A Year in Gaming
Life is often cyclical, if you don’t believe me go watch The Lion King. I started 2018 playing The Lord of the Rings Online and by writing a post about how gamers collectively seem to repeat the same mistakes. And as the year and indeed the decade ends, I find myself once again playing the Yule Festival in LOTRO and reflecting upon how some games that garnered criticism over their egregious business models, have ended up as huge hits. It would appear that gamers are their own worst enemy. I shall leave the psychological analysis of paradox to others. From my perspective, irrespective of the iniquities of the video game industry and certain quarters of the gaming community, it has been a good year, gaming wise. I have enjoyed my time playing MMOs such as Star Trek Online, The Elder Scrolls Online and the aforementioned LOTRO. These and other titles have entertained me, provided me with an opportunity to unwind as well as affording me some much-needed social interaction. I particularly enjoy Wednesday evenings when I log into my Discord server and then chat and play collaboratively with longstanding gaming friends.
LOTRO: Levelling via the Yule Festival
As I haven’t yet bought the recently released Minas Morgul expansion for The Lord of the Rings Online, I am presently faced with the problem of looking for alternative ways to gain ten levels, now that the cap has been increased to 130. The most obvious answer is to play the various skirmishes that exist within the game, however I noticed that at level 120 I’m somewhat under geared and not doing as much DPS as I would like. Consequently, skirmishes have ceased for the present to be a cake walk and are more of a strategic undertaking, requiring attention to one’s skills rotation and a generally cautious strategy. I could also just return to the Vales of Anduin and clear some of the outstanding story quests but due to the time of year, I prefer shorter play sessions, rather than get bogged down in lengthy narrative chains. Hence, the current Yule Festival presents the most practical solution to my needs.
Login Incentives in MMORPGS
A major challenge for any MMO is to keep players logging in to the game. Obviously, regularly adding content and ensuring that there are sufficient quests, activities and tasks for players to undertake is essential. However, experience has shown that no matter how much content developers add to an MMORPG, players will always veraciously consume it and want more. Hence you need an additional “carrot on a stick”. Something that get’s player sufficiently interested to log into a game, even when they don’t have anything especially compelling to do. Login incentives are designed to do exactly that. They offer of some bauble or trinket that motivates you to log into a game once a day. Hopefully once you login, you may then find something to occupy yourself, either on your own or with fellow guild members. And of course the player who is actively playing may well even purchase something from the in-game store. At the very least, a successful login incentive contributes towards active player statistics. If those figures are presented in the right fashion on paper, they can bolster a declining population.
International Picture Posting Month: The Lord of the Rings Online
The Lord of the Rings Online is unique in so far as there are no other Tolkien based MMORPGs available at present (although another is currently in development). I have played LOTRO since 2008 and what I have discovered during that time, is that although the game attracts MMO players, it also attracts dedicated Tolkien aficionados. Many of those who play LOTRO do not play other games or even consider themselves as gamers. The intellectual property is a magnet for fans and frequently a steppingstone into the world of gaming. Hence you have a player base that is heavily invested and forgiving, because of their affection for the source material. Few other MMOs have this sort of community. LOTRO offers an opportunity to immerse yourself in Middle-earth. For many, the game’s vision of Tolkien’s world is superior to Peter Jackson’s movie adaptations. LOTRO has its own original aesthetic and style. Furthermore, after twelve years there is a prodigious amount of Middle-earth to explore. No other MMO can offer players access to The Shire, or Rohan or the Dead Marshes. So, in many respects LOTRO is an MMO occupying a unique niche in the video games market.
LOTRO: The Calm Before the Storm
I have been absent from The Lord of the Rings Online for several month, only checking in intermittently. When I do, I still tend to focus on levelling my High Elf Guardian who is currently tentatively progressing through the dour and grindy Mordor expansion. Since July my primary character, a level cap Lore-master, has been standing outside Beorninghús idly staring at Grimbeorn with only a few quests in the Vale of Anduin completed. However, because The Elder Scrolls Online was down for emergency maintenance today, I decided to return to LOTRO and see if I could make inroads into this outstanding update in preparation for the release of the Minas Morgul expansion on November 5th. As a zone, the vales of the Anduin and is the polar opposite of the grim, rocky environment of the Grey Mountains. It is verdant, spacious and often has clear blue skies. Yes there are fog banks and areas of shaded woodlands but it is far from a brooding and oppressive region.
Minas Morgul Preview
I spent several hours today on the Bullroarer test server, checking out the preview of the forthcoming Minas Morgul expansion for The Lord of the Rings Online. From a lore perspective this is a great zone and it neatly fills the geographical gap between Morgul Vale in North Ithilien and Gorgoroth in Mordor. As ever the visual style and sense of continuity is very good and Standing Stone Games have gone all in on atmosphere and ambience. The new area is often dimly lit, filled with fog and Minas Morgul itself has an eerie supernatural phosphorescence. Once again, I simply contented myself with just exploring the area and did not attempt any quests (apart from one to access a new instanced area). Let us not forget that this is a preview and therefore there is always potential for change. The new areas at present appear to be relatively clear of mobs and other sundry threats, so initially navigation between stables was relatively straight forward. However, the main fortresses of Minas Morgul and Bar Nirnaeth are densely populated with robust mobs.
Skills Rotation
While conducting some general housekeeping in The Lord of the Rings Online, I decided upon streamlining my “quickslots” as developers Standing Stone Games refers to them. Being an MMORPG from well over a decade ago, the game has a multitude of skills. By the time your character reaches level cap of 120, it is entirely possible to have filled all 72 of the available slots. If you have a combat pet, then you’ll receive another 11 buttons to “mash”. Now this situation got me thinking. I recollect a conversation I had about a year ago, when I was doing some group content in LOTRO. It wasn’t going especially well so there was a discussion about tactics and what specific skills to use. To cut a long story short, it became apparent that many players (including myself) did not know the exact name of all the skills that adorned their quickslots. Furthermore not everyone was au fait with the nature and purpose of each skill and how one could trigger another. Similarly not all were aware that some skills could be augmented by the use of another.
LOTRO: Minas Morgul Pre-Order
The forthcoming Minas Morgul expansion for The Lord of the Rings Online, became available for pre-order today. Furthermore, Update 24.3 was also released, making the new race of Stout-Axe Dwarves immediately available for those who have purchased the aforementioned expansion. Minas Morgul will provisionally be launched on Tuesday 29th of October, although Standing Stones Games have stated that this may be delayed for a few days should there be any technical issues. As with the previous expansion, Mordor, there are three versions of the game with a variety of additional baubles and trinkets available. These are mainly cosmetic items and sundry buffs and boosts. The pricing ranges from $40 for the Basic Edition, $80 for the Collector’s Edition and $130 for the Ultimate Fan Bundle. Again, as with the last expansion, the respective value of the most expensive tier is currently being “disputed” by players, although having logged into the game, it is already clear that many people have already bought it.
Stout-Axe Dwarf Preview
As Standing Stone Games successfully “got away” with adding High Elves to The Lord of the Rings Online as a playable race in late 2017, then it is only logical that they expect to do exactly the same with Stout-Axe Dwarves this year. Furthermore, as High Elves were introduced with the Mordor expansion, it’s not unreasonable to assume that Stout-Axe Dwarves will similarly be tied to the forthcoming Minas Morgul expansion. Just remember that Mordor came in three varieties and the base edition did not include the High Elf class. So keep an eye out for the various versions of Minas Morgul, when it is announced. But let’s not kid ourselves, core LOTRO players are usually lore enthusiasts and eager to support the game that they love, so I see no reason for this new race to be rejected by the playerbase. Dwarves have their fans, so I’m sure that Stout-Axe Dwarves will be welcomed into the game and find their niche.
The Problem with MMO Economies Part 2
A few years ago, STO developers Cryptic, added a new system to the game that allowed players to re-engineer gear and alter the various modifiers associated with each item. One of the reasons behind this move was to reduce the hyperinflation associated with high end gear that has the most desirable statistics. If players could re-engineer the items that they desired it would undermine the trade in such items on the exchange. Needless to say this plan didn’t succeed and the market did not radically alter. The overall cost of the resources required to successfully re-engineer a piece of equipment ended up being comparable or even more than the price of a similar item being sold on the exchange. Similarly, the legendary progression servers in LOTRO had a brief period of economic stability and fiscal prudence when they were launched. Initially, no one section of the playerbase had more resources than others. A year on and now the same issues of inflation and excessive prices have happened with a tedious sense of inevitability. Can anything be done to stabilise MMO economies?
The Problem with MMO Economies Part 1
I have a very mixed relationship with MMO economies. In The Lord of the Rings Online I have adequate supplies of in-game gold but most of the items I seek to buy on Auction House are insanely overpriced. In Star Trek Online, earning energy credits is so problematic, the developers have had to add them as part of the daily personal endeavour rewards. Again, there is runaway inflation and the most desirable items such as Tier 6 ships are ridiculously priced. And in The Elder Scrolls Online, the gold slowly builds up over time but the lack of a server wide auction system means that finding and purchasing quality gear at credible prices is an arcane undertaking. There was a point a few years ago when I use to play the LOTRO economy and as a result, I had sufficient means to buy what I wanted. But maintaining that level of wealth and financial leverage is time consuming and requires adhering to a strategy. As I do not play the game, or indeed any other MMO, to that level anymore, my personal wealth in all of them has declined accordingly.
Do MMOs Have a Specific Window of Opportunity?
World of Warcraft was the MMO that broke the mould. The reasons for its success are too numerous and complex for this blog post, so let it suffice to say that it rode a perfect storm of factors and has maintained a strong presence for fifteen years. And as a result, subsequent developers have often sought to duplicate its success. Yet frequently the opposite has happened. In fact several MMOs have launched and experienced a brief time “in the sun” only for things to come crashing down thereafter. Perhaps the most well-known example of this was SWTOR which experienced a triumphant launch in December 2011, yet within three months the majority of players had left for pastures new. It took the game going F2P and a lot of hard work by BioWare to claw back the playerbase. It has also been argued that many MMOs have grown too big for their own good? It is true that a new player starting a game such as LOTRO today has a long slog ahead of them and some may simply find that too daunting.
Quest Bestowal in MMOs
When playing a massively multiplayer online role-playing game, such as The Lord of the Rings Online, acquiring quests is a very straightforward process. Key locations such as towns, villages or anywhere with a stable are usually quest hubs. Non-playable characters denote that they have quest(s) available by having a glowing ring icon above their heads. It’s not subtle but you’d have to have a bag over your head to miss such an obvious clue. Most MMOs have some version of this bestowal system. A clearly visible means to show that an NPC or object is the starting point for a quest. It’s a rather unsophisticated system but it gets the job done. Hence it has been around for quite a while in the genre (silence, dissenting old school gamers, blathering on about how in the good old days, MMOs didn’t have quests).
Can LOTRO Modernise Any Further?
A while back Syp wrote a blog post over on his personal website Bio Break, in which he discussed how The Lord of the Rings Online had avoided the “complexity trap” he feels affects other MMORPGs over time. It’s a sentiment I broadly concur with. The 12-year-old game has now reached a point where it has a fixed set of systems. Developers Standing Stone Games continue to produce regular PVE content in the form of quests, instances and raids. But they haven’t added a major new component to the game since the introductions of Epic Battles. Instead they have refined and fine-tuned existing facets of the game. Consider the recent overhaul of the Virtue Trait system. The basic functionality remains but the way a player advances their chosen virtues has been streamlined and now provides more tangible benefits. Overall, LOTRO has settled into a comfortable niche. New content is forthcoming but is very much a case of “same meat, different gravy”.
Stout-Axe Dwarves and Race Changes Coming to LOTRO
Some interesting news came out of Gen Con 2019, where Standing Stone Games recently held their Dungeons & Dragons Online/The Lord of the Rings Online “meet up”. According to Draculetta who attended the social event, Severlin AKA Rob Ciccolini, Lead Producer for LOTRO stated that Stout-Axe Dwarves were to be added to the game as a new playable race. Furthermore, the ability to change the race of existing characters was also coming to the game. It was later clarified that the race change ability was subject to the existing class restrictions. Hence an existing Hobbit Guardian could become an Elf if the player so desires. But races such as Hobbits and Dwarves are still excluded from certain classes such as Captain or Lore-master. Although this was a very informal setting, the statement has been seen as a formal announcement and SSG have not said anything to the contrary so far.
The Changing Face of MMOs
The above promotional video for Guild Wars 2 (dated July 19th, 2011) came up in an online discussion recently. The game as it exists today is radically different to this eight-year-old marketing presentation. It got me thinking about MMOs, how they evolve and those that have fallen from grace. Naturally the spectre of World of Warcraft looms large in such a discussion, because for many years this was the game to beat. Subsequently the market was awash with clones, which proved to be an unwise business tactic. The tumultuous life of Star Wars: The Old Republic along with the closure of Warhammer: Online, Vanguard and recently WildStar indicates that more of the same is not necessarily what players want or at the least, insufficient to keep them engaged. Guild Wars 2 initially deviated noticeably from the perceived wisdom but then contradicted its own ideology out of necessity to remain financially viable. Subsequent expansions have proven far more “traditional”. A decade on from the MMO boom, the genre has had to become far more niche to survive. MMOs exist and make money, but the are no longer seen as cash cows.
LOTRO: The Pros and Cons of Complex Lore
Professor Tolkien has created one of the most complex and rich fictional mythologies found in twentieth century fiction. There is both detail and ambiguity to be found in his collected works. For example, the line of Númenórean Kings or the family tree of Elrond are clearly explored and catalogued. Yet there are many more obscure and esoteric references littering the various texts, that pique the imagination by alluding to more nebulous people and events. What was the fate of the two Blue Wizards, Alatar and Pallando? What was so special about Queen Berúthiel cats which she used as spies? Are there really Were-worms "the East of East"? It is this balance between richly detailed faux heraldry and vague apocrypha which makes Middle-earth such a credible and living world.
LOTRO: Vales of Anduin Preview
Update 24: Vales of Anduin is currently available for preview along with an initial build of the new 64-Bit game client for LOTRO, on the Bullroarer test server. The new virtue configuration system is among the many revisions that are included in this forthcoming update. The following change also raised a wry smile. Renaming the "Laketown Outhouse" to the more era appropriate "Laketown Boghouse". As ever there are extensive patch notes available on the official forums and players are once again reminded that this is not the final version of the update and therefore everything can potentially change.
When LOTRO Gets It Right
As I previously mentioned, Dunland is far from the most enthralling region in LOTRO. Aesthetically speaking the zone is quite varied but that is not where the problem lies. The trials and tribulations of the various Dunlending tribes does not make for the most engaging narrative. So in the last few days I’ve been doggedly playing through the Epic Story and a selection of regional quests, so I can simply move my High Elf Guardian forward. However, I subsequently arrived at Nan Curunír and remembered that that I was playing through the third expansion for LOTRO; The Rise of Isengard. And things began to change for the better. Because the game content at this point includes some innovative story lines within an iconic setting and is a clear example of when this MMO gets things right.
LOTRO: Thoughts on the Current Downtime
As I am writing this post, the popular MMORPG The Lord of the Rings Online has been offline since 2:00 AM EST on 6th March (7:00 AM GMT). The game servers, website and account portal are offline for maintenance and it would appear that the actually physical hardware is being relocated within the datacentre that Standing Stone Games uses. Like any complex IT project of this nature there are always potential problems and it would appear that some have occurred as the initial 22 hours projected down time has now become nearly 3 days. Naturally this has had an impact upon the LOTRO community as Friday evening is often prime gaming time. From SSG’s perspective the extended outage is not good for business or community relations and so they have been using social media to keep players informed.