Its been about 2 months since I quit Lord of the Rings Online so I’ve decided to take a look at what has changed since I quit and my thoughts on the game now that I’ve had some time to reflect. While I was playing, I was probably averaging 12 hrs/week with LOTRO, so that has freed up some time for me. Since I’ve quit I’ve had more time to explore other MMOs such as Tabula Rasa, which didn’t work out, and Exteel Beta which I’m still enjoying. I’m also currently playing Crysis, I know its not a MMORPG, but to hell with it, the game if f#$&’n awesome. Aside from the ridiculously beautiful graphics the game is just a breath of fresh air for FPS.
But enough on the awesomeness that is Crysis, this post is about LOTRO. When I think of why I quit, I’m not sorry and infact I wish I had left earlier. My favorite part of the game was prelevel 30, it was just fun exploring Middle Earth, seeing characters from the books and exploring my character’s skills. I’m a huge LOTR fan, so many of the locations and lore I was already familiar with and enjoyed this the most. Seeing a Ringwraith for the first time in game definitely sent a shiver up my spine. However as the game went on and the charm of being in Middle Earth faded I became bored, this is especially true once I hit the level limit.
At the point that I quit, I had visited nearly everything in the game, even though I hadn’t beaten all the bosses there was just not enough to do when I logged on. I’d search for groups to complete the last few areas that I hadn’t beaten, but 90% of the time I wouldn’t be able to find anyone. The guild I was in was pretty small, we only had about 6-7 ppl that had maxed out characters, so to get everyone online at the same time was difficult.
I hated the crafting system, so I didn’t do any. Sorry but watching my character carve wood for 30 mins != fun.
The PvP was useless, it was entertaining for a little while, but with really no point to it I grew tired. Basically I found myself running the same 4-5 quests over and over again trying to get my epic items, but after doing the same quest 10+ times, I ended up hating them and felt like I was wasting my time.
As a single player game, it would have been fantastic, however as a MMO, not so much.
Obviously when you hit the level cap, the most important thing is going to be the unique events introduced into the game by the developers. I haven’t subscribed to a MMORPG since Asheron’s Call, but back then I thought they did a decent job of having world events from time to time.
I wonder whether such major events are more difficult given the license restrictions. It isn’t as if the devs can construct an event where Mount Doom gets turned into a crater–they are restricted to stuff that doesn’t violate canon. I imagine it isn’t impossible to come up with events, but it certainly makes it more challenging and there are definitely limitations on what can be done–limitations you wouldn’t have on WoW, but WoW doesn’t give you the cool licensed material.
I had LoTRO on my wish list, took it off, and now have re-added it. I figure with sporadic play I can get at least 60 days out of the “Ok, that’s cool” factor before getting bored of the grind.
I have to wonder whether more MMORPGs will go the WoW route and speed up leveling. That puts a greater burden on devs to come up with unique events for cap characters, but significantly lessens the grind factor en route to the cap.
December 7th, 2007 at 3:23 pmQuote