I Might Be A Fair-Weather MMO Fan

Posted on Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Filed under Lord of the Rings Online, Resubscribe

Sometimes I wonder if I'm just a fair-weather gamer anymore. I came back to World of Warcraft because of all the buzz around the Cataclysm announcement. I started back to Lord of the Rings Online a while back when Book 7 came out. And I gave Age of Conan a bit of time after their 2 week trial for previous subscribers was sent out.

I bring this up because I've been considering going back to Lord of the Rings Online. After the announcement of their newest expansion, and all the pricing schemes that go with it, I've been very, very tempted. On top of that, I've had a hard time trying to remember why I left the game in the first place. Looking back, I really hated the grind of the game but the straw that broke the goblins back was that Turbine would not accept my new credit card. While the credit card thing could be overcome, the grind of the game cannot, which leaves me wondering why exactly I want to go back?

I hate grinds. It is truly one of my biggest pet peeves in an MMO and, in my opinion, the absolute worst MMO staple around. But there were other things I really liked about Lord of the Rings Online. My Kin was fantastic, the story was great, the crafting was solid… but I think it all comes down to the hype over the new expansion. I believe that is what's drawing me back to LOTRO, and that's just not a good enough reason to resubscribe.

I've overcome the draw of hype in other situations though. Notice that I'm not even considering Aion as a potential for my MMO dollars. On the same token, hype is not in and of itself a reason to not get a game.

I suppose I need to really consider the pros and cons of resubscribing. If I did, I would leave WoW again, as I just can't conscionably hold 3 MMO subscriptions at the same time. Although, I could snag a life time subscription for LOTRO and thereby have a loop hole…. It looks like I have a lot to consider.