...... 3. Grouping. I found grouping in this game to be CRAP, and once the game "matures" and there aren't a ton of new players you'll see a lot of quests just get abandoned because nobody will do them. There is just simply no reason to group beyond quests. And if someone else has the quest they may or may not group with you, and if they don't they won't. Can't find a tank? can't find a healer? Well too bad so sad, you can't do this quest. I've had to ask for a group for over a hour before, for one of the most common quests in lone lands, and it only got worse from then on. And if great barrows is a sign of things to come, then there simply is just no reason to do instances, except if you wanted a massive repair bill and some crap rewards, after taking ages to get people who are willing to do it, and are appropriately leveled, good luck getting groups for a instance in non-prime time, at least in wow i could get people willing to do a instance without much work. And in eq2 i can get even more groups, because going to a dungeon is the purpose of the journey itself, no quests you have to do and run around doing, just killing, beating names, and exp exp exp.
I just quit for the same reason (I am a level 38 ministrel). I just got to the point where I couldn't do any of my remaining quests without a group and it was nearly impossible to get one. This was the case night after night for weeks at a time. Yes, I was in a guild, but unless you are the same level as the core of the guild, you still have the same problem.
It was a fun 1.5 months though, but I am going back to SWG, WoW and EQ2.
You are a minstrel and couldn't find a group? Is your computer on? Just another blatant lie. Even people who hate the game would recognize this as a lie. Read all the posts about finding groups and best class to be for getting groups. Day in and day out everyone agrees minstrel or guardian is your best bet. You are doing something wrong if you are a minstrel and can't get a group.
In America I have bad teeth. If I lived in England my teeth would be perfect.
You are a minstrel and couldn't find a group? Is your computer on? Just another blatant lie. Even people who hate the game would recognize this as a lie. Read all the posts about finding groups and best class to be for getting groups. Day in and day out everyone agrees minstrel or guardian is your best bet. You are doing something wrong if you are a minstrel and can't get a group.
B.S. Period. You see complaints about EVERY class not being able to find a group, and this is exacerbated by the fact that if you take a random 10 players, you'll find 4 hunters, 4 minstrels, and 2 of anything else. Minstrels don't find groups because every third player has one, and there aren't that many needed.
The last instance I did before I quit, we had everything we needed except filling the last spot. We advertised, and got at LEAST a dozen tells from Minstrels who couldn't find a group. Just because they're needed in groups doesn't mean squat when there's 5 times as many as there are openings.
You are a minstrel and couldn't find a group? Is your computer on? Just another blatant lie. Even people who hate the game would recognize this as a lie. Read all the posts about finding groups and best class to be for getting groups. Day in and day out everyone agrees minstrel or guardian is your best bet. You are doing something wrong if you are a minstrel and can't get a group.
B.S. Period. You see complaints about EVERY class not being able to find a group, and this is exacerbated by the fact that if you take a random 10 players, you'll find 4 hunters, 4 minstrels, and 2 of anything else. Minstrels don't find groups because every third player has one, and there aren't that many needed.
The last instance I did before I quit, we had everything we needed except filling the last spot. We advertised, and got at LEAST a dozen tells from Minstrels who couldn't find a group. Just because they're needed in groups doesn't mean squat when there's 5 times as many as there are openings.
At the beginning, you are absolutely right, ministrels were in hot demand. I could get a group in the barrows within seconds of logging in. Then ministrels became a dime-a-dozen as every one rushed out to create one. Now, there are DOZENS of us all the same level unable to get groups. It is not a lie. It is the absolute truth.
You are a minstrel and couldn't find a group? Is your computer on? Just another blatant lie. Even people who hate the game would recognize this as a lie. Read all the posts about finding groups and best class to be for getting groups. Day in and day out everyone agrees minstrel or guardian is your best bet. You are doing something wrong if you are a minstrel and can't get a group.
B.S. Period. You see complaints about EVERY class not being able to find a group, and this is exacerbated by the fact that if you take a random 10 players, you'll find 4 hunters, 4 minstrels, and 2 of anything else. Minstrels don't find groups because every third player has one, and there aren't that many needed.
The last instance I did before I quit, we had everything we needed except filling the last spot. We advertised, and got at LEAST a dozen tells from Minstrels who couldn't find a group. Just because they're needed in groups doesn't mean squat when there's 5 times as many as there are openings.
At the beginning, you are absolutely right, ministrels were in hot demand. I could get a group in the barrows within seconds of logging in. Then ministrels became a dime-a-dozen as every one rushed out to create one. Now, there are DOZENS of us all the same level unable to get groups. It is not a lie. It is the absolute truth.
Teak
dunno what server you are on but on silverlode there is a distinct minstel shortage. Our kinship has 5 overall ranging from teens to mid 40's and we could use a couple more ( 40+ person kinship)
edit if you really want true information this is really the wrong forum to find it, go to the official forums where people who post play the game
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
Seems like most of the posters here never got to 50 so let me chime in with my thoughts as someone who has.
I have come to the same conclusion as the OP. This is despite being an in-demand minstrel, having had a tight crew to level with, having sampled the raid content, and having a great group of guild members.
The only reason I've stuck with the game this long is because I have been enjoying the leadership responsibilities of co-leading a new guild. That is changing though. I play on Landroval, the "unofficial roleplay" server and high level non-roleplayers like myself are dropping off like crazy. There just isn't much to do at 50 and what is there isn't much fun after clearing it a couple times.
One big problem is the gear. Once you get to 50, the stats all start looking too similar.
Boss fights in level 50 areas such as Balad Gularan are too dependent on buff or debuff management.
Player vs. monster player is fun for a little while until you realize that certain players are playing both sides to help them boost their own rank. What's the point of PVP when there are no loyalties? It's also little more than a very dumbed down version of DAOC.
Crafting is simple, which I don't mind so much as I've never really been into crafting that much. But at 50 you discover that virtually all recipes are useless. The couple good ones require you to farm for a rare trophy item that can take hours to get depending on competition and the randomness of rare spawn availability. At best you'll only have roughly 35% chance of getting the all-important critical success version with improved stats. Crafting uber items should be difficult, but this seem an imbalance to the otherwise simplistic process and pointlessness of most crafting items.
"End-game" encounters are buggy for those who get to them first and then dumbed down after people start complaining. (Nothing new here.)
In the end, what's killing this game for myself and many of my guild members is the general lack of compelling content to keep even casual players interested. Those that are staying interested tend to be fairly new to MMOs, are playing very little per day, or roleplay a lot.
I agree with many here though that it is hard to put a finger on what is exactly wrong with LOTRO. Despite the problems I just listed, I still think it has a lot of good elements and I started out enjoying it very much.
I'm starting to think that devs are simply incapable of making what I consider true next-gen MMOs. I disagree with Jackdog. MMOs don't have to be chat rooms with a couple weeks worth of gaming content. A great content-driven MMO would be one that has more random encounters, live events and the kind of simple depth that has made classic games like chess compelling for years. It's not going to happen though until devs ditch the classic pen and paper roleplay model and embrace something more ambitious that takes full advantage of this far more dynamic medium.
LOTRO is indeed just another standard fantasy MMO. Solid design and execution, but with no features that advance the genre it has come a few years too late.
I've moved back to EVE, which always seems to be my fall back. EVE does a lot of things right, particularly from the standpoint of someone who doesn't want to invest half their life to progressing through a game, yet still wants a bit of challenge.
I rolled a Minstrel just so I could get a group, like thousands of others. I didn't find it any easier to be honest. I plsyed on Brandy mostly to, because its supposedly so crowded.
Now that I think about it, this is one fault with the game, the grouping. Why can't you just go do quests with people? You can, but theres no point if you have completed the quest. This is the same fundamental flaw with DDO too.
Again, I think Turbine should look closely at other MMOs and learn from them. The grouping in LOTRO is just a PITA, regardless of class IMO.
Lotr was good 3 years ago, thats why peoples sayd is another wow. We bought the game for the nice epic story of the ring. If peoples like me left Lotr is for some reasons: boring, nothng new, all things same no mttr what character you play and what skills you use, after lvl 30 you realise Lotr dont have a future because Lotr wasnt made to be played in 2007+, was made for commercial reasons since developer startd to work. After 6-7 years of MMOs peoples want more creative games, not same game evry realise, with just a diferent wrapper. If Lotr wana survive they should change to no fee/month and add more things in game,maibe some peoples will play. Aint a bad game but is no diference betwin lotr and any other 3 years old MMo. Some of those games already f2p, so why to pay for another game when others ar f2p with items shop.
I agree Die_Scream. There is virtually no incentive to revisit an area after you have cleared the related quests. I never had to PUG thanks to being in a good guild since pre-launch and we had a lot of people willing to help other players finish up a quest they had already completed. But how many times were the players who progressed a little faster than other supposed to do that? It caused some of us to burn out because it was such an unrewarding chore.
Also, grouping started out interesting because it looked like Turbine was going to make class dependency less of an issue. Groups could run without a minstrel by relying on burglar conjunctions or a loremaster. But that generally doesn't work so well with many of the instanced encounters. You need a certain amount of DPS, tanking and healing power or grouping can be a royal pain in the ass.
Complicating this problem further is that few people want to play minstrels, loremasters and captains. Truth is, these classes just are not much fun to play unless you in a tight group all the time.
Complicating this problem further is that few people want to play minstrels, loremasters and captains. Truth is, these classes just are not much fun to play unless you in a tight group all the time.
My Fav class and main was a capt. I played 'trollers in CoH, Shamen, CC type toons in all my MMOs, so I may be biased. I found my Capt to be the funnest class in the game.
But I digress. Its this simple to me TBH. You get a quest, you send tells to people of right level, "Hey, lvl 24 here, doing quest X, mobs are probably lvl 25, want in?" Bada bing, easy grouping. In LOTRO its, "Is anybody doing quest X?? ...please....?!? Anyone??"
Not good for non-guild members. I suppose the grouping aspect is the thing drove me away, since as we all know, when you get groups and quest, thats when MMOs are really fun man.
oh well, my hunter is lvl 37 and most prolly not gonna hit the 40s - i feel similar to the OP and apparently so many others - which makes me think it's not only usual burn out but this game has some probs design-wise.
as many mentioned this is a nice game, especially the graphics, i really stopped sometimes just to look around, it's awesome tbh.
and it's a solid game - that was one of my first impressions - solid as it implements lotta ideas and solutions from other games, has less lag than others and at first you just cant say much bad about it.
but later on i see some probs:
- hit the 30s and its more grind, more of the same creatures, no suprises (ok, can be said about many games)
- not enough dungeons (well, maybe my personal flavor)
- too easy/no tactics involved 1: even in "tougher" quests there's not many different styles or tactics you can use (at least i can say so about the hunter, once you've got some important skills that's the ones to use, about 4 clicks mainly in the same order. there's nothing like different builds cuz you got all your skills avail and you are not forced to choose some, which would creat tactics and demand some brain or creativity)
- too easy/no tactics 2: all the mobs, elite or non, always doing the same, acting the same, no surprises
- not enough loot/equipment: maybe also my personal prob, but i can't see many different equips to use for my level. also that the best stuff is aquired mainly thru quest rewards and bind on aquire annoys me and again minimizes the chance of any surprise and of course also minimizes the urge to replay any quest/dungeon, cuz once you got your reward it's over.
- woot loot or not? another thing about the euipment is the style/design - for the hunter i've seen not many stuff that made me "woot" gotta need this cuz its awesome looking
- no surprises, any more: in the end i think my main argument for the drecreasing motivation would be that i've not got the feeling that i'll encounter anything i've not already seen. if there are no surprises and i think i've seen it all then i'm done with it.
and one word to jackdog and your argument that most of this can be said about many games and it's mainly not the game but the social interaction cuz a game itself would never give enough quests for long-time motivation. i would mainly agree, if i wouldnt come from eve. it's eve's open universe totally in the hands of the players that combines those social interaction with ever ongoing changes and some surprises. the best enemies are ppl of course and not alghorithms . but i also stopped playing this cuz it became to time-consuming and surely one day you reach a point when you need a break and also got the feeling of having seen it all. but it took me 2 years to reach that point in comparison to 2 months for lotro.
Lotro is a nice game, well polished, good grafics, etc
Thing is, it is the same old same old.
For players new to the genre, it may well be alot of fun, but for us veterans, we seek something more I think.
Sure it is fun at start, but eventually gets boring, and there is no inspiring endgame worth working for.
The 1st game that really got me going in the MMORPG genre was DAoC. It was because of the tales of massive battles between 3 realms, conquering keeps and relics. I thought, damn I cant miss that. So while at that time the leveling to 50 took a good while ( several months for me ), the carrot was the endgame RvR.
And once I got to the RvR, it was as fun, or even more fun as I thought it would be. So it kept me hooked for about 3 years.
ToA sortoff killed DAoC, that and buffbots etc, so then I started playing SWG, I loved that game, really, yes there were alot of bugs and flaws, but the basic of sandbox type of game, was really good. If SWG had fixed the bugs, repaired the flaws and added more content ( quests or missions ), then I would have still been playing SWG. Most of us know the SWG story, it basically got wowified.
Then after so many years WoW finally got out. I had been waiting for that game for a looong time. WoW did alot of great things, like it set the standard of polish and easy of use, to wich all other mmorpgs are compared now. It reinvented the quest system, and made the grind reasonably fun.
But WoW horribly failed in the PvP area, instead of making an RvR type of game, they instanced everything. Instances can have it's place in an mmorpg, but a small place. The more instances you make in an mmorpg, the less it feels truelly "massive". To me, WoW also failed the raiding endgame, because it forces people to be elitist and excludes alot of players. These days you need 25 people for a big raid, so guilds have like 50 players. so basically you play with those 50 people over and over and the community shrinks. To sum WoW up, to me it is not an mmorpg, just a bunch of instances, almost like Guildwars.
So, I tried UO again ( tried it at release, but felt it was too bugged and unpolished to play ), kingdom reborn looks promising, problem is I dont think I can still play a game that isnt true 3D.
If it wasnt for EVE online, I would probably be playing UO kingdom reborn. So that is what I am doing now, playing EvE online. Why? Well because it is the only serious MMORPG left, that has real PVP, a skill system, and a real carrot to look forward too, namely territorial Alliance warfare in 0.0 and politics and player crafting and more
I hoped that the next gen MMORPG would bring use more, but they did not, they brought us polish, nice graphics but dumbed down gameplay, and that is why vets burn out on LOTR fast.
But I have high hopes for the future, cause my RL friends that still play WoW are getting burned out too, and when I hear them talking they also seek a more deep, more sandbox, more massive MMORPG.
So I bet that once all them WoW players starting to stop playing WoW, they will look for something more and better, and then we will finally see a game that combines EVE online with the OLD SWG ground game, with a good polish, awesome graphics and lots of content.
Until that time I will be playing EvE online
Greetings, CyberGh0st.
If you are interested in subscription or PCU numbers for MMORPG's, check out my site : http://mmodata.blogspot.be/ Favorite MMORPG's : DAoC pre ToA-NF, SWG Pre CU-NGE, EVE Online
I also stopped playing LOTRO. After getting into my low 30's I just couldn't bring myself to login anymore. Albeit, there are some really nice things about the game, I just became bored of the same old, same old.
I also stopped playing LOTRO. After getting into my low 30's I just couldn't bring myself to login anymore. Albeit, there are some really nice things about the game, I just became bored of the same old, same old.
Seems to be a common refrain. Not much to do other than quest grind, though some quests are pretty fun (if you can find a team).
I agree with those for who this game fizzled out early. I was really pumped up about the idea of an MMO in the LotR world. I've been into LotR since the age of 10, so it was kind of like a dream for me to hear about this game in production. I went out and bought the game as soon as it was released in Europe. I was in love with the game for the first few days I logged in. But after the 4th day, I pooped out on it. I couldn't explain it at the time. It wasn't the animations, I liked the atmosphere in the game, the deed system, the way the map was made to look like those in the Tolkein books, etc. But I just couldn't bring myself to log in. I chalk it down to the fact that outside of the superb artwork and animation quality and the maps, the game was just too generic. I expected LotR to have the *most* immersive feel because Tolkein fleshed out the world in his lengthy books, but I felt that the game itself was not immersive at all. I was really very disappointed overall. I quit after two weeks of play. I even rolled on an English RP server but it was turning out to be just like the other servers.
Someone earlier in the thread said, 'The more MMO's you have played the faster burn out occurs. Unless you get like some of us and realize the reason you play a game has very little to do with the game itself.'
I didn't find this from my experience. It really just depends on the game more than on the player in the sense that I don't think it has to do with whether a person is sociable and groups vs soloing all the time. In my case, I am a fairly sociable person... I prefer to group if I can but also like being able to solo if I have to wait on a group. However, I don't stick around in an MMO even if it has a lovely playerbase with lots of social interaction if the rest of the game is a pita. I felt that way about SWG and Ryzome... games I played fairly early on in my MMO 'career'. I didn't last in those games beyond 2 months. In EvE, the 5th MMO I picked up, I am still playing after 2 years and I've spent a few months on my own, doing very little social interaction. Therefore I do think it has more to do with the game itself and how it affects the players rather than on the community and whether social interaction is integral and primary to being able to enjoy the game. Of course, it helps to have a good player community, but I don't think it's a necessity to being able to play a game for a long period of time, even if it is not your first MMO.
Back in EvE. Started with BatMUD. Main MMOs have been EvE and DAoC.
Comments
I just quit for the same reason (I am a level 38 ministrel). I just got to the point where I couldn't do any of my remaining quests without a group and it was nearly impossible to get one. This was the case night after night for weeks at a time. Yes, I was in a guild, but unless you are the same level as the core of the guild, you still have the same problem.
It was a fun 1.5 months though, but I am going back to SWG, WoW and EQ2.
You are a minstrel and couldn't find a group? Is your computer on? Just another blatant lie. Even people who hate the game would recognize this as a lie. Read all the posts about finding groups and best class to be for getting groups. Day in and day out everyone agrees minstrel or guardian is your best bet. You are doing something wrong if you are a minstrel and can't get a group.
In America I have bad teeth. If I lived in England my teeth would be perfect.
B.S. Period. You see complaints about EVERY class not being able to find a group, and this is exacerbated by the fact that if you take a random 10 players, you'll find 4 hunters, 4 minstrels, and 2 of anything else. Minstrels don't find groups because every third player has one, and there aren't that many needed.
The last instance I did before I quit, we had everything we needed except filling the last spot. We advertised, and got at LEAST a dozen tells from Minstrels who couldn't find a group. Just because they're needed in groups doesn't mean squat when there's 5 times as many as there are openings.
Bite me, Turbine.
B.S. Period. You see complaints about EVERY class not being able to find a group, and this is exacerbated by the fact that if you take a random 10 players, you'll find 4 hunters, 4 minstrels, and 2 of anything else. Minstrels don't find groups because every third player has one, and there aren't that many needed.
The last instance I did before I quit, we had everything we needed except filling the last spot. We advertised, and got at LEAST a dozen tells from Minstrels who couldn't find a group. Just because they're needed in groups doesn't mean squat when there's 5 times as many as there are openings.
At the beginning, you are absolutely right, ministrels were in hot demand. I could get a group in the barrows within seconds of logging in. Then ministrels became a dime-a-dozen as every one rushed out to create one. Now, there are DOZENS of us all the same level unable to get groups. It is not a lie. It is the absolute truth.Teak
B.S. Period. You see complaints about EVERY class not being able to find a group, and this is exacerbated by the fact that if you take a random 10 players, you'll find 4 hunters, 4 minstrels, and 2 of anything else. Minstrels don't find groups because every third player has one, and there aren't that many needed.
The last instance I did before I quit, we had everything we needed except filling the last spot. We advertised, and got at LEAST a dozen tells from Minstrels who couldn't find a group. Just because they're needed in groups doesn't mean squat when there's 5 times as many as there are openings.
At the beginning, you are absolutely right, ministrels were in hot demand. I could get a group in the barrows within seconds of logging in. Then ministrels became a dime-a-dozen as every one rushed out to create one. Now, there are DOZENS of us all the same level unable to get groups. It is not a lie. It is the absolute truth.Teak
dunno what server you are on but on silverlode there is a distinct minstel shortage. Our kinship has 5 overall ranging from teens to mid 40's and we could use a couple more ( 40+ person kinship)
edit if you really want true information this is really the wrong forum to find it, go to the official forums where people who post play the game
I miss DAoC
silly? perhaps, but no worse than the original statement.....
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
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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
Seems like most of the posters here never got to 50 so let me chime in with my thoughts as someone who has.
I have come to the same conclusion as the OP. This is despite being an in-demand minstrel, having had a tight crew to level with, having sampled the raid content, and having a great group of guild members.
The only reason I've stuck with the game this long is because I have been enjoying the leadership responsibilities of co-leading a new guild. That is changing though. I play on Landroval, the "unofficial roleplay" server and high level non-roleplayers like myself are dropping off like crazy. There just isn't much to do at 50 and what is there isn't much fun after clearing it a couple times.
One big problem is the gear. Once you get to 50, the stats all start looking too similar.
Boss fights in level 50 areas such as Balad Gularan are too dependent on buff or debuff management.
Player vs. monster player is fun for a little while until you realize that certain players are playing both sides to help them boost their own rank. What's the point of PVP when there are no loyalties? It's also little more than a very dumbed down version of DAOC.
Crafting is simple, which I don't mind so much as I've never really been into crafting that much. But at 50 you discover that virtually all recipes are useless. The couple good ones require you to farm for a rare trophy item that can take hours to get depending on competition and the randomness of rare spawn availability. At best you'll only have roughly 35% chance of getting the all-important critical success version with improved stats. Crafting uber items should be difficult, but this seem an imbalance to the otherwise simplistic process and pointlessness of most crafting items.
"End-game" encounters are buggy for those who get to them first and then dumbed down after people start complaining. (Nothing new here.)
In the end, what's killing this game for myself and many of my guild members is the general lack of compelling content to keep even casual players interested. Those that are staying interested tend to be fairly new to MMOs, are playing very little per day, or roleplay a lot.
I agree with many here though that it is hard to put a finger on what is exactly wrong with LOTRO. Despite the problems I just listed, I still think it has a lot of good elements and I started out enjoying it very much.
I'm starting to think that devs are simply incapable of making what I consider true next-gen MMOs. I disagree with Jackdog. MMOs don't have to be chat rooms with a couple weeks worth of gaming content. A great content-driven MMO would be one that has more random encounters, live events and the kind of simple depth that has made classic games like chess compelling for years. It's not going to happen though until devs ditch the classic pen and paper roleplay model and embrace something more ambitious that takes full advantage of this far more dynamic medium.
LOTRO is indeed just another standard fantasy MMO. Solid design and execution, but with no features that advance the genre it has come a few years too late.
I've moved back to EVE, which always seems to be my fall back. EVE does a lot of things right, particularly from the standpoint of someone who doesn't want to invest half their life to progressing through a game, yet still wants a bit of challenge.
I rolled a Minstrel just so I could get a group, like thousands of others. I didn't find it any easier to be honest. I plsyed on Brandy mostly to, because its supposedly so crowded.
Now that I think about it, this is one fault with the game, the grouping. Why can't you just go do quests with people? You can, but theres no point if you have completed the quest. This is the same fundamental flaw with DDO too.
Again, I think Turbine should look closely at other MMOs and learn from them. The grouping in LOTRO is just a PITA, regardless of class IMO.
Lotr was good 3 years ago, thats why peoples sayd is another wow. We bought the game for the nice epic story of the ring. If peoples like me left Lotr is for some reasons: boring, nothng new, all things same no mttr what character you play and what skills you use, after lvl 30 you realise Lotr dont have a future because Lotr wasnt made to be played in 2007+, was made for commercial reasons since developer startd to work. After 6-7 years of MMOs peoples want more creative games, not same game evry realise, with just a diferent wrapper. If Lotr wana survive they should change to no fee/month and add more things in game,maibe some peoples will play. Aint a bad game but is no diference betwin lotr and any other 3 years old MMo. Some of those games already f2p, so why to pay for another game when others ar f2p with items shop.
I agree Die_Scream. There is virtually no incentive to revisit an area after you have cleared the related quests. I never had to PUG thanks to being in a good guild since pre-launch and we had a lot of people willing to help other players finish up a quest they had already completed. But how many times were the players who progressed a little faster than other supposed to do that? It caused some of us to burn out because it was such an unrewarding chore.
Also, grouping started out interesting because it looked like Turbine was going to make class dependency less of an issue. Groups could run without a minstrel by relying on burglar conjunctions or a loremaster. But that generally doesn't work so well with many of the instanced encounters. You need a certain amount of DPS, tanking and healing power or grouping can be a royal pain in the ass.
Complicating this problem further is that few people want to play minstrels, loremasters and captains. Truth is, these classes just are not much fun to play unless you in a tight group all the time.
My Fav class and main was a capt. I played 'trollers in CoH, Shamen, CC type toons in all my MMOs, so I may be biased. I found my Capt to be the funnest class in the game.
But I digress. Its this simple to me TBH. You get a quest, you send tells to people of right level, "Hey, lvl 24 here, doing quest X, mobs are probably lvl 25, want in?" Bada bing, easy grouping. In LOTRO its, "Is anybody doing quest X?? ...please....?!? Anyone??"
Not good for non-guild members. I suppose the grouping aspect is the thing drove me away, since as we all know, when you get groups and quest, thats when MMOs are really fun man.
oh well, my hunter is lvl 37 and most prolly not gonna hit the 40s - i feel similar to the OP and apparently so many others - which makes me think it's not only usual burn out but this game has some probs design-wise.
as many mentioned this is a nice game, especially the graphics, i really stopped sometimes just to look around, it's awesome tbh.
and it's a solid game - that was one of my first impressions - solid as it implements lotta ideas and solutions from other games, has less lag than others and at first you just cant say much bad about it.
but later on i see some probs:
- hit the 30s and its more grind, more of the same creatures, no suprises (ok, can be said about many games)
- not enough dungeons (well, maybe my personal flavor)
- too easy/no tactics involved 1: even in "tougher" quests there's not many different styles or tactics you can use (at least i can say so about the hunter, once you've got some important skills that's the ones to use, about 4 clicks mainly in the same order. there's nothing like different builds cuz you got all your skills avail and you are not forced to choose some, which would creat tactics and demand some brain or creativity)
- too easy/no tactics 2: all the mobs, elite or non, always doing the same, acting the same, no surprises
- not enough loot/equipment: maybe also my personal prob, but i can't see many different equips to use for my level. also that the best stuff is aquired mainly thru quest rewards and bind on aquire annoys me and again minimizes the chance of any surprise and of course also minimizes the urge to replay any quest/dungeon, cuz once you got your reward it's over.
- woot loot or not? another thing about the euipment is the style/design - for the hunter i've seen not many stuff that made me "woot" gotta need this cuz its awesome looking
- no surprises, any more: in the end i think my main argument for the drecreasing motivation would be that i've not got the feeling that i'll encounter anything i've not already seen. if there are no surprises and i think i've seen it all then i'm done with it.
and one word to jackdog and your argument that most of this can be said about many games and it's mainly not the game but the social interaction cuz a game itself would never give enough quests for long-time motivation. i would mainly agree, if i wouldnt come from eve. it's eve's open universe totally in the hands of the players that combines those social interaction with ever ongoing changes and some surprises. the best enemies are ppl of course and not alghorithms
. but i also stopped playing this cuz it became to time-consuming and surely one day you reach a point when you need a break and also got the feeling of having seen it all. but it took me 2 years to reach that point in comparison to 2 months for lotro.
Lotro is a nice game, well polished, good grafics, etc
Thing is, it is the same old same old.
For players new to the genre, it may well be alot of fun, but for us veterans, we seek something more I think.
Sure it is fun at start, but eventually gets boring, and there is no inspiring endgame worth working for.
The 1st game that really got me going in the MMORPG genre was DAoC. It was because of the tales of massive battles between 3 realms, conquering keeps and relics.
I thought, damn I cant miss that. So while at that time the leveling to 50 took a good while ( several months for me ), the carrot was the endgame RvR.
And once I got to the RvR, it was as fun, or even more fun as I thought it would be. So it kept me hooked for about 3 years.
ToA sortoff killed DAoC, that and buffbots etc, so then I started playing SWG, I loved that game, really, yes there were alot of bugs and flaws, but the basic of sandbox type of game, was really good. If SWG had fixed the bugs, repaired the flaws and added more content ( quests or missions ), then I would have still been playing SWG. Most of us know the SWG story, it basically got wowified.
Then after so many years WoW finally got out. I had been waiting for that game for a looong time. WoW did alot of great things, like it set the standard of polish and easy of use, to wich all other mmorpgs are compared now. It reinvented the quest system, and made the grind reasonably fun.
But WoW horribly failed in the PvP area, instead of making an RvR type of game, they instanced everything. Instances can have it's place in an mmorpg, but a small place. The more instances you make in an mmorpg, the less it feels truelly "massive".
To me, WoW also failed the raiding endgame, because it forces people to be elitist and excludes alot of players. These days you need 25 people for a big raid, so guilds have like 50 players. so basically you play with those 50 people over and over and the community shrinks.
To sum WoW up, to me it is not an mmorpg, just a bunch of instances, almost like Guildwars.
So, I tried UO again ( tried it at release, but felt it was too bugged and unpolished to play ), kingdom reborn looks promising, problem is I dont think I can still play a game that isnt true 3D.
If it wasnt for EVE online, I would probably be playing UO kingdom reborn. So that is what I am doing now, playing EvE online. Why? Well because it is the only serious MMORPG left, that has real PVP, a skill system, and a real carrot to look forward too, namely territorial Alliance warfare in 0.0 and politics and player crafting and more
I hoped that the next gen MMORPG would bring use more, but they did not, they brought us polish, nice graphics but dumbed down gameplay, and that is why vets burn out on LOTR fast.
But I have high hopes for the future, cause my RL friends that still play WoW are getting burned out too, and when I hear them talking they also seek a more deep, more sandbox, more massive MMORPG.
So I bet that once all them WoW players starting to stop playing WoW, they will look for something more and better, and then we will finally see a game that combines EVE online with the OLD SWG ground game, with a good polish, awesome graphics and lots of content.
Until that time I will be playing EvE online
Greetings,
CyberGh0st.
If you are interested in subscription or PCU numbers for MMORPG's, check out my site :
http://mmodata.blogspot.be/
Favorite MMORPG's : DAoC pre ToA-NF, SWG Pre CU-NGE, EVE Online
I also stopped playing LOTRO. After getting into my low 30's I just couldn't bring myself to login anymore. Albeit, there are some really nice things about the game, I just became bored of the same old, same old.
Seems to be a common refrain. Not much to do other than quest grind, though some quests are pretty fun (if you can find a team).
I agree with those for who this game fizzled out early. I was really pumped up about the idea of an MMO in the LotR world. I've been into LotR since the age of 10, so it was kind of like a dream for me to hear about this game in production. I went out and bought the game as soon as it was released in Europe. I was in love with the game for the first few days I logged in. But after the 4th day, I pooped out on it. I couldn't explain it at the time. It wasn't the animations, I liked the atmosphere in the game, the deed system, the way the map was made to look like those in the Tolkein books, etc. But I just couldn't bring myself to log in. I chalk it down to the fact that outside of the superb artwork and animation quality and the maps, the game was just too generic. I expected LotR to have the *most* immersive feel because Tolkein fleshed out the world in his lengthy books, but I felt that the game itself was not immersive at all. I was really very disappointed overall. I quit after two weeks of play. I even rolled on an English RP server but it was turning out to be just like the other servers.
Someone earlier in the thread said, 'The more MMO's you have played the faster burn out occurs. Unless you get like some of us and realize the reason you play a game has very little to do with the game itself.'
I didn't find this from my experience. It really just depends on the game more than on the player in the sense that I don't think it has to do with whether a person is sociable and groups vs soloing all the time. In my case, I am a fairly sociable person... I prefer to group if I can but also like being able to solo if I have to wait on a group. However, I don't stick around in an MMO even if it has a lovely playerbase with lots of social interaction if the rest of the game is a pita. I felt that way about SWG and Ryzome... games I played fairly early on in my MMO 'career'. I didn't last in those games beyond 2 months. In EvE, the 5th MMO I picked up, I am still playing after 2 years and I've spent a few months on my own, doing very little social interaction. Therefore I do think it has more to do with the game itself and how it affects the players rather than on the community and whether social interaction is integral and primary to being able to enjoy the game. Of course, it helps to have a good player community, but I don't think it's a necessity to being able to play a game for a long period of time, even if it is not your first MMO.
Back in EvE. Started with BatMUD. Main MMOs have been EvE and DAoC.