I am talking this game down, because it could have been done better, and given the lack of real content this year, I want the people developing the title to understand that things are not cool in Middle Earth and they have got lazy. I think that's pretty straightforward.
I did actually enjoy the story, but once it's done, you are pretty much spent, and then you face the same problems that exist now.... "now what?" The skirmishes are repetitive and in beta people were actually working system to grind them out, the rewards are poor, and the fact that the extra 5 levels are just a mechanism so you pay more money is arbitrary, they serve no real purpose in developing the character, as you'll do the quests anyway and level as a consequence.
From what I've seen there is no real compelling argument to charge money for this. If correcting gameplay elements such as combat and horse storage, supplying story arc content that was previously free, shoehorning in another mini game and tarting up mid level content is worth expansion type cash, then I really feel that LOTRO players are a bit of an easy touch.
Finally for my usual negative tone, from what we've seen this year consumers have been repeatedly let down, misled, manipulated and plain lied to by the MMO industry.
I want to change this. $15/month is nothing to these companies, but if you write up what you feel, even if three people consider your words, then this will impact a bad game. While this may seem mean, as earlier stated, some people only play one game, $15 could be a lot of cash to them, so why not demand more, why not share your opinion with them too, let them at least think things through? While it's nice if we all chill here, high fiving one another and sharing some awesome screenshots, these games are becoming turgid, repetitive and lazy.
Have players gone too far to be shaped by the MMO industry into unquestioning consumers, even when paying for that privilege? Right now are the cash cow days of MMO's, anything with an MMO tag sells in volume, but such awful tripe is being pumped out, and the marketing is deceitful and misleading.
So please excuse me if I seem rather negative, I like to think it balances the PR side and get's people to question what they want from their game. If I'm impressed, I'll say so, if I am disappointed I'll say so too, however the current state of the industry is that everyone is waiting for the seven year game changer, the next big thing, and it's overdue.
Until then we aren't getting very good value, and cost cutting measures such as we've been experiencing with LOTRO is hurt the player experience. I just want what's best for the players, until we get that, I'll be continuing to post in the same manner.
With regards the recent Aion trailer, yes it was very impressive, this should happen more, most were agreed, but then look what we got from Turbine, just doesn't compare, and we are talking about the biggest fantasy IP going here.....
Reader Comments (1)
Posted: Nov 30th 2009 9:59PM Mr Angry said
I did actually enjoy the story, but once it's done, you are pretty much spent, and then you face the same problems that exist now.... "now what?" The skirmishes are repetitive and in beta people were actually working system to grind them out, the rewards are poor, and the fact that the extra 5 levels are just a mechanism so you pay more money is arbitrary, they serve no real purpose in developing the character, as you'll do the quests anyway and level as a consequence.
From what I've seen there is no real compelling argument to charge money for this. If correcting gameplay elements such as combat and horse storage, supplying story arc content that was previously free, shoehorning in another mini game and tarting up mid level content is worth expansion type cash, then I really feel that LOTRO players are a bit of an easy touch.
Finally for my usual negative tone, from what we've seen this year consumers have been repeatedly let down, misled, manipulated and plain lied to by the MMO industry.
I want to change this. $15/month is nothing to these companies, but if you write up what you feel, even if three people consider your words, then this will impact a bad game. While this may seem mean, as earlier stated, some people only play one game, $15 could be a lot of cash to them, so why not demand more, why not share your opinion with them too, let them at least think things through? While it's nice if we all chill here, high fiving one another and sharing some awesome screenshots, these games are becoming turgid, repetitive and lazy.
Have players gone too far to be shaped by the MMO industry into unquestioning consumers, even when paying for that privilege? Right now are the cash cow days of MMO's, anything with an MMO tag sells in volume, but such awful tripe is being pumped out, and the marketing is deceitful and misleading.
So please excuse me if I seem rather negative, I like to think it balances the PR side and get's people to question what they want from their game. If I'm impressed, I'll say so, if I am disappointed I'll say so too, however the current state of the industry is that everyone is waiting for the seven year game changer, the next big thing, and it's overdue.
Until then we aren't getting very good value, and cost cutting measures such as we've been experiencing with LOTRO is hurt the player experience. I just want what's best for the players, until we get that, I'll be continuing to post in the same manner.
With regards the recent Aion trailer, yes it was very impressive, this should happen more, most were agreed, but then look what we got from Turbine, just doesn't compare, and we are talking about the biggest fantasy IP going here.....