."
For those looking for a new fantasy-based MMORPG to experience, this is a good way to sample Rift. Now through Feb. 5, both the Standard and Ashes of History Editions of Rift are 50-percent off on Amazon, so here's your chance to get started on the cheap. Head here to learn more.

It's not a brilliant indicator, but i like to use google trends to check out how 'popular' stuff is:http://www.google.com/trends/?q=rift,+world+of+warcraft&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0
http://www.google.com/trends/?q=rift,+world+of+warcraft,+wow&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=2
2 things Rift did to bring me back was add lots of content regularly (instant adventures/revamped dungeon teirs/4 duo-solo chronicles/more fluid and frequent world events/new continent), and patch quality of life changes regularly (when i craft it pulls directly from my bank so no more annoying bag swaps; better queue times).
Also they added a good deal if you sub for a year, works out to 8.25/mo. I can't go to the theaters for that.
Interesting. Still :
http://www.google.com/trends/?q=porn,+wow&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=2
I agree, although I had fun throughout, even though I'm no longer playing.
I wasn't a huge fan of Rift, so only played that for a month. SWTOR is an excellent game, but for some reason I just can't get into it like I could with WoW. I canceled my SWTOR account yesterday after noticing I hadn't played it in 2 weeks.
Don't know what it is about WoW, almost ashamed to say that I playing that game for 6 years, but I did. And honestly, I'll probably go back after they release that Pandas and Pokemon expansion, even though I don't really want to.
They update the game so much, seems like they really do care about it. Would have liked to see some innovation. I cant really justify the monthly sub and i hate doing the quests constantly. Other than that its probably the best mmo right now. I also really enjoyed my warrior once i fine tuned my skills. Much more than I like my mage or rogue in wow.
when i tried the trial, i started out in some basement laboratory, made it outside, the sky is blueish purple and gloomy, all the character voices were poor, i heard odd explosion sounds and didnt know what they were, found it was the sound of the lightening in the sky.. started doing a few quests, one of the quests i realised they reused the same sound of the lightening for something else.. dont remember what it was for, a explosing treasure box or something. but it was a clear indication of how much effort was put into designing this game.. i was on my third quest and they were already useing the same explosion sound for multiple things.. i made it past a town with dead trees, and lots of things on fire, and made it to a decient sized area with stuff to kill, however it seemed as if there was several different ways to go, but some fallen trees and hills prevented me from going any further, i had to go back the way i came.. so i learned the game was not open like wow was. everything i saw before i quit the game was dark and gloomy. it was almost like it was permanently night time..
J @ Rift Necromancer Pets