We interview Design Director Simon Ffinch about creating content for one of the most frequently updated MMOs.

ZAM: What’s it been like being the event planner for your own game with the Carnival of the Ascended?

I actually don’t do that, I mean I do work closely with the team that does that, but we have a little group within our team, where there’s nothing they like more than coming up with crazy things for players to do in what we call our world events, and the Carnival of the Ascended is one of those.

I get the best of both worlds there because I basically don’t have to hurt my head coming up with these ideas, I just get to see what they come up with and give my feedback, and they never cease to amaze me with what they come up with. Even though players from last year will recognize quite a lot of the carnival, we have even added to it as well, with new games this year and more things to do. They continue to want to push the envelope and try creating new things. What’s it like? It’s a hell of a lot of fun.

ZAM: Moving on to future content, it feels like we’ve had these two major foes recently. What lies ahead?

Well, we started out with six obviously, and the ascended have gradually been whittling it down to, as you say, the last remaining two right now. Crucia is still not out for the count, as those people who have played the raid will know.

But yes, we have plans. I’m not ready to talk about specifics right now, but suffice to say, the ascended had better not hang up their swords and maces and spellbooks just yet.

ZAM: I know you teased that there’s an event that’s coming in patch 2.2, involving the Steps of Infinity, so is the calm and the celebration going to be short-lived?

The event that we have takes place in the Steps of Infinity. What you’re talking about specifically I think is the Infinity Gate. I’m not going to give you any timeline, or give you any specifics, but I will say that yes, the Infinity Gate will open. When and where, and where it goes, I’m not going to tell you.

ZAM: Wow, I expect that a lot of people are looking forward to what happens when it opens, and what lies on the other side.

It’s actually a little more complicated than a lot of players are probably thinking. I’m looking forward to seeing the speculation after this gets out there. One of the things that I love, love most is the conversations and the amazing attention to detail in theories and stuff, some of them so unbelievably wrong, and others so incredibly spot-on. It’s really amazing to see it as well, and very entertaining and wonderful. I think we have a great community and I love our players; an amazing bunch.

ZAM: Talking about that story, what challenges are there in making sure that the story feels not just fresh, but uniquely RIFT? What challenges do you face in continuing to articulate that through the content that’s in the game?

There are any number of challenges, and they sort of vary and come up differently, depending on what piece of content you’re talking about. We will have a basic storyline going through most of our zones, which will tie into the bigger story in varying different levels of involvement.

But then the wonderful thing about MMOs, and something I’ve always loved about MMOs in general, is that there’s no one piece of content  - people talk about story quests and sure, they tell a story, but the bigger story that gets told in an MMO, is told in myriad different ways. It might be one of the artifact collections that you picked up tells you a little bit about a certain aspect of the game. It might be just a book you find left in the corner of some library, or maybe one of the zone events, or a piece of dynamic content. You name it – the chronicles, the slivers, the rifts, the instant adventures – all of them, as you play through these various different pieces of content, from the fairly basic achievements and quests, all the way through to raids and dungeons and so on, it all ties together to tell a story of the world.

And we have an incredibly passionate lore lead who makes sure all of this stuff actually ties together and doesn’t conflict, and I’m actually a little bit mystified as to how he manages to do it. One of the things we always say is “Number one is the fun”, so somebody will come up with some crazy idea that they want to do, just because it’s “Hey it’s fun to do this, look I shot you 400 feet into the air, that was amazing and awesome” and then “Hey, Mister lore lead, how can you actually make this fit into the story and make it so it doesn’t break stuff”. And luckily he’s bald already, so he can’t pull his hair out, but he manages to figure it out somehow, and make it all make sense. And we generally do that as a team, and again, great fun, but challenging. Definitely challenging.

ZAM: It would be remiss of me not to mention that there are other MMOs coming out as contenders to the MMO throne. How do you feel going up against new entrants and rising to that challenge?

This is definitely where we get into a bit of dislike for me personally. I love this industry; it’s the industry that I loved when I started playing games, many years ago. It was the industry I decided I wanted to work in, and I love the people in it, I love the games that come out, so I never want to see a game fail. I love good games and I want to play good games, so I welcome anybody adding to our hobby, our industry, our fun – I just want them all to be successes.

Having said that, I am really, really proud of what we did with RIFT. I continue to be proud of it, I continue to think that it’s a really great game; a game that I choose to put most of my time into at the moment. I work on it, but also, as I mentioned before, I play it. I play it because I love it, and I play it because I think it’s fun.

So I think there’s room for a lot of games in the industry, and we’re one of them, and I want as many people as possible to experience it and try it, and play it if they love it. It’s hard; I’m not going to say that they’re going to have an easy time of it. I like to think that we’re some pretty stiff competition, and I will continue to work on RIFT, and make it better, and do things that make me happy and make our players happy.

ZAM: And finally I know that you’re celebrating your second birthday with the Carnival of the Ascended. Is there anything that you’re filing away for a third birthday next year?

[chuckles] So absolutely yes, totally there is, I’m not going to tell you a single damn thing about it except that it’s huge!

ZAM: I’ll be asking you the same question next year, you can count on it!

It’s going to be awesome. I am frickkin excited about it and it’s a ways out yet, so I’ve got a year to wait before I can show it to people. You guys are going to be begging for it. Going to be awesome.

We’ll be keeping a weather eye on the horizon, as the Storm Legion continues to rage through Telara. And a huge thank you to Simon Ffinch for taking the time to speak with us. Plus, don't forget to check out RIFThead for all your RIFT database needs! 

Gareth “Gazimoff” Harmer, Senior Contributing Editor