tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-826986957606858027.post2847801253043707848..comments2023-06-19T10:45:56.724-04:00Comments on Player Versus Developer: The Interactive Novel of IsengardGreen Armadillohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15564045048380177626noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-826986957606858027.post-864501115168253182012-07-19T16:36:21.848-04:002012-07-19T16:36:21.848-04:00I just finished the Dunland / Isengard solo conten...I just finished the Dunland / Isengard solo content. There did seem to be a reduced grind. Swift travel is readily available (without griding quest or rep), travel distances generally are shorter, resources plentiful, and some reduced back-and-forth. <br /><br />It does feel like they tried a few new things compared to earlier regions, with more complex phasing and scripts. Unfortunately they made Dunland/Isengard almost totally solo; grouping is pointless, esp. with the forced solo instances as you mentioned. And I agree it is too linear: it feels like a passive guided tour.<br /><br />But the main problem is: despite some decent stories in the sub-regions, the tasks required of the player are the same standard "kill X baddies" and click-on-X-objects-just-down-the-road. (These types of tasks only made sense in the epic questline in Isengard.) So your actions feel mundane and separate from the stories, not integrated in them.<br /><br />They seriously need to rethink these reductionist "quests" that feel only like errands or chores because they are too short and too small. A quest should be: find the answer to the main question of the region/story, and let me find the way to do it. <br /><br />Will they ever change questing for the better? No. It's easy to keep doing the same bland style quests, and many players don't seem to mind, so they will keep doing them.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-826986957606858027.post-45397685864044707962012-07-18T04:11:51.490-04:002012-07-18T04:11:51.490-04:00I'm on LotRO as well, and as much as the epic ...I'm on LotRO as well, and as much as the epic questline is ok, all the "leveling/rep grinding" quests tend to fall really short of the mark. Apart from some exceptions, the stories are lame, and the quests just "kill ten rats", but making sure that the rats are far from the questgiver to make you waste time.<br /><br />I'm 2/3 through the Great River zone, and as much as I liked the "traitor in Stangard" questline, I've seriously started to ignore the quest texts in the following zones.Helistarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01435861741164342377noreply@blogger.com