LotRO’s Moria in Review
Wednesday, September 9th, 2009
It wasn’t that long ago that I was writing up my first review of Lord of the Rings Online. My initial impressions were quite good and, based on everything I had experienced up to 50, I was pleased. Now that I’ve reached max level, I thought it would be a good time to review my trip through LotRO’s Moria while it is still fresh in my mind. With the new look of the site I’ve also changed up how my reviews will work a bit. The top score is now five.
Leveling Content
One of my biggest annoyances is when I start an expansion and there isn’t enough content to do to take me from the previous max level to the new one. Turbine has done a pretty solid job (more…)
Legendary Weapons earn high marks
Friday, July 31st, 2009
Many years ago I was sitting around with some friends and talking about how cool it would be if certain gear in MMOs could level along with you. This was not a new idea nor one that a myriad of other would be and professional MMO designers had not thought of in parallel, of course, but I still felt it was a feature worthy of discussion. In my vision, weapons would have levels and each time it achieved a new one you could buy stat bonuses, damage and effects. It was also my dream that you could name them and certain feats would unlock special bonuses only available to those who had participated. This could be anything from completing a specific quest, defeating a raid encounter or just killing 5,000 blue slimes. The possibilities seemed endless and that dream is now (at least in part) a reality thanks to an MMO design decision by Turbine. Lord of the Rings Online has legendary weapons! In an effort to skip writing a guide and get right to the commentary I would like to note that Turbine provides an exceptional guide to legendary weapons in the lore book. Anyone seeking more details than I provide can peruse that article to ensure there is no ambiguity.
The Good
I have a history when it comes to my commentary where I really focus in on the bad. I’ve sometimes felt that doing so makes me seem ungrateful for the extensive systems we do have that are working well. In reality, I’m just trying to provide honest feedback and make suggestions that I feel would improve a mechanic. To avoid doing just that I’m going to spend some time and discuss what is good about this system before I fall to my usual routine of what I dislike.
The fact that legendary weapons exist at all is quite a positive in my book. I am thrilled that I can (more…)
Back in the saddle of LotRO
Monday, July 6th, 2009
It wasn’t that long ago that I mentioned Sodality and I have returned to Lord of the Rings Online to give it another shot after a long two year hiatus. Our original trip through was not that noteworthy and our impression of the game was quite low. Now that we’ve spent a few weeks in Middle Earth I feel it is fair to talk about some of our experiences this time around.
Guilds
With any MMO my major focus has been and always will be the guild interface. It is quite natural and logical for me to want the most bang for my buck when it comes to running Sodality in game. It is in this area that LotRO is the weakest. Very few features are offered to the guild leader and customization is pretty much non-existent. Additional ranks cannot be added and the names cannot be changed. There are no permission options and the interface is not very useful beyond seeing who is online and where they are playing.
To be honest I am surprised by this. The systems by which guilds are managed have come a long way in the last few years and LotRO is a mature product. In addition to that LotRO is a PvE focused game that highly encourages grouping and raids! You would think they would make guilds as useful as possible to encourage those activities. It is my hopes that sometime in the near future we’ll see an upgrade to these systems.
Content
In little over two years Turbine has added (more…)
