It was an hard decision for me but I’ve decided to quit Lord of the Rings Online permanently. I know I leave behind some friends, I have their emails so I have at least that, but also my beloved deluxe house, my first ingame house ever. I leave behind as well my characters I had become attached to with which I had fun role-playing.

I think it is partly playing Warhammer Online in november 2008 that made me realise that. Warhammer Online is so similar to Guild Wars that it almost made me feel like playing it. Guild Wars has so many qualities with its anti-grind attitude, non-gear oriented game, reach level cap fast, casual gameplay, fun. Not once I felt compelled to play Guild Wars, or obsessed, I played a lot but always for fun.
It was not the case for Lord of the Rings Online. I was compelled to play all the time to try to advance a little my alts and I felt for years I was not getting ahead. How come I can play a dozen alts in Guild Wars, get them to max level really fast, get them nice armors, skills, etc. in a few months while almost two years later and my 5 alts are still low level? Ok, I managed to advance my main more then the others in Lord of the Rings Online but only after I fully abandoned the other alts. Leveling alts is no fun in Lord of the Rings Online.

Let’s not forget the lack of storage, the deeds, the crafting, the reputations, etc. all grind that was making me obsessed about the game quite late at night and the whole day about the whole organisation. I was trying to play as often as possible to satisfy to everything.

Then came the second reason, the expansion Mines of Moria that has turned Lord of the Rings Online into World or Warcraft. I’m quite aware of World of Warcraft, I’ve heard about it plenty and I’ve decided long ago to avoid the game for many good reasons, one of them being the raids that are a must, and a grind, to acquire items. Frankly, if I wanted to play World of Warcraft, I’d buy the game, but since I’m not interested I’ve played other MMOs instead. Before Mines of Moria raids were not needed, one could craft, get items through quests or buy them on the Auction Hall but not anymore. As strange as it might seem, it’s World of Warcraft that is becoming more casual while Lord of the Rings Online is becoming more hardcore and more raid oriented.

Another thing coming from Mines of Moria are the skills, the virtues and the deeds. While before one did not need to work too hard on his/her deeds, now having them at high level is almost required. Still, even on the old system, one of the main reasons not to level up other alts was indeed the deeds, now it’s worse. There are as well different trait paths for classes and some classes get punished for certain choices while others don’t which is not fair. Turbine also has changed the combat system with Mines of Moria and that is quite a bad move.

So yeah, these are pretty much the reasons why I’m leaving, Lord of the Rings Online is turning into something I don’t like, and I want to go back to an healthy gaming state of mind because Lord of the Rings Online is very very unhealthy for me.

I’m going back to City of Villains/Heroes, like Guild Wars it’s casual, non-gear oriented, no raid, a rich and fun PvE MMO, and I’ve never felt that unhealthy addiction towards it as well unlike Lord of the Rings Online. On top of that, my guild there is still fully present ingame and I’ve been taken back and they’re still as nice as before. So from now on you know where to find me, on Virtue the unofficial RP server.

This is a past blog entry from my gaming Multiply.