Sorry if that is vague what I mean to ask is how restricting is the game in terms of customization/itemization?

Are there tons and tons of weapons/armors that have unique looks?

Are there mounts and if so what kind?

WoW has a huge variety of places to explore and quests to do and classes are fairly diverse, is LOTRO similar?

I keep hearing great things about this game and i've played 30 minutes to an hour of it and it feels extremely similar to WoW. What i'd love is for someone to point out some key differences in the game in comparison to WoW/EQ2. Thanks guys :)

Originally posted by Exavus

Sorry if that is vague what I mean to ask is how restricting is the game in terms of customization/itemization?

Are there tons and tons of weapons/armors that have unique looks?

Are there mounts and if so what kind?

WoW has a huge variety of places to explore and quests to do and classes are fairly diverse, is LOTRO similar?

I keep hearing great things about this game and i've played 30 minutes to an hour of it and it feels extremely similar to WoW. What i'd love is for someone to point out some key differences in the game in comparison to WoW/EQ2. Thanks guys :)

Haven't played Lotro over a year but it's much more themepark. There were several horses and with Moria they added goat. Back then there weren't any unique armour or weapons other than different legacies on legendary weapons. Armour could be obtained by grinding instances for tokens that you can trade. EQ2 was much more open and there were several unique or very rare items as well. 

Originally posted by Timukas

Originally posted by Exavus

Sorry if that is vague what I mean to ask is how restricting is the game in terms of customization/itemization?

Are there tons and tons of weapons/armors that have unique looks?

Are there mounts and if so what kind?

WoW has a huge variety of places to explore and quests to do and classes are fairly diverse, is LOTRO similar?

I keep hearing great things about this game and i've played 30 minutes to an hour of it and it feels extremely similar to WoW. What i'd love is for someone to point out some key differences in the game in comparison to WoW/EQ2. Thanks guys :)

Haven't played Lotro over a year but it's much more themepark. There were several horses and with Moria they added goat. Back then there weren't any unique armour or weapons other than different legacies on legendary weapons. Armour could be obtained by grinding instances for tokens that you can trade. EQ2 was much more open and there were several unique or very rare items as well. 

What the hell are you talking about, EQ2 was much more open ? EQ2 is a zoning love in,everywhere you go you are zoning.

LOTRO is like WOW when it comes to the map,it's as open as WOW.

OP, their are armour quests just like WOW.

As far as RP goes and story, LOTRO beats WOW for pure immersion.

Do you actually know what themepark means?

Originally posted by NightAngell

Originally posted by Timukas

Originally posted by Exavus

Sorry if that is vague what I mean to ask is how restricting is the game in terms of customization/itemization?

Are there tons and tons of weapons/armors that have unique looks?

Are there mounts and if so what kind?

WoW has a huge variety of places to explore and quests to do and classes are fairly diverse, is LOTRO similar?

I keep hearing great things about this game and i've played 30 minutes to an hour of it and it feels extremely similar to WoW. What i'd love is for someone to point out some key differences in the game in comparison to WoW/EQ2. Thanks guys :)

Haven't played Lotro over a year but it's much more themepark. There were several horses and with Moria they added goat. Back then there weren't any unique armour or weapons other than different legacies on legendary weapons. Armour could be obtained by grinding instances for tokens that you can trade. EQ2 was much more open and there were several unique or very rare items as well. 

What the hell are you talking about, EQ2 was much more open ? EQ2 is a zoning love in,everywhere you go you are zoning.

LOTRO is like WOW when it comes to the map,it's as open as WOW.

OP, their are armour quests just like WOW.

As far as RP goes and story, LOTRO beats WOW for pure immersion.

Do you actually know what themepark means?

You are about 95% correct. in LOTRO you still have to zone to enter buildings, unlike wow. In any building in any town you want to go in, you have to zone (which is a bitch) but it's a minor neuance compared to how bad EQ2 is.

Originally posted by NightAngell

Originally posted by Timukas

Originally posted by Exavus

Sorry if that is vague what I mean to ask is how restricting is the game in terms of customization/itemization?

Are there tons and tons of weapons/armors that have unique looks?

Are there mounts and if so what kind?

WoW has a huge variety of places to explore and quests to do and classes are fairly diverse, is LOTRO similar?

I keep hearing great things about this game and i've played 30 minutes to an hour of it and it feels extremely similar to WoW. What i'd love is for someone to point out some key differences in the game in comparison to WoW/EQ2. Thanks guys :)

Haven't played Lotro over a year but it's much more themepark. There were several horses and with Moria they added goat. Back then there weren't any unique armour or weapons other than different legacies on legendary weapons. Armour could be obtained by grinding instances for tokens that you can trade. EQ2 was much more open and there were several unique or very rare items as well. 

What the hell are you talking about, EQ2 was much more open ? EQ2 is a zoning love in,everywhere you go you are zoning.

LOTRO is like WOW when it comes to the map,it's as open as WOW.

OP, their are armour quests just like WOW.

As far as RP goes and story, LOTRO beats WOW for pure immersion.

Do you actually know what themepark means?

I'm talking from my very own experiance as I played both EQ2 and Lotro quite hard core ie concentrated on achievment and raiding. In EQ2 I had much more freedom and unique items than in Lotro, zones or not. Yes, Lotro has some large open areas and you can wear different dress there every day which some call role playing.

Originally posted by Exavus

Sorry if that is vague what I mean to ask is how restricting is the game in terms of customization/itemization?

Are there tons and tons of weapons/armors that have unique looks?

Are there mounts and if so what kind?

WoW has a huge variety of places to explore and quests to do and classes are fairly diverse, is LOTRO similar?

I keep hearing great things about this game and i've played 30 minutes to an hour of it and it feels extremely similar to WoW. What i'd love is for someone to point out some key differences in the game in comparison to WoW/EQ2. Thanks guys :)

Basically, the set-up of LotRO is different than from WoW.

To answer your own questions, yes LotRO has plenty of different armour sets; it is comparable to WoW in this. 

There are mounts, but there's only horses and goats. There are different kinds of each with pretty nice looks, but you won't find anything as extravagant as in WoW. This largely boils down to the Tolkien universe, I suppose.

There is a great variety of places to explore, but again, they are not as extravagant as in WoW. The Mines of Moria are about as diverse as it gets and although they are awesome, do not expect to find stuff like flying earth motes or huge mushrooms like you do in WoW's Nagrand or Outland.

Classes, on the other hand, are much more diverse than in WoW. Although WoW's and LotRO's classes are all very cool to play, most classes in WoW more or less boil down to the same mechanic and the biggest variation comes from things like Rage versus Energy versus Mana versus Focus. LotRO, on the other hand, has much more diverse systems, like the Rune-Keeper's attunement, the Warden (and Burglar) gambits, the Hunter's focus, etcetera.

The real difference between WoW and LotRO and the decision on which game is more for you boils down to something else entirely, though. WoW is definitely all about the end-game. You level to 80 as fast as you can, don't really bother about stupid quests along the way, and little effort has gone into actually making this story compelling. Everything is about quick and easy raids. LotRO, on the other hand, has much more challenging and refined leveling system and the story is much better. There is less focus on end-game PvP and PvE, though, but I must say there's enough raids and level cap instances.

To be blunt, it's basically like both of those games, but with maybe 1/3 to 1/4 of the overall content (quests/raids/etc).

The cosmetic system is borrowed from EQ2, but you can only change the appearance of your outfit, not your weapons. So basically everyone at level cap your class is walking around with an identical looking one (and they are also quite ugly).

The housing system is quite weak compared to EQ2.

It does have better graphics than either one. As long as you aren't talking about characters (they all pretty much look alike except for hairstyle, so when you stand next to a character with the same hair, they look like a clone)

Mounts, you have horses and goats. Different colors and blankets.

Classes do play pretty different from each other, but are standard tank-DPS-buff, etc. A couple classes are kind of broken, the Loremaster was originally crowd control, but sort of was turned into a ranged AOE class because Moria broke how combat originally worked in the game. Same with Burglar, they were a debuffer, now sort of a DPS class.

There really isn't any customization of classes. You basically have to play a cookie cutter build for most of them.

To be blunt, there's a good reason it went free. All but the very hard core got tired of the lack of content and the grinding (for everything - crafting, deeds, reputation, legenary weapons).

It's got a few good things going for it. The lore is great (except Rune-Keepers), the landscape is beautiful. And it's cheap (or was, who knows how F2P will end up?)

LOTRO really is basically a themepark of Middle Earth. If there is a game that the term "Theme Park" is more suitable to, I haven't heard of it.  You have zero influence on the world, you basically just see little exhibits, like little animatronic Gandalf and Frodo and company.

Is that kind of cool, actually? Yes. But it's rather dishearting when the Fellowship is spread over several areas. Not differnet people. But like there is a Legolas and Gimli in Rivendell, then another one in Lorien, and so forth.

Apparently the F2P patch brought them 21st century technology (finally) that will change where NPCs appear based on quest status. But probably too late for the above instances. Not to mention all the static things in the world. Like all the NPCs you escorted. The cart broken down in the starting area for 3 years now (perhaps the world's lengthiest argument?)

Looks of all mounts in Lotro you can check here http://www.lotrosteeds.com/

Actually LotRO has a huge variety on cosmetical items one should say(actual endgame armors are more rare, maybe half a dozen sets and again as many singular items). For example i hardly ever meet anyone wearing even a similar setup to what i have on, and thats not just because i have a weird taste! Every wearable piece of armor you ever found can be equipped cosmetically, though not having weapon cosmetics is a serious letdown for me, some of the later ones really get butt ugly, glowing and stuff. I like the understated way weapons are pre LIs, i.e. a hammer is a hammer. It doesn't need a flaming aura to hurt peoples kneecaps.

About the themeparkness id rather compare it to EQ2 than to WoW, because WoW just lacks to many features really, its kinda the light version of MMOs. But if we are talking about EQ 2 vs LotRO its kinda like comparing firefox or opera to google chrome or safari, the basic features are more or less the same but there are different design philosophies. EQ2 leans more to the hardcore MMO gamer, LotRO more to the casual. Or in other words i feel EQ2 is bloated, while LoTRO is maybe a bit shallow. Or how about this, EQ2 is Linux, LotRO is Mac OSX and WoW is windows XP home edition.

Originally posted by Rocketeer

Actually LotRO has a huge variety on cosmetical items one should say(actual endgame armors are more rare, maybe half a dozen sets and again as many singular items). For example i hardly ever meet anyone wearing even a similar setup to what i have on, and thats not just because i have a weird taste! Every wearable piece of armor you ever found can be equipped cosmetically, though not having weapon cosmetics is a serious letdown for me, some of the later ones really get butt ugly, glowing and stuff. I like the understated way weapons are pre LIs, i.e. a hammer is a hammer. It doesn't need a flaming aura to hurt peoples kneecaps.

About the themeparkness id rather compare it to EQ2 than to WoW, because WoW just lacks to many features really, its kinda the light version of MMOs. But if we are talking about EQ 2 vs LotRO its kinda like comparing firefox or opera to google chrome or safari, the basic features are more or less the same but there are different design philosophies. EQ2 leans more to the hardcore MMO gamer, LotRO more to the casual. Or in other words i feel EQ2 is bloated, while LoTRO is maybe a bit shallow. Or how about this, EQ2 is Linux, LotRO is Mac OSX and WoW is windows XP home edition.

Enjoyed reading your post, Mr Rocketeer :) To OP: as Lotro is f2p these days and first 20 levels are totally free as far as I know then just try it. Won't hurt, I promise :) Actually I really liked the game until Mines of Moria expansion.

Originally posted by Exavus

Sorry if that is vague what I mean to ask is how restricting is the game in terms of customization/itemization?

Are there tons and tons of weapons/armors that have unique looks?

Are there mounts and if so what kind?

WoW has a huge variety of places to explore and quests to do and classes are fairly diverse, is LOTRO similar?

I keep hearing great things about this game and i've played 30 minutes to an hour of it and it feels extremely similar to WoW. What i'd love is for someone to point out some key differences in the game in comparison to WoW/EQ2. Thanks guys :)

Compared to WoW:

* More cosmetic customization with the benefit you do not have to actually wear those items to get its looks (except weapons, including pies, beer mugs and pitchforks). It's possible to customize player/guild housing (which doesn't exist in WoW).

* Weapons/armors: same as WoW. Too similar according to some.

* Mounts: several types of horses (for humans/elves), ponies (for hobbits/dwarfs) and goats (also usable indoors).

* World: I think WoW's is somewhat larger (including the Burning Crusade space setting); LotRO's world is still growing and it's a joy to explore. Quests are more or less comparable, I think. The LotRO classes are far more diverse, especially the Warden; somewhat comparable to WoW's difference between Paladin and Warrior tanking (only applied to all classes).

* Key differences: Better in LotRO: far less travel time; the graphics in general; far more casual community; the music and cosmetic  system, chicken-play, classes are less similar. Better in WoW: PvP; flying mounts; walking through snow causes footprints to appear; Haris Pilton and similar funny character names.

Well LOTRO is a huge universe and the storyline is just like 35% complete..good graphics...diversity of classes especially the warden and runekeeper. The storyline is amazing.( Come on, I mean it's The lord of the rings). Limited mounts though..But i suppose they'll improve the mount system once they release the Rohan expansion..

Its just as linear as the other two games.

You pick a class, level by questing, pick a craft level that and at maxx level you raid, do a little monsterplay and maybe reroll.

Great, thanks everyone for the information :). I have a premium account i'll F2P here and there and maybe subscribe in the future. Neat game so far.