Lord of the rings online

Windstorms grinded missions. Yes, these boring ones with always the same things. Yet, my Loremaster is now level 150, so could use all hoarded LI runes. In short – upgraded traceries, added new ones…and now am unsure what to do. Yes, I can finish old deeds/quests. And that’s all. Cannot advance Black book (impossible to finish Gothmog rage quest), cannot participate in festival (quests bugged).

Stormsong tried her best to live in silence of Regional channel. Then, tried my luck with World chat once again. Posted same 1,4142136 (which is √2). Some person posted precise answer. I commented back. Later had also some dialogues. I was visible [a metaphore, you know…] once again.

Stars Reach

Another testing day. I logged, gathered another part of dirt and trash (all these “soils”, “gravels” that have no use), discovered some plant…and ran into random event.

This was…epic. Some “Black Hart” appeared to avenge slain deers. Spawned near me, but I thought I was safe. I did not hunt any deer, did not cause any damage – what could go wrong?
Everything. Black Hart was after me, I ran, was killed. Which was lucky, because it was the only way to go to spawn.
I went to space. It looks really cool with me flying. Just superb views. A pity, I was lost too soon, tried to navigate to some beam-projecting structure. Turned out, structure does absolutely nothing. Ok, would have to…to do something, not sure what.
Posted my impressions on local Discord. Turns out, there would never be any quick travel in SR. They want it to be “transporting mini-game”. Ok, guys, now listen: almost ALL mmos have quick travel. Even Istaria. You can skip it and stay behind everything in mmo market. Be wise and add at least some form of quick travel – like fixed portals in Istaria.
Local “community” is a sort of joke. It simply does not exist. I looked at local chat. Throughout my gameplay, I witnessed 2 phrases: one was “How beautifull” and another was reacting to Black hart -“Oh no, a Black hart”. That’s all what local “community” is capable of. No socialization, no interaction – nothing. I am no longer posting about it in SR Discord – absolutely no use.

My optimism in Stars Reach has diminished. They are taking everything into extremes. Like – taking child, throwing into Atlantic ocean in the middle of storm and telling that this is the best way to learn to swim. You arrive – and you are all alone, with no help and community. Go, figure out if you need type A dirt or Type W dirt of need dirt at all. Go, guess where to find simple copper. Go, figure out what does what, because no help from others would ever come. Go, figure out how to go to your camp when there are absolutely no visual guidances or help from others.

Raph’s glorified”community” in SR simple does not exist and will not exist. How new player is supposed to have friends/allies in game, when nobody bothers to talk to new player?

Sometimes I wish Stars Reach was epic, legendary single player game. As such, it would become a living legend. It could *not* become community-driven mmo, just because it has no in-game community.

And so my online life goes slowly-slowly, with little optimism or faith.

Lord of the rings online

We had new update. Housing writs are replaced with new currency – as if we had too little currencies. Yet another currency instead of clear item. Well…
Almost all older instances are heavily upgraded – I mean, monsters. Nobody asked, but who cares? Let’s make, say, Warg pens, possible on-level only with raid and see what happens.
Minor, unimportant changes to other things that nobody would notice or miss.

And Anniversary festival. One I waited for, since it is fun and nice. What could possibly go wrong with it?

Oh my. Everything. Lag was heavy, few steps and you are disconnected. I picked “Inspect places for fireworks” quest. 5 places were found relatively easy. 6th place, around Market square in Bree, did not exist. I rode and rode, pressing “Del” like mad, looking aty every side, exploring every milimeter. 6th place was not there. I went further, outside of marked area, exploring everything outisde. 6th place was not there. Wrote my frustratrions only to receive mocking messages like “Leave Bree”, “There are NN spawns, just look”. I looked and wasted maybe one hour – tha’t one. Leaving Bree or Eriador would not fix broken code. Many other players reported missing 6th spot.
Which leaves me with bugged quests that are impossible to finish. Anniversary festival for me is ended. It is absolutely, 100%, impossible to do. I am left alone, with nboody to talk to, to comfort me or just offer some wise advice. World is absolutely empty.

Stars Reach

New testing day. We have some improvements: recipes are shown, so that you see what thing does what and which materials are needed. Chat is shown more clearly so that new user can see its controls.

I ran, harvested meaningless stuff (like “Ghum soil can be chamged to GhashMazh stone”). Threw something away. Struggled with controls (controls won, they can’t be controlled).

And tried to chat with local community. It was some experience. First, nobody reacted to “hi” and “well, I have a problem”. Everyone – 100% – was busy with themselves. Some danced. Some commanded others. I tried to do little provocation: no results. After some tries, in despair, I wrote that I am totally invisible: my toon, my texts. After long time entire two players responded. One wrote like “i see u”, another told I have to be with friends.

Oh, most weird persons! How can I, new player, find any friend, if everyone ignores me? Whatever I type, nobody reacts.

I felt devastated. Absolutely ignored by local narcissist “community”. They did not bother other person (new!) may be in trouble or need some help or even deserves little little attention. I was invisible. I could do anything, nobody cared. I could type anything, nobody cared.

In the end, I went to Bloxd. Sorry, it is way much better. I have all resources and can easily figure out what does what. All resources are available, some require zero work, some – lots of. Community is toxic and primitive, almost never talking – like Stars Reach. No roleplay – like Stars Reach.

—

I felt devastated. Everything that could go wrong, went absolutely wrong. Festival is impossible to do (5-10 persons who managed to, are just exceptions). Stars Reach is cold, silent “community” of self-worshipping individuals. They will never, under any circumstances, become community.

Once again, I am absolutely alone. Online world is so empty, cold and silent. I am all alone, with no help, no friends, no purpose.

Lord of the rings online

Very little activity. Few players helped, some crafting material donated and this is all. I see very little reason for questing. Ok, reach level 150, then change all traceries and use absolutely all runes on new traceries. All for the sake of having new traceries. Much sense…

Bloxd

Nothing. No visits, just asked one random player to see my server. He left impressed. Ask to build a house, I had to decline. It’s medieval server, so any kid’s house with diamond blocks or just modern McDonalds would be totally out of place.

STARS REACH

Finally, I am there. Waited for public test tp start. Created a toon. And there everything began…
Toon creation: very basic. Pick race, male/female, choose name. Customization does not exist, but I do not care. It’s alpha, after all.
Now, you start in some starter area that games recognizes as “Unknown location”.
Controls: WASD with no option to reconfigure. Camera has a separate control. So in case of battle – good luck with your 4 hands (if you do not have, congratulations of failure).
Rest was a nightmare. Movement was clunky, game offered almost zero help in understanding surroundings. I went to tree, picked Harvester to…emmm…harvest wood. Nothing happened. Then at some time I tried to harvest soil – game gave me data on soil’s ph. Thanks for useless information. At the end, I “terraformed” soil and got two piles of different soils. One was to be used for oil, another – God knows what for. Tehn, while harvesting some tiny hill, I got new recipe. No idea how and why. Congratulations on recipe that probably does something.
Chat was non-existent. I could not interact with other players.
Help was of little use. Even if it’s invoked with famous F1 – it had no clues about chat.

Result: posted my opinion on local Discord. Waited for fanboys to mock me, like “u noob, stfu and get out!” – like things are on Glyn’s Lotro discord, famous for mobing and trolling.
My case was opposite: community listened. Community reacted and explained that, for example, chat is accessed by hitting Enter. They explained what developers knew and that whole game right now is just a placeholder.

Well, I expected more. At least customization of keyboard and some online help. But well, if this is a demo for a demo – I could wait.

The world so far looks really nice. Visuals are great. With right controls and at least some quality of life – it could be great. I really wish I could stay and start some building there.

So I must just wait and see what happens. Not to be hasty in decisions. Enjoy community while it lasts.

Lord of the rings online

We have new producer’s letter. It teases new region, new instances for lvl.150. Kind of good, I suppose. Then, we will get level cap increase to lvl.160 (well…grind runs. But at least something to do). Housing writs would be converted into “Household currency”. Oh well, as if we lack new currencies…we already have too much of them, most of currencies sitting in wallet without any use. Kinship upgrades is advertised, which may be really really nice thing. Make Kinships matter and see social life starting to prosper.

Of course, we will have class nerfs (so-called “changes”) that nobody asked for me, but this is SSG. A masters of nerfing.

One raid is cancelled, which I presume is good. Better do one medium instance, but quality one, than one big raid that is bugged.

Meanwhile server lives thinking about housing. It’s half-madness, but let it be. I will find my own house, place all stuff there and spend a bit time decorating.

I am having social life – talking, joking with other players and absolutely no ignoring towards me. So absolutely different from Laurelin! Kinship question still is in the air: in big Kin I would be just another number who does not matter and will not matter. And to find any kinship that would be alive, that would always have some action (even if I do not participate in it).

Stars Reach

Still waiting. Meanwhile Raph issued another contradicting statement. Like – there could be no direct harm to player; no direct harm to player structures; to do anything on [player owned?] planet you would have to have licence.

It’s contradictory, of course. If you have PvP and tell about “no direct harm” to player – how do you expect to PvP? Unless you copy idea of certain territory where PvP is allowed (Runescape’s Wilderness; Istaria’s Arena). If not, you have contradiction or system that is easy to circumvene. I am not attacking you, I just redirect lava river at you – it’s lava to blame.  Or I just direct meteors from the sky, or make rocks fall on place where you stand: oh, come on, it’s unfortunate event , it wasn’t me directly…

But yeah, game review sites already confirm my theseis that SR would become Eve online number 2.

Raph’s belief in communities is both nice and super-naive. Dear Raph, do come to Bloxd and see what communities are capable of. You will see possible future of your own game.

But meanwhile, let us hope for normal players and my chance to build something meaningfull, to engage in quality crafting and socializing. One must believe without rose or black glasses.

One just have to wait and see.