Skimishes in Mirkwood; some together time

In the absence of any new information about Siege of Mirkwood, I’m going to chew over some of what we do have.

One of the things that has made me go “Ooo” about SoM is the the proposed skirmish system. Unwize wrote in his blog how he’s appreciated the social aspects of the Book 8 bounty hunts.  And I hope, like him, that we will have further opportunities for social grouping in skirmishes.

I’ve felt that in many ways MoM has discouraged casual and social grouping. Some of the earlier instances such as Mirobel and the Forgotten Treasury are fun and allow anyone who is about the right level to join in. But the radiance instances, because they are so goal orientated, create a tendency for people only to seek others of a particular class  (people become wary of experimenting with class mixes because they don’t want to risk losing the coin/crystal) , or level of experience, or  gear and for people to want to get through them rather than enjoy them. And these are the majority of the group instances.

It looks like skirmishes will allow anyone on-line to just grab each other and get on with something. Good, good.

Another aspect I picked up on was that apparently skirmishes, or at least some, are open to groups of different levels. For instance, one skirmish based on the  defense of Weathertop will accept players from level 30 to 65.

I think that this is great. One of the biggest problems I’m finding in the kinship is how to involve new members at lower levels. The journey up to level 60 can be a lonely one for those attracted by the social aspect of a MMO, and with many high levels focussed on the radiance grind rather than their alts perhaps, these  players can feel left out. So either

1) tired of soloing and seeing all the big boys and girls apparently enjoying the party without them,  they  gradually stop logging in and fade away

or

2) they power level madly missing out loads of content, end up burnt out at level 60, wipe in their first radiance instance, then give up the game in an existential crisis.

A call  for a group in kinchat that anyone from 30+ could answer would be excellent. Everyone could muck in together. I want this more. Feel that kinnie love!

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