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Pleasantly Surprised After Vanguard Tragedy!
Markaj
Member Posts: 165
After the stuttering, hitching grindfest with boring and buggy quests of Vanguard, I find LOTRO to be an incredible surprise. I have been so fed up with the lie that all MMOs are unfinished and buggy! LOTRO is such a slap of truth which exposes this lie and embarrasses the lier. Yes, a game can indeed be quite finished and yes, a game can actually work as intended. LOTRO is an example of this fact even in beta!
Quests are meaningful, involving and mostly innovative. There are many quests that are like intriguing and captivating novelettes. You get captured and hooked in such a way that you would even miss the fact that you are leveling. I can safely say that 99% of the quests actually work flawlessly and I have done lots! Quest system is so intricately set up that you know what you are doing, why you are doing it, you learn your role, you learn the lore and you are pleasantly challenged. You know where you are supposed to go intuitively. The game gives you clues without overtly giving the impression that you are being led artificially.
Graphics are great and they run smoothly in high settings even on medium machines. Landscapes, buildings, other structures and dungeons all ooze with quality. The artistic impression and harmony is so well crafted that nothing stands out to disturb the eye. You know that this is how it is supposed to feel and look in that age and in that setting! There is no mish mash of space age structures, barbie doll characters, realistic nature and so to speak "fantasy environments" thrown into a soup of incongrous artistic butchery as in VG.
Combat does feel like combat. Sound and visual effects give the impression that there is an engaging battle going on. You have the feel and the "punch" in action vs. "the bread slicing" feeling of VG. This is one game where your class is truly interesting, sophisticated, contributive and worth exploring! Walking animations could be made better. However this is the only weakness I can point out as opposed to animations in VG which is a parody.
As for bugs, this game is in a state where I think Vanguard will be 1 year from now. There are no game stopping bugs, no weird xp losses, deleveling, missing items, mobs vanishing, etc. Actually this game in beta is a lot better than some other "released" games.
What can I say? This and from Turbine (!!!) is a pleasant surprise! You never know when and where you will find a diamond!
CONTRIBUTE INTO THE GAMING INDUSTRY! STOP PAYING FOR BORING COPYCATS, UNFINISHED BUGFESTS AND CRANKY JUNKWARE. BE A RESPONSIBLE GAMER!
Comments
The game is not for everyone but it's a nice little game that only can improve in time and grow bigger and better.
Looks like Turbine finally struck oil.
I think that's nice because i liked Asherons Call I and wished for them to have some success after AC II and D&DO.
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sadly , vanguards greatest accomplishment was to make LOTR seem even better than it is.
lol.
Theres brads homerun. Unfortunately he pitching and Turbine is at the plate on this one.
I also liked the fact that with the hides I had collected from fighting I could craft myself some lowbie leather armour straight away. It took me 15 hours to get to level 8 crafter in VG and I couldn't make anything useful till level 10.
Polished game hmm.. yeah I will hand it to LOTRO for this, but I must say.. there is ZERO depth to this game. I can play this game solo all the way to the finish line-- Wheres the sense of community? Oh wait, let me see, there is a chat box.. yep and you can ask questions and get them answered by some willing soul. Grouping is made available, but all people want to do is get thier quest finished, out of the way and then its see you later-- which incidently you never do. I've grouped about 5 times for no more than 5 minutes each time. Why? Because I happened to run by get a random invite and once THIER quest was complete, they disband. Oh boy, thats alot of fun.. and off on my own again.
I may as well play this game on Xbox as a solo player game and if I have questions about where this town is or that npc is, I can go to VN boards and get it answered just as quickly.. blah
players need to be responsible for their own community.
i am so tired of these games forcing community on the players.
players will naturally form the community they want, why force it?
LOTR disappointed me.
No depth, no community, no nothing. Boring quests, boring world. It is pretty though, I will give it that. Played beta for about a month and the graphics are nice. But its easy to do with such a small world.
From what I saw, the novelty of this game will wear off quick. I would guess about 3-6 months. It's totally soloable which leaves no reason to even care about the fact that its a MMO. I agree with the previous posts reference to playing it on the xbox.
If yer a LOTR fan you will see a bunch of stuff that makes you say "oh cool, I remember that" but as far as length of play I just dont see it.
Just my opinion, but everyone throws those around on these boards so this is mine
Thalos Vipav
Star Wars Galaxies: R.I.P.
It too had very little endgame but Ultima Online had the best community of all games.
Well on Chesapeak atleast
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I am so good, I backstabbed your face!
They release a game for soloists and group folks scream. They release a game for groupists and solo folks scream. Actually, this is where LOTRO shines too.
Do you want to solo up to the end? You can.
Do you want to group to the end? You can.
Do you want no quests, but slow lvling and painful grinding? You can.
You are not restricted in one way or the other out of balance. You are given freedom. Personally, I like all playstyles, but there are seasons when I would rather play over the other.
You are a hardcore and you want to consume the content in 1 month? You can.
You are a core and you want to take it slower in 3 months? You can.
You are a casual and you can only take it in 6 months? You can.
Children should be restricted. Mature people value freedom and know what to do with it
It is just a game that works and you have freedom.
CONTRIBUTE INTO THE GAMING INDUSTRY! STOP PAYING FOR BORING COPYCATS, UNFINISHED BUGFESTS AND CRANKY JUNKWARE. BE A RESPONSIBLE GAMER!
I keep dieing lol , Last year the game was way easier, in this beta , they toughed it up
who me ?
inmysights, of course they are gone after a group. You are playing in a beta test. The LOTRO betas testers have been very helpful and mature but you do not see a tight community yet and that is natural. People in beta do not know what server they will play on or if the beta guild they are in will continue live. People do not get that close in the community during beta phase. I have seen this in every beta I have been in. My impression of the community is, when game goes live people will form tight guild and groups. They will not disappear right after quests.
I agree that there is not much to do as a group unless you are questing. Hopefully we will not have to wait to long for housing. Most likely in the form of guild housing. That will help create an enviroment for players to get together and RP and make their own fun. The instraments help and I hope Turbine comes up with more ideas to help this feeling. It is a questing game and not the open sandbox many had hoped for. You would think a developer would tap into the huge market of SWG refugees and make another open sandbox experience. Sadly LOTRO does not do that. I would have loved to be a hobbit gardener in the shire. However as a questing game it has done a great job. I have been in beta a few months and I for one will be playing it live. I do hope some how Turbine builds a little more sandbox feel into LOTRO.
I'm interested in the game, but this part scares me. I've read several other posts about certain quest lines being multi-part and unless you have a core group of friends that you regularly log on with you run into the problem of people joining a group only to get their piece completed and then they drop. WOW was real bad about this in a PUG... can't tell you how many people would run UBRS or LBRS only to get to the room that they were concerned with and then drop.... leaving the group screwed in many cases.
Since I have a compulsion to finish any quest that I'm given, it will drive me crazy if I have to skip entire blocks of them because I don't have the patience to struggle though this sort of a problem.
Oh well, guess I'll have to give it a try and see for myself.....
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
I'm interested in the game, but this part scares me. I've read several other posts about certain quest lines being multi-part and unless you have a core group of friends that you regularly log on with you run into the problem of people joining a group only to get their piece completed and then they drop. WOW was real bad about this in a PUG... can't tell you how many people would run UBRS or LBRS only to get to the room that they were concerned with and then drop.... leaving the group screwed in many cases.
Since I have a compulsion to finish any quest that I'm given, it will drive me crazy if I have to skip entire blocks of them because I don't have the patience to struggle though this sort of a problem.
Oh well, guess I'll have to give it a try and see for myself.....
Exactly... try it for yourself. Don't believe everything people say on here. I've been in beta for over a month now and am still having the time of my life. The community is by far the best I have seen in ANY MMO that I've played (and I've played and beta'd quite a few). I have never seen a more helpful or friendly beta community. People are keeping in touch with each other so that they'll be able to meet up again when the game goes live so they'll be on the same servers.
As for grouping.. there's two kinds. One is what I think some of the people here are talking about. That is, when you join a group to do a particular quest or instance. Sometimes they break up after the quest is done, sometimes they do not. If they're going to disband the group, you can always ask if anyone wants to keep adventuring and keep the group going, replaciing anyone who just wanted to do the quest and move on. The second kind is just a group that forms to do whatever. I have been in both kinds (and I've done more grouping in this game than any other... I'm typically more of a solo/duo'er than a grouper).
I've been in groups that form for a certain quest and ended up that everyone stuck together for hours after, having a great time together and deciding to keep adventuring together. Groups even take breaks for everyone to head back to town and turn in quests, sell off inventory and train. Then they meet again and head out for more adventuring.
Just because you're not on the same quest as other people doesn't mean that they don't want to group with you. In LOTRO, MANY people join groups with all diffferent quests they would like to do and the group does them all to help each other out. If someone in the group doesn't have the quest, you can share yours with them so they can get credit too.
It's certainly not as black and white as some people would like you to think. Grouping is an excellent choice in LOTRO, as is soloing. It's all what you make of it.
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JonMichael
Currently: AION, an MMO Beta under NDA
Played: WAR, LOTRO, Hellgate: London, CoX, GW, SotNW, DAOC, EQ2, SWG, WoW, AO, Horizons, Second Life, There, TSO
Beta'd: There, Second Life, EQ2, DAOC:LotM, LOTRO, Tabula Rasa, Gods and Heroes, Hellgate: London, Requiem:Bloodymare, AoC, WAR, DDO, Fallen Earth
I plan on trying this game, but I am clearly dissapointed by the reviews that are around since the NDA has lifted.
Many MMO makers lately seem to be making a single player RPG design (like oblivion, or others.) Which is far easier to polish, then turning it into an online only game. Thus adding some content it takes a group or raid to do. Example is all the directed content and quests that are in the games leading people generally down one path like all the single player games have always done.
In my personal opinion an MMO needs to be created around a huge world to explore, and seeming unlimited things to do durring your online time. They need to start striking a better balance between solo and group/raid content. All the mmo games to date have been either heavily group/raid or heavily solo content.
This game seems to be heavily solo from all the comments I have seen from beta testers, and if it is I most likely wont be playing more than a couple months. The reason being the same for why i only played wow for 3 months. You can ony do the exact same content a couple times before its utterly boring.
who me ?
Exactly! Don't rely on reviews... just try it for yourself. The reviews on MMORPG.COM are not as true as they used to be. You have people creating accounts just to troll other games they're not playing and to boost the appeal of the game they are playing. In the long run, only you can decide if the game is for you or not.
The game CAN be solo'd if you want, or you can group 24/7 if you want. If you solo, you might have to wait until the mobs or quests are in your level range or a bit below. If you group, of course you can do higher content and quests. There are some pretty in depth encounters that are tricky, even for a full, well equipped group.
LOTRO offers BOTH grouping and soloing... that's something I think Turbine has done an EXCELLENT job at.
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JonMichael
Currently: AION, an MMO Beta under NDA
Played: WAR, LOTRO, Hellgate: London, CoX, GW, SotNW, DAOC, EQ2, SWG, WoW, AO, Horizons, Second Life, There, TSO
Beta'd: There, Second Life, EQ2, DAOC:LotM, LOTRO, Tabula Rasa, Gods and Heroes, Hellgate: London, Requiem:Bloodymare, AoC, WAR, DDO, Fallen Earth
First off, Im not a troll as you would happen to want to believe. My husband has had an account here forever. I choose not to log on to HIS and give MY opinion instead, creating my own account. Sorry Im a fresh new voice on these boards and considered a troll /boggle.
At any rate, I gave an example of MY experience on the game. I wasnt as fortunate as some of you are when it comes to grouping. I've tried to get the ball rolling several times. I've gone to the Great Burrows and stood there on /ooc and in regional asking if others wanted to come join me for an adventure inside. That never panned out, possibly because people thought they needed to get the quest to go inside first or something. Im not sure. No I never soloed the great burrows, your right. I couldnt get a group to go in /sigh.
I am in no way trying to "scare" someone out of buying the game. I agree, they should see for themselves. I just gave my valid opinion and also my experience. Its not a made up fabricated lie to get people to not buy or try the game. Just my opinion.
Cerra
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The above post is purely my opinion. If you disagree, that's your right. However, don't be an ass about it.
It also helps to refer the quests by the chapter names and numbers ^^
who me ?
I miss the good ol' days when nerds were actually intelligent.
look at it this way. The games good enough that they can start on the expansion right away. Whens Vanguard going to start their expansion? 2050?