LoTRO progress update.

A quick LoTRO update today to end the week.

Aria and I hit level 18 after wrapping up our first trip into the Barrows. Since most of the quests in that place are multi-part, we will be making another trip shortly. I really like the Barrows area, the whole ‘giant graveyard’ with undead all over the place just works for me. Once tiny detail that I noticed during the little girl escort quest (too lazy to look up the name, sorry) is that her missing cloak is now visible on the ground. Either I missed it before, or that was added in some patch, but it was cool to actually see her find it before going off to meet the prince, who tries to kill her of course. Good stuff.

We also did a bit of questing in the Great Forest, which thankfully now has a map built into the game. No more getting lost FTW!

Our Captain/Minstrel combo is working really well so far, as we have plenty of healing/buffs with decent damage output, plus the Captains ‘run away fast’ ability to save ourselves. Hopefully this weekend we do our first run of the Greater Barrows instance, and see how we fare in a full group. So far even group quests near our level we have been able to tackle with just the two of us, so we have yet to play in a full group.

Remember the LoTRO beta?

Quick thought that popped into my head just now: remember how polished and smooth the LoTRO beta felt? The game levels 1-15 seemed amazing during beta, with great quests, landscapes, and story. It was not until release that we all realized the game was a bit empty at levels 35+ (fixed now).

Am I the only one making the comparison with the LoTRO beta cap and the AoC beta cap? Add in that the closed beta NDA is still up, and all the tech issues… well the post below states my opinion on how AoC will fare, but this 1-20 limit just adds more fuel to that fire.

Age of Conan, say hello to Auto Assault, your new roommate.

The current buzz in our little corner of the MMO blog world is all about the AoC beta and the game’s approaching release. Most sources are reporting major issues, both gameplay wise and on the tech side, ranging from sub-par frame rates to BSOD type crashing. Perhaps most surprising is that people are reporting poor performance with the game set to low settings. I’m guessing the game looks fairly close to absolute trash on low, as most games do? Has ANYONE had any luck with this game on high/max settings with a decent resolution?

Beta issues aside, I don’t think I’m going out on a limb here when I say AoC is in for a rough/disappointing launch. A potential niche game already, this amount of negative press certainly won’t increase box sales or pre-orders. Many already are taking a ‘let it get patched up’ approach, which sounds very similar to Vanguard. The problem is many people are STILL waiting for Vanguard to get ‘patched up’ or ‘turn the corner’, and had Sony not bought up Vanguard and put it on the MMO life support system that is the Station Pass, I doubt the servers would still be up.  Somehow I don’t think Funcom has the funding to fix up AoC with 25-50k active subs. I also don’t think AoC will be the type of game to start slow and then see a steady climb ala EVE. Aside from using a graphic style that does not age well, it also features an endgame (PvP) similar to what most predict will be the next big thing in Warhammer Online. Even if AoC had a strong launch, how many people are simply playing it as a hold over to Warhammer, or a break from WoW until the expansion hits?

My prediction (based purely on reading about it, I’ve never actually played AoC thanks to how ‘open’ beta was handled in terms of distribution) is that AoC has a very weak launch, and a huge drop in subs after the first month. It either dies a quick and silent death shortly after launch (3-4 month), or it teeters on life support with a skeleton crew managing it before finally going the way of Auto Assault in a year or so.

Time to make this blog do some work for me…

Long shot here, but does anyone work for, or know someone at Turbine Entertainment? If you do, please email me. (syncaine at yahoo dot com)

Thanks everyone.

/end shameless usage of blog for personal gain

Too WoW-like, a positive or negative?

Tobold has a post up today questioning the wisdom of designing an MMO with features too similar to WoW, speaking specifically about Age of Conan. His point is that why would someone play something WoW-like when they could just play WoW, which has 3+ years of development and refining behind it, not to mention the overall high quality polish and design that made it a hit to begin with.

While a good point, it makes me wonder how far we have to get away from WoW in order to be ‘different enough’, and what exactly are we aiming for here. The bottom line of course is to have a game that’s fun to play, regardless of which design you follow. Whether you go PvE, PvP, a mix, or something entirely different, the game has to just be plain old fun in order to work. It’s a bit of the EVE Online theory, in that EVE nails almost every design-related issue spot on, yet for many it’s missing that key component that makes it fun to log on and play consistently. For many EVE is more fun to read about than to actually play, which says a lot about the game, in both a positive and negative way.

But back to the original question; how much different does an MMO need to be in order to compete, and what does compete actually mean? As fans, I think we get too caught up in the numbers, looking at WoW and saying ‘the next MMO has to get 10 million subs in order to beat WoW’, forgetting that WoW has ‘only’ 4 million or so subs in the US/EU, and that the other 6 million or so are in Asia, where the profit margin is far, far lower on a pre-account basis. So are current developers focusing on that magic 10 million subs number, or are they just looking to make a quality game with enough subs to make a profit? After all, any game that makes a profit is a success right? The servers stay up, new content is produced, the company makes money, players continue to enjoy a world they like, and everyone wins.

Moving away from the bean counter aspect of MMO development, let’s talk about what really counts; what do fans want. Recent releases show us that WoW-like games (LoTRO) do well, while games that try to break the mold seem to struggle (PoTBS, TR), and that future releases (AoC, WAR) seem to be moving away from their original ideas and seem to be going the WoW-like route.

Now the above paragraph contains a slew of over-simplifications, and counter arguments can be made for almost all points, but the overall view of the current MMO space holds true, for whatever reason.

And finally, it’s important to note that everyone will have a different opinion on what ‘too WoW-like’ means. For example, many people wrote off LoTRO because they viewed it as WoW set in Middle Earth. Yet for Aria and I, we are really enjoying LoTRO right now (and did before when we played at launch), even though we still play WoW. While LoTRO is indeed similar to WoW, its difference enough to be fun, and in many ways (combat speed, graphics, community) it feels/plays better for us. The best thing of course is we have both; we raid casually in WoW, and quest/level in LoTRO, but if we had to cut one out, it would be WoW right now, simply due to having already done most of it.

As anyone who reads this blog knows, I’m very excited for Warhammer Online, especially the PvP aspects. Am I worried that it will be too WoW-like to be fun? Not really. My one concern is that Mythic balances PvP on PvE and not PvP, but given Mythic’s track record and experience from DAoC, I doubt they will make that mistake, especially when WoW is giving them the perfect example of what a disaster PvP is with PvE balance, and what a hole that type of design puts you in. If WAR has WoW-like PvE elements, that will just be a plus in my book, as even PvP diehards like to take a PvE break once in a while.

With all that said, what’s my stance on the whole issue? Make a fun game that on day 1 is ready to go. If it’s WoW-like, it better have enough to separate itself and offer compelling reasons to play. It could be just one difference in design; if that change is good enough, people will play it. If it’s not very WoW-like, it better live up to the standard WoW set, as no amount of good ideas will allow fans to see past glaring errors, like fans did in the late 90s, early 2000.

I will kill you with nagging

Between my Man Captain and Aria’s Elf Minstrel, your little duo+herald do a LOT of yelling. I mean like 3-4 yells a regular mob. We kill bosses by making either eardrums bleed. I don’t mind the yelling, it’s kinda cool in an odd way, but I’m fairly sure the people who just moved in next to us might not enjoy our nightly ‘death by nagging voice’ gameplay. Too bad we have seniority in the building, so they will just have to suck it up and deal (or knock on our door to complain, like the previous tenants did…)

Oh and speaking of loud noise, I’m sure they will LOVE all of the great sounds from DoTA (‘triple kill’ ‘god-like’ and such) that blare out at stupidly high levels. DoTA has basically two sound levels, earthshaking and mute, and I don’t game on mute.

MMO gaming from the ultra-casual perspective.

At the request of my bf that is swamped at work, I am writing my first
blog post ever. And ironically, it is about something that a year and a
half ago, I knew virtually nothing about. I am a gaming newb in every
sense of the word. My idea of sitting down to play video games was
Super Mario Brothers 3 circa 1994 . So being introduced to the world
of computer games was overwhelming to say the least. New skills,
buffs, healing, gear, experience…..I thought I was pretty sweet in
mastering up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, BA, select,
start in Contra…this was a bit tougher.

My first gaming experience came in the form of LOTRO. My bf smartly
lured me into it, playing on my slight obsession of the movie trilogy.
After learning the basics, I actually learned to like the game
(although my playing threshold was about one hour max.) I liked how
different players and skills complimented each other in gameplay and I
looked forward to upgrading my gear. But after leveling characters
close to 40, I (we) fell off and got bored with it. That’s when I was
introduced to the motherload of all MMO’s…..World of Warcraft.

I was actually quite adamant about not playing WOW. My bf had had a
slight (understatement of the century) addiction to it, and I wasn’t
about to open up Pandora’s Box. But I gave it a try when he got a
guild together with his old raiding buddies. WOW was beautiful to me
from the start. Everything was bright and picturesque. While LOTRO had
beautiful natural scenery, WOW was more cartoonish and over-the-top,
and the characters were more interesting and unique. I quickly saw how
it could become addicting. Within the first few weeks, I was fiending
for a purple item, or any item to increase my intellect (I was
leveling a mage). And soon we were creeping towards level 70. Playing
with ten man groups was very interesting, although I was terrified
with being the most inexperienced. I definitely pulled too much aggro
often and stumbled into groups of enemies I wasn’t supposed to. And
then there was sheeping… (thank god for marking). All in all, WOW has
been a fun learning experience. But sitting down to run instances for
several hours just seems so trying to me. I thought my threshold of
playing time would increase, but it really hasn’t. I get bored after
an hour or so. My play becomes careless and I stop paying attention to
details. Unfortunately, at this stage of running heroics and such, the
details become vital to a group surviving runs, or at least not wiping
several times. So I think I have found what kind of player I am:
happily casual, with no plans of changing.

I still consider myself a newb even though I have been playing for
over a year now. We have recently returned to LOTRO and I am finding
differences between the two that I would not have picked up on a year
ago. LORTO seems a lot more relaxing to play, rather than the chaotic
feeling I had with WOW (granted we are only level 13). I decided to
take a chance and play a minstrel, so healing will be a whole new
experience for me. I guess my main message to all reading this is the
next time you play with a PUG, keep in mind that they may not just
suck, they may be learning to play. Give them advice instead of
yelling at them. And as for me, I can now finally say: My name is
Ariapantsonfire, and I play computer games.

Edit: Posted unedited from her email. Even having seen everything happen, an interesting read to have it all recapped. Thanks Aria!

Quick thought of the day.

DoTA is a better version of WoW’s Arena PvP?

Set map, 5 v 5, class/skill/item balance dependent, fairly twitch based, team unity/communication being key…

Seem fairly similar to me, other than the fact DoTA is 100% fair pre-game, while the outcome in WoW is pre-determined 99% of the time before you queue (gear).

Blizzard should just do what they normally do, copy something successful and call it their own.

Returning to Middle Earth.

Having hit 70 in WoW, and with Kara raiding being a once a week event currently, some gaming time has opened up for the gf and I. Since we had to stop playing LoTRO due to a technical issue and not anything gameplay related, we figured it was as good a time as any to return to Middle Earth.

Much has changed since we left with all the big ‘book’ updates. It’s amazing how much content and improvements Turbine has cranked out since the release of LoTRO. We started new characters (Man Captain and Elf Minstrel) and are currently only level 11, but already a few things jump out. Some are minor, like the ability to toggle the visibility of your gear on/off right from your character window rather than an options menu like in WoW. Having a one-click method allows for much quicker and easier character customization in terms of what you choose to display. Another rather noticeable change is the pace of combat, which is a bit slower than WoW. Some view this as a negative, but for me it’s a nice change, as WoW (especially in PvP) ends up being a mad clickfest of skills rather than a tactical situation. The slower pace also helps those with slower fingers keep up and remain effective, while not reducing the need to pay attention and select skills wisely.

Going directly from WoW also reminded me of just how gorgeous LoTRO is, especially at high settings with DirectX10 enabled (thanks Alienware). From the smooth animations to the amazing detail in the textures, the overall look of LoTRO really adds to the experience, doing a great job of visualizing an entire world and not just randomly placed zones. Also in direct contrast to WoW, LoTRO has a more traditional fantasy look and feel to it, which is something I appreciate, especially after looking at Power Rangers for the past few months.

Since the best content in LoTRO (imo of course) is the book and group stuff, we decided to seek out a large, casual Kinship to join right away, both to answer our newbie questions and to have a quality pool of people to call upon when it was time to get something a bit difficult done. We found “Easy Company” on the Windfola server, and so far so good. We have yet to group with kin members (no need yet), but kin chat has been both active and helpful.

Hopefully I’ll remember to take and post a few screen shots later tonight, but so far, our return to LoTRO has been very satisfying, and we are looking forward to the coming adventures.

Wearing your sunday dress on mondays.

As my head is still spinning in full PvP mode, I realized most games, and perhaps most MMO gamers, ignore a potentially very interesting gameplay mechanic, which I will refer to (very likely unoriginally) as the ‘Sunday dress’ mechanic.

In too many games, and this is not just limited to MMOs, you always use your best gear at all times. The only time you switch gear is when you find an upgrade, or in the rare situational encounter, like a resist based fight. This is why in many games there exist a ‘best’ item, be it weapon or armor, and you almost always have a clear upgrade path. Encounters are therefore balanced on the assumption that players have X amount of said gear, aka the gear check.

I don’t understand why more MMOs don’t shy away from this mechanic, as it seems to limit the game far more than it adds to it. For starters, always using the very best gear removes an element of tactics. In both UO and EVE (both games that do not use the ‘Sunday dress’ mechanic) a fight is often decided by what you bring to the fight, and not what you COULD bring. In UO most players held their best gear in a bank/house, only bringing it out for special use. In EVE players are taught only to fly what they can afford to lose, and generally save their fully kitted ships for safer activities like mission running. The major advantage to such a system is that while more powerful gear is added, it’s kept in check by the player community. Just because someone has an ultra powerful sword does not mean he will use it at all times, so their power increase from that sword dropping is not a permanent upgrade, but at the same time does give them more options and potential power.

The need to replace gear, and also to have multiple copies, greatly stimulates both the economy and the demand for crafting. It makes common items relevant, instead of being vendor trash, and ensures that a crafting pattern stays useful long after an upgrade exists. A craftable item is now judged on its difficulty to craft vs how powerful it is, rather than simply on its total power compared to raiding or pvp items.

The variable flux in power also helps new players get into the game quicker. Instead of having to ‘gear up’ to join older players, new players can use loaner gear until they are able to provide for themselves, as well as stick to safer situations so as not to risk that ‘better than you should be using’ gear. Encounters could also be balanced around this risk/reward structure. Say the game uses a limited durability system, where each death takes a few points of durability off your gear, and the points are permanent, once you hit zero, item gone. Now let’s say we have a boss fight that, on average, results in 2-3 deaths due to somewhat random factors, but also drops fairly powerful loot. If a group goes in fully kitted in top gear, they might ‘lose’ more in durability than they gain in new items, or they might not take a single death and come out with a huge win. But that group also has the option to go in with more standard gear, and while the fight will be harder, the risk is a bit lower, while the potential rewards stay high. This method also keeps all encounters relevant. Even if you already have the sword that drops of boss X, in this system having another copy is beneficial, so in theory good gear will never be sold to a vendor or sharded.

There are more positive aspects beyond the few listed above, but their must also be negatives. For one, I can somewhat understand why people would not want to lose gear due to durability hits on death (or some other method of gear loss), but if gear was more common in general, I would imagine it would not be that drastic of a loss. What do you all think, am I missing some major factor here? And why don’t we see more MMOs with such systems?