The new Lord of the Rings Online progression servers are proving to be of significant interest to MMO players and bloggers alike, with some of the latter diving in to investigate how these specialty shards operate.
Occasional Hero sees this as an excellent on-ramp to the game: “For me, this is an excuse for a larger community to reroll and progress at the same time. It’s for people like me who didn’t play the game at launch and want to play level 50 or 60 dungeons as they were designed, and not by getting carried by people twice the level it was designed for.”
“There is also a very re-assuring sense of familiarity with the game when it’s presented like this,” chipped in Contains Moderate Peril. “The sheer volume of players bustling about also reminded me what the original allure of the MMO genre was; a thriving living world or at least the appearance of one. More than a decade on simply being online with others has lost its mystique and is something you just take for granted.”
Unidentified Signal Source: Elite Dangerous — the quest for space cows
“It’s proven profitable enough that I think we’re both saving up for the infamous Type ‘Space Cow’ 9. Yeah, I know, the jump range is low, the speed is low, and I’m sure it steers like a solid core rocket strapped to mount Everest.”
Endgame Variable: Snap judgment on Bless Online
“There really isn’t much of anything memorable about the experience. Throw a dart and you can hit seven other Asian games from the last five years that are basically identical. I can’t think of anything that distinguishes this game from any other.”
Me Versus Myself and I: Hellgate London revival
“Hellgate London arrived during a time was I was fairly addicted to MMOs and set out to try most that I could get my hands on. The game originally released in Q4 of 2007, but it didn’t hit my radar until early 2008. My father turned me onto the title, but I had read mixed reviews at the time and didn’t want to buy a copy until he had insisted that it was a decent game.”
“This isn’t like WildStar where the studio is closing down. While there were reports of a massive layoff, who didn’t see that coming with the state of RIFT in the last year or so. Not surprising at all. The game has focused on all the wrong things, like the Prime server, leaving the normal servers to flounder and stagnate for far too long. I’m very sad a lot of people lost their jobs, I hope the staff cut from Trion find jobs swiftly and wish them all the best.”
Tales of the Aggronaut: Fallout 76 B.E.T.A.
“I am not really sure what all I can actually say about this game that hasn’t already been revealed. You need to set your expectations at ‘This is a Fallout 4 multiplayer mod without NPCs,’ and if you can sufficiently do that you will probably not be disappointed.”
MMO Gypsy: WoW Classic — are you yearning for the good old bad days?
“As an MMORPG player with limited amounts of time these days, I am mostly over the grim satisfaction mindset. The virtue of suffering that was a badge of pride in old-school games, holds no fascination for me. Look, I have done it all, had it all, what could I possibly gain from WoW Classic?”
Every day there are tons of terrific, insightful, and unusual articles posted across the MMO gaming blogosphere — and every day, Justin reads as many as he can. Global Chat is a sampling of noteworthy essays, rants, and guides from the past few weeks of MMO discourse.
