inglorious

Lord of the Rings Online is going strong. Massive content patches, solid game play, excellent customer service and a enthusiastic user base it’s no wonder Turbine has had so much success with the game. Their first major content release post Mines of Moria recently hit the servers and with it a whole slew of changes.

Something recently caught my eye was their attention towards fixing the new player experience, tweaking the game play in an attempt to draw in new players and focus on giving them a fun experience. MMOs can be overly complicated, and their strategy seems to be to ease a player into the game and not  overwhelm them with details.

One particular thing that excites me is seeing a developer focusing on the reduction of load screens by removing the need for zoning. As I said in a previous post, the need for zoning can be a major hindrance to game immersion. It pulls a player out of the game. Seeing a developer like Turbine embrace this strategy is a positive development. For the full discussion: Read the full Dev Diary here.