Monster Play is one of those ideas that keeps coming up in wish lists that players would like to see – they’d like to be able to play as the black dragon and run with it. Everquest integrated it once upon a time, but it had such balance problems they had to remove it in an emergency hotfix.

Now, LOTRO is integrating Monster Play – and calling it the cornerstone of their PVP solution.

Players will have a chance to take on the role of a minion of darkness, a dark creature such as a goblin, orc, troll… or maybe even something fouler! Your monster player character is temporary – as a monster player, you have quests to complete, but you don’t level up as an orc. At launch, this is the only method by which players will be able to play as a member of an evil race.

So why walk on the dark side? Success as a monster player allows you to gain a number of different benefits, “Monster Points,” if you will. These points can be used to gain access to bigger, meaner monster play avatars, but can also be used to give benefits to your main characters. Accumulating monster play points will allow you to benefit your persistent characters, giving everyone a reason to give evil a try every now and then. More on this later, but that’s the essence of the cycle – jump in as a monster, do some damage, earn some points, and spend those points to either play bigger monsters (which can in turn earn more points) or buy some nice little perks for your characters.

Monster Play is, by far, the most innovative part of the LOTRO’s design I’ve seen to date. The question for me is whether the feature is central enough to carry the game and create long-term player retention, or whether it will be seen as a gimmick.

Players, on the other hand, will have optional series of quests that will pit them against monster players, giving them reasons to go out and mix it up.

It will be curious to see if people find ways to game the system. The pairing of players with monsters needs to be blind, or guilds will have a resident ‘maxed out monster’ character, which will be logged in anytime anyone needs to complete the ‘Kill Smaug!’ quest. All solvable problems, though.

Gundo’s wounds were serious. The dwarves had beaten the poor hobbit soundly with maces and axes. He’d lost a lot of blood. The corpses of his friends littered the field, but he was almost in the clear. His heart was beating fast; he had sent several dwarves to their bloody end, and he could hear their angry yells behind him. He ran – ran as fast as his stubby little hobbit legs could take him, his hands white-knuckled, gripping the flag. At last, he crested the hill, and the great horn sounded. Victory! Victory, but at what cost?

Yeah, so that’s what we’re NOT doing [but doing Monster Play instead].

Unfortunately for them, I found the intro paragraph as described more compelling than the monster play. Am I alone?

Original comments thread is here.