LotR MMORPG open beta through April 24

[stonehill_troll]

It's very buggy (VPU reset errors) for me and I can run Fear, Doom 3, Obivion, and other new games without a problem.

Also why did they chose to make the toons and monsters, sot cartoony? It's not as bad as WoW, but still they could have gone with darker, richer, and gloomy colors to better set the mood for a game based on Lord of the Rings. Running a elf hunter, I was killing "cubs"! and some bull things, along with 20+ other people each killing their own. So much for immersion in middle-earth.

My wife doesn't have to worry, this game wouldn't be a time sink for me.

 

[Steel_Wind]

The registration process and multiple passwords and continuous errors on trying to log in was such a pain in the ass I gave up last night.

Turbine, as usual, fails at the little things that you simply are not permitted to fail at as a developer.

 

[Pyrex]

- Later you're asked to kill a spider in the basement of a house. You zone through a door but for some reason this still isn't instanced. You walk fairly safely through the basement since it's full of other players fighting all the minion spiders, and you get in a queue to kill the boss spider.

Ugh. I was looking forward to d/l'ing and trying this out before reading your post. Crap like that is why I gave up on Asheron's Call so fast.

You'd think that as long as MMO's have been around this wouldn't be a problem in new games any more. :\

Oh well, thanks for saving me the trouble...

 

[Vocenoctum]

I think City of Heroes does a decent job of balancing instances vs open missions. The "kill 10 of these gang members" type missions are fine for a big open area shared by all, but plot missions with bosses are better off in instances.

I still like Guild Wars, which is all instances.

 

[EricNoah]

I have trouble conceiving a MMORPG that won't (or doesn't) suffer from so many of these same problems. The hordes of idiots running around, the over-simplicity of randomly-generated quests -- or the predictability of pre-scripted quests -- it just gets so boring so quickly.

Though I do kinda wonder what an Elder Scrolls MMORPG would be like. I thought Oblivion and Morrowind were both fun though kind of "lonely" games. Would be neat to have live people running around towns, etc.

 

[Vocenoctum]

Though I do kinda wonder what an Elder Scrolls MMORPG would be like. I thought Oblivion and Morrowind were both fun though kind of "lonely" games. Would be neat to have live people running around towns, etc.

I much prefer "co-op" to MMO's, but of course you still need some kind of meeting place to find other players. Guild Wars has always kind of felt like a CoOp version of Fable with central meeting places (cities). There's still more room to go in MMO's I think, but whether the cost in terms of development is worth it, who knows.

Last night in WoW, some guy challenged me over and over to a duel, as I'm running along to meet another player somewhere. He's level 64, I'm level 13. I declined and he'd reinvite...

Some people are just bored.

 

[Matchstick]

I think City of Heroes does a decent job of balancing instances vs open missions. The "kill 10 of these gang members" type missions are fine for a big open area shared by all, but plot missions with bosses are better off in instances.

I still like Guild Wars, which is all instances.

I haven't played Guild Wars, but I would agree on City of Heroes. I think what CoH gives players, that almost no other MMOG does, is options.

For XP I can:

- Grind out XP on easier outdoor groups in a city zone, or on bigger groups in a hazard zone.
- Run police band missions for a mission-lite feel. Requires no zoning, always instanced, but very little story.
- Run contact missions that are more serious and often involve a story arc that can run from 3-8 missions or so. Probably involves travel between zones, and may include instances and non-instances.
- Run solo or run grouped. Instances will adjust challenge to your group size.

Fast travel is available early, but nothing forces you to take it right away, or at all.

The Sidekick and Mentor features mean that I have the option of teaming with my friends at almost all times, no matter our respective levels.

Options in character appearance mean that you're unique from the start.

I'm sure there's lots more, I'm just off the top of my heading. But I think options are what games should be giving people, and most of the EQ clones like WoW and LotRO just don't have enough options.

 

[Master of the Game]

Well, I've been downloading this damn thing since midnight last night, and still have a good eight hours to go. I doubt I'll like it, I pretty much gave up on MMO's a while ago, but what the heck, I'll give it a shot.

If I ever manage to get the whole 4 gig file... *sigh*

 

[Vocenoctum]

Options in character appearance mean that you're unique from the start.

Appearance options were decent, but they blend too many options, overlapping options all over the place (you choose Mask, then ears down at the bottom, or Ears, then masks... can't have stripes on this or that, but on boots...)

I'm sure there's lots more, I'm just off the top of my heading. But I think options are what games should be giving people, and most of the EQ clones like WoW and LotRO just don't have enough options.

The main thing that sticks out for me from CoH was the jumping and flying. You can jump/fall in WoW, can't do jump at all in GW. In CoH you could leap fences and run all over rooftops.

The main drawback with CoH for me was the powers. I worked a character up to 5th level and got flight, but it was sloooooooow flight. Granted in fantasy games, you earn new powers as you progress, but generally it's by adding stuff. CoH you have to work for a while before getting basic stuff for your heroic character.

But, if you want to make a demonic hottie in a miniskirt, CoH is your game! WoW is cartoony, LotR is bleh, GW has a good amount of options.

 

[Thanee]

...yeah that's immersion.

I think that's what makes most of the MMORPGs boring after a while. They do not really offer immersion, although it is what they all strive for (obviously, since an immersed customer is a staying customer). The typical crowd playing these games doesn't really help either (you know that's not you I'm talking about, and you probably know what kind of people I mean ).

Bye
Thanee