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Numfar looking down at the Brandywine River.
Same spot, different direction, different river.
That would be the moon.
The Midgewater Marshes.
Lowbranch the Hunter sees stars in the water (also GUI).
Elf Lore-master Istwen summoning a pet.
Some ruins near the Brandywine.
Numfar taking a break in a field near Combe.

TD

Windows only. No thanks. I like being able to play WoW on Mac OS. Even though I have Vista installed as well, I'll probably be leaning almost exclusively towards those games that support Mac. The idea is to leave Windows in the dust in the next couple years.

Nice screenshots. I just picked this up today($30), looking forward to it. What server are you playing on?

I've been playing on Gladden: Numfar (Captain), Dalthir (Champion), Waldur (Hunter), Istwen (Lore-master), and Norwen (Burglar).

TD

Alright, cool. I'll look you up when I get it installed and subscribed.

what is the monthly fee?

The usual, $14.99. I got it at Fry's over the weekend, and just had to get it while it was on sale. Heh.

What class do you like the best so far Tach? I'm undecided on what I want to play as. Is there one class that had more of an advantage playing solo? I do a lot of solo playing in MMOs, so I would prefer somethng that I can play and handle things on my own if need be.

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EDIT: I started my first character tonight, I made an Elf Champion (I'm now Level 6, and just finished Introduction/Starting area final quest). His name is Velessar.

I'm still learning the ins and outs of the game (without reading the manual), I am going to RTFM tomorrow and see if I have missed anything crucial.
I'm really diggin it thus far, seems like a SP game with the storyline in place, pretty cool.

Have you started a Kinship yet Tach?

Champion and Hunter seem to be the best solo types - Champion is melee and Hunter is ranged (at least until the baddies charge in close). Maybe Burglar, too. The others are more group-oriented. Minstrel is the closest thing to a healer class, with the Captain as a team buffer and the Lore-master as an enemy debuffer/crowd control type.

Haven't started or joined a kinship yet. Joined a few PuGs, but they've been all business (get in, get the job done, cya later). Most of the missions are soloable, but there are some that work better with a Fellowship.

Have you picked a crafting profession yet?

TD

Hudson wrote:Windows only. No thanks. I like being able to play WoW on Mac OS. Even though I have Vista installed as well, I'll probably be leaning almost exclusively towards those games that support Mac. The idea is to leave Windows in the dust in the next couple years.

Giving up on gaming then?

"Have you picked a crafting profession yet?"

Not yet, at least I dont think so. I picked up a quest for crafting or something like that, not sure what it's about. I'm sure I'll find some info on that in the manual. I thought about picking up the Strategy Guide for LOTRO, seems like it might have some more info in it that the manual doesn't cover.

14.9 - ouch, no thx...

whilei would LOVE to play olkein stuff, i thoroughly despise the monthly fee stuff - especially when it is so steep. 4.99, i might go for it. but thesefolks gauge you at both ends nwadays. pay for the initial game and pay a monthly fee. if the mothly fee is that steep, it should at least be a free download for the client.

or it should come with 3 months free subscription. which would be the same thing.

I'd like to play it as well, however, I reallly don't care for the MM part of MMORPG ... I can get the part that I enjoy out of a M-RPG like NWN, which we never seem to play together.

The way I look at it is this... You pay $14.99 a month, and in that month you will probably play for say 1 or 2 hours a day on average, sometimes longer. Say you play for 2 hours a day for 30 days, thats 60 hours. That's $ .25 cents / hour for your entertainment and enjoyment. Say you play 30 hours a month, that's $.50 cents / hour. How much is it to go watch a movie at the theater? $10 for 2-3 hours? That's $3-5 / hour for entertainment, and after the 2-3 hour movie is over, that's it. With the MMO, after 2 or 3 hours, you can continue to enjoy the game, with your friends (If your friends are playing of course).

You can turn off and on your account at anytime. You aren't obligated to pay (After the current subscription expires) if you want to take a break. You just cancel your subscription and renew it when you want to play again(30 days at a time, or more). MMOs are about meeting people online, playing with friends, and doing something you enjoy for a reasonable price (IMO). You will only get out of it, what you put into it.

Yes, NWN is a fun game to play, but for some reason it doesn't hold everyone's interest. Not sure why, NWN was and still is a fun game to play. I have yet to finish NWN2, I'm stuck in the SP campaign.

One of the things I like about MMOs is that you can come and go as you please. I can log in at any time 24/7, and not have to wonder if any of my friends are going to be online so I can play. There are other players in an MMO, that you can join up with and complete quests, sometimes making new friends. Not everyone has the same schedules, so in that aspect, MMOs can cater to just about everyone. And of course, you have to like the type of game you are playing. LOTRO is a fantasy RPG style game based on the Lord of the Rings story line. I am a LOTR junkie, so the decision to play LOTRO was pretty easy for me.

Softball,
I agree with you on what you say.

For me tho, i don't enjoy the "massive" part of the multiplayer. If I am only playing solo, I can do that with a SP game like NWN. I usually only play mp coop or adversarial with people I know (not into PUG), so that "always there" doesn't hold much for me. I'm also unlikely to play 2 hours a day.

i do NOT agree with the 1-2 hours a day. my god man, how much time do you have??? there is no way i could dedicate 1-2 hours a day to a game and still play any othr game. so MAYBE, if it as the only game i owned/played...

i wonder if the persistent world stuff is running for NWN2 yet??? if anyone finds out, post a seperte thread (i will if i have time).

I'm only paying $9.99 per month because I got the special pre-order 'Founder' pricing. I had the option of going with the $9.99 (or paying slightly less for quarterly, bi-annual, or annual payments) or paying $199 for a lifetime subscription.

I'm still paying $14.99 for CoX, also - but the way I see it, I'm *still* saving money, because this is my reward for giving up cigarettes (which cost upwards of $23 per WEEK).



TD

After I finish school and homework, I'm usually on the computer from like 10pm to around 1am, depending on what TV shows I watch, working on the web site, etc.. . I wasn't inferring that "I" play 1 to 2 hours a say, I was using it as an example. I sometimes don't have time to play at all on certain days. I usually have more time on the weekends to play longer hours.

Like I said, you will get out of it what you will put into it. If you don't have the time to play 1 to 2 hours / day (On average), then it won't be as beneficial or cost effective as it could be for you. Your post lead me to believe that "pay to play" MMOs aren't worth the cost to you, so I was just explaining that it is a reasonably cheap form of entertainment.

Now if you had said that you don't have the time to dedicate to an MMO, then I likely would not have bothered with explaining the hourly rate breakdown.

If you put those 2 reasons together, ie don't have the time and think it's not worth $$ for the little time you would be playing, then I can understand your argument.

Time-wise WoW is a total time sink - when you consider what the guild i'm in are doing (raiding Kara around 4 times a week) then it can be the dominant game in your game library. Each raid that you go on probably lasts about 3 hours (we start at 19:15 GMT) ang usually goes on to about 10:30 tho can be later.
In order to be successful for this, you have to have spent time preparing, i.e. either getting materials and crafting potions, armour, consumables etc, or solo grinding for gold to buy the aforementioned items - this can take between 1-3 hours probably, for one raids worth of kit.
Also, with a view to the future, to take part in the later instances, you need to have revered rep or higher with some of the game factions, so oyu need to do some of the 5 man instances, say about 2 hours worth of game time.

Suffice it to say that by virtue of my dedication to my WoW guild (as i helped set it up) i think my grades have taken a bit of a battering. But seeing as i'm considering a career in games journalism, i'm trying to look at it as an investment .

I'm up to level 13 now, not too bad for 1 hour a day. I'm really enjoying LOTRO so far. I have been mostly soloing, but have joined other people to help them finish a quest or two.

I took the Armsman vocation (Weaponsmith, Prospector, Woodworker) path in crafting, but from what I have read, weaponsmithing is not the way to go if you want to make money, and the weapons you can make aren't any better than quest items. I'm thinking of changing to the Explorer vocation (Tailor, Prospector, Forester), I could sell valuable Ore and Wood, and then make Cloth, Light and Meduim Armor pieces.

Have you started or joined a Kinship yet Tach?

Not yet, still mostly doing stuff solo. I tried the Monster Play stuff the other day and came very near to calling it quits - dunno why, but seeing Hobbit body parts as loot really bugged me. ;-)

I've got an Armsman, an Explorer, a Historian, a Tinker, and a Woodsman (probably change that one to Armourer) - they pretty much cover all the bases for each other.

TD