LotRO Developer's Diary Outlines Skirmish Accessibility

Turbine developer Brian “Zombie Columbus” has put together a new developer's diary for the upcoming Siege of Mirkwoodexpansion for The Lord of the Rings Online. The latest diary explains accessibility to skirmishes. Brian touches on a lot of important topics such as travel time, story instances, rewards and much more.

Travel time has always been a hot topic in MMO design. Can players teleport anywhere in the game instantly, or does walking from one end of the world to the other take hours? There are supporters on both sides of this debate, and both approaches have their own benefits and drawbacks. A large world makes the game feel more massive and makes the highs and lows of the game experience more exciting; for instance, fighting a Nazgûl or dragon should be a very, very rare occurrence or it loses something of its mystique. Sprawling landscapes feel vast and filled with adventure because they ARE. On the other hand, fast-travel allows players to immediately do what they want to. It makes a wide open landscape feel less daunting and allows players to jump into the action whenever they want.