[MUD-Dev2] [Media] Informal poll on MMOWatch

[Vincent Archer]

According to Mike Rozak:
> My opinion of exploration is so low because MMOs are about visiting pretty 
> places (thanks to good artists and DX9 graphics cards) and killing monsters 
> in them. I found LOTRO particularly disappointing in this aspect because I 
> thought that every area would have some sort of backstory lovingly tied to 
> the LOTR/Silmarillion, fed to interested players as they wandered through 
> the area (perhaps old ruins with dusty tomes). I didn't find this in the 
> first 10-15 levels of play (so I got bored, and gave up). There was some 
> backstory attached to NPC quests, but not much.

That's a minor failure of LOTRO in that regard. For the Tolkien "fan"
(in moderation), you don't get much exposure to the LOTR lore, apart
from a couple of notable characters popping up early - if you're playing
as a dwarf or, I think, an elf. The only part that feeds the lore fan
when beginning is the Shire. Everybody else is lost in the small lines
of the book. The newest content for april, the bay of Forochel, is
about, what, two lines in the whole trilogy?

The "Epic" quest line - which really starts at 12, after the newbie zone
intro - is supposed to make you feel like you're acting in the background
of Frodo and his friends, scouting the terrain, and smoothing out
obstacles (you really thought that all those adventures went that well
by accident? No way, *we* made it possible for the ring to get to Mount
Doom).

Unfortunately, you get this feeling only in 3 of the twelve books. Book 1
has Aragorn making sure Frodo comes out of the Shire unmolested, then
Aragorn departs speedily from the Prancing Pony; you spend 2 books doing
some side quests that aren't related to the ringbearer's trip, then
you get book 4 and 5 making sure a Nazgul doesn't report too early to
Mordor about Frodo and the One Ring being at Rivendell. And that's
it.

If you watch the intro movie, you do get to know what LOTRO is really
about. It should be named _Battle for Middle Earth_ or something, because
it's not about the Lord of the Rings epic: it's about you fighting
Angmar. The LOTR is hidden in the background, and a truly minor part of
the game.

That didn't stop me from enjoying the game up to level 50, true, but
the "Lord of the Rings" title is more marketing than substance.

-- 
	Vincent Archer			Email:	archer at frmug.org

All men are mortal.  Socrates was mortal.  Therefore, all men are Socrates.
							(Woody Allen)