Thu
15
Jan '09
Happy in Middle-Earth
Rog posted in Lord of the Rings Online
I'm clearly in the honeymoon stage with LOTRO right now. It all feels great, I'm having a blast and I'm not seeing any glaring flaws, at least from my perspective.
I've seen the complaints from others, but this game really suites me and it's reminding me that different people have different expectations from MMORPGs. Here are some of the common critiques:
- Classes start out slow: Check. Works for me. I enjoyed the big splash and overpowered feelings of classes in Age of Conan recently, but that also illustrated sharply that characters need room to grow. Even if it bores some people, I don't mind starting off with just a basic attack, basic mobs and basic starting areas.
- Combat is slow: Check. And methodical, which lends strategic choices. This topic was all the rage last year, it still holds true. I have come to realize that I equally enjoy fast visceral combat and slower paced combat where strategic ability choice is key.
- There's a lot of fluff: Check. I love it. Player music, chicken quests, housing decorations, silly hats. It all fleshes out the world for me, that's part of playing in a virtual world. Most MMORPGs by my reckoning need a whole lot more of this kind of 'fluff'.
- Another Fantasy MMORPG: Check. I love the fantasy genre and I think it suites this style of gameplay best. I don't think sci-fi or present-day works as well in the same paradigms (IE: tank, heal & dps model), especially if they have shooter elements. And geez, this is Middle-Earth, so it's the creme de la creme for me.
- It's a WoW clone: Not really, but I can see that at first glance. The UI is very similar, the base mechanics are the same, but hasn't that been the trend in MMOs for awhile? Natural evolution of the Diku model and all that. From that perspective, for me LOTRO feels more refined in the evolutionary chain than WoW.
- There's not much raiding content: Check. Although I can't comment much on the high level content I haven't seen yet, this sounds promising. I'm much more interested in small-team and solo content.
- It's a bit of a grind: Check. I don't mind leveling up slowly, my take is the current trend where players try to fast-track leveling to get to an Endgame is well, flawed game design and perhaps some of these games shouldn't have levels at all. But if there is good content to match, I'll take my time leveling up. So far, the questing in LOTRO is the best I've seen, I stop and smell the roses constantly.
I'm also happy to grind out gear, professions, reputations, etc.. If I wasn't, I think I'd be playing the wrong genre.
This really feels like the right game for me. =)
(12:53 pm)
Jan 16, 2009 10:14am
Hmmm...none of the issues you listed were major for me (except the slow part, but the overall game is slow, as in it is the Valium of MMO's)
My overall problems are
1. Characters are derivative - Yes, we can change our clothes, but so many mobs and players started to look alike.
2. Characters are ugly - The models look funny. People stand funny, hands are too large, hips are placed incorrectly. I would rather look at WoW's stylized visuals.
3. Animations - I call it the "30 FPS characters in a 60 FPS world". Overall character movement, combat actions, etc. They only look good when you are standing in one place doing emotes (some)
4. Landscapes - They all start to look the same. I can leave Bree, go north, head into Evendim, and feel like I never left. There is some variety, but the issue of spending too much time in one zone also causes this malaise described above (Valium based MMO).
5. Forced grouping - For major quest lines, there is no possible function to do a duo or trio to finish the Book quests. It is all well and good to level on grind mobs and quests, but the MAIN story becomes lost to the player who likes to play with a select grouping or team. Six players cannot always be formed, and PuGs are full of too many casuals who do not know what they are doing.
I could go on...UI made for 1280x1024, and anything higher starts to shrink the UI until text is unreadable in some parts (hurts my eyes at 1920x1200), music keeps disappearing for no reason, and some of the tunes are nigh irritating, etc..
But, everyone knows I hate LOTRO, but it is for so many reasons. I did not pick Turbine and this game to be the main hated MMO. All the reasons above make me hate it every time I booted it back up and tried to play after every new book.
I finally gave up, and never have tried again.
But, you enjoy it, and that is what matters most.
Jan 16, 2009 12:59pm
To each their own I guess. I don't feel a lot of the repetition being cited is less of a problem in other MMORPGs. LotRO really does need more faces, but there's plenty of cosmetic items, haircuts, etc. available. LotRO is slightly stylized as well, a look at a dwarf makes that obvious I feel.
The slowness never struck me. The animation isn't quite as good as in, say, WoW, but playing as a Champ I've never felt like things were taking too long. I guess it depends on the class partially.
I do have to really disagree with the landscapes, though. Bree and Evendim are notably similar, but they're also supposed to be. Angmar, the Shire, the Trollshaws, Forochel, etc... none of them are remotely like that and I have to say in general I am very impressed by how areas in the game look.
Like I said, to each their own. I don't like a lot of things for many of my own personal reasons, so I can't really say anyone else is wrong. I just personally feel differently about each of those points.
As for the original post -- I don't think the game is too grindy, honestly, at least compared to what's expected... Particularly in terms of leveling. You get so much rest experience it's almost insane. The deeds sure as hell are a grind, though. I don't know why I'd ever kill 300 trolls in Sarnur or whatever lol. No thanks.
For me LotRO has been more about the overall package than anything else. I'm actually interested in what's happening in it and the quests seem to have actual purpose to them. That's something I feel many MMORPGs lack (although WoW has been working on that more and more lately).
Jan 16, 2009 5:09pm
On animations: I don't know if it's improved, I don't recall noticing them much back in the beta so I assume so. Regardless, I'm currently thrilled with the detail animations (see this post and this) that are missing in other games and I appreciate greatly.
On characters: Better than WoW's, but that's easy to do since WoW doesn't give many character customization options. LOTRO's humans are a bit plain, but that fits in lore. It's slight hyper-realism but I'd rather that than if they stuck out as over-stylized (or worse, anime-ish). Things like the cosmetic gear and the facial animations make up for it for me.
A lot of the look comes out in the gear, which definitely has gotten better since I first tried the beta.
On landscapes: LOTRO is the best looking MMO I've ever seen in this regard. Even better than AoC overall due to the consistent details. Where OpenEdge1 sees sameness, I see consistency and feel at home in it. Everyone I'm playing with is having these gasms over the landscapes too, my roommate even walks by and exclaims how gorgeous it looks on my screen.
On grouping: I can understand if you don't like 3-6man groups and that's where some of the storyline is. I prefer it, the group sizes work for me. But I was frustrated with WoW's storyline playing out in raids, so I can see where you're coming from.
Tony summed it up for me, LOTRO feels like such a complete overall package. There aren't just pockets of things well done, it's consistently (there's that word again) high quality.
Everyone has their preferences and expectations. I'm just surprised LOTRO is matching so many of mine.
Jan 17, 2009 12:22pm
Unless something changed with Moria, the end-game in LOTRO is just like the end-game in WoW. In fact, LOTRO is very much like WoW in terms of the leveling experience being absolutely amazing (well, it wasn't so hot back in the day when the 30-40 content was underdeveloped) and the end-game being nothing but "okay, I need to do this raid to get this gear".
I'll admit though, your posts have me tempted to give it a try again. I want to play a Warden.
Jan 17, 2009 12:50pm
@Keen: It may be that I get to the Endgame and find the same-old, same-old. Right now I'm taking my dear sweet time leveling.
I think I've become immune to the gear ladder, or at least I just get the gear I'm interested in and I'll only grind as much as I'm entertained. Partly because I'm no longer feeding any sort of perpetual raiding or PvP habit that I'd need the gear for.
Some of the casual stuff that's in the game looks like it will stick for Endgame for me, like chasing Deeds and the even fluffier stuff like housing and music. The fluff is why I caveat that LOTRO probably isn't for everyone, because if it doesn't matter that's a lot of the shine gone.
I'm intrigued by the leveling system they have for the Legendary weapons. I won't unlock that for awhile tho.
As for the Warden, my gf is playing one. They use actual combos (as compared to AoC's directional easy-combo-mode), so there's a fair bit of memorization to the class. As in, do this power, then this, then this, to get that one unlocked. I wouldn't say it's super involved, but you do have to plan ahead (a recurring theme with the Rune-Keeper as well).
My general hope is that with the pace of Turbine's 'Book' patches, that they'll keep adding content before I get too bored. I have a long attention span, but I play a lot of hours too.
I know if Blizzard had been more timely with real honest-to-goodness content (instead of meta-content and stretched bullshit like daily quests and too much raiding) I'd have probably stuck with WoW even longer than the ~3 years I was there. Mind you, I did run a lengthy raid schedule for about 9 months of that, which is something I no longer have the tolerance for.
Jan 18, 2009 4:08am
I'm with you all the way around Middle Earth, Rog. :) I started playing rather recently (since about a week before Christmas) and I just love it. The atmosphere, the attitude of the community, the camaraderie, the way I don't feel rushed or pressured to get to end game but taking my time and having everyone around me encourage me to do so (instead of the "sweetie, don't you know that the game starts at level cap?" ideal), and the gorgeousness of the environment as I run around ... which is kind of like a reward all its own for taking the time to do so, though a few days ago I was rewarded for my exploring by finding a particular area where animals, ore nodes, and wood piles were rather dense with a really nice popup rate -- which means my pile of coins is even bigger than before, AND I got to gather materials for my tailoring and jewelcrafting.
I guess I'm in my honeymoon phase too. I see a few areas where things can be improved and a few things quite bug me (why the hell do I have to click and drag stuff into my vault -- why can't I just right-click and there it goes automatically?!), but overall they don't annoy me too muh or frustrate me.
PS Just came by your blog today through a link from ... I think it was KillTenRats, not sure. :) Added you to my bookmarks. Always nice to find someone who seems to be very much on the same page as me. In any case, I guess I kind of miss having someone to discuss/commiserate about a certain MMO -- my husband doesn't play LotRO so I can talk and talk and talk and he'll listen and smile, but it's kind of different talking to a spectator instead of another player (he doesn't feel like learning a new system/world right now so he's still playing WoW).
Jan 18, 2009 4:10am
Okay, went back and checked -- wasn't KillTenRats but MMeOw. :)