Doxx’s First Thoughts on LOTRO

After leveling my LOTRO character through the first ten levels, I noticed some striking differences between Lord of the Rings Online and other MMORPG games such as World of Warcraft.  Before these differences became apparent to me, and prior to playing LOTRO, I thought the two games would be basically the exact same but just with their own storylines along with some other minor distinctions.  I was right to some degree, but the more I play this game, the more I come to understand how wrong I was.

Quests obviously play a major role in all MMORPG games, and LOTRO is certainly not an exception.  But one of the things that make this game so unique is the nature of the quests that we all must complete.  In most other games, we players don’t even bother reading the quests; we immediately click on “accept quest” or “complete quest” with no thought or hesitation whatsoever.  But here, quests are important to the storyline and therefore it is essential that we read them all the way through.  Also, I believe that the LOTRO game designers utilized their ability to write the quests as a means to control the players, kind of like how Jesper Juul described progression games.

I like how the makers of the game wrote Crafting Quests and I can sort of see why they did.  It enables the players to socialize and connect with other players from whom they need certain items.  It also teaches the players early on about the different professions and the general basis of the game world’s economy.  The additions of Epic and Prologue Quests are also intriguing to me, as they also augment to the overall richness of this game.  As an elf, I was assigned a quest where an old dwarf NPC and I ventured through a cave and defeated everyone that got in our way.  After we downed the boss (I forget his name), I was teleported to the whole new zone where I am now.  It was really surprising how active that dwarf NPC was; he wouldn’t stop talking and he would periodically stop for a breather after a min-battle.  I have no idea if this quest was unique to my character, but either way, I have to admit it was pretty uber cool.

 

~ by j0nathan on September 7, 2007.