Like any desperate MMO fan I was eager to jump at a chance to play a new MMO, and thus being a lack of good MMO's I thought I'd hop on the LOTR bandwagon Like most people, well I wasn't all that thrilled to play this; why?

While LOTR is meaty, it has great graphics, ton's of quests and rewards (even neat titles) to keep myself playing I had to find myself liking the lore and LOTR its self to actually make myself play the game. The economy, people, are awesome, but to the slightest of precision, game mechanics among other things, made me refer to WoW (that's not the only mmo I've played either ). and for fucks sake, even the trial has the same account restrictions WoW did, and that frankly pissed me off, not being able to fully enjoy a trial doesn't encourage me to buy the game. While having some traits as WoW and other MMO's, it didn't have marked indications on the Mini-map i.e. completed missions, and so on, so for some one who just starts playing, it is a bit well, a turn off, also when you do see an NPC, (atleast 1680x1050) the notification which is a ring(new quest and completed quest icons) was impossible to see behind their big name.

Pros:

-Awesome graphics especially for an MMO. this game has dead on optimization, running on 1680x1050, Everything Ultra High gfx, 2gigs 667 MHZ, XFX 8600 GTS, Pentium D-3.5Ghz no lagg what so ever.
-In depth missions, character customization and unique abilities
-A fresh new MMO, no bugs, great gameplay.

Cons:
- REALLY Targetted specifically for the LOTR fan base
-Can only level from Missions, killing things really does jack shit.

<Mod edit>

- You can ONLY be the good guys

This isn't a scenerio of the Con's out weighing the Pro's, you really do have to try the game yourself, especially with this free trial, download speeds are just fine, I d/l the game at a busy time so perhaps their server was busy but I d/led @ 300 kbps /w 3100 KB internet.

So don't only take my word for it, go and try it out yourself, especially if your a huge fan of LOTR and if you are, why the hell didn't you just buy this game?

-Tmac

Just want to make a few comments.

Originally posted by Tmacattack

Like any desperate MMO fan I was eager to jump at a chance to play a new MMO, and thus being a lack of good MMO's I thought I'd hop on the LOTR bandwagon Like most people, well I wasn't all that thrilled to play this; why?

While LOTR is meaty, it has great graphics, ton's of quests and rewards (even neat titles) to keep myself playing I had to find myself liking the lore and LOTR its self to actually make myself play the game. The economy, people, are awesome, but to the slightest of precision, game mechanics among other things, made me refer to WoW (that's not the only mmo I've played either ). and for fucks sake, even the trial has the same account restrictions WoW did, and that frankly pissed me off, not being able to fully enjoy a trial doesn't encourage me to buy the game. While having some traits as WoW and other MMO's, it didn't have marked indications on the Mini-map i.e. completed missions, and so on, so for some one who just starts playing, it is a bit well, a turn off, also when you do see an NPC, (atleast 1680x1050) the notification which is a ring(new quest and completed quest icons) was impossible to see behind their big name.

Pros:

-Awesome graphics especially for an MMO. this game has dead on optimization, running on 1680x1050, Everything Ultra High gfx, 2gigs 667 MHZ, XFX 8600 GTS, Pentium D-3.5Ghz no lagg what so ever.

Yeah,probably one of the best optimized engines out there compared how it looks/plays.

-In depth missions, character customization and unique abilities

Yes good queststory/mission but bad character creation compared to other games such as EQ II.

-A fresh new MMO, no bugs, great gameplay.

Last patch (Book 10) sadly introduced quite a lot of bugs.Some of them makes it impossible to continue in your epic books quests but hopefully they fix those asap.

Cons:
- REALLY Targetted specifically for the LOTR fan base

You think so?

I never read any of the books and only saw the movies but i place LOTRO in my personal top 5 and i have played 18 mmorpgs since 97.It's not just for fans of LOTR.

-Can only level from Missions, killing things really does jack shit.

Not quite right.Just today i took my 35 Champion out 2 hours hunting for deeds and i gained 6 bubbles (1 level is 20 bubbles)
I had rested XP so that doubles XP from monsters and you can buy more rested xp from your destinypoints.Almost 1/3 level at 35 just from monsters in 2 hours is not that bad imo.
The mobs i hunted gave me about 360 Xp pr kill and a standard quests gives me about 5000 XP or so at level 35 so that's not so many mobs to get 5K xp compared to how long some quests are.

- You can ONLY be the good guysk

Wrong and right.You can't play a normal character as a monster but when you reach level 10 you can come into ettetmoor battleground where you can play 5 different monsters in a PvP area.Since last patch you can now make monsterkinships and you can log directly in with your monsters.

 

Overall it's a kickass game which only gets better and better.

Virt.

---

Originally posted by Tmacattack

Like any desperate MMO fan I was eager to jump at a chance to play a new MMO, and thus being a lack of good MMO's I thought I'd hop on the LOTR bandwagon Like most people, well I wasn't all that thrilled to play this; why?

While LOTR is meaty, it has great graphics, ton's of quests and rewards (even neat titles) to keep myself playing I had to find myself liking the lore and LOTR its self to actually make myself play the game. The economy, people, are awesome, but to the slightest of precision, game mechanics among other things, made me refer to WoW (that's not the only mmo I've played either ). and for fucks sake, even the trial has the same account restrictions WoW did, and that frankly pissed me off, not being able to fully enjoy a trial doesn't encourage me to buy the game. While having some traits as WoW and other MMO's, it didn't have marked indications on the Mini-map i.e. completed missions, and so on, so for some one who just starts playing, it is a bit well, a turn off, also when you do see an NPC, (atleast 1680x1050) the notification which is a ring(new quest and completed quest icons) was impossible to see behind their big name.

Pros:

-Awesome graphics especially for an MMO. this game has dead on optimization, running on 1680x1050, Everything Ultra High gfx, 2gigs 667 MHZ, XFX 8600 GTS, Pentium D-3.5Ghz no lagg what so ever.
-In depth missions, character customization and unique abilities
-A fresh new MMO, no bugs, great gameplay.

Cons:
- REALLY Targetted specifically for the LOTR fan base
-Can only level from Missions, killing things really does jack shit.

<Mod edit>

- You can ONLY be the good guys

This isn't a scenerio of the Con's out weighing the Pro's, you really do have to try the game yourself, especially with this free trial, download speeds are just fine, I d/l the game at a busy time so perhaps their server was busy but I d/led @ 300 kbps /w 3100 KB internet.

So don't only take my word for it, go and try it out yourself, especially if your a huge fan of LOTR and if you are, why the hell didn't you just buy this game?

-Tmac

---

How do you know you are playing only a Male Dwarf?

I didn't think they stated the sex with them, thought you could just be a Dwarf.

They basically did that to keep to some of the lore.

"Male dwarves were overprotective of their women whom they sheltered from other races. Few female dwarves were seen by other races, hence the myth of Men which lead to the belief that Dwarves grow out of stone (supported by the fact that both male and female Dwarves looked similar)."

Originally posted by Tmacattack

Pros:

-In depth missions, character customization and unique abilities

I'm on the trial too, but why do you have character customization in the pros? From what I've seen you can't customize anything but your gear.

Well, LoTRO character appearance customization is a hell of alot better than alot of the big games out right now, plus book 12 will be focused mainly on character customization. (Yay!)

Killing monsters gets you deeds, virtues, and you can level just fine off them, but it's ideal to quest. :)

Although I haven't played lotro yet ,(i'm saving for a better computer *yes!*), I've been all through the site and read alot of what Turbine has to say about it and the features ect. I have to say, I'm pretty happy about the game not focusing 'too much' on just killing.

Thats really what made me stop playing other games I guess. I wanted more from them than just killing and making and selling. I wanted to get into a storyline, I mean really get into it. I'm a huge fan of Tolkiens works, I've read more than just Lotr and The Hobbit, so I'm hoping that Lotro will give me that.

I'm glad they are doing more with the characters too, it's cool that some of your options are based on region. I was kindof worried that they would focus alot on the lore and forget about character customization for a while.

Originally posted by Homeslice513

How do you know you are playing only a Male Dwarf?

I didn't think they stated the sex with them, thought you could just be a Dwarf.

They basically did that to keep to some of the lore.

"Male dwarves were overprotective of their women whom they sheltered from other races. Few female dwarves were seen by other races, hence the myth of Men which lead to the belief that Dwarves grow out of stone (supported by the fact that both male and female Dwarves looked similar)."

If I remember correctly, the lore states that the female dwarves were nearly identical to the males, and that they almost never left the dwarf cities. They were much less numerous than males and were closely guarded.   I presume all PC dwarves in game are male based on this, although you are correct in that you would not be able to tell from appearance.

I'm wondering if there is a high res patch of some kind for this game? I realize I downloaded the normal game way back in open beta and now I can play a prettier version! Thanks for any help I just would rather not re-download it to have a chiller trial.

pros

- fellowship manoeuvre

- great  graphics

- community (the thing that keeps me playing atm)

i dont know should crafting be here or not its push the button and go afk crafting but makes the best items in game atleast so its worth the effort and thats good thing

cons

one of your pros was "In depth missions, character customization and unique abilities"

well quests are ok but character greation and customization is lacking big time, i dont know what unique abilities you are talking about either (playing lvl50 champion) you can't change your stats, all come from armor pieces, everyone has almost the same traits at max level and they are too weak to even mean anything, every race has only 1 type of face. hairs,beards very low number to choose from.

for someone that likes mix-maxing his character LOTR:O isn't really the game you want to play (unless you like lore alot)

also gameplay isn't as smooth as WoW but is still better than some other MMOs

Originally posted by Septopus

I'm wondering if there is a high res patch of some kind for this game? I realize I downloaded the normal game way back in open beta and now I can play a prettier version! Thanks for any help I just would rather not re-download it to have a chiller trial.

You might want to try the Turbine forums for the High-res textures.  I'm sure I found them there not too long ago.

thanks for the help will do

When I clicked the free trial link from this website it allowed to select hi-res or low - res d/l.  Hi res is much better looking if your system can take it.

WOW! What a huge waste of time that turned out to be 3.5 hours to download the free trial and 3.5 more to finally find out I hated it. Not that it's a bad game... just not my style at all and far from anything I had hoped it would be. Mediocre graphics at best and lame user interface. The f2p Korean games have better appeal from the outset and I can find no correlation what-so-ever to the original stories outside of the maps and races. It's now uninstalled and I'll be saving the 15 bucks per month fee for something with a bit more depth and potential when I find it. Ahhh go ahead and flame away at me... then go try to play it and tell me how well it holds YOUR intrest.  

What were they thinking!? I've been a fan of Lord Of  The Rings since I was a kid and the movies were an absolute riot and brought the books to life... this game may just kill them. Nothing new at all... Nothing grand or innovative in concept as I hoped to find. Just the same old rehashed gameplay on a new map... Depressing. Just my opinion and I'm sticking to it.

Originally posted by Kartuhn

WOW! What a huge waste of time that turned out to be 3.5 hours to download the free trial and 3.5 more to finally find out I hated it. Not that it's a bad game... just not my style at all and far from anything I had hoped it would be. Mediocre graphics at best and lame user interface. The f2p Korean games have better appeal from the outset and I can find no correlation what-so-ever to the original stories outside of the maps and races. It's now uninstalled and I'll be saving the 15 bucks per month fee for something with a bit more depth and potential when I find it. Ahhh go ahead and flame away at me... then go try to play it and tell me how well it holds YOUR intrest.  

What were they thinking!? I've been a fan of Lord Of  The Rings since I was a kid and the movies were an absolute riot and brought the books to life... this game may just kill them. Nothing new at all... Nothing grand or innovative in concept as I hoped to find. Just the same old rehashed gameplay on a new map... Depressing. Just my opinion and I'm sticking to it.

Turbine brough innovation with AC2 (First 2nd generation mmorpg), and then DDo which is completely different in every aspect from all other MMORPGs. AC2 servers were closed, DDo is balancing with 30-40k subs. If you think they will try to bring innovation into the genre you are out of your mind. Thats not what people want nowadays anyways. They still cry GIVE US INNOVATION, but when it comes they close their eyes turn their backs. They want Warhammer Online another clone of everything else that was here before.

Originally posted by Kartuhn

WOW! What a huge waste of time that turned out to be 3.5 hours to download the free trial and 3.5 more to finally find out I hated it. Not that it's a bad game... just not my style at all and far from anything I had hoped it would be. Mediocre graphics at best and lame user interface. The f2p Korean games have better appeal from the outset and I can find no correlation what-so-ever to the original stories outside of the maps and races. It's now uninstalled and I'll be saving the 15 bucks per month fee for something with a bit more depth and potential when I find it. Ahhh go ahead and flame away at me... then go try to play it and tell me how well it holds YOUR intrest.  

What were they thinking!? I've been a fan of Lord Of  The Rings since I was a kid and the movies were an absolute riot and brought the books to life... this game may just kill them. Nothing new at all... Nothing grand or innovative in concept as I hoped to find. Just the same old rehashed gameplay on a new map... Depressing. Just my opinion and I'm sticking to it.

I wish I would have found out that fast...I was really ready for this to be the game...coming from WoW, Guild Wars, so many Koren MMO's my eyes were bleeding...

But, LOTRO finally died for me after my 3 month time was up...bad performance, boring gameplay, horrible UI...

No...it needs some work...and hopefully in another 6 months or a year, it may be fun...look at EQ2 ...took them 3 years to finally make a fun game (and for PvE it is tops right now)

Cheers!

I also started the free trial last night.  I wasn't impressed at all.  There is way to much magic which really contradicts the story.  That alone was enough to make my decision easy.  Any developer that won't respect the canon of an IP that is as well loved as LOTR, isn't worth giving your money to.  I have already been down that road with SOE and SWG. 

I also was not impressed with the customization. Certainly its better than WoW, but WoW has horrible customization.

Too bad.  My search for a MMO continues.

Early on in game you're right - questing is the way to go... But its loads of fun, but later on (saay level 15+) you CAN start grinding. Doing deeds etc is quite fun, and you get experience each time you finish a deed.

At level 10ish I thought "WTF no grinding... oh well" But I mainly got from level 17-19 by grinding, and it did not take long much. Aye, questing is more rewarding but oh well.

Also PvMP is pretty much fun - But I agree, no evil race is kind of stupid. But I do hope they add them in later ingame.

Originally posted by ShiloFields

I also started the free trial last night.  I wasn't impressed at all.  There is way to much magic which really contradicts the story.  That alone was enough to make my decision easy.  Any developer that won't respect the canon of an IP that is as well loved as LOTR, isn't worth giving your money to.  I have already been down that road with SOE and SWG. 

I also was not impressed with the customization. Certainly its better than WoW, but WoW has horrible customization.

Too bad.  My search for a MMO continues.

Please tell me how it contradicts the story?

Originally posted by freakomar

Originally posted by ShiloFields

I also started the free trial last night.  I wasn't impressed at all.  There is way to much magic which really contradicts the story.  That alone was enough to make my decision easy.  Any developer that won't respect the canon of an IP that is as well loved as LOTR, isn't worth giving your money to.  I have already been down that road with SOE and SWG. 

I also was not impressed with the customization. Certainly its better than WoW, but WoW has horrible customization.

Too bad.  My search for a MMO continues.

Please tell me how it contradicts the story?

The "magical" parts I would assume he is saying. There is not any "real" magic per se...just the Loremaster, which uses various means to do "magical" things...not one of the better classes...

The variety of the classes were too small, and very "D&D" like...which I like D&D...but, for the MMO's unique or more selection is much better for variety overall..

My thought is...when an MMO gets an expansion, they usually either have a new race or class....how will Turbine be able to move within the license to allow this...or better yet, how will Tolkiens estate accept any other changes to this structure...

That worries me...no more variety in selections will kill this game fast...

Hope they figure out some way to do this..

Cheers!