Dimensionally Challenged

I am having some trouble getting into the new player dimension feature that came along with the Storm Legion expansion to Rift.

I ran the little quest that introduced you to dimensions, and dutifully placed the few little items that you start with in my new space in Telara.

Dimension by the Sea

But I am not really feeling inspired to do much with it.  You can see all of my starter items have sort of been dropped off around the front of the little structure.

The view is nice… so long as you do not get too close to the edge of the dimension, at which point the invisible wall gets all non-invisible in your face.

Trying to see the wall edge on…

Anyway, my dimensional malaise sort of took me by surprise, as I have been much more enthusiastic about housing in other games, like LOTRO and EverQuest II.

I think there are two things that are different in Rift.

First, the dimensions are kind of a raw material, a palette on which to express yourself, on which you can build your own home.  A lot of people really go nuts for that, as I saw in the beta tour.  But  I don’t think I really want to actually design and build a house.  I think I prefer one pre-made, a structure within which to work.  Rift is, perhaps, a bit too much “from scratch” for me.

And then there is the second factor, which I think feeds into the first.

I have been playing some EverQuest II lately, and I went to look at the home of my berserker, Sigwerd, who has the base level house in New Halas.  It is one of my more decorated locations.  It is out-done by a couple of my original characters, but the theme is the same when you look at what they share in common.

Sigwerd’s living room

Almost everything in Sigwerd’s house is something he picked up on a quest, or an event, or via a LoN card, or as a veteran’s reward.  It is not so much a place I have decorated as a place that represents where I have been and what I have done.  This is especially true with the wall of prizes from the Lore & Legend quests.

Wall of Weapons

I think SOE made a good decision in creating so many such items that can be displayed in player homes.

I hope Trion picks up on that aspect… and maybe comes up with a few more house-like dimensions going forward.

In the mean time, Frostfell is nearly upon us.  It might be time to pick up some snow globes for Sigwerd’s place.