Lord of the Rings Online

Good tidings, all.  After playing EQ/EQ2 for 3 years, and after a particularly frustrating evening of grouping with people who have no idea how to play their classes, I logged out, deleted all my characters (lvl 80 dirge - bard - and one 73 assassin) and cancelled my subscription.

So now I am looking for another MMO.

Here are some questions I have before downloading the trial and making a go at it.

Classes: I have always played a bard in RPGs and MMOs alike (EQ1, 2, Vanguard and Oblivion). Which class is most similar to that?  I'm more interested in subtle classes that add to the group and are challenging to master (but all the better for it).

Depth: I am looking for a game with depth.  Depth in gameplay, in class ability, in exploration, in tradeskilling, etc.

Diversity: I like diversity between the classes - enough said.

Story and lore: I am a HUGE Tolkien fan and enjoyed reading the books.  The literature is some of my favority of all time.  That said, I also enjoy a game that has an overarching purpose, a story that drives the gameplay and gives meaning to my existence.

Challenge: I like challenging gameplay.  I enjoy pitting myself against difficult encounters and a harsh environment. I am goal oriented and like to "work" for what I have/want.

Immersion: I want to be immersed.  I'm a professional by day, but a gamer by night.  I like to get lost in the MMO world, have fun with friends, and love grouping up to go against the challenging content to progress my character.

Class abilities: I like to play a class that is difficult to master.  I take pride in taking a difficult class and making it shine.  I tend to be a quick study, and enjoy taking the extra time to learn the little things that make a class shine - especially in groups.

Fun: This is subjective, of course.  I love to have fun (who doesn't?).  However, fun for me is getting involved in the game and the story and working through it with like-minded people.

That pretty much covers it.  My hope is that this game can provide that for me, and that the good people on these boards will chime in with responses that will give me the real scoop.

Thanks for taking the time to read through this.  I look forward to reading the responses.

Lonestryder

I'm currently downloading the client and the patches for the game and they offer a 14day free trial so i suggest you do the same as i do and try it for yourself. Many say LOTRO is like a WoW clone but i want to try it so i will make my own desicion of what the game is like.

At least it doesn't cost you anything 14days. If you should also try the game post your ingame nick here so i can contact you and we'll try the game toghether.

I have also played EQ2 and Vanguard but currently i'm just killing time untill AION hits the shelves.

Originally posted by Lonestryder

Good tidings, all.  After playing EQ/EQ2 for 3 years, and after a particularly frustrating evening of grouping with people who have no idea how to play their classes, I logged out, deleted all my characters (lvl 80 dirge - bard - and one 73 assassin) and cancelled my subscription.

So now I am looking for another MMO.

Here are some questions I have before downloading the trial and making a go at it.

Classes: I have always played a bard in RPGs and MMOs alike (EQ1, 2, Vanguard and Oblivion). Which class is most similar to that?  I'm more interested in subtle classes that add to the group and are challenging to master (but all the better for it).

Depth: I am looking for a game with depth.  Depth in gameplay, in class ability, in exploration, in tradeskilling, etc.

Diversity: I like diversity between the classes - enough said.

Story and lore: I am a HUGE Tolkien fan and enjoyed reading the books.  The literature is some of my favority of all time.  That said, I also enjoy a game that has an overarching purpose, a story that drives the gameplay and gives meaning to my existence.

Challenge: I like challenging gameplay.  I enjoy pitting myself against difficult encounters and a harsh environment. I am goal oriented and like to "work" for what I have/want.

Immersion: I want to be immersed.  I'm a professional by day, but a gamer by night.  I like to get lost in the MMO world, have fun with friends, and love grouping up to go against the challenging content to progress my character.

Class abilities: I like to play a class that is difficult to master.  I take pride in taking a difficult class and making it shine.  I tend to be a quick study, and enjoy taking the extra time to learn the little things that make a class shine - especially in groups.

Fun: This is subjective, of course.  I love to have fun (who doesn't?).  However, fun for me is getting involved in the game and the story and working through it with like-minded people.

That pretty much covers it.  My hope is that this game can provide that for me, and that the good people on these boards will chime in with responses that will give me the real scoop.

Thanks for taking the time to read through this.  I look forward to reading the responses.

Lonestryder

Hehe, i had a smile on my face when i read your posting with your expectations...

To me it seems to be the opposite of LOTRO.

Examples:

Diversity: Compared to Vanguard and EQ2 there is no such thing in LOTRO. You have 7 classes which can be modified very little by activating certain traits. In 90% of the cases you will not notice a difference at all tho between two level 50s of class X and if you notice a difference its probably gear not traits.

Challenge:

LOTRO is the least challenging MMO out there. It is not designed as E-Sport game but as a middle earth sight seeing tour.

A Class that is difficult to Master?

Nothing is difficult to master in LOTRO. There are a few grinds that take a while, and a couple of raids / instances that require a little  teamwork - thats it.

Immersion...

hmmm this is difficult to answer:

To me personally there is no immersion in LOTRO as i take nada influence to the story of middle earth at all.  Whatever my main does, my alt does it too. (Talking about the book quests)

There is no theme, no plot, no story running in the background that i feel part of. I unlock a few movie sequences for certain mouseclicks is all.

You dont change the frontline with the darkforces either if you win small battles or loose them. The world stays static.

BUT:

I know some people feel involved into this sort of interactive story telling - and feel part of the story. They can ignore better that this story is not really happening than i can. So: Try it and see for yourself if you feel involved or not.

Anyway: These are all my thoughts and they must not be yours.

I suggest you try it out (trial?) for yourself.

Keep in mind 2 things:

a) LOTRO is for casuals, from your description you seem to spend alot of time in your MMO's and this can kill LOTRO for you quick. So reduce the time.

b) Use your own imagination to create missing depths. Perhaps try real roleplaying. The game depths is simplified to the extreme for casual gamers and playability of casuals.

If you manage to find a nice kinship and good people, you can have alot of fun in LOTRO - you need to adept your playstyle tho. Good luck.

Snorf

PS: I think the human only class is closest to what you are looking for it is the group supporting class in lotro. (Duno the english name, in german its Hauptmann and it can only be played as human).

Have fun and enjoy ;)

Originally posted by Lonestryder

Good tidings, all.  After playing EQ/EQ2 for 3 years, and after a particularly frustrating evening of grouping with people who have no idea how to play their classes, I logged out, deleted all my characters (lvl 80 dirge - bard - and one 73 assassin) and cancelled my subscription.

So now I am looking for another MMO.

Here are some questions I have before downloading the trial and making a go at it.

Classes: I have always played a bard in RPGs and MMOs alike (EQ1, 2, Vanguard and Oblivion). Which class is most similar to that?  I'm more interested in subtle classes that add to the group and are challenging to master (but all the better for it).

Depth: I am looking for a game with depth.  Depth in gameplay, in class ability, in exploration, in tradeskilling, etc.

Diversity: I like diversity between the classes - enough said.

Story and lore: I am a HUGE Tolkien fan and enjoyed reading the books.  The literature is some of my favority of all time.  That said, I also enjoy a game that has an overarching purpose, a story that drives the gameplay and gives meaning to my existence.

Challenge: I like challenging gameplay.  I enjoy pitting myself against difficult encounters and a harsh environment. I am goal oriented and like to "work" for what I have/want.

Immersion: I want to be immersed.  I'm a professional by day, but a gamer by night.  I like to get lost in the MMO world, have fun with friends, and love grouping up to go against the challenging content to progress my character.

Class abilities: I like to play a class that is difficult to master.  I take pride in taking a difficult class and making it shine.  I tend to be a quick study, and enjoy taking the extra time to learn the little things that make a class shine - especially in groups.

Fun: This is subjective, of course.  I love to have fun (who doesn't?).  However, fun for me is getting involved in the game and the story and working through it with like-minded people.

That pretty much covers it.  My hope is that this game can provide that for me, and that the good people on these boards will chime in with responses that will give me the real scoop.

Thanks for taking the time to read through this.  I look forward to reading the responses.

Lonestryder

2. The depth is there for the most part crafting is way too simple, classes don't offer a whole lot of depth but there is a huge amount of depth exploration wise.

3. All of the classes are very diverse, despite Turbines seemingly bad effort to hybridize them.

4. The game is lore appropriate however the storyline is very dull, in my opinion. It's really, really boring.

5. There are VERY few challenging things left in this game, with every patch Turbine makes the game even easier, the only somewhat difficult things left are Thorog and Thaurlach, both of them being end game raid bosses.

6. There isn't a whole lot of mastery involved, it's a pretty easy game in all aspects, I guess it takes just as much "skill" as any other MMO out there.

To be honest this doesn't really sound like the game for you, but give it a try, chances are you will enjoy it anyways.

I'd have to agree. It's really not a deep game, at all. In fact, when I played, the only class I could stand was the minstrel...and, really, all I did was spent all of my day growing and smoking pipe weed, and playing my lute/harp/flute/drum/et cetera, all of the rest of the time.The game is not too deep or difficult. Crafting takes no real skill. Farming was rather fun, and being able to play songs was a lovely feature, mainly when others would show up and join in...and -not- simply try to ruin my fun. But, other than that, I found it all rather boring. I say, check it out, though. It is free, after all. Nothing to lose. Good luck.

In all honesty this does not sound like the game for you.  I have only been playing Lotro for about a month but I have 3.5 years invested in EQ and a year and a half in EQ2 and the game plays a little closer to EQ2 than EQ.  (Vanguard is sitting on my shelf but never installed.)  I really don't find any class in  Lotro that compares to the EQ bard.  The minstrel would be sort of similar to the Dirge from EQ2.

The game is very simple and extremely easy.  I haven't found much in the game that is 'challenging' other than quests which require a group as I'm basically a solo player.  But the world is very nice, the lore is pretty faithful to Tolkien and I am enjoying my time there.

Hope this helps somewhat.

Would have to agree with the other posters.

While you might find immersion and story-telling in LotRO to your liking you'll probably be disappointed in other ways. LotRO is a very easy game, very casual, and there's nothing hard to master in it. Leveling your toon from 1 to 50 is as easy as a walk in the park and will provide few challenges.

It certainly is an enjoyable game (great views, good storytelling, great IP)  but challenge and depth in gameplay is surely not what one can find in LotRO.