General Discussion

So I have been playing Mines of Moria for LOTRO and  Irealized something that had sort of been in the back of my mind for a while regarding questing based advancement.  Mainly because they released both new classes and new content for 50-60.  Which I am playing at the same time.  And therefore I basically compare the the old content and playstyle with the new.

The main difference in this case is the Legendary Item (LI) system.  Which gives xp for items (up to 6 special items with a special interface).  In addition LI drop quite a lot of from mobs, they may or may not be for your class but you can always break them down for parts.  Even if they are for your class they may or may not have what you like and there is enough variety that almost each one is unique.

So I am running around on my Warden, one of the new classes, and I run into a warg.  Waht is my response?  Its you are not a spider get hell out of my way speed bump I need 20 spiders for this quest.

So I run into a goblin in Moria what is my response?  It is:  Hmmm I don't really need this guy but maybe he will drop something good or interesting and hey its item xp anyway.  I wind up klilling everything in my path and feeling pretty decent about doing it.

Yet in the old content it is all just trash that is my way and annoying.  Even though I like the north downs I constantly get this feeling of being slightly annoyed.

Its kind of funny really.  The content is not any different really as far as runnig nthrough normal places.  But one has trash and one has opportunity around every corner.

This is not new, I believe Asheron's Call had a similar siystem with salvage and what not.  But it is rather interesting to spend 30 minutes on a level 54 character then spend 30 minutes questing on a level 24.  

I think for those peole who dislike quest advancement this is sort of one of the major factors.  In a sense everything else other than what you are on is trash.  Even if it becomes non-trash once you get a quest at some point it is trash.  Either you need wargs or you don't and the minute you don't they are just obstacles for you.

Not that Moria doesn't have quest based advancement it does and tons of it, but it merely balances things out more.

I think in some way in attempt to make things smoother some games have taken out that sense of opportunity aroudn each corner.  I think Turbine may have in-advertently put that back in to some degree without fully realizing what they are doing.  To be sure they think the LI system is great and stuff.  But most likely more from a grindy perspective.  The subtle part is what is does to day to day activities.

It is really the same reason people still play Diablo 2, although doing that  in that game was too grindy for me.  That fact remained that every time you went out was an opportunity for some unknown coolness.

The games that copy WoW like questing.  Everything is enumerated.  Quests give X amount of xp.  They give standard stuff.  And that is fine.  But when that is all there is  Ithink for some set of people it becomes rahter stale.  I do not have that problem to a large extent but I think many people do.

For me it is only particularly obvious playing the same game where the feature is gone.  I can feel the absense and notice how I naturally follow the path of least resistance.   And thus I am led to an annoyance for all the speed bumps in my way.  Rather than being happy to see something that might give me something good.