Trion is currently shutting down shards, or in their words, turning them into Trial Shards. Are these bad times for Rift?

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.