This space would be occupied by Guild Wars 1, except for the fact that when I went to try the free trial, I had no problems whatsoever (other than the usual 'wtf NCSoft master account? I don't remember my password for that asdf' that I usually get) ... but Myk and Dez both had lots of problems.
Like, Dez picked up the free trial and got stuck on a loading screen. He decided to leave his computer on overnight to see if it got past the loading screen.
He comes back to find he is out of free trial time, so sad.
Myk had problems with long load times as well, so ultimately he never tried it either.
Ah well.
So, LOTRO. My opinion has always been kinda 'meh' about LOTR. That's part of why I hadn't gotten into LOTRO in its prime - I just didn't care, and besides, I had certain other games that won't be mentioned here to occupy my free time (for the last five years). The movies were fantabulous. I got through 2 1/2 of the books before I gave up on them due to massive ending fatigue (IT JUST WON'T END WHY WON'T IT END). Over all, I appreciate what Tolkein has done for us (creating the entire modern fantasy genre as we know it) more than I appreciate his actual works.
The game is ... not bad. The graphics haven't aged well, but hell, certain other games which we won't mention here (with over 11 million subscribers) graphics haven't aged well either. Besides, LOTRO's landscape is quite pretty. The character models are where it falls squarely into the 'meh' department. They'll do, anyway.
Since it didn't start as a free to play game, it has a lot going for it that most free to play games don't - it has a lot of content, for one. Like, a lot. And it's all free to play, for various degrees and quantities of 'free.'
Since the best features of the game require at least some interaction with it, I'd like to take a moment to discuss the store. Ah, the store.
The store is well-integrated with the game. Sure, it's just a system of menus and it's nothing fancy, but it does the job it needs to do well, and for the first time ever, the company isn't based out of Cali so I can actually buy shit without any hassle. You don't have to leave the game to purchase things - it's just a pop-up window. So that's nice.
I would like to now address something that bothers me.
Why, in the name of every God to ever walk the earth, do we allow ActiBlizzard to get away with such a flagrant disregard for what the players want when every other game on the market took a clue or ten and caught up ages ago?
I'm speaking here about Player Housing and Cosmetic Gear.
Player housing has its upsides and its downsides. On the upside, it's the ultimate expression of player creativity. Hell, 99.999% of the fun I've had, continue to have, and will have in the future with Minecraft involves customizing my own space which I have carved out of the living stone of a billion-foot-tall mountain. Entire games have been made from the concept of 'let's allow you to shape the world.' Why can't more games implement something as simple as player housing? Like, even how Conquer Online - something I haven't played in literally years - handled it, where there's an NPC, and you talk to them, and they teleport you to an instance where your house 'is' - not even a real place in the world!
Hell, if I could have a house to decorate in WoW, I'd probably even consider buying the damn thing with real money ... if I still played.
Which brings me to another thing that WoW is just now - just now - catching on to, which is 'cosmetic gear.' It isn't hard to implement - just allowing one to appear to wear an outfit, y'know, cosmetically, that you aren't wearing stat-wise.
Sure, it's exploitable in PvP.
Does anyone really give a shit? I mean, do people really look and see 'oh that person is in x clownsuit, therefore they have just rammed a bulldozer up my ass so far I can see metal protruding from my forehead'? I can appreciate that there's a psychological factor to consider, but if it's that much an issue, give the PvP crowd the ability to turn it off - or better yet, allow everyone to do so.
Problem solved.
Both of those things, they are available in this free-to-play offering.
Why not other games?
Rant time off.
Anyway. I'm enjoying LOTRO, when I get to play it, it isn't hard, it's pretty standard MMO gameplay fare, I shelled out $20 on it to remove a gold cap and get two extra bags for all my characters. Do I see myself playing it ten years from now? Well, no, not really.
Is it amusing right now?
Sure.
Do I see the game itself persisting for a year or two at least?
Sure, why not?
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