Lord of the Rings Online (Shadows of Angmar) arrives soon to a game-weary world. The official “probably won’t be pushed back again at this point” launch date is April 25, 2007, with a World Tour, aka cleverly named Open Beta, to begin April 6th — over a million tour invites will be given out. But there’s more!
Those pre-ordering the game will be called Founders, and besides the title, Founders can play NOW and roll their de-noobified beta characters (level 15 cap) into live when they will enjoy founders subscription prices: $9.99 a month or $199 for a lifetime subscription. I like $9.99 a month ALOT; the $199, not so much. It’s not an unreasonable price, but I don’t have that kind of faith in anyone.
Box prices: $49.99 for the ordinary box, which includes two in-game items, or $59.99 for the collector’s edition, which includes a total of three in-game items plus nerd bait.
I played the LOTRO beta and thought it was a nice little game. The lore can’t be beat and unlike the Warcraft series, I actually know a thing or two about the backstory. There’s some problem with a ring and a would-be god, right?
Principally, it’s appeal is: NOT WORLD OF WARCRAFT.
(Hell, I would have played Vanguard if the hardware requirements weren’t so ridiculous. Still might, but I don’t feel like replacing my video card just yet. Vanguard is a game that needs to age in the barrel for a while, I think.)
I have noticed a very curious thing in Le World of Warcraft lately: enemies on my Friends List haven’t been logging on much in the last few weeks. (Unlike most players, the people on my Friends List are players I like to keep my eye on, lest I fall victim to a public chat channel ambush. It’s a long story.)
I’d like to hope they’ve given up on gaming, or are working on a blood elf character … on another server. Worst case scenario, they’ve moved on to LOTRO.
Which brings me to today’s online gaming lesson: In a new online game, when confronted with “aren’t you Soandso from WoW and/or EQ (etc)?”, deny, deny, deny. I like to throw in a little roleplaying to further confuse, because then they think: 1. the real Foton never roleplayed, I must be mistaken and 2. it’s a goddamn roleplayer, I have to get away from here.
You have to use the tools available to you, and if crazy is your only tool, work it.
