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The Call On Lord of the Rings Online
The Beta has been going on for some time now, and for all intents and purposes Lord of the Rings Online has launched. Pre-order players will be able to move their characters to the live game when the title officially lights up on April 24th, and commentators on Massively Multiplayer games have weighed in. Their opinion, generally, is unanimous: buy it. Tobold contributes a full-on review, as does CVG. AFK Gamer doesn't go in for such long-form opinions, but he still has a lot to say. Specifically, Foton comments on the good, the okay, and the bad, as well as a few words on the game's (somewhat out of the ordinary) classes. "[The game is] deep and broad. An MMOG, any MMOG, with its premium box price and its premium subscription prices, needs to offer more activities than: you can kill stuff, and, umm, you can kill other players, and umm, you could check the auctions/trade channel. There's many ways to screw around in this MMOG: Deeds, accomplishments, exploration (easy to outrun higher level mobs), titles, player-made music, engaging quest text, a solid start to the crafting system, MONSTER PLAY!!! There's probably more, but that's all I've tried so far."
The link to the full review is wrong. It links to a youtube video of a timelapse of the Wikipedia page on the VT shootings.
It's very much like WoW was at its release over 2 years ago. The complaints that I have heard largely relate to issues stemming from the fact that in the beta you can't level over 30, so much of the game has yet to be experienced. Given all the good reviews and word of mouth, this game could mature very nicely. It seems to be more mature in many ways and less in others than WoW is. Finally a little competition in the MMO field. WoW has been the only decent MMO out for a long time, with LotRO, Age of Conan, Tabula Rasa and Warhammer Online coming out we should see some great stuff soon.
Tobold's "weighed-in, full-on review" links to some stupid VT video. Is this intentional?
Blerg.
Not even to check the title of the linked pages?
The intro was great. (as an elf) I got popped into my own little instance where a battle was taking place. I was ordered to slay goblins, how to move about the world, how to interact with NPC's (kinda like EQ's Mines of Gloomingdeep). After the event you get ported out of your instance, standing where you had stood.
... it was more drawn out even at the lower stages ... but that's not saying much. I fear the game will only really hold for the hardcore LOTR fans, and the rest will play awhile and say 'meh'. And there is always the fear of them f*cking it over someday like SOE did with Star Wars Online. (I'm a huge SW fan; however I couldn't bring myself to play the MMO, even though I was a huge MMO fan, because I knew something, someday, would go wrong and wreck my experiance ... )
The intro really impressed me. Along with the $199 lifetime subscription. And the way they worked classes (trying to stay true to the era but still incorporating the archetypes people are familiar with: for example the minstrel is a healer... you get your healer but recast into something that would fit in to LOTR). But beyond that, I'm not so sure the game will stand the tests of time. One the problems I forsee is the limited number of races. I also liked combat a bit more than WoW
And with that being said 'There's only one Return, and its not of the King, its of the Jedi' -Clerks 2.
The third FA puts it best:
"If you're still playing World of Warcraft and loving it, stick with WoW."
"If you're looking to add to your online gaming options, this game is a fine choice. Beautiful, engaging, deep, different."
"Between online games? Without a doubt, buy it."
That's true. Is it better than WoW? No. Is it worth trying if you're against WoW? Yeah.
I do also have to disagree about how the Tolkeen-y-ness of it all makes it somehow automatically better. Do I really need a deep backstory for my 'kill ten boars' quest? Not really. And because I skipped reading that, I also skipped some thing important. Now I'm lost, and starting not to care. Likewise, after being dumped out of the newbie levels, I have no idea where I am, why I chose to be there, or where I'm supposed to go next. Sure, sure, I've heard the name Bree before, but am I supposed to go there now or later? What's a 'scholar' and what's 'wood lore'? Oh, that can only be crafted by another player? Nice.
What WoW offered was a more distilled version of the online game. Doesn't require much thought but certainly can lead to spending lots of time enjoying it. LOTRO falls short of this, probably on purpose, but somewhat to it's detriment.
It's still the top entry on http://tobolds.blogspot.com/
I've been playing my way through game content since 1974. Here's what the dungeon games all resolve down to:
for (iLevel = 1; iLevel iMaxLevelAllowed; iLevel++)
{
currentMonsters.hitPoints = X * iLevel;
currentMonsters.attackStrength = Y * iLevel;
currentMonsters.graphics = GetMonsterGraphics(iLevel);
currentTreasures.value = Z * iLevel;
}
And we players crank through the iLevel loop and get bored about the third or fourth time through. It's been this way since D&D was played only on paper with dice. Even with EQ2 and WoW it's still basically the same.
Why?
Two reasons. First, because there are far more players than content producers. And because computers are good at looping. So, the content producers, in a natural attempt to provide more play-time given a limited amount of content production resource use looping and repetition...this is why player's grind.
What does this have to do with LOTR MMO? Not much, except it's still going to, ultimately, be a boring grind.
To get past the boredom, we need an open RPG game where people are encouraged to produce content for other players. Maybe 2nd life fits that criteria. I dunno because 2nd Life doesn't have monsters and spells and wizards, so I've got no interest in it.
Methinks it is time to post a top 10 greatest games review (which you know will be posted by Zonk) with a goatse or tubgirl link.
This is interesting as earlier reports were basically calling the game a WoW clone (and from the pictures it looked like it), and there were a lot of complaints that it didn't feel right being able to walk from the Shire to Mt. Doom in under half an hour. Maybe things have really improved during the beta.
Anyways, I've been WoW-free for about a year now, and I'm enjoying my time actually playing other video games.
Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
Here's the correct link for the Tobold full review
What is tubgirl?
The non-PvP parts were great, too; the world was so huge since so many people around the earth have contributed to it(Tolkien has been translated into 30+ languages, so many international fans). I loved exploring it and I also recall my fast-beating heart the first time I had to sneak into Moria for a quest and heard the BOOOM, BOOOM, BOOM, of the Orcish wardrums. http://mume.org/
Might want to try it out if you want a free game or to see something of the beginning of these types of games. I see that folks have even developed some graphical addons for representing/mapping the rooms of the text-based world.
I'm not saying it's a bad game, but the gushing I'm hearing really seems at odds with what I saw. The middle earth terrain is fantastic - the shire, the old forest, etc, all look great. I spent hours running around looking.
The problem is "then what". There is very little that differentiates this game from any other game out there. Elves are not Tolkien's elves, they're the same generic elves from other games. Everybody says "no fireballs", but my first level loremaster was tossing fire. Then there's the countryside full of evil boars, bears, etc. The bottom line is that this is ye olde fantasy game on a really nice map of northern middle earth.
The one thing they did that seems different was add a neat trait system, which functions in the same role as WoW's talents. In this system you earn your traits by doing things, and then pick a small number of those traits to further differentiate your character. So find all 7 flowers in the old forest, get a trait. Go kill 60 barrow wights, finish all the breeland quests, etc, and you get traits. Some of these traits stack, too, so you might get "wisdom" from two different sources and have "wisdom +2". This trait system gives you little challenges while you are going about levelling.
When I left the beta, the system was in partially in-place but the traits weren't that effective. I read that they've filled it out and made the effects more pronounced.
But is a trait system that much of a reason to buy and play a game? I'm still disappointed that they didn't follow DAoC's RvR model, and I don't like the various little betrayals of Tolkien's world, so I'll pass.
-Jeff
Please learn the difference between a dissenting opinion and a troll before you moderate.
I think I'll wait until I can be a cimmerian. :)
"Rune Kristian Viken" - http://www.nwo.no - arca
My biggest concern would be the pervasiveness of magic and other factors that cause the game to depart from its roots. Yeah, I'm one of those purists that still gets annoyed at all the gratuitous changes PJ and Friends made when doing the LotR movies (although I still think those movies were teh bomb).
Magic was always subtle throughout the trilogy, the Hobbit, and even the Silmarillion. Well, far subtler than D&D magic, anyway, and certainly rarer. The passing of the Elves meant that mundane Men were in charge, and while some of them were very talented at war, and a select few had a divine bloodline, they were still just using natural human ability to do what they did.
Now, I'm not necessarily opposed to shoving a massive damage spell up the arse of the nearest Balrog, and I realize that it's far, far too late to change the design of this game if they have made magic overt and pervasive. Much as with the movies, it's a game I'd still consider playing. But I'd still cringe every time my loser groupmates Araporn and Legolass started lobbing fireballs around the room.
...I'm a bit addicted to LOTRO (their acronym, not mine). I've never played WoW or EverQuest, so I can't compare it to them. But I like the sense of freedom on a known (Middle Earth) map. Having gotten myself up to Level 12, I'm now just wandering cross-country, heading towards the Misty Mountains. Based on what I've experienced so far, I suspect that I'm going to need to hook up with a few other folks to keep this up -- I'm running into some nasty MOBs.
..bruce..
While I did sign up for some crafts, I haven't done much with them so far...strikes me as a bit tedious, though I'm sure others will differ.
There is something vaguely silly about MMOs -- you have dozens of people running around, completing the same 'quests' or 'tasks'. This doesn't mean that it isn't fun as a game -- it just points out that the MMO's "immersive experience" doesn't really mimic in any real aspect what it would be like to live in such a fantasy setting (which, after all, would likely match Hobbs' famous description of life in the state of nature: solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short).
The real test will be if I'm still playing it a month from now.
Bruce F. Webster (brucefwebster.com)
I think the real problem Lord of the Rings Online is facing is due to the very nature of it's theme. Of course we've seen this all before, because nearly every single freaking fantasy-based RPG developed over the last few decades draws on the world Tolkien crafted. Compounding the problem is the fact that the gameplay mechanics of most of these RPGs is based on Dungeons and Dragons, or at least the closest approximation we can get with an automated system.
The fact is that the grind is the draw. It's a form on conditioning. Perform set actions repetitively to bring about a positive outcome, in this case character growth. This allows new areas, new equipment and new foes to be revealed. That in turn promotes further growth which brings about additional content. It's satisfying to see a character hit that next level. And when it comes down to it real live involves a lot of repetition so it's inevitable that the sort of game that gets closest to emulation life, in some regards anyway, would also involve a lot of that repetition. Some games simple manage to package it more nicely than others. The grind is obscured in a way that makes gameplay enjoyable.
So I don't see that as the major issue here. The problem I have with LOTR Online is that it's yet another fantasy game. It may be one of the originals, but at this point that's irrelevant. I've heard good things about it, but it just doesn't strike me as interesting. Inevitably it comes off as yet another World of Warcraft.
Other genres have been long overdo. The problem is that the ones that have appeared have generally been lackluster or a bit too esoteric to make the sort of impact World of Warcraft has.
LOTR Online may have an edge over WoW in terms of gameplay. Unfortunately, WoW is just too dominant to be so easily unseated from its position as number one. LOTR Online needs to offer something truly phenomenal and distinct beyond it's source material. Of course, this may be just the thing those bored with WoW are looking for. But if people are tired with WoW they might be tired of the fantasy genre in general, going back to my point above.
Dude, you don't wanna know.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
It's supposed to be real purty though.
-- $SIGNATURE
I find that the graphic quality in the game on lower end cards is pretty bland and unattractive. I've played on a Macbook Pro using Boot Camp and had to turn the settings pretty low. On the other hand on a Core2Duo desktop with a 7900GT the game looks amazing. The character models aren't great but the environments look fantastic on high detail.
Sometimes my arms bend back.
A decade ago, before all the LOTR hyping, I was in eager waiting for 'middle earth' to arrive. According to the developers it offered most of the above with nice art on their site, I really wanted something different from my Ultima Online PK looting pastime. So I bought the complete works of Tolkien for about $80 on Amazon to get into my role a bit. Keep my mind of the dinosaurs, in the media at that time - supposed to be the next big thing at the time. Sadly the company never got to release their gem.
This game sounds like a bit of fun, but having looked on the sideline at these games, I'm getting a bit tired, there's nothing revolutionary here. Even worse, still it doesn't really seem to be focused on real role playing. Just another pump and dump RPG scheme in the wake of world of warcraft?
The one thing that makes me stay with WoW: the LoTRO developer has chosen to completely forbid anyone from outside of a designed geographic region to purchase its local version and play there, no matter what. And if they released LoTRO in Brazil? Nope, sorry. I don't like playing games with other Brazilians. So, if the developer doesn't want my money to play on the US server, I won't pay him any money at all. It his loss, not mine.
Conservatism: (n.) love of the existing evils. Liberalism: (n.) desire to substitute new evils for the existing ones.
and my impressions are that had this game come out a year or two ago, it would have made a much bigger impact than it will now. Why? Because, while it's a solid package, it doesn't really have anything unique to offer outside of theming elements. Sure, it's cool to run around Middle Earth, but outside of that, it's very much WoW-lite, and with a horrid, unresponsive interface to boot.
Was it fun? Yeah, it was. But after playing for a couple of weeks, I already had the feeling that the game didn't have legs. The landscapes were beautiful and mostly well designed, and the quest writing was fantastic, but ultimately the game doesn't have anything to offer that hasn't been done before in just about every other MMORPG on the market.
My recommendation: Buy it if you're bored and looking for something to do. It'll hold you over till the next thing that catches your attention. But if you're looking for a deep game that will tie you in for a long time, this probably isn't going to be the one.
I was stunned when I fired up the beta. To me it felt like a re-skinned WoW without playable horde. In fact, I played WoW until I got sick of it and haven't played since, but after 8-10 hours of the LotRO beta, I wasn't so much tired of this new game as I was still tired of WoW. I promptly uninstalled. Mind you, that's just my opinion.
It's sad when choosing an installation directory on your own qualifies you as an "advanced user."
Instead of grinding, you run errands and quests for experience. Also loot isn't worth anything, the way they calculate armor, it's not even worth wearing armor before you're level 30. I know I played the beta. I love LOTR. I love Turbine. I hate a game where having the best equipment in the game makes less than a 5% difference in someone who bought their equipment at a vendor. I can see that they want to add better gear later, but please add some to start with. Also as a final kick in the nuts, every race is the same if you look at stats. In LOTRO, your stats and equipment are just pretty numbers that are basically meaningless. I'm sure it will be a fun game because Turbine does monthly updates, but please, some people like their RPG to have some statistics. What's the point in questing if it isn't for better gear so you can go on more difficult quests.
God spoke to me.
Over here in Europe where the release is being run by Codemasters there is a dedicated Roleplay server (one each actually for English, French and German languages actually) with tighter naming rules and so on to ensure the experience. I've not dropped in to the server yet myself but a quick look at the English RP server's official message board suggests the players are making the most of it.
There are plenty of in game features to support roleplay too, from the simple - for example using the emote /sit while next to a chair will result in the player actually sitting in the chair and there's a good range of emotes inclooding moods which change facial expressions - to the more complicated such as the music system which allows you to buy and play your own tunes on various instruments which allows stuff like this. The tools to roleplay are there they just need to be used.
So no, the game isn't revolutionary but it is well done, the graphics give it a good atmosphere, the player versus monster player system provides an opportunity for PvP action without the opportunity for griefing, class roles are just different enough from the standards to make them feel familiar but original, the quest texts if you read them give far more story than most MMOs I've encountered (and the epic quest line provides a genuine story that tracks along with the journey of Frodo and friends), the focus on gaining experience from quest completion rather than kills makes the game feel far less of a grind and the people playing seem to be a generally friendly and polite bunch compared to the WoW crowd.
I don't see the game beating WoW in terms of numbers but as long as they keep the servers stable and keep the kind of additional content promised in their first post relase patch rolling in on a regular basis I could see it being the number two 'western' MMORPG.
See, I tried the beta. And like an apparently large number of people, it completely and totally managed to reboot my PC every time I tried to even log in. When large numbers of people can't even log in, that is what we call a bad sign.
Well after playing for a couple weeks now, I gotta say that I'm sorry a pre-ordered. I should have realized that the last couple offerings from Turbine haven't been great (How could anyone fail to turn D&D online into a cash cow?). They're already making boneheaded decisions (they just completely destroyed farming, the kind with crops, in a nerf they admit they didn't properly think out). Unless I see something amazing from them in the next few days I'll be leaving my pre-order on the shelf at EB.
I have to agree with many of the points raised over the uniqueness of LOTRo not quite distinguishing itself enough from WOW, or fantasy MMOG's in general. While eye candy and a new world of immersion are attractive to many, I feel LOTRo will fall short in that the characters are not as unique to the user as would be attractive for very long term retention. There are no adjustable player stats and skill trees are purely linear. While it's a very beautiful game, and the Tolkien content is attractive, it's over-all lack of diversity could be it's undoing.