Lord of the Rings - Beta Signups

[synthetic]

Who wants to play PvE quests with a non-persistant, non-upgradeable, virtually meaningless character, in secluded pvp zones?

Agreed and the same could be asked of PvP under those circumstances.

[Tmon]

...Just make playable monsters the option for people who want a modest PvP diversion from the main game, and be done with it.

Because all fun must be earned by grinding or it isn't satisfying.

[tazelbain]

This sounds good to me.  I just don't give a crap about playing xp bag puncher and item scavenger hunter.  Just warp me to the actual game.

[Telemediocrity]

Assuming the quests are actually good enough to be something you'd have fun playing even if it weren't in an MMO, like in DDO, this could be an incredible 'limited PvP' setup.  Not sure I'd prefer it to a 100% PvP-on world, but it sure beats battlegrounds/duelling/arenas.

Say what you will about Turbine, but they always come up with something really new out of left field.

Edit:  I know that some people want 'advancement' to be a primary facet of their MMO, but haven't the "Kill 5,000 mobs in order to start playing the game" crowd gotten enough MMOs "their way" already?  Advancement can be accomplished in a variety of ways, and taking the view that "if you're not upgrading your armor and stats by killing a bunch of shit in a row, it's not really advancement" is sort of narrow.  EVE and until recently AC1 offered up advancement based on the passage of RL time, regardless of what you did.  AC, WoW, DDO, and maybe a couple others have all experimented with quest-based advancement.  Puzzle Pirates has you puzzling your way to victory.  If the non-persistence of your LOTRO orc doesn't work for you, don't you already have a million other games to PvP in that follow the 'traditional path'?  Isn't that the audience that Vanguard is already going for?

[Tmon]

Heck the more I think about this monster thing the more I think I might buy the game just to play one.   My playstyle runs more to dinking around than trying to level or become uber so just being able to log in and play a goblin for an hour might be right down my alley.  It would be nice to have a way to access the higher level mobs that didn't involve pve grinding.  Hell just give me a 100 gold every week and charge 1 to play goblin #699 and 100 to play the lord high Uruk Hai muckety muck.

[hal]

Ya, I gotta chime in. If being a mob in a group of npc mobs is an option. This could be a riot. and be a challenge for the PC attacking. This has a lot of merit.

[LC]

Say what you will about Turbine, but they always come up with something really new out of left field.

This is NOT an original idea turbine came up with. It has been discussed in the mmo community for years. I have an irc log from a year ago when I discussed the same (but not crippled like turbines) system with Nija.

[Telemediocrity]

LC, I think we have it all clear at this point that Turbine raped your firstborn (To be fair, I'd probably let them rape mine - so long as our biases are all clear ;p) - but that's a pretty weak line of thinking.  A million and one ideas have been discussed for possible MMO mechanics, monster-play being among them.  We've talked a lot about perma-death virtual worlds, too.  So?  Very few companies have even attempted such a thing - and attempting something most companies don't try, even if it's been discussed plenty around the 'net as a possibility, qualifies as innovation in my book.

We've talked about more interactive quests - with puzzles, traps, platformer action, and the like - for years, too.  As of yet, Turbine is still the only company to make a serious effort in this regard, so IMHO that still wins them points for originality.

[Rasix]

Say what you will about Turbine, but they always come up with something really new out of left field.

This is NOT an original idea turbine came up with. It has been discussed in the mmo community for years. I have an irc log from a year ago when I discussed the same (but not crippled like turbines) system with Nija.

How'd your implementation turn out? 

Anyhow, EQ has had "monster missions" for a while now I think. But it's a lot different than what Turbine has proposed here. Those were basically PVE missions you did as a monster but in no way was it attached to any PVP.  My ex-roommate and his brother would use the EQ monster missions to get easy levels. Apparently they were a cakewalk and netted disgusting amounts of exp.

Heh, but they did have a system for a while where people could control various monsters in the game world.  I don't think that lasted long.

So yah, this really isn't a new idea, but it's a different spin on it from what we've seen.

LC, I think we have it all clear at this point that Turbine raped your firstborn

He played AC2 Darktide at launch.. close enough.

[LC]

How'd your implementation turn out? 

There was no implementation. Occasionally the "wouldn't it be cool if we made our own mmorpg" topic will pop up. It never goes beyond the "we should have this feature" stage. Probably because nobody wants to be the next The Regulators Studios.

 

Anyhow, EQ has had "monster missions" for a while now I think. But it's a lot different than what Turbine has proposed here. Those were basically PVE missions you did as a monster but in no way was it attached to any PVP.  My ex-roommate and his brother would use the EQ monster missions to get easy levels. Apparently they were a cakewalk and netted disgusting amounts of exp.

Heh, but they did have a system for a while where people could control various monsters in the game world.  I don't think that lasted long.

So yah, this really isn't a new idea, but it's a different spin on it from what we've seen.

I think the whole idea originated in UO. They made a halloween server that allowed you to play as a monster one time. It was fun for a few days.  Like every other PVP "solution" it won't hold anyone's interest for very long.

LC, I think we have it all clear at this point that Turbine raped your firstborn

He played AC2 Darktide at launch.. close enough.

I still want a refund.

[Simond]

Heh, but they did have a system for a while where people could control various monsters in the game world.  I don't think that lasted long.

Ah, Project M. What fun that was for the (approx.) three hours it was live on the Zeks.

Similar in concept to LOTRO's PvP idea, only with SOE/Verant's trademarked half-assedness and lack of attention to detail: "Let's give people the ability to corpse-camp newbies in starting zones with anonymous mobs, while simultaneously letting the mobs level up off of the newbies"

Result: Orc centurions and shaman camping the elf respawn spots in Gfay.

[Telemediocrity]

I still want a refund.

Functional chat servers are for bitches.

[shiznitz]

If you are going to make the monster-PCs grind, then that grind should only complement the regular PvE game and not compete against it with its own quest lines. Monster-PCs are a great way to spice up PvE. If I ever designed a MMO, this would be an integral part of the game. Glad to see someone trying it.  Turbine will likely screw it up somehow, but that just means the next dev team will do it better.

[Toast]

Playing as a monster in Everquest was incredibly fun. It was cool to be randomly spawned somewhere in the game world, be it deep in a dungeon or in a newbie hunting ground.

I remember playing as a fire beetle stalking level 2 newbie characters.

Eventually, death squads of higher level characters began grouping up to exterminate the player controlled monsters. You had to be very subtle and show no signs of being human to avoid getting nailed. Fun times.

It was so refreshing to play. Then, it was gone.

[Nija]

LC and I could make a MMORPG over this upcoming long weekend that would be more fun than anything Turbine has put out in 6 years.

[schild]

Nija, you're more hateful than me. Just putting that out there, Mr. Eve avatar.

[Telemediocrity]

LC and I could make a MMORPG over this upcoming long weekend that would be more fun than anything Turbine has put out in 6 years.

Can we please stop pretending that ideas mean jack shit without execution?

[Nija]

Can we please stop pretending that ideas mean jack shit without execution?

Yeah but if that happens this board ceases to exist.

[Simond]

Can we please stop pretending that ideas mean jack shit without execution?

Certainly - right after most devs do.

[Margalis]

Zing.

[schild]

Can we please stop pretending that ideas mean jack shit without execution?

Yeah but if that happens this board ceases to exist.

No, that's just when we stop talking about shitty games.

Which I stopped doing (for the most part) a _long_ time ago.