I joined Cor Pethroni on the Brandywine server, so I’ve had to make a few new characters (I was previously dedicated to Gladden). I’ve been playing for quite a long time, but unlike some of my fellow players, I’m not much of an altoholic. Sure, I have some, but the likelihood of them even getting past Level 5 is extremely low. Even so, you still kind of get burned out on doing the same quests and seeing the same people. LOTRO is better than many MMORPGs in that I feel there’s enough superfluous quests floating about that you can try to do different things each time … but even so, you’re going to repeat things and it gets to feel kind of same-y. It’s just how making alts in MMORPGs always works; I haven’t been in a rush to make a new character in a while because of it.
Since then Turbine has seen fit to revamp the starting areas. I’ve already experienced this in Archet as a Man, but I’ve finally only just experienced this in Ered Luin as an Elf. I have to say, they’ve really tightened things up. The most noticable difference for me was the changes in NPC locations. Many are grouped together to encourage smooth questing and discourage needless traveling. Traveling as a whole is just easier in general given that Noglond and Thrasi’s Lodge now have stables. The decreases in price since launch don’t hurt either. I remember when the ride from Duillond to Celondim cost 5 silver, which is a significant amount of money early on. Of course, back then you also needed to travel between the two a lot more often.
This is definitely something I appreciate. It gives older players something new to do and makes the alt process smoother. It helps encourage new players to stick with the game too. Most importantly, it allows the team to apply all of the lessons they learn to what is arguably the most important part of the game. I know people get hung up on the “end game” and spend a lot of time there, but I feel that if the outset of the game isn’t compelling to enough people then you have a real problem. The more enjoyable the beginning and middle are, the more people are going to bother to get to the end. I think it benefits all types of players, quite honestly.
Really makes me look forward to what the team is doing with the Lone Lands for the next update.
I couldn’t agree more, I really like the new Erid Luin, it is MUCH smoother. And the bree re-vamp is pretty nice too. Although the first time I did it I got a little lost as I was trying to find where things used to be and not pay attention to what I was doing
Can’t wait for Lone lands, and I believe Orion has stated he’s re-doing all of the SOA content.