Shift in Gaming focus

Last week I canceled the last monthly revolving subscriptions we had to MMOs.  It wasn’t because of expenses but rather out of a complete lack of desire to log in and deal with the MMO environment.  Tired of developers that flat out lie, constant skill resets, communities of various games, and the endless grind for faction or gear.  I would rather curl up on the sofa, turn on the console and play a single player game or co-op game with hubby. 

MMOs are a great value for the money you spend compared with a dinner and movie once a month but given all the other choices of entertainment, MMOs aren’t cutting it anymore.  I’m tired of paying money for content that I have no interest in (i.e.. “end game” raids) and then losing access to that content once I’ve canceled my subscription (i.e.. Lord of the Rings Online).  Give me a single player game where the content I purchase is available to me whenever the mood strikes me to log on and play.

I’ve been burned out before but this time just feels different.  Usually news from Blizzcon interests me or sucks me back in, but this year I could care less: zero interest, haven’t read a single blog or tweet about Blizzcon.  Finding out who the Prophet was in Elder Scrolls Online so early in the story killed it for me, why bother to log-in the remainder of the story was just killed for me.  Everquest 2, and SOE games in general, are routinely killed by the stupidity of their marketing and accounting departments.  Their pricing structures and lack of appreciation of their customers, oh hell their failure to recognize that their pricing is completely out of whack with their competition, is just aggravating and infuriating.

I won’t claim we will never again sub to a MMO but honestly, much like my warden above I believe we are riding into the dawn toward console (XboxOne) and single player PC games.  I’ll still share impressions from games but they won’t be MMOs.  Up first on the console are Halo: Master Chief Collection, Assassin’s Creed: Unity, and then finally DragonAge: Inquisition.  It is truly an excellent week plus of game anticipation.

If you follow on Twitter I will probably be much more active on my other account @stitchersflock or on @Path, send me a DM if you want to add me on Path.  Have fun gaming!

Technorati Tags: MMO,gaming,Lord of the Rings Online,BlizzCon,Sony Online Enterrtainment,Everquest 2,Elder Scrolls Online,video games,XboxOne,Halo,Halo Master Chief Collection,Assassin's Creed,Assassin's Creed: Unity,DragonAge Inquistion

LOTRO: April’s Producer’s Letter

Lord of the Rings Online can be an incredibly beautiful game and it always seems to suck me in when my subscription runs out.  We resub (and bought two new expansions) and once again LOTRO goes and does something foolish and I regret the “investment” we made not to be nickel and dimed to death.  Look, $200 a year isn’t going to kill us but it is more a sign of faith in the future.  This year however, LOTRO has finally managed to kill my interest in the game completely.

They just released the Producer’s Letter for April and in it, they once again break yet another promise to the player base.  There will be no update to housing this year despite it’s repeated promises that the update was coming.  However, there will be a new class which I am sure will be heavily monetized and poorly implemented.

The competition is too good for a seven year old game to be fooling around with crap like a new class and broken promises to an already frustrated and fleeing population.  Realms are empty, trying to play on a new realm means losing real world money tied to the old realm, housing is a joke, the game play can be incredibly boring, and gorgeous screenshots aren’t enough to keep players logging in.  If you want to retain a player base, don’t nickel and dime them (ESPECIALLY players that subscribe to your game), don’t break promises, don’t have secret player councils, and don’t have you corporate heads buried so far in the sand you don’t even realize you have serious competition.

My twitter feed alone shows long time players leaving LOTRO for games like Landmark and Elder Scrolls Online.  The team at LOTRO seems oblivious to the fact that players are finding new games to play and sink real world money into, I’m being kind.  I actually believe that the LOTRO team is intentionally burying it’s head in the sand and break promises and ignoring the flight of customers so that they feel “justified” in closing the game down in the next six to eighteen months.  I know that we won’t be buying any more expansions and that we definitely will not be paying for two yearly subscriptions this year.

Rant over, opinion spoken and now I’m off to write for my ESO character blog and get in some ESO playtime before exploring the awesome changes to Wildstar in the upcoming beta weekend.

Technorati Tags: Lord of the Rings Online,LOTRO,Producer's Letter,housing,broken promises,Elder Scrolls Online,The Elder Scrolls Online. TESO,ESO,Wildstar,subscription,free to play,F2P,cash shop,MMO,Landmark

2014 Gaming

2013 and 2012 I was a MMO tourist.  I couldn’t find and settle down in any one game for any length of time.  Instead, I’d play game X for a couple of months while “cheating” on it by playing a couple of other games on the side.  2013 isn’t going to be touristy for me.  I know what games I want to play and what games just hold no interest for me any more.

WOW is off of my SSD and my subscription cancelled once again.  I’m not going to jinx myself and say I’m never going to play it again but that’s how I feel.  BlizzCon left an incredibly sour taste in my mouth and I honestly don’t want to continue to support Blizzard economically via gaming.  I prefer my WOW lore in book format where actual stories can be told and finished.  I loaded up on several WOW novels when they were last on sale as an Amazon Daily Deal.  Raiding isn’t enough to keep me continually paying a subscription, hell let’s be honest it is as boring and trite as running the same five-man instance repeatedly.  End game boredom is the reason I first “cheated” on WOW and nothing has changed since I started playing the game back in 2008.  I’m a woman over forty-five who doesn’t enjoy raiding, clearly WOW doesn’t care about what interests me and thus I’ll spending my gaming dollars elsewhere.

Games that I’m “Quitting”

Guild Wars 2, Rift, and SOE games are definitely no longer on my radar. 

GW2 was a huge disappointment for me and every time I pop back in and retry it my initial disappointment is reconfirmed.  There is no one playing the game and thus the whole “events” theory of gaming is utter crap. 

Rift is still enjoyable but I still can’t stand my questing being interrupted by rifts.  I do thoroughly enjoy Rift’s PVP but that isn’t enough to keep me interested in playing the game. 

SOE has its own particular set of issues.  I love Everquest 2 but I do not love the artificial blocks they have established to character progression.  Also I’m not going to spend money on SOE games when the benefits of subscribing are constantly in flux and are detrimental to the gamer but highly beneficial to SOE.

2014 Games

This year, the MMO’s I am going to playing Elder Scrolls Online, Lord of the Rings Online, The Secret World and Star Wars: The Old Republic.  The one thing these games all have in common?  Fantastic story telling and characters I am utterly invested in. 

TSW is a game I can play for small doses at a time but I love every moment of that play time.  TSW has expanded my reading base and thus my knowledge and I cannot fault any game that pushes me to become a better read individual.

LOTRO may not be a perfect game and it may not be hundred percent pure for the lore purists, but it is more than reasonably close for me.  The cosmetic system and the stunning screenshots I get are worth minor inconveniences like purchases not being account wide from the cash shop for almost every purchase.  I admit, I lose complete track of time while playing LOTRO and that alone is an endorsement for me.

Elder Scrolls Online releases on 4 April 2014 and I am eagerly looking forward to the official release.  I fell in love with Oblivion on the Xbox360 and have been a fan ever since.  Elder Scrolls games will always hold a special place in my heart, with the exception of Skyrim, and based on developer statements and interviews ESO will be a game that perfectly fits my play style.  I will also admit the Skywind mod for Morrowind has me intrigued.

SWTOR is going to be my guilty pleasure this year.  I have characters with unfinished stories and I will admit that bothers me immensely.  I may pop in and out of SWTOR this year as a break from high fantasy games like LOTRO and ESO and I’m ok with that.  I will complete story lines and enjoy myself immensely doing so.  I am a complete sucker for anything Star Wars, Yoda slippers & Jaina Solo shirt I’m looking at you, so it shouldn’t be a complete shocker that unfinished stories in a Star Wars game is driving me bonkers.

Console & Mobile Gaming

I will still be playing games on the 360 and the One this year.  Fable Anniversary releases next month and I’m looking forward to it.  I still have several games to finish on the One purchased on release day.  I like the titles just fine, I’ve just been in the reading mood and not the gaming mood the last month or so. 

Mobile gaming caught my attention in the last couple of weeks.  Games like Dungeon Hunter 4 and Royal Envoy 2 have me engaged and interested.  It is safe to say that mobile gaming reviews and impressions will be forthcoming this year. 

Technorati Tags: World of Warcraft,WOW,cash shop,free to play. F2P,PvP,Rift,Guild Wars 2,GW2,SOE,ESO,Elder Scrolls Online,SWTOR,Star Wars: The Old Republic,LOTRO,Lord of the Rings Online,Xbox,XboxOne,Xbox360,mobile gaming,mobile,console gaming. Skywind,Jaina Solo,Yoda,Morrowind,Oblivion,Skyrim,TSW,The Secret World

Christmas Week Abbreviated Adventures

Pippa managed to run into Krampus finally in The Secret World and blindly followed him into the portal he opened.  He and his buddies immediately kicked my rear and Pippa was dead on the floor faster than wrapping paper on Christmas morning.  She wisely exited the instance upon regaining her sense.

Pippa, the original character of that name, and the bevy of 90’s opened presents and rescued Metzen until one of them was lucky enough to get the Rotten Little Helper companion.  He is decidedly evil and miserable looking.  Can’t say I feel the effort was worth it.  I will admit, I think I’m over WOW for quite a while.  Yes, I still have characters I could level and I haven’t completed the loremaster achievement.  But I’m not enjoying myself.  I enjoy reading the lore in novels much more than I am repeating myself in game. 

I can’t say I won’t ever be returning to WOW, I’ve made that claim too many times before and Pippa always get’s missed.  I wish Blizzard would wise up and give the non-raiding crowd a reason to stick around, like adventure or quest packs.

I stopped into Guild Wars 2 again this year.  Same even as last year it appears, I didn’t stick around that long to find out.  I decided to try out one of the event instances and imagine my delight in learning my level 10 warrior was stuck (until I logged out) in an instance filled with level 80s.  I can’t deny the game is lovely but there is no quest content and thus no interest for me.

I’ve dropped my LOTRO several evenings this week and completed the quests in Frostbluff for cosmetics.  Luckily, LOTRO will run on the Surface Pro well enough to do things like festivals and crafting so I’m not trapped in the office.  I think I’ve gotten almost everything I want from the festival this year.  Trying to decide if I want this year’s horse or not.  I’ve gotten one, not sure how interested I am in the other. 

I stopped by Star Wars: The Old Republic this week.  I activated one character, my Consular.  She’s on Hoth and I want to finish her story line.  I didn’t play her, I browsed the Cartel Market and realized that I need to change her gear out if I’m going to play her without subscribing.  Two years after the game launched and I don’t have a character at max level yet, but I keep wandering by for the story which speaks to how compelling the quest writers at Bioware are.

This time next year, I imagine I will still be happily immersed in Elder Scrolls Online.  I hope everyone had a safe and happy Christmas.  Happy New Year and may all your football teams be victorious!

 

Technorati Tags: Free to play. F2P,cash shop,WOW,The Secret World,TSW,World of Warcraft,Guild Wars 2,GW2,Lord of the Rings Online,LOTRO,Elder Scrolls Online,ESO,Star Wars: The Old Republic,SWTOR

This Week’s Adventures

Not much happened in the gaming world this week.  Last full week before Christmas and I spent it reading, cleaning, and writing.  But there are at least two screenshots this week.

 

Yule Festival has arrived in Middle Earth and Moirareth, my rune keeper when off to Frostbluff as soon as possible.  She built snowmen and did the first day’s daily and watched as experience accumulated.  Needless to say, I purchased the Stone of the Tortoise immediately.  I had been considering it anyways so I wasn’t overly upset at purchasing the Stone.  I haven’t been overly diligent about acquiring tokens or completing quests this year.  I did them all diligently everyday last year and burned out on LOTRO for months to come.  I like the mounts but I do not like the manner in which Yule Festival cosmetics dye so the pressure just isn’t there for me this year.

Winter Veil has arrived on Azeroth and off went my wee Goblin to visit great Father Winter.  She did notice immediately how close the Goblin decorators placed the Winter Veil tree to an open fire barrel.  Perhaps there is a Goblin plan underfoot to burn Orgrimmar to the ground? I must admit to being HORRIBLY disappointed that all of the Winter Veil quests are once again unavailable to characters above level 20.  Make it dangerous or require a group but there is no reason to exclude non-max characters from being able to fully participate in holiday activities.

Technorati Tags: Yule Feistval,Lord of the Rings Online,LOTRO,free to play,F2P,cash shop,World of Warcraft,WOW

Wish List for Changes to Games for 2014

Maybe it is a side effect of growing older, but my list for changes for games becomes a little longer every year.  It isn’t that I think any one game suffers or is unplayable, but with a few simple changes standardized across games, gaming life in general would be much improved.

My first wish is for area-wide auto loot to be implemented.  I much enjoy the auto-looting in Lord of the Rings Online.  Nothing is more convenient than loot automatically being deposited in your bags.  Yes, it can be inconvenient sometimes when your bags are cluttered with vendor trash, but that minor inconvenience is outweighed by never having to loot an enemy again.

Next up on the wish list, mentoring. Everquest 2 and Rift both implement this feature enormously well.  It makes sense and allows for friends and family who have differing play time to still play together.  Turning off experience, doesn’t make it possible for a higher level character to effectively play with a lower level character without it being unbalanced and in the end power-leveling. 

The ability to turn off experience directly from your experience toolbar.  EQ2 does this and it prevents the problem of out leveling a zone simply and elegantly.  This becomes more and more essential as games reduce the amount of experience required to reach maximum level.  Nothing is more irritating than constantly out-leveling zones and leaving stories unfinished because non-story content has become trivial.

Housing, for the love of all that is holy, HOUSING.  And not just any old housing, but housing as magnificent and immersive as the housing in EQ2.  I want someplace my characters can all home, display their spoils of questing, relax with a full hobbit second breakfast, or curl up and read a book.  I miss the housing in EQ2, and if there weren’t other issues preventing full enjoyment of the game, I’d still be playing it.  I don’t want small cramped hovels with over-priced rents and storage costs.  I want the ability to decorate and for all characters to be able to share the space.  I also want housing that looks like house, not some weird variant of housing that only vaguely resembles housing.

Shared banking and storage among all characters on the server.  How hard can this be to implement?  Personal storage and communal storage should be standard at this point.  And there should be separate storage for crafting materials shared among characters on a server.  Guild Wars 2 does this beautifully.  One of the few strong points of that game is the ability to send crafting materials to shared storage.

Cosmetic wardrobes and for this there are truly only two models to be followed: LOTRO and GW2.  GW2 has the most beautiful dyes and more importantly, find the dye once and it is yours forever.  Nothing I hate more than constantly having to search for the dye I want every time I want to dye a new piece of cosmetic clothing.  LOTRO has hands down the best cosmetic clothing system, minus the dye issue.  The ability to have multiple outfits to wear at a moments notice without changing or disturbing the stats on your battle armor is phenomenal.  I freely admit, my LOTRO characters change clothes frequently depending on mood and season.  Why can’t all games do this? Why can’t my casting class characters slip into heavy armor so they look intimidating if they want to, or why can’t me heavy plate warriors look less threatening and those surprise foes? 

I know I’m tilting at windmills.  I know despite he fact that I make sense and all games thieve from one another, no consensus amongst game designers and companies is magically going to unfold in the next year.  Doesn’t mean I am going to stop wishing that there will be dramatic changes for the better across all games or that new games releasing this year will come to understand that it is better to delay release and implement features from other games that a vast majority of players consider as standard.

Technorati Tags: World of Warcraft,WOW,Lord of the Rings Online,LOTRO,Guild Wars 2,GW2,Rift,Everquest 2,EQ2,free to play,F2P,cash shop

Leveling Screenies from this week

We both have colds and I will admit that those colds are kicking our butts.  No real thought intensive gaming was accomplished this week.  Most of the gaming time was spent in WOW where it is much easier to engage in mindless gaming activity with very little danger of dying because you aren’t paying attention.

So, onwards to screenshots from The Secret World, WOW, and Lord of the Rings Online.

Pippa meet Sam Krieg this week while continuing to explore the Savage Coast in The Secret World.  He in incredibly fascinating and I loved his quests. 

The dialogue from Sam Krieg is amazingly well written, not that is all that surprising.  I hope there is more of him to come otherwise I will miss his insights into humanity.

After the heaviness of the conversations with Sam Krieg, Pippa felt a need for a little whimsy and so she slipped into her pirate costume.

Taalina was been gifted a heirloom weapon and thus she spent her week leveling in Darkshore.  As you can tell, the Murlocs were incredibly happy when she stopped and rebuilt a dwelling for them.  Now if only game phased to permanently show for Taalina there rebuilt Murloc home.

Queen Azshara and Malfurion Stormrage decided to have words off the coast of Darkshore.  Taalina somehow escaped the Queen’s wrath despite the dead Naga scattering the island.

 Meet Brynhildd my Dwarven Champion who was created this week.  Her name means Warrior Woman in German and she is my cosmetic vault keeper.  I already have one character of every class with appropriate leveled professions, but no Dwarf characters.  Making a female Dwarf isn’t possible in LOTRO, so Brynhildd is going to be a female Dwarf disguised as a male Dwarf out to seek adventures of her own.  Now she may never see more than Thorin’s Hall and gate but she will be prepared for the eventuality of leveling further.  She slipped into the Boots, Shoulders and Gloves of the Eastemnet (pre-order items for Rider of Rohan expansion) and the Leather Cloak and Hauberk of Mystery from Skirmish Cosmetic boxes.  All in all, I think she looks quite attractive.

Technorati Tags: World of Warcraft,WOW,DarkShore,Murlocs,The Secret World,TSW,Savage Coast,Sam Kreig,Lord of the Rings Online,LOTRO,free to play,F2P,cash shop,leveling,screenshots

The Leveling Ladies

This week I did much more around the house or reading than I did playing games.  When I did venture into the gaming world, most of my time was spent completing Volume 1, Book 5 in The Lord of the Rings Online.  My time in World of Warcraft was much more limited.  I keep trying to force myself to play Horde and it is making me miserable, so this morning I returned to my last sub-ninety Alliance character and had a very relaxing time for a couple of hours.

So, without further ado, here’s a brief visual tour of this week in PC gaming.

The Misty Mountains were snowy when Moriareth ventured out of Rivendale and into the Misty Mountains.  Here she found a land inhibited by giants, dwarves, trolls, and servants of the Dark Lord.  The local wildlife was far from friendly but were beautiful on the snowy days she spent in the Misty Mountains.

Moriareth arrived in Angmar and promptly changed her clothing to her Rohan pre-order armor.  She immediately felt a change in the air and knew that there was something wrong with the land.  She has begun her quest to help the tribes and rangers that inhibit Angmar.

Mistalaina, or Mista for short, reached Northrend this week.  She is a rogue and is my last sub-90 Alliance character on Silvermoon.  She is questing and only running around with heirloom weapons because I hate trying to replace weapons when I don’t have to.  As you can tell, she’s currently landed at Fizzcrank Airstrip where the Gnomes seem to have gotten handy with the paint cans once again.

Meet Blessed, Mista’s Alterac Brew Pup.  His beer comes in quite handy now that she has ventured into Northrend for the first time. 

My lovely Enchanted Fey Dragon, gifted by my husband, that Mista named Bella.  She took flight this morning at Fizzcrank Airstrip and turned the perfect shade of Borean azure blue with violet blue accents.

Gwennya is currently in her mid-40’s and hanging out in Tanaris.  Apparently the innkeeper of Gadgetzan irritated her somehow this morning because she certainly appears to be giving him an earful.  She’s steam rolling everything, because of the heirlooms and the fact that old content hasn’t been retuned for new skills.  The end result, there is no challenge and I have to make a decision.  Remove the heirlooms and level content more slowly so that there is a wee bit of a challenge or suck it up and power level to 80 for the Horde story from 80-90.  I am leaning to power leveling, the old world quest content doesn’t differ between factions and I’m tired of trying to force myself to enjoy content where there is no challenge.

 

Technorati Tags: Leveling,Lord of the Rings Online,LOTRO,World of Warcraft,WOW,MMO,video games

Lord of the Rings Online: Helm’s Deep Patching has begun *UPDATED

 

LOTRO has begun patching the client for the Helm’s Deep expansion.  Patch notes have not yet been released but I will update with release notes as soon as they become available.

*UPDATE*

And here are the highlights of the Patch notes; full notes can be found here:

• Epic Story continues: Books 11 – 13: unlike past expansions, you must have purchased the Helm’s Deep expansion to play through the continuation of the epic story line
• Five new zone in Western Rohan to explore
• Broadacres
• Stonedeans
• Kingstead
• Westfold
• Eastfold
• Big Battles: new roles and five epic battles to experience as players stand and battle with Théoden King, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli
• Class changes: every class is undergone significant revamp and trait trees have been introduced.  Please so the LOTRO class forums for specific changes to your class
• Level cap has been increased to level 95 for all characters
• Travel Rations are no longer required
• Crafters will want to review the changes in detail here

Enjoy the changes when the servers come back online!

Technorati Tags: Lord of the Rings Online,LOTRO,Helm's Deep,expansion,free to play,F2P,cash shop

Random Screenshots for MMO Tours this week

Pippa at the Kindergarten on the Savage Coast in The Secret World.  Atmosphere here is seriously creepy, appropriate but creepy.

Taalina the new Draenei paladin on Fizzcrank.  So, last thing I need is another character in WOW, but I need a Draenei that isn’t on an imbalanced PvP server and I need a woman Draenei to go through and kick Orc ass when the expansion releases.  I will be leveling her slowly and without heirlooms, gives me a good opportunity to close out some zones for my loremaster title.

My Horde Shaman on Silvermoon.  She’s in her mid-40’s I pop-in, grab a couple of levels on her and then log right back out.  I think Blizzcon left a bad taste in my mouth for the Horde and I’m already Alliance biased by nature.  I will level her to 90 but I won’t be powering through it.

 

Cilantro hanging out with the Elves in Rivendell.  Sometimes the scenery in LOTRO is just drop dead gorgeous that I find myself stopping just to take the random screenshot of nothing in particular.

I poked my head into Guild Wars 2, completed a quest and then logged right back out.  While the models for characters are pretty, I’m completely agnostic about my characters, the game, and the setting.  I have a feeling that Bronta here will be a long, long time (if ever) leveling to max.

I poked my head into SWTOR and Rift as well but did nothing in either.  SWTOR change regarding names is just irritating although I’m honest enough to admit that free-flight PvP in the upcoming expansion looks like fun.  Rift I can’t get any enthusiasm for at the moment.  The game is fun but it isn’t at the same time.

Technorati Tags: PvP,free to play,cash shop,Guild Wars 2,The Secret World,GW2,TSW,Lord of the Rings Online,LOTRO,World of Warcraft,WOW,Rift,SWTOR,Star Wars: The Old Republic

Lord of the Rings Online: or GRRR again

The more things change, the more they stay the same … this old axiom is very true for Lord of the Rings Online.  There are parts I truly love about the game, it’s intense focus on lore and bringing the books to life for example.  But after taking a break from WOW and playing LOTRO for two weeks, once again the frustration outweighs the benefits of LOTRO.

Bag space is a HUGE frustration in LOTRO.  Seriously, six bags of twelve slots is just not enough.  Having to stop and empty bags every time you run across a vault location or a seller is time consuming and not fun, but failure to do so means that shortly you will be out of bag space.  Another frustration as a SUBSCRIBER is that the game is overly monetized for the cash shop.  I get that it is a niche game with a smaller player base but seriously if I’m spending real world money on mounts (or anything) then those mounts need to be account wide. 

And while I love the old world complexity of MMO’s that still exists in LOTRO, it is also the downfall of LOTRO.  I don’t have the bag space to carry multiple weapons of varying damage types.  And to be honest, as a casual player that flits in and out of games having to remember what damage is best against what critter is annoying.  The game play mechanics are also old and outdated, Helm’s Deep may fix some of those issues but can’t possibly fix all of them.  Quest is slow and the mechanics are outdated.  I understand why it is do X, return to quest giver and then go back to the SAME EXACT AREA and do Y but it is annoying, tedious, and a huge time sync.  At some point, efficiency of my time is more important that running to and from a quest giver for the sake of lore immersion.

Don’t get me wrong, the game is drop deep gorgeous but the mechanics are too flawed.  I will stop in and play every once in a while but it is too frustrating to commit long term to an overly monetized game with expansions that are over-priced for the value of what a digital only expansion offers.  I’m not leaving LOTRO with a bitter taste in my mouth, more with frustration with Turbine and the slow pace of the game.

Technorati Tags: Lord of the Rings Online,LOTRO,Turbine,Helm's Deep,cash shop,free to play,F2P

Lord of the Rings Online: Helm’s Deep Expansion Class Guides

Lord of the Ring’s Online latest expansion drops in two weeks, Helm’s Deep.  The NDA on the beta testers was lifted on Monday and class guides have been posted for upcoming changes for all classes.  Every class is seeing major changes this expansion, and as you might expect the forums and players are full of differing opinions.  I didn’t beta test for this expansion but personally I believe that the changes are going to be a great thing for the game.

LOTRO has a terrific story that everyone is familiar with on some level.  However, the game suffers from slow game play compared to the newer, shinier competition that exists in the flooded marketplace.  Yet, LOTRO is among the best niche games out there in my opinion.  It has positive, uplifting quest lines (helping the farmers in Oatbarton is one of my favorites), the community is generally more mature and helpful than other games out there, and there is constant communication with the development team.

Now, I know a lot of people are plenty pissed off about the class changes coming in the expansion but honestly, it’s time to get over it.  Games change and adapt and players need to comprehend that to continue to enjoy the game in the real world.  Turbine needs to be profitable and adapt to the marketplace, and cash shop income will only go so far.  I think the class changes will make the game more accessible to a new generation of players, enhance game for those of us who find game play slow at times, and will work as a reboot of classes.  Yes, players who are sitting at max level right now may have to learn to replay their class entirely but with changes come opportunities.

I’m looking forward to the changes and relearning my classes as I continue to level.  I just wish Turbine would implement a paid character transfer service but I’ve wished that for as long as I’ve played LOTRO and have come to accept that will never happen.  If you haven’t played LOTRO or have been away for a while, double experience is in effect until the expansion goes live on 18 November 2013.  So, drop by and have a beer with a hobbit and immerse yourself in Middle Earth.

Technorati Tags: Lord of the Rings Online,LOTRO,Helm's Deep,class guides,class changes,Oatbarron,cash shop,F2P,free-to-play,Turbine

What keeps me long term interested in playing & coming back to ANY game?

I’ve thought about this a lot recently and we will completely discount story for this posting because if any game doesn’t have a great story then there is no chance of keeping me interested for any length of time.

Games must have housing and wardrobe appearance slots.  These two items alone make all the difference in my long term interest in any game.

I played Oblivion eons and ages ago on the XBox 360, heck it was my introduction to the Elder Scrolls IP.  It may not have had the detailed customization options that Morrowind had, which my husband still laments to this day, but I knew I could log-in and my character had a house where she could catch a nap, brew some potions, or just spend the rest of eternity safely. 

Everquest II has done housing and housing customization the flat out best I’ve ever seen in any game.  The options for housing are seemingly endless and the developers, and now the community, continually add to the housing diversity.  All of my EQ2 characters share one house, which I must admit I love.  They’ve all got their alters to their particular gods and their trophies from questing.  I love the pillows strewn about the floor and the critters that roam the home. 

Lord of the Rings Online has a good wardrobe system as does Everquest II (appearance clothing).  However, neither game does it perfectly.  Both have stunningly beautiful armor and clothing models that my characters drool over but they both suffer from the same flaw.  No game offers enough wardrobe space to make it expansive enough to switch outfits as often as I’d like.  The Secret World has a pretty good wardrobe system which is perfect for a game set in the modern world with modern clothing, but a lot of their clothing is geared to a much younger player and none of my characters particularly want to walk around in what I consider slutty clothing.  Rift now offers a decent amount of wardrobe slots for in-game currency or real life cash.  Problem is none of my characters are that rich in-game and I’m not spending real life money on wardrobe slots.

I love the look of this NPC in Everquest II.

My Guardian Hobbit in LOTRO never wears shoes but she does love a jaunty hat and on this fine day in Rivendell she was sporting her favorite hauberk.

The one thing Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 do better than any of their competitors, and the only thing in my opinion, is the dye system.  Collecting dyes and not having them be consumed on use is brilliant and perfect system.  Other games need to adopt this model.  Yes they might lose out on some revenue but they would undoubtedly make up that revenue from players like me that won’t purchase a single use dye.

No game, to date, gets housing or wardrobe perfect.  Rift has a goodly number of wardrobe slots but dyes are consumed on use and they don’t have pink dyes.  Rift does have housing but it has yet to make an emotional connection with me.  The Secret World has a decent wardrobe closet but the clothes are too revealing and cannot be dyed.  Guild Wars 2 only has the dye system in it’s favor.  Everquest II has phenomenal and extensive housing but no dyes and limited wardrobe to one outfit.  My characters NEED many, many more wardrobe slots in Everquest Next!  The clothing and armor in the Everquest franchise is so well done and so varied texturally that limiting appearance clothing to one slot is simply criminal.  Lord of the Rings Online has beautiful clothing but dyes are consumed on use and wardrobe storage and slots are too limited.  LOTRO housing is also lacking in comparison with Everquest franchise.

 

Technorati Tags: Everquest II,Everquest Next,Lord of the Rings Online,LOTRO,EQ2,EQN,The Secret World,TSW,Rift,Guild Wars 2,Guild Wars,housing,clothing,wardrobe,dye,Oblivion,Morrowind,Elder Scrolls

2012: The Bad, the Good, and the Oh Crap Games of the Year

2012 Holiday season is officially at a close for most of us now and so here are our The Bad, The Good, and the Oh Crap games of 2012.

 

The Bad:

2012 Biggest Disappointment: Mists of Pandaria expansion for World of Warcraft was the biggest disappointment for us.  Yes the team over at Blizzard did a fabulous job on improving questing and story-telling in WOW and the expansion was much better received than Cataclysm.  However, after you get to level 90 on one character (at least when we stopped playing) you were faced with an incredibly long grind of reputation to gain access to the next tier of questing and rendered the playing of alts a daunting and crushing prospect.  I admit it, I fell for Ghostcrawler’s promise that the game was quest friendly and not solely focused on end-game.  I knew better but deep down, i wanted to believe. 

2012 Most Overhyped:  Easiest category of the them all, Guild Wars 2 was by far the most overhyped game of the year.  If you are going to build a game around the ideas cobbled together from other games, then the game had better be able to stand the test of time.  Less than six months post-release and the game is in a sorry state,  If you didn’t jump on the bandwagon in the beginning then do not pick up Guild Wars 2 as beginning leveling areas are most often devoid of other players thereby making it impossible to complete “dynamic” events.

2012 Worst Game of the Year: The Secret World wins this category because there are so few things Funcom handled well with the game and it, by far, has the worst and ugliest character creation system for any AAA game out there.  If you are going to have the balls to claim, play the way you want, then dammit Funcom why did you build and release a game where all the characters are forced by the game’s engine to be the physique?  The game had, and continues to have, so much potential in the questing system but the lousy combat, character creation, poor optimization make this the worst game of the year.

 

The Good:

2012 Biggest Surprise:  Biggest surprise of the year was Planetside 2.  Admittedly, it isn’t a game we play but it was something we both tried in beta.  If you like shooters than this is definitely the MMO for you.  You might be wondering why a game we don’t actively play won the category, quite simply I didn’t think Sony would be able to pull of the the revamp of the game and still meet the publishing deadline.  SOE proved me wrong and released a game that has been very well received by critics and players alike.

2012 Best Expansion: Riders of Rohan from Turbine for Lord of the Rings Online was easily the best expansion of the year and we don’t yet have characters that have reached Rohan.  However the overall gaming improvements the expansion brought to the old world of LOTRO is enough to win this contender filled category.  The fact that loot automatically loots itself into my bags is enough to blow the competition away.  Other gaming companies need to talk to Turbine about how they do this and implement it immediately. 

2012 Game of the Year: Star Wars: The Old Republic went through a lot of growth, changes, and revisions during the first full year of release.  However much the perceived lack of developer communication drove players from the game in the early month of 2012, or the griping of players who unreasonably expected an “end” game as robust as WOW’s, the team over a Bioware consistently delivered an improved game this year that maintained it’s story telling hear while making improvements to the health of the gaming community and the state of the game.  SWTOR is the game we consistently returned to throughout the year and the game stayed true to it’s story foundation despite pressures otherwise.

 

Oh Crap:

2012 Biggest Waste of Money: There would be quite a discussion for this title around here since we bought two AAA titles that we aren’t playing and an expansion we no longer play.  Both AAA titles, TSW and GW2 are now buy-to-play games but TSW will have to beat GW2 simply because we gambled on two lifetime subscriptions and lost.  The conversion from Funcom was poorly handled for lifetime subscribers and left a bad taste that ensures no more dollars spent on Funcom titles in the future.

2012 Made You Scratch Your Head and go HUH?: Two game expansions tie for this dubious honor, Riders of Rohan for LOTRO and Chains of Eternity for Everquest 2.  Their price points were, and continue to remain, insane for a purely digitally released product.  When you charge well in excess of $50 for a digital expansion, there better be plenty of goodies included along with  amazing gameplay and content.  Both games delivered on gameplay and content but goodies could have and should have been more for both titles.  The studios both appeared a little cash starved at their price points for the expansions.  Development costs can be recuperated through more sales at a lower price point than missed sales because of a ridiculous price point for a digital expansion.

2012  Best Tie Ins: SWTOR wins this easily.  The books that flush out the lore are simply amazing.  Earlier in the year I read, Fatal Alliance by Seam Williams and I was hooked. I’m currently finishing up the second book, Deceived by Paul S. Kemp and then will be devouring and savoring, Revan by Drew Karpyshyn.  The newly released forth book, Annihilation by Drew Karpyshyn.  Why more gaming companies haven’t figured out the tie-in concept baffles me.

2013

2012 saw a shifting in our overall gaming patterns, stepping outside our respective comfort zones and trying new and different games.  i highly doubt it is a pattern that will be repeated this year.  I know I have my three core MMO’s I play, Everquest 2, LOTRO, and SWTOR and I don’t think anything will change that this year (admittedly The Elder Scrolls Online stands the best chance).  There will also be a return to more console gaming around here as we discovered in the last week or so, we missed too many titles in 2012. 

Technorati Tags: Guild Wars 2,GW2,The Secret World,TSW,World of Warcraft,Mists of Pandaria,Cataclysn,Everquest 2. EQ2,Star Wars: The Old Rrpublic,SWTOR,Turbine,Sony Online Entertainment,SOE,Funcom,Planetside 2,The Elder Scrolls Online,Riders of Rohan,Fatal Alliance,Decieved,Revan,Annihilation,Sean Williams,Drew Karpyshyn,{aul S. Kemp,free to play,F2P buy to play,B2P,cash shop,Ghostcrawler

Holiday Madness has begun …

Who can resist a goblin that hands out gifts or participating in theater events staged by hobbits?  Not I, so it has officially begun, my gaming time is almost completely focused around holiday events at the moment.  Everquest 2 and the multitude of Frostfell quests have me opening every present box I see in search of the ever elusive orange rind.  I have enjoyed every single holiday themed quest I’ve completed.  Admittedly I have skipped the crafting instance quests, mainly solely because they are non-intuitive and I just don’t want to expend the patience for 10 tokens.  I’d much rather quest for multiple trees and sleighs, and plushies for houses than figure out one poorly designed quest chain.

View Full Album

Lord of the Rings Online begun their holiday festivities after maintenance today.  Once I managed to pick my jaw up off the ground over the beautifully redone cities of Bree and Archet, I made my way to Winter Home.

View Full Album

We decided to switch servers in LOTRO today officially.  Landroval has seen a severe decrease in population since Spring Festival and it feels barren and dismal.  Darrowdelf by contrast is bustling and never feels empty.  Luckily the highest level character either of us has on Landroval is only level 30.  The cosmetics and mounts will be missed but we will both probably transfer over one character someday.  Besides, it’s not like cosmetics and mounts are difficult to come by in LOTRO.

Here are the first scenes from Winter Home this year:

View Full Album

The barter vendors have me drooling.  I would gladly spend points in the cash shop if I could purchase additional festival tokens that way.  I will definitely be sharing when I acquire a full set of gear.  I know there are numerous blogs and websites solely dedicated to LOTRO fashion, but when the appearance armor is so well done and versatile it is understandable why there are so many sites.

Off I go, back to holiday gaming …

Technorati Tags: Everquest 2. EQ2,Frostfell,Lord of the Rings Online,LOTRO,Yule Festival,free-to-play,F2P,cash shop. Darrowdelf,Landroval