Unintended Consequences of Radiance Removal

[whheydt]

Well, I've annoyed the loyalists.

There are a lot of ways to skin the endgame-design-cat. And LOTRO certainly has some cool options.

To be clear, I'm not complaining, I'm concerned.

I don't think anyone can deny the endgame arc has been significantly shortened by these choices. I was, yesterday, one of the players who would not have qualified for an endgame raid.

Now, without a single shred of new gear...I do.

This isn't about elitism. It's about endgame longevity. I'm not trying to suggest that LOTRO mimic another game's PvE structure, I'm saying it DID mimic another game's structure. The purpose of the mechanic was to extend the endgame arc.

Now that mechanic is gone, with no gear check in place to replace it.

If you don't see that as a problem...okay. But I do, and it isn't about elitism, it isn't about trying to make LOTRO a WoW clone.

It's about endgame content longevity. Which is now shorter.

I can't imagine that you guys seriously think that's a 100% wise move. There's a give-and-take balance here.

HOW LOTRO gets us there I could care less about. There's SOOOO much good in this game.

But it's a dangerous design precedent, in my humble opinion. Moves like this make for faster burnout, in my 20 year MMO experience.

And if you'd like to flame me for that...flame away.

Not going to flame, but a calm, rational discussion could be productive.

I see people always talking about "end game". So far as I am concerned, the "end game" starts *after* the Ring has been destroyed, if then.

If there were no level cap raises or new areas added, I could still keep myself happily active in game for at least 2 years just with what we have now, and I've been playing since closed beta.

Complaints about "end game raids" and "lack of content" and "lack of things to do" just ring hollow with me. From where I sit, it speaks of people who aren't using a lot of the existing activities in the game and just focusing of a few, narrow aspects of it. (And at that, I neither raid nor Pv(M)P. Give me another 2-3 years with no additional content added and I might have time to consider taking up raiding...but I've got too much to do in the mean time to even think about that.)

--W. H. Heydt

Old Used Programmer

[Sapience]

Whether you say so or not...the itemization value is implied. Yesterday there was value in this stat, making it worth the grind.

"Yeah, I know your stats won't go up, but you need to farm it anyway because it will forward your ability to push through raid content".

That statement is no longer true.

In point of fact that statement was never true. Gloom was a gate. Radiance was the key. It opened a door and provided only access, nothing more.

As the question has now been asked and answered and the thread is clearly starting to deteriorate, there is no point in continuing the discussion.