A tale of two gamers

DH: It’s a two fold thing, really. For one, it’s Lord of the Rings, and two, it’s Lord of the Rings done quite well.

It could be argued that, more than an MMO, it’s actually a single player game you happen to share with a whole lot of other people. PvE is very much the focus, and the Epic plotlines actually weave you into the story of the Fellowship – you give advice to Frodo, help in the re-forging of Aragorn’s sword and more besides. Sure, there’s also the usual crop of kill X of Y and bring me their Zs, but the level of atmosphere and reverence for the source material is quite impressive. It has also has a much more mature playerbase, and it’s very rare to find people who haven’t taken some level of care in naming their toon.

Lots more RP, as well. Yeah, yeah, I’m a geek.

Essentially it is very much WoW for grownups with a more literary bent, even down to a lot of the mechanical side of things. If you’ve played WoW, a lot of the gameplay of LotRO will feel very similar. But there’s a lot of innovation besides, especially in the latest expansion. In particular I’m loving the Legendary Item system from Mines of Moria, which makes the gemming and enchanting of WoW look pedestrian by comparison. Getting the chance to name your own gear, and then level it up like a character itself, picking skills and stat bonuses, is a lot of fun.

But that’s what we’re playing now. You looking forward to anything coming out in the next little while? Are you as excited/terrified as I am about the Trek MMO?

JM: It sounds like you appreciate LOTR for the same reason I still hold onto EverQuest 2. Polish, atmosphere, mature fantasy content and an attention to detail from developers and players that seems lacking in Blizzard’s hugely successful offering. Three cheers to us for being fantasy snobs of the highest order. Next stop, wine tasting and the theatre!

Honestly I’m probably more terrified of the next Trek movie than the Trek MMO. In film or television I’m an even split when it comes to Sci-Fi and Fantasy, but with MMOs I gravitate towards enchanted daggers, Necromancers and Dragons more than phasers and prime directives. Also, Trek has had a pretty solid history of fantastic games being spawned from the franchise, some of my greatest gaming memories are peppered with Star Trek: Armada, Elite Force and Away Team. I’ll start chewing up the pre-release media for Star Trek Online closer to release date, but for now I’m keeping a keen eye on Stargate Worlds. It was off again on again for a while, but there’s every indication that Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment are going to take players on a seriously shiny tour of the Stargate system, Asgard and all.

Stargate has picked up the torch that Star Trek burned so brightly for so long, and carried it through a major motion film, two TV shows and some reasonably solid direct-to-DVD movies, it is – for all intents and purposes – the place to be as far as Sci-Fi is right now. The class archeatypes are shaping up well, with careful thought given on how to extend the singular character types seen in Stargate SG1 into generic playable classes, and although most of the available media is very ‘Beta’ looking, the title still seems to have a solid 3D engine behind it (a must for simulating that all important shimmering wormhole effect.)

Yeah, bring on Stargate: Worlds, if that’s done right, I won’t be too fussed about Star Trek Online.