I've touched on this a bit in other forums, but given my relative quietness in these where-abouts I thought I'd talk about it a bit more.

Recently I was given a 90 day trial of Lord of the Rings Online to try out and review. I logged in and played it more than a few times before I realized something.

I just - well - couldn't.

For a variety of reasons.

Now, don't take this as a review of LotRO. I would guess, in a way, it is, but it's more of a statement of where I am in terms of MMORPGs and my current gaming habits versus, say, where you may be. There are a lot of good things about LotRO, and especially if you're into the source material, I highly recommend it.

Follow up:

I started in MMORPGs back with Dark Age of Camelot. I had friends at Iron Crown Enterprises who had been involved in some of the initial development of DAoC (originally, it was intended to use the Rolemaster rules background - but ICE's bankruptcy due to the revaluation of their Tolkien license led to Mythic changing that, also ending up giving Mythic the opportunity to buy the rights to Silent Death, the line that I worked on with ICE - at least, that's how I remember things falling out).

I'd never played an MMORPG before that and I still have fond memories of my first day. I created the biggest troll I could, gave him yellow face markings (because I was certain I'd delete him), took a random name (Runornir), and tried to find my way out of the starting village of Galplen. I couldn't, at least at first, mostly because it was night, and ended up climbing over top of a building and jumping over the wall.

I thought that was very cool.

I spent a lot of time exploring in that game. My guild (Sigurd Archdiocese, a Silent Death reference) was fairly active, we were all about the same level, and we did a lot of work together.

I learned a lot in that game. I learned how groups work in a situation like that. I learned the joys and pains of random pick-up groups. I learned how mind-boggling hard it can be to organize a raid, whether it be Tuscaran Glacier or dressing up everyone in my realm in green to attack the Hibernian frontier on St. Patrick's Day. I ran a mailing list for the leaders of guilds in Midgard/Guinevere in order to discuss diplomacy and possible attacks with other realms. (Well, not so much on the diplomacy front.) I became a guild master, we merged with a bigger guild, and I dealt with complaints from other players about people in our guild(s).

At one point I couldn't imagine not playing Dark Age of Camelot. But, slowly, the luster faded. My friends slowly wandered away into other games. The grind got to me. The grind to 50...the grind for realm points...the grind for coin in DF runs...and then the grind for artifacts and master levels. Eventually, I left.

And boy - was I bitter. WAY bitter. A bad ending to a run on a DAoC-related gaming site (the URL I won't give here, though I'm fairly certain it's gone, though Sonya Thomas did give me my first E3 invite through there, but I didn't go) helped wipe out some enthusiasm, but did eventually lead to here.

After DAoC, it was more, different games:
* PlanetSide was a lot of fun and probably the only game that I regret not playing anymore. It just...didn't work out. Man, I miss PlanetSide something fierce.
* City of Heroes was fun for quite a while - real fun. Then, in the 30s, the grind hit again, and it hit with a vengeance. And that was it for me. When it seemed that every build that was at all effective was regularly getting nerfed, and my only real option at some points was just to wander the streets wiping out crowds of bad guys and hoping that no one else got to them first...oh well.
* Auto Assault just didn't have the population of my friends to keep me going. I liked the idea, but it felt a bit rushed and while I like to solo, that doesn't mean I like playing by myself.

(Does that make sense?)

* City of Villains I just couldn't get into for the same reasons as City of Heroes. I felt kind of bad about that, because I was a fan of the writer on that one, Shane Hensley. (In fact, I have an interview before CoV came out with him somewhere in here...)
* I played an Asian martial arts MMORPG that was just too...obscure? Very Asian influenced in terms of how player social interaction was handled, poorly documented.
* Funcom gave me some time in Anarchy Online, and I just couldn't get into that one, either. Felt too slow at the beginning, and I screwed up my first character - sigh.
* EQ2 was too sterile, too slow, and again, didn't know anyone there.

So what about the other one -- World of Warcraft? The 900 pound gorilla of MMORPGs?

I played the heck out of that game.

All my friends were in it - so I had lots of people to group with, to talk to, what have you.

The interface was malleable and the game felt faster-paced, so I actually felt like it took previous tropes in MMORPGs and did them, well, right. I wasn't a fan of the Warcraft serious previous to that game - but I became one.

I played and played that game. I hit level 60. I hit 300 with both of my craft skills. I worked on alts. I farmed materials so we could the level 60 dungeons, usually ZG.

Then I realized something. I wasn't doing anything but play WoW.

Raid raid raid, and occasionally, farm farm farm. I skipped out on things with my friends in real life - I'd just moved - to kill Internet dragons.

So I quit. Cold turkey.

And it kind of felt good.

"So is that the end of MMORPGs for SeanMike?" you may ask. I'll say "No", but first have to explain why that doesn't mean I jumped into LotRO feet first.

I first played LotRO in the beta. There were more than a few issues in there, and honestly, I just felt like I was playing the game up for free before I could play it "for real". I stuck with a hobbit in that so I could try the other areas upon release.

What happened when I came back post-release?

Well, I will say, it's a lot smoother. The graphics are nicer. A lot of the bugs are taken care of. It's got some good bits to it. But I just couldn't get into it, and here's why:
* The grind. There's actually NO grind that I've seen so far in the game - because world mobs are so completely worthless to fight in comparison to XP and gold rewards from quests. In fact, it makes the "random battles" just pains in the butt unless you're working for specific achievements.

And, honestly, sometimes I *like* to grind. If you don't have long to play, just getting out and bashing some goblins or whatever can be fun - if it feels like it's accomplishing something.

Instead, I was doing quests, and I was doing them fast. You'd do some, you'd go up in level, you'd do more! In fact, I felt like I had to rush around to get the low level quests done before they went completely gray and useless, while at the same time be careful of the occasional quest that would just kick your butt (I'll tie that in below).

* Achievements. Instead of automatic talent points or whatever, you can get these. It just felt like to me it was giving me something new to grind for. "Kill how many wolves?" kind of thing.

What got me the worst on that one was that there was one for not being defeated by your 10th level. I was in the upper parts of the 9th level and wanted that one. I tried to do a blue quest. It's the one in the hobbit area, where you have to defend the kids from the bees and the bears. It kicked my butt repeatedly in the beta, I'd forgotten about it, and I get defeated by it handily. There's no indication that it's a fellowship quest or anything like that, it's just darn hard. At least, for me.

* Interface. There's simply nothing new there. It's a lot of similarities to other MMORPGs. That's not necessarily a bad thing -- it makes it easier to pick up and learn the game. But, at the same time, it keeps me from getting overly interested in the game.

* Content. I didn't realize, for one thing, how much I liked PvP until I went without for quite a while in WoW. I don't like "free for all" or the PvP servers of WoW, but I do like combat. With nothing but the monster play here, plus the fact that basically as I was doing the dwarven quests that I was encouraged to go do the hobbit ones, it makes me feel like I'm burning through all the content in one run-through. WoW, for instance, had both Alliance and Horde, plus four races with three starting points per side. DAoC had three completely different sides with multiple races.

* PET PEEVE: I'm a completionist. I like to do every single quest I can. The crafting quests are lumped in with the other ones, and that drives me up the wall - as well as markings for 'there's a quest in this buiding' and I can't find it. But that's my pet peeve is all.

I have a few friends playing it, and they're having fun. Good for them. It's just not my cup of tea.

So what am I looking forward to?

Well, a couple of games - and I'll tell you why.

* Age of Conan. I've seen a good bit of this at previous E3s, and I'll be seeing more this year. There's several things I'm looking forward to in this one, including the innovative swordplay and archery features, the single player "start" to the game, and PvE player cities (which hopefully will fulfill some of the PvP urge by having PvP-esque combat with computer opponents).

* Warhammer: Age of Reckoning. Again, I've seen a good bit of this one, and I appreciate Mythic's work on the RvR aspects of DAoC more and more as I play other games. I've been a fan of the Warhammer mythos for quite a while, and the RvR I've played in this game was a heck of a lot of fun. I should have more on WAR too by the end of the month.

* Huxley. I'm hoping it'll fulfill my cravings for a PlanetSide-esque game.

* Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising. I've always dug Roman influences, and the game play looks pretty cool, both in "graphical representations of fights" and the ability to always have a group with you.

But we'll see. I want a good MMORPG to suck me in - the little bit of Cthulhu Nation I play here and there is fun, but as a web based game, it doesn't quite get the complete immersion that I'm looking for. (On the other hand, I've just finished reading The Call of Cthulhu and other Weird Tales so I should play some more of it.

And we'll see what E3 has for me. There's a lot going on in MMORPGs lately - I just don't want to see "more of the same". Innovative play, original content, and population density - it can be hard to combine those, but that's what *I* need.