Middle Earth online

[Quartz]

I've been reading about Middle Earth online and while the concept seems superficially great, I must confess to not actually being terribly enthused. I think I'd rather adventure in the First Age.

 

[Korgoth]

I'm worried that my hardy ranger is going to emerge from the Northern wilds before the mysterious and decayed ruins of Amon Sul, only to find about 40 assorted hobbits, dwarves and elves standing around waiting for the Nazgul to "respawn" so they can mug them for "rare drops".

But, as a consolation, I'll get to hear "lol rotflmfao ur habet iz a n00b im lvl 75 huntr i pwn u" and "DING 38!!!!11!!1!" to really get me into the Tolkien mood.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Play on a roleplaying server, Korgoth, and turn off any chat channels that aren't used for roleplaying. In WoW, on the Silver Hand roleplaying server, I just have /say, /yell and private channels active, and I don't hear any of that.

I think LOTRO looks pretty good, but I'm worried that they're making a mistake in hewing too closely to the books, much as Star Wars Galaxies did initially. What makes for a good novel doesn't necessarily make for a fun game. Setting it at a different time from the main books would be a good way to loosen things up and make it more gameable. (Witness how much more fun Knights of the Republic is than SWG, even allowing for the different developers.)

If I weren't heavily into post-expansion WoW, I'd likely be picking up LOTRO for me and my wife.

 

[Quartz]

I'm thinking that by the time of the end of the Third Age, most of the big monsters (Balrogs, Dragons, etc) are gone, most of the elves have left, etc. The First Age has the Epic feel; the Third Age doesn't. Of course, in the First Age, there are no hobbits.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Is the origin of hobbits definitively stated? I thought they sort of snuck on stage without the notice of the major races. If that's the case, couldn't they have a small community in the waning days of the First Age?

 

[HandofMystra]

Is the origin of hobbits definitively stated? I thought they sort of snuck on stage without the notice of the major races. If that's the case, couldn't they have a small community in the waning days of the First Age?

Smeagol's people (about 500 years ago, which is during the Third Age) were related to hobbits and from a similar area. AFAIK there is no reference to hobbit-like creatures in the earlier ages. The hobbit language is related to that of the Rohirrim.
Here is more http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit

 

[Banshee16]

Having played in the beta last weekend, I can say that it seems pretty cool. The graphics are nice, and the "feel" is very Tolkien. There was chatter but it's mainly because there's no choice of server types, and everyone's testing it out.

I played an elf, and my "starting" area, was 600 years in the past, before the characters of other races start the game. I began in an elven city under attack by agents of the shadow, and at the end, the city fell, and my (and all) elven character was one of those who escaped.

Then, you come back into the game, and it's "now". And you have to go back in, and the place is in ruins. There are references to my having been there 600 years before, which is very cool.....no other CRPG I've tried really seemed to do anything to root the player in something like the lifespan of the character. It was rather neat.

They're going to be doing an open beta in a few weeks, that'll run until the game is released. I'm looking forward to trying it a bit more.

I myself am not keen on MMORPG's....but I'm willing to give this one a try. It took me about 6 months to get bored of WoW. Hopefully this one has more to it. I guess I'll see...

Banshee

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Having played in the beta last weekend, I can say that it seems pretty cool. The graphics are nice, and the "feel" is very Tolkien. There was chatter but it's mainly because there's no choice of server types, and everyone's testing it out.

I played an elf, and my "starting" area, was 600 years in the past, before the characters of other races start the game. I began in an elven city under attack by agents of the shadow, and at the end, the city fell, and my (and all) elven character was one of those who escaped.

Then, you come back into the game, and it's "now". And you have to go back in, and the place is in ruins. There are references to my having been there 600 years before, which is very cool.....no other CRPG I've tried really seemed to do anything to root the player in something like the lifespan of the character. It was rather neat.

Wow, I like that. WoW has the draenei player characters starting in the aftermath of a crash, but it's in the eternal "now," not set back even a few weeks (which would make more sense).

 

[Banshee16]

Wow, I like that. WoW has the draenei player characters starting in the aftermath of a crash, but it's in the eternal "now," not set back even a few weeks (which would make more sense).

That single thing really helped me "feel" the character. During the attack, my presence in the past ended with me and others running to a gate from the city's inner courtyard, and there's a cave troll outside. The thing roars, and it's pretty loud over the speakers, and the whole screen kind of blurs and shakes, then I was stunned. At that point, Elrond arrives at the head of an army of elves from Rivendell, to try and hold off the orcs, and give the civilians and younger elves (like your character) a chance to escape.

You do, and that's when you "return" to the world. You're outside the ruins, part of a small band or village of elves that have been set up outside of the ruins, in order to monitor them, and deal with threats that might rise within them. I ended up talking to a dwarf, who started reciting the history of the ruins, and the elven city they used to be, then he looked at me, and commented something like "oh, you were there 600 years ago, weren't you? Sometimes it's so difficult to remember that. You look so young....but your eyes....one can see eternity in them". Something like that. I just remember thinking "cool!".

What other stuff was there? There are some tools to make it easier to find groups. They *do* break roleplaying immersion, but they're useful because they let you pull up a panel that shows you a list of characters in your area who are working on the same quests you have active....which makes it easier to find a group.

Levels seemed to come quickly. I don't know if it's because I was in the starting area, but in about 3 or 4 hours, I got to lvl 6. By that point, I could really feel things slowing down.

There were all sorts of little touches. I found a cave within the ruins, and there was a hole to the surface, with daylight pouring through it, and right where the shaft of sunlight fell, there was a troll that had been turned to stone by the touch of the light. Pretty cool

The art direction seems very much influenced by the movies. The elven ruins were beautiful, and the equipment you gain is covered in elven tracery and decorations. Even some of the more advanced swords and such looked like they were right out of the movies.

Many of the quests were fedex type quests...but again, because I never got out of the beginner area, I have no idea if they get more complex.

I created a human character, who starts in Bree, but I only played that one for like 10 minutes, so really had no good idea of what that area was like. Oh, and I can confirm that the game seems to take place right before the War of the Ring. When I played my human character, there was a fire in Bree, and a ranger of the north asked for my help to stop ruffians who were assaulting hobbits, looking for a "Baggins"......apparently they'd hurt a Sackville-Baggins, and two others.

I understand that most of the game is player vs. environment....however, there are some areas where if you go there, you can leave your character behind, and decide to play an orc or a cave troll or whatever, and act as the monsters fighting adventuring bands of hobbits, elves, men, etc. who are coming into that zone, run by other players. I think it is a really neat way to do it. Allow the PvP, but only in certain areas....and it fits within the story, because it's all alliance vs. shadow.

There are loading screens, when travelling in some areas, like going from outside, to inside of a dungeon. I don't think they have those in WoW.

I think there are only two starting areas....one for elves/dwarves, and one for men/hobbits. ie. once you get through the "ancient times" beginning for elves, you appear in the ruins, and that same zone of the world also has dwarves in it. Similar with Bree-town having both humans and hobbits.

Characters can have titles. i think you can even customize your character description, even after character creation. And when you accomplish certain feats, you gain a title, and you can choose for that title to be added to your name, and displayed to other characters. I reached level 5 without being defeated once, and gained the title "Eraitha the Wary"....there's others like elf-friend and a whole whack of others. It's really a minor point, but it helps with customization, and gives you something permanent to remember accomplishments by.

That's about all I can remember. It was a busy weekend, and I can't say that I played it a huge amount.

With respect to the beta, the one I took part in was the stress test. The one starting in March will be an open beta. Apparently they're giving a few benefits. Those who take place in the beta, and choose to preorder the game, will get a special price, and will have an option to pay $199 to have a lifetime membership for the game, or choose to pay a lower monthly rate. So if it interests you, and you're the kind of person who can play one of these MMORPGs for over a year, then it might be worth checking out.

Banshee

 

[Quartz]

(Casts Awaken Thread)

How's it playing out now it's gone live?