Titles Are Not Worth Anything Unless They Cost Something

Posted by Stropp on September 4, 2008

At the moment I am very busy. I’m between contracts and it’s dragging on a little more than I’m comfortable with, so I’m setting myself up to do some freelance work over the Internet. It’s something that would mesh nicely with any short term software development contracts that come along. And it would give me the chance to set my own hours for once!

Hence, the lack of posting. But I’m still checking all my subscriptions regularly, including my Mythic account. I’m just keeping an eye on it, in case, you know, I get a special invite or something.

So yesterday when I logged in, there was a notice telling me to validate my email. So I did.

And I got "The Validated" as a title I can use in the game.

Big Yawn.

Too harsh?

I like the idea of achievements and titles. I think that Turbine have done this particularly well in Lord of the Rings Online. It’s a fine idea.

I’m not entirely sure of how I feel about the way Mythic has implemented their achievement and title system, but I’m leaning towards feeling that they’ve overdone it.

Firstly, there are a bunch of early titles that are just there. Get killed a certain way and you get a title celebrating it. Validate your eMail and get a title.

Then there are just so many of them, it’s almost impossible to keep track. I guess that’s a minor point though. After long enough in the game, most players will have an intuitive grasp of all the names.

To me, titles should be earned. If you made the first 5 levels in LotRO without being defeated, you were given the title "The Wary." For every five levels after that you were given another title. I only made level 10 once, iirc, the title was "The Invincible."

What an achievement to get the level 50 undefeated title, whatever that is!

So when Mythic give me "The Validated" as a reward for receiving an email and clicking on the validation link, please forgive me for feeling rather underwhelmed.

PS. Just 10 days to go until the early access. Woo hoo!

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