Rift Housing: Dev Reveals How It Became Top Tier

As a player who deeply enjoys player housing systems in video games, I vividly remember when Rift introduced its Dimensions feature. At the time, the system felt incredibly robust compared to other games’ housing options – although admittedly, also a bit daunting. While I love housing, I didn’t delve too deeply into it due to its intricate and sometimes fiddly nature. Achieving the perfect aesthetic was challenging for me. However, for those who mastered the system, it enabled them to create amazing and unique environments that surpassed the housing capabilities of other games.

The system wasn’t without its flaws at launch. A former developer who oversaw the Dimensions feature during their time working on the MMORPG, revealed that the system struggled with asset distribution upon their arrival. In a blog post on their blog (shared via MassivelyOP), Dev Salvatrix detailed their approach to resolving this issue. Their strategies drew inspiration from Lego and Magic: The Gathering when evaluating and distributing assets.

The post outlines the selection process for assets and how they were assigned different delivery methods. This included various in-game acquisition methods and decisions on which assets to include in shop lootboxes. They undertook this process upon assuming their role, as the original item distribution was described as being somewhat haphazard.

According to the blog post, this disorganized distribution isn’t surprising. Trion apparently didn’t perceive players who engaged with Dimensions as significant spenders, a crucial factor for any F2P game. Dev Salvatrix stated they were discouraged from investing excessive time or effort into the feature due to this perception. The primary benefit of the system was believed to be its contribution to player retention and positive word-of-mouth marketing for the game.

It’s a rather cynical perspective, in my opinion.

Fortunately, Salvatrix disagreed. Drawing inspiration from Lego and M: TG, along with the use of Excel, they successfully made the distribution of Dimension assets more logical and appealing to players, who became willing to spend money on them. Their post indicates that player housing sometimes accounted for up to a third of Rift’s in-game revenue during certain months. This suggests that the feature was far from being the waste of time that upper management initially believed it to be.