My Lore-master, Arwellyn, is now level 40! Very exciting, though I was disappointed that with such a milestone, her only new trainable skill was Warding Knowledge: Drakes. That’ll come in handy for sure, especially once she get into dungeons like Carn Dûm with drakes and dragons. She’s already been to the drakes in the very southern fringe of Angmar but the groups were so strong, she wouldn’t have had time to even cast the warding circle before the drakes would have been dead. Maybe it’s just me, but I consider each ten level mark to be a Big Deal™ therefore skills that are trainable at those ten level marks should also be a Big Deal™, as opposed to “whooptidoo, big deal…”
So, a year being pretty casual, and now I’ve arrived at the final ten levels… Well, until Mines of Moria later this year. There’s much to look forward to, starting with Fornost then into the end-game dungeons and the Ettenmoors for some PvMP action… should be an exciting time!
I’ve also been working my new hunter Sethryndil a bit, he’s up to level 17 now, nearly 18. Completed all the quests and deeds in Ered Luin and I took him straight to Bree-town, skipping the Shire altogether for now. Sethryndil spent the majority of yesterday morning grouped with Troy’s lore-master and a few other kin-mates doing the Epic Prologue and getting started on Book 1, then Troy switched to his main character, a hunter.
I also had a discussion with Troy, one that’s been on my mind for months. Several times in the Voyages of Vanguard podcast he’s stated his dislike for quests. Yet his two games now are EverQuest 2 and LOTRO! LOTRO in particular is extremely quest-centric, which means by skipping quests (and that’s exactly what he’s doing) he will also miss out on the best content. I’ve often wondered why people who want nothing more than to kill mobs solo just don’t do the F2P games where that’s often quite literally all there is to do. Troy has also said a few times in his shows that he dislikes MMO holidays, festivals, and so on. Pretty much anything that’s “fluff” or “RP-ish.” Yet the very second he gets accepted into the kinship, he’s talking in character, role-playing, and every time he logs on he’s in character for the most part. It’s just mind-boggling after so many months of listening to him on VoV then seeing him in action in LOTRO! 
He’s truly the Master Soloist too, though after doing Book 1 yesterday I did catch him saying “wow, groups rock!” in kin chat… perhaps he’s leaning towards the Dark Side finally!
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Well, good for him lol. I dunno but yeah every ten levels was a conditioned thing in wow and I think we got used to it. Still they hold to the tradition in lotro until you hit 40. Its like someone forgot to tell them that 40 is a factor of 10. Anyways I put up a link on my blog with some info on Forochel so come and see if you want to
I did stop by, and commented even! (Don’t those drive-by lurkers drive ya crazy? I love getting comments!)
I’d read that article yesterday, I think Massively linked to it, or perhaps MMORPG.com I forget which. Awesome stuff. I particularly enjoyed that it was written from the developer’s perspective, so we not only got the info of what’s coming but some insight to the thought processes behind them.
Curse Lotro and their vile quests. Seriously, I think that there is a misconception with I consider role-playing. The term technically means to accept the role of another person or character and live through their eyes. In that sense, I do enjoy role-playing. I am unsure how demeaning yourself to running around with Whacko the Clown on “holiday” quests means that your are role-playing? As I have said, quests should be unique to the character and not a cookie-cutter for every freakin elf that walks into creation.
I have grouped in the past, and enjoy it immensely. The problem with grouping in Lotro is all about the captain of the team — as soon as he has gotten what he wants from the group, he is gone. There is no camaraderie — unless in a guild for example. Groups seem to last for such short bursts of time, rather than the good old pulls from EQ days long gone.
I, like many I guess, have soured a bit on Lotro — Like the man said, after the first phase of the game, it becomes a quest grind unmatched since the tedium of the hell levels in old EQ days.
Why not simply give the player directions in things to do, such as bounties. Why not allow other players to set the stage in questing; for example, Player A needs a specific item that only player B (or c, or whatever) needs and so must enlist aid from others. Nothing to me is more bothersome than to follow six steps behind some other toon, reading these quests which sound unique to me but is the same for every person in the game.
Troy
Travels with Troy
You may be disappointed with Age of Conan then, because all I’ve seen to do in the Tortage stage is quests. The Destiny Quest is completely single-player to boot, though you still have the chats enabled so you’re not completely disconnected from the world.
I’ll agree that I’d like to see more unique content, the cost being that not everyone will experience it. Unique would likely be class content or something, because, let’s be honest, it’s not realistic to have developers create unique content for each player from level 1 to cap. I’ve seen randomly generated quests, too, and they were less than inspiring, to understate things.
One topic I’d love to explore someday is the philosophy of “having your own story.” I tend to play even the super-directed games such as WoW and LOTRO in a sandbox style. I choose which quests to do, and where to do them. If I choose to not quest, maybe I’ll just explore and see what’s around the corner, what’s around this bend in the river, etc. LOTRO in particular is very rewarding in an “explore the map” sense. I personally feel that a total, unguided sandbox is a recipe for disaster. But aside from that, when you break things down, are MMO’s really are just about finding various ways to murder the local wildlife. Crafting, and other side activities are exactly that: side activities. The real meat of the game is nothing more than murdering AI or perhaps other player’s characters. So whether an NPC gives you a task (and that’s what most of our so-called “quests” really are) to do something (which will likely involve murdering the wildlife) in exchange for xp, cash, loot, reputation, or any combination of the above or if you simply decide to walk outside and murder the wildlife on your own: how is one’s story of murdering the wildlife any different than the next guy’s? I’ve asked a few of the hardcore “I want the game to let me tell my own story” people and have yet to ever get a response. I’m legitimately curious to that mentality, and if it’s actually very different in practice to the mentality of the players those people disagree with.