Back to some old friends : Vanguard and Lotro Monsterplay.

In the past few weeks I have been taking advantage of two free game time offers ( is it me or are they getting more frequent these days? ), 30 days of Vanguard, starting September 18th,  and the Lotro double XP weekend, running October 2-6, and boy am I glad I took advantage of these opportunities !

Regarding Vanguard, I have to admit that my enthusiasm for this tile has always been at best lukewarm, I have tried before to really get into it, but to no avail. That is until this free month came along. This time, I think I finally ”got” why some people are so into this game and I believe I know why my attitude towards Vanguard has changed. The first reason is that believe that I have been brainwashed by countless hours of listening to the Voyages of Vanguard podcast, which has surrepticiously implanted in my brain the idea that this game is actually quite fun. You can’t be a regular listener to the show without at some point starting to buy into the host’s and other contributor’s enthousiasm for Telon. The second reason is that instead of taking up my Orc Dreadknight where I left off and slogging on with him, I decided to re-roll a Vulmane Druid and give Vanguard a fresh start by going through the new Isle of Dawn starter zone. This somewhat restored a certain ‘’shiny newness” to the game and rekindled in me a sense of discovery that is quite enjoyable. Lastly, the most important reason why I am liking Vanguard more and more is it’s old-school feel and it’s nostalgia inducing ”vibe”. I can’t explain it rationally but Vanguard really does bring me back to simpler MMO gaming times and I am surprised to see that this strikes a chord in me. I guess today’s more modern, more polished and more ”in” MMOs lack some of the stripped down straightforwardness that a title like Vanguard brings to the table. In essence, to me Vanguard is ”old”, but in a good way. When I log into the game I no longer bring with me the kinds of expactations I would bring to AoC or some other recent titles. Now I rather go in considering that I am in a time machine to the past which enables me to enjoy a more ”innocent” and ”naive” flavour of MMO gaming.

My time back in Lotro was short and very sweet. I only played my Black Arrow in the Ettenmoors, leaving my Elf Champion in storage till Mines of Moria comes out. It was nice to see some old faces, seems like a lot of of ex-Nimrodel creeps headed the call back. One thing that really made me happy was to see that I am no longer so emotionally invested in the PvMP aspect of the game, what I mean is that I am a lot more casual about the whole thing, enjoying it for what it is, warts and all. The unbalanced nature of the Moors no longer stirs in me any inordinate passions or inflames in me any rightous anger at the state of things. Which is a good thing because really, there are a lot more important things to get worked up about in life. Sadly I noticed that this was not the case for everyone, some creep players still venting copious amounts of bile towards the freep side and all their various manifestations of cheesyness.  As for me, I found my time geting zerged, farmed and cc-stun-mezzed rather enjoyable when all is said and done, and have now come to better appreciate Monsterplay for the zany creature that it really is.

Here’s a cheer then for happy reunions!