Addiction

There’s an interesting article in RPG Vault recently about addictive gaming.

It’s a tricky thing to define, but I’ll take a crack at it. A design is addiction-based to the degree that it encourages players to experience the same content again and again (often referred to as grinding) in return to obtain a series of rewards. These can be simple labels with no tangible effect (like an in-game title or some achievements), or they can be character improvements that give the ability to move on to a new location with a slightly different sort of grinding. I call this the grind/reward cycle, and it can keep players coming back to one game for years.

One key aspect of this design is that it gives many small rewards instead of a few big ones, so that the player is receiving constant positive reinforcement. A classic example is the style of skill improvement in World of Warcraft and EverQuest. When you gain a level, your skills don’t go up five points. Instead, your maximum goes up that much, and then the skill itself increases with use, a point at a time. Splitting up the reward into many parts increased the number of reinforcements.

The majority of games classified as MMOs these days adhere to a greater or lesser extent to addition-based game play.  Do x until you get y, then move on to z.  Repeat.  Sadly, games don’t seem to deviate much from that pattern.  Star Wars: The Old Republic seems to be attempting to move to a more story-based model.  Whether or not it’s successful, only time will tell (the game isn’t even in alpha yet).

Like the author, I’d love to see more options in games.  One gripe I’ve had with LotRO is their new-found gear-centeredness.  Like WoW, LotRO seems to be heading towards making players loot-crazy to keep them playing.  LotRO’s problem is they can’t make the instances interesting.  Rather than becoming loot-crazy, players are taking extended breaks until the next content expansion or leaving for other games once they hit the cap (that seems to be the general pattern I’ve noticed, anyway).  Personally, I’d like to see more community-based activities in MMOs … I mean, we play MMOs to play with other players so encouraging players to work with each other doesn’t seem like a bad way to go.  I don’t mean that forced grouping should become the norm, but it would be neat to encourage players in other ways (clever game design pushing them into proximity, better and varied PvP activities, trading-card type games where players can interact, etc.).

New models of “addictive game play” may help the industry out of its current rut.

 

Lore

I was having a discussion on Ventrilo the other day with some folks in my LotRO kinship.  We were lamenting the roughness of the LotRO end-game and were talking about some of the hurdles different IP-based games are having.  (That is to say, games based on a third-party IP – technically, all games are based on someone’s IP.

Blizzard owns the IP related to WoW.  So if they want to add space-ships or player-controlled flying mounts, the lore folks just say it’s possible and then it’s up to the software folks to make it happen.  There’s almost nothing standing in the way of a gaming possibility, the lore creators just have to figure out the story behind it and then it’s ready to be built into the game.

Turbine does not own the IP behind its LotRO game, Tolkien Estates does.  Everything in the game Turbine build has to conform to the lore as Tolkien imagined it.  There are exceptions (like the number of adventuring hobbits running around) but the places, the overall feel of the game and many of the character names and abilities are limited by the IP.  As such, players cannot be wizards (there are only a handful in Tolkien’s world), players cannot ride eagles (riding eagles is a rare privilege); the lore curtails many of the possibilities in an online world in favor of sticking with a set, third-party IP.

 

Still alive

I’m still alive over here.  I haven’t posted in a bit as real life has reared its non-pixilated head and I’ve been working quite a bit.

On the game front, I’m still playing LotRO but have reduced the amount of time I’ve been playing.  Part of my play time reduction has been work-related but part has been due to game play.  The current crop of hard mode “end game” instances doesn’t appeal to me at all.  I also don’t care for the gated content of the Watcher raid.  In Shadows of Angmar, players could play with their friends.  Gear seemed less important than trait selections and a little skill so a raid that was short a minstrel could just grab another one without too much concern.  Nowadays, I see things like “LF minstrel, must have 50 radiance or better.”  50 radiance can only be gotten by equipping 5 items (+10 radiance each), which in turn means 5 hard mode runs at a minimum.  Turbine often flits with a fine line between “epic” and “tedious” and for the MoM end game instances, I’ve found very little epic about them.  Some of them I like (Fil Gashan or the Grand Stairs) but most I could do without.

The sad thing is that I can see the strains forming in my kinship.  Those who went all-out to get through the six-man instances are chomping at the bit to down the Watcher.  Those of us that are taking our time or don’t particularly care about the six-mans are getting left further and further behind.  Friends can’t group up with friends anymore without also asking how much radiance gear they have.  I’ve seen this before in WoW’s Burning Crusade and have no desire to repeat that kind of loot-centric game play in LotRO.  There’s a lot of chatter on the blog-u-sphere lately about community building.  While there are a lot of things games can do to foster community, I’m pretty sure one of them isn’t wedging gear requirements in-between friends.

My burglar is level 60, has well-enough armor and weapons and has his talents maxed out.  So, other than the occasional rep grind, there’s little else for me to do in LotRO until book 8.  I have some alts which I play occasionally but without other people my level to play with, alts don’t interest me that much.

In other news, some friends of mine who left LotRO resurfaced in WoW on a new server so I re-upped my WoW account to play with them there.  Together, we rolled a small group (warrior, priest, and hunter) and are having a blast with the small-group stuff WoW has to offer.  For giggles, we also all rolled gnome Death Knights.  Hilarity ensued.

Now is the time in the Ebon Hold when we dance.

In addition to my warrior and new death knight, I’ve also created a dwarf paladin.  My how things have changed!  I recall when seals only lasted seconds.  Now they’ll last thirty minutes unless you do a judgment on them.  They seem to have lengthened the amount of time the blessings last as well.

While I haven’t given up on LotRO and plan on heading back, my game vacation in Azeroth has been a lot of fun.

 

The Road Not Taken: Star Wars Galaxies

I’ve been enjoying the new content in the Lord of the Rings Online but I’ve also been poking around for something different.  I’ve spent a lot of time playing game in the fantasy genre (WoW, EQ2 and LotRO) and wanted to see what things were like in some of the Science Fiction games I hadn’t picked up.  I had an unused fourteen day trial of Star Wars Galaxies (SWG) sitting around so I thought I’d give it a go.

Once the software was all set up, I logged in; created a character on the first server recommended to me and away I went.  The first character I made was a smuggler.  Smuggler at first seemed like a really cool choice.  I could do a decent amount of damage (both ranged and melee).  The intro quests had me helping out Han Solo and Chewbacca.  I shot down TIE fighters, got parts for the Millennium Falcon and did a bunch of standard MMO-type quests (kill ten x, get parts by killing, click-the-glowy, etc.).

Once I made it to Tatooine, I decided I didn’t like my smuggler.  I rolled him as a squid-looking guy and didn’t really feel like looking at him the whole time.  While I was in town I also noticed that there was basically no one else there.  There were a couple of lowbies like me, but running into people was a rarity.

I made a bounty hunter on a different server.  Bounty hunters also seemed pretty cool.  They have lots of ranged damage and snares.  Their armor also looked cool and the fact that I chose a human this go-around also improved my disposition towards the character.  Away I went, blasting the snot out of stuff for Han and Chewie and also getting to interact with Boba Fett this time.  This time I also started running the space missions right in the tutorial.  Very cool!  One of the things that keep me from trying out Eve Online is the lack (as far as I know) of personal avatars.  You are your ship, it would seem.  SWG allows characters to play as a normal walking-around toon or to be in their spaceships.  I like it.

Once out of the tutorial as my bounty hunter, I was again greeted by a low population world.  As I did more quests without seeing another living soul, I decided that, while the bounty hunter was interesting, it wasn’t going to be my thing.  So I rerolled again.

 

LotRO: Volume Two, Book Seven

Turbine recently released Book Seven, a free expansion of their post-Moria content.  It’s wonderful.  The expansion area fleshes out the Lothlorien sections of the map.  Via rep quests, players can get access to the golden wood and eventually the elf city Galadriel calls home.  Let me just say that the Caras Galadhon itself is absolutely gorgeous.  It’s pretty much as I had envisioned it and is rather similar to the one in the movies as well: mallorn trees, flets and all.  The whole expansion area is very well done with a lot of notable landmarks, each with its own history and stories.

To gain access to central Lothlorien, players need to do some reputation quests to get to acquaintance with the Galadrim.  The quests involve killing orcs in the area, retrieving arrows, burning orc filth and burning down barricades.  I only had to run the quests three or four times each before I could get into the woods without being shot at by archers.  Note: once you get your rep to the required level, look for the Galadrim guard standing by the entrance.  Only after talking to him can you proceed into the woods safely.

After getting into the woods, I spent a good couple of hours just riding around and gawping.  The woodlands are beautiful.  The atmosphere has a bluish tint at night, which lends an ethereal air to the place, and shines golden in sunlight.  There are several glades and gardens to visit as well as various landmarks and flets (tree platforms of the Galadrim).  And the company is back!  I’ve found all that passed through Moria.  Some are outside Caras Galadhon in the woods and others are inside the city itself.  Being a total story nerd, I was overjoyed seeing Sam and Frodo again as well as the others.  Turbine knows its audience for LotRO well and makes good use of the elements of the LotR story to draw players into the lore.

In addition to the new zone and quests, there is a new, soloable epic book quest in the new content.  The epic book 7 quests are soloable and will result in both a neat story as well as a very nice cloak.  I went ahead and ran the book 7 quest even though I’m not that far in the story progression: players can opt to do the epic quest out of order with the others if they choose.  In addition to the final quest cloak, I also received a much-needed chest piece upgrade.

Lothlorien is an important part of the Lord of the Rings story and one which lore fans would scream bloody murder over if it were not exact (or at least pretty darn close) in its faithfulness to the books.  Lothlorien in the game is very well done and did not disappoint.  Turbine has continued doing an excellent job with its source material.

 

LotRO: Damage Types and Legendary Items

One of the search questions my blog tracked recently was “how do I change my damage type?”  I’m assuming that the questioner was interested in finding out how to change the damage type on their legendary item (LI) weapon.  It’s a good question and one that I had going through the mines until I reached Dolven View.

To change the damage type of a LI, you need to talk to one of the quest-givers for the solo instances.  There is one quest-giver in the town just outside the mines and there are two in Dolven View.  The first thing to do is talk to the quest-giver.  They’ll usually ask for a special stone or mineral before going through the instance.  The minerals are random drops from mobs throughout Moria.  I believe the level of the mineral is based off the level of the mob.  So a 53 mob will have a chance to drop the lower level ones while the 60 mobs will drop the higher level ones.  Once you have your mineral (and it’s a different one depending on the instance level you want to go into) go back to the quest-giver and start the instance.

 

Ease of use

One of the things I like about LotRO is that things are more accessible for casual players.  Having better armor helps, but if you’ve been keeping up with your quest rewards and have a friend craft a couple pieces, you should be good for most of the content.  With a relatively small amount of organization, most instances and book quests can be conquered easily.

But there are still some challenges that are really quite difficult.  This past weekend, a group of kinship mates and I decided that we’d wrap up book 1.15.12.  The final instance of the book is hard.  Very hard.  Players have to fight their way through tunnels of orcs, defeat a boss with debuffs (and massive damage if you have one of the debuffs on you) and fight through a multiple wave fight at the end.  Even with most of our group at level sixty, it was a tricky run.  We had three wipes before getting through the first boss.  Also, this was my second attempt at the instance; my first was in a group of all-fifties and we didn’t make it past the first boss.

In spite of how annoying the fight was, the relief when it was all over was really something.  I ended the day sitting outside the Last Homely House on my new white pony.

While most challenges in LotRO are accessible for most players, finishing the 15.12 instance felt more like an accomplishment to me than the typical Rift run.  It was a tough fight and made players work for it.  I had to run the instance twice before getting though it.  One of my kinship mates had tried five times to get it.  Yet, when it was all over, we finally prevailed.  I’m still of the opinion that the fight should be easier (mainly because it’s a book quest and not a raid) but finishing it while it was that tough definitely felt epic.

*Spoiler alert – strategy and spoilers below the fold*

 

Screenshots

MBP tagged me for another meme thingy, this one to post the sixth screenshot of any game of my choosing.

I take a lot of screenshots in any game I play.  I suspect it’s the camera buff in me.  I’m aware that at some point the game will go away (either I’ll leave or the game will shut down) and all that will be left are my screenshots of the people I met, the places I’ve explored and the adventures I had.

I printed a screenshot I took in City of Heroes back when I was playing it (I was trying out a new color printer and wanted to see what it could really do).  The shot was of a friend and me standing on the roof of a building high above Paragon City overlooking the statue of Atlas in the courtyard. We had just gotten our travel powers (super jump for me and teleport for her) and we were excited to see the world from a perspective which had been previously unavailable to us.

On a recent return to City of Heroes, I visited the same building and leapt across rooftops just to take in the views.  My character had changed since the screenshot – I’m a lot more glowy now and my outfits include capes instead of the simple ensemble I used to wear.  More importantly, my friend is gone. Gone to where, I do not know.  Given what she was like when I knew her, it’s likely she’s playing another game.  My other friends in CoH are all gone too.  I remember our supergroup outings to crush Clockwork or the Fifth Column goons.  I still have the screenshots of when we formed our supergroup (a shot of us standing around the registrar all doing the /newspaper emote).  We were quite the crew.  Time and changes in gaming interests pulled us apart.  On my return, I noticed they weren’t around anymore – but I still have my screenshots.

In the ephemeral world of MMOs, screenshots are a way to pretend that something which doesn’t exist, in-fact never really existed, is in some way real.  They help maintain the illusion of the worlds we inhabit and our place in it.  Though these digital worlds move on and my online friends fade as they discard one digital shell to, perhaps, pick up another shell in another world, I still have my screenshots of the way things used to be.

(Screenshot and further blathering below the fold.)

 

Max Level in LotRO

My hobbit burglar is now at the level cap and my typical day as a hobbit in Middle-earth usually contains the following:

- Kill several different kinds of mobs to fill out my trait selections. Right now I’m working on half-orcs and craban in Eregion, the area outside the Mines of Moria. It’s nice seeing the sky again after so long in the darkness. Most of the mobs are grey and not really a challenge, so I’ll pull groups at a time. I’ve also been exploring while I’m at it.

- Solo instance runs. There are several NPCs in various locations that will let players run a solo instance in exchange for a gem of some sort (like an infused garnet). The solo instance completion reward is usually a scroll which will grant a buff to a legendary item (LI) weapon. For example, I often take a scroll which grants a damage increase to orcs and goblins. It also makes my legendary weapon glow blue when there are orcs around. Like Sting! The solo instances are pretty neat, usually generate a decent amount of cash and often result in getting another LI turn-in token.

- If I get items which I can turn in for legendary items, I’ll get a couple and equip them. If they’re useful, they may become a new item for me. If not, I’ll get them a level or two to increase the number of artifacts they’ll drop when I deconstruct them. This aspect of the LI system I find a little silly. It’s like obtaining Narsil and then turning it over to a forge master to turn into spare parts. Ideally, I’ll get my junk weapons to level and then run the solo instance (see above) to get them a couple levels.

- After my routines above, I’ll do whatever comes to mind. I’ve gone on instance runs with kinship mates, gone fishing in Lothlorien, worked on rep with my crafting guild (the cook’s guild for my burglar), or played an alt.

Overall, I’m having fun. It’s nice to have the leveling pressure off me and to just be able to wander on a whim. I suspect as more of my kinship gets geared up for raiding the Watcher, I’ll start joining them for their gear runs. Until then though, I’m content just fiddling around with whatever comes my way.

 

The Dungeon of Separation Anxiety

I finally hit 60 with my hobbit burglar the other day. First thing I did was train up and the second thing I did was get to the bank to equip the new level 60 burglar gloves a kinship mate sent me. Since then, I’ve been milling around the game a bit seeing what other 60s have been up to.

Turbine’s LotRO: Shadows of Angmar (SoA) contained raid instances. One of the great things about the old content was that it was not particularly gear-intensive. Purple gear (excellent quality – the equivalent of WoW’s blue gear), good trait selections and perhaps some scroll or food buffs would be sufficient for most roles in a raid. You probably wouldn’t want to be the main tank in purple gear, but being DPS or crowd-control would be fine.

Raiding in the Mines of Moria expansion is a bit different. There are several instances (four to six of them, I’m not sure the total count) where players can run in either “easy” mode – where they can complete quests, get deeds, and get some alright gear – or “hard” mode where players can follow certain criteria to complete the instance. Hard mode may include timing (down the second boss ten minutes after downing the first), special skills (not being detected by any guards) or only killing certain mobs. The point of running instances on “hard mode” is to get a special gear drop at the end of the run.