I’ve noticed there’s been a bit of a lull in LotRO blogging across the board. In some ways I am glad that I’m not the only one relaxing and neglecting my “duties”. I’m in Chicago, so when the nice weather finally hits it’s really hard to ignore it.
I’ve spent some time reflecting on things that created something of an uproar in LotRO–land. “Uproar” is probably an exaggeration, but it was certainly more heated than most discussions related to this game. Aside from specific class concerns, the things that come to mind are the new self resurrection ability and the Quest Guide.
I’ve given my opinions on them before and my thoughts are largely unchanged. For me, the self resurrection skill has been more of a bandage for dumb deaths than anything game breaking. The dread you get after using it is generally too crippling to allow you to go right back into the thick of things. Most of my mob-related deaths are within aggro range, so as soon as I come back I have ten Goblins on my butt. Needless to say, I don’t get very far.
I always welcomed the Quest Guide and overall I think it’s worked out pretty well. I like that it shows you the vicinity for many search quests, as opposed to the exact location. I also like that it is selectively controlled by Turbine … For example, in Evendim there’s a quest where you have to find a hidden treasure. The Quest Guide points you in the right direction for the first part, but for the rest of the chain you have to use the quest text’s clues to get you where you need to go. I think this is one benefit of it being developer handled.
I’m sure your mileage may vary with both of these. I am interested in hearing if anyone’s opinion changed one way or another on these now that we’ve had a good amount of time with them.
I actually love the quest guide — one of the reasons I left Lotro last year was the lack of it and the vague quest descriptions (10 years in MMO’s trust me they were vague to new players to lotro) and made the game a drag having to switch to that map site (name escapes me). I recently game back and loving it — I spent less time running around aimlessly — get quests knocked over while seeing new regions. I quit wow and am back full time 80% down to this tool. in most Asian MMO’s its a given and given the push Lotro is making into certain asian markets this may have been the reason and I’m glad!
I’ve been playing LOTRO since day one, I regard myself as a moderately hard-core player, and I’m not fussed by either of these developments. You can use them or leave them, it’s up to you. If they help some new players coming in now to catch up with the rest of us in less than several months, good luck to them. There are other and more serious things to worry about where the design of the game is concerned.
The quest guide severely reduces the “emmersion” of the player into the game. It becomes more of a grind fest than one where you actually play the game for fun. The game shouldn’t encourage players to just run for end-game as fast as you can. I myself am at end-game and spend most of my time there, but I still do greatly enjoy going back and trying to complete all of the deeds/quests and just helping new players with their quests. Currently I’m at a /played of 5 and a half months on my main, and I’ve had fun the whole time.
So far, I really like the quest guide. My husband and I are still fairly new to LoTRO and it has been a big help for us in figuring out where we need to go next. I also like that it still gives us the ability to explore as, like you said, it only gives a general location of the quest objective, so we still get the full experience of the game, which is what we like as newbies
I was looking forward to both the self-revive and quest guide before the book was released, and I’ve been happy with both in the time they’ve been out. The self-revive is limited enough that it really only serves to less some death aggravation from accidents or overconfidence. Anything that saves me travel time running back to a quest area from a rez circle is good. The quest guide has saved me from having to alt-tab out and use Google. I really don’t see the controversy around this feature. If it breaks your immersion or makes questing too easy, then turn it off. Anything that cuts down on the amount of players asking in advice or ooc obvious questions that they could have answered by reading the quest text is good as far as I’m concerned.
I know I am late to this discussion, but here are my 2 cents. I don’t find the revive that useful, sure every once in a while, if you die a silly death, falling or sometimes if I go afk and get killed, etc. It is a fine feature, but has not changed the game.
The other big topic is the quest tracker, I read all the comments, and agree it does take some of the searching and finding out of the game. But I would get incredibly frustrated trying to find something for hours, that was right in front of me, etc. In this sense I love the quest tracker. It shows you where to go. It does not insure you get there safely. Does it speed up leveling, sure. Just so your not running in circles for hours or trying to find a location on a forum. I think for many of the stop and smell the roses folks, they complain but won’t turn it off. I don’t play enough, to not want to level, leveling, getting new gear, testing my characters abilities are where I find enjoyment. Yes, I enjoy the content, and scenery but it is not my focus. Everyone is different and they get different enjoyment from different things. For example, I have 3 lvl 60 toons, and none of them have a house, nor have any of them completed book 1. Only one of them just finished v2 bk5. Primary reason, is being a semi casual player, I can’t find the groups at the time I want to do the quest, if I could do all the content solo, I would have. Again, I enjoy the game. Everyone finds different reasons to play and they are ALL valid.
Thanks for the posts and dialogue.
Haha, no problem on being late. Thanks for the thorough comment