Observing people for assignments and MMORPG - Rift

I'm currently sitting in the library at my University people collecting data on peoples book carrying behavior (it's for an assignment for one of my psychology papers to see if there is a difference between people's and females on how they carry their books); it feels weird. I'm trying to be as stealthy as possible about it. In fact, I've got my net-book sitting over the data collection sheet to hide it; I think my quick glances  up at people then noting something down gives me away however. At any rate, I feel like a stalker.  Haha, some people just sat down next to me with what looks like a data sheet as well..Oh dear.

So my blog post explosion has been dramatically cut down due to my Uni break having started and my beginning of playing Rift - a mmorpg. I'm usually not so much of a fan of the games as the communities drive me a bit batty (immature kids spouting internet memes, severe nerd rage and just a lack of social skills in general) and grinding (doing repetitive in game activities over and over again to achieve a character upgrade) is very tedious.  Rift seems to be a bit different though in that most of the players I've encountered and the people in the guild I've joined are quite a bit older (everyone I've played with so far has been over the age of twenty) which makes the gaming experience much nicer. People tend to be more relaxed (maybe due to the lower numbers;  in WoW people getting pretty psycho over raid gear etc) and helpful.

Things I don't like about the game

- It's not as colorful as WoW which I actually find myself missing but over all the graphics are nicer. I haven't been a fan of the zones so far; I was hoping once I reached the 21-29 zone (depressingly named - Gloamwood) in would be an improvement on the first few zones, but no (I can't wait to get out of it, it's absolutely awful, all green, murky and horrible, but I guess it suits the story of the area).
- Another aspect of the game that has really irritated me is that any mobs you aggro you pretty much have to fight, even really low level mobs will knock you off your mount in about two hits (you wouldn't have enough of the games currency to purchase a better mount in the lower levels). I've remedied this by getting a feign death ability but I'm sure it'd drive other players mad that don't have an ability available that offers some sort of solution.
- Dull quests. I really hate too many of "go and collect x thing off x mob" quests especially if there isn't much variation in the mobs and you spend ages in the same area. But I guess that's one of the things that defines a mmorpg.
- One thing which for me is personally annoying is anything cave related. I've hated finding caves and once I get to the caves they've all looked like every other cave. I know they're just caves but a bit of variation would have been nice (I just groan a little inside when I have to go find a goddamn cave).
- I'll reserve this bullet point for when I actually get into the game mechanics. I'm sure I'll find something to complain about ;p

Things I like about the game


- The leveling so far seems to be going nicely. It doesn't feel nearly half as grindy as WoW was (it could just be my build however - DPS self healing and good mana regen.)
- I've enjoyed the ONE dungeon I've done and the players seemed to know what they were doing and were all polite.
- The war fronts (basically battlegrounds) are nicely balanced out for the level range so you don't get super pwnd.
- The rifts (which is the defining feature of the game) add an extra interesting element. Basically all over the map these giant rifts open up and you can join a public/raid group and you all work together to defeat the the monsters and close the rifts. The more players you have the more levels you go up in the rift as you can kill monsters faster (I think, I haven't read too much into it and haven't played for too long) and the better chance you have of obtaining greater rewards. It's a nice distraction if you get bored of level grinding and can get quite addictive if there is a large group of people running around in the area going from one rift to the next.
- The game has three skill trees/"souls" and you can mix and match each one instead of being delegated them depending on your class (like in WoW); although the game does make recommendations for which ones complement each other well and what calling you choose (mage, warrior, cleric or rouge) depends on which souls you'll have access to.  I'm a warlock/necromancer/dominator which is pretty win although I've found I'm completely neglecting my third tree.
- The game also features a greater level of character customization which is important to me (once again, I'm comparing it to WoW here). Because I can spend hours on that shit (ok, that's a bit of an exaggeration but you get the idea) and I want what I'm looking at for hours to make me happy :P

That's just a basic summery of what I think of the game. I'm not a hardcore mmorpg player so I'm still learning but my experience so far has been mostly positive and look forward to reaching level cap :)