Been playing WAR and Wife decided she liked more depth in the Questing, and I've always, always wanted to try Lord of the Rings. I'm a hardcore MMORPG since the UO and Everquest Alpha days. So I download it, and it takes like 6 hours for the client to download. That was 7 days ago. Since then I've played ONE HOUR of the game since the servers are crashing constantly and they are moving data centers. They had a "Welcome Back" weekend that started last week that NOBODY CAN PLAY. Welcome back... sure... have a crashed server. Some genius at Turbine decided to introduce a "Welcome Back" weekend for new and returning players the same time they decided to move DATACENTERS. Brilliant. So far you cannot log in. The client keeps crashing, and my time is running out.

I'm so unimpressed it reminds me of the days of ShadowBane. Anyway, I finally get able to play and wife wants her download. So we start that and it crawls down after 12 hour download. She plays that evening, and I go to log in and my client is now suddenly out of date, and it wants to redownload 12Gig that will take by their counter 2days....

Following day.... wife goes to log in and all her advancement is gone. I'm still downloading..... for something I've already downloaded. I go to bed.

Next morning, get up and check the download and it's stuck at 33%. I continue to try and download the rest of the day by remote control from my office. It doesn't work.

Turbine announces they are moving the data center. First 8 pm eastern, then 11:00, then 1:00am eastern. I'm still stuck at 33%. Servers come up and I start downloading from a hidden link that someone sent me. takes 4 hours. Wife is now playing and a level 10. I'm level 0. I go to bed.

Next morning. Download has completed. JOY. (FOUR DAYS NOW INTO MY FREE 10 DAY TRIAL AND I HAVEN'T PLAYED more than an hour. I didn't want to out level my wife.... you know how fun wife aggro can be..)

I look for the game and it can't be found on my computer. I finally find some exe that I THINK is it. I launch it. Game then proceeds to download updates for ANOTHER 12 HOURS!!!! YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!

DAY FIVE OF MY FREE 10 DAYS.

Can't log into any servers. Web sites are down. Forums are down. Everything is down. I drink a few glasses of wine and keep checking an old link to the forums that work. www.lotro.com doesn't work. Page cannot be displayed message.

Login client can't find servers.

I'm now on day 6 starting tomorrow. I HAVE NOT PLAYED MORE THAN an hour and even then it wanted to start me over at the intro quests.... snore.... Wife cannot login with her now working account. She's lost 3 days as well.

TURBINE YOU ARE A BUNCH OF MORONS. - The game can be great, but I just lost a 6 days and counting of a free trial. FREE.... You think I'm going to PAY FOR THIS CRAP?

What would BLIZZARD DO? What would Millions of subscribers say if they couldn't log in to your servers? You think their admins would be posting cute little jokes that say they are offline and working on it? I doubt it. People would be fired. OH that's right, Blizzard can afford to pay someone to know what in the HELL they were doing.

Sorry NO SALE! x2 Welcome back weekend my left butt cheek.

I tried the trial of this game about a year ago and yeah it took bloody ages to download and was an utter pain to actually get into. It kept wanting to stop and download additional patches and stuff when it should have been a single automated process. The whole thing was really unprofessional. Then when I finally got into the game and played it for a while I found that it wasnt even worth the effort anyway so after all that I ended up uninstalling it.......so dont worry you're not missing anything (except perhaps the wasted time and the small drain on your sanity)

Oh and your post was a fantastic read by the way. Very entertaining

Hey here's a thought...

Try decaf.

Anyway, shit happens.  It's just a game.  I'm sure if you calmly tell Turbine about it they'll give you your free time back.

If not, then lesson learned. Move along.

Originally posted by EbonHawk

Hey here's a thought...

Try decaf.

Anyway, shit happens.  It's just a game.  I'm sure if you calmly tell Turbine about it they'll give you your free time back.

If not, then lesson learned. Move along.

That's probably the most immature response to a valid complaint i've ever read.  Grats.

its not a good time for tubine
since bk7 the games isnt the same
ill suggest create another acc and try it another month

Actually that's sad.

LotRO is a great game.  I should still be playing it but I followed my guild to AoC and now WAR. 

The d/l was a pain, but after all the SERIOUSLY EPIC FAIL games I have seen lately I wish I was back in good ol LotRO.

I'd contact Turbine.  They always seemed to be quite good at handling things like this.

I wish WAR had half the game and a community half as good as LotROs...

I patched up my client Wednesday in preparation for the Welcome Back Weekend starting Thursday.  After some initial account hitches, I was able to get in on Thurdsay and play whenever I wanted until Tuesday the 31st.  I had fun, had a smooth gaming experience, went up a few levels  and didn't have any problems, whatsoever.

Yes, there have been some server outages (I've seen the complaints posted starting today, but nothing prior), but the overall experience was fine for me.  That being said, I do think scheduling a datacenter move--even if it wasn't for this game--during the Welcome Back Event and immediately prior to the April Fool's event wasn't a particularly wise move.

~Ripper

alittle general on the "NOBODY CAN PLAY" lol

i played for like 20 hours this weekend

sucks for you guy

sorry, I'm a little toasted ATM...

Background... WAR has introduced these two new classes that basically broke the game until they re-balance..... So I've been now pushing Lord of the Rings at her to keep my wife gaming and not wanting me to re-tile the bathroom.  She never played MMORPG's before.... She started with WoW, then I pushed WAR on her, since I was a big DAOC nut.  Then they sorta screwed things up with these new classes...... so to keep her interested, I said, "OH LOOK HONEY QUESTS!  LOTR HAS GREAT QUESTS!"  Plus the fact I just built her this honkin Quad Proc system with 9800GTX graphic cards to keep her playing.  

The graphics in LOTR look awesome and on our machines runs smooth as silk and now she's all into it. 

So now it's all screwed up with the trial and the data center move and now she doesn't want to play MMORPGS any more and wants to play Bejewled!    BEJEWLED!  On a Quad Core SLI system!  I think not!

But we came home tonight looking to really really get into the game and it's FUBAR.

So she's over there playing that damn Bejewled 2 and I'm raging on the boards.....

Sorry.....dude, just damn.

Yeah, only if Gandalf were real. He would have chosen wisely.

I've played them all and LOTRO is possibly the best one yet. Yes, they are having some issues today but I've played for 30 hours the last 4 days with no problems.

Just some kind of glitch...

So all of this is about not wanting to re-tile the bathroom.  I can understand that.

Yoda is the true master.  But the toad can't put together a proper sentence.  Why is that?  The most intelligent being in the universe cannot put together a sentence.

Originally posted by millsdo

I've played them all and LOTRO is possibly the best one yet. Yes, they are having some issues today but I've played for 30 hours the last 4 days with no problems.

Just some kind of glitch...

 

 

it's weird.  Her client is different than mine.  don't know why.  It just seems unpolished and sort goofy how the whole purchase thing, upgrades, updates, so forth works.  Very unprofessional.  I was watching my wife play and had the graphics totally maxed out, and I was going "WOW.... graphics are amazing and so smooth."  then they lost all of what she had accomplished. I can see her frustration which is directly proportional to my level of frustration.

So I'll take a stress tab and .... hmmmm  play Diablo until they get their servers back.  I'll just keep her attention off LOTR with showing her shiny objects.

I played for many hours this weekend, was great.  Since, Bk7 there have been issues.  Its a great game and the support is amazing.  Hope things go better for you and that you can play this great game.

Hmm, I call BS on the OP seeing as I played all weekend pretty hardcore and not once had a server downage. Now today, yes the login servers are suddenly on the fritz, not an unusual occurence in mmos. Having played WAR also, they have had moments where the servers just went down or logging in had issues. LOTRO is an incredible game and Book 7 has really made it better, don't let the above trolling posters convince you otherwise.

Originally posted by elocke

Hmm, I call BS on the OP seeing as I played all weekend pretty hardcore and not once had a server downage. Now today, yes the login servers are suddenly on the fritz, not an unusual occurence in mmos. Having played WAR also, they have had moments where the servers just went down or logging in had issues. LOTRO is an incredible game and Book 7 has really made it better, don't let the above trolling posters convince you otherwise.

I'm cool.  Just had to vent a bit.

Originally posted by junzo316

I played for many hours this weekend, was great.  Since, Bk7 there have been issues.  Its a great game and the support is amazing.  Hope things go better for you and that you can play this great game.

I think some of the problem was with that turbine downloader was REALLY BAD.  Plus I've had some very small windows of opportunity to actually get into the game and they keep shutting the window. 

Having Mythic pull their game killer classes released, then out of luck of the draw trying LOTRO and having them move that datacenter when they are trying to encourage new players just really struck me wrong.

The combination of /ragequit in WAR, only coming to another game where you can't even log in was sort of the one/two punch.

See, this is our hobby.  Some people build old cars, others into climbing mountains or whatever, but it's our hobby, so take it personally. 

I just want to be able to come home, log in, and forget about "real world."  is what we like to do.  I work on computers and networks ALL DAY LONG and put up with computer problems all day long, I don't want to come home and deal with more computer problems.  Just let me log in and play......but I see MMORPG's getting more and more demanding on their player base, and that's not cool.

Ya know.... I played EVE Online for quite a while, and I don't recall this type of downtime.  But they are from Iceland so they have nothing better to do.  Just like to see more of "uptime" as opposed to "excuses."

Ahh, ok, the Turbine Downloader. I see why you are miffed now. To be honest, I have no idea why anyone uses it or even why Turbine still lets people use it, it obviously doesn't work. Perhaps they know something I don't. If you get a chance to get in the game, if you roll a toon on Landroval, I'd be glad to show you the ropes, maybe change your mind with good old community effort on my part. I'll be on my RuneKeeper, Elocorin, but I have tons of alts in the wings at low levels. It really is a great game, I didn't think I would get addicted but I have, especially once I set foot into Moria and got Legendary weapons, which is a whole new game unto itself.

Originally posted by elocke

Ahh, ok, the Turbine Downloader. I see why you are miffed now. To be honest, I have no idea why anyone uses it or even why Turbine still lets people use it, it obviously doesn't work. Perhaps they know something I don't. If you get a chance to get in the game, if you roll a toon on Landroval, I'd be glad to show you the ropes, maybe change your mind with good old community effort on my part. I'll be on my RuneKeeper, Elocorin, but I have tons of alts in the wings at low levels. It really is a great game, I didn't think I would get addicted but I have, especially once I set foot into Moria and got Legendary weapons, which is a whole new game unto itself.

Guys like this are why I miss LotRO...

Good Game Elocke!  Wish there were more like you in WAR!

Well, here's my experience with LoTR so far, I'll try to be objective.

Started with the trial a month ago roughly.  (I had actually dl'd a few trials as I had just quit EVE and was looking for a new MMO.  LoTR won easy.  By the way, if you want to appreciate just about ANY MMO, play Eve for a while, then you'll know when you're REALLY being ripped off.  LOL. But I digress and yes, I AM trying to be objective here).

The trial was, well, a bit trying to say the least.  I too had to spend 6 hours dl'ing it, then some more time as the game when I launched it, spent time "verifying" everything, but it "looked like" it was re-downloading the whole game.  After some research, i found that it was not indeed re-downloading itself, just going through a verifying process.  (Turbine should have labeled that process a bit better in my opinion as it was not clear as to what it was doing, but, oh well).

So, finally, I got to playing the trial.  After about 3 days of playing and having a good time I decided that if i could get the game for a half decent price, I'd buy it.  Lucky me, I went to Best Buy and it was on sale for $24.99.  I figured, ok, you get 30 days with that purchase which would be $14.99 anyways, so i'm getting the game, virtually, for 10 bucks.  Ok, I can live with that so I bought it.

I get home, register to make my purchased account active.  I launch game and it starts wanting to do that verifying thing again.  LOL.  I'm like, "Wtf???!!"  (pardon my language).  Not "another" 6 hours! 

So, I decide, "Heck with this."  I install game from game CD's from my purchased game and when I launch the game, it "did" do another verifying thing, but it went very quickly.  (can't remember how long, didn't time it, but it wasn't more than a few minutes if i recall correctly).

Since I've been playing, I think with all this trouble they've been having lately (which from other forums that I've read whilst researching this, seems that this is not the norm for turbine.  They seem to have quite a satisfied customer history as far as I have been able to see so far) I've missed about 3 days I think at most of game play.  Seeing as it's about 50 cents a day, i figure i'm out about a buck 50 so far.  lol.

Lucky for me, MMO's are not my only form of entertainment.  I'm a big UFC fan and there was 3 hours of that to watch tonight while the servers were down.  I play guitar, sing and song-write, so i've got that to do.  I love to create stuff on my comp as i'm a graphics guy for a living so there's that to do.  I can go out as i have a wife and friends to be with if I want (major blessing there if you ask me) so there's that to do.  I exercise as a preventative measure to ward of fatness, so there's that to do......I think you probably get my point here by now.

All that to say a couple of things.

So far, i've really enjoyed LoTR more than almost any other game I've played.  It's worth every penny to me and I don't worry bout 50 cents here or there that gets wasted because I'm SURE i've wasted more money in different ways easily.  Nobody is perfect and even though I'm paying Turbine, I don't expect them to be perfect either.  I just expect them to do their best.  If at some point their best is not worth my money, I'll unsubscribe.  But so far, I'm enjoying the game way too much at the present time to even think about that.

Yes, there has been some hassles, but overall, the fun I've had far outweighs any inconveniences I've experienced so far.

Some people may get offended when i say this, but i'm gonna risk it.  IF you are getting REALLY angry, upset, frustrated etc. from not being able to play LoTR for a day or 2 or even 6, then i might suggest that you put a bit too much importance on it and maybe take the opportunity presented to you at this time to take a break and do something else for a bit.  Even if you couldn't play for a week, it's not the end of the world.  It may actually be a blessing in disguise if you are able to see it.  It's 3 bucks at most or half your trial.  One can always do the trial again, and/or 3 bucks ain't the end of the world.  :)

Haven't had any LoTR this evening but it did make me find this site and register on it which is kinda cool.

To the OP, in about a week or 2, maybe give LoTR another try.  I'm sure it will go smoother and, since i'm new to the game I don't think I qualify as a "fanboy", so try to take this as a fresh opinion. I'm really enjoying the game and from what I read in your original post as to the reasons you wanted to play LoTR in the first place, I think you and your wife would enjoy the game as well.  Just try to be a little patient with Turbine, like I said before, nobody's perfect.  When we stop expecting perfection, we start to discover a whole world of joy out there that we may miss otherwise.

Just my nickels worth, Peace out folks. (wow, haven't typed that much in I don't remember how long.  I think my fingers are sore now).  8-/

 Just bad luck on the timing. I had been playing for I don't know how long straight without any interupts until just today. April 1st. Go figure.

 Well it's all understandable if it's to avoid the dreaded bathroom re-tiling!

That said, I recently got back to Lotro (Euro Servers) and I agree that actually GETTING to the game is a bit of a challenge - and I remember it being so the first time around also. As has been said before the downloader is a bit odd to say the least and moving servers on welcome back week is never a good idea.

However, once in game I have had no problems whatsoever. The game plays very well and I have yet to experience unexpected down time (on a sidenote... euro serves now off to apply patch).

I hope you can sort out your problems with Lotro and give it a fair try. I for one am very happy I decided to give it a second go.

Goodluck!

The game servers were not moved in the data center move, in fact they were up during the entire transfer, you were most likely playing at the time.. also, this recent week or two is extremely atypical of turbine.
 

I'm sorry the OP had such a difficult time getting into the game. long DL times aside I've never had any real issues with the game. It's been rock solid.  Not only that it's probably the best PvE game I've ever played!!