The franchise had a few historical issues, it was in development by two prior seperate companies both now defunct.

It released to late ie the movie hype was over.

It was another fantasy MMO in a market saturated with fantasy.

I think that the mistake was doing the game about The Lord of the Rings in the first place. A game couldve been set on a diferent time frame in Tolkiens chronology, giving you a chance to spare you fan criticism (some time periods are only roughly described in the Silmarilion) and a better chance to introduce new elements. Those wars in which Sauron was nothing but a lieutenant and which dwarfed Bilbos and Frodos story to no more than a footnote in elven history would make for epic action.

In general terms it seems like something of a mistake to focus so much on an IPs better known references. SWTOR seems to me a move in the right direction, it allows for a universe in which both Sith and Jedi number armies while giving players a storyline in which their characters actions could feel more trascendent than SWGs setting.

I have never played LOTR because of one simple fact; There is only one faction. I will never play the homo elf, the boring human, the baby hobbit or the unoroginal dwarf. I cant play an orc, an horoukai(sp?) or troll... F#$& that. No way I will join the pussy ''good guys''.

What drove me away was that avatars were butt ugly and most of all, combat was mind numbingly boring.

I often find myself posting it would be cool if "gamex" had "insert cool feature" just like LoTR had.

The bigest problem I had was that it took forever for a casual gamer to level up. My main was only like 30 after six months (although I did PvMP mostly for the first three months). The other problem was finding group to play with, since I mostly play at quiet time (my missus found the game too slow, and she is really not into LoTR lore at all).

The problem is that most gamers are McMMOers. They want it fast and full of calories. I can log on WAR, play three of four scenarios in 30 mins, and then log off. It would take me that long to read up all the quests I'm in the middle off in LoTR. However, I really must come back at some point - it is without a doubt a MMO to rule them all.

Lord of the Rings Online sucks, and is unpopular, for the following reasons:

1. Mature community. "Barrens Chat" types who mouth off and then claim free speech tend to be ostracized and so miss out on crucial parts of the game.
2. No "video poker" bling animations. Those who need flashing lights and explosions to get that "combat high" must look elsewhere for their crack hit.
3. Lore nerds. There are people who play LotRO who actually read long books filled with many pages. They then tell other people what are in these books. This clearly sucks.
4. Pie-delivering quests. For experience in LotRO, you may actually have to deliver a pie from one mob to another. Because this is something the mom of the average MMO player might tell them to do, it undermines their heroic self-esteem.
5. Cliched setting. Game is based on a fifty year old book written by a pipe-smoking grandfather with a weird name. Book has sold over 100 million copies and so Elves, Dwarves and Hobbits are everywhere. There are even some in Lord of the Rings Online.  WTF?
6. No boobs.
   
    

The landscape is great, I love the idea of running around in areas that were recreated. The music is great and compliments the terrain but the combat, sound effects and animations do not mix with the rest of the game. It is the side effect of being on the AC2 engine and most likely using the same animators who should have been fired after their first failure.

LOTRO  is pretty damn popular. You can't hold LOTRO up against the MMO giants.

That said,  I  personally found LOTRO  to be the most boring MMO  I've ever played and I've been playing MMOs since Ultima Online. The graphics are very  breath taking, but since I have Vista 32, I risk crashing if I put textures on very high... that's a problem Turbine still hasn't bothered to fix. Also, almost all of the good tracks in the game are remixed from LOTR:  War of the Ring, a game I already played the hell out of, which kind of limited it's impact on me. I also found the "amazing storytelling" to be very overrated. I wasn't even sure I  played the same game these people were talking about. I'm sorry but solo story instances are not the answer for better story-telling in an MMO. The instances and quests themselves had no better story than most other quest based MMOs. And for any new players considering LOTRO, for the of god, don't create a human. Bree-land is so terrible for a starting zone and that constant lute music everywhere you go will literally give you a headache.

The gameplay itself was about the same as you'd expect from modern MMOs. Let's not forget how you spend 60% or more of your time in this game travelling. (Inb4 LOLZ, LOTRO  is 4 hardcorez, not WoW kiddiez) It can take days for you to get a group for the important story quests while leveling, anyways. Then you have to worry about the WORST  PUGS  IN  ANY  MMO  THAT  HAS  EVER  EXISTED. What in the HELL  is up with the average player you get in a PUG?  I have never played with more incompetent people in any MMO and that includes WoW. For the love of Christ people, GET  THE  HELL  OUT  OF  THE  ACID!

Also, crafting seems to  have been trivialized since the introduction of radiance gear. I  ended up going explorer just to make money since I knew I wouldn't be able to make anything worthwhile and I can sell my resources for more than enough to make up for whatever small upgrade I do need to buy from crafters.

I  played LOTRO  after MoM came out and I will agree with the players who openly stated to me that you would have really loved this game before MoM came out. I  understand why. The aesthetics of the raids and zones in SoA were actually immersive. I wish I could have run those raids, played when it was worth going to Annuminas and when crafting was worthwhile. From what I've heard from players MoM took a lot of the best things about LOTRO away. For one, I'll say that the leveling content in MoM was atrocious. I  spent a full two weeks at two bars from 60 because I  would log on, get bored and frustrated with the last quests I had left and just log off again. There was no improvements to the quality and variety of quests and they were all basically the same story over and over again. I  think Moria is a great place for PART of an expansion, but the whole god damn thing in there with hallways that all look exactly the same and either a dark blue or dark red hue the entire way through, certain zones being convoluted as hell to navigate through with mobs every 10 feet? I quit right before the last raid was introduced, but the Turtle was just ridiculous. You're seriously sending me to one of only TWO raid bosses in the expansion where it's almost a tank & spank DPS race?

Oh and the PvP  is bad, although I'm aware this obviously isn't the focus of the game as rubbed in by the fact that the devs virtually abandoned it. However, I will state that PvP  is important for any MMO these days as much as PvE is important for any PvP focused game. Variety and balance in gameplay will always be wanted.

Originally posted by Gameloading

Well actually I think Lotro is doing quite good.

Why it's not doing even better? I think that is because it doesn't really bring a new experience from either a gameplay or world perspective. It's no secret that The Lord of The Rings series has been very important for modern fantasy, and it's obvious that games like World of Warcraft and Everquest draw inspiration from TloR in some way.

The problem with Lotro is it's late release. We already have a lot of traditional fantasy MMORPGs around with orcs and elves. Lord of the rings might have started it all, but Lord of the Rings Online is just late to the party.

The only reason is because it had a late start. It's competition is steep. Although you're right, this game is beautiful. I love the music, gameplay, everything. Champion all the way, but it just came out too late. It, as you can say, blends in. Sure if you Super-heart LOTR, you'll definitely play this game. It's a great game, it's just nothing too innovational.

Originally posted by GidSlack

Lord of the Rings Online sucks, and is unpopular, for the following reasons:

 

1. Mature community. "Barrens Chat" types who mouth off and then claim free speech tend to be ostracized and so miss out on crucial parts of the game.
2. No "video poker" bling animations. Those who need flashing lights and explosions to get that "combat high" must look elsewhere for their crack hit.
3. Lore nerds. There are people who play LotRO who actually read long books filled with many pages. They then tell other people what are in these books. This clearly sucks.
4. Pie-delivering quests. For experience in LotRO, you may actually have to deliver a pie from one mob to another. Because this is something the mom of the average MMO player might tell them to do, it undermines their heroic self-esteem.
5. Cliched setting. Game is based on a fifty year old book written by a pipe-smoking grandfather with a weird name. Book has sold over 100 million copies and so Elves, Dwarves and Hobbits are everywhere. There are even some in Lord of the Rings Online.  WTF?
6. No boobs.
   
    

Agreed, super true. Especially 6. 

 that fact it's bored of the rings