LoN Fever..the Good the Bad and the Ugly

Hooked already, at least for a short time, I spent the evening test driving LoN

Yesterday it was announced that random people had been selected for LoN beta. I got in with both of my accounts, and decided to give it a test whirl. Now, if you’re looking for guides, this is not the place. If you’re looking on how to play the game, wrong-o again because I suck when it comes to explaining that sort of information. So this is (as are all my posts!) just general opinion stuff.

I loved the game. Granted, I have played card games before, and yes it does give you a small advantage if you have a vague understanding in what to do from the get-go. The tutorial was long, and I barely paid attention to it. Instead I got right to the battles against the computer and learned that way (which may explain why I lost, a lot). Everyone graciously starts with 1 booster pack (the pack of 15) and one starter pack of a designated class. Mine both happened to get fighter, however a friend managed to get a mage one. You can buy the starter packs to the other classes for $9.99, or a booster pack for $2.99. I’m sure SoE will make a LOT of money off of selling these virtual cards. Which is a whole other discussion.

Now, a portion of the game that I do not like at all. As far as I have seen, so far. There is no way for you to get any of the neat “things” (or in this case loot cards) without spending real life money (or trading your rare cards / money with another who has the item you want). Loot cards come in booster packs. I find it quiet amusing that the “store” is open already, even though we’re all apparently just beta testing this game. People can already spend their real life money for these packs of virtual cards and obtain the rare “cool” loot items (randomly). A few of these are house items. One is a tradeable box of cards with 400 rent reduction. – and I’d love to get my hands on one, but I see no other way besides paying 100p for it on broker, spending real money in an effort of purchasing it randomly through booster packs, or trading for it with another player (in which case, why would I even have anything they wanted to begin with). I have no idea if perhaps when the game goes live, when they say that mobs will drop these cards, if they will drop whole booster packs, or just one card at a time. If there will be any other way to obtain the interesting loot that comes with it (which is unfortunately the only real motivation for some to play, and I’m not above that). The epic mount is another one of these very cool items that few will own, and the cloak that shape shifts you into a box.

So I made an agreement with Shadowgeist, we’d each either buy four booster packs (for a total of $12 and some change) or one booster and one starter (the same price). After that, no more. With his beta claimed decks, he got an item that changes him into a frozen skeleton randomly. I got… nothing. He bought a mage deck (which does not claim to give loot cards anyhow) as well as one booster deck, and recieved nothing.

I decided to purchase four booster decks, and also got nothing. Meanwhile I see a box, and an epic warg a few feet from me, and two card boxes for sale on broker for 100-140p. On the other hand, I can trade him all of my mage cards since I have no use for them, and he’s going to trade me all of his priest ones since that’s the next deck I’ll be working on.

The game itself is quite fun, but I can see it getting very boring very fast if you’re not one of those people who can afford to spend real life money on bettering your deck. I’ve got no idea when it’s going to go live, and I assume the dropped items are not in game until after that point. I know a lot of people were very angry that SoE was advertising “random” people were getting chosen to beta test it. Outcries of “why wasn’t I chosen” and what not echoed through the channels. The game plays smoothly, however after 4-5 matches I seemed to stutter and lag when my character decided she’d had enough of her ‘fix’ and wanted to adventure again. The cards are wonderfully drawn, the playing mat beautiful, and I didn’t encounter any bugs at all the few times I played. Over all, the experience was a lot of fun, just not sure on a few things.