12/13/11

RIFT blew its first shot, will it blow its second?

I made a silly mistake today and renewed RIFT. I’ve been playing it a lot lately and having fun leveling my rogue through PvP. (Admit it Assassins, we’re overpowered). When I got the email reminding me that until I paid up my characters would be sold into slavery, I didn’t even consider that TOR comes out this week. Not a second thought was cast, I renewed that subscription and logged in just to be sure I could. Then it hit me, as much fun as I’ve had in RIFT lately, will I even bother to login again after TOR is out?

That I’m asking this question, that’s it just seems like a question the majority of RIFT players must be also be pondering, doesn’t bode well for the game’s immediate future. Like a lot of people, I hit the game pretty hard in the beginning and then eased back into a relaxed play style. More relaxed than most people I know, even, only logging in for an hour here or there (until the last two weeks). It wasn’t that I’d gotten bored, it was that I’d experienced everything I was able to and gotten comfortable with the systems. I feel like I know RIFT pretty intricately, so I feel confident in saying, RIFT offers very, very little that TOR does not, and what it does (rifts) have been played out. Once you’ve leveled one zone, you’ve leveled them all. Once you’ve done one rift, you’ve done them all. The one competitive factor RIFT has is its class system. You can mix and match souls, but let’s be frank here, you were pretty much one soul with stat boosts from the others. The only benefit is that you can change that class on a whim.

The main counter-point to all that is in the potential of the dynamic event system. Unfortunately, it’s too late. RIFT blew it’s first shot to stem the tide to TOR. If they were going to do something exciting with it all, given us a taste of what’s to come if we stick around, they should have done it over the last two months. Instead, they delivered rehashed concept after rehashed concept (speaking to the rift/dynamic content system here) that just works to drive players to something they haven’t experienced yet. TOR is that thing.

Now, I’m not saying RIFT is doomed. I don’t think so at all, but losing a big chunk of your players to a game that’s arguably just as “sticky” isn’t a good thing. Rather, I think they’ll experience a drop in subscriptions, players will shout about servers being empty and the game dying out, and then in three months they’ll see some of those lost players come back.

RIFT had better have something big planned to lure players back once the 90-day realization sets in (this game isn’t perfect!). If they blow their second chance, RIFT’s time in the limelight may have already passed. I hear there’s an empty seat by LotRO.

05/11/11

Patch 1.2 Gives RIFT the LotRO Treatment

Hello again, Internets. It’s been too long. I don’t like to go too far into personal details on this blog, so suffice it to say that this last month has been personally trying. I’m hoping things may settle soon, but summer is coming up and I’ll be taking a summer job until next school year. In the meantime, I’d subscribe with your RSS reader of choice, just to stay clicked in – GBN is going nowhere, I can promise you that.

With that out of the way, have you guys checked out RIFT’s latest patch? I’m having a great time with it, so much so that I almost feel like I’m playing a fresh game. There was a palpable excitement coursing through Immortal Council’s guild chat. We tried out just about everything, and I played more than I’ve played in the last two weeks.

Out of all the great things this patch brought – and, boy, did it bring a lot – my personal favorite was just a tiny bulletpoint on a large list: abilities now execute more quickly after auto-attack. It seems small, but that little alteration really speeds up the pace of combat on my cleric. It reminds me a LOT of the combat changes LotRO received accomplishing the same thing. Everything seems snappier. I’ve yet to run a parser, but I’d be willing to bet my DPS would be up because of it. As much as people hate to hear the comparison, pacing is on par with World of Warcraft now.

On top of that, the Inquisitor soul got some much needed touch ups that really increase survivability. I feel much less like a glass cannon without being overpowered. I’m excited to see how I do in PvP with my healing build.

Apart from individual changes to my souls or how I play, I got the chance to try out the LFG tool. I predict it goes cross-server within a month. It works perfectly fine but the wait times are more than most people will be comfortable. On Sunrest, one of the higher-pop servers, I didn’t get a single dungeon pop when I queued for DPS – even over the course of 90 minutes or so. Tank was a little better, but I was still waiting 20 minutes or so. Honestly, I would much prefer it be left as is for the sake of server community, but people are already ignoring the queue in favor of channel spam.

Another way the game got a little closer to LotRO is with the wardrobe system. It’s nice and just cosmetic, but it seems some people were expecting a full “click to change sets” button. Those are nice, but I’m happy just to be able to change out my look. I do wish they’d change a couple of things, though. For example, dyes don’t carry through to your wardrobe slot. So, if you move a whole set over, you’ll need to re-dye everything. Also, I kind of wish you could equip armor-types below what your class usually uses. I don’t understand why I can equip cloth items but not put them in my cosmetic slots.

Some people might be upset about T2s being nerfed down, but I think we need to keep in mind that many of things required 2-3+ hours to finish with minimal wiping and required two healers. With the rate they’re adding endgame, and Hammerknell coming soon with its own plethora of bosses, I think it’s appropriate to get people through their 5-mans a little quicker.

Overall, I think this patch did a whole lot to advance the game. I had a great time last night and even stayed up late on a work night to scratch my way to 41. I’m starting to feel really behind (I know, I am) everyone else in my guild, so that fire is burning under my butt. It’s nice to see so many people having fun and re-igniting their passions for the game. Good times ahead!

04/25/11

The Multiverse – Season 02 Episode 04 – “Angels with Chainsaws”

Welcome back to another edition of The Multiverse! We start this episode off with a little Warhammer Online, move into angels with chainsaws and LotRO’s fourth anniversary, and Chris gets some guild advice from the man who wrote the book. This was kind of a crazy show. Especially when we answer Massively’s question.

We’re also posing you a challenge to leave us an iTunes review – and if we hit our goal of another 10 5-star reviews, Adam’s going to buy you a month of game time for your favorite game! It gets better, if we can get to 38 or more Adam will buy three of you full months. So drop in and leave us a review!

Enjoy the show!

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01/4/11

When Cutscenes Go Too Far

I hit level 85 last week and now find myself at the tail end of Uldum, frantically scraping for that last gear point to start heroics. Now, Uldum is a pretty cool zone. It has a neat setting with new character models, fun quests, and memorable characters (Harrison Jones, anyone?). It also features an absolute glut of cutscenes — I like that; we’ve needed this.

Now, unlike a lot of players, I don’t mind the actual quantity of them. I’ve heard them dinged for being pointless — why show your character getting on the back of a caravan when you could just run? See, that undermines the whole point of a cutscene in the first place: to involve you in the story. I like having the screen fade to black and moving into some neat little piece of lore. Story has been a part of WoW most people could ignore and, honestly, that’s no way for a video game to be — especially one whose whole point is to deliver a virtual world. So, for my part, I’d be happy to see every zone get a good twenty or more cutscenes.

But, you know what, I can’t help but feel like the developers stepped on my toes a little bit. I can’t tell you how much it irked me to see my character cower to some snot-nosed little goblin. Or dragon. Or any of the other handful of things my Death Knight trembled in his boots over. That is not who my character is, or how he’d act, and is frankly a little silly considering how many thousands of bigger and badder enemies I’ve killed over the last few years.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: well, that’s RP, that doesn’t matter to most players. Really? Are you honestly okay with Blizzard dictating your actions — RP or not? You can take every in-character piece of the puzzle out of it and you’re still left with with a poorly done marionette who seems to ignore his whole context in the world.

It reminds me of when you’d get to the end of Shadows of Angmar in Lord of the Rings Online. You’d just gotten done slaying the Witch King, taking on drakes and trolls, and in an instant you’re delivering sandwiches to over worked dwarves. It doesn’t fit with every single thing leading up to it.

Developer whim. Gameplay staple. Over zealous narrative. After you’ve done Uldum, you can’t help but feel like the developers just went to town. They let their creativity run free without the benefit of an editor.

I know, it’s small. In the long run, even forgettable amongst all the other cool things they’ve done through in-game cutscenes.

What it comes down to, though, is character autonomy. It’s about your character being utterly forgettable itself. In the context of the game world, your place is quite literally your own because nothing else in the game really cares. In LotRO, you deliver sandwiches because that’s what the level 1 would do. In WoW, you cower to goblins because a developer forgot that every player exists in a bubble and went at it with a pin.

You are not yourself. You are character 11,876,786 in game world one. Someday a developer will realize that’s a pretty lazy way to “immerse” your player.

Oh well. Reading through this it seems pretty negative. It’s not really, just reflections on the state of MMO design.

11/17/10

Where LotRO’s Cash Shop Goes Wrong

This has already been said before, but it’s worth saying again: the problem with F2P is that it encourages developers usher you into a store rather than revise broken mechanics. LotRO is guilty, plain and simple, but let me elaborate.

For those of you who don’t play the game, a big part of LotRO’s character advancement comes in the form of virtues. These are permanent buffs to your character’s stats and, in the case of tanks especially, are near mandatory to do well in a group. Ranking up requires you to kill a certain amount of a specified mob and usually gives you the option of a couple different zones to accomplish it in.

Ideally, you reach max rank in the virtues that interest you as you level up. Realistically, this doesn’t happen. That’s because the virtues are designed to be one of the worst grinds in MMO gaming today. I’m not exaggerating. For example, to get the first rank of Discipline, you have to kill 60 hendroval (birds) in Ered Luin. To get another rank in Moria, you have to kill 240 gredbyg. If you were to take on one rank per zone, you would wind up grinding 1,340 mobs for that single virtue. To max out the recommended virtues for a guardian, I’d have to grind 4800 mobs – taking the short route, picking up ranks for exploration and completing quests – before I was done.

This has been in place long before anyone considering taking the game F2P. Before Moria and the other expansions came out, a lot of people complained that the game simply wasn’t long enough. Considering the blatantly grindy nature of one of the game’s key pastimes, I’d have to wonder if the developers didn’t agree.

But, fast forward to the here and now. There’s TONS more content and the game has been fleshed out into one of the best, most polished MMOs on the market. It’s the leading example of the potential for F2P in a subscription climate. Other than looking to the future, what reason is there to have not revised this system to reflect the current state of the game?

The unfortunate answer seems to be “why bother.” I can grind those 4,800 mobs or pay $2.99 per rank from the store. It’s a “convenience item” and I’ll give them that. It sure is convenient to not have to spend hours upon hours in unbridled suck! For somewhere under $135, you can skip this system entirely and buy your way past it.

Even for someone like me who doesn’t mind grinding, LotRO is not a game that supports it. It doesn’t give good XP. It doesn’t give good rewards. Fights last too long, and short of stopping the adventure entirely and returning at max level, completing deeds pulls you away from story and anything most players would consider fun. There is no carrot at the end of the stick, other than a paltry numbers boost you can’t do well without.

Unless you’re DPS. One more reason not to roll a Guardian or Minstrel, I suppose.

Forgive me for this little rant. Here’s the thing, though: I don’t like the idea of having my class be useless if I don’t pony up or embark on the most epic grind this side of EQ1. I’ll continue on and go for the level cap. I’ll try my hand at what I can. But I won’t be doing this and I won’t be buying my way past it either. I’ve ignored it so far because nothing pre-Moria says it’s important. It hasn’t hindered me and it’s not focused enough to let me progress what’s important for my class as I level. If I get into the “endgame” and find out I need it, well, I guess I’ll be on my own until I put the game down. Frankly, I haven’t encountered a game yet that would justify that much unmasked grinding and LotRO certainly won’t be the first.

The single biggest problem facing LotRO today? The insidious virtue system that lies hidden 48 levels in, waiting until just the right time to say “oh, hey, guess what you need to do…”

11/16/10

Exchanging Server Communities For Game Communities

She's hiding because she plays Darkfall

Green Armadillo had an interesting post up yesterday where he discusses the coming battlegroup merges in WoW. He points out that it’s another step closer to global servers and I couldn’t agree more. One of the cons he mentions, amongst several others, has to do with server communities becoming less meaningful. My first reaction similar to GA’s, a mixture of disdain for the ever lessening meaning of our servers and optimism at the new possibilities these advancements bring to the game. I let it sit, though, and I’ve come to the conclusion that server communities really aren’t important anymore – not just in WoW, but in almost every game – and that we’d all be better off leaving them in the past.

I understand why people want to hold onto them. It’s a kind of identity, the server you call home. You get to know people better – theoretically, anyways – and can make a name for yourself. How you perform on battlegrounds and in open world PvP are meaningful because you start to recognize the key players on either side. More importantly, the community of each server takes on its own identity. In LotRO, Landroval is the RP server because the players have made it so. In WoW, servers build names through leading guilds. Servers very much shape how we experience the game. They’re important.

They’re also divisive and bad for the community. We take on this nationalist vibe for the servers we play on; “Realm Pride,” “Battlegroup Pride.” To be nationalist also means to hold oneself apart from everyone on the outside. Sure, we see melting pots, like forums and the comments sections of popular blogs. For the most part, people want to stay where they rolled their first character and feel awkward anytime they try a new server. In turn, players across the game feel left out when Landroval holds a special event while theirs does nothing. That’s why I left Meneldor; I started to see it as sub-par while the better, more active, servers had better, more fun things going on all the time. $30 later, I’m on Landroval with a new name.

Most importantly, they separate out friends. It’s a royal pain to try to get a bunch of MMO players on the same server. The companies running the game love that; it’s like built in peer pressure to spend, spend, spend. No one wants to pay $25 just to run a few dungeons with their pals and most people simply won’t – they’d have to leave their own server to do so. And, as GA so rightfully points out, games like WoW now have the technology to overcome this. We can chat cross-server. Surely more is within reach.

The problem is that moving into a single server is frightening. All the sudden, you’re faced with the GAME community instead of the SERVER community. What would it mean for Landroval if it were suddenly combined with every other server? Would that wonderful community prevail or get lost in the midst of all the non-RP servers? How about WoW. Would the weight of all that mouth-breathing, gear scoring, forum blather suddenly outweigh the honest folks who just want to have some fun running a dungeon?

Honestly, I don’t think so. When I look to the single-server games I’ve played, they’ve all been positive experiences (with the possible exception of Darkfall). Fallen Earth stands out as one of the best, most cohesive single-shard game communities I’ve ever taken part in. Now, I’m not saying that there’s not idiots and jerks in every game – because there are, lots of them – but that players become part of one cohesive unit. When you see somebody on the forums, there’s a chance of meeting that person in the game. When you log in you know that this is it, everyone playing the game is here, with you. It changes the atmosphere. There’s no, friend X is on Meneldor, Y is Argent Dawn, let’s all roll alts on Burning Crusade. It simply is and it aids immeasurably to the sense of world evoked by the game.

So while I appreciate server community, appreciate the great folks who come in and make each game worth playing, I can also appreciate that those same people would be there if servers were dissolved entirely. In point of fact, there would be more of them, all around you, and more accessible than ever before.

The question, when we take technology out of it, is if we feel the community in our games is strong enough to support it. If you ask yourself, would I still play this game if every server was combined as one, and the answer is no, I’d have to ask what that says about the playerbase.

11/8/10

Disassembling Good Quest Design

As I’ve gotten more involved with LotRO again, I’ve started to think more about what makes a good or bad quest. As I mentioned in a previous post, when I first came back I was deep within the reaches of Angmar, what was at one time considered LotRO’s end game. I couldn’t stand the zone – I tried and burnt out on it twice – so I decided to pull up stakes and head to Forochel. The difference in design becomes apparent right away; it’s akin to going from Vanilla WoW to Outland. The layout of everything from quest hubs, to horse trails, to the intricate overlay of quest objectives seems to shout “this is what we’ve learned, this is the revamp.” Also like Outland, it highlights good quest design. The similarity isn’t surprising since both pieces of content were added after the initial zones had time to settle and the companies recognized what their game’s needed most. Rather than focus on singular quests, I’d like to look at what I believe makes a good questing experience.

A good quest experience is never majority “kill ten rats” or “gather ten herbs.” The monotony of repeating content, differing mobs aside, makes for a boring experience unless you enjoy grinding. In Angmar, and several regions before it, players are handed numerous excuses to slay wildlife in rapid succession. While there may be fun to that at times, it’s also uninspired. Quests for the last decade have followed that same formula, predating graphics, and it’s a tired, if somewhat necessary trope. The collect/goto variety is usually interspersed within and follows the same principal.

But it’s not these objectives that make a quest fun or not, it’s how they’re all connected. Throughout a decent chunk of LotRO, you’re asked to kill wolves in the east side of the zone, travel to the west for flowers, and then run across the world to deliver a message to some arbitrary NPC. In Forochel, however, quests are in much closer proximity to one another and usually not far off from the quest giver. There’s little running and you’re often able to go from task to task to task only stopping to eat or regen. Essentially, for all the beautiful world Turbine has built, it’s simply more fun to stay in a small circle and get things done.

When I’m questing in Forochel, I feel like each piece of banner collected or each polar bear slain is a little bag of XP. I greedily collect them, like Scrooge McDuck does gold coins, and look ahead to the next quest only a short run away. In Angmar, North Downs, Esteldin, and the Troll Shaws, I feel like a courier doing my rounds, like a UPS man stopping between towns and delivering little brown packages to Rangers and Hobbits.

Then there’s the challenge. Good questing isn’t hard, but it’s not pushover easy either. It’s really about roadblocks. Take for example a quest I had last night. I was asked to collect pieces of a broken banner and rebuild it as a beacon upon a snowy hilltop. Easy enough. When I arrived, I found the pieces in an open field, close together but surrounded be three varieties of mob. The mobs were so close as to fight for each of the 15 pieces I needed but so that I couldn’t avoid it and hope to succeed. The variety was good enough to keep me on my toes; some tank and spank, some benefiting from advanced movement and positioning.

I appreciate challenging mobs, as I do simple ones on routine errands. The problem is that quest design often challenges us to kill many of the same creature in a row. What is once challenging becomes annoying, and the repetition of progress outlines that bad quest in our minds. Variety is the key, I think, and the most fun quests always offer a good mix of challenge and speed, be that through multiple enemy types or simply multiple skills on each mob.

Then, finally, there’s travel time. No need to beat a dead rat here. It should be short. Multizone runs are no fun, a drudge, and only work if done rarely and for good reason. Ouests should overlap. Travel is downtime by another name and nobody likes that when they’d rather by leveling.

Conversely, the design of intuitive quests is probably why no one bothers to read them anymore. Everyone expects to follow a waypoint or quest marker. I caught myself wanting to click through last night because I knew enough what to expect. When designed with progress in mind, it removes the need for context and reasoning tends to fall by the wayside. Thankfully, games like LotRO and Guild Wars give us good reason to read quests, like a hidden treat for players willing to invest a little bit more of themselves. It’s a shame that WoW doesn’t offer more in their quest text, as it has some of the best questing in the genre; then again, each expansion has offered little gems of quest lines, great and interesting pieces of lore and self-enclosed story, that only few players ever really appreciate. Such is the fate of elevating reward above reason, but at least the “getting there” is quite fun.

Is Moria anything like Forochel; did they apply these same lessons there? I was honestly a little worried about going forward, fearing I didn’t have another 500 old-world quests in me. If it keeps up this way, however, it may just be that the game doesn’t last long enough.

11/6/10

On LotRO, Turbine Points, and Kindle 3

Squire

This week has been a good mix of excitement and frustration. Exctration? Definitely exctration.

See, I got back into LotRO for the first time in forever only to notice that I haven’t been getting my monthly allotment of TP. As it turns out, there’s quite a few lifetimers also suffering from this problem. There’s probably more, too, but with no form of history to speak of a lot of people aren’t sure if they’ve been getting them or not. In my case, I’m two months out and 1,000 TP down. I’ve heard that there might be some confusion about dates in their system (creation vs billing), so who knows.

In any event, calling customer service, though hold-free, didn’t really offer any help. Apparently they’re going through a move and won’t have access to that information until the middle of next week. Turbine is usually excellent with their phone support, so I was disappointed, but I have a good $16 in points left \to last me until I hear back on the email ticket.

The excitement part of it is much more fun; I gave up on Angmar entirely. My attention span is far too short to spend my time drudging through zombie-hell-brown-texture, so I packed my bags and headed to Forochel. I’m still level 44, so I wasn’t sure I’d be strong enough, but I’m glad I moved. Forochel is not only prettier, but it’s better laid out, there’s more to solo, and frankly, the whole place is just a lot more interesting than Angmar. Plus, with all this new stuff to do I should be set for at least another couple levels and by then Eregion will be a real option.

I hear at 45 I need to start looking into Legendary Items. As corny as it sounds, I’m really looking forward to having a special weapon that I get to name. I love naming things; it helps me get more attached to them. Take my Moria Goat, Ruin. I love that damn thing. I honestly felt a little bad packing him up to try out the nifty new horse I bought from the cash shop. Squire’s kind of a lame duck though, all bland and brown looking — yes, I named her Squire. I guess I have a thing for naming things of which they are not. I shall name my first L.I…. Pants. Syeric and Pants, Partners in Denim. It’s too bad you can’t name shields. That might be a better name for a buckler.

Ruin

Speaking of horses, though, I don’t quite get what’s so cool about this skeletal horse everyone’s trying so hard to get. I firmly believe that the whole reason people think it’s cool is because the rest of the mounts in the game are so horribly generic. Big horse, small horse, spray-painted horse. And goat. I’ll take the whole other species thankyouverymuch.

But yeah, enough with LotRO.

The other blend of mixed emotions came from my new Kindle 3. Yours truly turned 24 this past Tuesday and was generously gifted with the funds to buy my new toy. I opted for the wifi version since the 3G I got last time was underwhelming. Apparently a lot of people shared my thought because every Target in New York was sold out (still are, I think). Thankfully, a Best Buy an hour away had them in stock. I made the drive.

Elation! Joy! Odious amounts of geekgasm fun! But wait, doesn’t this page turn button feel a little bit loose? Let’s see what the internet has to say about it. Sponginess? Early failure? Coping with it?!? And with that, and another hour drive, I exchanged it. The next one had the same problem (this is when I started to suspect I might be difficult to please). Really though, Kindle #2 was more than just loose feeling, it bordered on unresponsive. Thankfully I tested it in the parking lot before leaving.

Kindle #3 was perfect. Tight buttons, great response, everything you’d want in an e-reader. As it turns out, both the Kindle 3 and the Amazon branded covers have quirks that you have to work around. On the plus side, I am extremely impressed with this thing’s web browsing capabilities. It has enough memory and processing power to load non-mobile versions of every website I’ve tried — including Facebook and Google Reader. Google Reader is especially nice since built-in keyboard shortcuts let you read feeds just like an e-book.

The only real limitation, short of video, of course, is that the browser doesn’t support multiple windows or even tabs. That may not sound bad, until you need to click a link. I got the thing for reading, though, so I’ll deal. It’s also worth noting that the browser is leaps and bounds above every previous edition to date. For reference, my last one was a K2, which I returned due to price guilt, and the browser was so unwieldy it was almost worthless. This is a huge step above.

Oh, and a note: Splash “invisible” screen protectors are surprisingly glary and about impossible to remove. I mean, really, I had to super glue a rubber band to the thing just to pull it off. My wife’s finger nails failed and she’s got nails like a cat.

Anyways, that’s been my week. And New Vegas, which has both brought me joy and frustration. The game has a weird habit of reloading me right in front of the mobs who just killed me, right before they killed me, every time I die. I have to run away and hope to get far enough before dying again to live on the second reload. Bad design is bad.

Now, it’s time for some late night Polar Bear killing in Forochel. There are even babies, and you guys know how I feel about those.

11/3/10

LotRO: She’s Kind of Like THAT Ex, Isn’t She?

I’m returning from my mini blog-cation to bring you this sexy, sexy post. Now, back to that shadowy corner by the fire…

Take a look at the banner up top. See that burly guy talking about zombies or some such? That, my friends, is a dear old friend of mine born from the lands of Middle-Earth. I rolled him a little over two years ago, took up a Guardian’s axe because it looked fun to whack things with, and went out to seize an orc by its throat. Somewhere around 1000 birds later, I found that orc and seized him good. Then his buddies might have killed me, or another one of those damned birds, but, the point is, the process went on for the next 44 levels.

Until about eight months ago when WoW decided to seize me good and pulled me away from all the progress I’d made. WoW’s kind of a jerk like that. It demands monogamy – at least from those of us who have trouble sticking to “just one game” – and will slowly suffocate out its competition with promises of “phat lewtz” and “lengthy epeens.” So, try as I might, I left my dear friend all alone in the reaches of Angmar surrounded by the undead, shady dudes in robes, and even eviler birds.

Even after I left WoW, I still didn’t go back to LotRO. I mean, I tried. The problem is, that dwarf somehow became like “that” ex-girlfriend. You know, the one where you left on good terms but it’s still really awkward when you meet in the grocery store. Yeah, like that. So, I’d log in and notice weird things, like he attacks slow or shouts too much (seriously, there are zombies RIGHT over that hill). Before too long, I’d leave him right in the middle of the fruit section action, looking around wondering what he did wrong.

This is where FFXIV would come in: my main squeeze, baby, I’ll never leave again xoxoxoxo, but I’ll spare you all that. I am not a one game man.

That last time bothered me, though. We actually had some fun again. He killed this, I meta-gamed that, it was like old times; the spark was flickering. Before I knew it, I was starting to feel hopeful. Except, as those old familiar feelings started to wash over me, so did another familiar sentiment well up:

OMGIHATEBROWNZONESWHATTHECRAPISITWITHYOUANDBROWNZONESTURBINEREADMYLIPSB-O-R-I-N-GWTFBBQOKAIYOUHEARMENOW?!?!BLARARARAGH!

Good. I acknowledged it. Now we can move on. Acceptance is the first step to recovery.

So, I’ve decided to pull my old Rule of Three out of the closet. I came up with this rule a while ago because it always seems like I have trouble getting back into LotRO once I’ve been away a while. To be honest, I’m more prone to pick it up, play for five minutes, and walk away again, than give it a fair shot. But, once I’m back into it, I love it. Strange, right?

The Rule of Three says to give the game either: three straight hours; three days of consistent 1 hour or more sessions; or three weeks where it’s your main MMO (3+ hours a week). My biggest hurdle has always been getting over the re-entry and tapping back into the core of what makes LotRO fun. It’s all about time. Every time I’ve applied this rule, I’ve been able to get back in and find that same sense of adventure I’d known before. From talking to other bloggers, it sounds like I’m not alone in my challenges here, so give it a shot if you’re having trouble getting into the game – from a break or for the very first time – and I bet it helps.

*Raises his Right Hand* For the rest of this week, I solemnly swear to make LotRO my main MMO. I may not be able to be monogamous but, damn it, there’s enough of me to go around. Even if LotRO is a bit… free with herself these days.

Happy Wednesday, Everyone!

10/26/10

What’s In A Main?

Grumpy Dorf of Raging Monkeys raised an interesting question recently: what goes into a main character? It’s deceptively simple, really, and I’ve never really thought about it much until now. After reading through the post, however, I couldn’t help but question myself. There is certainly more to each it than which character I happen to play the most. Quite a bit more, actually.

When I think of an MMO I’ve played, it’s always paired with the character I played it with. In LotRO, that’s my Dwarf Guardian. In WoW, my Orc Death Knight. In FFXIV, it’s my baby Lala’fell. The list goes on even beyond MMOs. I do the same thing in most single player games too, with the exception of first-person-shooters. Each game has a face to go with it.

Each of those, with the exception of the Death Knight, has been my first character. That’s no coincidence, and I’d bet many of yours are firsties too. Part of that is because first impressions really are everything. The only reason my Death Knight is up there instead of my true first character is because I’ve made him as carbon copy as it’s possible to make without being the same class. His model is identical; his name is the same. My main characters are firsts because mentally I each fresh earth of a new world with the fresh face that explores it. I almost feel guilty working on an alt, like they’re sitting there waiting, stuck in whatever spot I left them.

Those first decisions are also some of the most meaningful I’ll ever make in a game. Before I see the world for the mechanics behind it, I approach the game looking for my place in the fiction. I mean that literally, where would I, the player, fit in should I magically be transplanted. In LotRO, I’m a Dwarf because, in the world of Middle-Earth, I’d want to be Gimli. In FFXIV, I want to be the small guy fighting against the odds. In each game, I wield a sword because, to me, that is the stuff of heroes. Nothing after these first few steps comes as close. You’re birthing a set of eyes through which you see the world; it is your surrogate.

So, to me, my first character is my main character, and my main character is myself. Sometimes, most times, I’ll make up some little backstory. The personality is always the same, though, because when people talk to the character Syeric, I want them to talk to the person Syeric. Roleplay often seems a bit forced because I have to step outside of my comfort level so much more. That’s also probably the reason I’ve found it more memorable and fun when I’ve been able to do it. It’s so much more like playing make believe as a child than deliberately injecting “aye” and “lass” and “mead” into every sentence. For a little bit, I’m able to slip my skin and become that brewer’s son or Orken orphan (cliched, I know).

For me, my mains are mainstays of each game I play even when I’m not playing them; even when an alt elevates into my usual login choice, I sooner consider myself having two “mains” instead of letting the first slip. There are times when I’ll linger on the character select page, wondering if I should pick up one of these long dusty yet forever youthful old friends and take them for a romp through an old haunt. Sometimes I even do.

At the end of the day, I wonder how similar I am to other players out there. Lots of people stick with one character forever and others roll dozens of alts. I keep a small roster in each game and usually consider most, if not all, of them mains. The only real way to separate that with me is by having too many main characters forcing, them into alt-territory (never a problem), or by simply putting months or years of time between logins.