Hi, I'm new here.

Following on from my previous (and only) post, I have been thinking a little about the concept of what it is like making a fresh start in an MMO that has been plodding along for many years. I have been present at the start of a fair few online worlds, specifically Eve, World of Warcraft, LotrO and Age of Conan. I love the first few weeks, where everyone is gradually learning their way around and communities are forming. It seems to me that people are just more open in these stages, and my friends list always grows rapidly in this period. 

After a while, it seems that people are already involved in their own communities and focused on their activities, and there is much less stopping to socialize with strangers, and a lot more running about concerned with your own list of errands. For some reason, Age of Conan was like this right from the start, bypassing the first stage. I blame their ridiculous zone instancing, which is good because is fragments the population of zone and minimizes lag, but very bad because it fragments the population of zones and minimizes the amount and variety of other players to interact with. It is certainly one of the top three reasons that I left that game, but that is a subject for another post, or maybe not.

Anyway, I started characters in two old MMOs this week, the venerable Final Fantasy XI which is nearly six years old, and Lord of the Rings Online, which has been going for about a year and a half. Well, FF XI is hard work! The biggest issue for me is finding my way around the cities. In the times I played before I always started in Windurst, so for a change I started in  San d'Oria this time. Instantly I remembered how long it took me too learn where everything is in Windurst, and the prospect of doing that all again does not appeal. I shall probably just re-roll in the leafy Windurst for the sake of my time and sanity.

Ultimately, I know the game is just too far along for me to consider joining properly. This is an MMO where after about level 10, grouping is pretty much a necessity, and the general lack of low level population means it will really be a struggle to get anywhere. The general user-unfriendliness of the interface and controls (it very much feels like no effort was made to taylor it to the PC when it was ported from consoles) doesn't help either. All in all, it just feels too much like hard work.

On to LotrO. As I said above, I was there for the launch of this one, and had a very enjoyable few months adventuring in the Shire and beyond. Eventually a few of my good friends left the game, and the more time I had to spend in Bree and it's surroundings the more generic and bland this part of Middle Earth felt to me, and so I drifted back to Warcraft. I returned to LotrO at the start of this year, just playing with a friend, and had a great time, but again drifted away once I got into the early twenties. So, third time lucky, I wonder?

It has been a promising start. When I played before, it was on an old PC that could just about run the game with low to medium settings. My current PC can run everything at full, and it looks great. It never felt very smooth before, now everything flows along nicely. I started a human burglar. I already have a level 21 hobbit burglar, but I wanted a fresh start, and I thought that maybe if I start in the human lands, I may get used to them and not find them as generic as I did before. 

I would like to see what is beyond Breeland, as I did think there was some great design in other parts of the world, so hopefully Breeland is just a brief dip in quality. That is the current theory I shall delude myself with. I do not feel that enthusiastic about the Moria expansion, I must say. I would have been much happier with something like Mirkwood, or Rohan. Moria just feels too small in my mind. Regardless, I am feeling that LotrO will certainly keep me interested until Warhammer comes along next month.

Level 1

Currently my gaming habits are in a curious limbo. My on again/off again relationship with World of Warcraft is in a 'let's have some time apart' phase. I cannot imagine getting sucked back in, but I have felt that way in the past and somehow ended up completely hooked again, so who knows?

Mainly I am patiently awaiting Warhammer Online. Hopefully the NDA will drop this week and the internet will be filled with interesting info. I will be playing the game in about a month (hopefully earlier, depending on the open beta / head start situation ), and I am thinking of a stand in MMO to play while I wait. 

I have been toying with the idea of heading back to Everquest 2. I spent a month or so exploring Norath as part of Sony's cunning Living Legacy promotion, and the is much that appeals to me in the game. The main problem is a common one when investigating MMOs that have been around for a while - I just feel like I am too late to the party. It is hard to find you feet in a world where pretty much all the other players are deeply involved in the higher end content, or are alts who know the game inside and out. I am still tempted by the idea though.

The other game that had been tempting me for some reason is Final Fantasy XI. I have played FF XI for about 3 months on and off over the last 3 years, and I know it is a big grind, and I know that the low level zones can feel very empty (or at least they did on my server), but still I am getting this terrible urge to log in, to the extent that I am currently patching the damn thing on my PC.