I hate the MMO you play. It must have been developed by baboons! For all I know you have the IQ of a dead baboon for choosing that game. Learn about you and your MMO after the break.
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.Mines of Moriaâ„¢ Day 2: Travel Agent of the Realm
Volume 1, Book 15 is horrible. Absolutely terrible. I am still not even close to Moria itself.
Taking Andrew’s advice, I started toward The Lord of the Rings Onlineâ„¢ Volume 2: Mines of Moriaâ„¢ epic quest. The best way to approach this, I thought, would be finishing The Lord of the Rings Onlineâ„¢ Volume 1: Shadows of Angmarâ„¢. Volume 1 has 15 Books, of which I had completed 14, so I looked up where to start 15 (Elrond) and headed out. Book 15 is another epic travel quest. I spent more than two hours getting through the first ten chapters. Almost all of this time was spent traveling back and forth between two points.
Continue reading Mines of Moriaâ„¢ Day 2: Travel Agent of the Realm
Mines of Moriaâ„¢ Day 1: Same Thing, Bigger Numbers
I bought the expansion pack. So far, no real changes except in the numbers.
The level cap is higher, and it is neat to see experience on my level 50. My characters have new deeds, which will alter their numbers after I do certain things 100-1000 times. The deeds combine to other things that alter my numbers. All the defense numbers were moved to a different scale, which may have been meant to hide the nerf to all defenses; if you already blocked, parried, and evaded most attacks, you could not get much higher without breaking the game, so now you can earn your way back to where you were (at level 60).
Continue reading Mines of Moriaâ„¢ Day 1: Same Thing, Bigger Numbers
Cosmetic Versus Equipped Gear in LotRO
Here is my level 39 hunter in the cosmetic gear (visual appearance only – what people see):
Here is my level 39 hunter in the equipped gear (the gear that I am actually wearing):
Seriously, what is with the pants in this game anyway? The rest of it looks like he is wearing spandex armor. Ugh.
– Ethic
Migrant Developers
There is a lot of buzz in forums and the blogosphere about the recent layoffs from Mythic (and later THQ). The extremes can be found at Broken Toys (sympathetic view from the inside) and Tobold’s MMORPG Blog (harsh view from the outside). What I want to comment on comes from the statement from Mark Jacobs (top boss of Mythic) concerning the layoffs at Mythic after the launch of Warhammer Online.
With respect to customer service, quality assurance and play testing, prior to the launch of WAR, we hired additional people to deal with the rush of demand associated with an MMO launch and to insure the best possible experience for our players.
This seems to be commonplace with the development of MMO’s these days. Age of Conan had to have layoffs from their pre-launch bloat as well. Is the MMO development culture now one filled with migrant developers?
BoB is Dead
What glorious news is this? Band of Brothers is was a group of mostly elder EVE Online players that acted the playground bully for the last few years. They destroyed the alliance I was in (ASCN) and pretty much stuck their hands into anything they could mess with. It’s all part of the game, sure, but they had a knack for making things that were once fun – well not so much any more.
I have just heard the news that their alliance has been destroyed thanks to the Goons.
BoB is dead! BoB is dead! Let them shout from the rooftops! BoB is dead. For now.
– Ethic
Audience Effects
Misaimed Fandom is when the audience takes irony as endorsement or likes a character the author meant to be problematic. The classic example is Milton: Satan is the bad guy of Paradise Lost. If you enjoyed Achievement Unlocked with no sense of irony, you were engaging in misaimed fandom.
The tropers note the characters of Rei and Kaworu Neon Genesis: Evangelion. They are pale, creepy, and emotionally stunted, and therefore not intended to be sympathetic, sexualized (Rules 34 and 36 aside), or fan favorites. The creators missed two things: (1) they are the nicest people in the series; (2) many otaku are pale, creepy, and emotionally stunted.
What examples would you cite as misaimed fandom in gaming? PETA’s Thanksgiving Cooking Mama parody was meant to make you sick, but children enjoyed its gooey, over-the-top violence. Other games have meant to sicken you with violence but instead provided hours of gore-soaked enjoyment for the masses. Hard moral choices lead to “hey, watch what I can do to this old lady” moments. Was You Have to Burn the Rope really meant as a Portal parody?
: Zubon
Exploits or Creativity in Moria?
I just reached level 60 in Lord of the Rings Online, and this happens to be my first max-level character in a Diku-style MMO. I was really excited to gearshift to the Mines of Moria endgame, which currently consists of a few dungeons, a few epic quests, and the Watcher in the Water. My first two endgame experiences really threw me for a loop. Were we playing as intended?
PR and Other BS
Promoting less than maximally accurate beliefs is an act of sabotage. Don’t do it to anyone unless you’d also slash their tires. – Black Belt Bayesian
If you are willing to lie to me about something trivial and easy to verify, like a video game, why would I trust you with my credit card information?
: Zubon
Hat tip: Eliezer Yudkowsky
300,000 Is a Good Number
Mark Jacobs may not think the game is doing well, but that is a very respectable success. I hope that WoW has permanently expanded the industry to allow more games to exist with those kinds of subscriber numbers. If 100,000 becomes the mark of a “niche game,” then MMOs will have hit the big time.
: Zubon