A tale of two gamers

DH: I may come back if and when the ‘missing’ four racial capitols make an appearance, but – by and large – I think I’m just done with it. I played Age of Conan for a good long while, too, but I’ve similarly let that one slide as well. Both WaR and AoC are great games, real achievements in MMO gameplay. That’s not say they were without their flaws, but they both took an established genre, one dominated by WoW, and brought new and interesting things to market. AoC’s combat was a refreshing step in the right direction, and it was never afraid to use the brutal and sometimes ugly source material to really quite good effect.

But there’s only so much time you can put into games like this – I mean, they are designed to be mammoth time hogs. I get amazed at people who are already hitting the new level cap in WoW, for instance. Just how do they have that much time on their hands?!?

No, I’ve pretty much re-directed my MMO energies back into Lord of the Rings Online, thanks to the new Mines of Moria expansion. You might say I’ve put down one elven blade so I pick up another one.

JM: The missing capital cities were a bit of a bastard, huh? Although the content patch this month will address the classes not included at launch, something that’s sure to be a hit with existing players. I guess War is a love it or hate it affair, like most MMOs, there’s just no middle ground. I can tell you place a lot of stock – rightly so – in the richness of the storyline, character interaction and so on. Are those things strengths of Lord of the Rings Online? (having never played it myself.) Me, I’m in a simpleton phase right now, I like picking up ridiculous looking swords, axes or glowing hammers and beating the shit out of fantasy stereotypes until they’re bleeding from every orifice.

That’s Warhammer.

I learnt to be honest with myself about what I actually want for my monthly MMO subscription now, after holding onto the dead horse that was Vanguard: Saga of Heroes for longer than I should have, wandering aimlessly amongst a lifeless, buggy world with no clear idea why I was handing over money each month. EverQuest 3 my arse.

So sell me Lord of the Rings Online, pitch it to me. I’m reasonably savvy about the lore, but the MMO itself somehow snuck under my radar never to re-surface.