Massively Speaking http://massively.joystiq.com This is the Massively podcast http://massively.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif Massively http://massively.joystiq.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/Massively SpeakingJoystiqMassively Speaking<![CDATA[The Road to Mordor: Five ways LotRO should be streamlined]]>http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/05/19/the-road-to-mordor-five-ways-lotro-should-be-streamlined/http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/05/19/the-road-to-mordor-five-ways-lotro-should-be-streamlined/http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/05/19/the-road-to-mordor-five-ways-lotro-should-be-streamlined/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,

LotRO
You would think that growth and expansion is nothing but a good thing for MMOs -- after all, those are the hallmarks of the genre. But as these games get bigger, issues emerge as the developers add new zones, features, and systems. In short, maturing MMOs gravitate toward complexity, and this can have an adverse effect on the game as a whole.

The problem is that there is eventually too much a brand-new player has to absorb and master, not to mention the hassle of rolling alts and having to navigate all of that content once more. If developers don't stay on top of the situation, then the game starts to lose overall cohesion and becomes a befuddling mess.

With three expansions and numerous updates under its belt, Lord of the Rings Online is venturing deep into this territory. I have friends who are leveling up for the first time and finding themselves overwhelmed with everything that needs doing as well as all the systems that are not clearly explained. So today I want to play backseat developer and talk about five ways that LotRO should be streamlined for the good of all players, old and new.

Continue reading The Road to Mordor: Five ways LotRO should be streamlined

MassivelyThe Road to Mordor: Five ways LotRO should be streamlined originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 19 May 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LotRO
Without fail, the second I'm done writing this column for Massively, Turbine releases the big news of a major patch, and I have to wait a whole week to talk about it. In the case of Lord of the Rings Online's Update 7, I'm not that upset. I definitely was underwhelmed by it all initially, but now that I have had a whole week to digest it, read through the test server notes, and scope out the Moria dev diary that was posted, I feel like I'm in a much better position to talk about it.

So what does this game update mean for you? That's a good question, and it really depends on where you are in your leveling journey. New players won't be fazed by it whatsoever, but both mid-game and endgame adventurers are going to have some new (and reworked) content to devour. I am heartened that Turbine doesn't have tunnel-vision for the endgame and is still willing to go back and examine what does and doesn't work about its earlier content.

So let's walk through the major highlights of Update 7: Shades of the Past and give it the ol' Road to Mordor analysis, shall we?

Continue reading The Road to Mordor: What Update 7 means for you

MassivelyThe Road to Mordor: What Update 7 means for you originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 12 May 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LotRO
More than any other MMO I've played, Lord of the Rings Online seems to draw out player events like crazy. Maybe it's the setting, Tolkien's world-building, the renaissance fair outfits, or the disproportionately large RP crowd, but LotRO seems to be graced with far more of these kinds of player-driven initiatives than elsewhere.

As such, today I wanted to scout around the forums and official calendar to highlight a few of the many, many events that festoon this great game of ours. These are great to check out, particularly when you're a little bored with the same-old, same-old of questing, raiding, skirmishing, or PvMPing. The ingenuity and spirit of these events is often quite infectious, and I never regret going to one once I make the effort.

So check out seven great player events in LotRO, coming to a server near you!

Continue reading The Road to Mordor: Seven player events you must attend

MassivelyThe Road to Mordor: Seven player events you must attend originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 05 May 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LotRO
There's a good chance you're not reading this column right now but instead are fully immersed in the weekend beta for Guild Wars 2: Guild Harder. That's OK. I won't hold it against you -- I may even be playing it as well. Oh, those ArenaNet folks. They make such lofty promises, don't they? They're going to rewrite MMOs as we know them and show us once and for all that we've been playing with Tinker Toys when we could have fully functional jetpacks and whatnot.

I don't harbor any ill will against Guild Wars 2; in fact, I'm quite looking forward to it. But as everyone's focused on the game's excising of traditional questing as popularized by World of Warcraft, I thought it would be worth examining just how dated Lord of the Rings Online's questing system has become, if at all.

In an era of dynamic events, public quests, full voice-over, and other techniques designed to get us away from the text box questing model, will LotRO hold its ground against these fads or is it truly becoming a relic of the past? Let's dig in!

Continue reading The Road to Mordor: Is LotRO's questing system over the hill?

MassivelyThe Road to Mordor: Is LotRO's questing system over the hill? originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 28 Apr 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Image
Great Ghost Bear, has it really been five years? Why... it must have been, although it truly seems like yesterday that a magazine article caught my eye about an upcoming game based on Lord of the Rings. Just yesterday it was, when I called my brother-in-law to tell him that he could drop his World of Warcraft subscription because something better was on the horizon. It wasn't but a day ago that we Founders jumped into the head-start and power-leveled all the way to 15.

Let me tell you, those Tuckborough Library raids were brutal back then!

So it has indeed been five years since Lord of the Rings Online released, a half-decade of Middle-earth stomping, Brandywine swimming, and Weathertop free-climbing. I can't even believe that this is the third such anniversary that I've covered for Massively; boy, how the time flies.

Perhaps to make up for last year's lackluster and flawed anniversary celebration, Turbine's pulled out all the stops to make LotRO's birthday an event to remember. We've got a lot to cover and plenty of fireworks left to shoot off, so let's get to it!

Continue reading The Road to Mordor: Happy fifth anniversary, LotRO!

MassivelyThe Road to Mordor: Happy fifth anniversary, LotRO! originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 21 Apr 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LotRO
Part of the allure of Lord of the Rings Online is its surprising depth and complexity, particularly for those who like to get the best performance out of their characters. Part of the frustration of LotRO is its obtuse or absent explanations behind the many systems in the game.

One of these systems remained on the outer edges of my attention span until one day I gave it my full focus. This was the field of weapon damage types, a subject I was vaguely aware of yet assumed I didn't have to know much about it to get along in the game. After some examination, I realized that while you don't need to understand weapon damage types to have an enjoyable play experience, it does affect the game in a small but important way.

So if you've ever wondered what "Beleriand" or "Westernesse" in your weapon tooltip was all about, today's column is here to help you navigate the somewhat confusing area of damage types.

Continue reading The Road to Mordor: The truth behind weapon damage types

MassivelyThe Road to Mordor: The truth behind weapon damage types originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 14 Apr 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LotRO
It's been a half-year since Lord of the Rings Online's third expansion, Rise of Isengard, opened the doors to Dunland and beyond. It was an interesting expansion compared to what came before in several ways: It finally took us into the pages of The Two Towers, it introduced Rohan and the Rohirrim, and it introduced what I consider to be the most compelling villain this game has seen to date.

While the game's hinted and alluded to Saruman and his White Hand back-up dancers leading up to RoI, the expansion finally unveiled the mastermind behind many of the machinations of Middle-earth's mischief. His was not an overt city-crushing type of evil; instead, he's a crafty politician-type who attempts to woo and seduce minds to his cause. More than the Witch-king of Angmar or Sara Oakheart, Saruman gives us a perfect target for our justified outrage. This is a guy we don't want to see succeed, ever.

So with six months under our belt, I thought it would be a great time to evaluate as much of Rise of Isengard as I've experienced with the ol' report card treatment. Where does it get good marks -- and where does it need tutoring?

Continue reading The Road to Mordor: Rise of Isengard report card

MassivelyThe Road to Mordor: Rise of Isengard report card originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 07 Apr 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LotRO
When World of Warcraft released its dungeon finder in late 2009, the online gaming community fractured into two distinct camps. There were those who loved and embraced the dungeon finder for its ease of grouping, its bonus rewards, and its accessibility. Then there was the other camp, whose members grew to loathe this system, claiming that it fractured the community (especially when it went cross-server) and trivialized the teamwork and bonding that dungeon groups cultivated in the past.

Love it or hate it, the dungeon finder was a massive hit and quickly became a staple in many other MMOs, such as RIFT and yes, Lord of the Rings Online. I've always been a huge proponent of the system because LFG tools and channels are typically insufficient and inefficient. Plus, dungeon finders cater to those of us who aren't as naturally outgoing and chatty when it comes to finding or starting groups, and I think this is why it became so embraced. Many of us felt denied this content simply because we weren't in a gung-ho guild or weren't proactive enough to build a group, but this became a game-changer.

Instead of releasing LotRO's instance finder in its full glory all at once, Turbine's rolled out the replacement to its lackluster LFF interface in stages. With Update 6, we now have an improved system to examine, although there's certainly work that needs to be done.

Continue reading The Road to Mordor: Will the instance finder take off?

MassivelyThe Road to Mordor: Will the instance finder take off? originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 31 Mar 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LotRO
Mounted combat's been on my mind a lot lately, particularly when I was galloping around Dunland and various clansmen knocked me off my horse. It was then that I wished I had a skill called "Trample to a Bloody Pulp -- For Rohan!" and that Turbine would finally earn that AO rating it's always craved. Barring that skill, I would just love a massive war horse that would send enemies fleeing from me instead of making a beeline for my knees (which are a prime target for arrows).

I'm both excited and nervous about the mounted combat system coming in Riders of Rohan. I'm excited that it will open up a new style of gameplay in this five-year-old game and nervous that it'll drag Lord of the Rings Online down if it's not done right. Whatever type of horseback combat we might envision will surely be different than the final product, and that uncertainty leaves me feeling in limbo.

More than anything else, Riders of Rohan is about mounted combat. Turbine's centering the expansion around it, dedicating an entire zone to it, and developing loads of assets and skills for it, and the company will undoubtedly be hyping it strongly over the course of the summer. It's a bold step to take but a necessary one as well, as the IP and nation of Rohan are steeped in mounted combat, and it's been a little weird that we've had to dismount to swing a sword ever since leaving the shire.

So will mounted combat prevail, fail, or muddle in the middle?

Continue reading The Road to Mordor: Ride to ruin and the world's ending!

MassivelyThe Road to Mordor: Ride to ruin and the world's ending! originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 24 Mar 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LotRO
So how are you liking Update 6 so far? No, I can't hear you right now -- you're probably going to have to leave a comment or something. Maybe I should do the talking for a while.

With its new zone, massive PvP upgrades, class rebalancings, Landscape Soldier ability, updated barter wallet, and the Instance Finder 2.0, there's so much to chew on with Lord of the Rings Online's latest patch that it's going to take most of us some time to figure out what's what. I've heard a lot of praise for the new epic storyline, in particular the dream sequence, and it's definitely good that players who had tapped out Rise of Isengard's content now have more world goodness to explore.

I am not in The Great River, not yet; I dug my level 65 Captain out of retirement and am plugging my way back up through RoI quite happily. However, I was incredibly curious about two of the most debated features of the patch -- the barter wallet and the ability to bring skirmish soldiers out into the world -- and I spent some time evaluating each. While I question the way Turbine's handling the cost of these features, I definitely came away impressed with what the wallet and soldiers do for the game.

Continue reading The Road to Mordor: A soldier to call my very own

MassivelyThe Road to Mordor: A soldier to call my very own originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 17 Mar 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LotRO
This past week, Turbine called my parents and asked if I could come over to play Lord of the Rings Online. "Sure he can," my mother replied. "As long as he wears his galoshes. What? It's wet outside!"

And thus I ended up hanging out with the Turbine crew -- Aaron Campbell, Jared Pruett, and Jeff Libby -- as they walked me through Update 6 with the optional developer commentary mode set to "on." I highly recommend you rent a developer for the same experience, as it helps to have someone giving you a Cliff's Notes version of the game's complicated lore.

Pruett first caught me up on the major PvMP changes of this coming Monday's update. The team wanted to increase rewards and turn progression into a seasonal mechanic to keep players coming to the Ettenmoors. As such, PvMP now has a universal currency -- that's account-wide, by the way -- that will allow players to purchase top-end gear. The team also tweaked down what the devs saw as a DPS race in order to give players time to deliberate and make strategic choices during fights.

Beyond PvMP, the devs marched me right into the next epic storyline book that whisked us away to a strange new land: The Great River. What did I find waiting for me there?

Continue reading The Road to Mordor: An Update 6 play date with Turbine

MassivelyThe Road to Mordor: An Update 6 play date with Turbine originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 10 Mar 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LotRO
At 1388 miles, the Anduin is the longest river known in Middle-earth, hence the name The Great River. If I put that into real-world perspective, it would vie for the 52nd longest river on Earth, somewhere between the Colorado River and China's Pearl River. Impressive, if not a record-breaker.

The Great River flows from the Misty Mountains down out to the Great Sea (lots of "greats" in Middle-earth, which is great), and it's on this waterway that the Fellowship of the Ring traveled from the solace of Lothlorien to the tragedy at Parth Galen. The river represents transition in many ways: from safety to peril, from unity to dissolution, from north to south, from The Fellowship of the Ring to The Two Towers.

For Lord of the Rings Online players, the Anduin will mark another transition: the bridge between Rise of Isengard and Riders of Rohan. Seeing as how we got a major taste of this brand-new zone this week, I thought we should take a gander at what The Great River will add to our journey toward Mordor.

Continue reading The Road to Mordor: Fording the Great River

MassivelyThe Road to Mordor: Fording the Great River originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 03 Mar 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LotRO
Out of all of the factions in Lord of the Rings Online, I'm most partial to the Hobbit's Mathom Society (the Ale Association is my next most favorite). I love the concept behind finding quirky little objects that nobody really wants to keep, so the community set up a museum to hold them all. Plus, the benefits from gaining reputation are terrific, from a jar full of fireflies (great in Moria!) to a pretty decent rep pony.

But it's perhaps the title gained on reaching Kindred that tickles me the most, as I can thus be called Purveyor of Odd Things. LotRO has a lot of weird titles, but this one takes the cake. It says that I'm just as likely to go jaunting off if a sparkly stone catches my eye as I am to fight that big dragon you guys are struggling with over there. It says that I am to be shunned at parties and talked about to children in a low, urgent tone.

In the spirit of collecting odd things, this week's column will be a hodge-podge of topics instead of one overarching theme. Minstrel melodies, buried treasure, and Mithril Editions lurk just around the corner. Are you prepared in mind, body, and soul to hear what I have to say about them?

Continue reading The Road to Mordor: Purveyor of Odd Things

MassivelyThe Road to Mordor: Purveyor of Odd Things originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 25 Feb 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LotRO
It's been a long, long time since I've been able to work on this series, going through each Lord of the Rings Online zone quest by quest and pulling the top 10 locations, points of interest, or missions for the aspiring adventurer to check out. There are many reasons I've been tardy in continuing it, but no excuses today! Today we dine in the Prancing Pony, for tomorrow we die!

I decided to divide Bree-land into two separate articles, with this one covering the eastern portion and Bree proper, and the upcoming one tackling the western and northern areas. This is not just because Bree-land is a pretty dang big zone but because it's pulling double-duty: East Bree-land and Bree serves as the 1-15 leveling area for Men, while the west invites all four races to continue the journey to level 20.

While it may seem like a generic fantasy zone on the surface, Bree-land is actually teeming with interesting details, stories, and activities. I've never regretted leveling in the area (it's a darn sight better than Ered Luin), and it was pretty tough to limit myself to just 10 activities for this list. So what should you do in East Bree-land before you die? Let's take a look!

Continue reading The Road to Mordor: Ten things to do in East Bree-land before you die

MassivelyThe Road to Mordor: Ten things to do in East Bree-land before you die originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 18 Feb 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>breebree-landcat-ladys-housecatseast-bree-landeastern-bree-landf2pfantasyfeaturedfree-to-playghostbustersghostbustingguidelord-of-the-ringslord-of-the-rings-onlinelotromapmess-hallmidgewater-marshesneekerbreekeropinionprancing-ponyroad-to-mordorsnikenthe-road-to-mordorturbineTurbine-EntertainmentSat, 18 Feb 2012 14:00:00 EST<![CDATA[The Road to Mordor: Six wonders of the newbie world]]>http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/02/11/the-road-to-mordor-six-wonders-of-the-newbie-world/http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/02/11/the-road-to-mordor-six-wonders-of-the-newbie-world/http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/02/11/the-road-to-mordor-six-wonders-of-the-newbie-world/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,

LotRO
As I reported last week, I've recently rerolled as a Hobbit Minstrel in an effort to refresh my attitude toward the game, to get a different perspective, and to continue my series in which I go through all of the single-player quests in the game.

It's been, in a word, smashing.

Having been away from the tamer lands of Eriador for so long, I had forgotten the charm and serenity that these lowbie areas exude. Plus, it's always fun leveling up a brand-new character, since there are plenty of goals and ways to develop your character that your level-capped toons have long since surpassed.

As I've been plugging away at Bree-land quests, I began to make a mental list of exactly what's so special about the low-level game in Lord of the Rings Online. The mental list became an actual one, and after a period of milling and refining, I've baked it into a nice loaf of observations to share with you.

Continue reading The Road to Mordor: Six wonders of the newbie world

MassivelyThe Road to Mordor: Six wonders of the newbie world originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 11 Feb 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>beginnerbeginner-zonesbreebree-landcharacter-advancementered-luinf2pfeaturedfree-to-playhobbithobbitslord-of-the-rings-onlinelotrolowbielowbie-zonesnewbienewbie-zonesthe-road-to-mordorthe-shireturbineturbine-entertainmentSat, 11 Feb 2012 12:00:00 EST<![CDATA[The Road to Mordor: A fresh start]]>http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/02/04/the-road-to-mordor-a-fresh-start/http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/02/04/the-road-to-mordor-a-fresh-start/http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/02/04/the-road-to-mordor-a-fresh-start/#commentsFiled under: , , , , ,

LotRO
I don't know about you, but sometimes I fall into the trap of forcing myself to do something in a game because I feel internally obliged to do it. Somewhere along the line, "setting a goal" became a Bataan Death March that absolutely had to be accomplished before I'd allow myself to do what I truly wanted. In my case, it was the stubborn determination to get through the remainder of Rise of Isengard's content even though I had slowed to slogging through it, feeling burned out on my Lore-master after well over a year of constant play on the character.

So I sat back and re-evaluated. My reasoning for finishing Isengard was to make sure I was at the top of the game and could evaluate any new high-level content that came along for you guys, which was a noble reason. But the truth was that in so doing, I was playing something that was leeched of enjoyment for the time being and really needed to be put aside. Once I realized that, the solution was obvious.

A fresh start. That's what I wanted: a completely fresh start to the game. Hey, it's still (sort of) a new year, so why not? And once I gave myself permission to do that, my adventures in Lord of the Rings Online brightened up considerably.

I might be weird in this, but I absolutely love starting over from scratch in long-term games from time to time, even though it means scrapping (or putting aside) a whole heap of achievements and the effort spent acquiring them. This week I'm going to look at my fresh start with LotRO and why it has me buzzed to log in for the first time this year.

Continue reading The Road to Mordor: A fresh start

MassivelyThe Road to Mordor: A fresh start originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 04 Feb 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LotRO
This past week we heard from Turbine about its general plans for Lord of the Rings Online in 2012, and while it may not have hit everything on my personal wish list for the year, it was a good start.

I was mulling over the question of whether it's better for MMOs to show all of their big cards up front like Turbine or to parcel them out over the course of the year. Both have advantages, of course. Front-loading the year with a broad overview like this gives players long-term reasons to stick with the game, but it also can steal the exciting thunder from these events down the road. On the other hand, measuring the big news out during the year would probably give Turbine more publicity, but it could frustrate players who might feel "in the dark" about the company's plans.

In any case, we got what we got, and there's a lot to chew over for this week's column: unbound skirmish soldiers, Riders of Rohan, the Great River, and the fifth anniversary. So let's get started!

Continue reading The Road to Mordor: Riders of Whoa-han!

MassivelyThe Road to Mordor: Riders of Whoa-han! originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 28 Jan 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>expansionf2pfeaturedfree-to-playhelms-deeplord-of-the-rings-onlinelotroriders-of-rohanrise-of-isengardthe-great-riverturbineturbine-entertainmentupdate-5update-6Sat, 28 Jan 2012 12:00:00 EST<![CDATA[The Road to Mordor: Convenience, not advantage]]>http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/01/21/the-road-to-mordor-convenience-not-advantage/http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/01/21/the-road-to-mordor-convenience-not-advantage/http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/01/21/the-road-to-mordor-convenience-not-advantage/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , ,

LotRO
Prior to Lord of the Rings Online's free-to-play implementation, players were raising concerns of potential abuse of the F2P model and the LotRO store in particular. The CM at the time, Patience, posted a now-infamous response stated that Turbine was about selling "convenience, not advantage" in the store. I thought it was a terrific stance to take (and still is, for any F2P MMO dabbling in microtransactions). It wasn't long, however, before the thread was purged from the forums entirely, although the playerbase has held on to those three words to this day.

That phrase has echoed in my head over the past week, ever since we heard that statted armor was coming to the in-game store. I've been among those who have championed Turbine's F2P model as the way to do things right -- to offer fluff, a la carte content and convenience without straying into so-called "pay to win" territory that has plagued cheaper games. But now I wonder if the new motto is "convenience and advantage," especially in light of several other questionable store selections that have been pushed through despite player resistance.

But let's concentrate on one topic today, that being the stat armor that's now available in the store. Is this strictly a "convenience" item that is meant to aid struggling lowbies, or does it represent the sale of a clear advantage for those who are OK with letting their money game for them? Are we making a mountain out of a molehill by discussing this, or is it far past time that something like this needs to be brought into the public discourse?

Continue reading The Road to Mordor: Convenience, not advantage

MassivelyThe Road to Mordor: Convenience, not advantage originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 21 Jan 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Road to Mordor
Mmm... smell that? It's the smell of a fresh new year, that is! Rolled right off the factory floor with no dings, the warranty still intact, and a tank full of gas and dreams. Makes one want to abandon the routine and head out onto the open road, does it not?

I'm one of those old fuddy-duddys who actually does New Year's resolutions, whether or not I'm actually capable of keeping them. I think it's important to try to better oneself and keep reaching for higher goals and standards, and if a new year is a convenient excuse to get my butt in gear, then I'm not complaining.

So right now I'm staring at a field of endless potential for Lord of the Rings Online in 2012. I've actually been giving it a lot of thought -- what do I want out of this year? As LotRO heads toward its fifth anniversary, is there really anything new left that I haven't experienced? And what the heck am I going to write about for 52 more weeks?

Never fear because the more I pondered, the more I realized that there's plenty of content yet to plunder (plus, of course, whatever Turbine has up its sleeves for the year). So for today's column, I sat down and drew up a list of resolutions in two parts: "Bagginsish" resolutions that are all about fluff and creature comforts and "Tookish" resolutions that are more concerned with high adventure.

Continue reading The Road to Mordor: Resolutions, Baggins and Took-style

MassivelyThe Road to Mordor: Resolutions, Baggins and Took-style originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 07 Jan 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Road to Mordor
Hobbits love making lists, don't they? In The Fellowship of the Ring, Bilbo had a lengthy list of friends and relatives to invite to his eleventy-first birthday party, and he didn't have the luxury of Facebook to help him out. I love lists as well, although I try to save most of that for my Perfect Ten column.

At the beginning of the year, I sat down and drafted up a "wish list" for Lord of the Rings Online's 2011 year, populating it with 11 changes and additions I was hoping to see by now. To my surprise, Turbine actually pulled off quite a few items on the list, and I thought it'd be a good idea to go back and examine which of my goals the team met and which remain elusive.

Also, since 2012 kicks off tomorrow, I'll look forward as well and draft up a dozen -- yes, one more over the year before -- wish list items that I'd love to see come true in the new year. It's my column; I can cry if I want to, after all. Let's get this party started!

Continue reading The Road to Mordor: Wish lists, past and future

MassivelyThe Road to Mordor: Wish lists, past and future originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 31 Dec 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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