Yesterday afternoon I was in a pretty bad mood. I had destroyed a part of my main character in Lord of the Rings Online. It wasn’t until later that evening when I could apply a salve to my character’s gaping wound that I felt better. It wasn’t my fault, but the change needed to happen. I had to switch crafting professions.Â
Author: Ravious
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.The Old Comfortable
In Lord of the Rings Online: Siege of Mirkwood, my journey is over. I have a smattering of small quests left to do on the Eastern side of the zone, but for the most part my leveling and errand-boy running are done. Now my time with my main character has simplified drastically. Instead of pushing from quest hub to quest hub and through the epic story, not quite sure what’s next in store, I have set goals with planned steps. Signing on has become a comfortable chore that I was used to for months before the expansion jarred me from my oasis of calm with the rest of the herd.
This is not a bad thing, and for many MMO players this is how we actually play. We sign on to craft a few items, check the auction house, do a few daily quests, and that’s about it. These gaming chores are interrupted on busy or event nights by grouping up for a group instance. The braver choose to make random connections through pick up groupings. The best part is that everybody at this level is right there with me. When I was journeying geographically and leveling, I was for all intents alone. Sure there were clearings in the forest where my journey would intersect another’s, but for the most part everybody was either at the end or somewhere in the middle.
Is this another diseased symptom of MMOs following the DIKU/Everquest based ancestors? Or is this a benefit of allowing so many gameplaying styles in MMOs? For a “true” solo player, couple, or static group, the journey together can easily be the whole game. Whatever sticky content exists at the end like being drunk for 10,000 minutes for a title or killing 10,000 rats for achievement points is irrelevant. For those whose social groups are guild or alliance-based, the broader social net means a more heterogeneous place in the journey. The so-called “end game” merely provides a place in the journey where broad social groups (like an entire server) are all on the same page. It’s an old comfortable place to be in the herd until the devs tell the us to move to another watering hole.
–Ravious
crackalackin’
Legos On-screen
I have been waiting for Guild Wars 2 and Diablo 3 for a long time, but I have been waiting for Lego Universe even longer (and it’s been delayed just as much). I’ve been playing with Legos for most of my life. My Facebook icon has been and always will be a rendering of me in Lego form. Small sets of Legos scattered around my office (and I don’t work in a place where hip swag is really allowed). My first gift to my first daughter was a Lego set. And, I have had Legos on my computer since 2004.
Marathon MMO, A Vignette
A happy couple sits at the end of a gently used sofa. The husband has his arm around his wife and has his other arm resting on the armrest of the sofa. He watches a laptop on a laptop table while his wife thinks deep thoughts about how to spend Christmas gift cards as she occasionally glances at the laptop.
Wife: That’s pretty.
Husband:Yeah, Lord of the Rings Online ™ has some great visuals.
Wife: I like watching you play this game because of the landscapes. It’s much better than shooting people all the time.
Husband: You know… once I get my Guild Wars 2 computer, you can use this computer to play this game with me.
Wife: I don’t know. You are always yelling and killing things.
Husband:They aren’t really living things. Think of them as pinata gift bags. You told me you liked that part when we played World of Warcraft, briefly.
Wife: That was kind of fun.
Husband: This game is not just about killing things either. You can craft things, farm, fish, and even decorate your own home. I know you would like that.
Wife: I suppose. I don’t know, the game actually seems kind of boring. All I see you do is run through the pretty landscapes anyway.
–Ravious
Captain Shakespeare: It’s my reputation.
A Blogger’s Journalism
Kind of like a medical condition. Are bloggers also journalists? One of my favorite blogs, Psychochild’s, says we aren’t because “we don’t have impetus to do the real work needed.” Most of the article attacks the misinformation from Randy Nelson’s online post at Joystiq, and Brian “Psychochild” Green is harsh in the comparison of Nelson’s post to real journalism. Ironically, it seems that Randy Nelson’s title at Joystiq is “Blogger.”
I full understand Psychochild’s point that unchecked facts and off the cuff hyperbole can be damaging to a game, and it sucks that the very emotionally-written post by Nelson hit Joystiq’s front page for a time. But, if Green wants vanilla, bland, just-the-facts-ma’am journalism, please show me where for MMOs (or even video games) I can get this.
The Group Recipe
World of Warcraft (further) obviates a group recipe with the new random grouping mechanics: 3 DPS, 1 healer, 1 tank. While the issues regarding population imbalance caused by the DPS majority can slow down group matching, the groups and challenges are made so that the five random people are not impeded by guessing what the group make up should be.Â
Zubon points out that the group recipe in Lord of the Rings Online can be much more varied, and Berath comments that the favorite classes in Lord of the Rings Online are the straightforward DPS classes. Sure a Captain, Loremaster, Burglar, or Warden can cover multiple roles (even without retraitting), but the purity of the Guardian as Tank, Minstrel as Healer, and Champion, Rune-Keepers, and Hunters as DPS are hard to overcome.
Pixel Click Bosses
Lord of the Rings Online is generally a mainstay MMO with most features from the core pool of primal MMO goo. However, it gets massive negative points for the User Interface (UI) implementation, but not for the obvious. The issues with minimalist UI modifications are minor. Turbine allows players to move UI elements around the screen, resize a few of them, recolor a few of them, and even gives a preschool level amount of control in the creation of new UIs. Don’t expect anywhere near the amount of customization found in World of Warcraft of Warhammer Online.
I can live with this. My favorite MMO, Guild Wars, has even less options (although better resizability) than Lord of the Rings Online. The problem is when developers start creating insta-death boss puzzles that hide in the UI.
Happy Fun Security Issues
I am too tired to write commentary, so consider this a public service. If you have an NCSoft Master Account for Aion, City of Heroes/Villains, Lineage 1/2, etc. or you were dumb enough (like I was) to link your Guild Wars account(s) to the NCSoft Master Account (for silly things like another Storage Pane), then I suggest you read this thread.
The tl;dr version is that security holes existed in the NCSoft Master Account page, according to fans, that allowed people to randomly access other people’s accounts by merely signing in to their own accounts. Then you could do fun things like change game account passwords without needing old game account passwords or jot down personal information. The powers that be are working hard this weekend to fix or ameliorate security and information issues.
The most pertinent posts are: Continue reading Happy Fun Security Issues
2010 – Hopes, Dreams, and Fears
2010 is nearly upon us, and while things are dark and quiet during the holidays in the MMO kingdom, I feel a dawn is coming. Let’s look in to my prejudiced, postulating crystal ball.
Favorite LOTRO Solo Instance
I am way behind even the casual hardcore wave hitting the fog-filled forests of Mirkwood, but I am steadily plodding along like an old work horse. I usually follow the quest hubs pretty closely, and I maintain the epic quest to “match” the geographic location. This is even more doable now that Turbine has given players the choice to do Volume 2, Book 9 solo or with a group.
The story thus far in Volume 2, Book 9 is that I have to transport the most badass orc west of Mordor to the gates of Dol Guldur in the hopes I can do a prisoner exchange. Nevermind the fact that if I were the Nazgul in charge I would just shoot them all dead (including the orc) as they approached my tower, and I am surprised that the elves think this outcome will be any different. Anyway, it is a secret mission that uses the actual Siege as a cover. We take the mithril-shackled Mazog through the backwoods so Dol Guldur will not know of our approach.
In Chapter 3, Midnight in the Drownholt, I felt that my solo instance somehow transcended normal gameplay in to something meaningful. Where I was, momentarily, the hero.