lotro

See: Lord of the Rings Online

The Daily Grind: Where have you gotten bogged down in MMO play?

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Probably one of my biggest bugaboos (that’s a technical term) in MMO play is when I get bogged down trying to progress through a certain point in the game. Maybe it’s a difficult to navigate zone or a frustratingly tough area, but there’s nothing that kills my enthusiasm to log in than when I’m making slow-to-no progress in my gaming sessions.

Recently I had to make a concerted effort to push myself through Northern Mirkwood in Lord of the Rings Online. While it was spot-on with its dark, eerie atmosphere, the visual difficulties coupled with the challenging terrain made questing a plodding affair. At least I got out and saw the daylight again!

Where have you gotten bogged down in MMO play? Have you ever hit a wall that was difficult to pass? Did you make it through or just give up?

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Lord of the Rings Online hypes up dragons, 64-bit client, and Minas Morgul

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Last week’s GenCon in Indy turned out to be a surprising source of information for fans of Standing Stone Games. First we found out that DDO is working on a Sharn expansion, and now we have received even more information on Lord of the Rings Online’s future projects.

The next big patch for the game is the Grey Mountains update, which MMO Central reports will be “more instance-heavy” than usual. The dev team also talked about making some cool dragons, Minas Morgul, and “eventually” the region of Harad.

“The other thing I like about Grey Mountains, it really talks about Dwarven lore,” said Executive Producer Rob Ciccolini, “so it’s a big area for Dwarves, you see bits and pieces of ancient sort of dwarf architecture there which is kind of interesting because he haven’t done as much of that since Mines of Moria.”

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Perfect Ten: 10 MMO features that deserve widespread adaptation

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You know what gets me excited about upcoming MMOs? It’s certainly not the list of expected systems and features that have since become standard for most games in this genre. Good-looking fantasy online RPG? Neato, that’s terrific, but what else are you selling?

No, what truly grabs my attention is when a dev team uses its imagination and comes up with a creative feature that makes me sit back and say, “Wow, I wish they all had this!”

It’s a shame that we have seen plenty of these systems over the years that were tried maybe once or twice but never adapted into the greater sphere. Today we’re going to come up with 10 examples of such features that truly did try something revolutionary (or at least pretty cool) but haven’t seen follow-ups in games since.

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The Stream Team: Better hop to it to get your LOTRO bunny!

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This is a day for lasts. LOTRO has opened the Yule Festival up so folks can escape the heat of summer, but it is ending tomorrow. More importantly, the chance to get an adorable little bunny companion ends with it! Massively OP’s MJ really needs that bunny, so she’d jump in quick before she loses out. Hop on in and join us live at 8:00 p.m. to get one of your own.

What: Lord of the Rings Online
Who: MJ Guthrie
When: 9:00 p.m. EDT on Monday, August 6th, 2018

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LOTRO Legendarium: Is Lord of the Rings Online aging well?

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By now, to me, Lord of the Rings Online is a comfortable, well-worn friend that always offers a very predictable and enjoyable experience whenever I return to the game. It’s absolutely bizarre to me to consider that we’re now in the Post-Ring era of the MMO’s storyline, yet it is all still going strong in its own way.

One thing I cannot deny is that LOTRO is what most people would consider to be an “older MMO.” It’s been in live operation ever since April 2007, and once the game tipped over the decade mark, it joined other long-running titles that had long since shed their youth for maturity and stability.

As I was exploring Northern Mirkwood and going through the new Christmas quest recently, I found my thoughts had turned to evaluating the game’s status as an aging MMORPG. I mean, all MMOs age (if they’re fortunate enough to launch), and not every title can remain young, hot, and popular forever. But that doesn’t mean that they become irrelevant and unengaging when they’ve entered into the middle age of their lifespan. So, I thought, how is LOTRO aging as an 11-year-old product? What is going for it at this point and what is starting to show signs of wear and tear?

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Pathfinder Online promises free trial, open enrollment, and a marketing push

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About nine people showed up at a GenCon Pathfinder Online panel this past weekend, during which Paizo CEO Lisa Stevens gave an update on the status of this struggling sandbox MMO.

Stevens said that with 15 major updates under its belt to date and two employees working on the game, Pathfinder Online is on the final stretch to open enrollment. This means a marketing push to get more people into the game, thanks to the hiring of a new marketing director at Piazo with experience promoting games like LOTRO and ArcheAge.

Future milestones for Pathfinder include an enchanting system, various cool factions (river pirates? Sign us up!), deity groups, a new player experience, new art, 30 or 40 additional monsters, more classes (Paladins, Barbarians, and Sorcerers were floated as possibilities), upgrading to the latest version of Unity, rules from Pathfinder 2.0, and a free trial option.

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One Shots: Motion sickness

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Our headlining picture today comes with a request for some help, so we’re calling all Warframe players to give their aid!

“So I finally decided to check out Warframe,” said reader Ryuen, “but I was wondering if anyone has any tips on how not to get motion sick while sliding/bullet jumping/etc through the levels to an objective? *Tenno slides away*”

I am not the person to ask this. I get motion sick spinning my chair slowly with a child on my lap. I have been forbidden from going on Disney’s spinning tea cup ride. Doctors tell me that I still need training to master this “walking” thing.

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LOTRO’s new Christmas quest is now live

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Looking to keep out of trouble in Middle-earth? Lord of the Rings Online is field-testing a brand-new Christmas quest for the next week — and bringing back its Yule Festival content during that period for anyone who wouldn’t mind snagging more tokens and rewards.

“A new quest has arrived in Frostbluff called Stolen Sweets,” SSG said. “Visit snowy locations throughout Middle-earth to recover stolen treats for the poor children of Winter-home, and earn the rewards of a white Yule Rabbit and the title ‘Bringer of Sweets!'”

The small update also fixed a pesky chat issue, handed out a new mount for completing an Isengard meta deed, placed a cap on festival Festivity tokens, and allowed for even more diacritics for chat and names.

Source: Patch notes. Thanks, Tanek!

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Worlds Adrift announces its first player council, says the playerbase will pick the next round

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Longtime MMORPG fans will know that the concept of player councils and senates, liaisons between the playerbase and the developers, have long been a part of the MMO landscape, be they in games like EVE Online and Star Wars Galaxies or Lord of the Rings Online. Longtime MMORPG fans will also know that the impact of these types of councils is about as weighty as a junior high student council. Worlds Adrift is now joining their number, according to a new Bossa Studios post this weekend.

The first batch of 10 on the “Community Cloud Council,” Bossa says, have been hand-picked to “help streamline feedback” from the playerbase. “These players have been very helpful to Bossa, time and time again giving very honest and constructive feedback on development,” the company explains. “These guys know every inch of the game, are aware of all the ins and outs of the mechanics, have provided thorough bug reports, and kept above board when dealing with some pretty bad exploits.”

The second council, however, will be subject to the vote of the playerbase. The Worlds Adrift team does note that members will be signing NDAs and will further serve as a sounding board for in-development content.

Source: Official site

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Global Chat: Getting a handle on Legends of Aria

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One of the great benefits of reading the wealth of MMO blogs out there is that you can touch base on a huge variety of games that you might not have time to play. Haven’t gotten around to checking in with the indie sandbox Legends of Aria? The blogosphere has you covered!

While Superior Realities thinks that there’s a “skeleton of a good game” in Aria, he wasn’t won over by the closed beta: “After about thirty minutes of dealing with bugs, spectacularly tedious and old school gameplay, and generally terrible design, I decided life was too short.”

Inventory Full felt that the game had featureless maps but probably deserved a longer look, and Levelcapped said that Aria is “so damn close to being an Ultima Online sequel that it’s both wonderful and blasphemous at the same time.”

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Lord of the Rings Online brings Christmas to July

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Just because it’s the middle of the summer doesn’t mean that Middle-earth can’t enjoy some frosty fun! Lord of the Rings Online is bringing back its Yule Festival next week for a special encore that also contains a special surprise.

From July 31st through August 7th, players can head back to Winter-home where a new quest and reward awaits them. Those participating should note that LOTRO is now limiting the maximum number of festival tokens to 40, so make sure you spend yours so as not to waste any!

“A new quest has arrived in Frostbluff called Stolen Sweets!” the patch notes mention. “Visit snowy locations throughout Middle-earth to recover stolen treats for the poor children of Winter-home, and earn the rewards of a white Yule Rabbit and the title ‘Bringer of Sweets!’ The quest is bestowed by the Frostbluff Stable-master. This new quest can be completed once during the run of the Vacation on Frostbluff event, and does not require visiting regions above level 50. Additionally, the other activities available during the Yuletide Festival are now available!”

Source: Patch notes. Thanks Fredelas!

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Missed LOTRO’s Weatherstock X? Watch (and listen) to the full experience!

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Are you kicking yourself that you missed out on last weekend’s Weatherstock X in Lord of the Rings Online? The tenth player music festival, which is one of the most well-known in the MMO community, raged for a good part of Saturday as several bands duked it out for audience approval.

There’s a good chance that our readers may have missed some or all of the show. In that case, welcome to the internet, where everything is recorded and nothing forgotten! We’ve got the full show for you after the break, and congrats to the Gallic Frogs for taking home first place!

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Perfect Ten: The best expansions for specific MMOs

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Looking over the past two decades or so, MMORPGs have grown by leaps and bounds with regular releases, events, and (of course) expansion packs. Hundreds of expansions have now flooded the scene, with some of the longest-running titles seeing upwards of two dozen or more.

That got me thinking: Which expansion was the best? Not overall, I mean, but the best for each game that it serviced? Every MMO player harbors strong feelings about which was the best expansion for the titles they enjoy, and I have read many articles in which expansions were ranked, reviewed, and debated.

For this week’s Perfect Ten, we’ll be trying to put a finger on the best expansion for 10 specific MMOs. I’ve taken the additional step of polling the Massively OP staff to give me input on MMOs that they have played extensively over the years. So what’s the best? Let’s find out!

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