I play Lotro and i am constantly soloing around because ther are no players to party with.  I am curious if this game is growing or dying, or just flatlining concerning the amount of new accounts.  I am on one of the newer servers, but it seems very dead.  Is this just this server? ...there has also not been a new server added since i started playing in October--to me a dead ringer that Lotro is not attracting new players.

Thx to anyone who posts with something other than their opinions--would like info based on experience or direct knowledge.

It's just a guess here but if they're opening new servers then I wouldn't think the game is dying. It's probably more likely that people just aren't using the new servers since certain servers are more populated. Plus unlike the "big one" people probably don't rush to a new server so they can be the first to achieve certain things.

No new server since October means nothing. I don't paly ti but there's my two cents.

I think the interest in the game has died down now and when the WOW expansion comes closer then i'd expect alot of people to leave.

Honestly, I play a level 44 captain currently named Ayden Fett of the roleplaying kinship The Mercenary Alliance on Landroval, and I can tell you that sometimes I think the game allows too much SOLO.  But really, the game is quite well built... I just wish many more people roleplayed and played in groups.... especially since IN GROUPS is when a Captain really shines because they buff everyone.  That is their only real use, to make YOU, whoever you are, better then you usually are.

Well mate, if you ever play on Landroval, ask Ayden Fett for any help at all.. I don't care if it's a level 9 quest I WILL group with you and WILL help you.  Lotro to me isn't fun unless you're fellowing up.  But that's just my take on it.

Originally posted by DeaconX

Honestly, I play a level 44 captain currently named Ayden Fett of the roleplaying kinship The Mercenary Alliance on Landroval, and I can tell you that sometimes I think the game allows too much SOLO.  But really, the game is quite well built... I just wish many more people roleplayed and played in groups.... especially since IN GROUPS is when a Captain really shines because they buff everyone.  That is their only real use, to make YOU, whoever you are, better then you usually are.

Well mate, if you ever play on Landroval, ask Ayden Fett for any help at all.. I don't care if it's a level 9 quest I WILL group with you and WILL help you.  Lotro to me isn't fun unless you're fellowing up.  But that's just my take on it.

i dont play but i salute ur playstyle deaconx :)

If you need to wish to playa in group, at lvl 44... isnt that evidence of dying? To not to find any group to play with?
Its really nice, youll be able to help anybody at any level and any time    but, youre bored?

Ive been playing LOTRO just for two weeks, my char was just low level, but server was EMPTY ... during all that time ive got group maybe once.

Originally posted by SubL_Jedi

Originally posted by DeaconX

Honestly, I play a level 44 captain currently named Ayden Fett of the roleplaying kinship The Mercenary Alliance on Landroval, and I can tell you that sometimes I think the game allows too much SOLO.  But really, the game is quite well built... I just wish many more people roleplayed and played in groups.... especially since IN GROUPS is when a Captain really shines because they buff everyone.  That is their only real use, to make YOU, whoever you are, better then you usually are.

Well mate, if you ever play on Landroval, ask Ayden Fett for any help at all.. I don't care if it's a level 9 quest I WILL group with you and WILL help you.  Lotro to me isn't fun unless you're fellowing up.  But that's just my take on it.

i dont play but i salute ur playstyle deaconx :)

All I said was that LOTRO is very easy to solo, but I wish more people were more willing to group up because to me, that's where the true fun in the game lies.  It is an MMORPG, and what good is an MMORPG if you're playing alone right? It's supposed to be a chance to co-op with others! And that makes it really fun because you're counting on these people and they're counting on you.  Again, if you play on Landroval, feel free to ask me for help at any time and 99% of the time I will be by your side as soon as possible to aid you with whatever you need to get done ;).

The game is still growing.   One really big element is that most players group with their kinships and LoTRO has that type of playerbase, unlike a game like WoW whose playerbase would be on the other end of the spectrum generally speaking.  

Someone mentioned that the WoW xpac would affect LoTRO, but I think that is way off base.   Players won't be leaving LoTRO for WoW if they haven't already.   WoW may affect the amount of new trial players coming in because they will busy playing the new xpac.

I think we need more time to determin if this game is losing subscribers but if it haven't lost allot of subscriber this year i guess it can live on for long. I could not make it past lvl 59, since i knew this was not the game for me long befor that. I was guilded and grouping from lvl 1+ with ppl from old guild but the game was to much of what we seen.

THis game never did good because it was just more of same in a dull package, New mmorpg crowd might think its okay thoe, i dont.

I belive this game got allot of new subscribers but not many stay for long, i tryed this game a month ago and only found one active on my frinde list, concidering i was leader of a big clan with many contacts outside of it  that is pritty darn BAD. 

I expect this game to start merging server by the end of this year.

From what people have posted here, some servers like Landroval (sp?) and Brandywine are busier than some of the others.  Not sure if they've ever added any new servers past the first few weeks after the launch.

But I think the grouping issue is less about the player population and more about the design.  WOW had this problem, and LotRO has magnified it.  Quest based games means the player base is all busy doing "their" quest and have little incentive to help others do a quest they aren't currently working on.

Like someone said, players in strong guilds have less trouble, because people are more willing in a guild situation to come help a mate do something, regardless of their own agenda. You will rarely see this sort of selflessness in a PUG situation.

I played the first few months after launch, and even though there were players all over the place my level, grouping was still pretty rare, and usually only involved people doing the same quests as I was.  Soon as we accomplished our mission, one or more folks would leave the group to do their own thing.

So in the end, this is a design flaw that is shared by any quest based game right now.  Developers have yet to find a good incentive for players to help each other. 

Personally, I think someone should be able to do a quest once solo and get a reward, and then be permitted to do it multiple times if they are grouped with someone.  That might give people more incentive to help each other.

I live in the EU and well i think its growing i have seen many people on the server i sometimes do find it hard to get groups but my Kins really helpful and they get their alts to help me out but i am an ex WoW player and i love it :)

dont think lotro is dieing at all its growing in my opinion

i get groups easy as pie it's just in lotro people aren't screaming the channels "LFG LFG LFG" most people keep to their small niches so normal i just do i search in the area and ask a person if they want to group or if a person is in the same area as the quest I'm doing i just as if he wants to work together. 90% of the time it works the reason it might not seem like there are many people play is because the big chat channels like ooc or zone ones are rarely ever used in lotro.

Working in retail and basing it on weekly sales I'd have to say growing.

Is LotR dying? Probably not. No one here as access to Turbines data base so its impossible to say.

Is it Growing? Probably not as much as Turbine would liked to see it grow. Not to many games need to add servers after launch, most usually need to think about consolidation after a year or two. In fact aside from LotR's the only other pay MMO's I know of to add servers after launch were AC, Lineage 2 and WoW. The rest have all had to trim down. (maybe one or two others, point is, its pretty rare an MMO adds servers)

There is still a serious commitment to the game and you can see that with the release of Book 12, you are getting more physical character customization and outfits in addition to other things.

You also still have pretty much the majority of Middle Earth to be added to the game.

Lotro is probably more or less stable.  What I expect is that people are taking a break from the game waiting for new content.  I expect this will be the way that the game works for years, if Turbine actually plans to release the rest of Middle Earth as content over the next couple of years -- people will play for a few months through the next "chunk" of content and then take a few months' break.

I would say the population is in a stable state. What I mean by this is, new players are still comming in daily. Anytime I visit new areas I see new players all the time. You can generally tell by the questions they ask. At the same time level 50 players are taking breaks inbetween content updates all the time. Personally I never have a problem finding a group when I want one, but I am in a kinship and that helps.

My advice to new players is GO TO THE OFFICIAL FORUMS. Look at the server forums and see how active they are. Ask people how they feel the playerbase on the server is. Do alittle research and pick which server fits you best. To many now just pick whichever server name they think looks cool or sounds like it fits them. There are MMO's out where 1 or 2 servers are still thriving while others are completely dead. Landroval seems to be doing verry well and so does Windfola (which is what I play on). Even when I am not grouping with my kin I ALWAYS see people looking for groups and to be honest, I see more groups of people running around now than I did when I first started a month after release.

 Depends on the server, was on Gladden this weekend in the 20 level area and it was packed tried hard to get groups going but most folks in that area seemed to be interested in soloing only . So i do think more folks came in at xmass which is typical for a mmorpg just all spread out

Originally posted by Cargo_Shark

I play Lotro and i am constantly soloing around because ther are no players to party with.  I am curious if this game is growing or dying, or just flatlining concerning the amount of new accounts.  I am on one of the newer servers, but it seems very dead.  Is this just this server? ...there has also not been a new server added since i started playing in October--to me a dead ringer that Lotro is not attracting new players.

Thx to anyone who posts with something other than their opinions--would like info based on experience or direct knowledge.

Stable, I think.

I play on Landroval and there are constantly calls for LFF and LFM.

You did not mention your Level, or Server, or if you are attempting to form Fellowships.

Recommend :  Switch Servers, Roleplay, get in a RP Kinship.   LotRO does not 'play' like WoW or EQ2 or other previous MMORPGs.  It really is about the RP and if you play it like other types of MMORPGs, you will not be satisfied with it for long.

My guess is that it's tailing off a bit, at least regarding active participation, until more content or an expansion is released.

But there are still plenty of people around.   Saturday night out of curiosity,  I counted 1400 online on Landroval, and I assume that doesn't include everyone, such as players set to anonymous or Monster players.

Despite a VERY large drop off in subs from launch, it seems to me it's stablized now.  Be really wary reading the "press releases" about this though, as Turbine has carefully chosen to state how many "characters" there are...not subs.

http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?t=87696

"LOTRO has received critical acclaim from around the globe. Since its launch in April, LOTRO has quickly become the second largest MMORPG with an estimated 4 million characters calling Middle-earth their home."