This topic went 'round the blogosphere a few months back, but I'm revisiting it because the situation on the ground has changed.

I think Mark Jacobs was just playing the marketing game, it was a defensive 'WotLK won't hurt us' much like his recent 'layoffs won't hurt us'. He was just trying to put out fires.

I didn't buy into it. And if it was true, why should Mythic be proud of it?

MMORPGs encompass a variety of activities and gaming urges for the players. So if your game's population is taking time to play another MMO, then you've probably got some gaping holes in your content. In other words, if it was as compelling as it should be, they shouldn't be wandering so easily.

I understand playing other games, that makes sense. MMOs don't cover the same kind of gameplay as say Guitar Hero or Wii Fit. But to jump back and forth between two Diku-derived MMORPGs? These are time and focus consuming: Players invest in their characters.

So it probably wasn't true back in October, but it's becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. I know I clued in that WAR's PvE content lacked a good foundation. And Mythic's emphasis has shifted fully to RvR (PvP) since release. It's become the 'why would you come here for PvE?' game.

On the forums, on the blogs, on the channels in-game-- It's evident that a good deal of players are playing WoW (or EQ2 or LOTRO) for PvE and WAR for PvP. In the blogosphere alone it's getting hard to find WAR players that are solely for WAR, it seems like they've all re-subbed for WotLK. I could make a long list, but more effective is Tome of Knowledge's "A Tale of Two Hunters" comic:

(Note: Not my comic, it just illustrates this so well. Go visit Tome of Knowledge to fully appreciate it.)

The problem for Mythic is whether Blizzard clues in. I suspect it'd be a lot easier for WoW's PvP to get patched into something more compelling, than for Mythic to rework most of WAR's PvE. I'm of the opinion that PvP content is much easier to create, the players do much of the work for you. That's WAR's driving force altogether, in the masses of players.

And here's the bottom line:

I don't think players want to subscribe to multiple MMORPGs. They do it because they want both experiences to be great: PvE and PvP. If one of the games does both well, they wouldn't need the other.

When I've been asked what I think of LOTRO so far, I keep answering the same way:

"I love the attention to detail"

Turbine has put loving detail in everything, from the scenery to the emotes. I particularly appreciate it with the mobs. The AI is good and different mob types have distinctive animations to go with their special attacks.

I love this bear attack, where they get on their hind legs and roar with the full force of their bad breath and spittle:

The first time I had a bear do that to me, I almost fell out of my chair. It's hella intimidating.

Nelg suggested trying Lord of the Rings Online awhile ago, just as WAR was starting to lose its shine (after the first few weeks of glory). I responded negatively, I've dismissed LOTRO out of hand ever since trying the open beta. But now, I'm burning out on the zergfest of WAR's PvP and thinking about the alternatives.

I admit, my first glance at Turbine's version of Middle-earth was tainted with the glasses of a critical Tolkien fan. My PC was underpowered at the time too.

Taking a second look, I'm now far more intrigued than I thought I would be. What's pulling me in? 3man dungeons. Oh for sure, that's not the primary feature that'll hold me, but as a hook, it screams volumes about LOTRO's content direction, that they even have dungeons specifically for the holy trinity of small teams.

And I'm sure I can give up my purist glasses. I'll just have to approach the game like I would a disneyland ride. It's not meant to really be Middle-earth, it's more of a fun homage, right? After all, I hardly worried hardcore about WoW's lore and I certainly don't take WAR's setting seriously.

The more I read up on LOTRO, the more I have to try it. It sounds like a great PvE experience and that may be just what I need.

I was going to wait until I hit 40 in WAR, but I think I may give LOTRO a try over the holidays. I'll probably play both for a bit.

So does anyone want to suggest a good server? Or even perhaps a guild?

I'll be rolling on the Monolith server for WAR as Destruction, along with my core group of gaming friends (call us Gloomy Bears, Left Hand Path, Z-Team leftovers, VCVGC remnants, take your pick *grin*).

So why Monolith? A few of us got together and the discussion led to how we should try to grab the most perfectly balanced server. The consensus was that the earliest 'CE' servers are likely to get overcrowded, while some of the later 'retail release' servers may be underpopulated, so we're choosing inbetween with a standard 'head start' server for hopefully the best ratio. Monolith is a nice easy name to remember too. =)

I was tempted to try one of the servers where some other bloggers are guilding up, but this is the server choice my crew wants so that's what I'm sticking with.

Choosing a Core ruleset server was a no-brainer, it seems to me the RvR aspects of WAR work best that way, focusing the PvP in the areas where it makes the most sense and allowing us to relax when we're questing. Dare I say it, this formula suits us best, those of us trying the beta have loved the ability to jump in and out of both situations.

Also, it looks like this time around we're gonna give it a go finding a guild on the server to join. If that doesn't work out, we'll probably go back to creating our own smallish guild.

Once I've made my characters on Tuesday, I'll post my names in case anyone wants to contact me. Screenshots and video are likely too.

You hear this term a lot, I use it myself plenty, but what is Endgame exactly?

It comes from standard RPG gameplay, where the player "levels up" to progress. But an online world needs persistence, you can't trap players into leveling up forever. It has to plateau, it needs an End. At which point players begin a sort of new game, where some of the rules change and new activities are repeated or take a much longer length of time to complete.

Anyone who doesn't play these games could look at that description and shake their heads. We don't repeat the leveling grind into infinity, because the repetition without end would frustrate players-- So we give them an End, but then redirect them into other activities that repeat anyway. Or make them progress very slowly.

That about sum it up?

I think it's perfectly possible to have activities that aren't a grind, the plain and simple of it is: gameplay and content.

It's easier to repeat gameplay and stretch content than to provide more of it.

Clearly it's impossible to create infinite quality content, but I also think there's this situation in MMORPG development when they stop making a game for the players and start cashing in. Further development slows, they accept the monthly fees but the content trickles out, reducing cost and turning the whole thing into one big cash cow.

I'm generally not this sort of cynic when it comes to game developers, the ones I know are passionate about their games, but I can't explain the trend for MMORPGs any other way.

I think this market is wide open for the first game that keeps up a better pace with quality content and a greater variety of gameplay.

When I first encountered the mobs in Atzel's Approach, I thought maybe their aggro was bugged, but now I'm not so sure. I think it's possible that their AI is a little too smart.

Perhaps the Atzel have worked it out that the best way to kill the players is to form up roaming squads that swarm players randomly. I'm being sarcastic of course, but quite a few times these mobs have tricked me into thinking they were players due to their odd behaviour.

Here are some things that have happened that I wish I'd thought of capturing on video:

• I hit a mob and he ran away. This has happened before, it generally means he's running to get help and he may run quite far. As expected, he came back with a half dozen companions. The odd part? Once they got to me, they ran away too! A few minutes later, I was murdered by a crowd of about 30 or so that caught up to me.
• Numerous times I've been fighting these same mobs and another player will walk by and end up with the aggro. Not from casting or fighting, just walking by. I've also adopted the aggro from others (see video below).
• One mob was doing laps around some tents. Literally. He ran and ran in this big circle like he was training for a marathon.
• I had to kill Atzel Watchers, I found a camp with a few in a convenient spot and got to work. After cleaning out the camp once, as each Watcher respawned, instead of fighting me it ran off up a hill. This went on for awhile, with every mob spawning, pausing a second, then running off. I assumed it was to some other battle somewhere. Later I discovered the possible cause and captured it on video below:

Trisco warned me not to destroy the wagon, so of course I had to. I was expecting mobs to spawn, not to come running from other points of the map, causing other players to gain aggro along the way. No wonder trains are commonplace on this map, I can't tell what's running around from unusual AI or what's just returning from some other player that was swarmed.

My best guess is that Funcom has been doing some experimenting with the AI in this place and that some of the behaviour piles up into... how can I put it... mixed results. It's certainly amusing, I've been having a great time, I just have to stay on my toes.

I'd love to hear some anecdotes from other players who've experienced some of the odd mob behaviour in Atzel's Approach.

Play PvE

JoBildo pointed this out first, I can't take credit for the insight, but most of the yummy goodness and polish in Age of Conan so far is within the PvE content. It's not perfect, but when I reflect on the PvE I find myself gushing:

• Immersion is king. The quest dialog is beautifully written, the best I've seen in any MMORPG.
• The zones are gorgeous, large and well designed to hide little secrets that you'll find over time.
• PvE combat is simply amazing, every class has big goodies that can make you cackle with glee.
• Line of sight aggro, sneak up behind mobs ala Thief.
• Gear, while sparse in variety at low levels, is deeply detailed and looks amazing. Funcom is intentionally keeping stats low so that while collecting gear is fun, it's not overpowered.
• Animation and the overall appearance of characters is spectacular. Subtle gestures in the emotes, visceral weapon swings in melee, pyrotechnic flames and lightning with the casting. And of course the much talked about death animation finishing moves.
• The instancing, while at first odd to get used to, supports player choices: Questing area swarmed and overcrowded? Change instance. Run into an annoying griefer or piggybacker? Change instance. Boss spawn too long? You get the idea. It's a convenient solution to a variety of problems.
• Best roleplay community I've seen in years, it's significant, mature and involved.

There are downsides too: The crafting is incomplete, many quests are still bugged, etc.. but I think there's so much raw fun in the PvE experience that it's easy to be patient for the fixes which Funcom is pumping out.

I'm not going anywhere else anytime soon, I'm loving this game on the PvE side.

PvP = meh

Meanwhile, if you're a PvP fan I would guess that eking out entertainment from Age of Conan right now comes coupled with frustration:

• Border Kingdoms are a ghost town, they're too far separated from the rest of the action, with no good reason to go there.
• Sieges are still buggy and involve large guilds, large grind.
• Mercenary system was never implemented.
• PvP free-for-all servers are a circus. PvP is available in good volume, but much of it's baseless and lacks depth. Asshat ganking abounds.
• Mini-games are very basic and poorly designed.
• Mounted combat is lacking, aside from the amusing rear kicks.

Age of Conan's PvP does beat WoW's, but that's a pretty low expectation since WoW's PvP is barely worth noting, of course it was easily sliced and diced with AoC's incomparable combat system.

While I hate to accolade an unreleased game, Warhammer clearly has the leg up in the PvP department. WAR's key element will be in the ease of jumping in and out of PvE-to-PvP interaction from most any zone while including tangible questing throughout.

AoC's PvP content is such a mess that it's going to take Funcom months to redo a bunch of this stuff. They need to pull their PvP out of the fire before it gets cooked.

Funcom should have marketed this game more as a PvE experience.