Rift preview and problems with their online advertisements

So if you've never heard of Rift, it seems to be the next new MMORPG coming out and a lot of people are getting pumped about it...  for some reason.  Many claim that this will finally be the MMO that tops the colossus known as: World of Warcraft.  Now, not to sound jaded here, but.. you're serious, right?  I've been playing World of Warcraft since it came out, since it was being advertised on the Warcraft III main page and I can tell you that it just isn't happening.  No, it isn't.  I've seen a lot of contenders that have came out and they've all failed or at the best, founded their own place and player base and happily are surviving in WoW's shadow.

So, what is it that Rift has that is different from World of Warcraft?  I'm no expert because I haven't payed too much attention to it, I've seen trailers, the main webpage and a short play-through of the game and I haven't seen too much really.  They have a talent system that allows you to turn into another class, a two faction based rivalry and finally the rifts themselves of their namesake that will open up and continuously spew monsters until players clean it up - ala Warhammer Online's public quests.  Honestly, I don't see any innovation here and believe me, I'd like to see something new and thriving in the MMORPG market.

But, it's simply isn't the game Rift and that is because it's trying to directly compete with WoW and that game is so large now that it probably doesn't even know what Rift is.  They probably brought up a meeting about what to do against Rift and they probably sat there in silence for a few moments before a simultaneously burst of laughter was heard and then they went outside to swim in their money - Scrooge Mcduck style.  Honestly, if something will overtake Blizzard's creation, it will be something that is so completely unlike WoW that they have no chance of emulating it.

What am I talking about, you ask?  Well, Blizzard simply has a fond habit of adapting features from other games into itself so it can stay current and not become outdated like Everquest has.  It devours and spawns.  It's like the Tyranids of gaming.  But, as of now with the Cataclysm expansion the game is as strong as ever and it would be silly to think that it would die.  Don't put your money on Rift.  Remember Age of Conan? Remember Warhammer Online? Remember Tabala Rasa? Remember Aion? I could of put many more, but I risk a sprawling list in my writing.  If I were to put my money on a game coming out soon to topple WoW, it would be Guild Wars 2, since it looks really good and has a lot of features that WoW can't really duplicate without making a different game.  Hell, if I were to put money on something, I'd say that Blizzard upcoming MMORPG won't make an impact against WoW.  That's how massive of a MMORPG it is.

So, with that out of the way, the reason I started about talking about Rift and World of Warcraft in the first place is because of a particular ad I've been coming across on the internet.  It's a Rift ad that shows it's game-play like usual but then it ends with the text - 'We're not in Azeroth anymore'

(No, that's not an actual ad, don't bother clicking it...)

That is the reason I brought all of this up.  This simply makes the 'WTF' alarms in my head start to buzz.  Um, Rift advertisers.. what the fuck are you doing? Seriously.  When I saw the ad I couldn't believe it, was that a joke? No, apparently not since you can see it in the trailers also.  If you're not familiar, Azeroth is the main world of WoW.  So, it's basically saying: "Hey, kid gloves off man. You tired of that pathetic WoW? Well this isn't it, this is a man's game.  Come play Rift!"  Well, no that's not the impression I get after seeing it.  I understand that advertisers need something simple and easy to get people latched on to, but you swung from creative to just completely shameless.  It just makes people think you're trying to rip it off and makes you look like a clone, as if you needed that going for you.  How about this - "Come to Rift, a world like no other you've played!" It's simple, because I just came up with it off the top of my head, but it gets the same message without making you actively look like you're wanting to attempt to steal WoW's player base.  It also gets a little legally grey and if WoW wanted to, they could probably take you to court on the matter.  It's like if Six Flags made a commercial showing all their exciting rides and ended with: "We're not in Disneyland anymore.." and then showed Mickey Mouse being impaled on a stick.

But you get my point.  You know, it's kind of funny to me that they said Azeroth in particular.  I'm sure some part of the WoW player base doesn't even know what Azeroth is which makes your ad fail in general.  But, World of Warcraft hasn't been in Azeroth since the original game - the two expansions after it were placed in Outland and Northrend respectively.  Players wanted to go back to Azeroth which is exactly why Cataclysm is placed back into it.  Which kind of makes the ad odd and ironic at the same time.