This game is extremely beautiful and immersive when you are playing it.
You have games like EQ2 and Vanguard that can produce some great looking screen shots, but look horrible in game. With LotRO, the screenshots don't capture accurately the beauty of the game as you play.
My MMORPGs are games, not art programs, I prefer the game that looks and feels great when played over the flashy screenshot makers anyday.
I could not agree with this statement more. As I have said in other posts....the pictures do not do it justice.
Guys you've hyped this game way too much. Ive tried LOTRO again to see maybe it has gotten better, but no. It didn't need to, it was highly polished even in late closed beta. How do you guys cope with the lack of variety of character progression (now please do not come with traits, most gamers collect the same traits). If I wanted a different character progression, I'd start an alt in a new class. The classes are relatively few, and highly differentiated. In addition, it is difficult to even seperate the gamers around you, every body looks very similar, similar colors, wheres the individuality?? Let's see what happens when there's a lot more player crafted armor in the game, dyed and such. This was like it even at higher levels during the closed beta and so shortly before launch it is still the same. Quests boil down to delivery and kill quests, nothing innovative here. The instancing of the quests is new; the epic quests are not quite like anything I've seen, the escort, and hungry hobbit and fast mail quests are new types of quests.... If you create another char you are forced do the same scripted instances in the beginning, and even in the village its always the same few quests, no wonder they are not bugged, there are not that many as people think.The initial storyline quests are different for each race. In fact there are quite a few race-specific quest chaings. You can pretty much level only on quests; that's a LOT of quests. This game is only about killing, in spite of providing some nice rp tools, Ummm, crafting is complex enough for some to only craft. And do try the post and pie quests; not standard Fed Ex, and certainly not about killing. So shortly before launch there are quite a few bugs, no weather, many emotes do not work. Weather I've seen is light rain, rain, thunder and lightning, fog, snow... The fog at dawn over Midge? Marsh is very well done.... and I have not found an emote that didn't work. There may be some, but I don't emote a lot. And for the people who state the animations are good... gosh it reminds me utterly of animatronics. The lack of polygon really shows also on the bodies of the chars, eg look at the arms and hands. Surely you're not basing your opinion on the high res files, but rather on the lower res files in the download. And speaking of surely, are you sure LotRO is the game you played? Rather than a review of a game I know your post sounds more like homework for "Remedial Viral Marketing A (for the Challenged Novice)".
First, I havent mentioned vanguard once in my post, second, I do not have an active account there anyway. So why change the topic??
His argument didn't stand a chance, so he changed topics... It's typical of a poster who doesn't read the entire post usually.... Like I could be doing right now, I didn't actually read a lot of what was said, but still gave an oracle like answer...
No. Actually I'm f**ing bored to death with the same old tired, unispired commentary on LOTRO. I have on numerous occasions refuted these arguments. I could not stand one more spleen gushing, so I wanted to make this thread less boring to me.
Seems the OP has a vendetta. Sad that he can't let it go.
Nice research. I remember replying to the Declining playerbase post hahaha. You know when all of us who were in closed beta were not playing so much as founder's release was 1 week away lol.
Yeah, seems the OP is a hungry troll at least when it comes to LOTRO.
Too linear, lack of variety, and endless repetition -- I totally agree, Brabus's posts fit this description for the most part. Now, if we could just get people to delete screenshots when they hit reply....
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 have a different 'linear' problem with the game that fits in with all the comments on graphics in this thread.
Look at medieval architecture. Heck look at anything buily pre-20th century. I don't mean the cathedrals and castles and major places, I mean the ordinary houses and common inns in the cities and the towns.
They look organic. They're not perfectly straight, they overhang, they lean. That's because they were *built* not pulled out of computer file and slapped onto a video screen.
Now look at say, the village of Archet in LotRO, full of perfectly straight, linear buildings that look like the cookie-cutter boxes. That's because Turbine's artists are either too lazy to do anything but put down straight lines rather or they're too incompetent to realize the buildings look like garbage.
I could buy Dwarves building everything with such precision, maybe even elves though they could never stand that kind of ugly linearity. But humans? No, I don't by that, this is just bad 3D artists, plain and simple.
Even a cartoony world like WoW has a more organic feel. And they pull it off with even less polygons.
No, I'm not going to post any more silly screenshots. This thread has too many already. Join the free World Tour that's going on for the next week or so and see for yourself.
I will admit Turbine was trying with the game, but their artists have always been weak and with a game like LotRO where visuals are so important the lack is far too apparent.
Of course, some people won't mind the shoddy visuals. I'll leave the game to them.
I was thinking of the word "linear" and seems that every game and mmo is linear ,
Lineage 2 is linear with grinding to gain xp
Vanguard is Linear in Diplomacy being the only avenue for success in game
Asain mmo 's as a general are linear to grinding for xp
eve online is linear that you only fly in space
Shadowbane is linear that it has no quest
Every game is linear , Lord of the Rings is Linear that you have to complete quest to really gain leevels , but that is a lot more fun to me then just grinding mobs .
I was just commenting to the guild tonight about how varied the game is and there are so many things to do and places to see I would never do everything and see every place even if I leveled 5 characters to 50. I guess some only see what they want to see in a game.
I was thinking of the word "linear" and seems that every game and mmo is linear ,
Lineage 2 is linear with grinding to gain xp
Vanguard is Linear in Diplomacy being the only avenue for success in game
Asain mmo 's as a general are linear to grinding for xp
eve online is linear that you only fly in space
Shadowbane is linear that it has no quest
Every game is linear , Lord of the Rings is Linear that you have to complete quest to really gain leevels , but that is a lot more fun to me then just grinding mobs .
You didn't think hard enough. These things aren't linear. Linear means following a preset sequence of content. Grinding has nothing to do with a game being linear. Also I have no clue what you mean about Diplomacy being the only way to succeed in Vanguard. Most people in that game don't bother with diplomacy.
I was thinking of the word "linear" and seems that every game and mmo is linear ,
Lineage 2 is linear with grinding to gain xp
Vanguard is Linear in Diplomacy being the only avenue for success in game
Asain mmo 's as a general are linear to grinding for xp
eve online is linear that you only fly in space
Shadowbane is linear that it has no quest
Every game is linear , Lord of the Rings is Linear that you have to complete quest to really gain leevels , but that is a lot more fun to me then just grinding mobs .
I dont think you understand the meaning of linear in this context. It means that the game has a clear path from point A to B to C and so on without much choice on variety. This could apply to anything from leveling your character in the sense that you level in zone A for lvl 1-10, zone B for lvl 11-15 and so on. Or it could mean that the skill advancement is linear in the sense that at lvl X you get skill A and so on without much possibility for you to make a choice to pick skill B, C or whatever.
EQ 2, WOW and this game are all very linear in the areas I've mentioned above as they are all class and level based game and that the zones are stricly tailormade for specific levels.
A game that is not linear is Eve. As you are completely free as to pick what skills to train, what ship to fly and where to go to advance your character. This ofcourse doesnt the game automatically more fun as Eve is considered a rather boring game and only has a fraction of the playerbase of WoW, EQ 2 or even Vanguard.
Me personally I think linearity (if that is a word) is a threat to MMORPGS as it defeats the very purpose of MMORPGs being a persistent sand box world where you as a player choose how, where and why you want to advance your character.
Unfourtanetely almost all MMORPGS these games are linear which is the number one reason I rarely play any. Still waiting for a company to go against the WOW flow and create an inovative and open ended world.
Well, me and the wife gave it our best shot. LOTOR is a beautiful game, but something is missing as I have said in earlier posts. I think that it is a combination of things for me. Being a long time MMO veteran, a much longer Time as a Tolkine fan, I just cannot get into it. Maybe I am finally burnt out on MMO's. We turn on Titan Quest Immortal Throne and play on LAN and we have way more fun.
I cannot pinpoint just one thing that I find flawed in LOTOR. There are some good aspects and bad. Overall, it is a decent game but I think the combat was a major deal for me. Grinding mobs or grinding quests, honestly, what's the difference. In the end, all of these types of games are a huge waste of time in comparison to living life to its fullest, for us anyhow.
I think I need to hold out for WAR or AOC which will suit me much better, or nothing at all, who knows. I am starting to feel like nobody should have touched LOTOR to begin with. JRR is turning in his grave I am sure with the movies then this. He would have never wanted any of this for his vision and he stated such before (game the exception unless I missed it).
For those of you having a great time with the game I wish you further enjoyment. I hope that Turbine can fix the many issues I see plaguing the game such as combat, economy and crafting. Again, just my opinion and no matter how beautiful a game, graphics will never sell me for less gameplay. One man and woman's opinions for what little they are worth.
Peace
Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back in the same box. ~ Italian proverb
I downloaded the 4 gig filed played for one week-end... Looks nice very polished got 6 classes to level 8 or so got bored real fast, only lacks one thing.
Good vs Evil classes for PVP...
PVE for months getting gear and flashing it around town for all the newbies to see is as boring as the grind to get it....
I have a different 'linear' problem with the game that fits in with all the comments on graphics in this thread. Look at medieval architecture. Heck look at anything buily pre-20th century. I don't mean the cathedrals and castles and major places, I mean the ordinary houses and common inns in the cities and the towns. They look organic. They're not perfectly straight, they overhang, they lean. That's because they were *built* not pulled out of computer file and slapped onto a video screen. Now look at say, the village of Archet in LotRO, full of perfectly straight, linear buildings that look like the cookie-cutter boxes. That's because Turbine's artists are either too lazy to do anything but put down straight lines rather or they're too incompetent to realize the buildings look like garbage. I could buy Dwarves building everything with such precision, maybe even elves though they could never stand that kind of ugly linearity. But humans? No, I don't by that, this is just bad 3D artists, plain and simple. Even a cartoony world like WoW has a more organic feel. And they pull it off with even less polygons. No, I'm not going to post any more silly screenshots. This thread has too many already. Join the free World Tour that's going on for the next week or so and see for yourself. I will admit Turbine was trying with the game, but their artists have always been weak and with a game like LotRO where visuals are so important the lack is far too apparent. Of course, some people won't mind the shoddy visuals. I'll leave the game to them.
You forget that you're looking at medieval architecture through the eyes of history. Of course buildings will lean, overhang and have that "old look " when they're several hundred years old. Archets buildings are pretty much newly-contructed in the age of the game. I'm pretty sure that even medieval builders could construct a straight and level wall.
I have a different 'linear' problem with the game that fits in with all the comments on graphics in this thread. Look at medieval architecture. Heck look at anything buily pre-20th century. I don't mean the cathedrals and castles and major places, I mean the ordinary houses and common inns in the cities and the towns. They look organic. They're not perfectly straight, they overhang, they lean. That's because they were *built* not pulled out of computer file and slapped onto a video screen. Now look at say, the village of Archet in LotRO, full of perfectly straight, linear buildings that look like the cookie-cutter boxes. That's because Turbine's artists are either too lazy to do anything but put down straight lines rather or they're too incompetent to realize the buildings look like garbage. I could buy Dwarves building everything with such precision, maybe even elves though they could never stand that kind of ugly linearity. But humans? No, I don't by that, this is just bad 3D artists, plain and simple. Even a cartoony world like WoW has a more organic feel. And they pull it off with even less polygons. No, I'm not going to post any more silly screenshots. This thread has too many already. Join the free World Tour that's going on for the next week or so and see for yourself. I will admit Turbine was trying with the game, but their artists have always been weak and with a game like LotRO where visuals are so important the lack is far too apparent. Of course, some people won't mind the shoddy visuals. I'll leave the game to them.
You forget that you're looking at medieval architecture through the eyes of history. Of course buildings will lean, overhang and have that "old look " when they're several hundred years old. Archets buildings are pretty much newly-contructed in the age of the game. I'm pretty sure that even medieval builders could construct a straight and level wall.
Hell, even the ancient eqyptians managed that.
Killer in entirely true, if you think otherwise - You discredit the ingenuity of our ancestors.... In doing so, also making yourself and easy target for flames... Do just a little research before making claims like "In medieval times all building made of spaghetti and meatball and all building fall down go boom themz built with rox und leafies..." It makes you sound, well very dumb.
I downloaded the 4 gig filed played for one week-end... Looks nice very polished got 6 classes to level 8 or so got bored real fast, only lacks one thing. Good vs Evil classes for PVP... PVE for months getting gear and flashing it around town for all the newbies to see is as boring as the grind to get it....
ah.. but this is what fuels the mmo e-peen, which so many players quite enjoy.
quite frankly i'm not really diggin' the game much either. i can't quite put my finger on it, and i'm trying to keep an open mind about it, but it's just not clickin' for me in lotr.
just a few of my observations right now..
1. having a low level character i don't feel i'm ever actually in any danger in combat, thus there's very little thrill or excitement because of this. maybe it gets better later, but killing this and killing that without ever dropping below 90% health is really just not challenging and fun to me.
2. player chat interaction seems disjointed. chat bubbles, and not that ugly over the head text, would help this game greatly.
3. the expressions in the game are absolutely a riot.
4. /laydown+/pushups = LOL (and yes, i'm over 13 )
we're gunna keep pluggin' along and having our hand held following the quests a few more days before we decide what we're gunna do with this game. something tells me we're not gunna be subscribers, but it's better to find out now while it's free
that lore master looks like shes getting ready to give an elephant its yearly physical. or...is that a he?
For you information.......That "IS" a she.....and cmon'....an elephant, in middle earth....DOH! Now an oliphant i can see...but an oliphant going in for a yearly physical? SHEEEEEEZE!
The market wants, and pays for, linear. The market has never paid for nonlinear,sandbox style, since UO really. Even with the arguably biggest license on earth, Star Wars, the MMORPG flared short and never went beyond a medium population. Whatever it is that fuels games like WoW (7-8 Million at peak), Guild Wars (3 million sold), LotR now ( roughly 1 million world-wide right now) is obviously appealing to the majority of gamers.
On every board, I see people asking for change, for innovation, for straying off the path of the old designs. But these people are so fickle, and so quickly ready to jump ship, its simply not feasible to cater to them. I mean, as a designer, if a player asks me to "think outside the box" with my quest system, and not have generic kill tasks, but present him with new and unique encounters day by day... what are the chances said player is going to leave the instant he/she finished the content available?
Linear storyline, timesinks, huge quest hubs..... these are tools needed to get playtime into these huge games. They are efficient ways of keeping people playing, happy, enjoying themselves. And due to the large number of these quests, tasks, dungeons available, the big thing about MMOs, the choice, is still there.
Whether or not you like it, non-linear doesnt sell, cause the majority of paying long-term players, as proven in dozens of polls, would rather have one or two fully fleshed-out and polished pathes to their destination (be it max level, or the story finale, depending on the game) than a huge selection to pick from, leading to a horribly scattered playerbase (hello vanguard).
Also, linear design alleviates the ONE BIG PROBLEM in MMOs today.... the "lfg" problem. People get more and more unwilling to invest the effort of building groups, and the more non-linear stuff you have, the harder it gets to find people that are on the same step. Look at Guild Wars' outpost system for a system that turned linearity into a strength, and made teaming up for people much, MUCH easier by basically giving every mission/quest a recruiting area.
I am sure if it was economically feasible, or simply DOABLE in any decent timeframe, designers would stray off the beaten path much more. But every innovative attempt gets shot down by the same playerbase that so wants it, cause new designs usually get released in a worse state than old-and-proven mechanics, and then our fickle gourmet players are gone already.
No room to be unique so there is no fear of being gimped? what kind of chiken shit coward talk is that? It always amazes me that people are willing to sacrifice choices just to make something less complex."oh I dont know what skills to pick so I will just let the game pick them for me but I dont want anyone being better than me either so they shouldnt get to choose" What a bunch of boloney. its this kind of pansy ass gamer that has ruined the genre for everyone.
Im sick of this riding on rails hand holding no risk game play that caters to the brainless. God I miss old school SWG where you could be anything you wanted and completely unique both reaping the advantages and suffering the consequences of that condition.
"anyone who is willing to trade liberty for security deserves neither"
Critical thinking is a desire to seek, patience to doubt, fondness to meditate, slowness to assert, readiness to consider, carefulness to dispose and set in order; and hatred for every kind of imposture.
No room to be unique so there is no fear of being gimped? what kind of chiken shit coward talk is that? It always amazes me that people are willing to sacrifice choices just to make something less complex."oh I dont know what skills to pick so I will just let the game pick them for me but I dont want anyone being better than me either so they shouldnt get to choose" What a bunch of boloney. its this kind of pansy ass gamer that has ruined the genre for everyone.
Im sick of this riding on rails hand holding no risk game play that caters to the brainless. God I miss old school SWG where you could be anything you wanted and completely unique both reaping the advantages and suffering the consequences of that condition.
"anyone who is willing to trade liberty for security deserves neither"
I know what you mean, and I agree that the no-risk gameplay is a pain to play as experienced gamer. But if I like MMOs, I have to play that way, since these games dont get made at the difficulty levels of a proper single player game. MMOs are not meant to be challenging for 95% of content, unfortunately. So in the meantime, I get my fix in prince of persia :P
I can fully understand the points stated by the OP.
The linearity some people refer to, is specifically concerning the nooby town, while in the beginning it is nice, later on just bland boring when you re-role. You can try to concentrate just one the delivery and the kill X introduction quests though.
Turbine could really add at least some variety to the textures of the armor, capes and weapons. This was my critic too in closed beta and after downloading the hi-res client and advancing above lvl 15 (got into the European pre-order through a friend, thanks!) nothing has changed.
Many emotes are still broken, e.g. hug
It never rains, they still have not fixed the sound problem
Also when you advance, you only receive too few new skills, sometimes even none.
Crafting is still not lucrative and just a money sink.
The animations are still a little stiff, plus you still cannot submerge (guess we will never). NPC animation is quite nice in the starting town Archet, but later on its almost non existent, (some seem to have their hand stuck to their forhead).
But interesting is, the community on the English RP server is quite nice&friendly, except for that wow archetyp child "Gondorian" yesterday...).
Tell me how do you go from levels 1-75 in lineage 2 , if it was not linear it would be dynamic, and dynamic would mean I would have other avenues of gaining xp. Again , with any game that has you grinding from a..................z ,is linear.
Again you want linear to be only a word you can use, linear is not jjust about picking skills but about the over all content. EVE is LINEAR , you never get out of your space ship ? you only have a space ship that flys around space, doesn't get much more linear then that. Can you get out of your space ship and walk around ? Can you board another players spaceship ? Nope, LINEAR , you have 1 access of visual, being you spaceship.
LotrO Epic story line has a clear path, that is what makes it awesome, here is why, cause there will always be a party for it. No matter what part of the Epic line your on ,you will always find a group and that is what makes it dynamic. Dynamic in social interaction . That is the game breaker for a lot of games, the linear quality of how they (don't) bring people together. Turbine seems to have created the building block or Innovation (I said it) on game design with this Epic Story system.
Now for the Combat, you say because it is a tree , it can't be fun. I always found the combat in mmo something secondary, it isn't what I look for in a mmo that makes or breaks a game. This combat system is a traditional system at a glance and seems very stale and "linear" but once you start seeing you can level each individual skill , it becomes a little more dynamic. Then you see you can get traits to equip that enhance skills and also give you new moves and skills, then it does become dynamic.
For me LotrO is very dynamic in it's presentation, but for you, the only real limit is your own .
Games not bad , graphics are nice, starter quests good. I was hoping that turbine would go more old school AC1 with this game instead of the newer trend everyone is following. Sorta up in the air on this one , but really, there's nothing really better out now.
BUT !! If somehow in mvp I could come back to staddle and kill all those lazy ass hobbits standing around asking me to run over to so and so's farm i'd be hooked for life. Yea, that's it, take over the marsh queen, roll up into town, have little hobbits webbed up all over their front doors . Then, gather up all the lute players and make the little fury footed buggers hang there and listen to them . yea I like this game much more now.
Comments
I could not agree with this statement more. As I have said in other posts....the pictures do not do it justice.
http://www.straightdope.com/
No. Actually I'm f**ing bored to death with the same old tired, unispired commentary on LOTRO. I have on numerous occasions refuted these arguments. I could not stand one more spleen gushing, so I wanted to make this thread less boring to me.
Oh and here's a nice summary of the OPs history:
Declining Playerbase
LOTRO Very disappointed so far
Seems the OP has a vendetta. Sad that he can't let it go.
Nice research. I remember replying to the Declining playerbase post hahaha. You know when all of us who were in closed beta were not playing so much as founder's release was 1 week away lol.
Yeah, seems the OP is a hungry troll at least when it comes to LOTRO.
-Allegria
"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
who me ?
I have a different 'linear' problem with the game that fits in with all the comments on graphics in this thread.
Look at medieval architecture. Heck look at anything buily pre-20th century. I don't mean the cathedrals and castles and major places, I mean the ordinary houses and common inns in the cities and the towns.
They look organic. They're not perfectly straight, they overhang, they lean. That's because they were *built* not pulled out of computer file and slapped onto a video screen.
Now look at say, the village of Archet in LotRO, full of perfectly straight, linear buildings that look like the cookie-cutter boxes. That's because Turbine's artists are either too lazy to do anything but put down straight lines rather or they're too incompetent to realize the buildings look like garbage.
I could buy Dwarves building everything with such precision, maybe even elves though they could never stand that kind of ugly linearity. But humans? No, I don't by that, this is just bad 3D artists, plain and simple.
Even a cartoony world like WoW has a more organic feel. And they pull it off with even less polygons.
No, I'm not going to post any more silly screenshots. This thread has too many already. Join the free World Tour that's going on for the next week or so and see for yourself.
I will admit Turbine was trying with the game, but their artists have always been weak and with a game like LotRO where visuals are so important the lack is far too apparent.
Of course, some people won't mind the shoddy visuals. I'll leave the game to them.
who me ?
Lineage 2 is linear with grinding to gain xp
Vanguard is Linear in Diplomacy being the only avenue for success in game
Asain mmo 's as a general are linear to grinding for xp
eve online is linear that you only fly in space
Shadowbane is linear that it has no quest
Every game is linear , Lord of the Rings is Linear that you have to complete quest to really gain leevels , but that is a lot more fun to me then just grinding mobs .
who me ?
I miss DAoC
EQ 2, WOW and this game are all very linear in the areas I've mentioned above as they are all class and level based game and that the zones are stricly tailormade for specific levels.
A game that is not linear is Eve. As you are completely free as to pick what skills to train, what ship to fly and where to go to advance your character. This ofcourse doesnt the game automatically more fun as Eve is considered a rather boring game and only has a fraction of the playerbase of WoW, EQ 2 or even Vanguard.
Me personally I think linearity (if that is a word) is a threat to MMORPGS as it defeats the very purpose of MMORPGs being a persistent sand box world where you as a player choose how, where and why you want to advance your character.
Unfourtanetely almost all MMORPGS these games are linear which is the number one reason I rarely play any. Still waiting for a company to go against the WOW flow and create an inovative and open ended world.
My gaming blog
Well, me and the wife gave it our best shot. LOTOR is a beautiful game, but something is missing as I have said in earlier posts. I think that it is a combination of things for me. Being a long time MMO veteran, a much longer Time as a Tolkine fan, I just cannot get into it. Maybe I am finally burnt out on MMO's. We turn on Titan Quest Immortal Throne and play on LAN and we have way more fun.
I cannot pinpoint just one thing that I find flawed in LOTOR. There are some good aspects and bad. Overall, it is a decent game but I think the combat was a major deal for me. Grinding mobs or grinding quests, honestly, what's the difference. In the end, all of these types of games are a huge waste of time in comparison to living life to its fullest, for us anyhow.
I think I need to hold out for WAR or AOC which will suit me much better, or nothing at all, who knows. I am starting to feel like nobody should have touched LOTOR to begin with. JRR is turning in his grave I am sure with the movies then this. He would have never wanted any of this for his vision and he stated such before (game the exception unless I missed it).
For those of you having a great time with the game I wish you further enjoyment. I hope that Turbine can fix the many issues I see plaguing the game such as combat, economy and crafting. Again, just my opinion and no matter how beautiful a game, graphics will never sell me for less gameplay. One man and woman's opinions for what little they are worth.
Peace
Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back in the same box. ~ Italian proverb
that lore master looks like shes getting ready to give an elephant its yearly physical. or...is that a he?
"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a robot foot stomping on a human face -- forever."
I downloaded the 4 gig filed played for one week-end... Looks nice very polished got 6 classes to level 8 or so got bored real fast, only lacks one thing.
Good vs Evil classes for PVP...
PVE for months getting gear and flashing it around town for all the newbies to see is as boring as the grind to get it....
You forget that you're looking at medieval architecture through the eyes of history. Of course buildings will lean, overhang and have that "old look " when they're several hundred years old. Archets buildings are pretty much newly-contructed in the age of the game. I'm pretty sure that even medieval builders could construct a straight and level wall.
Hell, even the ancient eqyptians managed that.
You forget that you're looking at medieval architecture through the eyes of history. Of course buildings will lean, overhang and have that "old look " when they're several hundred years old. Archets buildings are pretty much newly-contructed in the age of the game. I'm pretty sure that even medieval builders could construct a straight and level wall.
Hell, even the ancient eqyptians managed that.
Killer in entirely true, if you think otherwise - You discredit the ingenuity of our ancestors.... In doing so, also making yourself and easy target for flames... Do just a little research before making claims like "In medieval times all building made of spaghetti and meatball and all building fall down go boom themz built with rox und leafies..." It makes you sound, well very dumb.quite frankly i'm not really diggin' the game much either. i can't quite put my finger on it, and i'm trying to keep an open mind about it, but it's just not clickin' for me in lotr.
just a few of my observations right now..
1. having a low level character i don't feel i'm ever actually in any danger in combat, thus there's very little thrill or excitement because of this. maybe it gets better later, but killing this and killing that without ever dropping below 90% health is really just not challenging and fun to me.
2. player chat interaction seems disjointed. chat bubbles, and not that ugly over the head text, would help this game greatly.
3. the expressions in the game are absolutely a riot.
4. /laydown+/pushups = LOL (and yes, i'm over 13
we're gunna keep pluggin' along and having our hand held following the quests a few more days before we decide what we're gunna do with this game. something tells me we're not gunna be subscribers, but it's better to find out now while it's free
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TheCore
For you information.......That "IS" a she.....and cmon'....an elephant, in middle earth....DOH! Now an oliphant i can see...but an oliphant going in for a yearly physical? SHEEEEEEZE!
http://img115.imageshack.us/img115/7461/npcfunky2fg0.jpg
He's the one getting the yearly physical......and I believe during the physical his expression was about the same.....*cough
http://www.straightdope.com/
On every board, I see people asking for change, for innovation, for straying off the path of the old designs. But these people are so fickle, and so quickly ready to jump ship, its simply not feasible to cater to them. I mean, as a designer, if a player asks me to "think outside the box" with my quest system, and not have generic kill tasks, but present him with new and unique encounters day by day... what are the chances said player is going to leave the instant he/she finished the content available?
Linear storyline, timesinks, huge quest hubs..... these are tools needed to get playtime into these huge games. They are efficient ways of keeping people playing, happy, enjoying themselves. And due to the large number of these quests, tasks, dungeons available, the big thing about MMOs, the choice, is still there.
Whether or not you like it, non-linear doesnt sell, cause the majority of paying long-term players, as proven in dozens of polls, would rather have one or two fully fleshed-out and polished pathes to their destination (be it max level, or the story finale, depending on the game) than a huge selection to pick from, leading to a horribly scattered playerbase (hello vanguard).
Also, linear design alleviates the ONE BIG PROBLEM in MMOs today.... the "lfg" problem. People get more and more unwilling to invest the effort of building groups, and the more non-linear stuff you have, the harder it gets to find people that are on the same step. Look at Guild Wars' outpost system for a system that turned linearity into a strength, and made teaming up for people much, MUCH easier by basically giving every mission/quest a recruiting area.
I am sure if it was economically feasible, or simply DOABLE in any decent timeframe, designers would stray off the beaten path much more. But every innovative attempt gets shot down by the same playerbase that so wants it, cause new designs usually get released in a worse state than old-and-proven mechanics, and then our fickle gourmet players are gone already.
No room to be unique so there is no fear of being gimped? what kind of chiken shit coward talk is that? It always amazes me that people are willing to sacrifice choices just to make something less complex."oh I dont know what skills to pick so I will just let the game pick them for me but I dont want anyone being better than me either so they shouldnt get to choose" What a bunch of boloney. its this kind of pansy ass gamer that has ruined the genre for everyone.
Im sick of this riding on rails hand holding no risk game play that caters to the brainless. God I miss old school SWG where you could be anything you wanted and completely unique both reaping the advantages and suffering the consequences of that condition.
"anyone who is willing to trade liberty for security deserves neither"
Critical thinking is a desire to seek, patience to doubt, fondness to meditate, slowness to assert, readiness to consider, carefulness to dispose and set in order; and hatred for every kind of imposture.
Who cares if it has an ingame music tool.. that is gimmicky.
Quests are .... eh.
And it is all about doing lame quests over and over..
when will the community begin to realize that questing is just another form of grinding?
I can fully understand the points stated by the OP.
The linearity some people refer to, is specifically concerning the nooby town, while in the beginning it is nice, later on just bland boring when you re-role. You can try to concentrate just one the delivery and the kill X introduction quests though.
Turbine could really add at least some variety to the textures of the armor, capes and weapons. This was my critic too in closed beta and after downloading the hi-res client and advancing above lvl 15 (got into the European pre-order through a friend, thanks!) nothing has changed.
Many emotes are still broken, e.g. hug
It never rains, they still have not fixed the sound problem
Also when you advance, you only receive too few new skills, sometimes even none.
Crafting is still not lucrative and just a money sink.
The animations are still a little stiff, plus you still cannot submerge (guess we will never). NPC animation is quite nice in the starting town Archet, but later on its almost non existent, (some seem to have their hand stuck to their forhead).
But interesting is, the community on the English RP server is quite nice&friendly, except for that wow archetyp child "Gondorian" yesterday...).
Tell me how do you go from levels 1-75 in lineage 2 , if it was not linear it would be dynamic, and dynamic would mean I would have other avenues of gaining xp. Again , with any game that has you grinding from a..................z ,is linear.
Again you want linear to be only a word you can use, linear is not jjust about picking skills but about the over all content. EVE is LINEAR , you never get out of your space ship ? you only have a space ship that flys around space, doesn't get much more linear then that. Can you get out of your space ship and walk around ? Can you board another players spaceship ? Nope, LINEAR , you have 1 access of visual, being you spaceship.
LotrO Epic story line has a clear path, that is what makes it awesome, here is why, cause there will always be a party for it. No matter what part of the Epic line your on ,you will always find a group and that is what makes it dynamic. Dynamic in social interaction . That is the game breaker for a lot of games, the linear quality of how they (don't) bring people together. Turbine seems to have created the building block or Innovation (I said it) on game design with this Epic Story system.
Now for the Combat, you say because it is a tree , it can't be fun. I always found the combat in mmo something secondary, it isn't what I look for in a mmo that makes or breaks a game. This combat system is a traditional system at a glance and seems very stale and "linear" but once you start seeing you can level each individual skill , it becomes a little more dynamic. Then you see you can get traits to equip that enhance skills and also give you new moves and skills, then it does become dynamic.
For me LotrO is very dynamic in it's presentation, but for you, the only real limit is your own .
who me ?
BUT !! If somehow in mvp I could come back to staddle and kill all those lazy ass hobbits standing around asking me to run over to so and so's farm i'd be hooked for life. Yea, that's it, take over the marsh queen, roll up into town, have little hobbits webbed up all over their front doors . Then, gather up all the lute players and make the little fury footed buggers hang there and listen to them . yea I like this game much more now.