4 More Days...

4 More days and my real time in Lord of the Rings Online can actually begin. Pre-order access to the open beta, with character roll-over into release (capped at level 15) starts on Friday. I am stoked to say the least. LotRO receives a lot of flack around the web for being nothing new. Or for not having magic, or too much of it to some of the Lore Nazis. Me? I enjoy the game. I have since I started in Alpha 2 back in August.

Call me crazy, but I'll simply play what I like. It helps that I love Tolkien, but this could be Asheron's Call 3 or some entirely new IP, and I'd still be playing it. Why? Because what it is as a game works, and works well. LotRO doesn't seek to reinvent the wheel, it just wants to take an already perfectly rolling model of said wheel, add some white-walls and some nifty tread, and roll on.

This is not to say it doesn't have its own new fangled gadgets to play with. Anyone in the beta will tell you the Music system is something out of this world, and Monster Play is at the very least a new take on PvP in these games. But inherently, LotRO is an amalgamation of many past successful MMORPGs. I for one am grateful that they didn't try to be too radical with their design concepts. Other may disagree. But come the 30th, this Friday, I won't be looking back.