Skip to main content

Playing MMORPGs my way. Part 2: Conflicting Requirements.

Looking at my list of likes and dislikes about mmorpgs the most stark conflict is my love for all things group related contrasting with a dislike of schedules, organisation and planning. Group activities require organisation. No organisation, no group.

One outcome of this conflict is that it limits my ambition within the game. I fully accept that challenging group content such as instances and raids is the most exciting and engaging part of mmorpgs. I also accept that in order to have a reasonable chance of overcoming these challenges you need planning, you need raid schedules, you need loot rosters. At the moment I don't want to participate in scheduled activities so that precludes me from partaking in these group activities. It's a choice.

Luckily I also like pugging. I enjoy the randomness of pickup groups and I am tolerant enough to accept that you don't get efficiency in a pug. I am happy using pugs to get through lower level group content.

There is a moral dilemma relating to my rejection of organisation in my gaming. I realise that I benefit from the organisational efforts of others. I have access to a chat channel filled with agreeable people because someone organises screening and recruiting. I have access to guild forums because someone put together a website. I can ask for help with difficult quests. I have access to crafters and so on. In not contributing to the organising I am sponging off the efforts of those who do organise. In order to try an re-dress this balance I try hard to be a good guild citizen. I try to contribute in a friendly and helpful way to guild chat and guild forums. I try to help out others with quests when I am in a position to do so. I am also careful not to abuse the goodwill of other kin members.I use pugs where possible to get through content and I try not to bother guild craftspeople with requests.

It might appear that my love of getting things finished conflicts with my love of a challenge. Lotro, like many other mmos does not always reward player's who take the more challenging rout, particularly in the solo game. The fastest way to level is to pick easy mobs and easy quests which are a bit below your level. Testing yourself by soloing elite mobs can be very entertaining but is not a route to rapid progression. Oddly enough I don't experience this as a conflict at all. While I enjoy finishing things I am very happy to take my time completing them as long as the journey is enjoyable. I feel under no pressure to race to the finish as long as I have interesting things to do along the way. I do however have a problem with being forced to endure long boring treadmills just to get to some desired end goal. Rep grind, trait grind, loot grind, in fact just about any thing with the word grind in it is anathema to me.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Portal 2 two screen coop on one PC.

I mentioned before that I intended to try Portal 2 in "unofficial split screen co-op mode. Well split screen on a small computer monitor is a recipe for a headache especially when the game defies gravity as much as portal. However a minor bit of extra fiddling allowed us to drive two seperate screens from one PC. The Steam forums describes a complicated method of doing this that I couldn't get working so this simpler method which worked for me might be of use to someone. 1. First I followed the instructions in this post to get split screen multi-player working: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1847904 A minor issue not mentioned is that you need to enable the console from the keyboard/mouse options menu I am using keyboard and one wired Xbox360 controller as suggested. Getting the controller to switch to channel 2 was tricky at first but as Chameleon8 mentions plugging it out and in again during loading works. The trick for me was to do the plug / p

Return to New Eden and a Secret Confession

I feel a growing temptation to return to EVE but having been away from mmos for quite a while I am not quite ready to resubscribe.  Instead I started a disposable character on a free trial to test my resolve.  Knowing that this character will be thrown in the bin in a couple of weeks is actually quite liberating. Freed from the fear of gimping my character I feet no necessity to min max anything. I picked a Gallente because I think they have cool looking spaceships and went from there. First obvious change since I last played is being able to walk around my Captain's quarters. Its a nice idea but hardly a game changer. Can you decorate your quarters I wonder and if so do these home improvements move around with you wherever you go? The second obvious change is the much improved tutorial. I managed to make it through the first steps introduction without having to resort to on-line help or the  chat channel which is a first for me in EVE. Even better once you have finis

Lotro: The Forgotten Treasury

Throg joined a Kinship group for the Forgotten Treasury instance last night. It was an enjoyable change from the solo questing that the now level 55 dwarf champion has been mostly doing so far in Moria. Some members of the group had tried and failed to clear the Treasury before so we knew it would be challenging but we were lucky enough to have a well balanced group with Guardian, Minstrel, Lore Master, Hunter, Burglar and Champion (Throg). Throg (level 55) and the minstrel (53) were both below the 56ish level of the instance but the others were all higher so it more or less balanced out. [SPOILERs ahead] It is a well designed enjoyable instance set in a circular chamber with balcony around. As you enter, a boss absconds to a locked side chamber with his treasure leaving the fellowship to clear trash ringed around the balcony. Once the trash are cleared you have access to a puzzle which must be solved in order to open the locked door. Clearing the (including six mini bosses) also get