I don't wish to belabor the subject of negativity towards LOTRO, but I constantly find myself at a conflicting crossroads - I love the game, but I also identify with many of the recent criticisms. I remember a time where I might have been considered an adoring fanboy, unabashed in his love for this new thing he discovered called MMOs. Add in a dash of LOTR favoritism and you got me. Now that I've been out for a while, perhaps I'm going a bit stale. The sugar has fermented and I'm a bit crumbly. Okay, enough with the food metaphor.
I'm not a hardcore player, but I do play enough to reach the level cap and complete most of the content before the next expansion. Is it the nature of where I'm at to be cranky? There's just not enough stuff to make me happy anymore. Like the kid who wore out all his Christmas presents and says to mom "I'm bored!". What does the kid do? At mom's behest he finds new games to play, new toys (or old toys rediscovered), or even uses his imagination to come up with something on his own. It's understandable that he's cranky, but there's a reason for it, aside from the immaturity of being a kid.
Maybe I'm that kid (hopefully more mature) and I just need something different for a while. Take a break. My criticisms aren't really my anger at the game for doing something wrong, but simply an outlet to the fact that I'm out of stuff to do. Boredom isn't fun and makes people grumpy. So, while I have valid concerns about the game, I'll try not to harp on them too much. I guarentee I'll be posting positives when the Book 8 patch notes are finalized.
In the mean time, I think all of us that are at the level cap, who have completed the content we find fun, should take a collective breath and understand what's fueling our disgruntlement. LOTRO may indeed have flaws (what game doesn't?) but realize it's our boredom that's causing our grief. Like beer goggles make the ugly beautiful, boredom goggles make the paper cut seem like a gaping wound.
I'm not a hardcore player, but I do play enough to reach the level cap and complete most of the content before the next expansion. Is it the nature of where I'm at to be cranky? There's just not enough stuff to make me happy anymore. Like the kid who wore out all his Christmas presents and says to mom "I'm bored!". What does the kid do? At mom's behest he finds new games to play, new toys (or old toys rediscovered), or even uses his imagination to come up with something on his own. It's understandable that he's cranky, but there's a reason for it, aside from the immaturity of being a kid.
Maybe I'm that kid (hopefully more mature) and I just need something different for a while. Take a break. My criticisms aren't really my anger at the game for doing something wrong, but simply an outlet to the fact that I'm out of stuff to do. Boredom isn't fun and makes people grumpy. So, while I have valid concerns about the game, I'll try not to harp on them too much. I guarentee I'll be posting positives when the Book 8 patch notes are finalized.
In the mean time, I think all of us that are at the level cap, who have completed the content we find fun, should take a collective breath and understand what's fueling our disgruntlement. LOTRO may indeed have flaws (what game doesn't?) but realize it's our boredom that's causing our grief. Like beer goggles make the ugly beautiful, boredom goggles make the paper cut seem like a gaping wound.
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3 Responses to "Justifiable Disgruntlement?"
Here here. Total agreement. Too often I see posts on message boards to the effect of "I've been playing this game for six solid months and it is teh suxxors!" That's just burnout...unless you are one of those rare souls that really is stupid enough to play something you think sucks for six solid months.
I just came out of a burnout phase. I spent most of that time playing two different MMOs that are polar opposites of LoTRO in a number of ways: CoH and Wizard 101. A couple of months on those and I came back refreshed.
I also ended up with a cool new CoH character called "Death Lagomorph" (Death Bunny was taken). She shoots bolts of pure darkness and can jump 12 stories into the air.
I think part of that burnout may be what every MMO player eventually feels: MMOs aren't quite as cool as we initially thought. That feelign that we got when we played our first MMO, right at the very beginning -- that's something that, I think, was pretty unique. It's not a feeling I've ever heard of anybody recapturing.
I started playing MMOs with Asheron's Call, and there was definitely a sense of wonder to logging in for the very first time. That sense of wonder faded over time spent in AC. It took about a year and a half before I stopped being seriously addicted to the game, though I certainly played longer than that. But, after that honeymoon period, it stopped being quite so amazing. It wasn't even that I saw any particular flaws in the game -- I didn't, at the time, because I wasn't looking for them. Rather, I simply stopped enjoying it as much as I had before.
It's a natural reaction, and you do get over it. Of course, I'm sure other people experience it differently, but everybody hits that wall and feels the burnout. It doesn't even matter whether or not the game deserves it.
I wholeheartedly agree with the comments so far. I really think this is unavoidable. As soon as a feel bored, I just stop playing. I might go weeks at a time without playing LotRO (or any game for that matter).
But when I go back, I have fun again.
I think some also underestimate how their current real life issues might affect their game time. I wasn't having fun with LotRO for a while, but then I realized I wasn't having much fun with anything anymore. I was kind of in a sad state in general at the time, but once I got out of it, I enjoyed my old hobbies again.
It can be so many things. Unfortunately some people just choose to be angry about it. Criticism is fair, but it can also bring out some mean people sometimes lol.
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