Pumping Irony

As Turbine tweeted earlier today, they have released us from the NDA for their upcoming F2P/Freemium conversion. I have an actual article in my head that I may sit down and write tomorrow but for now I’ll just leave you with a slideshow of the Beta 1 screenshots I took.

I have had neither time nor motivation to participate in Beta 2 yet other than keeping the client patched. Mostly because I found myself approaching the situation I was in during beta for The Burning Crusade which caused me to cancel my WoW account, delete every character on every server and never look back. I don’t want that to happen with LOTRO so I have intentionally backed off my playtime in Beta 2.

I did tweet this earlier, but need to vent and get it off my chest here in more than 140 characters. I’ve done my fair share of beta testing and it isn’t often I come across the type of NDA that doesn’t even allow testers to admit they’re in beta. Turbine did that to us. Then they release every possible tidbit of information to the gaming sites and blogs, then very detailed developer diaries. Meanwhile we’re still under NDA so we can’t even comment on all this because doing so is admitting you’re in the beta and therefore violating the NDA. Is there much left to even discuss at this point? It was an extremely aggravating experience, to say the least.

To reiterate, these are all Beta 1 screenshots; some things have changed. I will make a separate gallery for Beta 2 when I get time to play, test, and take screenshots.

Caught the blurb on Massively so I popped over to Twisted Pixel’s site, and sure enough, they’ve posted that they’ve completed a contract to help build Turbine’s upcoming unannounced console MMO.

It’s still hush hush, but we just finished a contract with Turbine to help them build an awesome new MMO intended for consoles.

If you want more than that, you’ll have to take it up with Turbine, because we can’t spill the beans on their top-secret game.

It was a fun project, and we’re proud of our work. We can’t wait to play it ourselves when it’s released.

This is exciting news! Twisted Pixel has produced two of the most highly-acclaimed XBLA titles out there – The Maw and Splosion Man – and gives me hope that whatever the game may be, it won’t use the Turbine Engine. I enjoy Turbine’s games, but that engine is coming up on a decade old and it seems like they keep piling features on top of the ancient crap instead of cleaning it up and keeping it updated under the hood. Epic and id update their engines and design entirely new ones; it’s time Turbine stepped up to the plate as well.

Of course now the speculation goes into overdrive of what the game will be. I could have swore Turbine said (or implied) it would be a new IP but players won’t seem to drop the idea of a DDO port. The concept of DDO – a co-op group completing adventures – would work perfectly on consoles; after all co-op is the Big Thing this year, but would require a massive overhaul of the UI and inventory mechanics. We are also accustomed to buying DLC Adventure Packs already on consoles, though I have my doubts that a full in-game store would go over well in the console world. The instanced adventures would work well given that consoles have much more limited RAM and resources than higher-end PC’s. I could see a console DDO going over quite well if it were given a better engine and the fluid controls and graphics/animations we’ve come to expect on modern AAA console titles – something Turbine struggles with on the PC with limited success.

A console version of LOTRO? Nah, DIKU and consoles just don’t get along. An “arcadey” version of LOTRO with a playable evil side? Why would Turbine bother when Snowblind is already finishing up that exact idea (non-massively multiplayer) with Lord of the Rings: War in the North?

The much-speculated Harry Potter MMO? Now we’re at least talking with not only a new IP but one that belongs to Turbine’s new Dark Lord owner, Warner Brothers. It’s been talked about for a long time, and WB has stated they would like to see the IP given the MMO treatment. My own hope is that if it happens, it’s not too kiddy-fied. Not everyone who enjoys Harry Potter is a kid, nor are a good deal of console players, and I would hate to feel flatly excluded from a title.

How about a console MMO set on Dereth, the world of the Asheron’s Call games? That would bring some attention back to that IP and perhaps to the original MMO that is still running (and I’m certain Asheron’s Call will end up going the hybrid freemium route eventually) and possibly lead into an Asheron’s Call 3 MMO on the PC as well.

How about moving on from fantasy (Turbine has 3 fantasy IP’s already) altogether? Done correctly, we console players certainly still love our fantasy, but also seem much more willing to accept other settings than are our PC compatriots.

I’ve been back to LOTRO for roughly two months-ish and have been dabbling with Arwellyn’s progression in a few areas. She’s been kindred with the Galadhrim in Lothlorien for some time now, though other than wearing the armour as a cosmetic outfit I’m not really seeing where kindred is any advantage. I’m sure I’m missing something somewhere?

One of Arkenstone’s best Lore-masters, Hexhazzard (Arwellyn used to be included in that elite group; not sure where she stands now after being gone a year) leads Filikul raids every Monday and Thursday when the locks expire so I’ve done every one of them and this past Monday, Arwellyn had enough Bright Emblems of Nimrodel to barter for her first level 60 First Age legendary staff!

I gave it the same name as the Second Age staff which was crafted for me awhile back since I had a Relic Master NPC deconstruct that staff.

I spent some time using IXP runes to level the staff then spent the legacy points, so here are the beginning stats on the staff so far:

Both Massively and Ten Ton Hammer put up the E3 preview of LOTRO’s upcoming content update, which sounds like it will coincide with the business model shift this autumn. Currently untitled, Book 2 will continue the storyline where Book 1 The Oath of the Rangers left off. It sounds like this will also be a FREE update, not a Quest Pack in the LOTRO Store; though I also read the new zone of Enedwaith and the Epic Book quest line will be free, and the rest of the quests will be in a Quest Pack. So, that bit is unconfirmed currently.

As stated (accidentally?) by Adam Mersky back in March, the update will contain a new landmass of Enedwaith, which will be a level 62-65 zone located directly south of Eregion. From the preview map seen on Massively’s article, along with guesstimates from the forums, it sounds like Enedwaith is roughly the size of Eregion as well. Also we can see two points on the south to travel to Dunland, which is technically a part of Enedwaith so we’ll see how that gets handled later.

The update will include four dungeons, although three are solo instances while the final is a public dungeon similar to Goblin Town, Haudh Iarchith or Sarnúr from the original Shadows of Angmar game. This means the progression of instance clusters and raids will still be in Mirkwood until at least the next update.

Finally, Turbine is ripping out part of their Skirmish technology and applying it to the Shadows of Angmar instances, such as Great Barrows, Fornost, Carn Dûm and all the other fan favorites (well, was Fornost ever a favorite?). The instances will now scale in level, and reward level-appropriate loot, though it sounds like they will not scale to fellowship size like a Skirmish would. Additionally, no Skirmish Soldiers allowed. I find this a little unfortunate; it might be nice to have a small fellowship then round out the group with Soldiers just like you can do in DDO or Guild Wars, though I’ll be the first to admit the Soldier AI needs some serious work and the cooldown on the Direct Soldier skill needs to be removed.

Some players whine at recycling old content but personally, coming from MMO after MMO that simply abandons old content, I think it’s great that Turbine is always looking at ways to keep older content relevant and in the regular playlists. Not an easy thing to do on a traditional DIKU leveling game.

UPDATE: Sapience stopped by the LOTRO forums today to clear up misconceptions that have been spreading since the E3 preview.

I’ll try and shed some light on a few things that seem to have confused people or that have come out somewhat out of context. E3 can be crazy that way sometimes.

The LOTRO Store
We sent out a number of screen shots last week that were mock ups of the store. If you look carefully you can tell they’re only for illustration purposes and don’t reflect any actual items. For example there is a shot out there that shows a “Helm” with a really nice image of a helmet and a description that says it’s a potion.

Some of the item descriptions aren’t even related to LOTRO at all. So I would say take much of what’s shown in the screens as placeholders. As we progress through the beta process, everything is being constantly reviewed. Beta players are already providing some great feedback, even though we’ve only been in Beta for 1 day!

Scaled Instances
To clear up any misunderstandings; Instances will be scaled by the player, not automatically. It works like the level setting for Skirmishes. So for something like Helegrod you could choose to run it at level 61 if you wanted. I know some are worried about a ‘solo raid’. The instances will not scale in terms of group size. Fighting Thorog is still going to take 24 people.
Also, not every instance will be scaled at launch. The team is working hard to get as many in as they can, but time is finite. The plan is to revist them all, but they’re not all going to happen in Book 2.

To give you some idea of how major this change is, JWBarry is currently writing his first novel, also called the Instance Scaling Dev diary. Seriously, it’s a book.

Enedwaith
It’s a level 62-65 area with a lot of new content. Berephon is really excited about this area! So much so he’s going to write a Dev diary all about it. Enedwaith, not his excitement.

Hope that helps clear things up a bit

A day late and a dollar short on writing this, eh? Hey, I was more motivated to play the game rather than write about it this past weekend. Plenty of others have done the writing, and I agree with most of what other informed and reasonable (thus automatically disqualifying Keen) bloggers and writers have already said.

I’ll openly admit, despite being “in the know” about how Turbine handled things in DDO, that my first reaction to the LOTRO announcement was a sharp gasp, followed by a Darth Vader-esque “Nooooooooooooo!” But that reaction was caused by years of exposure to what “Free to Play” or “F2P” has meant under the predominantly Asian model. A few seconds later, my mind returned to reality and I realized this will most likely be a great thing not only for LOTRO, but also something the other developers and publisher may want to watch with a keen eye.

What will it mean for me, personally? Looking at the VIP Chart on the Beta Signup page, nothing is going to change in my own gaming, aside from finally giving me a few options I’ve been wanting. I am a Founder and a Lifetime member, which means I will automatically become a VIP member without the subscription and I’ll still get the 500 Turbine Points in addition to the Loyalty Reward points for my existing account status.

Do I feel disappointed because I bought the Lifetime membership and three years later the business model is changing? Of course not, why should I? The Lifetime membership was $200 up front which gives my account access to the game for the entirety of its life with no monthly subscription. That isn’t changing with the new business model. Also, that $200 was worth roughly 18 months of subscribing to the game, which is now celebrating it’s three year anniversary. Even with the few breaks I’ve taken, that Lifetime has more than paid for itself and I have been playing for free for quite some time now.

Was the Lifetime part of the problem? Most of us celebrated Turbine for trying something new in allowing the Lifetime memberships. Was it short-sighted of them? Perhaps, though I can’t imagine they went into this without the bean-counters doing the math first. Then again, it was Turbine who said the “typical” MMO player subscribes to a single MMO for a total of roughly 18 months — exactly the value of the Lifetime membership. Now that in many cases, such as my own, where the Lifetime has paid for itself and we are seen as “moochers” getting the full game for free, Turbine has been accused of attempting to monetize the Lifetime members, starting with the Adventure Pack for the Mirkwood mini-expansion a few months ago. Of course they are. They are first and foremost a business, and businesses need income. Personally, I am in a situation of having far more money than time, and I wouldn’t mind continuing to support my game of choice but have had no means to do so other than purchasing the two expansions that have released. The new business model will give me that option, though it’s entirely possible that the bonus + monthly Turbine Points I’ll be accruing will cover the couple of options I am currently interested in, still leaving me in a position of not contributing additional income to Turbine.

While we may have been pleased that LOTRO offered the Lifetime memberships, we were much more skeptical when Flagship offered them for Hellgate: London. When Flagship sank, we were practically astounded that Cryptic had the audacity to offer them for Champions Online and Star Trek Online – especially given Cryptic’s modus operandi for producing games that are rather lacking in the depth and longevity departments. I feel safe in stating my belief that the Lifetime experiment was well-warranted and worth the attempt but has worn out its welcome and usefulness; I doubt we see many more of them offered.

Why do it at all? We can easily look back at DDO – which had 65,000 subscribers at its peak and probably half that at the time of its F2P announcement – and say the switch was to save the game. Not only did it save the game, the game’s reputation and exposure has increased, it’s player base has increased 500% and subscribers (VIP members) have increased 300% since the switch, and it has added two servers. Does that automatically mean the exact same thing will happen for LOTRO? Absolutely not, though Turbine is going ahead and adding two more LOTRO servers right away rather than adding one like they did for DDO then the second one came later when it was needed. LOTRO doesn’t need saving like DDO did. After the first few months of launch, LOTRO settled into the comfortable population range of approximately 250K to 300K, give or take, according to most educated guesstimates. It has maintained that same population for three years. It has slowly lost players but gained new players at roughly the same rate via the same revolving door population we see on the majority of other subscription MMOG’s. In other words, while the total population has been fine and providing steady income for Turbine, it is also stagnant. I could probably say the same of EQ2 and most other subscription MMOG’s that have released prior to 2008. The hybrid “freemium” model allows more choices for game access, thereby opening the potential for increasing the total player base, providing all players with more people to adventure with, interact with, and befriend, regardless how long or how often any of us chooses to play. I never read anything of EQ2 growing. EQ2 already has each zone individually packaged and could very easily fit the model Turbine and KingsIsle are leading the way with. Vanguard is merging to a single server and is in desperate need of something to gain players, though I suspect SOE is well on their way to phasing it out like they did with Matrix Online, leaving it on life support until finally no one remains on the development team then shutting it down. Despite having recently launched a great expansion, Funcom would do well to adopt a similar model for Age of Conan and their upcoming The Secret World. Same for Cryptic and their games, rather than forcibly double-dipping their customers.

Interestingly, if you look at Turbine’s slideshow presentation on DDO at the Virtual Goods Summit last year, while DDO saw a 500% increase in total players, they were seeing 22% of the players making purchases in the DDO Store. The basic math says that the monetary income is still at 100% of what DDO was earning before the switch, but I’m  certain there’s more to it than those simple numbers. Semi-related side note: Turbine always refused to release population and income numbers, and due to their status as an independent studio were able to get away with it. Now that Turbine is part of Warner Bros. will their numbers be published in quarterly or annual financials? Also noted is that many of the top-selling items are consumables, which fits in with the overarching F2P model already. With LOTRO, that’s a catch since LOTRO does have a full crafting system. A fear that scholars in particular could be affected if the potions and scrolls they craft were available for sale in the LOTRO Store. Turbine has stated they are very keenly aware of this and the Store will not impinge on crafters, but we’ll have to wait until Beta and the re-launch to see. Looking at the VIP Chart again, however, I can make some predictions. All players will earn Destiny Points but only VIP Members can spend them. I predict all Destiny Point consumables will be placed in the LOTRO Store so players have access to those benefits but also provides an attraction for the VIP Membership. Rest XP (technically it’s called Enhanced XP in-game) has the same limitations. We can already spend Destiny Points for two bubbles worth of Enhanced XP but I will predict Turbine creates a few more tiers of Enhanced XP items for sale in the Store.

Quite frankly, I would be in favor of the LOTRO Store selling levels if I wanted to instantly have a level 50 or 60 or 65 character – with the restriction that I already have a character of that level. I can look at my Minstrel alt, who was created back in the day strictly for grouping in instances and raids, not for leveling and soloing. The raid group I was in practically power-leveled the minstrel to 50 within a couple weeks and immediately got her into the instance scene my Lore-master was already involved in. That hasn’t changed now, and I’m dreading having to solo her through Moria and beyond when my only goal for her is end-game content. I have other classes I want to level, but not that one. I would gladly pay Turbine Points to instantly bump her to level 65 so I can get on with what I want her to do.

One concern I do have with the new business model is a change in world design. The Shadows of Angmar game gave us the “seamless” open world of Eriador to adventure and explore. Mines of Moria gave us a separate “world” to load into but again was seamless and open. However, since then we’ve been given Lothlorien and Mirkwood, which are neatly-packaged individual zones – one might go so far as to call them public instances – with no means of “seamless” travel. We know the next landmass to be added to the game is Enedwaith, a level 62-65 zone. Will Enedwaith and all future landmass expansions be “instanced” individual regions for sale in the LOTRO Store or will Turbine maintain some “world integrity” and continue development with seamless travel options? Looking at what the plan for the Free players, it seems they’ll get all of Eriador (the original Shadows of Angmar game) for free, but only the initial starter zones – Breeland, Ered Luin and The Shire – will have any quests. Those should get Free players to level 20. After that, they are free to travel all of Eriador and can grind monsters to their heart’s content to level (slowly since LOTRO offers little XP per kill; the bulk of the XP is from quest rewards) or they can purchase Quest Packs in the LOTRO Store to gain access to all the NPC quests in a given region or regions. That gives me hope that Turbine has the means to continue building Middle Earth as an open and mostly-seamless world rather than DDO-izing (or perhaps AoC-izing would be more appropriate?) the game into packaged zones for sale that we have to load into as we’re seeing now with Lothlorien and Mirkwood.

While I am 110% in favor of this switch, I am not going to jump on the bandwagon that the days of subscriptions are over and F2P/RMT is the future. Well, RMT is a big part of the future, but I digress. What I foresee coming to an end is the days of only subscription or only F2P. We’ve had that for well over a decade, and the fact is customers like having choices. In MMO’s alone there are so many of them that one single title rarely keeps our attention for long. Like it or not, admit it or not, but most of us are Tourists at heart. It was one thing in 1999 if you played EQ and only EQ. There was only EQ, AC or UO to choose from and most players back then picked one and stuck with it. That is no longer the case, and developers are finally accepting that fact. I’ll echo DDOCast host Jerry’s sentiments from his interview on Episode 40a of the Casual Stroll to Mordor podcast that for the past decade developers have had the attitude of “play our game, and only our game!” Now, they’re waking up to the fact that we players cannot or do not behave that way any longer and are beginning to have the attitude of “play our game, too!”  Turbine is among a select few studios now on the cutting edge of what will slowly evolve into how we access our online games in the future, and has nothing to do with the “death” of one model or the other, but rather that I think we’re nearing the end of the days that MMO studios force their customers to put all their eggs in one basket, and start providing customers with alternative choices instead.

Finally, the existing community has been fearful and decrying that the community will downgrade into a cesspool of Barrens chat when the Free players overrun Middle Earth faster than the forces of Mordor. Bollocks! Just look back a year after DDO’s announcement and you’ll see the exact same fears. DDO’s community was so small already, it didn’t take them long to band together under a flag of elitism and snub their noses at the incoming Free players and the behavior they would surely bring. The reality is that, at worst, the maturity of the DDO community stayed the same but from what I’ve seen it seems to have improved. LOTRO has always been known for its mature community, certainly, but it has never been totally pure and free of the immaturity and “community degradation” that so many are fearing. I had people on my ignore list back in Beta. During launch there were gold spammers. The Brandywine server was once (possibly still is, I don’t play there anymore) nicknamed “BrandyWoW” because having the largest server population also meant the largest population of idiots. To this day there are still Barrens Chat-quality conversations in the OOC channels, and don’t even get me started on what often takes place in the user-created GLFF channels. Every single one of you GLFF douchebags who engage daily in the tired arguments over “Guardian tanking in Overpower stance sucks!” or “Wardens suck!” or “Corpse jumping makes you a giant douche!” and countless others have already lost every single right to complain about any “degradation of community” because you are already exactly what you’re complaining about. Go look in the mirror and shut up. Sure, initially the kiddies will come, but guess what? LOTRO’s design and game play won’t sustain them; they’ll go back to WoW with its fast action and Power Ranger shoulder pads or whatever other game has already supported their behavior. What we will gain is what we already want: more players who have the maturity we expect, the desire to play, but perhaps were unable to afford or justify the monthly subscription. Just like it took a few months after launch for things to settle down, it will settle down after a few months after the switch as well.

Been saving this rant since yesterday; may as well click the Publish button.

FYI Huntards: you have no idea how far down the list you are when it comes to sharing power on my Lore-master in an instance, but I’ll give you a hint: you’re damn near dead-last.

If, however you are a notorious tool who has been booted from 5 kinships (and counting) and you dare scream at me to give you power (on the first pull, no less) in all caps then over VOIP, well, I’ve got news for ya bub… I will wipe the group before I give you one single iota of MY power!

Oh and yes, I know I’m a few days behind on my obligatory LOTRO::F2P post. It’s coming…

While Arwellyn has been adventuring in Lothlorien, working through the Epic Book quests there and into Mirkwood, while running Moria instances for more Radiance gear, there is still the question of alts.

In the Shadows of Angmar game, I created a hobbit minstrel, Myrra, solely for the purpose of group content. Between the kinship I had her in and the raid group Arwellyn was in, Myrra was just about as close to being power-leveled as I could get, given my job and time constraints. I also had ample opportunity for solo work and, at the time, was a pretty decent minstrel. Now, however, we’re in the Siege of Mirkwood game, and Myrra is really taking a beating in Eregion and the beginning stages of Moria. I’m not sure I have it in me to take another light armour, slow combat class leveling through Moria this soon, even though I’d really love to have Myrra at least 3 levels higher where she could easily get into groups if no one’s in need of a lore-master.

So I have Veldorran, the new warden. He’s currently level 28 – I really had a blast putting some work leveling him up last week – but I decided that if I want to have him become my new “main alt” that I wanted to make things easier for him down the road. I have a rule about never giving alts money, but I have no problem feeding them items such as crafting materials and recipes or reputation tokens.

I got to thinking perhaps I should park Veldorran at 28 for now and dust of my hunter Sethryndil to essentially be a farmer for the other alts. Hunters have the highest single-target dps in the game, and their Guide skills make it easy to travel anywhere at a moment’s notice. So last week, in between high-level sessions and instance runs with Arwellyn, I logged in Sethryndil for the first time in well over a year, and took him from level 37 to 43, finishing off with completing the entire chain of quests in Aughaire for the Vestments of Fém medium armour set, which should carry him to 50 or higher before any dire need of upgrade.

Then it occured to me, why not just use Arwellyn to farm those lower-level materials and reputation tokens? For my own personal role-play reasons, it has become important for any characters I actually care about playing to have the full set of Lossoth armour, which requires kindred reputation. Arwellyn has it, Myrra has it, and I want Veldorran to have it. Other regions have certain benefits to reputation, such as Rivendell and Angmar, then of course Moria for both the fast goat mount and the Legendary Trait book, although honestly tokens drop like confetti in Moria so that’s less of a concern. Things change after Moria, however, as all reputation tokens for both Lothlorien and Mirkwood are bound to one character so all token farming will cease after Moria.

On the one hand, I already have Arwellyn who can easily fight in Forochel, the Trollshaws, Angmar or anywhere else I would want reputation tokens for Veldorran. The downside to that it will likely still be a bit time-consuming since lore-masters fight slowly. As an experiment, I traited Arwellyn for the first time to the Master of Nature’s Fury which is a high dps trait set. It really is high dps and she’s killing those Gauradan in Forochel very quickly. However the overall experience is still slow because of skill cooldowns. The Gauradan die and I’m ready to work on the next but Improved Sticky Gourd – the heavy-hitting AoE Legendary skill of the set – is still on cooldown so either I wait it out of engage the next few mobs without it. Then there’s the problem of storage. Being an end-game character, Arwellyn’s bags are always nearly full with needed gear, potions, salves, etc. not to mention all the various tokens. A rabid, frothing at the mouth rant post about Turbine’s lack of handling of the storage issue will be coming soon.

On the other hand, if I choose to level up Sethryndil into his 50’s, I don’t have to wait on cooldowns for anything other than melee skills on a hunter. By that point, most mobs he’ll be farming will be grey or close to it and he should be able to easily kill them before the reach melee range unless he pulls multiple mobs. I’ve never really necessarily wanted Sethryndil as a group-content character, though i’ll admit LOTRO is still the only MMO where I routinely see groups “looking for dps” and “looking for hunter” for instances, so I wouldn’t turn down an opportunity to learn to play him in a group setting, it’s just not a specific goal I have for him. I wouldn’t mind getting him a nice glowing legendary bow, for sure. Side note: why are hunter legendary bows friggin’ awesome-looking while Arwellyn’s legendary staff looks like a giant Q-Tip? I’m just sayin’…

So, decisions to be made. I’d love to get Myrra going but have been so disheartened at how minstrel’s are soloing these days I can’t bring myself to bother. I’m really enjoying the warden class but would like to help Veldorran as much as possible by having his reputation tokens taken care of ahead of time as well as a ready supply of hides, etc. for his tailoring profession. The hunter seems the obvious choice except for the required time to get at least 10 more levels in order to efficiently do the farming…

This morning and afternoon were glorious. I took Arwellyn on a complete clear of The Grand Stair in Moria, which freed up 12 slots in her quest log, and earned enough Medallions of Moria to get the Stone-Reader’s Trousers, which makes 4/6 on the +10 Radiance set.

Then this evening I decided to take the advice of @Longasc and other people, including a few kin-mates, and skip ahead to the Mirkwood content even though I’m nowhere near finished with the Moria storyline.

So I ride Arwellyn all the way down to the docks in Lothlorien and talk to a few NPC’s then ride the boat over to Mirkwood. Very cool look and feel to the whole place, by the way, and kinda enjoying the music as well.

Apparently, if I am understanding correctly, this is similar to the tutorial for LOTRO where you’re in an instanced part of the world; Mirkwood, in this case. Only by completing the Forward to this quest/storyline will you be put into the real Mirkwood. The NPC asks that I complete his three tasks. Ok, no problem!

Oh, wait. Major problem! These quests were designed for lots of people being there to complete them! Obviously when Siege of Mirkwood launched, there were tons of players to do these and get through the gate into Mirkwood. Tonight? Not so much, they’re all already in Mirkwood doing quests, instances, and working on reputation. No one but Arwellyn and her pets in the not-really-Mirkwood area to do these introductory quests. People who have already done the Forward cannot go “back in time” to help, either. So, essentially, I am cut off from continuing in Mirkwood until I just happen to login when there are other people there.

Remember in WAR how Public Quests were useless if you were the only Public? That’s exactly what is happening here. The plus side is that these are truly Public – no need to actually get into a physical group, although that makes Fellowship-only skills useless – but again, without other people this type of setup slams you into a wall that there’s no going around.

I was looking forward to this, but now I’m playing my low-level Warden instead because he isn’t being cock-blocked from content…

…because I’m breakin’ the law, breakin’ the law…

I haven’t had all that much time for gaming because of my work schedule, but the past week I’ve put the majority of my efforts into LOTRO. That’s “home” after all, and I need to get reacquainted with my kinship as well as continue the journeys of my lore-master, Arwellyn.

When I built my new PC and decided my MMO Burnout was over and I thought I could return safely, I made a rule: No Alts! I didn’t want to immediately burn myself out again. Of course, rather than multiple alts in a single game, I’ve had one character in multiple games. But they’re all adventuring through unique content, so it’s not the same as leveling and alt through the same content I’ve already done.

When I took my break from MMO’s last year, Arwellyn had achieved kindred status with the Iron Garrison Miners and got her goat. She’d done all the initial set of quests in Lothlorien. So I took the past week to get kindred with both the Iron Garrison Guards to get the Friend of Nature legendary trait and with the elves of Lothlorien, the Galadhrim.

Yesterday, however, I hesitated at the login screen. All those other characters were there, looking up at me despondently as they vainly tried to shrug dust off their armour. No! I said “no alts” and I mean it. Hey, leave that mouse alone! Don’t click tha… d’oh, too late!

So I logged in my captain, Gared, first. He was the only alt I was actively leveling at the time I hit my burnout. He’s level 44 and had most recently gotten the Fem armour set from Angmar. I took him to Bree then Celomdim for some Spring Festival quests and completed the horse race so he’s eligible to buy the Blue Roan horse now but if he does that will take his purse down to 200 silver or less, so I’m hesitant to do it. He is also without a kinship; apparently I forgot to put a note saying who’s alt he was and the officers of Eldar thought he was missing in action and gave him the boot. A great friend who started with me in Exodus, then raided with me in The Stoned Alliance then made her own kinship, Lords of a Fallen Empire, with her husband has been harassing me daily to join her kinship so I put Gared there. It isn’t Arwellyn, which I know is who she really wanted, but now I can technically get away with saying “but I am in your kinship!”

Next I checked my hobbit minstrel, Myrra. When I was raiding back in the Shadows of Angmar game, Myrra was my “main alt” who I practically power-leveled for the sole purpose of group content ie. instances and raids. I could feel my burnout starting right about the time Mines of Moria launched so other than taking Myrra to Eregion and doing just enough of the new content to get her first Legendary Weapon, I parked her in Forochel still working on her Lossoth reputation to complete the armour set for cosmetic purposes. I discovered Myrra was suddenly an officer in Exodus! Wha? Checking the membership log, it seems only a scant handful of people have actively played in the past six months or more. M’kay… a dead kinship is the same as no kinship, so I quit Exodus and put Myrra into TSA with Arwellyn, which is who she raided with anyway so they all know she’s my alt. I did take her out for a bit of solo combat just to try to get a grip on the minstrel class again. All the ballands and songs can get complex and I’d totally forgotten how to play the class. I’m still shaky but by the time I was done I was feeling a bit more comfortable in her hairy little feet. (Started to say “in her shoes” but hobbits don’t wear them!)

I clicked on my hunter, Sethryndil but opted to not log him it at that time. I was already annoyed that I logged in two alts, then put an hour or more into relearning how to play the minstrel. I was not a happy camper about this so what did I do next?

I made another alt! Aaarrrgh! Yes, I made a Warden this time. During all the pre-launch hype for Mines of Moria I was just itching at the chance to play the Warden because I loved how the class looked on paper. Excels at both melee and ranged combat, has multiple muster points around Middle Earth similar to the hunter class, can support the group as either an off-tank or “evasion tank” as opposed to the guardian class who has the traditional tank role of taking the beating for everyone, and an all-new fast-paced combat system? Sign me up! Unfortunately, as I’ve already mentioned, by the time Moria arrived my burnout was already picking up pace so I never got around to the Warden.

Here we have Veldorran the Warden at level 5. Yes, that makes three elves now. Oh, shut up, you! They’re paying Hi-Rez Studios protection money from their Global Agenda snipers, ok?

Veldorran is level 14 as of this writing, and I must admit I’m really having a blast with the class, though I have my doubts whether the reality of its “evasion tanking” will match what I have in mind. We’ll see, but from the little I’ve seen, they appear to be largely a class for soloers. I’ve only grouped with one so far with Arwellyn, and he was just doing ranged dps with his javelin since we had a guardian to tank. The Gambit combat system is fun and complex with a gradual learning curve that makes it easy to get into. I enjoy complex classes, though I’m not sure how I feel about the various Gambits being memory-based. Age of Conan makes their combos easy by showing a reminder in the UI. Even LOTRO’s Fellowship Maneuvers have a UI gude – if the group leaders sets one – so I suppose the Gambits could be directly compared to completing a Fellowship Maneuver by memory, only you’re doing it all yourself.

This is also giving me a chance to see the revamped content. I’ve already run into several instances where content and quests were either completely different and new or have been changed to make more sense.

So, I had a day of breaking my “no alts” rule. Rules were meant to be broken, right? I still like the idea behind it though. I’m giving attention to 3 MMO’s at the moment, plus trying to balance them with my games and friends on the 360, plus real life and work. The main concern is avoiding burnout again at any cost, so I’ve got my work cut out for me. My attention shifts at the blink of an eye so by the time I get home next week I may be hardcore anti-alts again.

Arwellyn acquired a Second Age Loremaster book last year before I took my break but she’s been working with her original Third Age staff this whole time. She also had a few other LI’s slotted just so they could gain IXP and level up.

This morning I crafted a batch of the best jeweler scrolls for a kin-mate and in return he crafted a Second Age staff for Arwellyn! It maxes at level 60, but that should be fine. Now that Siege of Mirkwood is released, two new “tiers” (my term) of LI’s have arrived, 61+ and 65. Quite frankly, leveling is typically so fast in LOTRO that I plan on using this staff until Arwellyn gets a level 65 staff. If she just happens to stumble upon a 61+ along the way, fine, but I have no specific plans on getting her one.

Once she equipped the new staff, she deconstructed all the LI’s she’d had slotted, which were in the 20′s and 30′s so she got a couple Tier 3 and 4 upgrades out of them. I also burned a few of the level 60 IXP runes on the staff to get it a couple levels before I take Arwellyn out adventuring with it next week, so here are the Day One stats on Arwellyn’s first Second Age staff, Ceridain: