Guess who got into LOTRO... :)

[Macaubre]

No, it isn't Wrasse. Zeli and Aberrant are now a duo Minstrel and Guardian Hobbits. Guess who's the tank and who's the healer...

Hehe

On Landroval server. FYI.

[Zeli]

heehee, yep. we got it as a distraction until WAR comes out.

We've quite WoW too many times to go back. LOTR looks nice and it's fun enough for a temporary fill in and it's something new. I don't think it will be anything I can really get into, but I'm not looking for that anyway until WAR.

[Macaubre]

heehee, yep. we got it as a distraction until WAR comes out

that sure will be a long distraction, considering WAR's coming out only in 2008. But I do agree, when WAR comes out, I'll most probably moves my MMO playing there if its really that good.

[Aberrant]

i like the minstrel so far. the building of ballads seems like a paladin in daoc twisting, but them becoming more powerful as you go. and the game is nice and stable ;D

[Macaubre]

aberrant said:

i like the minstrel so far. the building of ballads seems like a paladin in daoc twisting, but them becoming more powerful as you go. and the game is nice and stable ;D

as I previously said, combat in LOTRO isn't button mashing. Each classes has its quirks, Minstrel being one of them. Later on, I heard that some big buffs are only on tier 3 and 4, so it is expected to that you don't just sit there and healbot, you need to build your songs up to that tier to get access to those heal/dots/attacks.

[Zeli]

that sure will be a long distraction, considering WAR's coming out only in 2008

i still have fingers crossed for beta acceptance

[Macaubre]

i still have fingers crossed for beta acceptance

beta is fun and all, but knowing you're getting reseted when the game lauches and you don't get any sense of progression and get spoiled from the game, I'm very hesitant in spending any large amount of time in those games. Spent only a few hours worth of time in beta in LOTRO because of that. Having to redo everything and spoiling myself was a major turn off for me.

IMHO. I'll still try out WAR and try to beta it some, but I won't spend days on end in it because of all that.

[Wrasse]

macaubre said:

i still have fingers crossed for beta acceptance

beta is fun and all, but knowing you're getting reseted when the game lauches and you don't get any sense of progression and get spoiled from the game, I'm very hesitant in spending any large amount of time in those games. Spent only a few hours worth of time in beta in LOTRO because of that. Having to redo everything and spoiling myself was a major turn off for me.

IMHO. I'll still try out WAR and try to beta it some, but I won't spend days on end in it because of all that.

You may not be a good candidate for WAR beta then, Mac, considering what Mythic is looking for (and the email Z sent out). It's more about testing and making WAR a great product that we can play for years than just playing it.

[Macaubre]

You may not be a good candidate for WAR beta then, Mac, considering what Mythic is looking for (and the email Z sent out). It's more about testing and making WAR a great product that we can play for years than just playing it.

Well, technically, beta in MMOs are all big preview system. Most people, maybe myself included take that as a chance to play the game before everybody else. Most people, maybe myself included, are so anxious in playing the game that they'll sell their kids to get into a "beta" just to play the game.

As for the "testing" itself, I doubt most of the people accepted in the beta will do any. They'll go thru the content and play the game as if it was a released game.

Especially if they get the WoW kiddies.

[Wrasse]

That's not necessarily true...maybe late betas but early alphas/betas like this are all about testing. You'll be asked to reroll constantly, try out only specific areas and content, etc. If you've played in early betas (this is how they handled DAoC and WoW to some extent [remember the 'pushes'?]), you'll see a difference. Later during open beta it is more about stress testing and this is when you see people being let in who just want to see the game before it is released or get a jump-start.

If someone from a guild does not follow the rules, the whole guild is removed in WAR. They aren't messing around.

Just an FYI.

[Zeli]

ya, i dont mind testing. it all helps the game in the end. i dont care that things get reset. thats agiven.

it's not a preview - it's a beta test and I know generally that's what people do, but they're not letting folks do that in WAR.

[Macaubre]

zeli said:

ya, i dont mind testing. it all helps the game in the end. i dont care that things get reset. thats agiven.

it's not a preview - it's a beta test and I know generally that's what people do, but they're not letting folks do that in WAR.

The thing that bother me in those MMO betas is that you'll go thru most, if not all, of the content early and thus get spoiled and make it so when you get to the "live" version, you aren't enjoying yourself. Even if you submit bug report and you really do a throughout job as a beta tester. Might not be the case if you're pvp'ing a lot, but if you're going thru the PVE content, it'll make it boring when the game finally gets released come 2008.

In the end, I'll do my best if I'm accepted into the beta of WAR, but in the end, I might not play as much as played released games, if you know what I mean.

[Tye]

I'm actually excited about testing the game if I'm accepted into beta. I really don't expect it to be all fun and games. If I wanted to have fun, I'd rather wait and play a polished, stable version. I'm kind of bummed that the first phase is only for guilds since I'm not in a guild. *wink*

Hows Lotro so far? I played the beta for about 30 minutes a few days before its release. It was too laggy for me to do anything.

[Macaubre]

tye7 said:

I'm actually excited about testing the game if I'm accepted into beta. I really don't expect it to be all fun and games. If I wanted to have fun, I'd rather wait and play a polished, stable version. I'm kind of bummed that the first phase is only for guilds since I'm not in a guild. *wink*

I find it funny that many MMO companies offload the beta testing to actual players. They know that players are sooooo eager to play the game that they'll do free work for MMO companies in order to get access to the game before everybody else.

Don't get me wrong, I *do* really want the game to succeed, but do I want to spoil the game big moments and surprises and whatnots just to play before everybody else (and work for free for a MMO company?).

Imposing strict "you work and report bugs or else we kick the whole guild out" doesn't fit well with me. IMHO. The beta testers are free labour, for pete's sake!

tye7 said:

Hows Lotro so far? I played the beta for about 30 minutes a few days before its release. It was too laggy for me to do anything.

Wrasse hates it. I like it very much. Find it's a polished game with a deep PVE and lore content. PVP right now is a diversion with what they call player versus monster player, but playing a monster actually gives you perks on your "good" player, so... I don't think it's particulary laggy. It doesn't require top of the line computer, that's for sure.

[Wrasse]

Wrasse hates it.

Never said that.