Never the Twain Shall Meet?
Video games can offer a great opportunity for personal growth. If you are the sort of player who likes to prove themselves and continuously test one’s mettle, then some titles can provide the challenge required to be the best of the best. Hence many games are competitive, have league tables and other formal structures for measuring success. It is one of the reasons why esports have become so popular. But this desire to excel and master a particular play style extends beyond competitive games. For some players part of a games allure is understanding the numbers and stats that drive the game mechanics. Because these are often the key to optimising your build and maximising DPS output. Hence you will find skilled and learned players in a variety of games across multiple genres. Although they are often motivated for different reasons, they all strive to be elite players.
LOTRO: Over a Week of Downtime
The MMORPG The Lord of the Rings Online has been plagued by technical problems for over a week now, resulting in multiple servers being offline. The game’s official forums have also been intermittently affected by these ongoing issues, as has Standing Stone Games other MMO, Dungeon and Dragons Online. The problems initially started on Wednesday the 15th of July with severe lag, rubberbanding and random client disconnections. LOTRO has had ongoing issues with all of these problems in the past and developers SSG have attempted to address them numerous times. It was hoped that the release of a 64 bit client last summer would improve matters and initially there were indications of performance improvements. However, the specific poor server performance that was identified last week has allegedly “cascaded” throughout SSG’s infrastructure.
Busy Doing Nothing
As I mentioned recently in my monthly gaming roundup, I’ve currently stopped playing the three MMORPGs that are my usual gaming mainstay. Namely The Lord of the Rings Online, The Elder Scrolls Online and Star Trek Online. It’s something that I do from time to time when I’m tired of the repetition this genre offers. At present none of these titles has anything on offer that motivates me to play them enthusiastically. Especially LOTRO. I find weddings tedious and self indulgent in real life, so I’m hardly going to get “excited” about a virtual one set in Middle-earth. However, that’s not to say that I’ve lost interest in the MMO genre. I’m merely temporarily burned out at present. I find that after a few months or so, either new content is released that lures me back to these games or I tire of what I’ve been playing in their stead. It’s a cyclical process that I go through from time to time and nothing to worry about.
A Month in Gaming
I stopped subscribing to The Lord of the Rings Online in June. I’ve always had a very cyclical relationship with this MMO and at present I feel I need a break from the games somewhat linear formula. Plus the new content scheduled for release centred around the wedding of Aragorn and Arwen doesn’t exactly sound enthralling. So I’ve left my primary character in Langflood and will return to the game later in the year when I feel the need to catch up with content. I have also abandoned the ongoing events in Star Trek Online as they’re getting too repetitive. I would like to see a new longterm story arc rather than just a continuous cycle of short term events and repeatable content. I don’t mind working towards a goal but it has to be something I want and the rewards offered in this MMO are getting a little too generic for my liking. I shall return to the game at some point as I’m a lifetime account holder and I’m curious to see how developer’s Cryptic overhauls the Klingon story arc.
LOTRO: Free Quest Packs
At the beginning of March, Standing Stone Games very generously (and very wisely) decided to make all “quest, raid, and adventure area content” for The Lord of the Rings Online available for free. As a result, many players have returned to the MMO and all game servers have seen an increase in activity. Initially the offer was scheduled to end on April 31st but due to its success this has been extended to the end of August. Furthermore, SSG are now offering a coupon code that will permanently unlock all this content but players have to ensure that they use this by August 31st. This is a very generous offer which can save new and returning players a substantial amount of money. SSG have also promised a forthcoming sale on expansion quests (not a sale on entire expansions) and instance clusters. Effectively, a smart player will soon be able to own and access the majority of the game for under £10.
A Month in Gaming
I see by the financial data that is currently available and being pawed over by industry pundits, that April was a very good month for the video games publishers. Quelle surprise. Who would have thought it? The increase in leisure time has certainly meant that even I have had a greater opportunity than usual to invest in playing video games. And as I predominantly play the MMORPG genre that has proven to be a boon. Or at least it was initially. After two month plus that is fast becoming a bane. MMOs are great when you have new content to play through, stories to discover, goals to achieve and systems and items to advance. But once you’ve done all these things and find yourself doing dailies just out of obligation and a way to kill time, then it may well be time to move on to something else.
A Month in Gaming
April has been an usual month. The ongoing lockdown here in the UK (and elsewhere in the world) has afforded me more gaming time than usual. The policy of social distancing has reduced my caring duties to just three hours a day. Hence I and many others like me have much more leisure time available. I initially thought that this situation would be the perfect time to try some of the many of the games that I have stockpiled over the years. However, despite trawling through many titles, I still failed to find anything that immediately took my fancy. So I decided to take stock of my overall gaming activities and whether it was time to revise them and try something new. And by new I don’t just mean just buying a new game but taking a step out of my current comfort zone into a genre I don’t usually play. So that’s exactly what I did and the results have been very interesting.
The Problem with Housing in MMORPGs
Housing in the MMORPG genre continuously fails to reach its potential. Despite the scope it offers both in functionality and gameplay, it has seldom progressed beyond offering storage and some arbitrary customisation. Hence this is a perennial subject of debate for many MMO communities. Given the popularity of this subject, it would appear to indicate that there’s a potential market for expanded housing functionality. And yet many MMO developers still display a blindspot for this issue. You’d think that the scope for monetisation would prove a big enough incentive but housing just doesn’t seem to be especially high on their priority list. It is odd considering that the MMORPG genre is a fundamentally social one. Housing in theory offers so much scope to capitalise and explore this aspect of gaming. Yet it remains a cul-de-sac and an afterthought.
Bullroarer Update 26 Preview #1
Standing Stone Games are currently previewing Update 26 for The Lord of the Rings Online on the Bullroarer Test Server. The new zone, the Wells of Langflood, follows in the idiom of Vale of Anduin with a comparable aesthetic. However, as this region is further north and at a higher altitude, there is a prevailing mist in most areas. The landscape also slowly climbs North as you approach where the arms of the Misty Mountains and Ered Mithrin meet. Overall it is a bright and colourful zone filled with wildlife. However, there are also various mobs from Mount Gundabad and several advance camps of Trolls and Orcs. There are also numerous Dwarven ruins indicating their historical presence in the region. The Eagles also feature in the area and obviously appear in several of the zones quest storylines.
LOTRO: Producer’s Letter 2020
After several month’s delay and various rumours about internal corporate dissent, Standing Stone Games have finally released this year’s Producer’s Letter. Its arrival has produced a collective sigh of relief from the playerbase, as neither Executive Producer Severlin (Rob Ciccolini) or Community Manager Cordovan (Jerry Snook) seem to shine at corporate communications. In fact there has been an information vacuum for over six months. As for the letter, it certainly promises a lot of new content for The Lord of the Rings Online coming over the next year to eighteen months. And at first glance it sounds as if there’s something for everyone. A catalogue of PVE content, adjustments to the Legendary Items systems, a designated PVP server, more Premium Housing (this time in Rohan) and a further Legendary Server offering greater content difficulty. However, as ever the devil is in the detail and until we know more the vagaries are somewhat frustrating.
More Gaming Amnesia
I wrote back in January 2018 about “gaming amnesia” and how if you step away from a game for a while, then often you can forget not only the basic control layout but the essential mechanics as well. Well I’ve had a couple of further instances of this recently and it got me thinking as to whether there’s a finite amount of game related data you can retain at one time. I suspect the answer is yes and that it all comes down to the old “use it or lose it” maxim. If you’re not playing a complex game regularly, then the knowledge gets superseded by information you have a more pressing need to access. Hence I do not think I’m experiencing the early signs of dementia of anything like that. Nonetheless, it can be quite frustrating and age is also a factor. Our reactions do slow as we get older and quickly recollecting information becomes more of a chore.
Completing the Minas Morgul Expansion
Despite taking a short break out of pure frustration, I decided to grit my teeth and try to finish the Minas Morgul expansion for The Lord of the Rings Online over the last few days. As I suspected, once you start questing in Minas Morgul itself, it all becomes very homogenous. The circles of the city are deliberately ponderous to navigate and the quests are padded out with generic filler content that requires you to kill multiple types of mobs. Furthermore, Minas Morgul itself is a “lagfest” and you can often find yourself instantly in combat with a mob lurking immediately outside the door of the Rangers camps. The density of the enemies means that you’re continuously pulling aggro when travelling form A to B. And you often find yourself rubberbanding and stuttering due to the poor build of the city. Completing all of the various tiers of the city is a grueling task and upon completion you’re immediately sent to Thuringwath which has many of the same problems. Although some of the quest stories are well conceived, the realities of completing much of the content in Minas Morgul make it very much an uphill struggle.
Waiting for the New Middle-earth MMO
In late 2018 it was announced that Amazon Game Studios and Leyou were collaborating on massively multiplayer online game for PC and consoles set in Middle-earth. Ongoing development is being handled by Athlon Games, a global developer and publisher of free-to-play console and PC games. The studio is a subsidiary of Leyou Technologies Holdings Limited. But beyond the fairly vague press releases that can be found on the Athlon Games website (the last was posted in July 2019), little detail has emerged about the project. There has been unsubstantiated rumours that the project may well tie-in with the forthcoming Amazon Prime TV show that is set in the Second Age of Middle Earth. However, there is little information at present in the public domain to fully substantiate this or any of the other ongoing speculation. Hence, the entire situation raises some interesting questions and I’m sure like me, you have probably pondered some of them. Here are just a few that have crossed my mind.
Making Your Own Fun
I’ve yet to read a cogent definition of the term “emergent gameplay”, so it won’t feature in this post because I’m not sure if I fully grasp the concept. It seems to be a very elastic term. However, what I will say is that sometimes you run out of officially sanctioned tasks to do, when playing an MMO. You find yourself having completed all quests and missions, languishing at level cap with acceptable gear and kicking your virtual heels. It is at this point one of two things happens. You either find a means of keeping yourself engaged with the game, or you logout and find something else to play. Too often have I done the latter. At present, I’m currently at the “what should I do now” stage both in The Lord of the Rings Online and Star Trek Online. This time rather than just temporarily abandoning these games, I intend to set myself some new goals and effectively make my own fun. It may or may not work. But at the least it will make for a couple of blog posts.
5 of My Favourite Quality-of-Life Mechanics in MMOs
Over the years I’ve played numerous MMOs (to varying degrees of success). As a genre there are certain game mechanics that are standard and common to most games. Initially during the “golden age” of the MMORPG, there was a focus on collaborative team player. This meant that successfully undertaking group content required a spectrum of players in specific roles. This particular mechanic has diminished over the years but the genre still has numerous common tropes. Quest hubs, reputation factions, gear grinds and vertical levelling are just some that spring to mind. However, many developers in this field attempt to polish and refine these “default” systems, often with interesting results. So I thought I’d cite some specific examples of what I call “quality-of-life mechanics”. Frequently these are bog standard facets common to the MMO genre, that have been polished and refined in a particular game. Small things that just make a game more manageable and provoke a positive reaction as well.
LOTRO: The Scarcity and Cost of Essential Items
I wrote recently about how I completely re-equipped my Lore-master using lootbox gear and purchasing new items using Ember of Enchantment. This did significantly boost my overall statistics and make an improvement in my combat performance. But something has still felt “off” and it was only a few days ago that I finally figured out exactly what it was. My Legendary Weapons are still wanting. I found myself standing next to another level 130 Lore-master while handing in a quest, so I decided to inspected their build. Luckily they hadn’t opted to remain “private” so I could examine exactly what gear they had and the statistics on their LI (Legendary Items). Although their armour and jewellery was broadly comparable to mine, their LIs were far superior. And it all came down to “Legacies” and what tier they were. Mine are currently level 69 and 70 on my First Age Staff. And on my First Age Lore-master Book, they are level 65 and 66. At present, until I unlock further legacy tiers, my LIs are not earning any XP and that is irksome.
LOTRO: Solving a Gear “Problem” with Money
Before I crack on, I would like to point out that I’ve put the word “problem” in quotes, to reference the fact that this is an opinion and not a universal fact that confronts all players of the MMORPG, The Lord of the Rings Online. Now that’s out of the way, let me start by saying that the way in which game developers think you should play their products can at times be at odds with how the players like to do things themselves. LOTRO is a classic MMORPG in so far as the player is expected to level their characters playing a variety of PVE content, then play repeatables to obtain intermediate gear, then pursue endgame content such as raiding. Simply put, it means you get the best gear once you’ve arrived at level cap and not while you’re levelling. Usually PVE content is not too problematic if you maintain a relevant build and gear according to level. However, LOTRO does have several zones and expansions that are “wild cards. For example Mounted Combat in Rohan is a nuisance for melee classes. And then there’s the gear check and increase in mob difficulty that occurs in both Mordor and Minas Morgul expansions.
Thoughts on the Minas Morgul Expansion
I was afforded some free time this weekend, so I logged in to The Lord of the Rings Online and blitzed through about half of the Minas Morgul expansion and managed to reach the new level cap of 130 ( I was level 128 when I started). I finished the first two new chapters of The Black Book of Mordor and completed Mordor Besieged; the section of the new expansion that is set in the Second Age on the plateau of Gorgoroth. It’s a curious and initially engaging part of the game. In the past LOTRO aficionados have only been able to briefly access iconic events of the past through session play where they get to be someone else, via a short story driven instance. Mordor Besieged offers a revised area of the existing Mordor map; namely Dor Armath. All though a desolate place in the Second Age, this region is not the wasteland we see in the Third Age. The landscape has several active fortresses held by both sides and The Nazgul roam freely. But there is little of real substance to do here (a point I shall return to) and after a while it gets somewhat repetitive.
LOTRO: Catching Up With Content
I regularly fall behind the latest content release for The Lord of the Rings Online. So it is not uncommon for me to “binge play” in an attempt to catch up with others in my kinship. The November release of the Minas Morgul expansion (which I have now grudgingly purchased) raised the level cap to 130. I managed to gain nearly 5 levels recently by repeating the Yule Festival daily quests and supplementing them with skirmishes. I used a lot of rested XP and bought a lot of progression perks with Destiny Points. However, as I mentioned in a previous blog post, I was struggling in the skirmishes as I was geared for level 120, so I decided to return to playing PVE content in the Vales of Anduin. As this content is designed for players at level 120, it has proven a more equitable player experience; especially as I was level 125 when I returned to the Wolf-denes. I was able to progress through the zone, focusing on the various quests stories and not having to continuously worry about being underpowered and at risk of defeat. Last night I completed Update 24 and have managed to reach level 128 with my Lore-master. I now feel that I am adequately prepared for the new expansion.
The Pace of Combat in MMOs
This is going to be a very subjective post because much of what I am about describe isn’t based upon measurable data (although I’m sure there are players who would do so) but more how something feels. Ironically, due to my nature I’m usually more disposed towards fact-based analyses but even I have to recognise that humans are driven by emotions and other esoteric factors. And with regard to this subject matter I hate to say it but how I feel greatly shapes my opinion. So let me begin by referring back to the MMO The Secret World, which has evolved into Secret World Legends. One of the main reasons I stopped playing the original version of the game was because the combat was tedious. By which I mean it took too long. I would use an assault rifle and blast away at a mob, only for it to pursue me as its health meter slowly went down. Hence, I would have to reverse while attacking and slowly back peddle until the mob died. As a method it worked but it was extremely unsatisfactory. The weapon felt under powered and the style of attack lacked grandeur. The revised iteration of the game failed to address this so I didn’t stick with playing that either.