Rite of Ruin does not seem to force players to sacrifice more than one permanent of every category - opponent was able to retain an artifact creature even when he should have been forced to sacrifice one more artifact and two more creatures due to the card's effect.
escplan9: To make this easier to duplicate, do you remember how this played out? What order was chosen and what's an example of the permanents the opponent controlled to sacrifice? Or a game log would help as well if you don't recall these detailsDon't have the log anymore, sorry, but here is what I remember:
Except for lands, I had nothing on the field while my opponent had lands, 1 non-creature artifact, 1 artifact-creature and 1 regular creature. The chosen order was lands, then artifacts, then creatures. We both sacrificed 1 land, but the artifact creature (nothing comlicated rule-wise, a scarecrow if I remember correctly) was not affected by either the second or third step. As I had nothing to sacrifice for those steps, I could not check if it had the same unusual effect for me.