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The Road to Mordor: Five ways LotRO should be streamlined
You would think that growth and expansion is nothing but a good thing for MMOs -- after all, those are the hallmarks of the genre. But as these games get bigger, issues emerge as the developers add new zones, features, and systems. In short, maturing MMOs gravitate toward complexity, and this can have an adverse effect on the game as a whole. The problem is that there is eventually too much a brand-new player has to absorb and master, not to mention the hassle of rolling alts and having to navigate all of that content once more. If developers don't stay on top of the situation, then the game starts to lose overall cohesion and becomes a befuddling mess. With three expansions and numerous updates under its belt, Lord of the Rings Online is venturing deep into this territory. I have friends who are leveling up for the first time and finding themselves overwhelmed with everything that needs doing as well as all the systems that are not clearly explained. So today I want to play backseat developer and talk about five ways that LotRO should be streamlined for the good of all players, old and new.
The Road to Mordor: What Update 7 means for you
Without fail, the second I'm done writing this column for Massively, Turbine releases the big news of a major patch, and I have to wait a whole week to talk about it. In the case of Lord of the Rings Online's Update 7, I'm not that upset. I definitely was underwhelmed by it all initially, but now that I have had a whole week to digest it, read through the test server notes, and scope out the Moria dev diary that was posted, I feel like I'm in a much better position to talk about it. So what does this game update mean for you? That's a good question, and it really depends on where you are in your leveling journey. New players won't be fazed by it whatsoever, but both mid-game and endgame adventurers are going to have some new (and reworked) content to devour. I am heartened that Turbine doesn't have tunnel-vision for the endgame and is still willing to go back and examine what does and doesn't work about its earlier content. So let's walk through the major highlights of Update 7: Shades of the Past and give it the ol' Road to Mordor analysis, shall we?
The Road to Mordor: Wish lists, past and future
Hobbits love making lists, don't they? In The Fellowship of the Ring, Bilbo had a lengthy list of friends and relatives to invite to his eleventy-first birthday party, and he didn't have the luxury of Facebook to help him out. I love lists as well, although I try to save most of that for my Perfect Ten column. At the beginning of the year, I sat down and drafted up a "wish list" for Lord of the Rings Online's 2011 year, populating it with 11 changes and additions I was hoping to see by now. To my surprise, Turbine actually pulled off quite a few items on the list, and I thought it'd be a good idea to go back and examine which of my goals the team met and which remain elusive. Also, since 2012 kicks off tomorrow, I'll look forward as well and draft up a dozen -- yes, one more over the year before -- wish list items that I'd love to see come true in the new year. It's my column; I can cry if I want to, after all. Let's get this party started!
The Road to Mordor: My love-hate relationship with Legendary Items
Second to perhaps radiance, Legendary Items have become one of the most controversial, most debated, and most divisive game features in Lord of the Rings Online since their implementation in Mines of Moria. Since their inclusion, players have discussed -- loudly -- how the system could be fixed and improved, and Turbine's made a couple of attempts at refining the feature into something we can all enjoy. And yet Legendary Items remain in that category that I like to call "love-hate," where there's almost as much to love about them as there is to loathe. I've waited a long time to write this article because the timing never felt right; either I was too new to the system to speak with any authority on it or changes were "right around the corner" or I was lazy. Take your pick. Perhaps talking about this today is beating somewhat of a dead horse in the LotRO community, but I wanted to get my thoughts out why LIs haven't quite gotten to where they need to, how they've failed, where they've succeeded, and why I pray every evening for cosmetic weapons so I can get rid of that ugly glow effect.
The Road to Mordor: Shopping at the LotRO Depot
About 99% of the time I'm in Lord of the Rings Online I never think about the LotRO Store. Ever since the store came online last year, it's been adventure as usual in the Olivetti household. Sure, I mock the "You got 5 Turbine Points! Now you can retire in the Caymans!" popups like everyone else, but I've always felt that Turbine does a good job balancing the store presence between the polar extremes of obnoxious and invisible. That isn't to say I haven't used the store at all; on the contrary, I've been a sporadic if loyal customer of sorts, trundling my shopping cart through the aisles of Shire-Mart looking for a good deal. Thus far I haven't dropped any additional cash into the game, choosing to subsist on my monthly allotment of TP with whatever I earn through deeds. Every once in a while I'll boot up the store and see what niceties I can give to my character as a reward for slaughtering his 5,000th Neeker-beeker. The LotRO Store has two categories of customers: the free-to-players and the upper class. Does that sound snooty? It's not intentional -- all I mean is that some folks use the store to provide basic necessities for gameplay (like quest packs, riding skills, class unlocks) while others are already well-off in the game and shop for luxury items. I'm in awe of the F2P gamers who can get a good chunk of their content by methodically knocking deeds out so they can purchase the next zone, but I'm fortunate enough not to have to do that. So today I wanted to give myself an audit of what I've spent in the store so far and analyze whether they were wise purchases, wasteful frivolities, or overpriced insanity.
The Road to Mordor: The final ding
It happened far sooner than I'd hoped. I tried to put it off, to ignore the creeping bar, to spend my days in frivolous activities instead of fighting evil -- but to no avail. It was a simple quest turn-in somewhere deep in Mirkwood, and with only two elves to witness the event, a stream of white light erupted from my head. I was level 65. For me, it's always been extremely disconcerting to hit endgame in any MMO, which is probably why Lord of the Rings Online marks only the fourth game of my MMO career in which this has happened. I like the feeling of leveling up, gaining experience, going on a mostly solo journey through the lands. But once I ding that final level, the XP gains go away and the questions arise. What do I do now? Should I become concerned with raiding? I wasn't before! Is there a purpose to keep on questing at this point without XP? Am I going to avoid fighting mobs unless I absolutely have to do so? What is there to do? Will I get bored? Who replaced my wallet with a ketchup packet before I sat down? Join me after the jump as I take you through these questions and more on my journey to discover a life after the final ding.
The Road to Mordor: My wish list for 2011
January is always a month of denial for me because it usually takes a full 30 days for the reality of a new year to settle into my skull. It can't be a new year! I just, just got used to the old one! I'm going to forget the real year when I sign my checks and then I'll be denounced as a fraud! What horrible teenage fad will be inflicted on us this year? Seriously, Ke$ha was the final straw for me. She's like all four horsemen of the apocalypse melted down and recast as a talentless banshee with an ironic dollar sign smack in the middle of her name. But that's my problem. A new year also means a virgin slate for all of our MMOs. What happened last year was so last year -- now we turn our eyes to the future. We know a little of what's upcoming for Lord of the Rings Online, but that doesn't mean we can't have wishes. You know what they say: If wishes were horses, I'd have the Steed of Night. So in honor of '11, I've come up with an 11-point wish list of what I'd love to see in LotRO this year. I fully expect Turbine to drop everything -- everything -- to get on it!
LG Display and iriver enter joint venture to make e-book readers pretty, affordable
Well what do you know, turns out the LB4400 was a harbinger of things to come. LG Display and iriver just announced a $5M joint venture to manufacture e-book readers. The new China-based company, L&I Electronic Technology (Dongguan) Ltd, sees iriver doing the platform development and product design (thank gawd) while LG provides the EPD displays. It's interesting to note that the company will act as an OEM/ODM to anyone looking to slap their brand on an e-book reader... after iriver -- the company's first customer -- takes the pick of the litter.
Sony Ericsson "Li" is the K770i?
Well, looky here, if it's not Sony Ericsson's mysterious new Cyber-shot phone we first saw a couple months back! It turns out that the candybar (in a decidedly more pale shade than the last time around) is allegedly the K770i, codename "Li." With a 2 megapixel autofocus shooter, Memory Stick Micro M2 slot, and lowly EDGE data, we suspect there aren't many folks getting all worked up over this one's release, but hey -- choice is good, right?
Sony Ericsson rumors aplenty
Member shaliron over at Esato appears to have done some serious homework compiling a list of all known Sony Ericsson handsets in the pipeline, complete with nifty color coding to indicate verified, debunked, and new intelligence. We encourage Sony Ericsson fans and non-fans alike to go check out the real deal, but in the meanwhile, we've put together a Reader's Digest peek here at some of the highlights. First up, the music-oriented Walkman series could be growing by a solid six devices in the coming months, topped off by a successor to the UIQ-based W950 codenamed "Maria," a (possibly UIQ-based) clamshell dubbed W910, and the oft-discussed Ai. The camera-focused (no pun inteded) Cyber-shot series will be enjoying a bumper crop itself: a successor to the K800 is allegedly already in the works, "Sofia," packing a 5 megapixel shooter, UMTS, and QVGA recording, while a possible Handycam-branded M600 variant would obviously reign supreme for its video capabilities. Other highlights include a promise that HSDPA will factor into the company's 2007 plans, a wide-scale migration of the FastPort connector to the sides of the handsets, and a shortening of the span from announcement to release of UIQ-based models (a move we applaud). As we said, there's plenty more juicy tidbits to digest over at Esato -- but even with what we've presented here, it's safe to say Sony Ericsson's shaping up for a killer '07. Any UIQ or 3G love for the US of A, folks?
