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Orcs and Elves and...Hobbits?

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I have a good friend who lives far away, and we've been trying to find a good MMO to play together. After a frustrating ordeal with WoW, we decided to try Lord of the Rings Online (LotRO). There was a free two-week trial, so we felt as if we had little to lose.

When we began LotRO, we had to choose a race and a class. LotRO has a few different races, from humans to elves to hobbits. You can play as evil races, like orcs, but that takes place in a separate "Monster" mode of play. I was a blood elf in WoW, and I wanted to be an elf in LotRO because I've always thought that elves were cool. They are often the most beautiful of the races as well, especially the females, which is what I wanted to play. I then had to choose a class. I had grown very attached to my animal companion in WoW, likely due to my fondness for animal companionship in real life. There was only one class that could have "pets," so I chose to be a Lore-Master.

The game begins with an instance, and I had to defend a town. There were enough hints so I wasn't completely lost, but I also felt like I was moving forward quickly. The beginning was exciting, and I enjoyed the instance. After that, I quickly found my friend, who was also an elf, but of the Guardian class. His class is much better at melee attacks, and mine has the pet for melee and uses ranged attacks. Our classes work well together.

What struck me most about LotRO was the beauty of the world. The character models were refined and realistic, and the elves around me were lovely. Unlike the glowing eyes of WoW's blood elves, the elves here had inviting, interesting faces. Also, the world around us was stunning. Mountainous forested areas reminded me of the mountains in the Pacific Northwest. Rolling hills looked like fields in the midwest. The fantasy world was so similar to some of the places that I've been that it felt believable. From the bird migrations in the sky to the clouds of breath in chilled mountain air, the level of realism in this game makes it a wonderfully immersive escape.

However, art alone cannot carry an MMO. Quests are also a very important, and LotRO is full of them. The writing is interesting and believable - for Tolkien's characters. Hobbits have the silly accents and phrases you would expect, and the dialogue is written with enough of a dialect to add character but not create confusion. I take the time to read all the quests because they're actually interesting, unlike in WoW.

I haven't spent a lot of time with LotRO yet, but I am definitely looking forward to playing again soon. The world is a fun place to visit, and I hope that it continues to impress me. I would really like to find an MMO that is as satisfying as my favorite single-player games. LotRO is certainly off to a great start.  

I Want to be a Care Bear

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My first night diving back into World of Warcraft, I had such a frustrating experience that I canceled my subscription just hours after its creation. I have tried time and again with this game, but I just couldn't seem to get into it. I understand that there is more to the game than what I've seen getting to level 22, but I have been disappointed over and over.

I bought WoW a few months ago on the suggestion of a friend. He thought that I'd enjoy it more if we played it together. I seemed to be enjoying it more than he did, as I was leveling up a lot faster than him. I waited for a few months for him to catch up to me, and when he finally did, I thought that I would be able to get the satisfying MMO experience that had been eluding me.

When we began WoW that day, we journeyed into an undercity of the undead. It was a stark contrast to the lovely elven world. The dark elf city was grand and beautiful, but this undercity was disgusting, from the dank sewer environment to hulking obese guards stationed everywhere. It was also a maze, structured in a circular fashion, and very difficult to navigate. I hated being in there and wanted out as soon as possible.

We finally got our quests and emerged from that filthy city. I was glad to be out among virtual nature again. Everything seemed fine for about an hour as we began some quests. Then, it started getting frustrating. Characters 40 levels or more above us started chasing us down on common roads, trying to kill us. We were shocked, as we thought that we had a choice in PvP engagments. Unfortunately, we did not, and we soon found ourselves frequently running in the wrong direction to avoid fights.

Later, we were almost done with a quest, and our team of three had just two more of a certain enemy to kill. Suddenly, all three of us were brutally slaughtered by a higher-level player. My friend had valiantly tried to buy me some time, but it was hopeless. We revived and tried to move on, only to get murdered again by the same high-level player. The next time I ran back to revive, I noticed that same high-level player hanging around our corpses, just waiting to kill us again. My friend informed me that this was "corpse-camping," where some jerk just sits around and kills helpless players like us. I understand that signing up for a PvP player means dealing with the consequences, but I had no idea that people could take pleasure in something has no sportsmanship or honor.

The next time we revived, we snuck off very carefully and ran back to a nearby village. We were discussing our frustrations with the game over voice chat at an inn. And then, out of nowhere, some high-level rouge came in and wiped out the entire village. Yes, players and NPCs alike. I can understand the need to do that once to feed an ego, but this particular player kept coming back every few minutes. As soon as the entire town respawned, it would be wiped out again.

At this point, I was so frustrated that I quit out of WoW. I talked with my friend some more, and we considered transferring our characters to a PvE (player versus environment) server. There was a steep $25 fee, so we decided against it. Outside the elven city we started in, the game just seemed to have little draw for either of us. While I would love to have an MMO to connect to friends, WoW was clearly not what we wanted.

In a more general sense, my experience with WoW taught me that I hate PvP servers. I had avoided MMOs for a long time due to my fear that one person would ruin the fun for everyone else. After having that fear realized, I saw how it ruins the fun and also prevents me from appreciating the strengths of the game. I have decided that I would rather be a "care bear," or someone who plays on a PvE server. I want to enjoy the game without the distraction of cold-blooded murder. However, my inability to truly feel immersed in WoW has extended beyond my problems with the PvP realms, as I've noticed in my previous experiences. I want to be a care bear, just not in WoW.  
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Audio Surfing

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At the Game Developer's Choice Awards at GDC, I heard about a little game called Audiosurf. In the craziness that was GDC, I found myself too busy to play the demo. Recently, I read on a game blog about how Audiosurf was available via Steam. Now that there was a demo, and I had no more excuses. It was time to give this award-winning independent game a try.

Audiosurf may be a rhythm game, but it's quite different from Guitar Hero or Rock Band. The layout does look similar to Guitar Hero from the screenshots; however, the gameplay itself is quite different. Songs you choose (from music files on your computer) are mapped into something resembling a racetrack. Blocks are places across the lanes, and they can vary in color (depending on the mode). There were a few different modes to play, including dodging certain color blocks and collecting other color blocks.

I found the game to be slightly difficult at first. I didn't quite understand how I was supposed to stack matching color blocks into columns that moved with me, and how to strategize to get maximum points. Sometimes, the columns would fill too quickly on the fast parts or they wouldn't clear matching colors out fast enough, so I would lose points. However, there were some nice touches in the mechanics, such as having the gray blocks (which don't match with anything) clear out automatically, reducing the punishment. Also, there were power-ups and other details that made the game more complex.

The mechanics encouraged skilled play, and I could tell just from the short demo that the game had a nicely scaled degree of complexity. I tried to choose a wide variety of songs during my demo. I absolutely loved the idea of using music I know and love (avoiding difficulties that arise from unfamiliarity with some songs in games such as Guitar Hero). However, this freedom also means that the level of difficulty can vary greatly between songs. Even if I'm familiar with a song, it may have portions that are just too fast for me to handle.

Audiosurf requires different skills than many mainstream rhythm games on the market. It's mainly a matter of timing. I really enjoyed being able to pick my own songs, meaning I never had to play one that I didn't like. Audiosurf may not have had the budget of games like Guitar Hero, but it is certainly a fun rhythm game and a neat way to appreciate your favorite music.