LotRO Journal: Recruitment In and Out

When I have an evening free of Scarlet Pimpernel rehearsals, Thanksgiving guests, and home renovations, I still quite often choose to spend it in virtual Middle Earth. I haven’t talked about it much lately in part because I’ve been re-exploring content as I (for no sane reason) pursue the “Undying” title bestowed on those who can survive to level 20 without defeat.

That said, I’ve had a bit more time to play in the last few days, and during that time I’ve tried to bring three players over from WoW. They’re partway through 10-day free trials, and it’s interesting to hear their reactions.

My wife, whose tastes strongly resemble my own, believes she’ll switch in the near future. She likes, as I do, the greater realism, the immersion, and some of the minor gameplay tweaks (everyone can loot a mob for a “gather ten pelts” sort of quest; the fact that there don’t seem to be targeted, timed buffs).

Another friend has had a grand time. She basically only plays ranged fighters (she has four different hunter alts in WoW), and she’s already experimented with two hunters in LotRO. Her comments have been positive overall, but I don’t know if she’ll be willing to give up WoW.

Her husband is pretty sure he doesn’t like LotRO. His criticisms: the font, the color of dialog boxes, steering with the arrow keys (he refuses to use the mouse), and not already knowing as much about it as he does about WoW. (Can you tell that I’m a bit dismissive of his complaints?)

All of this reminds me of how different the needs of different gamers are, and incidentally why I’ve had a falling out with WoW. WoW caters to a the broadest possible audience in part by catering to a low common denominator.

My recruitment efforts outside the game may meet with only limited success, but I hope my plan to get recruited into a kinship within the game will go well. I was delighted to discover that a kinship recruitment event will take place in the Shire (under the grand Party Tree) tonight on the Landroval server (one of the unofficial RP servers) at 7.30 EST.

Ever since my all-time favorite guild (formed in Dark Age of Camelot) disbanded as its members sought other games, I’ve been looking for something like it. I joined two WoW guilds, both of which turned out awful in different ways. Perhaps tonight I’ll make a connection with a roleplaying guild that actually enjoys playing the game in character (instead of not playing the game but emoting at one another or playing the game and not really roleplaying after all).

1 comment November 28th, 2007

LoTRO Journal: Arbitrary goals and the perils of voice chat

Still enjoying taking my time in LotRO, I did something about a week ago I’ve done once before but didn’t expect to do again: I re-rolled a character to create almost exactly the same one.

I enjoy a certain brand of roleplaying in MMOs, one that’s compatible with actually playing the game and that favors emergent narrative. As such, I tend to create characters and envision their personalities and histories with a few bold strokes. I choose the character’s class based on what I’d like to play, the character’s race based on what can play my class of choice. If I have a choice of races, I’ll choose the one I haven’t played before, since in most MMOs each race gets to experience some different content, at least at the beginning of the game.

When choosing my character’s sex, I generally alternate between male and female. I like playing characters of both sexes. No, I don’t choose female characters because of the appearance of their posteriors, nor for any prurient reason whatsoever.

But as my female hobbit burglar reached level 17 and I began grouping more and more, I realized I just didn’t want to deal with the reaction to my obviously male voice in voice chat. I know most people don’t have a problem with men playing female characters, and I know people actually expect male voices for female characters. And I even know that hobbits of both sexes actually look pretty much identical in LotRO.

But I didn’t want to add another element to the already immersion-shattering effect of voice chat.

That alone wouldn’t have been enough reason, though. I’m somewhat embarrassed to admit that I’m tempted to achieve the “Undying” title available to those who achieve level 20 without once being defeated. With my first burglar, I died rather stupidly in an easily survivable situation at level 13. I got over it pretty quickly, but when I came up with a second reason to re-roll (changing my character’s sex), that was enough justification.

Now I have a bit of a quandary, though. As I said, I enjoy characters of both sexes. Will my concerns about voice chat doom me to creating only male characters henceforth? Will I get over those concerns and freely create female characters in the future? Will I avoid voice chat even when it’s just so useful (such as for dealing with the fellowship maneuvers key to the burglar class)?

Playing cross-sex characters is a big issue in MMOs, an issue that goes way beyond the scope of this blog post. But has anyone out there ever made a similar decision? Has anyone’s choice of character sex—or other character attribute—been influenced by the prospect of voice chat?

1 comment October 10th, 2007

LotRO Journal: Why I’ve signed up

Although I mentioned that I very much enjoyed my vacation from MMORPGs, in the month since I’ve been back, especially while my wife has been playing WoW, attending knitting groups, or otherwise occupied, I’ve dedicated some evenings to exploring (via betas and free trials) a number of other MMOs, among them Tabula Rasa, Sword of the New World, Everquest 2, and Lord of the Rings.

I’ll chatter on about each of those games (and others) in other posts, but since I signed up for a paid subscription to Lord of the Rings Online, I figured I didn’t want to delay keeping a light journal of my experiences with the game.

This is the first time I’ve ever been subscribed to more than one MMORPG at a time. I’ve kept my WoW subscription open because my wife is still playing. I’d very much like to see her reach level 70 in that game, and her being able to call on my dwarf priest for help when she needs it (almost nothing can get her to look for a group in the game unless she knows the people in real life or through real-life friends) will make that process easier. As long as she has a WoW account, I’ll keep mine open, because I really do enjoy playing games with her.

But on to LotRO. During my seven-day trial, I experimented with a human Captain and hobbit Hunter. My initial assessment: the game is WoW with a different skin.

That is, of course, a gross oversimplification. The two games each have their own unique features to recommend them. But they also have a common core:

• They’re easy to play.
• They’re fantasy games with a class-and-level character development system.
• Character advancement is a big part of the “goal,” and this is largely achieved through quests and combat.
• The tank-heal-nuke-(crowd control)-(buff) model applies in both cases.
• Both games allow soloing as a viable alternative to grouping.
• The base UI is fundamentally identical.

Some of LotRO’s refinements directly address shortcomings in WoW, like the fact that you can make objects useful to your character as soon as you learn a profession. As I understand it, professions are still money sinks, but rather less severe than WoW’s.

So why have I signed on?

1. I like the fiction, and LotRO has done a bang-up job capturing Middle Earth in MMORPG format. I’d heard that, but I must admit I’m surprised at how much it feels like I’m actually running around the Shire from The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring.
2. I like exploring and learning new classes, and LotRO gives me seven new classes with which to do just that.
3. Deeds. I didn’t like rep grinds in WoW, and a lot of Deeds in LotRO seem like mini- (or not so mini-) rep grinds. But as someone who would most like to see a level-free MMO where any character can set out to pursue any quest to gain a given ability, equipment, trait, or the like, I have to say that the deeds give me some of that feel.
4. Roleplaying. I don’t enjoy the so-called “heavy rp” roleplaying style that’s emerged in WoW. I hate being called to guild meetings to watch avatars agonize over their personal angst via text chat. But I consider myself a roleplayer because I like it best when I and those I play with stay in character. LotRO does several things inherently hospitable to roleplayers, including a default “RP” channel which new characters do not automatically join; a clearly-marked “OOC” channel and other topic-based channels that one can opt out of; and an immersive, slow-paced game world where fast achievement, boasting, and baseball don’t have a roll.
5. Immersion and a slow pace. Now, I like leveling and achieving the pinnacles of character advancement as much as anyone, but I also like to enjoy the process. In WoW, I reached 70 largely by performing the same repetitive fight sequences thousands and thousands of times without paying much attention to my surroundings, the storyline, or eventually even the quest text. In LotRO, I may will wind up doing the same fighting, but I don’t feel as if I’m in a hurry. Instead, I actually get pleasure out of running around a given region, discovering what’s over the next hill, finding that I can get a peek in Bag End. I love that NPCs say things inspired by your character as you run past.
6. The slow pace also means that I’m likely to do a lot more grouping. In WoW, I always, always felt that I was making a sacrifice when grouping with others, unless it was to do an instance I couldn’t solo. In LotRO, I just don’t care. If someone asks for help, I’ll be glad to help them. I’ve grown very bitter about the fact that WoW’s easy soloing has meant that I haven’t made many in-game friends. (Yes, it’s my own fault, but I’m not the only one who finds solo-grinding to 70 the most effective method in WoW.) In LotRO, I’ve grouped with people just to get to know them.

My main character is a hobbit Burglar. I think she’s level 13 now. I couldn’t tell you her stats if you asked. But I do know that she’s “Undefeated,” a “Fur-cutter,” a “Pie runner,” and an official post officer.

And that, right there, is why I’m playing LotRO, now.

Add comment September 24th, 2007