by pomomojo
I agree with many of your critiques of the overall system, but I think it is more evidence of how difficult creating a co-op LCG is than it is evidence of missing the mark with their audience. I don't think a card based game with monthly expansions is going to appeal to the general LotR movie fan no matter how epic the battles or smooth the gameplay. They could perhaps have made a standalone game, but there already exists a co-op LotR game.A)I haven't played the new quests but it is good to hear they are getting harder. They almost have to since the player decks will just keep getting better and better.
B) LotR the movie was a massive crossover success. If that's the minimum audience you were expecting for a hobby game, then you were expecting a lot. Besides, the LCG format in general is going to appeal to a very narrow audience, so might as well make a game that appeals to as much of that narrow audience as possible.
C) Yes, this is a problem. I'm not sure how they could have avoided it. I think more limitations on deckbuilding would have worked, but telling players they can't do certain things is usually a bad idea (see the turmoil over the Star Wars deckbuilding rules)
D) Definitely the game currently leans heavily toward questing over battles. Sometimes I find that disappointing, but epic battles are difficult to simulate in a coop game since the AI is necessarily limited. I don't think the epic battles are the defining aspect of LotR, so it's not a deal breaker for me.
E) Deckbuilding is fun for many and sort of an implied part of an LCG. I can't decide whether I prefer a general deck or specialized decks. Using the same deck for several quests in a row gives you a sense of an epic journey. On the other hand, if each deck requires you to totally rethink your strategies and cards, it gives the game a built in meta that it lacks due to being a coop. Yes, tactics struggles to lead the way, but monosphere decks are pretty rare in general.
F) Agree it's a problem. Not sure the solution is as easy as you suggest. Designers seem to be aware of the problem and after Carrock you started seeing more cards that scaled. Standalone board games often struggle to support all player counts equally, so it's not surprising it happens in an ever changing card game. At least the problem swings back and forth so solo players aren't always getting the short end of the stick.
G) Again, I haven't played the most recent cycle, but I'm not surprised if there are few new mechanisms. It's one of the things I was worried about with a co-op LCG. How do you introduce new mechanisms without requiring players to buy every AP? I would expect new mechanisms and changes to gameplay will only take place within deluxe expansions or with Saga expansions like the recent Hobbit one.
So I do think many of these problems exist, but I also think they were bound to come up in a co-op LCG and the solutions are far from obvious. I think we will find out with the Star Wars LCG whether the LCG format can be successful with a broad audience who cares more about the IP than deckbuilding. I imagine they will sell a lot of core sets, but I think they will need to introduce more and more complicated mechanisms if they want to keep the typical LCG fan invested in each month's expansion.