I have been playing the game since March last year (2011), just a few weeks after it came out. It is my first MMORPG to play and I actually quite enjoy it most of the time. My personal problem with the game is the lack of Rogue developers and willingness for Trion developers to listen at all it seems. Then there is the lack of PVP. But that all of this is a different story for an entirely different topic and also not a “QQ.”

I do wonder how many active subscribers Trion currently has though now for Rift.

I have played on a total of 4 shards, the longest being Faemist from March 2011 till November 2011. I then transferred to Freeholme (with Guild) because Faemist started to die in September/October. Then in December Freeholme died as well as the guild I was in, because of SWTOR which not a lot of people seem to like. I have it and I never play it, do not have the time to but also do not enjoy it too much as I did Rift.

I ended up transferring to Deepstrike this month, January, to a more active shard. I would have had to have transferred anyways because Freeholme is shutting down now, as in the list below. The 4th shard that I have played on only for a week and a day is Wolfsbane, the most active PVE shard (and overall shard).

Here is the list of shards shutting down, and that are turning into Trial Shards and where they are being recommended (not forced) to transfer to:

PVP Shards

• Sunrest (PVP-RP) is being suggested to transfer to Deepstrike.
• Freeholme is being suggested to transfer to Deepstrike.
• Dayblind is being suggested to transfer to Deepstrike.
• Faemist is being suggested to transfer to Briarcliff.

PVE Shards

• Belmont is being suggested to transfer to Millrush.
• Galena is being suggested to transfer to Millrush.
• Galena is being suggested to transfer to Millrush.
• Atrophinius is being suggested to transfer to Greenscale.
• Crucia is being suggested to transfer to Greenscale.
• Alsbeth is being suggested to transfer to Shatterbone.

PVE-RP Shards

• Estrael is being suggested to transfer to Faeblight.
• Shadefallen is being suggested to transfer to Faeblight.

A total of 12 shards are shutting down of the 35 that Rift has including the 8 Europe shards. These shards are being converted on January 18th, 2012. I personally think that Trion should have never had a total of 32 shards to begin with. I could definitely see they needed it when the game came out, as I remember watching a few people stream the game on streaming sites and they would be waiting in queue to join their shard.

Another sign that could show the game dying slowly is that they just put up a new deal this week:

For a limited time, get an extra month of RIFT game time when you upgrade to a multi-month subscription plan.

They really seem to be begging for subscribers to come back that they will even give you an extra month.

Now the digital upgrade; which there are just only 2 of them, costs $10 each and don’t actually offer much of an “upgrade” to your gameplay no matter which digital upgrade you go with. Which is why Trion fails at donating for this charity event especially with their advertisement of “‘Tis the Season for Giving” and just wants users to give them more money for really nothing yet alone a measly dollar to the Child’s Play charity when it would never hurt them to give more. These 2 upgrades detailed below do not effect ones RIFT playing over another without it in anyway if they would have decided to give more than just $1.

Collector’s Edition only offers an Ancient Tartagon mount (you can buy the same similar different coller, a collector’s satchel that offers a backpack of 24 slots and a Bogling wastrel companion which to be honest, majority of the gamers rarely ever use companions and they are only just for show.

Ashes of History Edition only offers a Spindrel mount (spider mount) which you rarely ever see anyone using anymore other than the first week it was released, a personal banker that has a cooldown of 2 hours (really?) and is only useful every now and again when you’re not at the Sanctum or Meridian such as in a raid, dungeon or event, and lastly a faction tabard which is just another useless chest wardrobe of many already that you rarely see people using too.

You’re telling me that Trion can’t at least give $5 of the $10 spent from a customer to give to the Child’s Play charity? What a joke, and they say it is the season for giving, sigh. You might as well donate straight to Child’s Play yourself if you want to donate.

Source: ‘Tis the Season for Giving – Child’s Play Digital Upgrade Weekend | RIFT Digital Upgrades

Here are the monthly subscription fees, each copy comes with 1 free month:

• 1 Month Subscription: $14.99 (£8.99/€12.99)
• 3 Month Subscription: $13.99 per month (one-time charge of $41.97/£25.17/€35.97)
• 6 Month Subscription: $12.99 per month (one-time charge of $77.94/£46.14/€65.94)

Are you excited for SW:TOR? I have been for a few months now, though lately I have heard bad things about it from those that have been part of the beta, so I hope it turns out to be great on the final build and so further after for each patch. Especially the PVP aspect of the game, not that I dislike PVE at all.

Source: Launch Date for STAR WARS: The Old Republic Announced

I preordered the Onza the minute it was made available for preorder back in January 2011. I had been waiting to play with it for over a year since it was announced. It was finally shipped to me just over 2 months ago. I loved it at first, but will not even bother to love it anymore. Read on as to why.

I was actually told to contact Min-Liang Tan on Twitter via email, the CEO of Razer, week ago about my issues with the Onza. I was actually going to email a lot of what I said below in an email to them, but decided not to. Why? Because I do not feel as if these issues have been fixed, not only does my brother’s controller and girlfriends have the same issues but people online around forums and other comments elsewhere have reported the same issues as mine or similar. Plus I would be without the controller for who knows how long aside from using the main Xbox 360 controller.

Now that that has been said, I will get to the main reasons why I am disappointed with the Razer Onza, Razer and just overall think the product is terrible to purchase.

• 1st issue (big issue/main problem): The left joystick will always stop you from running in games. To be more specific, games such as Call of Duty: Black Ops, where when the left joystick is clicked, this allows you to run. It is always a damn problem, usually a hit or miss each time you use it, for me, it has frequent use. I have tried disconnecting and reconnecting the controller to regain control of the left joystick but that does not work. The only time it starts to work right for a short while it when I have shut down the Xbox 360 and turned it back on.
• 2nd issue (big issue/main problem): The right joystick (very rarely the left joystick) will sometimes physically get stuck in a position. The position it nearly always gets stuck in is towards the right and slightly downwards, think of it getting stuck around the 0 degree angle towards 320 degree. It actually gets stuck, it does not move back into position if I let go over the joystick.
  
  This does not happen on a constant basis but I can almost always get it to happen and it will normally happen about 6 times (guessing) over a course of around a 5 hour gaming session.




• What happens in-game with this above, 2nd, issue?
  I use the controller for all games, but its main purpose is for each Call of Duty title online/multiplayer, right now it is Black Ops. When the right joystick gets stuck, it causes me to spin in the game until I physically remove the joystick from being stuck at that position.
• 3rd issue (minor problem): The X button feels like it has begun to act like it has worn out when it is touched/pressed. It feels different when “touched/pressed” versus the other Y, B, A buttons that feel perfectly when pressed/touched. I hope this makes sense.
  
  It has not rendered the X button inoperable though, it still works just fine and the response time just does not feel the same anymore over the last 31 days of usage when pressed.
• 4th issue (minor problem): After the first week of using the controller, the sticker on the back containing the serial number among other information has started to peel off. I have tried to stop this process from happening but with no luck. I definitely try to avoid touching that area but I do have big hands and I cannot just constantly think about making sure I am not touching it and have to play the game. How I use the controller is how I hold the controller too, so I cannot just easily change how I hold it, it should never start to peal off within the first week anyways.

I would personally suggest to avoid purchasing the Onza controller. I also do not see them fixing the above issues anytime soon, and even if they did, I am sure people like myself and others who have had these problems are screwed anyways.

So with that said, what issues have you had with your Onza controller? Do you still use it? Please comment!