Profile: Johnhost
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• • Downloading Trial...some questions

  • Ok so I played it, played through Archet (whatever it's called) town starter quests.  Here are my thoughts.

     

    • Graphics - The outdoor environments are very well done.  The world is very nice, the place looks geographically real and has so many touches to make it seem real.  Indoors and in towns the blocky graphics of the buildings are not so nice.
      • Character graphics are really poor.  The faces look painted on, the outfits look so also.  It's very low poly.
      • The UI feels like a EA hack 'n slash Lord of the Rings game mixed with a WoW interface.  It didn't impress.
      • Keyboard movement is frustrating with the little bounce they put in when you turn.  Again it feels like a mouse only driven hack 'n slash controls, not really smooth.
      • The spell/action icons are poorly done
      • The animations seem almost non-existent. What animation there was is not that good.
    • Combat - Not much to say, I only got a small taste, but it seems like your basic button mash.  I didn't find any strategy by level 6 to mash in any order...just hit buttons until everything dies.  The large auto-attack button again makes me feel like it's mouse driven hack 'n slash.
    • Quests - I guess EQ2 spoiled me too much.  I was used to full blown voiced quests, this was a quick hail and a wall of text.  The world felt very wooden, like if the graphics weren't immersion breaking enough the lack of voices (especially in a tutorial/Newbie zone) was too much.
    • Story - Obliviously they try and bring you into the story, but like watching a clip of a film for 2 minutes, you don't really get into the story.  Again everything felt staged and boring.  (don't know about later on in the game)
    • Help - I hit the help button once and it took me the LOTRO website, not to the help section, just the main page...it wasn't helpful.
    • ETC - Only horses for mounts?  Boring.  Fishing sounds nice, but who doesn't have it?  No swimming underwater, no underwater zones?  Boring. 

    My conclusion then is this.  This game is PERFECT for someone (any age really) who loves the LOTR video games released so far.  Moving from the EA hack 'n slash games into this game will be a natural transition (once they get used to the MMO controls).  The game has a fairly linear path to take, the graphics are about the same as other LOTR games and the UI is similar as well.

    For someone coming from Everquest 2 or games like Oblivion this is going to be a let down.  The freedom of Norrath and Cyrodiil are lost with Middle Earth.  Not only can you not be evil, but lack of choice abounds. 

    I think if your new to MMO's or a huge fan of the LOTR lore, you will enjoy this game for awhile.  If you don't mind older blocky graphics, you will like the basic gameplay.  There is nothing new, just third hand-me-downs mechanics from EQ1 which released in 1999, and their character graphics are about the same  (actually I think EQ1 characters are better looking).

    If you don't care much for LOTR lore but don't mind low poly graphics, go with WoW.

  • Posted: 5/14/08 4:02 PM
    Lord of the Rings Online
• • Downloading Trial...some questions

  • Ah yes, another trial question thread.

    I too like many who seem to find their way to LOTRO played Everquest 1 & 2 for years.  I must say that overall my experience has been positive.  But I think I am a bit bored with Norrath and thought I would spin my wheels in Middle Earth for a change.

    My main questions are:

    • Are there any dragons to fight/raid (I don't mean drakes either)?  I really enjoy killing a huge powerful dragon.
    • Is it possible to enjoy the game without doing the quests?
    • What would you say are the top features of the game itself?
    • I am going to playing pretty casual, is it too late to enjoy the game as it was from release?
    • What kind of mounts are there?
    • I enjoy collecting things in an RPG, are there awesome items, weapons, armor, house items, etc to collect and show off?

    EQ2 is a fun game, but because of their rubbish graphics engine I have bad performance often times.  I am hoping LOTRO is newer and the engine more polished.

    Thanks

  • Posted: 5/14/08 2:14 AM
    Lord of the Rings Online
• • Truth and Lies about SOE and EQ2

  • I am not a fan of WoW, I think the graphics are sickening and the maturity of the playerbase...let's not start.

    But the fact remains that Warcraft as a franchise has done very well!  Starcraft anf Diablo...you get the picture.  I think the only game that had a hope of really being a mature, hardcore MMO that would appeal to classic EQ players was Vanguard.  But Brad wanked it up really good.

    As for SOE...they seem to continually crap all over everything they touch.  Perhaps this will change now that PS3 pit bosses are pulling Smed's leash.  The fact is pop-games like WoW and Warhammer will always be very successful.  And equally the polish and appropriate hoopla is put out there as well.  For whatever reason SOE doesn't think advertising their products is worth it.  Perhaps legal advised they not advertise because they will just end up pulling a bait and switch or NGE anyway.

    For now I sadly report that for old school MMO gamers they best play offline single player games for now if they want quality games that don't dick you about.

     

  • Posted: 3/26/08 3:33 PM
    Everquest II
• • MUDS and Everquest - Why MMO's are they way they are

  • When I went to camp one year we learned the telephone game.  The campers would sit in a circle and one of the campers would come up with a message.  They would then tell that message to the person to their right, and that person would in turn relay the message to the person on their right, etc, etc.

    Finally when the message would be said out loud to the group.  Usually the message would be something very different then original message given.  That is like MMO's.

    We all really owe it all to Gary Gygax and Tolkien for their creation of the traditional roleplaying fantasy genre.  And from D&D and Lord of the Rings sprung hundreds if not thousands of roleplaying games for the PC and consoles.  In the eighties technology didn't give us the ability for fancy graphics so the game focused on skill and imagination.  Later graphics improved and the "hack 'n slash" was born.  Somewhere along the time several RPG franchises become very popular like Ultima and The Elder Scrolls.  Alongside these great single player games were BBS door games like LORDS.

    When the internet became available MUDS were invented to replace BBS door games.  One major flaw to MUDS was it was all text and you had to imagine everything, players wanted graphics.  The problem with single player games like The Elder Scrolls series was once you beat the game it was all over. 

    Ultima and Meridian 59 were among the first to release a massively multiplayer online game.  True to RPG gaming convention at that time, they were stat based, skill heavy massive worlds.  The idea being an adventure that is shared and never ended.  But these games were isometric and no true 3D TES style.

    Then came Everquest.  By today's standards it is brutal, unforgiving in it's corps runs.  The game required grouping and the world was massive and had to be explored on foot.  But when you compare it to games like Daggerfall, it's actually quite modern.  Remember EQ launched in 1999.  Games like Rainbow Six were coming out at that time, online gaming was mostly just shooters.  RPG's in general were pretty ugly graphics.

    But what really made EQ special was how addicting it was.  I don't think anyone realized how fanatical players were about their avatars.  It was simply unthinkable to "loose your corps" entirely.  People lost jobs, spouses and countless hours recovering their corps.  Hours, weeks, months and years were lived in the Everquest world. 

    It's no surprise that when Blizzard decided to turn their hugely popular Warcraft series into an MMO that Everquest was their model.  In fact at that time it was THE model of how you make a MMORPG.

    Interestingly enough single player RPG's have moved on.  TES Oblivion is an example of how casual the genre has gotten.  Before the worlds were huge with little transportation options.  Now you can simple port about with ease.  The downtime and tedium has been reduced and is continually being removed for the ADD/ADHD generation.  Shooters are developing variations in gameplay, truely inventive new forms of gameplay like Portal are available.

    And yet MMO's continually churn out the same old same old.  I don't blame Blizzard for copying EQ.  It was in it's day THE winning formula.  And even with WoW they made it more casual then EQ.  But somehow even when the amazing technical possibilities of modern games, developers continually stick to the EQ model. 

    EQ weaved together TES and D&D rules in a very LOTR world and did it brilliantly, but today's MMO's need to reinvent the genre by making what is FUN and building on that. 

    These forums have beat the dead horse of what players want for years.  And I doubt very much we will see any true invention for a long time.  But somehow if a company can break the mold and find out what really is fun and make THAT game, they wont just be a WoW killer, but become the mold themselves that others will shameless copy.

  • Posted: 3/25/08 6:18 AM
    General Discussion
• • is EQ2 worth my return?

  • I would normally recommend EQ2, in fact I would say content wise it's one of the best all around western MMO's available.

    BUT...

    The winds are shifting...I think with the type of game an MMO is, and how horribly bad the end game is becoming in EQ2, I would recommend finding another title.

    EQ2 can be a fun game if you aren't looking for a new MMO home.  It becomes a pretty bad game once you start really getting into it.  There is depth and lot's of gameplay, but the support from the developers is very poor.  The game is anything but future-proofed.  I think for an MMO to really be great you need a company that is interested in making it great.  SOE simply has moved on and is not going to update EQ2 to run well on modern hardware.

    The problem boils down to SOE has many games.  And their top priority isn't EQ2.  So the game is left to die, and players slowly figure out, hey the game is obandoned.  That is what happened to EQ1.  Occasionally they throw you a bone, but basically it becomes clear, EQ2 has been left to die.

  • Posted: 3/25/08 5:45 AM
    Everquest II