Archive for November, 2010

I was pretty excited by this announcement, but apparently I’m in the minority as the forums, Massively commenters, and twitter are quite upset about it.  Of course, usually the most vocal people are the most critical so there are surely more people excited about this then those who are publicly speaking out.  I just wanted to compile some of the complaints I’ve seen and give my take on them.

Many seem to feel that since this is the only announced content that we’re not going to see anything until then.  Taking a look at recent history, we’ve seen 2 updates in 3 months with another planned before March – so that makes 3 updates in 6 months.  Based on that math we’ll see at least 3 more updates before Isengard.  We’ve already seen updates to Loremasters and Runekeepers, so the other classes are all in the works and will be rolled out.

And just because they say the story continues with Isengard, it doesn’t mean that’s the only update to it.  I would be concerned if they announced the story stops with Isengard, at least 1 or possibly two of the upcoming patches will be story based, again looking at the recent history.  And like previous updates, those patches could be a couple of books at a time.

As for the level cap increase, I will hold my judgment on that until I see what’s planned for character progression.  If it is a cap bump like Mirkwood which felt more like a decrease to many I’ll be upset.  But, they mention skills, traits, etc. so there may be some more meaningful things on the horizon.  For those upset that our legendary items will become useless, sorry but that’s just the story with MMOs, as the level caps increase you’ll need to upgrade your equipment.  However, I will still admit that I see many folks still carrying their level 60 items in raids for various reasons so it isn’t like those items will become useless.  Also, take a look at the Massively article and notice that not only are 1st age items coming but a revamp as well.  Turbine has been very good lately at listening to feedback so it is quite possible they’re put in a way to grow you items as you level, but that’s pure speculation or maybe dreaming on my part.

And finally, don’t forget that another raid cluster is coming early next year.  That’s a raid cluster, so it will include a 12 man, 6 man, and probably a couple 3 mans at least.  So this will likely mean at least 2 raid clusters in a year as I’m reading into the announcement that there will be another cluster with Isengard and the level cap bump.

I know we all love this game and want to see as much of it as possible, but let’s try not to fly too far off the handle and realize that this game has come a long way and has lots of very cool stuff released and coming.