First of all; I love this game. It is polished beyond the most shiny chrome fender. The quests, skills, player housing, crafting system, outfit system, hobbies, gameworld and general feeling this game gives you after a while are high above par compared to the average mmo. Best of all is the immersion; Traveling through a zone like the Trollshaws around sunset really gets my juices flowing. Forests are real forests in LOTRO. Add delicious lighting, perfect background music, some birds flying overhead and a howling wolf in the distance and I almost start shedding tears. This game can be so damn beautiful and rewarding ...

I read some criticism about the storyline which 'controls' the game in that you follow the route of the fellowship and how it infringes on the sandbox idea of a good mmo. But I can assure you that the main storyline is never obtrusive and just adds a nice layer of extra important (and often extra rewarding) quests if you are not a lore freak or not particularily interested in the LOTR story.

This game is a straight ace in pve, gameplay and immersion departments.

It has no open world pvp, however. And that is what makes me so sad. Monsterplay is something you can choose to do but it is always a conscious decision; 'I am going for a little pvp'. Like a large battleground.

I really miss the excitement of player enemies out in the world, getting around mining some nodes or doing some quests is way more rewarding for me when there is this added sense of danger; the idea that another player, an enemy, could be lurking in the undergrowth, waiting for the right time to strike adds LIFE to a game for me. More than any kind of AI controlled mob could do. And also the other way around; dropping my pickaxe when spotting an enemy player and become the hunter, if only for a short time. Best of all; full blown player organized pvp events out in the world. Those are one of the best things about mmo's to me. And I miss that too much LOTRO.

I have been playing and enjoying this game for a long time but the lack of open world pvp is becoming too big a factor. I think I'll stop playing and switch to WAR when it's out and hope that it will be the right game for me (and not lacking too much in the immersion and polished gameplay departments).

I haven't been doing monster play for any serious amount of time, though, and I haven't reached the level to fight creeps as a player yet. So if you have experiences in how this makes LOTRO a much better game and adds the thing that I am missing at later levels, please tell me why I should stick around to try it out.

I am on the verge of quitting but a big part of me doesn't want to since the game is too good in what it offers. If there is any good reason why I should stay, please telleth me!

Edit: I made it to a level 32 burglar as of yet. (Nothing wrong with that class either).

You'll never see Open PvP in this game. If that is a deal breaker then there isn't much else to say.

As much as the LOTRO ppl like to say that like a bad thing, there's nothing wrong with going back to wow, or playing both games.

The ppl in WOW however might laugh at you for comming back.

We won't see open PvP yet...but perhaps in a distant expansion pack as the fellowship and players get closer to mordor as well as the armies of sauron are moving. RIght now, trouble is mostly just brewing but later I would imagine we could see lots of monster play sessions running around attacking places like Rohan and the like.

Yep, I agree, LotRO is a great PVE game, but that lack of world influencing PVP was a major deal breaker for me.

My experience with open world PvP is this:

If it's a flag you enable so that other pleayers can attack you only if you're flagged, almost nobody will use it and you'll be back to square one.

If it's forced upon you, you'll rarely get that encounter solo encounter in some distant corner of the world. Instead, you'll be streamrolled by a full group when you go turn in that quest or see that one required special mon spawn that you've waited for.

Here's my advice - play both if you can afford it and enjoy them both for their different game play aspects.

I enjoyed the way that PvP was set up in Ultima Online nearly 10 years ago; never have I had that same experience. The best PvP game that I have played since that time was WoW, but I found it to become dull and predictable. If War holds up to what it offers, they might take the cake in this area. Do not wholly take up a game for PvP however, as PvP is actually one of the easiest aspects to add to a game; while PvE requires a lot of calculations and programming for the AI.

As some have also stated, there might be some PvP additions of your desire in LotRO at a later date, though there will definatly be some PvP additions of some sort. And even if it isn't to your liking, you can always take up two games, as one for PvP, and another for the in depth PvE.

Originally posted by Faelan

My experience with open world PvP is this:

If it's a flag you enable so that other pleayers can attack you only if you're flagged, almost nobody will use it and you'll be back to square one.

If it's forced upon you, you'll rarely get that encounter solo encounter in some distant corner of the world. Instead, you'll be streamrolled by a full group when you go turn in that quest or see that one required special mon spawn that you've waited for.

Here's my advice - play both if you can afford it and enjoy them both for their different game play aspects.

Those are precisely my thoughts and the exact reason why I will *never* play an FFA PVP game.

But I understand that one man's frustration can be another one's source of joy - thankfully there are games than can cater to each one (though not for all at once).

DB

Thanks for the replies :)

I think I'll wait a bit to see what they'll add in the future.

It would be great indeed if pvp in areas closer to Mordor would be more frequent and less bound to one or a few zones. As far as I'm concerned they should open up all high level zones for creeps and give them some objectives/quests out in that world as well. Or atleast experiment with that on a test server. The added sense of danger would make the game a lot more exciting for me.

Originally posted by DarkPony

Thanks for the replies :)

I think I'll wait a bit to see what they'll add in the future.

It would be great indeed if pvp in areas closer to Mordor would be more frequent and less bound to one or a few zones. As far as I'm concerned they should open up all high level zones for creeps and give them some objectives/quests out in that world as well. Or atleast experiment with that on a test server. The added sense of danger would make the game a lot more exciting for me.

That (opening high level zones for creeps) will definitely never happen. It would totally destroy the balance and the planned structure of those zones. If you'll get to 45 and above, you will also see how delicately and detailfully those regions are planned. It is without doubt that PVP zones will need to be designed as PVP zones only from the beginning as well.

Of course, it does not say that there won't be more (possible large) full PVP zones :) But, for the existing high level zones, open PVP is absolutely impossible.

DB

well I guess with WAR we will see if a PvP centric game is really what people are really wanting. I played DAoC for about 2 years and after about your 10th emain raid  you start to notice that every battle is pretty much the same as your last. I plan on playing WAR but it will  be my secondary game. At this point I am not even sure I will bother playing after te intro month. I have a feeling it wil be attracting the same group of kiddies that were playing AoC. The two games are aimed at different crowds it seems.

Originally posted by Jackdog

well I guess with WAR we will see if a PvP centric game is really what people are really wanting. I played DAoC for about 2 years and after about your 10th emain raid  you start to notice that every battle is pretty much the same as your last. I plan on playing WAR but it will  be my secondary game. At this point I am not even sure I will bother playing after te intro month. I have a feeling it wil be attracting the same group of kiddies that were playing AoC. The two games are aimed at different crowds it seems.

Yeah, I too will be trying WAR, but I also concur with your statement regarding the "kiddie" thing...

While I believe the devs at Turbine will increase some form of PvP it's just not the crowd they are catering to.

I can easily foresee opening some high-level zones for creeps, but not the Eriador zones we currently play in. That won't make sense for the timeline of the game within Eriador. But later on, after some expansions when the Fellowship is closer to Mordor and the armies of Sauron are marching through the areas in between Morder and Eriador... yeah, I can see creeps rolling along with them.

As for the "kiddies" thing, PvP in general seems to attract them. Look at AoC, for all the PvP hype, it never actually worked. The beta community was pretty cool overall in chat and in groups, but the moment the game went live all the PvP kids came in and turned the game (and its forums) into a very "XBL kiddies" experience. The point of WAR revolves around PvP (RvR whatever) and I'm concerned about that experience when it goes live as well. Darkfall and Earthrise each have TONS of features that sound attractive, but I get in the forums and the PvP/PK fanboys leave me with a very negative impression.

Originally posted by Talyn

I can easily foresee opening some high-level zones for creeps, but not the Eriador zones we currently play in. That won't make sense for the timeline of the game within Eriador. But later on, after some expansions when the Fellowship is closer to Mordor and the armies of Sauron are marching through the areas in between Morder and Eriador... yeah, I can see creeps rolling along with them.

As for the "kiddies" thing, PvP in general seems to attract them. Look at AoC, for all the PvP hype, it never actually worked. The beta community was pretty cool overall in chat and in groups, but the moment the game went live all the PvP kids came in and turned the game (and its forums) into a very "XBL kiddies" experience. The point of WAR revolves around PvP (RvR whatever) and I'm concerned about that experience when it goes live as well. Darkfall and Earthrise each have TONS of features that sound attractive, but I get in the forums and the PvP/PK fanboys leave me with a very negative impression.
 

There will never be open PvP in LotRo mate. That's absolute. There will be new PvP zones and content, thats for sure, but there are no plans for open PvP. It can't be implemented at any level as it would detract from what LotRo set out to be in the first place, the ultimate PvE experience.

S

I understand that but if your looking for something like that play ryzom, but honestly it is far from needed, it is very lame when higher levels can gank lower levels and something like this should be forced upon a pve community, there are other options out there for you even warhammer.

Here's a quote on PvMP from Jeffrey Steefel in an interview posted today on EuroGamer:

---

Eurogamer: Is Monster Play the limit of what you're going to do with PVP, and playing the dark side?

Jeffrey Steefel: What you see in Monster Play is the tip of the iceberg. Now that we're moving across the Misty Mountains into the place where war is really happening in Middle-Earth, it opens up a lot of possibilities. One can imagine that by the time you get to Minas Tirith, you want battles to be happening there, and you don't want it to be an army of NPCs against a bunch of players, you want players to be able to battle against each other.

But, it's really important that players know that at the end of the day we believe that this is a world game, a PVE game, the best of its kind. We're not going to do anything to destroy that in any way. The story is always going to be predominant. But I think there's a way to weave the two together when we get to the more martial parts of middle earth. Also, the launch in Asia exposes us to a lot of players who really, really, really love Monster Play and want more of it.

---

I believe that LotRO will open up with some "open World PvP zones". Mr. Steefel has dropped that hint a few times .. but it may be a while off.

I'm a lifetime Subscriber to LotRO and I play it as my Casual PvE game. I had planned on AoC being my full time game (I love PvP more than PvE), but since that didn't happen I'm looking to WAR to fill the void.

Lifetime subscription is probably the best deal ever. I never have to worry about writing down the fee every month, or picking up a time card when  nearing the end of the sub cycle. Plus, no matter what I'm playing I can always pop back into LotRO and give it a go.

If nothing else you should at least give PvP as a creep a try.  If you can get into a raid group it's pretty fun.

I want to try playing a creep but I cannot stand playing evil sides partly because of the community the other reason is lore, usually there are evil quests which my tastes very much differ.

Originally posted by Talyn

Here's a quote on PvMP from Jeffrey Steefel in an interview posted today on EuroGamer:

 

---

Eurogamer: Is Monster Play the limit of what you're going to do with PVP, and playing the dark side?

 

Jeffrey Steefel: What you see in Monster Play is the tip of the iceberg. Now that we're moving across the Misty Mountains into the place where war is really happening in Middle-Earth, it opens up a lot of possibilities. One can imagine that by the time you get to Minas Tirith, you want battles to be happening there, and you don't want it to be an army of NPCs against a bunch of players, you want players to be able to battle against each other.

But, it's really important that players know that at the end of the day we believe that this is a world game, a PVE game, the best of its kind. We're not going to do anything to destroy that in any way. The story is always going to be predominant. But I think there's a way to weave the two together when we get to the more martial parts of middle earth. Also, the launch in Asia exposes us to a lot of players who really, really, really love Monster Play and want more of it.

---

 

Wow ... that sounds somewhat comforting. Thank god for the asians, to be honest. *grins*

I really do hope that more will be implemented without deriving from the 'ultimate pve'  concept. This game is a charm but really misses out on underlying excitement by the unpredictibale non-npc threat that you find on pvp servers of some other games. It's all about emotion; if I find myself pissed off after being 'defeated'  a few times while doing a quest it was a more memorable occasion then having completed that quest without anything happening because it is inherently impossible in the game. *nods*