Wow vs LotRO, a study in simplicity vs complexity

I've just gotten my internet restored after a month away (lightning strike, AT&T complete idiocy, 4 techs, new line, big ordeal), and re-subbed to WoW. That has a lot to do with my missing my awesome guildies and friends, and also missing the ease of it. I love lotro, but I love being able to just jump a griffon/wyvern and get where I need to be quickly and easily. On the other hand, when I'm in the mood for it, wandering around trying to find the next quest hub can be a lot of fun. But when I'm not in the mood for it, and just want to get some XP (I'd like to see 50 by the end of the year), very annoying and complicated.

On the other hand, I spent about 2 hours with a friend on facebook walking me through what I should be doing in WoW. I've been away since December, and lots had changed. I had almost full bags with no clue of what to do with any of it (still haven't tackled that) and no clue on where to go.  Apparently the Isle of Thunder is my friend, and I did run through the first two scenarios to start unlocking it (which also helped me remember how the heck to shadow which is also on the complex side).

I also can't help wondering if I'd have as much trouble re-acclimating if I had a max level character in lotro. Jumping back onto the hunter or minstrel's fairly easy, but one's level 40 and one's 30. That's less than halfway to level cap, so there's far less for me to think about. I don't have bags stuffed full of transmog and cooking ingredients (and I have no clue what the heck I was doing with so many scallions), they're full of trophies, wood, random crafting things I'm saving for other toons (which go in shared storage till I wanna craft on that toon), and leather. The only complexity there is which task board I need to go to, and if it makes sense to send some of them to a lower level toon (to get more XP for the buck, so to speak).

Some of the simplicity of WoW has come as it's aged. I remember when you had to discover each flight point for each toon (which you still need to do in lotro), and when Azeroth was weird and new and I ran the length of a continent using only a speed boost in my early 20s (trick or treating all of Eastern Kingdoms) and alt+tabbing out to maps. I generally don't alt+tab out to maps in lotro unless I'm looking for something specific (ruin, quest location, that sort of thing); I can generally figure out how to get where I need to go. I like that about lotro (and I like the mithral coins option which allows you to go to any travel hub for one, just wish I got a few every month as a subber as they cost points).

I suspect part of it comes down to how I think about and play these two similar games so differently. In LotRO, the journey is the point. If I try to start power-leveling, I get frustrated because it feels so slow (the rested XP change doesn't help). In WoW, the socialization and end-game are the points, and thus I expect the journey to be fairly short (I have no idea what it will take to get Lyllea raid-ready, and honestly I'm not going to worry about it, I have enough RL stuff to deal with). If the journey is the point, I want a journey to be interesting, with nifty things to see and options for side-journeys, and I'm willing to forgive a certain amount of complexity for that. If the journey's a commute, I want simple and easy, preferably short, with as few traffic jams as possible.

I don't think one game is more complex than the other, I think they're just complex in different ways. That's good, it lets me enjoy them both, but I do wonder how much my viewpoint (very experienced former raider in Wow vs newbie with highest toon at 40) has to do with it.

Still running around Middle Earth

After a brief gaming hiatus caused by chirping capacitors (never a good thing, ever), I've been back to wandering around Middle Earth, killing things and taking their stuff. It's been quite enjoyable, even if most of the questing is of the "go kill these guys", "go gather this stuff", "collect x trophies" type. (and if you're sick of that and level 30, hit Oatbarton unless you hate hobbits. But really, if you hate hobbits, why lotro?)

I do have a complaint though. So, Nathyrra's almost 40 now, and I've been running around Everdim for well, about 10 levels. I really like the idea of helping reclaim these ancient ruins, and I love the scenery. But things I do not love, really nonobvious routes. I like randomly wandering around, seeing where I will be going next and collecting travel points, but I dislike seeing quests I have and not being able to see a clear way to get there. Here's my most annoying example...

I had quests in Rhunenlad and it took me quite a while to figure out how to get over there from Kingsfell. Looking at the map I saw two routes, going east from Melumen or going through the possible gap at the north edge of the mountains. The go east plan was foiled by a lot of giants (very powerful ones) and I was unsure about the possible gap (hence calling it possible).

You're actually supposed to go through Esteldin (a city roughly about where the second l in kingsfell is). I discovered this completely by accident while wondering where a road in Esteldin went. To Rhunenlad, as it turned out. Now, thinking about it, putting a city in a mountain pass makes sense and given that the quests in question were given to me in Esteldin, yup, probably should have occurred to me before I tried the suicidal giant run.

Thinking more about this (and yes, I've had similar problems before, this is just the most recent and painful), I like the world making sense. I like cities being on top of hills (and it makes it easy to spot them and go, ooh, what's that?) and I like the map style. Just wish the path (and if you look there is a gap path in the mountains) was slightly more obvious. But I still really love....

All those ruins/cities? I've been there, in some cases by the "ooh, what's that?" method. I love seeing stuff in game and getting to go check it out. It's the explorer in me, always wanting to know what's over there...  (these caps all taken from the top of a thing in Evendim that you get to at the end of a questline and I would remind you all that my graphics are on the lowest possible settings)

Computer Problems fixed, for the moment at least, now back to Middle Earth

Well, the computer problems are (hopefully) fixed for the moment. One BIOS update, way too much fiddling with video card drivers, one dismantling to clean out dust, and taking all the video settings in LotRO down to minimum.... plus my trusty (if annoying) cooling pad and I can run around Middle Earth.

I've been having a ridiculous amount of fun, to be honest. Even if I did get stuck at Rivendell (why the game would give me a quest that transports me there when Caithdein is level 23 and can't ride back is beyond me), it's been nice to run around and go "ooh, pretty"

See, I can't leave! HELP ELVES ARE HOLDING ME CAPTIVE! :)

At this point I've run 5 toons through their rested XP (okay, the two level 12 toons didn't take long), but Caithdein, Nathyrra, and Aerthiel have all gone up quite a bit (hanging at 25, 35, and 29 respectively). It's been really nice to be able to switch around and still see new stuff (or in Caithdein's case stuff I haven't done in so long that I don't remember it).

It's looking like the developers are planning to do some interesting things this year, including a housing revamp (be still, my heart) and creating a player's council. I thought there was some mention of redoing deeds/traits as well, but I can't find a source atm for that, so it might be wishful thinking on my part.

They're also released a cloak for Boston, which is a nice touch, and is pretty. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have an Anniversary Celebration to get back to (last night and all)

Where I've been (just in case you were wondering)

I've been dealing with a failing gallbladder and a (possibly but I'm really hoping not) failing computer. Gallbladder's all gone, and the surgery was way easier than dealing with it failing. Computer, well, I'm popping it open today (for the first time ever) to clean it and check the thermal paste. Given that it just  powers off randomly, something which it started with Mists, and has now spread to games like Torchlight 2, Neverwinter Nights 2, and even LotRO, (and now with the cooling pad on it as well) I'm hoping for dust bunnies and a happier Taliesin afterwards. Replacing him is not in the cards any time soon.

Gaming-wise, there's been almost none. I haven't logged onto WoW since Dec, and my sub's run out. Oddly enough, I don't miss it. I miss hanging with my awesome guildies, but Mists just didn't grab me. Still might resub at some point to get a baby dragon, but that's about all I want out of it. Who'd have thought that an expansion based around dailies at max level would not appeal to someone who doesn't like dailies? SHOCKER! I consume media in chunks, whether it's watching an entire season of a TV show at once, reading an entire webcomic or blog archive, or questing for several hours at a time. The daily concept doesn't really work so well with that, and I resent feeling like I MUST do something in a game that isn't fun. So yeah, not my thing atm.

I've currently got some Black Isle games installed, but mostly have discovered that a)I don't want to do Irenicus's stupid starting dungeon for the 20th time and b) I really am not good at AD&D. I did log onto lotro last night and play with an alt for about 10 min before shutdown, and had some fun. It looked a bit different than 9 months ago, but I liked what little I saw. Currently my antiquated desktop is (hopefully) pulling down the installer via Pando (which I hate), and I'm hoping it'll handle it enough to let me play. Not expecting graphical miracles or anything, just more than 10 minutes of running around killing wolves and vale pests.

Otherwise, well, there's been a great deal of knitting. I have a couple ideas for WoW-related knitting projects, and I learned I can knit a lace shawl in a week if I focus on it. Since I'm still struggling with major depression, I'm trying to get set up to sell some of my lace (mostly shawls but I'm trying to branch out into hats, armwarmers, scarves, and random other things). Sadly, knitting time and gaming time are difficult to combine.

As for this blog, I shall post when I'm gaming (or have something to say about gaming). I figure you all aren't here for random blatherings, but rather specific, game-based blatherings. I might try a let's play of something. I do have plans to try DDO (again), Conan, Star Trek, and possibly the Old Republic. The Secret World sounds like something I'd love, but given tight funds that might be a while. And there's always my ridiculous steam backlog of games. But right now, I think I shall go see if I can wander around Middle Earth for a bit before girding my loins to take this laptop apart (EEEP!)

State of the Blog

Where the heck has Melfina been, you may ask?

Whelp, I'm sick. Likely gallbladder, though no diagnosis has been made yet. Nausea after eating, stomach pain, and general misery (that's been ongoing and getting worse for months). That plus severe depression = no fun.  Playing WoW makes the nausea worse, so there's been next to no gaming. And I've come to a conclusion about that.... I miss my guildies and hanging out with them. I don't miss WoW.

Not sure what to do about that, really. I do have a ton of games (and more picked up in the gog.com and steam after Christmas sales), and a bf interested in playing games with me.  I don't want to stop blogging, but until I can play games again, there's a dearth of content.

So, once illness is fixed, there will be more blogging. It may be more general gaming, I may even try doing a Let's Play of something. I'm kinda leaning towards the new Baldur's Gate.  Once decisions are made, I will let you guys know, and if there's something you want me to talk about, let me know!
And, of course,

Happy New Year and may '13 be brighter and better than '12!

Yeah, I kinda forgot to mention about hitting 90

You know, I normally reread my last post before making a new one. Shouldn't have skipped that step with the last one. I thought I had made a "yay 90, here's what's I'm doing" post, but I hadn't. So here you go!

Lyl's 90. And I would like to thank the anon comments on the leveling post, they were completely right about my screwing up the priority system. My damage has gone up by about 4k since I took their advice. I still feel low in heroics, but I suspect that's more because I'm in groups with people who out-gear me. I don't really like the "dot all the mobs" flavor of trash damage, but I can live with it. Or at least I can live with SW:P all the things.

Gearing-wise, I hit the AH, picked up pvp blues, and was ready to hit heroics. I've done pretty well gear-wise, and it looks like my sticking point's trinkets. I miss the JCing trinkets from Cat.  I am gearing through heroics, not dailies, for the most part, and taking my time. I even *gasp* managed to get Archaeology to Mists levels.

I'm dealing with quite a bit in RL right now (another health problem has decided to show up), so I'm working on this "no pressure in wow" idea. I miss raiding, I would like to get back to it, but I'm not going to stress out about getting there. It will happen eventually, and in the meantime I can enjoy the scenery.

And here's some for you to enjoy too!

The Dailies Problem

As soon as Lyl hit 90, it felt like a quest explosion. Suddenly there were all these exclamation points  for all these factions and it was overwhelming and confusing (even though I was expecting it). I have managed to figure some things out, like I'm going to be gearing mostly through heroics and I must get exalted with the cloud serpents so I can have baby serpent pets, but it got me thinking on how I might do things slightly differently....

I'd make some factions available earlier. I loved running the walrus dailies while leveling, they're a good chunk of XP plus a nice rep bonus. Having run some of the Tillers dailies, I can see why they're not available till 90, but the Anglers ones could be. Heck, you could make the Tillers "grow this thing" and "go kill weeds" ones available at 86 without causing much in the way of problems.

Since I haven't done much in the way of faction dailies yet (Loremasters, Tillers, Cloud Serpents, Anglers, and um, the central ones (shado-pan?)), I don't have a great sense of them other than "wow, way overwhelming". Lyl got to 90 having done all of Jade Forest and Krasarang Forest, a good chunk of Valley and Kun-Lai Summit, and bits of Dread Wastes, and barely touching Townlong. So I still have a ton of content to go through before touching dailies, scenarios, dungeon-running, pet battling, and alt-leveling and at first blush it feels like too much.

Of course, 6 months down the line Blizz doesn't want us complaining about lack of content. I get that, really, I do. But a ton of dailies, well, that feels like a job or chore. It may not be a REQUIRED thing, but it does feel to me like something I should be doing. Not something I want to do (except for the baby serpent quests and the Anglers), not something I think is fun or enjoyable, but like a chore. I don't play games to do chores, and while it is certainly one way to extend content, it ranks among my most disliked. I never did most of the Argent Tournament or the Firelands stuff because I don't want to do chores in game. I'll occasionally do them, maybe while I'm waiting for a queue or just in the mood, but I hate the expectation of them and the feeling of requirement.

Yeah, not a dailies fan. At all. I'm having more fun running heroics (even though I have no idea WTF most of the time) while wearing a Dragonmaw tabard. Yup, the Cat tabards still work in Mists dungeons, so if you're not exalted with all of them and are running dungeons anyway, might as well take advantage, right?

Anyway, here's a couple of pictures of happier things, since this game does have great bits, right?

Adorable. I want all of them! Yup, my motivation for getting to exalted with the Cloud Serpents is not the mounts, but the pets.

And while Lyl's gotten a bunch of achieves of late, this is one of the ones I'm proudest of. Leveling fishing is still time-consuming (and annoying if I'm not in the right mood), but I really like how it feels much more useful this expansion. Now if I just got XP for it so I could level toons that way....