Game Geek Speak

Every now and then I allow myself to play some MMOs. In between breathless marathons of developing my own game, I need to decompress and go somewhere else for a while.

So I played the WoW (World of Warcraft) 10 day trial first. It’s a fun game. I like the cartoony style of it. The shininess of it is amazing. That’s what I noticed the most: all the polish and details that make it such a pleasure to navigate. Well, I didn’t realize this until I started playing another MMO.

Now I’m playing the LotRO (Lord of the Rings Online) 10 day trial. I’ve wanted to try this ever since it came out. The detailed intro quests were a great change from the lame quests of WoW, and I’m enjoying all the little game design details (eat food for temporary stat boosts–great idea!) not found in WoW.

But I have to say, WoW really kicks LotRO’s butt in the polish department. LotRO feels like a rickety free to play MMO from Korea (hey, I love a couple of those, but they almost uniformly lack polish).

There are three major aspects that I’m noticing: interface art, fonts, and audio.

LotRO’s music is, to be blunt, bad. Sound effects are competent, but not thumping. Audio is at least 50% of the experience! Don’t freakin’ skimp on the sound and music, people.

In WoW, music is great, sound is great quality and there’s a lot of it. If you gather in WoW, you hear some nice “shuffly” sounds and interface feedback. In LotRO, it’s totally silent which makes it feel anemic and thin. Again, this kind of subtle feedback is the very definition of polish.

The fonts, while meant to be elegant, perhaps, are not good choices for an interface. The glyphs are too thin and read poorly at lower resolutions. And some of them are chigger-small.

The interface art, like the fonts and the audio, seems wiry and meager. WoW’s interface has a heft and weight to it that makes it very pleasing to use. LotRO’s interface makes me think the game is about to crash from poor workmanship. That’s my perception, and, though that perception may be far from the truth, I dare say perception trumps truth in an experiential product like a game when it comes to matters of enjoyment.

I think also, overall, there’s a lot less color in LotRO’s visual design. WoW is maybe too fruity/intensely colored, but LotRO is too drab and monochrome for my tastes.

So, while there is a lot to like about LotRO (and I might even subscribe if my wife likes it enough–until the new Star Wars MMO comes out), it could be exponentially a more engaging experience with some very minor additions (and a new music soundtrack, maybe with real instruments this time–I mean, for heaven’s sake, listen to the movie soundtrack and at least aim for something in that ballpark).

Lesson: don’t ignore the subtle effects of audio and visuals! This stuff isn’t just eye/ear candy. There’s a very tangible difference in quality of the experience.