All Posts by Beery

I would have liked to have heard something - anything - about the new minstrel enhancements.  Why is it that, in the dev chats and news articles, the developers always forget about the cool stuff that gives the game more depth?

No one really knows anything when it comes to statistics.  But inasmuch as anything can be known, MMOGchart.com is as good as any info out there, and a lot better than most.  To act as if it's useless is wrong.  I mean if it wasn't for MMOGchart.com the only info we'd have would be coming from sources that don't aspire to any level of objectivity.

Originally posted by Vagelisp

That's good news. Turbine now will have more "freedom" to experiment with different interaction models in Lotro, like  allowing the monsters get out of their realm for a while...

Yeah, if I were you I wouldn't hold my breath on that one.

I think it simply means that Turbine has more time to develop Middle-earth in LotRO.  I very much doubt it means a whole new MMOG.  At most they might be considering LotRO2, but I'd imagine what's more likely is that they're talking about paid-expansions to flesh out areas like Rohan and Gondor.  Those areas will probably need their own development team, and I'm sure they'll want to get people to pay for it, so it could be regarded as a 'new LotR MMOG'.  They may have thought about doing it like City of Heroes and City of Villains, with separate games that can be meshed together if a player owns both.

True, that is a possibility.  Also, some adults are not exactly mature.  It is sad though, that such spoilers can have such a negative impact on games like this.

Nudity is not 'just' nipples.  A truly 'mature' game would not have a problem with full nudity.  After all, we're adults and this game is supposedly not for kids.

Who said anything about 'needing' naked women?  I simply think an adult themed game should give us the option to have naked characters.

The point is, a 'mature' themed game should have the option of mature content.  Otherwise there's not much point in calling it a mature game, now is there?  When a mature game has no mature content it seems to me the 'mature' label has to be a marketing ploy.

As an adult gamer I enjoy adult-themed stuff.  I was hoping Conan would get adult gamers beyond the 'no nudity' themes of other games.  Nudity should be an option in an adult-themed world - especially one set in Conan's universe.

I cry DOOOOM! This was supposed to be a game for mature players, yet now we're told that the most skin on display will be decidedly PG-rated.  Yawn!

Originally posted by Elikal

Raph Koster, whose blog I follow regularly, is one of the wisest people in matters of gaming I know of.

I just wish his wisdom stretched to being able to complete projects that he starts.  SWG was never finished before it shipped, which is, in my view, why it slowly fell apart and diminished.  I put the blame for that on him.

Well, on the complexity issue, there's complexity and then there's complication.  What you see as complex (a good thing) others may see as complicated (a bad thing).  This may be the basis for your dislike of LotRO - what you see as simplistic others see as easy to learn.  As long as a game is rewarding its complexity is beside the point.  I have lots of fun playing checkers even though it's much less complex than chess.  When my mind is clear and I want a battle of wits chess is my preference, but when I'm tense or preoccupied there's nothing like a game of checkers.

I've played SWG for four years.  I started playing in August 2003 - one month after launch.  A comparison can be made: both games are built on a 20th century fantasy franchise with a similarly large cult following.  Both are MMOGs.  If SWG can't be compared with LotRO nothing can be compared with anything.

As for your contention that the game was the best game because of its complexity, and that the game was not criticised before NGE hit, well my recollection is very different and Wikipedia agrees with me:

"Reviewers criticized the overwhelming complexity of the game, PVP/PVE combat imbalances of the professions, bugginess and lack of quest content. The reviews for the first expansion, Jump To Lightspeed, praised the new space combat but criticized the ground game for its lack of sufficient improvement. The reviews for the second expansion, Rage Of The Wookiees lauded the new quest content for current subscribers but lamented the CU and the continued bugginess of the game. "

 This was all BEFORE NGE.

Originally posted by Domenicus

Bottom line: A game with no housing, no player cities, bad crafting (the reviewer said that, I didnt teste), bad customization, CANT BE the best MMOG around. 

Anyway, player housing and player cities are coming in the next update.  As for crafting, I think it's a subjective issue.  LotRO's crafting system is definitely simpler than SWG's, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.  I'd much rather have a simple but fun system than an overly complicated one.

I don't see what the big deal is.  I'm happy to see a MMOG coming along that has more adult-themed gameplay.  Diversity is good and neither sex nor nudity are wrong.

As for the idea that all kids are always immature, I don't buy it.  In my 45 years I've seen a lot of mature kids and a whole lot of immature adults.  In my opinion the most immature folks out there tend to be in their very early adulthood - these are basically naive kids who are ignorant about how the world works, who have been brought up on their parents' prejudices and who have raging hormones.  All of a sudden these folks get freedom from parents and free access to drink.  The results aren't pretty.  I much prefer playing with the average 13 year-old than the average 22 year-old.

Originally posted by Domenicus

 

That´s the point, why do you think LOTRO is the best MMOG? As 100% of people who share this point of view with you ,and I have been asking them, it is for unkown reason, no one could tell me anything deep enough to keep it as ´the best MMOG´,

The fact is LotRO has had a very successful launch.  It reached the number 1 slot in sales and reviews of the game are overwhelmingly positive.  It may not be the best MMOG ever - there are lots of MMOGs that I haven't played, so I don't know if any of them are better.  All I know is that I'm enjoying LotRO more than I've enjoyed any other MMOG.

Originally posted by Domenicus

If the simplicity is enought to give a 8.5 grade, then we will find a 10 game easily, we just need to launch Chess Online, its very fun (I love chess) and, believe me, it would have less bugs than LOTR, the client would be at maximum 100 MB, would be no lag, would be a better customization than LOTR... And would be an easy 10, for sure... Of course you would be bored after sometime, but it seens that this doesnt count to grade in here...

Look, you just don't like LotRO, but that doesn't mean it's a bad game.  It's the best MMOG I've ever played, and I've played quite a few.

Originally posted by Airspell

And like I said , it can be both. Game being too easy is a flaw a flaw a flaw a flaw a flaw because without a challenge people get bored.

I don't disagree that it can be both.  All I'm saying is that in my view the game is both challenging and fun, and if you're bored you're looking at the game with the wrong focus.

But heck, if you dislike it, play another game.  Plenty more fish in the sea.

Originally posted by Airspell

A feature can be a games greatest flaw my young padawon err wizard apprientice.

Erm... like I said, it's NOT a flaw.

Originally posted by Mattbell69

This is just an average game, yes the Graphics are good and they have made some of the area's you read in the books come to life, but the model details are poor and I do find it a little easy. My first Toon I got to level 11 without dying and got the title "The Undeafeted". At this point I thought, I need more of a challenge. I would only rate this as a 7.

The game is designed so that defeat is rare.  You're supposed to try to avoid it and it's supposed to be easy to avoid it.  What you're criticising is not a flaw - it's a feature.  As for the model details I think you need to tweak your graphics options because they look fine to me.

Originally posted by Obraik

 

Personally, I don't understand why more Ents don't spread out from Eisley and take advantage of some of the other areas where there is potential Ent demand, eg Restuss, Mustafar, Kashyyyk, Theed, etc. 

We do.  But often doing so means going there alone and entertainers tend to like company.  I have entertained in Theed and even places like Mos Entha for 8 hour stretches, but it's kinda hard to do that over and over again, day-in-day-out when you don't see a living soul for hours at a time.  You see it's a chicken and egg thing - not only do entertainers pretty much congregate only at Mos Eisley, but people looking for buffs pretty much only go there too.  No one uses the 'register' feature - neither entertainers or their clients - so going outside Mos Eisley won't get me any clients even if I /register at a cantina.  I've /registered at Mos Entha, Mustafar, Kashyyyk, Theed etc. and when the occasional client came in I asked them if they found me on the planetary map by my /register tag and they had no idea that entertainers had the ability to register on the planetary map - I'd say 99% of players have no idea how to find an entertainer this way, so it becomes an exercise in futility to even switch the registration on.  Not only that, but half of the entertainers themselves, presumably because they're post-NGE players, don't even know what /register does.

Sure, in the best of all worlds, entertainers would spread out to all the game's major cantinas.  But there's little incentive to do so and even when we try to do it, it's virtually impossible to let people know.  We try, but if 99% of people looking for buffs don't know how to look on their planetary map, our efforts are futile.  Then we get people on the forums saying "Oh, I can never find an entertainer anywhere but Eisley - I was on Starsider yesterday on Naboo and I couldn't find anyone to buff me".  I respond "Did you look on the planetary map?  I was entertaining in Moenia on Naboo on Starsider all day".  They reply, with annoying regularity "I had no idea we could find entertainers on the planetary map".

How do we combat that?  I've tried.  I've tried urging players to check their planetary map.  I've tried urging entertainers to use the /register feature and to spread out to other cantinas, but in the end a game has to have incentives in order for people to do what's necessary.  In the end we have no incentive to entertain outside of Mos Eisley and buffees have no incentive to look outside of Mos Eisley.  It seems it's easier for players to just go to the starport and grab their ship and go to Eisley where they're assured of a good chance of finding a buff than it is to open their planetary map and look for a /registered entertainer on the planet they're on.  I know that's silly - it takes longer to do the former and there's no guarantee that Eisley will have an ATK ent, and the latter method ensures that you'll find an ATK performer, but hey, players don't always do what's logical, even when they know how to do it.  Now if it cost them money to travel, there might be enough incentive for players to start looking on the planetary map, but the developers, in their infinite wisdom, have instituted a travel system in which it costs nothing - not a penny - to travel across the universe.  Why should players take out their planetary maps to look for entertainers when they can ignore the map and just fly for free, instantaneously, across the galaxy to Mos Eisley?