Age of Conan, LotRO & WoW . . . MMORPG on 56K Dial-up!?!

Performance on 56K

Lord of the Rings Online plays superbly on 56k. You can max out all of your settings, play with one or two other players – and still have a very enjoyable experience. Even voice-over-Internet-protocol (VOIP) works very well with LotRO with one or two other players, but I would not join a very big group or you will slow them down, as with all of these games. LotRO has probably the largest client to download updates for. Even though you start with the DVD, it took me 10 days to download all the updates over 56K and that was using my connection 24 hours a day. Recently, I noticed when downloading updates over 56K, there would be errors I did not experience with broadband. In the past, contacting Turbine’s tech support worked around dial-up issues.

After we have completed updating the client, we get to play the game itself. All of the games start with incredible cinematics. AoC features the “Real Combat” system using a first-person view where every enemy has five different areas that a player can swing at. Combos are performed by putting together consecutive attacks in particular directions which becomes rather difficult to pull off as your maneuvers get more complicated and as you progress. It is noted that AoC has sparked heated criticism from players decrying the removal of mature content. For example, several NPCs have had clothes added when they were previously nude. Age of Conan is still quite bloody as you can see here:

From World of Warcraft’s opening cinematics you can see you are destined to be a god:

In Lord of the Rings, you can certainly solo but you soon realize you are part of a fellowship to fight evil. It is much tougher alone:

All three games also have you choose your avatar or character to represent you in the game and you are very minimally equipped to start off. As you interact with NPCs and other humans directing their avatars, you gain “experience” and better armor and weapons as your skills increase and you “level up”. Most of these games start with the goal of to leveling up as quickly as possible and then you actually “start playing” the game with your maxed-out character in cooperation with – or against – other human players.Here in AoC we see the avatar I chose as my hero at the very start. In the next images note his progression. All three games do the same thing as you “level up” – hence the loose term, “Role Playing” Game (RPG):

You start with a loincloth

Better Gear!

Now he can talk to the babes!

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