With the recent news that Lord of the Rings Online is loosening up some restrictions regarding class and race combinations, it seems to have re-sparked that old conversation about such artificial restrictions. While some MMOs allow you to play and race/class combo you like, others have withheld some of these.
My question today is, does it ever make sense for a studio to deny certain race/class combinations? Can we argue it from the perspective of in-game lore, where the combo simply doesn’t make sense in the world? Could we acknowledge that creating additional animations for all of the combinations is a lot of extra work? Or perhaps is it a shrewd move to place these restrictions initially so that they can be removed later for a shot of publicity and player goodwill?
What do you think?
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
