In-Game Courtesy: From High to Low

posted this on August 2nd, 2010.
Categorized as Community, Deeds, General, helping, new player.

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Full link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cstmfeed/~3/r0pudIxl9eg/

It has been said many times (and I agree) that LOTRO has the greatest community of any MMO out there. Players are by and large respectful towards each other in their in-game interactions, and new players are not insulted when they ask basic questions about game play in the chat channel. I think our community is one of our greatest strengths.

Having said that, I felt like I should take a brief break from my lore posts to point out a bit of a problem that I have seen repeatedly over the last few weeks.

Many players do not like deed grinding, and they tend to put off building up their Forochel Deedsvirtue traits in particular until they start seriously contemplating doing a lot of dungeon runs (somewhere between levels 50 and 65). So what happens is that these high-level characters go back to lower-level zones to grab the deeds for the traits they want to build up. (Anybody want to help me grind Forochel?)

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Finding You Time

posted this on November 25th, 2009.
Categorized as assistance, deed, helping, Hobbit Rage, quest, solo, you.

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Full link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cstmfeed/~3/EirFMUF67Js/

When you’re in a kinship you can sometimes find it difficult to get done the things you would like to do because you spend a lot of your time helping others. This can get frustrating for anyone but I think it becomes especially frustrating for the casual player who’s time is quite limited.

I’m not complaining. For the most part I do what I would like with my game time and if I decide to help someone, it’s because I choose to, not because I feel compelled or even forced to. This has come about after years of being the helpful person always stuck finishing other people’s goals. It starts to wear you down after a while. Helping others finish their goals while you look at what you need to complete gathering dust starts to feel more like a chore than the cheery helper you started out as.

I like to help. Helping others feels good and you get to hang out with friends and sometimes meet new people. Nothing wrong with helping and I think that you should do it whenever you can. But when helping others interferes with your personal goals, what do you do? Where do you draw the line?

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