Shamus Plays: LOTRO, Part 3

[asterismW]

I have to admit, the ring quest symbol threw me for a loop for awhile.

"This guy has The One Ring above his head. He must be evil. And yet, you're talking to him. He hasn't killed you. He's asking you to do something. So... he's a spy?"

 

[i64ever]

Shamus proves we don't need an army! The US should just bribe other people to kill our enemies with various bits of clothing!

 

[ucciolord1]

I'm really starting to love this. Keep it up!

 

[Booze Zombie]

So, this is how silly MMORPGs can get?

 

[chickenlord]

you need to record your songs and post them, i can't read a song...i don't know the beat, the rhythm...

 

[Grey_Focks]

Shoes? On a Hobbit? What a marvelously quaint idea!

I'm a little ashamed I didn't think about this until you mentioned it. Cheers for appreciating the mythos.

 

[matrix3509]

Shoes? On a Hobbit? What a marvelously quaint idea!

Hey wait a sec, thats right!

Hobbits went around barefoot!!!

WTF?

Hobbits who lived in and around Buckland (particularly near the Brandywine River) routinely wore shoes because the banks of the river were extremely muddy and they didn't want to spend hours on end cleaning their feet.

EDIT: This was one of many reasons the Bucklanders were considered to be weirdos by the rest of the Shire.

/nerd LOTR lesson

 

[soulbro42]

Gotta love the Red Mage hat!

 

[carpathic]

Excellent and very funny!

 

[Sonic Doctor]

It never crossed my mind to play the game until I saw part one of this. I found it so hilarious I wanted to experience it myself.

I can't wait to see what Shamus does with the gold mine of comic material that comes when the player has to go back to the Shire after Archet. There are a lot of aggravating mail-delivery quests. DON'T GET THE MAILBAG WET!

 

[lluewhyn]

I don't know about MMOs, but there are RPGs that do this, in very unrealistic ways. As an example, let's say there's a quest to find a lost locket for some clueless bimbo. You don't have the quest, but stumbled on the locket by luck. You approach the NPC (you've never met before) and are immediately met with, "My locket! You found it! Here, take this reward, and my thanks!"

Excuse me? You have X-Ray vision? See right into my pocket/pack? Locket, what locket? Oh that, my mother gave it to me years ago. Now get away from me you crazy *****.

You can adjust this example as needed, to cover pretty much any quest. In many games these days, the player has zero dialogue choices. The game designers get around the above situation by assuming a lot of things on your behalf. I hate it.

Well, I've seen plenty of standard RPGs that do this as well, but they just don't write them well. All it takes is for the NPC to start giving you the standard quest-hook dialogue, and the option to interrupt them and say, "Wait, is this what you were asking me about?"

 

[Squaseghost]

Seriously, I hate when they have you kill 10 Slightly Agitated Spiders and the next quest has you kill 12 Very Angry Spiders when you have to pass by the Very Angrys to get to the Slightly Agitateds.

Very very true, and I hate this too. Thankfully LOTRO has improved at this somewhat, but they haven't shaken it entirely.. even some of the new quests/areas in the newest expansion do it. Argh.

The worst example is when the next step of a quest chain has you kill a boss who was wandering around the same area where you just were, and you likely already defeated them. Not sure if the quest chain works like this, but having to kill that Gaunt Man after picking up the Urn of the Red Maid.

Maybe the next generations of MMOs will have it set up so you get a quest line like, "Next, I need you to....oh wait, you already did that! Here's your reward!"

You get just one popular MMO doing that, and people wouldn't want to go back to the ones that don't.

The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games are like this, at least the first one is.

 

[mptothedc]

Wooly Vanguard ...lmfao... that's very clever

 

[likalaruku]

Lulay, the minstrel/assasin. Will kill for shoes.

 

[likalaruku]

Shamus, you should concider writing a fantasy-comedy. It could be a hit, like "Pride & Prejudice & Zombies."

 

[duchaked]

I love how Lulzy is just standing on the dead brigand haha