Is LOTRO Successfully in Upkeep Mode?

I really feel skinny, form of stretched, like butter scraped over an excessive amount of bread

-Bilbo Baggins

There was numerous optimism when EG7 introduced their plans to buy Dawn Video games.  It was a heady second for many people when EG7 gave us a bunch of knowledge concerning the numerous titles.

There was additionally statements from EG7 about investing in titles like Lord of the Rings On-line, together with what appeared like loopy discuss a console model.  It felt like good issues may very well be coming.

Virtually 5 months down the street the, now that the afterglow of the bulletins has handed, a few of us are actually getting slightly impatient to see what modifications, if any, the approaching of the brand new Swedish overlords really deliver.  As with different such transactions, you solely get a lot goodwill time earlier than the outdated issues change into your issues.

Sadly, the message coming from the LOTRO workforce appears to be the same old litany of deferral and excuses.  Final week the neighborhood received a Q&A with the manager producer and to say it was a disappointment can be one thing of an understatement.  All types of issues folks have been asking after for years like a scalable UI or broad display screen assist to make the sport playable on bigger screens are nowhere in sight.  They largely appear to be on about bugs and no matter new content material they’ll scrape collectively.

Most annoying to me was the response about legendary objects, a horribly grindy function that ought to have been left behind in Moria:

We would like gamers to have issues to do whereas they’re leveling. I do know that some gamers are ‘Oh, that is too grindy and generally we overdo it,’ however ‘grindy’ doesn’t scare me as a lot as ‘I don’t have sufficient to do.’ I don’t have sufficient to do is worse as a result of gamers need to play the sport however they don’t actually have objectives to pursue.

This betrays such a primary misunderstanding of what makes folks persist with these types of video games that I despair for any future for the sport, even when EG7 decides to throw some cash at it.  That is the entire worst conspiracies about MMO devs confirmed, that they make issues purposely grindy to maintain us with the sport longer.  Have you ever met your gamers?  We do stuff simply because we are able to.  We don’t want enforced obligatory grind, we’ll make our personal thanks.

I actually thought we had been previous that considerably when WoW launched as was comparatively straightforward to degree up in in comparison with the trade as a complete and but folks nonetheless discovered issues to do within the sport.  I suppose not.

The legendary objects factor actually strikes house for me.  Regardless of my enjoyment of Lord of the Rings On-line over time… I purchased a lifetime subscription again at launch and personal each enlargement… I’ve by no means made it very far previous Moria within the sport.  A part of the reason being that Siege of Mirkwood is simply an uninspired enlargement the place Turbine was clearly simply mailing it in whereas they threw assets at a few of their fruitless initiatives.  However it has been largely because of the fixed must attend to the legendary weapon… and never the one legendary weapon I received again earlier than Moria, however whichever drop I occurred to get that was an improve.

But by some means they’re anxious that in the event that they dumped legendaries that gamers wouldn’t have the ability to rely on drops to maintain up with DPS… although we just about must rely on drops for that anyway.  I suppose perhaps I needs to be completely satisfied they aren’t planning to make them extra grindy, which was just about the message again in January, however adjusting the “suck” setting again 10% nonetheless means issues suck.  They usually’re speaking about problem modes that can make grinding your legendary much more of a requirement.  They appear 100% locked into “grind makes the sport” as a philosophy.

Leaving apart my private funding within the demise of legendaries, the entire tone of the Q&A was as miserable as any of the worst intervals of the Turbine or Dawn eras.  Even the constructive bits, like the brand new little bit of content material, The Additional Adventures of Bilbo Baggins, turned out to be hole, being made up of reused property and mechanics.

A improvement workforce that was going to get an infusion of assets to assist it alongside would absolutely have the ability to supply a extra convincing imaginative and prescient for the long run.  As an alternative I’m starting to marvel if EG7 isn’t merely perusing the Gamigo enterprise mannequin of shopping for up drained titles and milking the final bits of life out of them earlier than shutting them down.  I beforehand dared to take a position as to what LOTRO wanted.  Now I’m wondering what the sport may even hope to get.

It needs to be second for the sport.  It’s celebrating its 14th anniversary and a significant potential competitor, the Amazon funded Center-earth MMO, has been cancelled. (Although the LOTR sequence below improvement continues to be on, so there should be a renewed curiosity in all issues Center-earth.)  As an alternative, the sport is beginning to really feel like Bilbo on the prime of the put up, stretched too skinny for the assets they’ve with no reduction in sight.