Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) - Mines of Moria Expansion

[Michael Dorosh]

Physical Components
The first thing one notices is the size of the box; much larger than the usual jewel case or DVD-size case, the box is handsomely designed to resemble a wooden chest, though upon closer examination once the cover is open, the usual cardboard formers inside reveal there is much empty space. Still, for those boardgamers who grew up with Avalon Hill "Bookcase Game" boxes, and looked at those containers as a substitute for sports trophies, this handsome receptacle will find pride of place on a shelf. My biggest concern was getting it through the electronics store with nonchalance and dignity intact, a task made less easy with the size of the goodies thrust under my arm.

The One Ring
Like Gollum, I was drawn to this product mainly because of the allure of owning this replica of One Ring to Rule Them All. It should go without saying that the photos in the ad copy show the ring to great advantage and the actual product looks a little less precioussssss in the light of day without the Madison Avenue photogs to do it justice. Still, the gold chain it comes with is of average size, serviceable and unisex and a fine addition to one's everyday attire. The ring seems average sized, but I didn't dare try it on - I'm not superstitious about the magic properties it might have, just worried about having to explain it away in the Emergency Room should I prove unable to get it off again. I am sure it is some form of monkey-metal as the casting seems crude, but I'm no expert. However the runes are there, and the gold colour is complete enough - for now. The whole comes in a little black bag of (imitation) velvet with a drawstring. It's a cute idea, but will be up to the individual consumer if it and the handful of other extras are worth the extra coin for this Collector's Edition. I didn't mind.

Maps and Poster
Perhaps the most charted fictional landscape I know of has been Middle Earth, mostly because Tolkien went into such detail. Turbine's Middle Earth is done at something like 1:100 scale, and journeys that took days in the books take minutes in the game, but of course, this is part of the fun - in the original game you can see such a tremendous sweep of various terrain in a very short period of time, from the swamps of the Midgewater Marshes to the badlands of the Lone Hills to the wintry mountains where the Dwarves toil. The physical maps included here really don't add much to the experience, but again, you can decide for yourself what they're worth to you. In all honesty, far more valuable would be an in-game gazetteer/GPS/detailed overhead map such as is available on some of the LOTRO websites that have cropped up, with detailed terrain views - even better would be true topo and elevation data. But it would be hardly realistic for a middle-age warrior making his way through the fictional universe with guts and a little magic on his side. The poster of the Balrog you can judge for yourself in the photo below.

Music and Art
The music of the original game is one of the more captivating elements of the experience, and I'm usually one to turn in-game music off completely as a distraction. Turbine's musical talent outdid themselves in providing appropriate and evocative sound cues, and given that they had to compete with the soundtrack of the enormously successful motion pictures, that's no mean feat. The disc here covers music included in Mines of Moria and a booklet of original artwork - too small to be a real collectible, so really just a novelty.

The Game
I can't render judgement yet on the game, so I won't. As to the original, I've been having fun as a human Hunter, and it appears I've lucked out in picking that vocation. After gaming him up to level 24 I started a couple of new characters just to see how fast I could progress having gotten some experience with the game, and realized that the Hunter class has certain skill sets that I really like, such as the ability to run when out of combat, and to track both animals and enemies. Seems like a good all-round class for solo adventuring. And there are many quests available to the solo adventurer; if you find yourself stuck at one, simply find another region and gain more experience and come back later and you may be struck at how easily you'll be able to battle through previously unassailable enemies.

Though I must admit that at Level 24 I am starting to plateau at what I feel are challenging quests within my abilities as a solo player - this may simply be a matter of not looking in the right places, as I've felt this way a couple of times, only to run into a "streak" of challenging quests that suddenly presented a lot of exciting and attainable goals.

For those that get stuck, there are online databases with good help - "cheats", as they're called by the cynical, but that's also up to the individual. In some cases they are necessary as there are some poorly worded quests that have not been corrected by official patches, resulting in red herrings unless the uninitiated goes online to read the online "cheats".

The adage of getting out of it what one puts into it certainly applies. I haven't invested any time into crafting, for example, and have only scratched the surface with hobbies, investing in a fishing pole and advanced my skill incrementally. There are probably words to describe a middle-aged man sitting at his computer pretending to fish, and they may be the same ones one would apply to the fellow who buys successive updates to "Deer Hunter" and pretends he's killing Bambi out in the woods in the comfort of his basement, but I would not be brave enough to venture an opinion on what those words might be. There is something calming about sitting on the dock in Staddle watching the stars twinkle over Weathertop far in the distance - on a -25 degree Canadian winter night, with a real adventure in the Rocky Mountains only either a distant memory from the long past summer, or a twinkle of anticipation in the summer coming up, there are worse things one can be doing with one's time. You know what they say about a bad day of fishing, and it probably applies to pretend fishing on the Brandywine, too.

As for how the fishing is within the Mines of Moria, I will let you know.

[jayedub7423]

Awesome stuff. I recently picked up the complete edition of MoM. So which server are you playing on?

[Michael Dorosh]

I am at this very minute in Arkenstone (picked the first one...no imagination), at the Trestlebridge trying to level up. Made it to 25 this weekend in between working on chapters of a book. You?

[Michael Dorosh]

Here's a couple of screenshots much earlier on in my "career", having a rest outside the Forsaken Inn, at the tail end of a rainstorm, looking at Weathertop off in the distance.

[Michael Dorosh]

And there are always famous personalities to meet, in locations straight from the books or Jackson's movies, such as the Prancing Pony.

[Mantis]

The Acid Test - How does this game compare to WoW? That's the real question for most of us looking for a different MMO - what is out there that compares to, or better yet, surpasses Bliz?

[Redwolf]

I shied away from this when I heard that to enjoy it you'll have to join a group and that groups require more presence (aka play every evening) that I could invest.

Can you enjoy this game either by wandering around alone or with people you meet right that session?

[Michael Dorosh]

Can you enjoy this game either by wandering around alone or with people you meet right that session?

I've played alone pretty much exclusively. It's fun in that regard too. And you do not need to be online every night, in fact, casual play is great, and you are rewarded with XP for time away from the keyboard.

I would love, however, to "mentor" (that's actually a lousy word for it but the best one that comes to mind) someone I know and trust from outside LOTRO. The fellowships (and you can jump in and out of them at will) tend to be rude teenyboppers who are uncommunicative l33t speakers who kind of suck the fun out of it. I've had some ok experiences on the few I've joined to finish a particularly difficult quest, but just having a buddy to do some casual exploring with would be cool. If you signed up and wanted to level up, it would be enjoyable for me just to roam around and accompany you on some lower level quests, and provide hints if you needed them, without jumping in or doing everything for you I mean. You would have a security blanket and I would have the fun of experiencing the game with a friend and through the eyes of a newcomer again. Plus, once you started to level up, it would benefit both of us in some of the intermediate quests I still can't check off because I can't be bothered to find a fellowship to finish - and I usually just miss them. I'm thinking of the Maribell rescue outside of Bree, or the Sharkey's Lieutenant one to the south of Bree, where I have tried about 30 times in each, but am a hair away from being able to pull each off - with a second person along I could do it in a flash.

[Michael Dorosh]

The Acid Test - How does this game compare to WoW? That's the real question for most of us looking for a different MMO - what is out there that compares to, or better yet, surpasses Bliz?

It's a great qestion. Even just playing casually, though, one of these kinds of games is a time sink enough, so I have not experienced any other MMOs. LOTRO has won a lot of awards, and so has this expansion, and it seems based on what I've read to be pretty much the same idea, with some key differences that are mostly flavour, and mostly to appeal to Tolkien fans, though it isn't a prerequisite. I'm obviously not the one to answer your question, in other words.


As an aside, I was a huge fan of the gold box D&D games, though I never managed to finish one. I think this is a lot like that, but in 3D, and instead of playing through the entire game, you get these little mini-quests you can finish easily in 20 minutes or so. It's like epic adventure, popcorn style. With the thrill of just walking around and seeing grandiose views. Some of the scenery is breathtaking.

[normal_man]

There are always a bunch of ****tards in any MMO. Just a fact of life with these games.