EQ 2 Double XP Weekend

I’ve been playing my Mage a bit this weekend to take advantage of the double  XP, but though she is fun to play, my experience bar is crawling and I’ve only gained half a level.

For me this is an example of why you don’t want to play free to play games except as a very casual thing.  If this were a subscription game, you wouldn’t need to even think about all the ways in which your progress is stopped/slowed/hindered, you would just play.

 If a large portion of players thought progression was slow the company would go in and tweak it. The thinking there is make the game enjoyable for players.  

In “free to play” every effort of development seems to be aimed at thinking of all of the things players enjoy in a game then you get them to pay for it piecemeal.  It’s as if there isn’t an overall philosophy, but a very segmented one.

Your Sunday morning blah blah.

Lotro Notes

I always have my notebook handy when I play to write down questions that come up or thoughts.  It appears I can’t play games anymore after years of beta testing without thinking some background thoughts.  It helps me learn the mechanics of the game and how it all fits together.   I’ll have these for LOTRO, EQ2, and Rift.  So here are thoughts I had playing LOTRO this week.

 

LOTRO Notes

August 2, 2013

Instancing of the world:  makes it feel like fewer people are around.  In WOW for instance you can see the people in the bank and auction house from outside.  Also Scenarios etc take people out of the main world.  I think I’ve seen this mentioned in SWTOR as an issue, and now that I think of it it is very like the original Guild Wars where you just see people in what amounts to a “lobby”.

You still need to purchase skills from a trainer.  I am so used to them just being granted at new levels so I didn’t think to stop and had a few to pick up.

I did the Bree Tour quests while I was in Bree and wondered why the quest appeared to be over my head.  After walking through the streets towards Beggars Alley and admiring the new shrubbery, I was caught unawares by two level 14 bad guys who popped out.  For a second I tried to fight back, then realized there were two and I was out leveled so I ran for it.  Luckily I made it, because I’ve looked at the Deed Log and I want to get to level 15 without out dying for that nice Undying title.

Since my girl is going to live the simple adventurer’s existence, I will concentrate on trying to get the deeds for class and for each area.

Does having a cash shop affect how loot and treasures drop/are distributed?

How does having the desire to get your players to spend real money affect the player economy?

Do you want to shift the excitement of acquisition from the Auction House to the Cash Shop?

Are you stingy with interesting rewards now?

I’m going to compare the three free to plays and what makes you interested or not in logging in.  In Lotro for instance there is a silver and gold reward for logging in daily.  A little wheel-like a slot machine goes ticking along to see what you’ll get for a daily prize.  There may be more things they reward you with, but you can see that little bit of pseudo-gambling would appeal to certain people.  Not just rewarded but a winner.