Post of the Day: 5.19.2009

This will be hot if, indeed, this is Turbine's mystery console MMO project - tips for making LotRO a successful console MMO (part 1).

New MMO Players Ignorant?

Recently I've been keeping tabs on the discussions going on at the Stargate Worlds forums. It seems many people there are interested in the upcoming MMO just because its Stargate, not because its an MMO. One person I saw post today in the beta test forums was looking forward to beta but had never played an MMO before, he was interested only because it was Stargate.

Now, this is good on some level. I know players in LotRO who have never played an MMO before, and were drawn to this one because it was based on the lore in the books. In other words, they're fans of the media off which the game is made, not the game genre itself. More fans of the books equals more players, which equals a more successful game, right?

Something just disturbs me about all these people asking about beta invites for Stargate Worlds who openly admit they've never played an MMO before and are completely ignorant when it comes to this genre of games. If I was a developer, there's no way I'd send out beta invites to these people. To be successful, the game must be an MMO first, and a Stargate lore machine second. This means the testers need to be looking at it with that mindset, not an "oh look, this was in episode 315!!!" mindset.

While LotRO has a very comprehensive, while still fairly strict, license for The Lord of the Rings book trilogy and The Hobbit, you still see plenty of areas where they are forced to take creative license to make it work as an MMO. This is something I still don't think some fans of the books who started playing LotRO because of that aspect alone realize. Come to think of it, this problem plagues any MMO that has a deep, rich back story, even mega hits such as World of Warcraft.

I also think some potential players are ignorant in what they expect to see in an MMO such as Stargate Worlds. People seem to have high expectations, mostly based off of vague statements that the developers have made. They read things into their words and assume the game is going to be just like they or the developers envision it. In reality, it rarely works that way.

Maybe I'm just jaded from being around MMOs for quite a while - I've seen developer's unfulfilled promises, game lore altered or added for the sake of game play (which is a good thing) and just about every aspect that goes along with playing an MMO. Some people, especially people who are drawn to these MMOs because of the franchise, not because its an MMO, have no idea what they're getting themselves into. And yes, this bothers me on some level.

Lord of the Rings Online - Book 13 Patch

I'm back from a long weekend. I was deathly ill the latter half of the weekend through Tuesday, which flushed my chances of "one post per day" down the toilet. I just usually don't really feel like thinking much when I'm not feeling well, and thus we see no updates here. ;)

But, enough about that, on to business. I've been playing Lord of the Rings Online the last few weeks. I have to say I'm enjoying myself much more than the first time I played, which is likely because there is smoother solo progression in place now than there was 10 months ago.

The latest patch, Book 13, goes live today. It adds a bunch of cool new features, including a new zone, the first "hobby" profession (fishing), book 13 of the epic story line, a new monster class to play for PvMP and many other things.

I can't say I can benefit much from this patch right away, as I'm only level 20, and the new zone is for level 40+, but I am interested to see how they will implement fishing in this game. I haven't really tried out the PvMP much. On the "freep" side (that's short for "free peoples" or, in other words, the players' actual human/hobbit/elf/dwarf characters), I can't survive in the Ettenmoors until level 40+. On the "creep" side (short for...um...bad buy), I can create a new level 50 character to play and build it up, but I'm not sure how all that works exactly. I'll have to look into it more.

Still, there's a lot to look forward to in this patch. LotRO is the only MMO I've played to regularly add new zones in patches. WoW has done it...hmmm...once, I believe (with this last patch). That's just even more new content for free. ;)

Life in Middle Earth

As you know if you've been reading this blog for the last couple weeks, I've recently turned my attention to Lord of the Ring Online as my MMO of choice. I thought I'd talk a little about how its going and what I think was done extremely well.

I hadn't really read much of the patch information for the last couple updates, so I didn't know what to expect when I started up. I'm a huge fan of customization and role-playing content (even though I might not necessarily role-play myself). While some aspects aren't much better than WoW, such as character creation, for example, overall LotRO offers so much more RP content and customization.

I was surprised to stumble across a barber shop in The Prancing Pony the other day. Now I change my character's hair almost every day. Its fun and very affordable.

Things that I used to need a mod for in WoW are built right into the game. Most notably, if you type "/rp on" in LotRO, you go into "RP mode". Your character name appears differently to other players and when they mouse over you they are notified that you're role playing. In addition, in your character screen you can create a lineage for your character; a family tree, of sorts. You can also write a description of your character for other people to see.

What else? Instanced neighborhoods with player and guild housing. This is a big thing for me. It feels so much more like you're immersed in the game when you actually own a house and a piece of land - game real estate. In WoW, long before Burning Crusade was released, I used to be in a fairly high-end raiding guild. We all had a meeting spot in Ironforge that we would congregate in before and after raids, and during other times of the day. You'd often find guild members afk there and guild parties started there when we would clear a dungeon or down a boss for the first time. What if we had a guild hall to do those things in? Granted, the only thing lacking would be the public eye, but still, wouldn't it feel more like you were immersed in the game if you had a place to call yours to go hang out, meet before and after events and hold celebratory events?

The instanced neighborhoods in LotRO are very well designed. I have my heart set on owning a hobbit hole by a pond. When fishing is implemented in the next update, this will be an even more lucrative locale. And, I didn't even go into furnishing your house and yard, inviting others over, holding neighborhood events, etc.

I used to play Final Fantasy XI, it was my first MMO experience. While many things bothered me about that game, I really enjoyed their title system. You could get a title for many, many things in that game. Some were greatly coveted, as they were very difficult to obtain. I don't understand Blizzard's aversion to a more robust title system, especially considering they could still make very hard to get titles. But, at the same time, they could have many easier to get titles, to at least give the more casual player some benefit, as well.

LotRO has a very robust title system, much like FFXI, and I really appreciate that. To borrow a phrase from a rather popular, over-saturated Nintendo franchise, you get the sense that you "gotta catch 'em all", and that, to me, is fun.

One last thing I will touch on here is more game play-based than RP-based - the deed and trait system. It holds a way to progress your character without gear, and even after you hit the level cap. WoW's progression is almost 100% gear-based. That leads to the environment that is present now - raid, PVP or rep grind. What if you could progress your character - increase stats and improve their abilities - all without needing to worry about getting the best gear out there, and nearly 100% solo, if you wish? I'd be all over that. That's what LotRO offers with the deed and trait system.

The point of an MMO, in my opinion, is to immerse yourself in the world and to have content for players of every play style. From my perspective, LotRO does this much better than WoW. While WoW may have dedicated RP servers, Blizzard seems to have an aversion to adding any real RP content in favor of more of the same - raids, PVP and rep grinds. Will the upcoming expansion change that? I highly doubt it. LotRO is where its at for me, at least presently, but who knows what the future holds.