I've played it, actually was one of the founders. However a couple things really bug me about the game and I just can't get over them. The character model and animations are horrible. For a game that is superb graphically in every other area I find the characters have a terrible look. On top of that you add the animations and it's as if they added free to play characters into a 5 star world. And 2nd, and probably most important for me, is I don't like the combat at all. It feels clunky and uninspired. For mmos I feel the very first gameplay thing they need to refine and perfect is the combat since that is what you'll do 80% (or more) of the time. I lasted quite a long time inspite of those problems and it's a testiment to the other aspects of the world that I did. However, I just could not get over those two stated problems (for me) to continue to play.

Lotro PvE is among the best, the reasion I think its not that popular is because of its pvp/monster play is the sadest pvp attempt ever. They probley would have been better off to just leave pvp out of the game then putting that in.

Lord Of The Rings online is very popular. I dont get the topic of this thread. Its probaly the most popular western mmo next to World Of Warcraft.

Very well put Sir.

We are in agreement. This game must be experienced to it's fullest, or at least until level 20-25, before one passes verdict. In the earlier levels, LOTRO is an MMORPG like all of them, but as soon as you start following the epic quests, the book quests, you will find it is a totally different beast all together. Sure, it will not be that great for 1337 bois who prides themselves for pwning n00bs at spawnpoints, but for a thinking gamer who is not in a rush, it is a great game.

They went a little wrong with the radiance, but it is fixable. Moria was and is an awesome dungeon, biggest in the world, and needs to be experienced if one likes the work of Tolkien.

Anyway, we like what we like - some like Aion for it's flashiness and some like WoW for it's candystore approach. Me, I like LOTRO for it's surroundings, music, story and community. I would not say it is the greatest game in the world, but as far as MMORPGs go, it is without competition.

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Originally posted by bastii
I thought it was quite popular, Xfire shows it as second most played P2P game after WoW. Xfire might not be very reliable, but a lot of my friends are playing it though.

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http://www.mmodata.net reports it as having almost 300,000 subscribers. Which isn't good enough to put the second best after WoW but is pretty respectible, no doubt about it.

Originally posted by bastii

I thought it was quite popular, Xfire shows it as second most played P2P game after WoW. Xfire might not be very reliable, but a lot of my friends are playing it though.

For some stupid reason it doesn't show up on xfire when i play the game. Not sure why but it bugs me. Especially cause i can't share screenshots.

How many times does it have to be said you cant use xfire for real data. There are 10's of thousands, if not millions that do not use it, and im one myself.

Lord of the Rings is fairly popular but it "might" and I stress "might" of gotten a bigger mass appeal if the owners of the IP hadn't of pretty much forbidden (atleast tahts what was said at one time in the far past) the dev's from including the ability to fully play the enemy and actually play out the war with other players.  Sure there's Monster play but thats pale incomparison to what could of been done to stress the war between the two sides.  I'm not saying it should of gone a pvp route but the storylines or maybe instance pvp scenarios could of added a bit more to it.  But taht being said Lord of the Rings does capture the feel of the books. 

I personally just ... I dont know the grind mechanics to get certain attacks, abilities, etc through their required achievement system for advancement made life kinda boring in game during the early levels for me.  I dont think its a bad game infact I wish some of the features LOTR has were in more games.  Its just not my cup of tea.

Uninteresting races and classes.  At least let me be an Orc or something NOT boring.  Humans, elves, dwarves, midgets....done with all that...YES its LOTR, but its just not interesting anymore.  The combat was weak and the animation kind of blah.   It just didn't hold up to WOW, which is what it needs to hold up against.

You put them side by side and LOTR looks technically superior, but it doesn't move as smoothly, the animation isn't as nice, the zones just aren't designed as well, and they're not as large.  The PvP is limited.  After a few hours, I just didn't care.  There was nothing holding me there.  Nothing to distinguished it, unless you're really INTO LOTR.  Otherwise, it came off as meh.

The music system is great, but if you don't care about making music, its no selling point.   

Well, I can think of several reasons.  Anyone who says it's popular, try going someone in the game between the starter areas (free trials) and Moria. It's pretty much a wasteland outside of Bree.

Slow leveling.  After a year of playing, I am 44th level. Out of 60.  I have never leveled slower in any other game, and I've played Korean grinding games.

Lack of quests. Sure, the overall number seems a lot. But they are front and back loaded. The middle levels it's fairly sparse and part of really restrictive quest chains.

Horrible quest chaining.   You start off doing 1-2 solo quests. Then boom, you get a group quest. After that, more solo quests.  That would be okay, if there were people to group with. But there aren't.

That's a screenshot of the last time I played. It was prime time even.  The only quests in that area I had to do were group quests. I was the only one in the area. Just how exactly am I supposed to do them?

Boring quests.  There are so many quests where you kill boars, it became an inside joke and they added a quest where you have to search over the whole region for boars to kill (but there aren't any, it's the one boarless area of Middle Earth).

Too much focus on boring areas.  Remember that great scene in the books? Well, you probably aren't going to spend any time there. Instead, you'll be spending most of your time from 20-50 in places that I had never heard of such as Evendim, the North Downs, and Angmar.  You'll spend much of your time basically helping out cave-men. Sure as heck don't remember that from the books.

Too much wilderness.   Once you leave Bree, that's basically it. No more cities.  Eventually you do hit Rivendell which is pretty good to look at, but doesn't seem to have all that many quests. 

I also think they made a mistake with mounts. You can't get them until you hit 35 (which took me ages) and they are expensive.  Since the quick travel system in this game is pretty awful, you'll spend a lot of time on foot. I think this probably bores a lot of people.

Too much grinding.   While you can't really grind to gain levels exactly, you are essentially forced to grind for the games parallel advancement system - traits and deeds.  The game assumes you have certain levels of traits and you have to earn them by doing deeds.  Deed are almost exclusively earned by killing hundreds of a given monster.

I also think there's just not enough content in general. Not many dungeons, not many regions. And a lot of regions are empty.  Like if you explore the NE part of the map around Bree, there's nothing there except scenery. No quests, no monsters, no npcs. Nothing.

Yet in other parts of the "wilderness", there's a mob every 5 virtual feet. (which makes travel painful)

User interface is terrible for one thing.

There is also somewhat a lack of smoothness in control and feeling that when you hit a button your avatar responds immediatel. Might I suggest the devs go play World of Warcraft and learn about both of these most crucial subjects.

This is what killed LoTR's me.   In fact just two days ago I tried it again and just couldn't stomach it.

1) The character models.   ::sigh::   Sure the environment was great.  Turbine always did good here, even in AC2, the world looked amazing as it does in LoTR's.  The character models though - plain and simple - they suck.

2) Animations....OMG...this above all else is one thing I cannot get past.   The animations in this game are horrible.    ::sigh::   If turbine spent more time in this area the game would be so much better, but it isn't ever going to happen.  

3) The whole ideal that we have to wait until level 35 for a mount.   Forget it.

4) The total linear based game play.   ::sigh::  WoW is linear to a point, at least we have multiple zones to adventure in and run around in, but nothing as bad as LoTR's.  

That is what kills that game for me.

LOTRO is a niche game pure ans simple.  Its will mostly appeal to a target audience.  Just like EVE, WAR, and DDO.

A simple answer: Lotro uses the best fantasy Lore known to mankind since 70 years ...

If the game was really good, it would be "the game that ruled them all ..."

It didn't happen. So clearly the gameplay didn't offer what could be expected to many, many people.

Originally posted by kristov

User interface is terrible for one thing.

There is also somewhat a lack of smoothness in control and feeling that when you hit a button your avatar responds immediatel. Might I suggest the devs go play World of Warcraft and learn about both of these most crucial subjects.

 

/signed

Originally posted by Lathander81

LOTRO is a niche game pure ans simple.  Its will mostly appeal to a target audience.  Just like EVE, WAR, and DDO.

A niche game? LOTRO is about as mainstream as it gets when it comes to MMOs.
 

Originally posted by Teala

This is what killed LoTR's me.   In fact just two days ago I tried it again and just couldn't stomach it.

1) The character models.   ::sigh::   Sure the environment was great.  Turbine always did good here, even in AC2, the world looked amazing as it does in LoTR's.  The character models though - plain and simple - they suck.

2) Animations....OMG...this above all else is one thing I cannot get past.   The animations in this game are horrible.    ::sigh::   If turbine spent more time in this area the game would be so much better, but it isn't ever going to happen.  

3) The whole ideal that we have to wait until level 35 for a mount.   Forget it.

4) The total linear based game play.   ::sigh::  WoW is linear to a point, at least we have multiple zones to adventure in and run around in, but nothing as bad as LoTR's.  

That is what kills that game for me.

I won't argue with you on 1) and 2), but for 3) some of us get mounts at level 25.
 

And I sort of disagree on 4) because even though the level progression is of course linear, you have different options for starter areas and zones to quest in. Especially since they changed the XP curve there are a lot of zones you can skip entirely now such as the Old Forest. And when you get in the 40-50 range you have several zones such as Angmar, Forochel, and Mistey Mountains to quest in.

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Originally posted by Redline65

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Originally posted by Teala

 

This is what killed LoTR's me.   In fact just two days ago I tried it again and just couldn't stomach it.
1) The character models.   ::sigh::   Sure the environment was great.  Turbine always did good here, even in AC2, the world looked amazing as it does in LoTR's.  The character models though - plain and simple - they suck.
2) Animations....OMG...this above all else is one thing I cannot get past.   The animations in this game are horrible.    ::sigh::   If turbine spent more time in this area the game would be so much better, but it isn't ever going to happen.  
3) The whole ideal that we have to wait until level 35 for a mount.   Forget it.
4) The total linear based game play.   ::sigh::  WoW is linear to a point, at least we have multiple zones to adventure in and run around in, but nothing as bad as LoTR's.  
That is what kills that game for me.

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I won't argue with you on 1) and 2), but for 3) some of us get mounts at level 25.
 
And I sort of disagree on 4) because even though the level progression is of course linear, you have different options for starter areas and zones to quest in. Especially since they changed the XP curve there are a lot of zones you can skip entirely now such as the Old Forest. And when you get in the 40-50 range you have several zones such as Angmar, Forochel, and Mistey Mountains to quest in.

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Everyone will be able to get mounts at 20 (15 for founders) when SoM hits. LOTRO story is COMPLEATLY OPTIONAL and there are many zones (and more being added) to level in.
 
 
 

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Originally posted by altairzq

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Originally posted by kristov

 

User interface is terrible for one thing.
There is also somewhat a lack of smoothness in control and feeling that when you hit a button your avatar responds immediatel. Might I suggest the devs go play World of Warcraft and learn about both of these most crucial subjects.

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/signed

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I'm sorry, i thought the GUI was rather standard, and had many helpful features not found in any other game, such as displaying your entire groups quests and objectives.

I guess i was wrong.

Also, SoM has a hefty amount of combat changes most notably responsiveness.

The amount of misconceptions in this thread are staggering.

Originally posted by banthis

Lord of the Rings is fairly popular but it "might" and I stress "might" of gotten a bigger mass appeal if the owners of the IP hadn't of pretty much forbidden (atleast tahts what was said at one time in the far past) the dev's from including the ability to fully play the enemy and actually play out the war with other players. 

This is categorically wrong. Turbine simply did not want to develop two games, PvE and PvP games. With good reasons, and the game is better for it.

As we get closer to mordor, rest assured there will be an expansion of the Monster play and its progression. This has always been the intent.

Originally posted by Mithios

Because you're railroaded for almost all of the game.

This is simply not true. The story quests are completely optional.  as you get higher in level, more zones open up as options to quest in.

• I loved the books and the movie, but I don't like the setting. It's the cliché fantasy setting.
• I found the Dwarf area pretty ugly and uninspiring.
• Animation and sound (not music) could be better.

I have a slightly different explanation...

Those that aren't into Tolkien think maybe it isn't for them, since they don't know the lore or they don't appreciate the setting.

Those that do actually know the lore and are fans of Tolkien are often alarmed with what Turbine have done with it. The landscape is hands down an amazing achievement, but they have then balked at taking the low fantasy setting seriously by populating the world with what people expect in a generic "high" fantasy setting - an undead dragon, an elemental mage class, goat mounts from the dwarves, giant turtles, fantastical pets etc.

The game started out as something called Middle Earth Online, and became Turbine's themepark LOTRO. Given that it has become a niche game anyway, I think it is a pity that MEO didn't get a chance to exist.

To end on a positive note, because I do recommend the game for those that love PvE, Turbine created some amazing PvE content. In particular, a 12-man raid that was extremely popular called the Rift which contains a Balrog as the final boss. Fellowship manourvres are a PvE gem too, as someone else mentioned.

I think when the hobbit movie comes out it will grow like mad. Just a lack of fans right now.

 LoTRO is a good casual game, but too simple. Lots of people seek depth in MMOs

couldn't stand the boring classes or the boring combat and hated the ugly character models, armour and animations. Oh i also hated how you had to load to go into a building... just do it like Wow where it's seamless.