Lifetime sub deal for LOTRO Europe
While all of the fuss over the lifetime deal for Champions Online was going on, Codemasters quietly added a comparable deal for returning LOTRO Europe customers. MMeOW has more details, but basically it works out to about the same: ~a year’s cost for a lifetime sub.
It’s fairly late into the release of LOTRO at this point, so the price reduction makes sense to me. I don’t understand why Turbine keeps raising the price (when it’s available, which is sporadic) on the lifetime subs in North America. Last I looked it was $299 U.S. Shouldn’t the price go down as the game ages?
Either way, most of the players I’ve met who’ve taken the LOTRO lifetime sub deals seem to be pleased with their purchase, regardless of when they bought in or which side of the pond they’re on.
Dividing my time: Games & Web
My gaming time is currently divided between UT3, Left 4 Dead, Supreme Commander and some casual fare (Plants vs Zombies, Mirror’s Edge, etc.).
Even moreso, my development time is eating into my gaming time. Mostly web development, since I’ve been dipping my fingers back into projects both personal and (semi) professional. There’s gaming overlap in my web stuff of course, so it feeds the same needs for me. Gameslate will be getting a much needed facelift.
I also intend to get back to working on my UT3 level, I’ve been away from it for a couple weeks.
I’m burned out on LOTRO, since I’m not an alt kinda guy and the Endgame leaves me dry. It’s a shame, I feel bad about sorta abandoning guildmates, especially Nelg as he just reaches the level cap. But burned out is burned out.
Champions Online will probably be the game that brings me back into the MMO space, I’m definitely going to give it a good shake when comes out September 1st.
Endgame lull
Here’s where, after sheer bliss in the leveling up experience, LOTRO finally becomes a letdown for me:
I love a good Endgame.
I like finely tuned content that’s measured for max level players, solo or in groups. No sloppy scaling, or easy + hard modes. Give me the challenge directly and if I can’t beat it at first, I keep approaching it different ways until I can.
LOTRO’s Endgame lacks.
Lothlorien: It’s a break in the story, allowing the characters and the readers / audience to take a breath before jumping back in, but for gameplay this makes it the most minor of zones. This is LOTRO’s current Endgame zone? Ugh. Bad design decision. Flower picking while avoiding ‘protected’ mobs? Fun the first time, but not so much in repetition. Repetition is required, for rep.
Moria: Great, but it’s not an Endgame locale. Most mobs seldom go above level 56. I think I’m a typical player that measures my own desire for challenge on any given day according to mob levels. The lack of level 60-62 mobs in Moria just plain sucks.
Dungeons: Too much of a narrow ladder climbing towards a small handful of raids. I’d love to enjoy these instances more casually, exploring them fully from scratch, but that’s impossible to do with PUGs just interested in ‘hard mode’ runs for the Radiance gear. I don’t want to go on a rushed tour with a guide! These could be really fun to do with friends, but I’m the first to max level in our Kinship and there’s little incentive for everyone else to catch up.
3man Instances: Cool, but also not Endgame. Nelg, Nazrin and I blew through these several levels ago, they’re much easier than we anticipated. If Turbine could come up with some seriously challenging 3man instances rated for level 60 players, that would go a long way to keeping me busy.
Raising the level cap?
My biggest concern is that devs are talking about raising the level cap, which makes me feel that rather than create a significant Endgame, they’d rather make it a moving target. I’m not even that thrilled with more levels for expansions, let alone between them.
If leveling up is the only game, then please, please, please give us tools like Sidekicking, Level Pacts, etc. for friends of disparate levels to play balanced content together.
Bots?
A secondary concern is this talk about scaling content ’skirmishes’, via ‘customizable soldiers’. Even as a pet-class fan, I’m not much interested in playing with bots to pad out team just so they can create one-size-fits-all content. Meh.
Is it just me, or do a lot of the upcoming features sound like compromises to stretch content? I’m not encouraged.
I’m in a bit of a lull right now with LOTRO. I’m still logging in to hang with friends, but I’m not feeling compelled into activity.
Harhm is Confused
Harhm is looking confused. Specifically, he’s /mood_confused.
Nelgdorf, Nazrin and I stumbled upon this special set of facial emotes in LOTRO last night and we were hella impressed. The animators at Turbine must have worked overtime on these and I thank them from the bottom of my heart, this is exactly the sort of thing that amuses me to no end.
All of the mood_ emotes are held once set, so you can run around with your character looking surprised, mischievous, happy or sad (plus a whole lot of other distinctive options).
If you watch the video for a few seconds, you may spot the nature of Harhm’s distress. ;)
