An Alternative MMO: LOTRO

(actual in-game screenshot)

Happy Saint Patrick's Day to all!

This weekend, I went into the world of J.R.R. Tolkien and the Lord Of The Rings Online. At first, the game seems like it was going to fail. There are only 4 races to choose from: Human, Dwarf, Elf and our beloved Hobbit. Each has its own racial abilities and certain classes to choose from.

Champion - Dual wielding fighter.
Guardian - Tank
Captain - Buffer / Support
Burglar - Rouge / Stealthy Trickster
Hunter - Ranged DSP (no pets)
Minstrel - Singing Healing Class
Lore-Master - A hybrid spell caster and animal tamer.

The character creation is good but not great. It's just your typical creation screens. Entering the world will start a tutorial. You could skip it but it gives you some experience so it's worth it. It really helps newcomers and starts the story. In LOTRO, there are normal quests and story quests. The story quest is one long quest chain that (I believe) goes until you are at least level 50 (max level). In this game, grinding is just not worth it. You get little experience from it compared to just doing the quests. LOTRO gives you a nice supply of quests and you will rarely run out of them. Only once have I completely emptied my normal quest tab. There is one thing that shocked me was bag space. You start with 5 bags with 15 slots each!

One thing that LOTRO has is a fantastic title system. Right from the beginning of the game, you get a title. This is chosen in the character select screen in that you get to pick where you are from. I was Neflight of Gondor cause Gondor is epicly awesome :D. If you don't die before level 5 you get the title The Wary. If you kill enough Black-somethings human gang members, you get Watcher Of Roads.

Combat is simple with spell cool-downs and auto attacks. Death Penalty in this game is loss of health, attack power, and other things. This adds up if you keep dying. You don't run back to your body because you don't really "die" in LOTRO. You just get defeated and taken back to a nearby town.

Lastly, the best this game has to offer is the graphics and sounds. I can't stress this enough: the game is BEAUTIFUL! I have the graphics close to max and I'm in awe 100% of the time. The detail in the grass, the sky, fire, the bags under your enemy's eyes, and the most outstandingly done water effects are truly breath taking. The sounds cut out sometimes which is a major disturbance. If I'm fighting a wolf and the person next to me does a fire spell, the wolf's howl will cut out and all I'll hear is fire burning. That aside, the sounds, when they're full, are fantastic. Fire sounds like fires. When you're running through town, you will hear horses and donkeys walking around, cats meowing, and the town's folk chatting.

Now, if you going to transfer over, please be advised that people do not tolerate immaturity in LOTRO. This game is a Role Playing game. It is also advised that you are familiar with the J.R.R. Tolkien books and lore. I have yet to have seen anyone act out of character. There are advice and out of character channels which are friendly and helpful. If you have a question, just ask and someone will usually respond. There is no need to spam it nor type in all caps. This is really what makes LOTRO amazing. $15 a month fee to play.

As far as I can tell, I'll be suspending my WoW account for the next few months to play this game. However, I will still support the WoW community and report on any game/Paladin news.

An Alternative MMO: City Of Heroes

So, my adventures this weekend took me to places I have never been before. First, Nova Scotia (which, I have to say, was amazing! I love the oceanfront property and it is one of the places I would like to live someday) and second, City Of Heroes. Being very tired of WoW these last few weeks (burnout), I decided to try out the other MMO that I had in my hand (at my local GameStop) the day I decided to get into WoW. Every-so-often, usually between content patches, I'll take a few weeks off from WoW. I just get bored with doing the same dailies and alts don't help as much as people would think.

The first thing I've noticed with CoH is the character customization. You can make your hero look like your dream super hero. Some examples are: zombies, pirates, android, tights, Matrix-type, and ninja. There are even more choices than this! This is the BEST character creator I have ever seen! And, you can also have over hundreds of color customizations. It is just insane.

After 45 minutes of the character creation screen, you finally have your hero and enter the world. This is where things can go... blah. The movement is very stiff and your UI is big. Now, I'm guessing that there are ways to change this, but to someone who just entered the game, it is very distracting, confusing, and cluttered. Another function is that there's no auto-attack. I have to wait every 1.5 seconds to hit my "brawl" or attack button. Your other skills are used like WoW's skills with cooldowns and are easy to notice.

As you level up, you can put "Enchantments" on your spells. These can vary from more damage, less cooldown, more range, etc. It's like the new profession in Wrath: inscription. There are two ways to gain experience. You can wander around town beating up on gang members who are harassing citizens or you can complete quests that take you into an instance. For example: Go into the office building, arrest (kill) all Thugs and collect the stolen documents.

As for character classes, they are pretty basic.

Blaster = Mage / Ranged DPS
Controller = Crowd Control
Defender = Cleric / Paladin
Scrapper = Rouge with good survivability
Tanker = Your typical tank.

I made two characters so far: A Scrapper and a Tanker. I loved my Scrapper (named Aticus) but he wasn't a super hero. He looked like something from the Matrix. However... my Tanker... SO FUN! This is where the facepalm comes into play. Get ready... my super hero is... The Canadian Brawler! Hey, if the USA can have Captain America, Canada can have The Canadian Brawler :-D

The picture at the top of the post is what he looks like. A giant Maple Leaf on his chest with a red and white suit show his true Canadian pride. He also has a cigar in his mouth cause I like cigars and it makes him look cooler. Hehehe, I like to have fun with my characters. I almost fell out of my chair when my hero lifted his mighty battle axe over his head and yelled "Ohhh Canada!" before slaying the thug. You can choose your battle cry in the character creation screen but I never thought it would as hilarious as it was.

So, in conclusion, it is not the best MMO out there. Lord Of The Rings is better. WoW, LOTR, then CoH would be my top three. And just to let everyone know, I've only played a handful of hours. There could be many more adventures out there. I only took both characters to level 5 (the picture was from yesterday).

Question To The Readers (1)

We all know that there's a little pleasure we get from playing WoW. But, if an MMO came around which was about your favorite thing, would you migrate? My question to the readers today is: What MMO, if they made one, would you quit WoW for?

I know that there are a few which would make me quit. I would quit for a Diablo MMO. Hands.Down. I think if they were to go back to EverQuest graphics and game mechanics, I would still play it.

Another guilty pleasure of mine is Pokemon. After replaying a newly made version of Red, I came to realize how great of an RPG it really is. You just don't get that feeling when you're 12 years old playing it. You are on an epic journey to catch, train, and raise YOUR Pokemon. It just feels like an MMO because you do have the freedom to go anywhere you please and train whatever you want to. There would be no gear to grind for, but the grind would be for money to purchase potions, pokeballs and other trinkets for your Pokemon.

So, what MMO would you quit WoW for?