The Explorer

Sometimes you need a break, and it is that time for me. While many of my corpies and EVE friends tend to 'run off' in EVE doing some sort of PVE that strikes their fancy, I have no interest in EVE PVE, so I frequently turn to other games. Face it, wandering through they very cool looking caves inside the Mines of Moria is a whole lot more interesting to me then shooting red X's for hours, or driving myself crazy dragging little bubbles around a screen to triangulate some unknown thing.

Bears, and Deer, and Crazy Looking Lizards, Oh My!

Lately, I’ve mostly been roaming around the Trollshaws, as well as some in Evindim. I love the Trollshaws because I am a hunter, and a woodsman and there’s tons of things to kill for hides, and lots of wood. I recently found a little camp that has some great tasks, as well as a bunch of quests. Things had been getting boring because quests seemed few and far between in the woods, and a lot that I did find seemed to be a little too hard for me, or meant for an entire fellowship.

Speaking of quests…after doing a lot of quests over the past few months, they are starting to feel similar. Pick these up, kill x number of these deer, etc. Even the monsters in each region are starting to look alike, just with a different color and a different number above their heads. I knew I would eventually get sick of LOTRO simply for the lack of higher strategy stuff. I started working on making money…another aspect I like in mmos, and got bored pretty quickly due to how much money I was able to make in such a short period of time. It was too easy, too predictable, etc.

So, I’ve been spending less and less time in LOTRO. Sometimes, I want something somewhat mindless to play, and it’s great. Sometimes I want easy and it’s great. Sometimes I get on to help a friend. I was thinking about getting Isengard, but I’m not really sure it’ll be worth the money. I don’t think I will play it that much.

So, if anyone knows of something interesting in LOTRO that requires some brain power and a little strategy (and wont take my five minutes to figure out) please let me know. Level 41 Hunter Elf, looking for work. 

Silver and Gold: How the LOTRO Economy Could be Improved

In every game that I play, I have this tendency to gravitate toward the market or 'trade' side of things. In some games, the economy is relatively simple, or ultra controlled. In others, it can be somewhat more complicated.

After playing Lord of the Rings Online for a few months, (off and on) it was no big surprise to me when I started hanging at the auction house, scanning for trends and researching ways to make some quick gold. I admit, I wanted a deluxe house with all the trimmings, so I had some motivation for making some easy gold.

Unlike the EVE Online economy, the LOTRO economy is much more simplified. You still have the ability to produce goods out of raw materials and then sell in an auction type setting, however, you are not given many options. You are limited in the number of auction houses available in game (usually no more then one per region) and all auction houses tie into the same 'pool' of auctions. (So what you see in the auction house of one region is exactly the same for all other regions.)

Also, there is no concept of location in the economy. You bring your product to the auction house, put it up on a post, and someone could buy it in a completely separate auction house and immediately have it show up in their mail box. Therefore, you have one mass economy, and not one that is separated by in-game locations.

Also, because there are multiple servers in LOTRO instead of all players sharing one identical world, the economy could be different depending on what 'world' you're on. The supply and demand couple be different based on what type of players are on the server, and since you can not transfer your characters between worlds, there's no way to use this to your advantage or sell things cross-worlds.

After playing with the markets and economies in several mmorpgs, I think that several things could be done to improve the one in LOTRO:

Facebook Games: Click Click Click Click Click

I read a recent article about Zynga planning to go public. (They're the ones that made some of the popular Facebook games such as FarmVille) Back in the day, I tried to play Facebook games. I think the only one that I played for any amount of time was Restaurant City, or something to that effect.

One thing I've noticed about most Facebook games is that they seem structured around one principle: make the user click his mouse as many times as possible. After some nudging from friends, I tried games such as FarmVille and FrontierVille and etc. My eyes glassed over as a little cartoon man would pop up and say ridiculous things such as "click this 10 times to build xzy."

Surprisingly, these games have millions of regular users. And, even more surprisingly, people pay real money for in-game perks. LOTS of money.

I guess it's not much different then paying real money for any game. I even see the fascination people could have...for a little while. It's the long term obsession I see in some people that makes me completely puzzled. How could a game that makes you incessantly click your mouse, while offering no other real strategies, content, or substance, have that kind of hold on someone? I would go mad.

I say that, but then I look at some of the games I would consider to have more content and substance, such as LOTRO, or EVE Online. There are still aspects of repitition in those games. People farm missions/quests or spend hours in one location killing the same thing over and over again for skills points or ISK or gold or whatever the game is offering.

Unfortunately, life is messy and complicated. We cant put hard fast numbers on things such as 'farm five of this to trade for this other great thing.' Relationships are messy, the economy is messy, and nothing really has 'numbers' associated with it.

So, are we mesmerized with the cool cartoons and the 'fun' of playing, or are we just in need of something in our lives that we can maintain some sort of control over?

Falling into Disrepair

So, my Lord of Ultima hasn't been checked or updated in at least two weeks, and I accidentally let my EVE account run out. Granted, I've been told by fellow EVE players that it's probably not the worst thing...as captain's quarters are "completely worthless and most people have disabled them." 

However, I have heard that due to the ability to make comparable amounts of ISK in empire compared to null sec, that the common empire hubs have been full with an influx of returning null sec goers looking to get in on the fun. As a result, faction warfare has taken off --and as I was a pilot for the Amarr for over a year, this somewhat perks my interest and I might might resub in the near future to see if the rumors are true. (And, of course, to look up some old faction war friends and see what their take is on this entire ordeal.)

Due to being somewhat uncaring of my LOU and EVE accounts, I have been keeping up with LOTRO, though have found increasingly better ways to make gold and have become relatively quite prosperous. This is slowly leading to my boredom of the game. I tend to be a bit of a trader and marketeer in most games I try, so whenever I 'figure' the system out...I get bored very quickly thereafter. Eve, on the other hand, has such a complicated market system with such a changing and fluctuant economy, that I never got bored with it...though after playing for four+ years, it would be nice to see some new content that is relevant and brings back my more enthusiastic attitude of the game. 

Bree: A Night on the Town

After a long and eventful trip through the barrow downs, I decided it was time for a much needed vacation. Where better to restock, resupply, rest, mend clothes and boots and gloves, resharpen swords, restock arrows, and restring a bow then in Bree? After doing the many chores that were necessary for my continued life as a hunter, I decided to take a night on the town, explore the various sites, and become a 'tourist' for the evening.

The ale flowed fast, the people were friendly, and there was no short supply for ample amusements.

Kinships in LOTRO

So far, I've been in two kinships in LOTRO. I left my first one because it didn't seem to have any purpose...no one really talked to each other or did anything. I was recently invited to a new kinship and decided to give it another try. Within the first few days, we had already done a Great Barrows run, and there were many other team-up opportunities.

Kinships, from what I can see, are basically like LOTRO's version of a guild, or (as in EVE) a corporation. However, I haven't found evidence that people take them as seriously as they do in other games. I have seen bands of minstrels in Bree doing music together...and have heard that many kinships have such 'gatherings,' but so far have not completely discovered all the benefits to having a kinship.

One great benefit to me is having friendly people to ask questions. Considering the leader of my current kinship is a hunter elf same as me, but is a much higher level, she has had all sorts of good advice to give me.