Friend Zone Lined

"Your princess is in another castle"

- an old gimmick even in 1985

 

I had an odd conversation last year in LotRO. Some guildmates referenced the current expansion's plot and it was revealed I hadn't played the main quest all the way through yet. When asked why not, I pointed out the reputation bar for that zone was locked at a weirdly low level, wasting any rep gains from questing until the limit would inevitably be raised in future patches. Fanboys were incensed that I would dare accuse the noble and mighty d'evs of such frittering micromanagement. Obviously they knew better than me how high to set the bar and if the bar had been set at "friend" level that's where it would stay. I doubled down with a "what are you, an idiot?" pointing out that obviously the whole point was to waste your current effort and make you grind all over again next year.

So here we are next year. Note the empty progress bar.

Discerning middle earthlings may also note my character is nowhere near Umbar now. I've logged in a few times the past week to bum around the Wildwood, a zone whose reputation I haven't even raised to "friend" level yet because it was released a few years back as a blatant timesink, two factions with ten "kill ten(s) rats" quests each to be repeated infinitely. Hell, I still haven't ground out Minas Tirith timesink rep from over a decade ago and probably never will.

Designers: do you not ever notice how many of your attempts to game gamers and keep their interest while offering nothing of interest are having the opposite effect? Gotta say I'm not feeling any burning need to finish last year's quests even now that I'd get my reward for them. You poisoned the well. Here's a facet of the gamer mindset you apparently never noticed in your decades' worth of experience in the business. You can give me an impossible task and maybe I'll give up or maybe I'll bash my head against the wall trying to finish it no matter how unfair... so long as it's unfair on its face. But if I spot you trying to play me I WILL SHIT IN YOUR MOUTH!