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The Road to Mordor: Six ideas to improve LotRO's deeds
When Lord of the Rings Online launched in 2007, one of its most-lauded features was the deed system. You have to keep in mind that achievement systems in MMOs weren't really the norm yet; World of Warcraft and Warhammer Online would boost their popularity a year later. And these weren't just meaningless Gamerscore points here; they were achievements that usually offered an in-game reward. From Turbine Points to virtues to mounts, deeds provided an alternate path for play and progression (albeit one that usually paralleled your standard path). But in 2013, LotRO is six years old, and rethinking core features of the game is a theme of the year. We're on the cusp of a massive class and class trait overhaul, and Turbine did promise that housing will be getting some major love at some point this year (although hey, it's almost November. Perhaps this should be mentioned?). So why not rethink deeds? As much as we love routine and become skittish about change, I feel it's important not to take anything off the table when it comes to improving the game. Deeds have served admirably thus far, but they're not without fault or potential for so much more. Here are six ideas that could take a good system and make it far better.
The Road to Mordor: Ten virtues strategies for LotRO players
Virtues are never far from my mind in Lord of the Rings Online, although recently they've been more a concern as I've been dithering around with several alts in a reality TV show-type vetting of a backup character. While not very sexy in comparison to class, race, and legendary traits, virtues are essential to bolstering your character's stats. As I've said in the past, not pursuing and equipping virtues is akin to ditching a very useful set of armor; you can do it, but it's not recommended. As LotRO really does not go out of its way to explain virtues and particularly which deeds you'll need to pursue to rank each one up, you'll have to go out of the game and do some basic homework or else be left behind. While I'm not an expert on all things virtue-related, I've certainly been around the block a few times and would like to share 10 strategies that help me to choose and acquire a good set of virtues over the long haul. And getting 16 ranks in five virtues is a long haul, make no mistake.
The Road to Mordor: Why LotRO's classes need a shakeup
In a recent post about the Riders of Rohan beta, blogger Doc Holiday wrote a criticism of LotRO's lackluster class development: "Think about it, what have our characters actually gotten since Moria? Outside of revamps (which are always needed as games age and don't really count) there's been almost no progression of our characters outside of gaining morale." For this I have two words in response: hear, hear! I've been thinking about this a lot since last week's imaginary restart scenario and even before. There's a reason that rerolling a character in Lord of the Rings Online has such appeal, even with a mountain of content behind it. It's a character that actually develops noticeably before your eyes, not slugs through content. Today I want to examine why I agree with Holiday about the stagnation of high-level classes and how the devs can shake up the status quo to make character development exciting once more.
The Road to Mordor: A fresh start
I don't know about you, but sometimes I fall into the trap of forcing myself to do something in a game because I feel internally obliged to do it. Somewhere along the line, "setting a goal" became a Bataan Death March that absolutely had to be accomplished before I'd allow myself to do what I truly wanted. In my case, it was the stubborn determination to get through the remainder of Rise of Isengard's content even though I had slowed to slogging through it, feeling burned out on my Lore-master after well over a year of constant play on the character. So I sat back and re-evaluated. My reasoning for finishing Isengard was to make sure I was at the top of the game and could evaluate any new high-level content that came along for you guys, which was a noble reason. But the truth was that in so doing, I was playing something that was leeched of enjoyment for the time being and really needed to be put aside. Once I realized that, the solution was obvious. A fresh start. That's what I wanted: a completely fresh start to the game. Hey, it's still (sort of) a new year, so why not? And once I gave myself permission to do that, my adventures in Lord of the Rings Online brightened up considerably. I might be weird in this, but I absolutely love starting over from scratch in long-term games from time to time, even though it means scrapping (or putting aside) a whole heap of achievements and the effort spent acquiring them. This week I'm going to look at my fresh start with LotRO and why it has me buzzed to log in for the first time this year.
Marvel 'Vengeance and Virtue' tables out now
The flippin' Marvel Universe-based "Vengeance and Virtue" DLC is available now on PSN for Marvel Pinball and XBLA via Pinball FX 2. The four tables feature Thor, Ghost Rider, Moon Knight and the X-Men for $10 (800 MSP).
The Road to Mordor: Rep pony riots
Last week I received a note from a LotRO player named Shawn who was concerned about one of the controversies revolving around the LotRO store and was wondering if I was going to touch on it. Now, it's no personal surprise that the store was going to have controversial aspects to it -- I can't even imagine a scenario in which it wouldn't -- but I assured him I'd tackle the subject and more after downing a few strong drinks and subjecting myself to 414 straight pages of forum rants. My reluctance to talk about this is due to a combination of (a) not feeling that strongly to the point of frothing at the mouth about a lot of these items for sale, and (b) the fact that no matter what position I'd take, I'd lose with at least some readers. Hard place, me, rock. So what the hey, why not take the reputation horse by the reigns and see how I can muddle through this and come out with a majority of my skin unflayed! I'm only going to do this with one provision, however -- that next week I get to talk about what I actually like about the store. There may be hugs and ballads involved. To controversy and beyond, tallyho!
Apple App Store app launches on Facebook
No, Apple isn't making Facebook apps. They've launched the App Store within a Facebook app. As the LA Times reports, the App Store app/fan page was created by Apple and Vitrue, a social media company, and allows Facebook users to browse the App Store's 170,000+ apps from right in Facebook. When Facebook users find an app they like, they simply click the "Get App" button and are taken to the App Store in iTunes. The App Store Facebook page first launched a little over two weeks ago, but this is the first we've heard of Vitrue's involvement. From a viral marketing perspective, the best feature of this App Store in Facebook app is the "Share" button that sits next to every app. When a Facebook user finds an app they like, they can simply click the "Share" button and post a link to that app on their wall, or send a link to the app as a message. This mimics the functionality of the "Share" buttons seen throughout Facebook. With iTunes 9, Apple introduced a "Share on Facebook" menu drop down option for all its content. As of this writing, the App Store Facebook app has over 82,000 fans.
Be a hero: put on The Cape
If you like good music, good conversation, and a good lineup of DJs, then it's a good idea to put on The Cape. And please, don't forget the commercials: listening to Lord Recluse talk about the Rogue Islands Pet Shelter is enough to make even a hero weep with laughter.The Cape radio is one of Virtue's best-known and most enjoyed web-based radio stations, and you can access it via Winamp, iTunes, or the WIndows Media Player at http://www.thecaperadio.com:8000. Whether you enjoy thwarting villainy in Paragon City, or embracing it in the Rogue Isles, you'll have a soundtrack to match your deeds with The Cape fluttering behind you.
Cape Radio: a Virtue-ous establishment
As any CoX player who's spent any time on Virtue server knows, there are a number of reasons that The Cape Radio is known as Virtue's number one source for radio. Part of their appeal lies in their incredible band of truly professional staffers, part of it is the open forums they use to address their fan base, and part of it is their truly wicked, wicked sense of humor. And, as part of their second anniversary, DJ Enigma has released sixteen exquisitely humorous .mp3s, all previously broadcast, allowing everyone who has not had the opportunity to experience their terrific lineup to at least enjoy these audio clips.
Why wait for Leopard? Get a virtual desktop manager now
Mac publications are all taking a new eye to the apps and features that Leopard is 'killing,' and Dan's post about the 7 apps that Leopard kills inspired me to check out the current market of virtual desktop managers for Mac OS X. Since I'm on a MacBook Pro however, the only one I could really put through the ringer was VirtueDesktops, which is fine since it seems like a feature-packed and very capable virtual desktop manager. Hence, another post in an ongoing theme here at TUAW: Why wait for Leopard?While we didn't get a full shakedown of Spaces at WWDC 2006, VirtueDesktops seems to offer the same functionality, with quite a few tricks up its sleeve. Barb blogged VirtueDesktops in February 2005, but it has certainly come a ways since then. It still offers a basic set of four desktops with the ability to add more, and it's very keyboard shortcut-friendly. Here's a quick rundown of the rest of this highly customizable desktop manger: Eye candy - a wide variety of the standard Aqua transitions are available for switching between desktops. This alone is worth showing off to friends, even if you aren't into the multiple desktop thing AppleScript-able Extensible with plugins Works with Growl to let you know which desktop you've switched to (you can name them for better organization and recognition) Sticky windows and apps - you can bind apps to one desktop or another, or specify them to show on all desktops. This is handy, for example, if Mail.app is 'stuck' to a 'Communication' desktop. Clicking on Mail.app in the dock will automatically switch to the required desktop There's even more to this virtual desktop utility, and since Leopard is taking a while to cook, why not check it out? VirtueDesktops is donationware and a Universal Binary.
Found Footage: Fast OS switching on an Intel Mac
This video has been making the rounds, and since it is so cool I thought I would bring it to your attention. Using a combination of Parallels and Virtue Desktops this person as able to setup their Mac mini to 'switch' OSes from OS X to Windows XP to RedHat.
