It's a good, solid game, with probably the best community in any MMO I've played.

For me, it's too group oriented for the leveling process.  I don't mind grouping, but when I quit, my main was level 37 and I had 35 quests in my quest log, and 30 of them required a group.

I'm sure what many consider to be subpar PvP keeps the numbers down a bit, but on the plus side, IMO the good community is a nice benefit of not attracting the PvPers, so I could live with that if I didn't have to group all the time just to level.

Originally posted by Ponico

Originally posted by sevitoth

Originally posted by pawmaul

I just started playing Lord of The Rings this week and i have yet to have any trouble what so ever finding fellowships to complete the tougher quests not sure what server you are on but on brandywine there is no issue finding groups if you are looking.

 

Wait till you hit your high 30's. There are a lot more people to group with at lower levels.

 

 

 

So what you're saying is that once people hit 30, they leave the game?

No. I don't speak for other people. That is just why I left.

Originally posted by sevitoth

Originally posted by pawmaul

I just started playing Lord of The Rings this week and i have yet to have any trouble what so ever finding fellowships to complete the tougher quests not sure what server you are on but on brandywine there is no issue finding groups if you are looking.

 

Wait till you hit your high 30's. There are a lot more people to group with at lower levels.

 

 

 

 I'm LVL35 and honestly I never experienced some major problems finding PUG. Post to GLFF channel instead of LFF, ask people you met in the area but more importantly find a kin that is supportive. Occasionally I got stuck, but a endgamer fellow helped me get rid of the problem.

Help other players along the way, even low level ones. I once helped a 15 LVL Warden which happened to be the ALT of a 60 LVL Champion. The player switched to his toon after I helped his ALT.

If you are waiting idly that a deus ex machina will fall from the sky to help you, well ...good luck. If you go around and make friends and kin, well sooner or later your efforts will pay. As in real life.

Originally posted by Neanderthal

Before I read any of the other replies I'll tell you why I quickly lost interest in it during the free trial I tried.

1.  Solo quest grinding.  I hate it.

2.  The rest of the game would have to be absolutely amazing to compensate for the flaw in my first point, and it wasn't.  The graphics were fine but nothing special.  The combat was very ordinary.  Mobs were ridiculously weak (as usual because it's meant to be a single player game).  There was no sense of community, adventure, exploration or anything else good and fun because it was just a single player guided tour, content on rails type of game.

Don't need to read any more replies as this sums up how I feel about the game. Sure some of the group content is fun but it was just a quest grind. Sometimes I like to explore and kill stuff and I'd like some XP reward for that but it doesn't offer that at all. I needed to do quests to progress when the rewards for that quests I wasn't even interesed in.

I resubbed 12 months ago and played for a while but it almost literally sends me to sleep.

Now if Turbine had created a sandbox called Middle-Earth Online.....................................

Originally posted by Darth_Osor

It's a good, solid game, with probably the best community in any MMO I've played.

For me, it's too group oriented for the leveling process.  I don't mind grouping, but when I quit, my main was level 37 and I had 35 quests in my quest log, and 30 of them required a group.

I'm sure what many consider to be subpar PvP keeps the numbers down a bit, but on the plus side, IMO the good community is a nice benefit of not attracting the PvPers, so I could live with that if I didn't have to group all the time just to level.

WHAT? Sometimes I wonder if I live in another dimension. I thought LOTRO was WAY TOO solo friendly, and there was way too less grouping happening! Hmm...

I never was really interested in PVP. My ideal MMO was like a pen and paper game like D&D or The Dark Eye, just that you can get into a large open world between the adventures, but heavily focussed on story and adventuring. Everything else, PVP, crafting, trading, whatever, is actually of zero interest to me. Thats why I am looking forward to SWTOR as the ideal MMO for me. I want that hero-feeling I have in story driven single player games, but share them with friends in a group and have that big open world to meet people and travel. LOTRO got a good step into that direction, but the world is a bit too clean and sterile in some way.

A thing I dont like about LOTRO is this, that every centimeter is filled with mobs. I loved SWG for being vast and NOT every place full of evenly placed mobs, which repopped 5 seconds after their death. Such MMOs kinda kill my sense of immersion, since it just feel so unrealistic to have evenly spread out mobs. Feel more like an artificial hunting park in that way. Same goes for Aion, WOW and all the like. Never seen a game with better world design and mob placement than SWG imo.

If that is your experience I understand why you have a hard time liking the game. Me on the other hand have found the game to be overwelling with quests, to the point that I can freely choose which I want to do. I do not have your problem.

Sounds to me like you are in the Tinnudir area (due to the swimming, with they have fixed now by putting boats in the water to ferry people over to the other side. When you are level 40, you have so much variation to choose from, it is nearly ridiculous. Forochel, Angmar och Misty Mountains - just take your pick and do the hundreds of soloable quests offered there.

And dor the grouping, since this is a game best experienced with a couple of other players, or why not a full 6-people fellowship, and then go doing the big ones, like Agamaur to fight the Red Queen or Ivar the Bloodhand, wich I think would be doable just fine at your level. I do those quest on a regular basis just because they are fun, both from the ambience and for the hysterical action and ensuing carnage that follows when one is charged by 5-6 high-level elites with big weapons, only to be confronted by the Red Maid when one is battle worn. At those times, you hope your minstrel have all the strings on the lyre intact :)

Both Forochel and Misty Mountains offer icy terrain, but there ends the comparisons. Forochel is extremely cold and windy, upto the point the weather can kill you if you are not well protected. But as soon as one is a bit more friendly with the people there and they agree to get you the clothes of their people, you can focus on taking down the big and bad icemonsters that roam in Forochel. Misty Mountains is the home of endless well trained goblinoids and their place aptly called Goblin Town is just great to explore. To be fair, it is really nice if one is accompanied by a couple of freinds on those occasions.

Angmar, oh well... is an evil, evil place. Full of evil people and monsters and.... soloable quests galore!

Stop whineing The content is there - but it is not WoW where everything is conveniently placed for your hasslefree enjoyment. Life is not so easy for a champion of Good in Middle Earth. I LOTRO you are expected to, shudder, actually read quest texts. First sign of not finding quests in LOTRO is that there are WoW installed simultaneously on the PC. WoW does not a thorough reader make, while almost all qests in LOTRO brings something to the story.

BTW, I had never raided upuntil a couple of nights ago. I threw out a looking for Partry and within 5 minutes we had som much people we could do two different raids at the same time. I simply do not understand why some people have a hard time to find pickup groups. Sure, they might be subpar and you might not make it, but at least you tried, and died trying :)

Anyway, if this is just too much for you - this is not the game for you and I wish you good hunting for whatever that will fulfill your needs.

It has a great atmosphere but the gameplay is really lacking, I gave up at lv38 because I did the same boring routine to every mob for about 3 hours... looked back and asked myself why am I playing a boring game.

Unsubbed that night and am never gonna return.

The housing was great, good crafting, excellent graphics, but just really really boring combat that was seemed very stiff, the icons were also small and I didn't like the UI much.

Originally posted by Ponico

Originally posted by sevitoth

Originally posted by pawmaul

I just started playing Lord of The Rings this week and i have yet to have any trouble what so ever finding fellowships to complete the tougher quests not sure what server you are on but on brandywine there is no issue finding groups if you are looking.

 

Wait till you hit your high 30's. There are a lot more people to group with at lower levels.

 

 

 

So what you're saying is that once people hit 30, they leave the game?

Strangely enough, that's exactly the level my Guardian was when I left the game.

In all fairness, it was witihin the first 3 months of launch and it just wasn't the sort of game playing experience I was looking for at the time. (I went on to join EVE at that time, and the rest is history)

But it was a nice game world, I felt the player base was more mature than most, and it seems to be going strong.

Sure, its PVP limits its appeal to some, but I think the people who enjoy the game would say they are better for it.

It has a great atmosphere but the gameplay is really lacking, I gave up at lv38 because I did the same boring routine to every mob for about 3 hours... looked back and asked myself why am I playing a boring game.

Unsubbed that night and am never gonna return.

The housing was great, good crafting, excellent graphics, but just really really boring combat that was seemed very stiff, the icons were also small and I didn't like the UI much.
 

Yeah, that was an issue before they fixed the possibility to scale the UI, but that was actually quite a while back...

The combat is neither better or worse than any other MMORPG IMO. Well, a little bit better since we the game have the cool feature of 'fellowship maneuvers' when battling a signature or elite enemy when in a group. The response in the combat might feel a bit sluggish, especially if you come from an arcade game like f.x. WoW where the game takes small or no consideration to real life physics.

For example, if I make a big swing with a doublehanded axe, it is impossible for me to break that swing in the middle of execution just because I feel like it. I have to follow through. Also, after having performed the swing, it takes a little time to actually reset the body to ready-status before being able to execute another blow or move.

It all comes down to what gamer you are. Are you more in favour of arcade gaming, then you would want lightning fast executions in battle, and if you are an RPG'er, like me :), you understand that everything must take it's time and actually likes the pacing of LOTRO combat.

As for the boring routine when fighting... well, that's MMORPG for ya'. It is always possible to take a break from fighting, skip present quest or postpone it until later, go harvest or crafting, quaff a few ales with the buddies in Prancing Pony or whatever floats ones boat.

Hopefully futuer MMORPG's will do away with the repetitiveness (is there sush a word - I am not native English) of combat, but looking in hindsight, I would not hold my breath for it.

The game was good till new expansion came out. Now its just add 10 more levels with every expansion and add more raid instances. I am not one of those players who like to run after carrot on a stick.

I really like LOTRO, however I found I could never play more than 3-4 weeks consecutively. I was baffled for a long time as to why this was, but I finally came to a conclusion, please note this is my opinion, and I realize it is not everyone's.

It's always more of the same. The questing feels the same most of the time. Crafting is really fun at first but very quickly becomes more of a chore than enjoyable experience. Fishing and housing which I had high hopes for, fell very, very flat. So the "fluff" elements that give you more to do than just quest grinding, just didn't cut it.

I found that I would stop logging in because I simply wasn't in the mood to go grind quests. I wanted to spend a little time doing something else, and sadly, the options that were available just didn't cut it for me.

I want very much to be in love with this game, it has a lot going for it, but  it always felt more like a "spring fling" of me going, "Ooooh shiny!" rather than the long-term relationship I was looking for in a game.

It's not popular, because most people could use it to cure insomnia.  The game bores me to tears. 

 Part of it comes down to the fact that most classes are melee and honestly its mind numbing. The graphics are beautiful and the setting is fine. Fluff in this game is outstanding but its the boring classes that I think hamper it most.

Originally posted by stormina

I really like LOTRO, however I found I could never play more than 3-4 weeks consecutively. I was baffled for a long time as to why this was, but I finally came to a conclusion, please note this is my opinion, and I realize it is not everyone's.

It's always more of the same. The questing feels the same most of the time. Crafting is really fun at first but very quickly becomes more of a chore than enjoyable experience. Fishing and housing which I had high hopes for, fell very, very flat. So the "fluff" elements that give you more to do than just quest grinding, just didn't cut it.

I found that I would stop logging in because I simply wasn't in the mood to go grind quests. I wanted to spend a little time doing something else, and sadly, the options that were available just didn't cut it for me.

I want very much to be in love with this game, it has a lot going for it, but  it always felt more like a "spring fling" of me going, "Ooooh shiny!" rather than the long-term relationship I was looking for in a game.

 

^This^

I feel the same- Great explorable world but very limited... Housing is just a glorified Storage bin with very little customization and it just get.... Well.... Boring.

Even with a good guilld you can only play freeze tag and do limited raids so much before its just...Boring. The Crafting looks promising but you soon realize- Its not. Its just- Boring.

On the plus side, great community, great lands to explore, great IP (but the IP really limits it as well)

I read the OP and the last page of posts, so forgive me if i say something repetitive, but this is a matter of opinion anyway. For me - the big killer was the classes, combat, and skills mixed. My main game of choice is wow (no flames plz) mainly because the combat is super fluid. I prefer a mage which has a huge arsenal of skills at their disposal and actually takes some getting used to use all skills at the rights times (especially in pvp when pressure is on). The closest thing to a mage in lotro was the rune keeper and the lore master (i think it was). neither really felt right for me and after reaching 25 or so with the rune keeper - I just got horribly bored of the combat. I find I have a lot of trouble with just the fluidity of movement and how much more depth wow combat has compared to other games. Even WAR i remember feeling wasn't really enough even with the collision detection - but then again - a lot of the skills didn't work past 20-30 back then!

Lotro does a lot right though. I have met some of the friendliest people ever on this game..sometimes just standing around in town playing a song on my lute. People will come up and play with you and chat with you and next thing you know you have a friend. Wow used to be like this - but sadly it seems everyone is a know it all jerk anymore in the game. The environment is gorgeous and I really liked the idea of the way they kept the story going through the 'books.' Housing was another awesome thing..as well as guild houses. There is a reason the game has a huge player base already. it's just not my cup of tea in the long run. Although I have told my husband countless times that I wish we could get a game like wow that had lotro's community.

Heh, well page 14 already, not sure there is a point, but my 2-cents:

First off, it *is* "very popular" by any reasonable definition. Arguably the 2nd largest "western" MMO out there currently, definately bigger than EQ2, VG or the older ones and at least equal to if not larger than AoC and WAR (probably was briefly lower when they launched and is much higher now)

It has a lot to recommend it: I love the graphics, great storyline, good pve systems for the most part and a great community.

As for why it isn't bigger:

It's not the lack of PvP, the pvmp system is no more worthless or pointless than the pvp in WoW.

Part of it *is* definately that it is a themepark MMO, as far from a sandbox as you can get. You go along for the ride and not a lot more.

Some of it is probably that it is isn't even vaguely true to Tolkien's vision. Don't get me wrong, it's well done and a great world but all it shares with the "real" Middle-Earth is a lot of common language and geography. Middle-earth is really supposed to be a much lower magic, less D&Dish world...LotRO is a Monty Haul D&D "ego" game taken to extremes...so no "purist" is going to tolerate it.

Part of it is the community and the design itself. I'm not trying to be elitist or slam WoW, but WoW is definately designed to attract and keep the lowest common denominator, LotRO comes off more than a bit elitist and tends to keep a more mature (and thus smaller) player base.

Lastly, I think part of it is simply the diversification of the market. There are way too many "fantasy" MMOs compared to others. The fantasy market is glutted and canibalistic. Last-gen games like LotRO, WAR and AoC didn't grow the market...they stripped off fans who prefer that "flavor" of fantasy over the others.

 (edit - added for the last poster: playing anything in LotRO to 25th is like playing something in WoW to 10th and declaring that you know the class. LotRO classes build in skillset and diversity as they level, this kicks in massively past 39th, at 25th you simply have no concept of how the class actually plays in the endgame. )

After not quite a month of Aion, I will be going back to LotRO.

I think you need to define popular...popular as WoW popular or popular as most other MMORPG's are popular.  I think the LOTR is right up there with most MMORPG's.  WoW offers something that most games do not and it bring in a bigger crowd I think.  Most mmo's are like a stragtegy game...slow paced need planning can bore people.  WoW is more like an action arcade game fast paced, some button mashing strategies, and can get people excited, but in the long run can be boring. 

I think the fast paced build of WoW gives it its numbers.  You can log in any time and get into something fast.  In many other games you have to build up a character for weeks or months to get to the fun in established games.  The character grind to get up to high level in a game where most of the population is high level kills games.  WoW I think saw this and increased the rate of leveling so people do not have as long if they just start to get up to their friends or guilds.

Hmmmm, having played both to endgame I havta say WOW is certainly harder. I know the Flames are coming but...

LOTRO was just too much on rails (WOW as well) and when you got the Endgame there really wasnt anything left. I liked LOTR combat better (seemed less "spammy") but the Raids were just really short and easy and with no real PVP- Being "skiled" at LOTR combat didnt really mean much (as it could have)

Crafting is broken and all the armor looks the same (thats my personal opinion) so theres really no "standing out" if you do have an uber toon. Also, most of the really good ideals (housing, appearance tab, etc.) were done by EQ2 but much better. Everyones house looked the same, neighborhoods are empty and theres no real customization.

Also, the hardcore "lore" people can be a little much in forgetting that its a game and should be fun.

Now, a Sandbox middle Earth without an "epic" plotline that everyone follows on rails- That would be Gold (to me) but as it stands its just a quest driven, story driven linear game where all the "epic" quests of everyone on your "book" are excactly the same.

Just to add to my earlier comment the trick with lord of the rings online is to get into a decent fellowship and make as many friends as possible . If you come into this game with an attitude you ll have a hard time of it . Be friendly and you ll find the game really comes alive . I too found the game really was slower to get into than say WoW  or War but its the most in depth fantasy mmo you ll find if you stick with it . I sometimes think the mmos that seam slower and more boring at the start end up being far more interesting . I m really going to have to give that EVE three week trial a go soon .