Промоакции для игроков не только в шутерах — воспользуйся промокодом Vavada от наших партнеров и получи бонусы, которые подарят азарт и атмосферу, сравнимую с игровыми победами.
.Very interesting post over at Mordor Or Bust. Could Lord of the Rings Online possibly be looking at a F2P business model too? Worked for Dungeons and Dragons Online. Going to be interesting to see what they have to say at E3. Things have been pretty dry on the LOTRO-front for awhile now.
–Ravious
Thanks to Merric and Goldenstar at the weekly podcast, A Casual Stroll to Mordor, I learned about this prety cool “reality overlay” for people getting in shape for the summer can use to make walking and running a little more fun. Eowyn Challenge has a mile by mile breakdown of Frodo’s journey in Lord of the Rings. People can then match up their daily walking or running distance and chart it with the location of Frodo. My Lord of the Rings Online kinship is doing this as a group journey where people are buying pedometers to track their journeys to Rivendell. Not often does the fantasy or MMO fringe intersect with physical fitness, but I think this is a great way to get motivated. Good luck to all participating!
–Ravious
Sanya Weathers, an blogger of exponential blogs, has started writing over at the community manager watering hole, Metaverse Mod Squad. In the latest post she discusses the fiscal responsibility of the community management team (not without comparison to another department), but the crux of the post is on Leaderboards. Sanya writes that “achievement, respect, and a sense that time spent on your product is not time wasted can all be checked off with leaderboards, or whatever you want to call your comparative ranking system.” Dan Gray at his blog echoes Sanya’s thoughts by saying “it’s free content, it’s recognition, and it’s a fantastic tool for your community.”
There is a dark side though. A darkness that harms community. We shall name it “elitism.”
Hi.
You may not know me, but I go by the name Ethic. I used to play MMOs and write about them here. Somewhere along the line, I found myself with just enough time to play games for a few hours a week with nothing much to say afterwards. Same old same old, know what I mean? Thankfully, some other folks keep things going around here when I’m not feeling “wordy”.
Over the years, I have seen my interests flit about from here to there and back. TV has taken up more of my free time with Lost, Fringe, 24, Castle, Big Bang Theory, Justified and my Farscape complete series DVDs. There are some really enjoyable TV shows out there lately. After I get caught up with my shows on the DVR, I turn my attention to the PC.
For a game that depends on a stream of income from subscribers or RMT shoppers, the first hour of play must be the top development priority. This is where you hook players. After that, the endgame is important because that is where your players will be spending time indefinitely and where your game’s chatter will come from in the long run. Next is the early game, when you build momentum. The mid-game has already fallen this far down the list, as you have certainly seen in a lot of MMOs, and frankly few care much how good the late-game is because they are already fully committed and racing for the end-game.
I stand by my repeated claim that optimizing the new player experience is of paramount importance. You must grab my attention within five minutes, and you must deliver a satisfying hour or two for my first play session. Without that, any free trial is worthless, and you may even lose some people who have thrown down $50 for a box. This is the part of the game that every single player will see on every single character, and if you cannot do a good job here, I have no hope for the rest of the game. Yes, it is hard to make things interesting while giving the player only a few buttons to play with. Suck it up, we all have hard parts in our jobs. That’s why they pay us. Continue reading Early, Middle, Late
I got my snark out of the way. Before I continue, let’s rewind a little bit to the Volume 3, Book 1 Prologue. The Oath of the Rangers starts off with a journey to Rivendell, where I eventually met with Lord Elrond to discuss a letter sent by Lady Galadriel regarding Aragorn’s need for the Rangers. I knew going into this epic quest line that it was going to be a lighter Book entailing traveling about all the old zones. To expand on the content, I was sure that I would be waylaid by tasks as I talked to each Ranger. My hopes were not very high for a meaningful story or new lore, at least, until I got to the new Skirmish set in the Rift.
In the Prologue, Turbine blew me away. They created a kind of montage where Elrond walked with me around his library discussing the whereabouts of the eight Rangers I was to rally. Every few steps Elrond would discuss the whereabouts, demeanor, or skills of the Ranger, and the Ranger would pop into view as if my character was visualising the man we were discussing. I could picture the essence of each zone as Elrond talked. Lothrandir would be just out of the cold wind watching the icy landscape below while northern lights gave color to the snow, and Calenglad would be looking out at the great lake Evendim on a starry night as far off chantings of the broken Angmarim floated from the ruins across the water. The team/person that thought up this scene should be congratulated for far surpassing what could have been a simple laundry list of Rangers to collect.
(The protagonist, Me, runs in to the cave and meets with Radanir, the Ranger.)
Me: I am so glad I found you. Aragorn, your leader, has need of you in Rohan. You must go there at once.
Radanir: Of course, Aragorn’s will be done. However, there’s some orcs in this here cave.  They are too close to the elf outpost. They must be vanquished.
Me: Okay, let’s kill them quickly so you can make haste to Aragorn’s side.
(Silence passes as Radanir appears unsure how to proceed.)
Radanir: How about this?  I stand here. You go kill the orcs. Don’t worry though, I’ll still stand here until you leave the cave. Then you go tell the elf outpost of our victory.
(Me sighs, accepts his fate, and begins to run in to the cave. Radanir yells at Me as he goes out of sight.)
Radanir: Don’t worry! I’ll tell the others that come in to help you out!
Welcome to rand() week at Kill Ten Rats unknowingly sponsored by Leala Turkey of Spouse Aggro fame. For those sane enough not to have scratched much of the surface of spreadsheet programs or number intensive programming, rand() is a random number generator. And this week, I will be talking about randomness, choosing random topics, and generally throwing things to the whim of the all-conquering RNG. Sound boy, proceed to blast into the galaxy. Continue reading rand(Two Step)
One thing I love for developers to do in MMOs is utilize pre-existing content. Sure, I love new content with new lore and new mobs as much as the next guy, but I also have a soft spot for nostalgia. When big daddy Blizzard refurbishes pre-existing content and uses it as a selling point for their next expansion it must be the de rigueur. I couldn’t be happier.
There is a big difference between say Turbine’s revamping of a low level zone (which was great) and pulling the older content to the current level of play. Smoothing out some of the egregious bumps is a necessary thing in MMOs, which depend on new blood. Yet, it doesn’t really help the old players. It is nice to see a revised area when passing through with an alt, but it is more meaningful to me if the revision affects my main character.
Lord of the Rings Online legendary item system has always rubbed me the wrong way. In most other MMOs, with work and people, I can plan out my character to the pixel. Then it becomes a budgeting process where I evaluate the estimated time per milestone accomplishment whereupon I reorder said milestones to constantly feed me some measure of accomplishment. Afterall, I am hardcore.Â
Give me a break, I am not that hardcore. I play for fun and as a hobby. If I went cold turkey on MMOs, I would be sad that I was not having fun with my hobby, but I don’t play MMOs to fill some netherling void in my life. Still, I do like some constant drip of achievement that does not seem to cohesively exist in the legendary item system. Continue reading Splitting LIs