Tag Archive: turbine

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 …

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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 …

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Exchanging Server Communities For Game Communities

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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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Like Stepping Back in Time (A Tale of Two Games)

I have a funny relationship with LotRO. We’re an on-again, off-again kind of couple. Sometimes she gets all hot and bothered when I’m ready to sleep for the night. When I’m in the mood, she immediately tells me to run to Rivendell for some milk. But, honestly, most of the time I’m just out with …

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The Post-WoW Haze

Something happens to me when I play WoW, and I’d bet it happens to a lot of players. When I play, I do it to the exclusion of most other games. I recall looking at my PS3 through this last bit and thinking that it looked a bit sad, gathering dust on its stand. My …

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LotRO’s Cash Shop and Where It Leads

Throughout the transition period, I’ve done my best to support Turbine and Lord of the Rings Online. As a lifetime subscriber, the change to freemium meant very little for me – and, still do. So, while I empathized with players terrified of what the changeover meant for them, I couldn’t exactly share their fear. That’s …

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I’ve Hit the Sticking Point Again in WoW

Over the last couple of days, and partially due to Syp‘s great Road to Mordor columns, I’ve been playing more LotRO than I have in the last quarter year. As I reloaded the game, I couldn’t but feel a little deja vu. I’d been here before, reloading the game exactly as I had almost a …

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