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C My First MMO Experience: The Lord of the Rings Online

Andrew Cretella Profile _ Twitter _ E-mail _ Homepage

Before now, I had never played an MMORPG. I had certain prejudices against them; I thought they were mindless grinds and I didn’t see “the point” of playing them. Excusing the irony that some would say this about gaming in general, I felt that this was more true of MMOs than the games that I saw as having a point. I’m talking about skill-based games, especially skill-based multiplayer games, in which the point is to overcome obstacles and challenges through learning, and story-driven games, in which the point is to find out what happens next. Either one qualifies as my idea of a satisfying gaming experience. At least, that was my rationalization for not playing them. I also avoided them because the monthly payment system of many MMOs was financially rather prohibitive for a young man - in high school and later in college - with no income. I now know that there are actually many free MMORPGs available, but I never bothered to try one until The Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) became officially free to play on September 10th, 2010. I chose to try LOTRO not only because it was free, but also because it previously wasn’t free. I knew that it wasn’t the juggernaut that WoW was, but I assumed that I would be getting a “retail” quality MMORPG for the cost of a freeware game. I also like The Lord of the Rings. Despite my prejudices, I went into the game optimistically, and it seemed quite promising at the onset. It began with a cinematic introduction narrated by Gandalf, with some flashy fight scenes between the forces of good and evil. All four of the game’s playable races were represented in the cinematic, each one demonstrating the skills and abilities that typify their race. The process of character creation came next, which almost made me believe I was about to embark on a wonderful journey of gaming goodness, if only because the epic musical accompaniment inspired feelings of heroism and adventurousness. After reading the descriptions and watching the demonstrational videos for every class and race, I finally decided on an Elf Champion named Torhir (chosen by the random name generator). After my initial excitement however, LOTRO actually conformed to most of my initial expectations. After twelve days, I’m 16 levels into the game with my Elf Champion and 7 levels with a Man Captain, and despite enjoying myself to some degree, LOTRO has not exactly convinced me otherwise about any of my prejudices toward the entire genre. The questing that ultimately constitutes the main activity of the game functions like busywork rather than as challenges to be overcome through learning, and the several dozen quests I have completed do not feel part of any greater goal, other than to level up, sell loot, and buy new stuff, repeated in seeming endlessness - the MMO grind in essence. It especially feels like a grind when many of the game’s extra tasks are things like defeat 60 spiders or defeat 60 wolves. Perhaps the most peculiar thing about my time playing LOTRO is that it has ironically, so far, been a very lonely experience. It has basically been a single-player game with other players in the background. Even considering the other players that I do see, there seems to be far fewer of them than there should be. At any given time I can spot maybe two or three players, and at no time or place have I ever seen crowds, or even a crowd, of players. By contrast, I spoke to a friend who regaled me with a happening that occurred once while playing World of Warcraft. He and his friends began a parade in a crowded city. As they did this, other players joined, until the parade consisted of several dozen players. I have yet to see anything like this in LOTRO, and in fact I have yet to see even half a dozen players on my screen at the same time. I used the in-game chat to ask if my lonely experience was typical of MMOs, and I received the following responses: [Advice] Tragedy: 'mmos arent very social if you dont know anyone. either go out of your way to meet people in game or get some friends to play with you' [Advice] Lentar: 'joining a guild/kinship helps... or offer free cyber in /ooc. that should work too!' I don’t know if the problem lies with the game itself or with me. All I do know is that unlike the multiplayer games I have played in the past - first-person shooters, fighters, real-time strategy games - the act of actually playing with multiple people is not an inextricable part of the experience. In the aforementioned game genres, multiplay involves interaction with other players during every minute of the experience, and you certainly don’t need to take extra initiative to make it happen. It seems ironic to me that this would be optional in a genre that has been dubbed massively multiplayer. Perhaps even more peculiar is the fact that in spite of all this, I keep logging in to LOTRO. No matter how I try to rationalize my feelings, and even if I still prefer other types of games, the game was successful at getting my attention and keeping it for some time. Perhaps that’s all that really matter in the end. (I imagine this is especially true for game developers and publishers.)

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