I have been trying for years, at least since 2004, to get my wife to play an MMO with me. Anarchy Online, City of Heroes, Star Wars Galaxies, Guild Wars, and WoW. Of all of them, she actually had an account for WoW for a year, and in that time she got her Hunter to level 17, because she played so very rarely.
It's been well over a year since she left WoW, and with LOTRO going F2P this fall, I decided to broach the subject of trying it out with her. Since it is going to be free, she gave it a non-committal "maybe", rather than just shooting me down outright. That is, until last Sunday.
I was preparing to make a video in LOTRO, setting up outside of my Hobbit hole, and I noticed wifey watching what I was doing. So I turned the laptop so she could get a better look, then gave her a tour of my house. After that, I got on my horse (she loves horses), and rode it down to the vendors in my neighborhood, to show her around a bit. I also showed her some of the things you can buy off of the Hobbit furniture vendor.
That was all it took. Once LOTRO goes F2P, my wife will be signing up, and her only goal is to have a house to decorate as she pleases. I'd let her decorate mine, but she wants her own. At this rate, I suspect she'll be going VIP, if only to make it easier to get things for her little Hobbit hole!
In short, LOTRO's Housing is going to do what no other MMO before has done: Made my wife want to play. All the uber gear, fantastic landscapes, challenging instances, and interesting storylines mean nothing, endgame for my wife apparently will be getting reputation-based housing items!
Thank you, Turbine.
It's been well over a year since she left WoW, and with LOTRO going F2P this fall, I decided to broach the subject of trying it out with her. Since it is going to be free, she gave it a non-committal "maybe", rather than just shooting me down outright. That is, until last Sunday.
I was preparing to make a video in LOTRO, setting up outside of my Hobbit hole, and I noticed wifey watching what I was doing. So I turned the laptop so she could get a better look, then gave her a tour of my house. After that, I got on my horse (she loves horses), and rode it down to the vendors in my neighborhood, to show her around a bit. I also showed her some of the things you can buy off of the Hobbit furniture vendor.
That was all it took. Once LOTRO goes F2P, my wife will be signing up, and her only goal is to have a house to decorate as she pleases. I'd let her decorate mine, but she wants her own. At this rate, I suspect she'll be going VIP, if only to make it easier to get things for her little Hobbit hole!
In short, LOTRO's Housing is going to do what no other MMO before has done: Made my wife want to play. All the uber gear, fantastic landscapes, challenging instances, and interesting storylines mean nothing, endgame for my wife apparently will be getting reputation-based housing items!
Thank you, Turbine.