OutThere

The mounted combat system will be a cross between LIs and skirmish soldiers. The grind to upgrade will be intense and conflict with other gearing needs. The ultimate upgrades for the War-Steed will be gated behind 6- and 12-man instances. Gear and upgrades related to the War-Steed will be in rare drops from Lock-boxes. There will be a number of Store-related items for convenience, including appearance and experience enhancements. One class, probably hunters, will be broken by something mounted combat related but won't be fixed for four to six months.

If I'm wrong about any of this, I'll give you a cookie.

Meh. Balancing PvP on the back of PvE. Same old story. Game is originally designed for PvE. Devs think about PvP late in the game after all the classes are designed. Roll it out. Then, and only then, start thinking about what their PvE design means for PvP and start re-designing the game for PvP. Sad, really. Just like WoW, they will never be able to balance the classes and there will be constant, never-ending adjustments that elevate some specs and trash others. Same old same old.

I was concerned when I read the GW2 blog about this, reflecting on how out of control the RoM economy is. Unless one is very very rich, most things are out of reach in RoM. Which means that people coming into RoM now have a very tough time getting going.

I can see this happening in GW2 as well, which will destroy the economy and make everything ultra-expensive. Reading the article, it made no sense to me that ArenaNet thinks this will create a stable, gold-seller free economy. Quite the opposite. Games reflect real life, and in real life if there is a way to game the system and create massive wealth, it will be done. The devs are silly if they believe they have found a magic bullet for economic abuse.

@PanamaAlex

Yes, I think you're right. That was pretty much my take on it as well.

CDP has certainly made a name for itself with The Witcher. Does that translate into enough funding to build a AAA MMO true to the IP? I know, that's not the question. But the reason I ask is that I wouldn't play an MMO just because it is the Witcher, unless, absolutely unless it was as uncompromising as the original rpg. No second-rate rehashed themepark MMO is going to do justice to the Witcher.

Yes, they annoy me.

Justin, thanks for this well-balanced article. LOTRO continues to be a superior MMO, but somewhere between the Relic Removal Scroll and the half-finished RoI, they lost me. I've tried to pick up and play again (2 lifetime founder accounts), but the shine is definitely off the apple. I didn't mind the price of the barter wallet so much ( I freed up 180 spaces on one account), but the soldier story (as you've related it so well here) just brought home to me that LOTRO is now a cash shop game, something many hoped it wouldn't become. Every announcement from Turbine about future content for this game must now be quizzed: How much are they going to charge for that?

I'm definitely shopping around for a new home base MMO.

@jimr9999us

If you are level 75, the scroll is 75 medallions and 1500 skirm marks (IIRC).

@(Unverified)

If the beta testing goes anything like the original GW (and much like Rift's and SWTOR's), testing will occur on weekends and the beta "event" invite is good for a specific weekend only. You may get into the first one by invite, but then not get an invite for the ones that follow. Or, you might not get into the first one, but then get an invite for a later one. However, if you pre-order, then you are guaranteed a spot in all the beta event weekends.

So, the answer is, there is no difference. They are the same.

I think I'll wait for the reviews. Better yet, I'll wait for Path of Exile.