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The Daily Grind: What's the silliest thing you've done for an MMO achievement?
It's festival time in Lord of the Rings Online, which means that it's time to do all manner of inane activities in order to collect tokens and trade them for mounts, clothing, etc. I'm actually more amenable to this sort of thing than I used to be, probably because I'm maxed out and looking for any sort of excuse to visit Middle-earth. And what better excuse is there than a series of achievements that grants the title of Master Blaster, provided you have the patience (and the silver) to stand around and fire off 300 vendor-purchased fireworks? Yep, that's my what's-the-silliest-thing-you've-done-for-an-MMO-achievement story. What's yours? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
The Road to Mordor: Happy fifth anniversary, LotRO!
Great Ghost Bear, has it really been five years? Why... it must have been, although it truly seems like yesterday that a magazine article caught my eye about an upcoming game based on Lord of the Rings. Just yesterday it was, when I called my brother-in-law to tell him that he could drop his World of Warcraft subscription because something better was on the horizon. It wasn't but a day ago that we Founders jumped into the head-start and power-leveled all the way to 15. Let me tell you, those Tuckborough Library raids were brutal back then! So it has indeed been five years since Lord of the Rings Online released, a half-decade of Middle-earth stomping, Brandywine swimming, and Weathertop free-climbing. I can't even believe that this is the third such anniversary that I've covered for Massively; boy, how the time flies. Perhaps to make up for last year's lackluster and flawed anniversary celebration, Turbine's pulled out all the stops to make LotRO's birthday an event to remember. We've got a lot to cover and plenty of fireworks left to shoot off, so let's get to it!
Riding into Rohan: LotRO maps out 2012
In the words of Frank Sinatra, 2011 "was a very good year" for Lord of the Rings Online. Executive Producer Kate Paiz and Director of Communications Adam Mersky sat down with us to talk about the future of the game, but before they got to the juicy details, they wanted to give a quick recap of the previous year for the game and the studio. The big emphasis for LotRO in 2011 was the unifying of the global community and the release of the game's third (and best-selling) expansion, Rise of Isengard. While the aforementioned unification of the NA and EU sides of the game presented many challenges for the team including localization, it paid off in spades. Turbine plans to continue to add more payment options for those used to methods other than the ones currently available. The team was most proud of unveiling Saruman "in all of his glory" and the inclusion of free players into the sphere of Monster Play. "The game definitely grew last year," Mersky said in response to a question about the current number of players. He noted that the playerbase has changed somewhat in the past two years, becoming more casual in some respects. But it's time to move forward! Turbine is prepared to take LotRO players on a dizzying chase around the wilds of Middle-earth with a few significant changes and additions to the game -- and the release of the brand-new expansion later this year, Riders of Rohan. Mounted combat, ho!
The Road to Mordor: Festivals and you -- a love story
It's a shame that Lord of the Rings Online's fourth anniversary will probably be remembered more for being a mismanaged festival event than for the achievement that reaching four years signifies. But things are as they are, and the "Grindaversary" has now gone down in LotRO's history of what not to do for an event. If you're only tangentially tuning in to the LotRO news these days, last week Turbine launched its first anniversary celebration in the game (previous anniversaries were marked only by gift tokens dropping in the world). The celebration was a lesser type of festival that borrowed elements from previous events, namely, the horse races and the beer brawl. Players were challenged to participate in both to gain tokens to acquire special rewards, such as a new horse mount, housing decorations, and cosmetic outfits. The problem was twofold: The tokens were gained so slowly that it took a long time to get enough for even one moderately priced reward, and the only endlessly repeatable activity (the beer brawl) could be failed if you were knocked out of the area by another player. As a result, players heavily protested what should've been a fun time and Turbine ended up with egg on its face. In participating myself, talking with friends, and reading through the many, many responses to the event, I got to thinking about how Turbine's approached festivals over the past year or so and how the studio can learn from this to avoid another stumble.
