AC - Taking a break

Well, I decided to cancel all 3 of my AC accounts on Tuesday. I have been giving this a lot of thought over the past couple of months and I finally realized that I was not really enjoying the direction the game has gone.

Back in the days of the level 126 max players, when you attained close to that level, you were almost godlike. You could go anywhere and do anything. Then, along came the level 275 and the game got dangerous again. The macroers did a nasty job of ruining the ascension to 275 by getting there so quickly and in great numbers.

Turbine had to respond to the whinings of these computer generated max levels. First they created the Societies and the Graveyard. Then they created islands with tougher content. Then came the dungeons. Then Lum was added. Then Majors became the Level 5 spell alternative. Then Epic and now Legendary and Level 8 spells. Finally, the level per week stipends.

This has created a miserable treadmill. Easy to level. Stipends to assist. Get your Majors fast. You need them to get your Epics. Once you have your Epics, you need to get your Legendaries. Of course you need all of your attribute additions along the way along with your Lum to get the new attribute additions.

The end result is that you must have all of these items in place in order to have a chance of surviving the fresh content. I was starting to see that there was very little difference between AC and WOW. Both now require top gear in order to be in a fellow to attack the new content.

I started to realize that I was playing AC for fun and the fun was consisting of leveling up under 50 characters and repeating the Moars and Olthoi dungeons. Mind you, not the new Olthoi dungeons. My level 272 could not survive in those.

One thing I hated about turning my back on AC was that I was also turning my back on AC2. I have enjoyed playing AC2, however, the lack of resources to fixing the issues in the game is causing the fixes to be few and far between.

I have decided to commit my time to LOTRO and Istaria. I have been working on my LOTRO Hunter and trying to get him to 85 before the expansion. It is approaching fast.

In Istaria, I went ahead and purchased a subscription. This gives me 7 characters and I can create a Dragon along with purchasing a lot and building my villa...

I have decided to focus on my initial character for right now and get him up in levels far enough to make most of what I need. I especially need good cargo disks, good armor and good weapons.
Of course, a decent amount of money will not hurt.

I hope my view on AC doesn't turn anyone off from that game. It is still a lot of fun and no game will ever take its place. I need some new adventures and new scenery and Istaria fills that need. With any luck, I can work with the devs and suggest improvements that will make it more enjoyable and attract new players.