The crematorium where disappointed hopes go to die. OTG Retirement Community by Krugor@Greybriar.
It’s the last day of Summerfest and I can now safely say there are no new dimension items for this holiday. I’m both sad and glad of this. Glad because holiday currency was no longer commonly available, it only dropped from the end bosses of rifts and zone events. (Imagine trying to grind currency to buy dimension items at Carnival of the Ascended prices!) I’m sad because there was one less reason to get out in the world and play the game.
This patch, dimension item vendor prices dropped to 1 silver. I’m both sad and glad of this. Sad because the value of all my dimension items has been gutted in one foul blow. That this will cause the price of dimension items to drop on the auction house is a mixed blessing, it means fewer store purchased items listed as players no longer make a good profit from them, requiring us to purchase the items from the store. However, my guild (darling, adorable people they are) will now fill the dimension tabs of the bank with items from the dungeons and chronicles because the items have no value. I won’t need to run dungeons and chronicles for my dimension items.
I don’t need to grind notoriety these days. Not that I don’t go out to grind noteriety on the odd occasion, there’s just no good reason to make a special effort, so few dimension items are hidden behind the reputations I don’t already have. If I want anything, I ask a guildy with the appropriate notoriety to buy it for me. I don’t even need to grind platinum. For the past couple of months, I’ve been building guild halls and the guild takes care of all that.
I no longer have compelling reasons to play the game, I just build dimensions. If only there were quests with dimension items as rewards or, better yet, chains like the ones that open the Nug quartermaster. I long for less tedious achievements that don’t require placing 5000 dimension items multiple times for a reward.
Immersing myself so thoroughly in the creative process is a joy and I am loving this time but I find myself missing the game. I want to have a reason to go out and quest, farm holiday currency, run instances. Slowly but surely, I’m disengaging from the game. I have no compelling reason to play it; the rewards that motivate me have been designated ‘fluff’ by Trion and monetised for the cash shop. While Trion have this attitude to dimensions, they have little motivation to make dimensions a greater part of the game.
So what’s a Radish to do? Let me introduce you to Landmark. This little offering is part of the Everquest franchise and is linked to Everquest Next. It is a whole game devoted to player housing. Minecraft on steroids? The purpose of this game is to find recipes, materials and rare items to build your house (or village or town). In terms of game play, It’s going in the opposite direction to dimensions in Rift .
Landmark has me excited. A chance to fully engage in a game AND be creative? Bring it on! Landmark sounds good so far; developer tools, add items then modify the build by removing unwanted bits, finish it off with a recolour to add moss or lichen as required. What more could we ask for? Well I’d ask not to wait till winter to start playing Landmark, I’m crossing my fingers for a beta invite.
Like to know more about Landmark? Here’s a few links for you.
Twitch TV SOE Live 2013: Landmark is introduced at 25 minutes and 42 seconds.
Summary of Landmark details from SOE Live panel
SOE Live 2013: Delving Deeper Into Landmark
EQNext First ESL Game Showcase at gamescom 2013: The latest news on Landmark at 13 min 50 seconds.
P.S. Alright, I may have over-exaggerated my under-involvement in Rift. I did make the effort to do all the scavenger hunt quests this year, enjoyed them and didn’t need dimension items as a reward. That’s because the scavenger hunt quests, while frustrating, represented fun to me. They are only available once a year, they aren’t a months long grind. and they’re something a bit different from the usual Rift play. If only there some of these types of quests giving dimension rewards … If only.
Better Homes and Dimensions 
sad day for dimensions you will be missed but im guessing ill find ya in landmark )thank you for all you did for us dimensioneers.i understand were ya comming from though as i have not been on the game for some time and dont see myself on it much anymore.with that i say three cheers for radish hip hip hooray hip hip hooray hip hip hooray
ktar the drunken dwarf
Nice to hear from you, KT. I’ll confess the title is a little (OK, a lot) misleading. It’s really about how, even though I’m playing Rift to build dimensions, I’m not playing the rest of the game because Trion have provided little reason to.
I suspect I am on my way out. If Landmark is as good as it looks, especially if my much beloved dimension community and guild moves there, I’ll be playing that instead of Rift.
However, till Landmark proves itself, I will continue to be involved in the dimensions community and dimension building. That part of Rift, at least, is too much fun.
When are we catching up for another chat?
well ya know ive been wacthing landmark fer a while now waiting on the edge of my seat like a kid at the window of the candy store waiting for it to open).
Me too, me too!
ooh and did ya see the new video?in the guild page check it out 14mins in new stuffs )
I understand completely. My fiancee bought me sims because I have been so sad that i cant just build when I want to any more. I dont have the means to buy credits with rl cash and I am burnt out of farming plat for 10 hours a day. I raid and I pvp so I have lots of other reasons to be in rift but my favorite thing I have to be so very careful when I am doing it that it just isn’t as fun. I do try to use all the old items way more than new ones. I love the new ones I really really do but they are just to high of a cost for me and my life.
I feel the same way about summerfest . I was very very disappointed we didn’t get sandcastles, beach chairs, towels , umbrellas, balls, pails and shovels, seashells, star fish, etc. Though very relived because the currency was to hard to get.
I think the title is apt. I was talking with a friend just the other day about how 2.3 changed the way I play Rift.
Because I can acquire whatever I need from the store (including a place to sell trash), I no longer need to be near the vendors in TB. Because the store has old items as well as new, I am no longer out in the world fishing for loot. Because the store has many more options than those available before 2.3, I no longer visit the rep quartermasters for dimension items.
The bottom line being that I’m spending 85% of my game time building dimensions, 10% of my time on crafting dailies and that leaves about 5% to play Rift. Weird and kind of sad.
I too am so very disappointed at the summerfest event as well. Items were so expensive and the grind was very time consuming if you wanted a ring and pet. I’d hate to think of the cost for a summerfest dimension item would have been but I would have grinded those tokens for them. I bailed on the event after one day. I cant say I’m any happier with how the lower level event that’s happening now is panning out either. No dimension items, don’t drop any event loot more than 1/2 the time and 1/4 of the time wont even drop the correct shards on a mentored down toon. So much fail recently.
I like the look of that. I worked a lot in map creation/editing with Unreal Editor a few years back. Landmark looks to be the closest to that. Comparing power against what any other in-game editors have. A nice balance.
All excited over a 14 second vid. I need a cigarette and a shower.