Last night, while thinking about past experiences in LotRO I got pondering what was really fun in the game to me. Having 15 (I think) characters I have been through many of the zones quite often, and while I was always looking forward to certain areas that stopped at some point.
I always looked forward to the North Dows, Evendim, the Misty Mountains, Moria (and then getting out again to Lorien). Oh, don't get me wrong - I haven't quite forgotten what a chore it was to get to 50 initially as I didn't like Angmar - ony my first char I leveled from 45 to 50 killing Wargs in the Misty Mountains as I was playing solo only at that time. It felt like a tremendous achievment to get to 50 though. I haven't forgotten the frustrations of Moria, and I still loved it.
Then I realized that Enedwaith was the last zone I sort of enjoyed. I had 9 characters at level 65 before the cap was raised to 75 and I only leveled those characters I needed for instances and raids with the kinship ever since. I hate the questing on rails in the new zones I guess. If you don't do quest x you can't progress any further. In the past you had a choice, as your level was mostly the only gate. Don't like Othrikar? Skip it. Don't like picking berries for the falcon clan? Tough luck, deal with it.
When I was initially exclusively playing solo I couldn't do a lot of group content, and I accepted that. I knew I could do it if I really wanted to. Nowadays everything has to be soloable and the difficulty is such that I see people standing in that village of angry Dunlendings with their pet on auto-attack AFK to gather whatever (XP? Loot? Deeds?). There is just no variety and no choice anymore. I feel like I am being force fed the content the way the developers want me to play, not how *I* want to play.
I am a lifetimer and I have bought the Deluxe Edition of every expansion so far, to contribute something to the development still. I already regret buying HD though, as I can't bring myself to level a second character through the landscape content (and I haven't even finished the story on my first - got to 95 and stopped right there). Actually I felt the same with the last expansion.
I'll return to roleplaying and hoping for the housing update I guess. And I'll buy an XP diasbler for a dwarf at level 65 in Moria - that was the best time I had in LotRO with my now defunct kinship, of which everyone but two or three people are gone. I have little hope though to find enough people to revive that time (Moria instances, SG, DG, DN... *sigh*).
And now I'll go back into my grumpy old fart corner to have tomatoes and rotten vegetables be thrown at me.
I always looked forward to the North Dows, Evendim, the Misty Mountains, Moria (and then getting out again to Lorien). Oh, don't get me wrong - I haven't quite forgotten what a chore it was to get to 50 initially as I didn't like Angmar - ony my first char I leveled from 45 to 50 killing Wargs in the Misty Mountains as I was playing solo only at that time. It felt like a tremendous achievment to get to 50 though. I haven't forgotten the frustrations of Moria, and I still loved it.
Then I realized that Enedwaith was the last zone I sort of enjoyed. I had 9 characters at level 65 before the cap was raised to 75 and I only leveled those characters I needed for instances and raids with the kinship ever since. I hate the questing on rails in the new zones I guess. If you don't do quest x you can't progress any further. In the past you had a choice, as your level was mostly the only gate. Don't like Othrikar? Skip it. Don't like picking berries for the falcon clan? Tough luck, deal with it.
When I was initially exclusively playing solo I couldn't do a lot of group content, and I accepted that. I knew I could do it if I really wanted to. Nowadays everything has to be soloable and the difficulty is such that I see people standing in that village of angry Dunlendings with their pet on auto-attack AFK to gather whatever (XP? Loot? Deeds?). There is just no variety and no choice anymore. I feel like I am being force fed the content the way the developers want me to play, not how *I* want to play.
I am a lifetimer and I have bought the Deluxe Edition of every expansion so far, to contribute something to the development still. I already regret buying HD though, as I can't bring myself to level a second character through the landscape content (and I haven't even finished the story on my first - got to 95 and stopped right there). Actually I felt the same with the last expansion.
I'll return to roleplaying and hoping for the housing update I guess. And I'll buy an XP diasbler for a dwarf at level 65 in Moria - that was the best time I had in LotRO with my now defunct kinship, of which everyone but two or three people are gone. I have little hope though to find enough people to revive that time (Moria instances, SG, DG, DN... *sigh*).
And now I'll go back into my grumpy old fart corner to have tomatoes and rotten vegetables be thrown at me.