We could of had it all.

Ding
I recently hit 50 on my mage in Rift. Hurrah!
...
Like any level cap, it's a big build up to get there, and when you finally do, nothing exciting happens. I think they should make the level up animation have confetti and stuff. An achievement banner is not enough.

So now I am faced with the dreaded endgame. Which is ironic because just last post I was complaining about not being at 50. Now I'm kind of sad I am in. It basically means the end of a journey and the start of a new.
We had this conversation in the guild I am. What does endgame mean to us?
Guild mergers. Raiding. Expert Dungeons. These were some options. 
We kind of all came to the conclusion that guild mergers weren't really what we wanted. While meeting new people is fun, a couple of us, myself included, expressed not wanting to be committed to a guild or raid of some kind. Raiding was something I was open to exploring once school ended, but I'm really hoping to work more.
So far, it looks like Expert Dungeons, Rift-ing, and Slivers may be in our future. We did lose one of our healers, so it's basically been 4 of us doing some level 50 regular dungeons. Kind of fun.

Rolling the deep.
When 1.2 hit Rift shards, the biggest feature was the Dungeon Finder system. Perhaps to avoid what happened with the WoW LFD, Trion decided to take the advice of many and make it shard exclusive. I liked this because it would destroy the anonymity of the LFD system, and (hopefully) make people take responsibilities for their own actions. I believe the LFD system is what is normally blamed for the downfall of social interaction in WoW.
Well of course, within the next few days, my Level chat exploded. People still were LFG and complaining constantly about making the LFD system cross shard.
To be honest, this frustrates me. For one, I believe Trion made it shard only because of the freaking out a lot of gamers did when they heard about the LFD system in Rift. Being a game that prides itself on being the WoW killer, with a fanbase who is also very opinionated, I'm surprised that Trion even decided to add such a system so early on. At the same time it made sense; reducing Q times etc. I think the level specific channels really do what the LFD system does without the talking.

You had my heart inside your hand.
Blizzard recently announced that while yes, their account subs have fallen to a "meager" 11.4 Mill, they expect ex-WoW players to come running back from Rift soon. I'm sure, especially with how I've been feeling, that this has some truth to it. But at the same time, the people I know who played WoW, have left in a very permanent way. And there's no running back from it. While yes, some of these people have dappled in Rift, not all of them have. I originally did leave WoW, but not for Rift, and I didn't play Rift right away when I left.  
My boyfriend has a year long subscription, so I hopped on his account. My original plan was to try just leveling for  bit. I wanted to re-experience the lore and was looking for a single player experience. But unfortunately, after struggling with my addons for 6 minutes, I promptly logged after 7 minutes of being back. I just don't know.

And you played it, to the beat.
To be honest, I think I'm loosing interest in MMOs in general. The social gaming aspect has changed a lot for me. I'm not good at handling the stress and elitism, and while it's always been present in the game, I find it to be a lot worst. Isn't the point of an MMO, some sort of social interaction. I do know a lot of people do play the game solo, but I would've thought the biggest draw of an MMO was the endgame and social content.
I'm moving soon after finals, but once I'm settled, I hope to get back into my Ps3 and Final Fantasy XII. Maybe some Chrono Cross. The problem with console games is that they no longer make games the way they used to, especially Square-Enix. They are so obsessed with evolving the genre that I don't find interest in their games. And I'm sick of the rereleasing of the older RPGs. Can't they just make a traditional game? I hated FF13. Hated it. I loved the graphics, the story was okay, Vanille's voice made me want to break things. But nothing is like the first time I played 7, 8, 9, 10, or even 12. Square has sadly failed me. I miss you Squaresoft!

I still got a couple finals to get through, and then the move, so gaming is kinda a second thought right now. But I still think about it. I miss those days.

Rolling in the Deep: Adele