Ok I just finished playing the trial for LOTRO. It's a pretty decent game. Enjoyable for the most part, and can be somewhat addictive. But honestly, after about the third day playing I started to question the entire concept of this game. I mean, is it just me or does this game feel like one gigantic QUEST. It's just quest after quest after quest. Nothing but quests. Some of these quests were indeed fun, but it does not even come close to the amount of pointless ones. I'd say about half the quests in the game involve you talking to 5-10 people before they finally set you our on a hunt or something. It just gets extremely annoying after a while. "OMG this next person is gonna give me this awsome axe! Oh... go talk to Lily Underhill... /sigh..." And the worst part is, leveling your character without doing quests is boooooooring.

So anyways, did anyone get this same feeling while you were playing this game? Because I actually like the game and I think it has some great potential, but yea... quests...

Originally posted by butters88

Ok I just finished playing the trial for LOTRO. It's a pretty decent game. Enjoyable for the most part, and can be somewhat addictive. But honestly, after about the third day playing I started to question the entire concept of this game. I mean, is it just me or does this game feel like one gigantic QUEST. It's just quest after quest after quest. Nothing but quests. Some of these quests were indeed fun, but it does not even come close to the amount of pointless ones. I'd say about half the quests in the game involve you talking to 5-10 people before they finally set you our on a hunt or something. It just gets extremely annoying after a while. "OMG this next person is gonna give me this awsome axe! Oh... go talk to Lily Underhill... /sigh..." And the worst part is, leveling your character without doing quests is boooooooring.

So anyways, did anyone get this same feeling while you were playing this game? Because I actually like the game and I think it has some great potential, but yea... quests...

It gets better post-20 when you start to work on Deeds while leveling.  I always broke up the quests with some grind sessions finishing off a deed before moving onto the next area.  That helped me a bunch.   At high levels combat can be exciting if you make it, like pulling way too much and using everything you have with 2 or 3 others and barely survive.  I think it's great, and Book 11 made a lot things much better.  But I'm a minstrel and the new skills pretty much win.

Well, thats basically how you level in this game. This is more of a quest based leveling game for most of it. It gets a little boring doing quests, but I personally just dislike those forever grinds just standing at a bunch of mobs and killing them for a few hours to go up one level. The seemingly endless amount of quests make it some what more interesting. Don't get me wrong there are still times where I just go around and kill mobs for no actual reason other then to kill them or just grind a little just so I level up earlier then i should.

Then again, I also played during beta..and strangely enough I'm downloading the trial right now, 72%. I'm not sure if it changed a lot since then, which i doubt, but it still was decent for me. Though I'm not sure if trials can, but if you do get bored of the questing, I would suggest looking at the little pvp they have set up. Not the best thing ever since an actual player has to be level 40 to get in (i think it was 40) but someone starting at level 10 can head into the monster portals. You just end up becoming a monster. So you can just go around and take over stuff for points and what not.

It's been a while since I played so it's hard to describe anything any more.

Well, I guess it would probably get better later on, which is why im trying to decide whether I should subscribe to this game to give it some more time to show itself. And with this new patch, I'm sure things got a bit more intersting. I think I'll use the few hours I have left on my trial and see if it's worth it.

Originally posted by butters88

Well, I guess it would probably get better later on, which is why im trying to decide whether I should subscribe to this game to give it some more time to show itself. And with this new patch, I'm sure things got a bit more intersting. I think I'll use the few hours I have left on my trial and see if it's worth it.

First there is deeds, for each zone you have to kill x of monster y to get a trait, and there are many traits per zone.  A trait is a skill up say +2% resist to this and that or +3 dex blah blah blah.  Not much but they add up.  Pick the trait you think you want for that zone and remember what you need to kill.

Second there is crafting and hence harvesting.  You will find more wood in grassy zones, more ore in rocky zones.  Gems randomly off rock ores ...  So select a crafting skill and when you explore zones, watch out for harvesting opportunities.

There are some named mobs that will drop something special called a shard.  This is vital for some hi grade crafting.  Exploring and running into the named is fun and killing it requires more skill than normal fights.

There are lots of places to explore and most often than not, the quests are a gentle way to show you to each of the interesting place or to the next patch on the map with NPCs giving out quests.

Adding all these, you can explore, do quest, kill mobs (for both xp, trait and quests) harvest and enjoy the breath taking scenary (at very or ultra hi setting).  When you got your bags full go to town to sell, craft, and socialise.

Last but not least there is a long epic line of stories called books, which actually gets you involved in the fight against the evil, and the storyline is very involving.  Not the usual go here kill that, but a process that involves meeting legolas, gimli, the Nazguls (yes you need to fight one) and so on.  The books are the best quests I have ever seen in my many years of MMOing, not long or very taxing but a good lore and involoving plots.

I would say Lotro is the far opposite to "boring", its definitely more fascinating (until you play your fifth alt) than WoW or Eve.  Not trying to belittle WoW or Eve, Lotro gives a lot of fun for a first run-through than most games.  Only CoX gives me this fun during the first tour.

After lvl cap that is another story altogether.

Having this game based on quests and story is a direct result of following and upholding the spirit of the books (IP). The Lord of the Rings was indeed nothing but one big quest, with some side adventures to go along. So was the Hobbit. A heavy quest load that is vital to leveling is precisely what this game should be considering the IP.

However, as a fairly causual player, I must conceed that because I don't  play much, I don't get burned out as fast on the deed or quest grinding. Also, there is housing in the game now that is another goal to work towards (purchasing and furnishing).

It's not for everyone, and does cater to a more casual, slow and liesurely style of play.

If you don't enjoy questing chances are you aren't going to enjoy LOTRO much. It's pretty much the core focus of the game. As the previous poster noted, it's pretty much what the lore the game is based on revolves around.

If you look at quests as something you have to do (impediment)  in order to advance your character (goal).... then I can see how some of them start to get tedious.

Rather, if you look at advancing your character as something you have to do (impediment) in order to complete the quests (goal) then for the most part I think you'll really enjoy them. Even the ones that have you running around alot.

I think the best indicator is whether you are the type of player that likes to read the entire quest text description to get a feel for what's going on in the story....or are you the type of player that likes to just skip to the end to find out what objectives you have to achieve to complete the quest.

Just to add on to the people above me, yeah it's all based  around the lore.

In beta it was horrible to be perfectly honest, not the game but what it is set around. When any little thing didn't seem to match the books, a whole swarm of LOTR Fanboys popped out of the darkness and complained about it. So you see, if it wasn't a big quest, it wouldn't go so well.

I should have saved some of the silly things they complained about.