Love Conquers All in Online Fantasy World of Rift

Players of the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), Rift, set the world record for the most in-game marriages in a 24-hour period. Officially recorded for the Guinness World Records Gamer’s Edition, 21,879 marriages were confirmed between 9am PST, Feb. 14 and 9am PST, Feb. 15. Trion Worlds now adds this record to its record-setting online fantasy game, which has already earned over $100 million for the publisher.

Guinness World Records will log the marriages and the record will be considered for inclusion in the 2013 edition of the Guinness World Records Gamer’s Edition. All participating players will receive the unique in-game title “The Avowed.”

“Establishing this record was a monumental achievement for our development team and community of passionate players, and I couldn’t be more proud,” said Scott Hartsman, Executive Producer on Rift and Trion’s CCO. “Ascended Weddings were a great way to lift the veil on Rift’s new ‘Gatherings’ feature, social experiences that bring players together in new and interesting ways.  We look forward to expanding this great new gameplay element in the always-evolving world of Telara.”

“It’s great to see the seeds of love blooming in virtual worlds, and particularly impressive to see so many gamers getting together to say their vows for one event like this,” said Gaz Deaves, Gaming Editor for Guinness World Records. “The evidence submitted was of a very high standard and we even witnessed some of the ceremonies ourselves, so this achievement will definitely be considered for the next Guinness World Records Gamer’s Edition.”

About the Author

John Gaudiosi has been covering videogames for the past 17 years for outlets like The Washington Post, CNET, Wired Magazine and CBS.com. He has focused on the convergence of entertainment and videogames for outlets like Video Business, Home Media Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety. He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of Gamerlive.TV and is also a freelance game columnist for Reuters and writes for outlets like Playboy Magazine, NVISION Magazine, GamePro Magazine, Official PlayStation Magazine, EGM Now, Maxim.com, AOL GameDaily.com, GeForce.com, and Yahoo! Games. John also serves as the video game expert for NBC in Washington D.C. John was named one of the Top 50 Game Journalists in the world by Next-Gen.biz in 2007. He is the co-author of Scholastic Books’ How to Get into Videogames, Prima Publishing’s Madden: Twenty Years of Videogame Football and Electronic Arts: The Official History.