But the game design itself, for me, just falls short. From world design, character design, textures, props, combat system, quest system (instancing is the biggest problem for me, the dynamic “change” is a good idea in concept but it’s executed poorly in the game) to the overall “feel” of the game, it just doesn’t ring true for me. Asheron’s Call did a lot of things right, for its time (back in 1999.) It still had ugly-as-all-get-out character models and textures though. Turbine needs to hire some GOOD artists, who understand things like anatomy and character movement (a dwarf shouldn’t ambulate like a human ambulates like a hobbit ambulates.) Someone who understands how to make textures “take up the slack” so to speak. What I mean, is with really well-done textures, you don’t need complicated character models. Take a look sometime at how the character models in World of Warcraft differ by race. Yes, the graphics are “cartoonish” but the character models and rigging and animation are superb. Textures are so good, you don’t realize how low-polygon the character models are. The game is FAST because of this. Take a look at the trees in the world from region to region. Take a look at the geography, architecture, “feel” of each region. Pay attention to how the world is lit, from interiors to exteriors, region to region. Then take a look at the real world. Then take a look at LOTRO.

And in case you’re not familiar with the project before Turbine took it over, have a walk down memory lane: http://rpgvault.ign.com/articles/795/795002p1.html And if you do remember, aren’t you truly, deep down, just a wee bit disappointed in how it all turned out? Don’t you wish, just for a moment, there really was “perma-death?”

And as far as the rules for ROW here in NJ, I was taught it’s People going straight, people going right, then people going left.