Sometimes it is all bad

One of the big pieces of MMO news this week was that Turbine had layoffs.  Sadly, I am no stranger to this depressing event.  I did play WAR for years.  Often times I felt as Syp did, that Mythic should follow up their bad news with something positive.  Some message of reassurance would have gone a long way.

Looking back on it, I now realize there was no good news to be had.  WAR was in a downward spiral.  Is this the case for LoTRO?  I don't know, I'm not nearly knowledgeable enough.  Sometimes there is just no good news, positive spin or reassurance to give.  Then we end up with silence which is toxic for a MMO.

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LoTRO brings the PvP

Long ago, before the days of Warhammer Online, I used to play Lord of the Rings Online.  In fact, most of my time was spent in their world pvp area ( Ettenmoors ).  I had a great time too, but there was always a problem.  LoTRO is a PvE game at heart.  PvP will always be an afterthought, so I went looking for a game where PvP was the focus.

Life goes on in LoTRO and they are making some pretty big changes to the Moors in the Riders of Rohan expansion.  The Dev Diary discussing the changes is pretty big, so go read through it if you want to take up some time.

The changes can be boiled down to a single statement:  In order to get your rewards someone has to die.

It's a simple statement, but a powerful one.  No longer will take objectives give the player any kind of reward.  Instead, they will grant buffs to the holding side which increase the rewards from killing other players.

The downside to this philosophy is population balance.  If that is out of whack, there will not be enough enemies to kill, or you'll be too outnumbered to get enough kills.

I do think it is the way to go though, there is not much worse than seeing objectives flipped and players hop to the other side and repeat.

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Dropping VIP

My adventures in Middle Earth continue slowly but surely.  I did sign up for a month of VIP as I relearned the game.  Now that I am more comfortable, I think it is time to drop the subscription and go on as a free player.  Overall I think their payment model works quite well, but I do have an issue.

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Leveling in LoTRO

I did spend a little time in Lord of the Rings Online this weekend.  My Hobbit Burglar is now level 26, without me even really trying to level.  I have just been catching up on crafting mostly (now an Expert Scholar and Expert Weaponsmith).  It's lead me to be a little concerned about my current pace.

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Overwhelmed

I admit it, I am a bit overwhelmed with the Lord of the Rings Online at the moment.  That's a good thing and something another popular pve game never accomplished with me.  There are a few reasons why I am in this state.

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Unexpected

Last week on Twitter, there was a bunch of Lord of the Rings Online talk.  It got me thinking about the game, which is always trouble.  I've had an account at LoTRO since I first played it in 2007.  WAR came along and stole me away, since I primarily played Monster Play.

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Part Time Klingon

Big Star Trek Online news recently; Klingons will only have PvP content (sorta).  I am actually torn about how I feel about this announcement.  This isn't exactly original, as Lord of the Rings Online's Monster Play sounds very similar.

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Is Abyss Point loss bad for Aion's PvP?

Abyss Points are Aion's PvP currency. They are gained through PvP and PvE activities within the Abyss Zone. They are used to purchase equipment and gain rankings. For a list of rankings and a great Abyss overview, check this out. When you die to a player or Baldur NPC, you will lose Abyss Points. The amount depends on your rank.

On the plus side, point loss gives PvP some meaning. Not only do you gain points, you basically take them from your enemy. Players will be a bit more careful about PvP and not just throw themselves into the meat grinder.

There is also a downside that comes with this point loss system. The higher rank players get, the less they will engage in PvP. Here is an interesting post to illustrate the point. As you work through the ranks, the amount of Abyss Points you lose when killed increases. For example, if you are a 3 Star Officer and die, you lose 2,184 points. If you kill a Grade 8 Soldier, you gain 168 points.

The risk/reward ratio gets more imbalanced the higher your rank. Lord of the Rings Online had a similar system in their PvMP using stars and battle rating. Many players despised the system because it encouraged players not to fight most of the time. It was only worth fighting when you were sure you would win. The LoTRO stars were totally cosmetic and it had a noticeable effect. Turbine eventually removed/hid the stars.

Contributing to the problem is the amount of PvE alternatives in the zone. The player in the post mentions he just does PvE quests to gain his Abyss Points. Why wouldn't he? It is less risk and more reward.

Overall, I think some risk is good in a PvP game. I do wonder if Aion's system is the right way to go about it, as it encourages PvE in the higher rankings. It will be interesting to see how the mass market NA audience does with the point loss system.

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I'll have the PvP, hold the PvE

With Aion's release in North America approaching, there have been some interesting discussions on the nature of PvP. It can come in many different forms, but I am only really interested in two general implementations. Things like Arena based PvP don't really do it for me. Instead I like open world PvP, which can be separated into two basic schools of thought.

The first would be PvP-focused. This is the path Mythic took with their RvR in WAR. The RvR areas (lakes) do not contain much except for PvP objectives. In fact, it is a mostly dead area containing no npc's except for guards. This means that if you are in the lake, you are here for PvP, as there is no other reason to be there.

On the plus side, you get opponents that generally want to PvP. Motivation is very important in a game. If players don't want to PvP but have to (or would be stupid not to be in the area), then it can cause trouble and dissatisfaction. Whereas if both parties want to fight you can end up with a pretty good time for all.

There is a downside though. There is really no point to being in these areas unless PvP is going on. One common complaint levied against WAR is the lack of small group PvP. This can be traced to the PvP focused zones. Without npc's and other things to do for the solo/small group players these small group pvpers don't have much to do. Battlefield Objectives are for smaller groups, but still require a certain class makeup and usually a full group.

The second school of thought is to have a PvE area that has PvP elements as well. This , for the most part, describes the Ettermoors in Lord of the Rings Online and Aion's Abyss. You get a big zone, fill it with PvE content and also add in PvP objectives.

The PvE content in this area, which is usually some of the more rewarding content in the game, attracts all types of players. It also gives them plenty to do (PvE wise). They are known as the sheep. PvP players are the wolves. This is a broad generalization of course and players can and do fall somewhere in between.

Since there is a lot of PvE content which can be done solo and group, you tend to see a lot of small groups out in the zone. Many are engaging in PvE content while others are looking to gank them. For the purposes of this post, ganking means attacking a player while they are fighting an npc.

Ganking can lead to actual PvP in some cases. Eventually, as word spreads, it will grow into an all out large scale battle. Many other times, those who are ganked just go somewhere else to do their PvE and the gankers look for new targets. It isn't all bad though as sometimes your gank group comes across an opponents and you get some real PvP. In LoTRO I have sat around stealthed in my Warg just waiting for someone to try and gank some bait. It can be fun and exciting.

This kind of zone is also good for people who like PvE and PvP. WAR's Land of the Dead is similar in concept, but seems to feature less PvP and more PvE. Options are a great thing and I fully support them in MMOs.

You know what also bugs me about these zones? All the aggro you pick up from the plethora of NPC's. I just want to get to the fight, leave me alone! :)

How do you like your PvP?

I prefer my PvP without the PvE. It isn't a big surprise as I tend to avoid PvE content these days. In the Ettermoors, I never really touched the PvE content. I also am not a fan of ganking or being ganked. Attacking an opponent who is fighting an npc is weak and not much of a challenge. Ganking a ganker is fun but generally a small part of the game.

PvP is fun for me when I know my opponent is there to fight. It was very frustrating when WAR launched because people were actively avoiding the fight. In LoTRO it is also frustrating when people come to the zone just looking for the crafting materials or to farm npcs. The minute you attack they go elsewhere or hide. That is my fear for Aion's Abyss as well. Many players will be there for PvE. Some will discover they like PvP and seek it out, many will not.

In any case, I'm glad we have so many MMO's to choose from that offer different options. It is a great time to be a MMO gamer.

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Free vs Paid Expansions

Is there anything more exciting than new MMO content? Maybe, but for this blog post, no. Most often this new content comes to us via expansions. Sometimes they are free, sometimes they need to be paid for. Each MMO has its own idea of how this should be done. For this post, content additions and expansions are roughly equal.

On the free side you have games like Eve, Star Wars Galaxies and City of Heroes/Villains. They tend to release new content, at decent intervals, for just the cost of the subscription. SWG recently released the Battle for Hoth and an Appearance Tab system. CoX put out Issue 13, which had many improvements.

If you added up all of the free content those games release for a year, would it add up to a paid expansion? I think in many cases it would, but then you would have to add in the fact that you had to wait. Free expansions allow for more additions, quicker which means a more dynamic game.

On the pay side, you have games like WoW and Everquest. These games do put out free content upgrades too, but usually they are few and far between (I am looking at you WoW). When they do put out a paid expansion, it is usually packed full of content and worth the wait. The downside is that paid expansions can be slow to hit the marketplace.

Finally there is the hybrid, like Lord of the Rings Online. They put out free content updates (Book 13 ) pretty regularly and a rather large paid expansion (Mines of Moria).

As far as WAR goes, we will have to wait and see what approach they take. I think it will be a hybrid, but I can't recall where I heard that. They have released 2 new careers so far and have plans to release another two soon. These were cut from launch, but are free content none the less. I can't wait to hear their ideas for a paid expansion.

What kind of expansion do you prefer?

I would have to go for LoRTO. It seems that they are giving their customers the best of both worlds in terms of content. I really do like the free updates, however, I suspect a paid expansion can be very healthy for a game. Maybe it is just psychological, but the expectations are higher when shelling out extra money, regardless of the amount of free content they have been releasing.

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