In the realm of
Tolkien's Middle-earth, the ideals of general PvP get a bit complicated. For instance, you would never see bands of
Hobbits battling with
Elves, or vice versa. It's just not something Tolkien ever envisioned. This is a sticky situation for the developers of an MMO based on Tolkien lore, as PvP is a staple in the massively multiplayer genre. The solution, of course, is to allow players to play as the evil creatures that inhabit these lands. Of course, it is still possible to do a one-on-one duel with another player at any time during the game. This is seen as more of a private skirmish deal, which would happen in any land between any two people for any reason. Perhaps a drunken binge at
The Prancing Pony enabled the loosening of your tongue a bit too much? Perhaps that ruffian bloke in the alley over there was eye-balling you a bit too long? Whatever the reason, dueling is a perfectly viable option in
Lord of the Rings Online. For the sake of this guide though, we will focus on PvP on a much larger scale.
PvP in
LotRO is referred more accurately as PvMP (player versus monster player) and it takes place in one specific area known as the
Ettenmoors. It is really unlike most other types of PvP found in more traditional MMOs, as it could almost be considered PvP for PvEers. There are quests to pursue, areas to explore and skills to unlock, yet they're done in a way that is essentially separate from the rest of the game.
Continue through to our PvMP gallery for a complete visual tour of the basics of Monster Play.
Jun 27th 2008 at 10:00AM
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Temploiter said on 1:46PM 6-27-2008
The solution would have been to have the Orcs, Evil Men and Evil Dwarves as playable races. This was brought up early on in the development cycle and they rejected this outright. Now, to shoehorn in PvP they've cobbled together this Monster Play... There could have been epic Return of the King battles between factions Turbine! You ruined this MMO for me a long long time ago with the quote "PvP is not supported by Tolkien lore." I guess all the battles and skirmished I read about were with NPCs in the books, eh?
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possum said on 3:34PM 6-27-2008
As cobbled together as it was monster play was indeed a blast, they need to really expand on it to make LOTR something big, until then it will be a niche mmo.
I would still be playing to this day if not for ignorant LOTR devs with heads the size of watermelons spouting things like "my station deserves this or that" this coming from Orions boss in an email battle i had with him. how full of them selves they are and how hypocritical.
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Tony said on 10:32AM 6-28-2008
Well in any case, a lot of people I know seem to enjoy this mode.
While I'm sure PvP could work on some level, what the lore doesn't really support is having "evil" characters go where ever they damn well please... and as such, so many restrictions would be placed upon playing as the evil side of the fence. They're not going to allow these people into the Shire, for example. And it's clear they're not big on helpful NPCs being killed, something such PvP implies would happen.
I imagine it would create more frustration for the evil players than anyone else. They're given this illusion of an open world, but in order to keep with the lore that they're tied to, they'd have to be blocked from quite a few places. I suppose they could have made a few starting areas for evil players no good players access as well, but I'm not sure where they'd be since all the "evil" places are accessible simply by virue of the lore and storyline.
The Moors creates a place that everyone knows they are not going to escape from, it's the giant battle field.
I think the whole Moors setup is a decent compromise for this. It could be beefed up some, but they do add new things to it through each patch. The new Defiler class is fun to play as and things have been expanded.
I would have liked to see some sort of tournament mode or something else, at least. I have to imagine some country somewhere in this world stages fights and doles out money or prizes. We've been doing that in this world for centuries.
As for full of themselves developers, I'm sure that's true everywhere. I can't exactly get upset over some e-mail "battle" I'll never read about "stations" lol.
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