Arda Beta : A visit to Middle Earth

Arda Beta: A visit to Middle Earth

When the last stress test was announced I made my final attempt to test LotrO. My applications for the american and european beta test were not considered. Another MMORPG started during these days and I took part in it and that helped.



My plan was to let LotrO and this game fight it out. The game that I would play most would stay. The other would be cancelled.



I grabbed a spot for the european beta for the stress test easy as cake and made my long planned elf champion who would walk the path of Gil-Galad and use a spear.



Since I am a long time fan of the books of the Professor and in my age have learned to tone down my expectations to avoid frustration and anger ,I forced myself to expect: nothing.



Then on a Saturday evening in February 2007 after all those years the one moment came: I entered Middle Earth.



I was immediately drawn into a story from times long ago and helped Elrond in a battle.



The controls were smooth, the graphics very good and the game had a lot of nice cute little icons which I dig. I changed my graphic settings to 1600x1200 which is something I always do because my 21" monitor screams for it. Yet on most occasions this is performance suicide with my AMD XP 2600 - 1,85 Ghz - 1 GB Ram and NVidia Geforce 6600, but in this setting, the icons would be even cuter ! The performance difference was to my surprise negligible. The client was stable and the game was not really in beta-shape but - compared to other games I have seen - it was in shipping-shape.



After the first story I was hurled forward in time to the days of the fellowship. The blue mountains where I took my first steps out of the egg reminded me a lot of the WoW dwarven area, but something was different: The toons didn´t look idiotic. The Mountains looked like REAL mountains, the woods looked like REAL woods and the water you wont believe me but it´s true: the water really looks like real water ! (really) I mean finally a programming team has managed to make a wood look like a wood, a campfire like a campfire. The nonsense was missing. Thats the point. Many games tried to be SO fantasy they overused it.



I got my first feeling they had managed to do what they had proposed: to stay true to the lore.



Walking the land I came after many adventures to the low lands and finally to the Shire. That´s right: walking. The world is huge but not superhuge as Middle Earth definitely is. But walking makes it bigger in a way.



In Middle Earth I want to take my time. Just taking a moment on a hilltop overlooking a valley and smoking a pipe was a blast. I always hated the hectic running about the place that has haunted every MMORPG, though I know its difficult to find a solution for that. Others run, I walk.



I found out that the spear-wielding I had planned was restricted to level 10 and it was good because I had a goal to achieve. When I finally had my spear I found that the attack animation was the same and it was not quite a spear-like fighting technique but you can´t have everything.



I planned to use a shield also, since the spear is one handed. The shield was restricted to level 15 for the champion. I love to find out those things and not know it beforehand. I don´t want to have perfectly planned characters that have the "right" numbers and settings. Flaws make personalities.



Thats also the reason why I didn´t wear a hat: I simply didn´t like the first few models. In such cases I forget about the armor points they give. My Chars shall not look like idiots. I trusted the devs: there would be more hats and helmets in then game than I had seen - many more.



Talking about flaws: when I left the blue mountains a guy ran by, named "noobbasher" or similar and I sighed. "THEY" were also here. I should have known.



Leveling came by the way and that was true for the other four characters I had spots for. You get to level 7-10 and even higher without much ado. It doesn´t feel like grinding at all, thanks to the story immersion (provided you read the - good - mission descriptions). You get more XP for doing missions than for hack and slash. Most missions breathe Tolkien lore, the history of Middle Earth is always present and the devs do a good job in filling in the gaps.



When I roamed the Bree area I loved every millimeter of it. The athmosphere of the Old forest and the Barrows is just awesome.

The game provided what so many MMORPGs had provided me before: the opportunity to rogue-mine in dangerous areas slightly too high for my level. Don´t you love Ingots, too ? I crave Ingots ! My elf was supposed to be a weaponsmith and I like the crafting system. It´s easy, smooth, but takes time to master. You always have the feeling of achieving something.



That is also true for the traits system. The traits system is clearly a reference to the badges in COH. Kill 500 Skulls and you get the "Kill Skuls" badge. Only the thing is: you don´t just get the title, you also get a buff.



For example: killing spiders gives you the title Spider-Foe. It also unlocks the next stage. If you kill more spiders you will get a bonus like some resistance to poison. You get the picture. So the thing is: your playing style, your fighting style will shape your character. He will become good at the things you do often.



For my elf champion it meant I was constantly on the lookout for traits that raise resistance to fear. In the books I always liked the characters that were fearless. Legolas did not fear the ghosts of men, this and that character did not fear the darkness of Saurons minions. I wanted that, too. A fearless elf champion !



At that time I had the desire to make my main character. Thats right. I told you about an alt.



Why do you think I will go lifetime ? Because I want to live the life of a hobbit in the Shire when I must rest from the real world.

So I made my walking hobbit. After the necessity of playing the intro he walked about Hobbiton ranting about adventuring nonsense, crazy Bagginses and how much queer outlandish folk roams the Shire these days.

Did you notice how many hobbits wear SHOES these days ? Really ! (just for a few armour points)



I began cooking, writing letters to friends, farming and rummaging the Michel Delving auction house, trading.



Farming is a blast. They have to tone it down though. It goes much too fast. It is highly addictive. As much as I like it, but you can get Grand Master Farmer in one day. Thats way too fast. And it´s the No.1 money making machine. Once you get to plant strawberries, the money just comes flowing in. You can make a gold piece in a few hours. And that´s a fortune in this game.



Making my own pipeweed was so much fun. And smoking it, too. That`s because every pipeweed flavor has its own smokering animation.

Taters here and a Strawberry there made me hungry even in this real world.



So cooking is a natural for hobbits anyway. Cooking is simply gorgeous and a good way to buff. A complete hobbit breakfast gets ripped out of your hands on the market. Another good way to make friends and money .



I made a Captain (ah, the Captain class !) which flows over with options for group play, a Loremaster and a Dwarven Guardian, too.



The few (very few) bugs I had found during my time had all been found before so I began to slow down my gameplay. I didn´t want to know it all before the open beta starts. I pre-ordered from Amazon.uk, because I want an english version of the game.



Well that sums it up for now. Does it ? No.



In a corner of Bree I found a game in the game. A red altar that had evil written all over it catched my eye: Monster play.



I entered the Ettenmoors and immediately chose the Spider. Spidersss yess. I was in for another blast. Despite being not a fan of PvP I loved it from minute one. There was orc maggots all over the place, wargs running around and some of my sissters. We payed our tribute to the local hobbit village (ah, those tassty hobbit feet !) and I was part of a raid that retook 3 of the areas castles in one romp. Chasing other monsters in the area around and collecting stuff for Quests (get 500 elf ears all right). I soon collected enough Destiny Points to buy my spider better protection and better damage. You can even get a cooler toon but you have to kill other players for that and I didn´t see even one. Perhaps thats because the Area is for level 50´s - and they will have a hard time because every monster player is level 50 anyway.



If I ever reach level 50 I will visit the area with a hero though, because theres Ancient iron and Platinum to be found there. Yummy. (No Mithril as I hope this is restricted to Moria according to the lore)



Here I come to the end of my report. Quite long, but necessary.

Perhaps it helps to choose your way to Middle Earth (or to avoid it) if you were still considering.



What happened to the other MMORPG I began a few weeks ago ? Since I installed the LotrO client I have played it exactly - 0 - minutes. It is a good game, but LotrO came over me like the waves of the sea that spread out from the falling Numenor !

__________________

"Then Illuvatar spoke and he said: Mighty are the Ainur. And mightiest among them is Melkor. But that he may know and all the Ainur that I am Illuvatar.



Those things that ye have sung, I will show them forth that ye may see what ye have done. And thou Melkor shall see that no theme may be played that hath not it´s uttermost source in me !



Nor can any alter the music in my despite for he that attempteth this shall prove but my instrument in the devising of things MORE wonderful, which he himself hath not imagined !"