Comments on: Play the game, don’t let the game play you!

By: Zach Sebag

Zach Sebag — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 01:12:05 +0000

I really enjoyed this article. I find I force my self into this position often. I turn the game into work, so I burn out. I find it happens when I create an alt. Me and my two room-mates ALWAYS start new games together. We always end up leveling up pretty evenly. I then decide to roll alts, and get behind. I then start thinking I have to catch up and it turns into work and I stop having a desire to log in.

Not the same thing, but similar. The next game I try, I am going to make my goal to player, enjoy the scenery, and just be merry!

Cheers!

By: Thallian

Thallian — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 19:38:15 +0000

Hmmm, I was first thinking when I read this “I never do that” But then I realized I DO do that Pete. I do it when I work so hard to build up a guild or friends just so we can have some fun together. Now, sometimes that really pays off and sometimes its just fun to help. But I need to be careful not to insist that everyone make it. People need to pay the price on their own (at least until games become less grindy) And I need to have fun regardless of if they can all make it or not.

By: Grid

Grid — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 22:02:18 +0000

The quests for the later chapters of volume 1 are just outstanding but one needs to be in the mid 40′s up and in groups to finish a lot of the chapters. We tried with three level 65′s to do one of the chapters in book 15 and we could not do it.

By: Randomessa

Randomessa — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 19:58:25 +0000

I stopped playing LOTRO regularly when I realized that I was no longer questing for story, but had begun questing to level. Unfortunately I’ve never been able to get back to questing for story, but that has become my standard: if I’m doing something just to increase a bar and not because I’m genuinely interested in the outcome, I’m out. As you can imagine, I tend to shun XP weekends like the plague, even in games like Guild Wars .

By: Grid

Grid — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 15:59:53 +0000

At your level you sould head up to Aughaire and the quests in that area (Angmar).
Even with our skirmishs there are numberous ways to level to 50 without doing each area. That way when you being an alt up you can level him up with different quests.
Misty Mountains (Western area) and Trollshaws are good for your level as well.
My champion is level 47 and just entered Forochel. I could use another track and take him in to Eregion and start him on the legendary item quests and get him in to Moria.
So many paths….

By: Pete

Pete — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 15:11:23 +0000

@Scopique – Opps, we cross-posted. I’m just the opposite when it comes to a Kinship. I want a pool of players I can reach out to so that we can all help each other get group content done, but I don’t really want to talk to anyone. As chatty as I am on services like Twitter, in-game I’m fairly quiet and — I don’t know how to say this without sounding mean — I don’t really want to listen to other people go on about their kid spilling his milk on the floor or their car needing a new transmission.

I find the whole concept of “Let me join a guild and then become friends with people on it.” to be very cart before the horse. I’d much rather make some friends and then join a guild with them. I wish our little twitter-group could all get into the same game, for instance. But in the meanwhile I’ll keep my twitter client running at the same time I’m in-game!

@Stargrace — Maybe one of these days we’ll both be online long enough to do some adventuring together! When I saw you the other day I was trying to finish up some stuff in Far Chetwood. I didn’t want to ever have to ride back out there again, and anyway I couldn’t place where you were. Some Dwarf or Elvish sounding place.

By: Damn those Joneses « Stylish Corpse

Damn those Joneses « Stylish Corpse — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:51:58 +0000

[...] generates xp, or I’m wasting my playtime. The thing is, as I said over at Dragonchasers (in this very good post), I have no problem levelling crafting characters — it’s what I find enjoyable after [...]

By: Stargrace

Stargrace — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:39:15 +0000

Fantastic post! And now I’m going to go play LotRO…. =X

By: Pete

Pete — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:14:48 +0000

@Ysharros Oh man, I remember that feeling in EQ2. “I was going to do X but since there’s bonus XP I’d better do why and not fritter around…gotta get max use out of the bonus XP!”

Luckily for me, LOTRO generally couples bonus XP with welcome back weeks, and welcome back weeks historically have meant queues so I avoid the game during them (no idea if it still means queues).

@BlueKae I have a friend in Secret Fire who comes back to LOTRO about once a year, for about a month, and is always amazed that he hasn’t been booted from the Kinship. So if they keep him around maybe they really would put up with me!

@Victor – Exactly the same with me. I find myself playing a game, or doing some particular thing in a game, more because that’s what I have been doing than because its what I really *want* to be doing!

By: Scopique

Scopique — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:14:07 +0000

Thanks, Pete! This is something I’ll ALSO be referring to when I start to get that “I don’t want to be here” feeling in my games.

I’m not an altaholic, so I usually let myself fade away when my only character runs into that wall that I can’t seem to progress beyond. I’ve since started creating at least ONE alt, in a totally different area and totally different class, just to get away from the annoyances of my main. The only issue I have with LotRO, though, is that it converges at some point for all races (which is understandable, given the story).

But as a traditional soloist, I understand what you mean about the possibility of kinding a kin to join with. Most of the time, I join but never get to actually JOIN…It’s mainly for the conversation (since general chat is such a cesspool ), and that makes the game feel a little less lonely when traveling, or slogging through repetitive content.