I've thought several times of returning since WAR was released, but I can't bring myself to return when the population is so low. Why? Because I'm a group oriented gamer, who loved grouping in the mainland zones for some good old fashion dungeon crawls. I doubt I'd find many people like that nowadays and would prefer to wait until an Origins server is released or not play at all.

I'm currently enjoying WoW and LoTRO. Not as much as I enjoyed DAoC back in its prime, but enough to not want to play DAOC with such a low population.

I'm going to mimmick others sentiments and throw SoE a bone here. Great visuals and the game mechanics sound entertaining. I'll be keeping an eye on this one and will most undoubtably buy and play through the first free month after it releases.

Oh, and Champions Online doesn't appeal to me either, due to the graphics/art style they went with.

There won't really be an open beta. Tasos says he'll let people online on the 22nd, but I bet no one here or anyone that anybody knows will get in. With an NDA in place, Tasos can say there's people, lots of people, in the Beta, and no one could prove him wrong, because the lack of beta leaks and etc could be pointed towards the NDA. When in fact, there is 0 people in the beta and this is all a scam to get people thinking they could have gotten in, but weren't fast enough.

The end result is people believing he actually let people in in the first place, and that they just missed it, when he didn't let anyone in at all and is just saying he did to get people to believe the game is real. Why would he do this? To maximize the amount of Pre-Orders. The more people that believe they actually had a chance to get into beta on the 22nd, the more that will believe there is enough of a game to Pre-order.

I hope I'm wrong, but Tasos hasn't given me any reason to be confident in their game. I've been the MMO scams before and this one smells like one. Whether or not it is remains to be seen, and I really hope it's not, because DF is everything I want in a game. I guess we'll see.

What's funny is that using common sense judgement, I knew the game wouldn't release on the 22nd of January before December even ended. How did I know? Because there wasn't one lick of official, press breaking, information that every other legitimate MMORPG has 1 month from release.

Originally posted by Samhael

Originally posted by Haugr

I wanted to go on the record as the author of this article, and I wanted to talk about some of these points.

First and foremost, the article is written from an introductory stand point.

 

Don't you start off with the sentence that says:
So, you've purchased Wrath of the Lich King, you've created your Death Knight, and you've finally completed the trek to level eighty.

If this is to talk about the DK intro to tanking (while at level 80), what else should it be about other than raiding?

I'm not a raider myself so I'd be interested to read thoughts on tanking pre-80.

Anyone who thinks a person is not a newb still after reaching lvl 80 needs to think again. The difference between a brand new lvl 80 and a lvl 80 who has done the instances, heroics, and some raids to death are night and day. For one, most 80's eventually try all spec variations and become skilled in all of them to the point where they know which spec is best for which situation. For two, their team based skills and knowledge of the fights are much better, so they don't cause wipes. For three, their gear is much better, so they have the stats to back up their skill and knowledge they've gained since getting lvl 80.

As for tanking pre-80, the BEST way to go is UH, because it not only offers you some good tanking talents (aoe dmg for aoe tanking/threat generation, boneshield), but also allows you to still solo pretty effectively.

Originally posted by metalshelf

I like articles like this. As a new DK, it helped me establish a base way of thinking, and, why I still love this site even when the articles may be misleading, all of these informative, opinionated comments were left. Without the article, I would never have found all this information made so simply accessible to me.

Thanks to all who have posted, and the the author, because your effort spawned others to give a broader base of opinions. And as to the idea that the article may create more poor DKs....well...if they can't read the forums, or don't want to put the time in to getting multiple opinions, they are either going to be a poor player anyway, or they are going to be good at figuring the class out for themselves, and either way is neither helped nor hurt by this article.

metalshelf,

It seems that you have received what the writer was trying to accomplish, a general idea on all tanking talents offered for DK's. If you're anything like me, you prefer to think for yourself and choose talents based off of what you logically think is most valuable for what you're trying to do. The only time I tend to look at elitistjerks.com or deathknight.info is when I'm not sure how much a particular talent is worth in a build.

There's a lot of hardcore gamers that have put the time and the math into analyzing each talent for a particular build (DPS/Tank) and have figured out ways to maximize your gain and minimize the trash talents for your build.

These guys that are flaming the hell out of the writer either are stringent followers of the cookie cutter builds and want to flex their knowledge on this forum, or they truly don't appreciate what it's like to want to think and decide on talents yourself.

That's one reason why I always liked TenTonHammers talent guides, because they didn't tell you which build to go with, they just analyzed each talent, so you know how good it is in relation to what you're trying to do. That way you can choose your own spec, using your own brain. You may end up with a cookie cutter spec, like I have, but at least you know you got that spec through your own deductive reasoning and not from blind faith of following someone elses build.

Originally posted by zspawn

Originally posted by JK-Kanosi

Originally posted by Theocritus

Originally posted by trancejeremy

Play it more, and then tell how exciting it is, when all your quests are kill x boars, kill y bears, kill z goblins, etc. Over and over and over again. Every 5 levels there's a whole new set of the same critters you've been fighting over and over again.

Okay, it's not all grinding. There's the ever so original "Hey, why don't you go over to _____ and talk to ______, they need your help".

 

Don't get me wrong, some parts are actually quite inventive and cinematic. But there's a whole lot of filler in the game as well.  Unfortunately, more of the latter than the good stuff.

 

    Thats kinda how I felt about the game also.....I was gung ho also my first couple of weeks in LoTRO...."Oh why didnt I keep playing after beta" blah blah blah........Then after about a month if you play with any regularity at all you hit the wall.......If you jsut play one, maybe two, characters only yo ucan make it through LoTRO without too much boredom, but if you liek to play alts like some of us do it is an excrutiating game eventually.......Like this poster said at the later levels your still killing the same type of animals you killed in the newbie areas......Their label may say level 40 but they feel just like the same mobs you killed at level 4.......

       I'm guessing MoM has put alot of fire back into the game.....I left a few weeks before it was released and I was so bored with it I had zero desire to even look at MoM.......Also when I left my server was dying quickly.....It felt like alot of players had left for AoC and then WAr had just released when I left and many more left for it also.......I'm glad the game is going well for some of you but dont be shocked if youre writing how bored you are with the game in a couple months.......

 

Yeah, games like these, that revolve around a story and around doing quests aren't good MMO's to play for an extended period of time with any regularity.

Take WoW for example, I'm about to start month 4 and I am working on Naxx right now. If you don't know what that is, it's the second to last raid you'll do and the longest lvl 80 raid atm. In other words, I have about a month's worth of play left in that game and that's only 1 day per week.

LoTRO also revolves around a story, but is even more linear, because you can't play the game more than once without having to repeat the same zones. Games like this make it hard to create alts and stay interested in the game at the same time, unless you're just the type that doesn't get bothered by watching the same movie or reading the same book over and over and over again.

Me? Well I play 1 character in WoW and 1 character in LoTRO. I've played every class in WoW ranging from lvl 5-55, aside from my main. I won't be creating an alt there again. LoTRO? Maybe I'll have an alt after running through the game with one character, but I've learned through past experience that creating alts in these games will just put me off of the game before the 30 day trial period is even over. So I might as well play through the game once and then worry about an alt. After all, I picked up the game to play through the Epic quests and see all of the zones content, not to start a virtual life.

That's where sandbox games excel and where creating alts is better for.

 

 

I think this depends on the player. Personally I have 5 alts in WoW all maxxed out and it is the same thing... In LOTRO you repeat the story in WoW you repeat the grind (that may be BGs or raids instead of storyline quests).

In these games there's usually one best way to follow and no matter what, an alt will follow it :P

 

And repetition in WoW ? Naxx you'll be doing it for God knows how much - Unless you are not into raiding so you'll go there once or twice and never really go beyond that :P

 

Anyhow you're saying they ain't good MMOs to play with any regularity but I beg to differ for both. I play them daily so It really boils down to each person :)

I'll raid Naxx until I have everything I want from it. Since loot is random, I have no idea how long this could take. I could be done with Naxx on run #2, or run #10, who knows. All I know is that on my first run, I got 3 Epics out of it. I'm actually the only DK and only 2hander DPS in the raid group, so everything that is meant for me, I get, unless I have better already.

Everyone plays differently, as you said. I won't level up any "best way," instead I try to hit different zones to see all of the content. So in WoW, that could be 2 Horde and 2 Alliance characters, for a total of 4. However, in the end, you're doing the same instances and raids, just different or slightly different solo content.

I'm only level 10 in LoTRO and have only gotten to lvl 16 or so ever in LoTRO, so maybe mid-late game is different, but the early game gives you anywhere from 1-3 choices for leveling 1-10, and then 1 choice for 10-20.  I only like playing Man and Elf, so that limits my choices by 1. So for my playstyle, I'd just assume play one character, even though I'm a serious alt freak.

Originally posted by streea

I can't comment on the Frost and Unholy specs, as I haven't spent much time playing either build, but I have to comment on the "blood tank" and how absolutely wrong it is.

If your healer is not healing the tank, there is something wrong. While there are a few skills in the Blood line that are useful to tanks, the key ones are used to "back up" your normal DK abilities. The healing skills in blood are useful in those "oh crap" moments, but not during a regular fight by any means, and certainly won't help a tank on anything that hits for more than 2K.

The only reason you should get Improved Rune Tap is if you're leveling. It's not something to "blow every time it's up," because again if you are, then your healer is lacking for whatever reason. Vampiric Blood pairs up well with Rune Tap, but again, it's an "oh shit!" ability.

Bloodworm??? Are you still leveling? No? Then don't use them. Their healing is so insignificant that you're wasting points, and they don't help you tank in any way, shape or form.

What's funny is you talk about taking Mark of Blood, a very questionable skill as a tank (and an outright useless one if you're DPS), yet you scoff at puting points into Blood Aura, something that helps EVERYONE in a group or raid and is a LOT more useful than 20 seconds of slightly stronger healing. Not only that, but its "mileage" won't vary after patch 3.0.8... it's getting a very nice buff that'll make it twice as useful in a group or raid.

If the Frost and Unholy guides are even a fifth of how wrong the Blood guide is, then those sections are useless as well.

Seriously MMORPG, is this the best you can do?

Mark of Blood is a good talent to have for either role (DPS or Tank), because it will end up healing in the neighborhood of 40% of a tanks hitpoints before it's finished. How many spells and how much mana does it take to heal around 18k hitpoints as a healer? Well, the healer can use that on the DPS taking AoE dmg or it could make healing bosses that much easier. It's not a useless talent, for anyone. I took it as Blood DPS and I don't regret being able to help contribute to the tanks survivability.

Originally posted by Sovrath

 

no offense taken, though I think it is a matter of "what is important".

People don't get out of their jobs until about 5:00 to 6:30 (sometimes 7:00).

They then have to make it home and the commute can be from 30 minutes to an hour.

so we are talking about 5:30 to 7:30 minimum though that is a large gap of 2 hours.

I think about 6:30 will be average. So if you were to start gaming as you came home you are talking about gaming until 9:30. But there is dinner, helping kids with homework, picking them up from an activity perhaps, finishing up work from your job if your job is inclined to have that type of thing, etc.

So sure, one can game 3 hours per day but it seems that you would have to go later in the evening if you were to actually do this.

And we are not talking about 1 on 1 with the spouse as I assume that people are going to want some of that too.

Unless you are staying up late regardless of how early you need to get up, I don't see how 3 hours is going to fit into anyone's life unless they have nothing at all going on in their lives.

Most people I know practice, take classes, have heavier jobs that require working at home, they actually are involved with their kid's homework and projects and taking them to and fro, making dinner, catching up with the day with their spouse, possibly some alone time with the spouse, etc.

If they are to get home at 7:00 and start gaming that takes you right until 10:00. That's pretty late for many married people with children who have things to do.

So I don't think it has anything to do with time management but what you have going on in your life.

It's not my place to start evaluating how much time a person needs with his/her spouse or children as that is personal. But 3 hours of just gaming seems like a lot given all that a couple has to do. Maybe on the weekends but every night?

Or maybe I just know people who are far busier and just don't have the time for such things. All I know is that I'm a 41 year old man who lives a bit of a different life from other people my age. When I talk about my evenings and weekends I get anything from "where did you find the time to see one movie let alone see it again right after with the commentary" to gentle scoffing because my life plays out more like the life of a college kid.

Meanwhile I see these people living very busy and seemingly full lives juggling kids and career and their relationships.

So I don't see how 3 hours per day would be anything other than an inconvenience.

You're 41 years old with friends probably around that age too. While I do have some friends around that age that play MMORPG's (online friends), I think most people that play MMORPG's aren't that age.

I for one am 28 years old. My son is 6. He doesn't have homework, activities, or anything like that. We're also a military family, so my wife gets out of work around 4pm. I'm a college man, for now, so like I said before, I have plenty of time myself.

There's plenty of adult parents with lives as peculiar as mine I guess, that we are able to afford 3 hours a day quite easily for gaming. However, if I look into the future when I become an accountant in 2 years, I probably won't have that kind of time anymore for games, and maybe no time at all.

Your friends are in a different stage of life than most adult parent gamers, so it's easy to see why we are getting confused here. I also only have one child, that plays a part as well.

Originally posted by Theocritus

Originally posted by trancejeremy

Play it more, and then tell how exciting it is, when all your quests are kill x boars, kill y bears, kill z goblins, etc. Over and over and over again. Every 5 levels there's a whole new set of the same critters you've been fighting over and over again.

Okay, it's not all grinding. There's the ever so original "Hey, why don't you go over to _____ and talk to ______, they need your help".

 

Don't get me wrong, some parts are actually quite inventive and cinematic. But there's a whole lot of filler in the game as well.  Unfortunately, more of the latter than the good stuff.

 

    Thats kinda how I felt about the game also.....I was gung ho also my first couple of weeks in LoTRO...."Oh why didnt I keep playing after beta" blah blah blah........Then after about a month if you play with any regularity at all you hit the wall.......If you jsut play one, maybe two, characters only yo ucan make it through LoTRO without too much boredom, but if you liek to play alts like some of us do it is an excrutiating game eventually.......Like this poster said at the later levels your still killing the same type of animals you killed in the newbie areas......Their label may say level 40 but they feel just like the same mobs you killed at level 4.......

       I'm guessing MoM has put alot of fire back into the game.....I left a few weeks before it was released and I was so bored with it I had zero desire to even look at MoM.......Also when I left my server was dying quickly.....It felt like alot of players had left for AoC and then WAr had just released when I left and many more left for it also.......I'm glad the game is going well for some of you but dont be shocked if youre writing how bored you are with the game in a couple months.......

Yeah, games like these, that revolve around a story and around doing quests aren't good MMO's to play for an extended period of time with any regularity.

Take WoW for example, I'm about to start month 4 and I am working on Naxx right now. If you don't know what that is, it's the second to last raid you'll do and the longest lvl 80 raid atm. In other words, I have about a month's worth of play left in that game and that's only 1 day per week.

LoTRO also revolves around a story, but is even more linear, because you can't play the game more than once without having to repeat the same zones. Games like this make it hard to create alts and stay interested in the game at the same time, unless you're just the type that doesn't get bothered by watching the same movie or reading the same book over and over and over again.

Me? Well I play 1 character in WoW and 1 character in LoTRO. I've played every class in WoW ranging from lvl 5-55, aside from my main. I won't be creating an alt there again. LoTRO? Maybe I'll have an alt after running through the game with one character, but I've learned through past experience that creating alts in these games will just put me off of the game before the 30 day trial period is even over. So I might as well play through the game once and then worry about an alt. After all, I picked up the game to play through the Epic quests and see all of the zones content, not to start a virtual life.

That's where sandbox games excel and where creating alts is better for.

Originally posted by BwanaKuu

Originally posted by JK-Kanosi

Originally posted by DeadlyByDez

So I re rolled after leaving the game initially on launch month (damn wow and its luring way). Here is a brief summary of why I am kicking myself that I left.

So I enter the beautiful started area of Edhelion. The rousing score and urgency of battle surrounds me. After a few skirmishes with the invading goblins I am informed there is a troll at the gates! WTF!” I think! To myself. So with bow in hand I wait for the beast to break the gates open, expecting a desperate fight. When out of no where Elrond himself shows up and fells the beast. At this point I am thinking “ Oh my God, how great is this”. After that I am treated to a cut scene.

I then find myself in the next refuge of Celondim, anxiously awaiting the next series of quests. 5-6 epic quests later, followed by meaningless wandering (by choice), and exploration of ruins. Any ruined statue/ castle I find I find myself wondering what the history is behind it and what it’s story is. The world feels lived in not just by us players but by some unknown people before hand.

My point is in a nut shell, that any one who tell you that lord of the rings quests are boring is on crack…full stop. I know opinions are never wrong, but this one is. Anyone who is saying that the graphics/world is boring needs to have a frontal lobotomy done and I mean ASAP. I cannot wait to get to the mines, see the Balrog and Balins chamber. What excites me most is the furthering of the story we all know and love. The green fields of Rohan, the defense of helms deep. The Battle at Pellenor and the the culmination of all our efforts at Mordor. For now I am content exploring my own little story.

Sorry for the rant, but I had forgotten what an MMO was capable of doing to your imagination
 

 

It's not that LoTRO did anything THAT different, it's just that you're more passionate and knowledgable of the story. People who love the Warcraft series and the lore surrounding it really get into the quests and dungeons in that game. It really is no different. The only difference is that LoTRO has magnificent graphics, which adds an extra layer to the game that WoW doesn't have.

I play both for the story. The difference is that I know who Arthas is, but have no idea who Elrond is, so I wasn't impressed. He was just some frail elf to me.

Have you never seen the LOTR movies?  They're awesome movies and have a lot of the lore in them.  You don't need to read the books to get most of it.  

I seen the movies a few times and thought they were fairly boring.

Originally posted by GaryM

Any game can be casual if the player wants it to be, but here's why I consider LOTRO to be *casual* whereas WoW, for example, is not. My brother plays WoW regularly (I used to play with him), and is currently in a raiding guild. In order to be eligible to participate in a given raid, he has to meet gear, spec and consumables requirements that required him to invest quite a bit of time on a regular basis. In addition, his performance in a raid is closely monitored, and if he screws up at all he can be dropped from the rotation. In LOTRO there is almost nothing like this. The only real gearing requirements are for The Watcher raid, which requires running a number of end-game instances to get 'Radiance' gear. But other than being level 60, there are no strict requirements for running these instances other than being a competent player. As a casual player, I can get into these end-game instances without too much trouble, but I could *never* put out the effort required for the end-game raiding in WoW. Some people enjoy these massive time sinks, and who am I to tell if they shouldn't? But I sure don't!

Your friend should join a new server/guild. I raid and don't have to put up with that at all. You get good enough gear as you do regular dungeons runs and heroics. What you described is a maximizing things to be the best in  a raid. I'm sure you can maximize the same way in LoTRO if the community chose to do so.

But the people I raid with every Satruday don't have any requirements. Obviously you should know your role and be compitent. Obviously you should have done the instances and heroics that take no more than 1.5 hours to do each once you become 80 and why wouldn't you? All of those instances and Heroics in WoW are content that's available to do, so why not do them?

I play both WoW and LoTRO and both are games that cater to the casual player, EVEN the raiding! Things you describe is a fault of the community, not the game.

Originally posted by Meridion

Originally posted by musicman2000

Sovrath my entire kinship is made up of married professionals who spare such time =P.   It's just that not a lot of us watch tv we choose to do this.   Many of us are couples that play together and this is how we spend time together.   If married couples can't spend 3 hours a day together then what's the point honestly?   I find your statement very much extreme -- people spend their time different ways -- 3 hours a day isn't that much.

 

when do you follow your sport? Cook? Help the kids with the homework? Clean? Go to the supermarket?

sure, if I had a wife that does the household during the day and kids that play alone for hours, let's go, but as things stand, if my partner comes home at 5-6pm, we still have to do housework, cook, buy stuff to eat/live, sometimes clean, you wanna go for a jog to prevent getting fat because of your MMORPG hobby that binds you in front of a PC-screen...

At least in my world I get some complete free time at 9pm. And as I have to get up at 6 I won't play till 3 am...

So if - on a regular day - I spend all my free time (which I don't because I like to play the guitar and read, but to each his own) in front of a PC I have 2 hours (normally from 9 to 11)... And I don't even have kids.

M

To put it another way, what are you doing while everyone else in the house is watching sitcoms and playing by themselves for several hours everyday?

Originally posted by Sovrath

Originally posted by Coloader

Originally posted by Meridion

3 hours per day is NOT casual - that's core gaming (3-6 hours/day), if you have a regular job and a family 3 hours per day is far from realistic, unless you sleep for 3 hours per night.

30 minutes per day average (like 3 hours once in 6 days) is casual...

M

 

EDIT: Oh, concerning the question. If in your mind 3 hours/day are casual you can bet your head that LotRO is a casual's game. You can do whatever comes your way (except the old raids) in a 3 hour block.

 

I think two/three hours a day is casual compared to other games like WoW.

 

That may or may not be true but 3 hours per day is not casual. No married person with children or professional person that I know could spare such time.

No offense to your friends, but they have poor time management skills. 3 hours a day is easy to manage with a career and a family. I don't know any family that spends 5 hours together doing something every day. I think a family that does would get sick of each other before the week is over with.

Originally posted by musicman2000

The game is what you make of it -- up to this point the game has focuss'd far more on casual details that allowed for a great RP system etc.  Housing, cosmetic clothing etc.    Although as the story line progresses I'm sure there will be more things that are considered *hardcore*

2 to 3 hours a day is plenty for this game.    The top end raids have all had a lock system that means you can go in clear up to a certain part in one night and come back and start where you left off the next night so that makes it easier.

I'd echo that 3 or 4 hours a day isn't hardcore imho -- I am married, have 2 jobs and children and that's about how much I play.   Then again -- I don't watch much tv if at all.    You'll generally find the average north american watches 2 to 4 hours of tv a day -- I play games for that time.  It's all the same hehe -- how you spend your leisure time.

IMO hardcore would be 6 to 8 hours a day -- and the devs have made it so this level of playing isn't necessary to progress through all content between updates.    FOrtunately there is a ton of replay value to the content imho but at 6 to 8 hours or more a day I think you'll find that you'll be repeating so much of the content on such a regular basis that you may need to find other ways of spending your time.  PvMP, crafting, RPing or another game to fill in the gaps.    There still are is a good chunk of the community that plays that much, but I'd say the bulk of the LOTRO community plays 3 or 4 hours a day.

I completely agree with you. In 2002, when I started playing, it was the general concensus that 6+ hours a day was hardcore and 3 and less was casual. 4-5 was about average back then.

Originally posted by Coloader

Originally posted by Meridion

3 hours per day is NOT casual - that's core gaming (3-6 hours/day), if you have a regular job and a family 3 hours per day is far from realistic, unless you sleep for 3 hours per night.

30 minutes per day average (like 3 hours once in 6 days) is casual...

M

 

EDIT: Oh, concerning the question. If in your mind 3 hours/day are casual you can bet your head that LotRO is a casual's game. You can do whatever comes your way (except the old raids) in a 3 hour block.

 

I think two/three hours a day is casual compared to other games like WoW.

WoW is 2-3 hours too. In fact, I spend 4-6 hours a week playing WoW now that I'm lvl 80 and only raid. You have 6 days to complete a raid before it resets. Naxx, the longest raid at lvl 80 takes 4-6 hours on average, 2-3 if you have it on farm. Remember, you can split that 4-6 hours up over 7 days. So again, how is WoW not casual friendly?

Originally posted by Meridion

3 hours per day is NOT casual - that's core gaming (3-6 hours/day), if you have a regular job and a family 3 hours per day is far from realistic, unless you sleep for 3 hours per night.

30 minutes per day average (like 3 hours once in 6 days) is casual...

M

 

EDIT: Oh, concerning the question. If in your mind 3 hours/day are casual you can bet your head that LotRO is a casual's game. You can do whatever comes your way (except the old raids) in a 3 hour block.

8 hour job + 8 hours of sleep = 8 more hours to do whatever. So how do you figure a family person cannot manage 3 of those 8 hours playing a game per day. I manage that and more at times just fine. You seem to forget that after a while family members prefer to spend time alone doing whatever it is they do.

Originally posted by DeadlyByDez

So I re rolled after leaving the game initially on launch month (damn wow and its luring way). Here is a brief summary of why I am kicking myself that I left.

So I enter the beautiful started area of Edhelion. The rousing score and urgency of battle surrounds me. After a few skirmishes with the invading goblins I am informed there is a troll at the gates! WTF!” I think! To myself. So with bow in hand I wait for the beast to break the gates open, expecting a desperate fight. When out of no where Elrond himself shows up and fells the beast. At this point I am thinking “ Oh my God, how great is this”. After that I am treated to a cut scene.

I then find myself in the next refuge of Celondim, anxiously awaiting the next series of quests. 5-6 epic quests later, followed by meaningless wandering (by choice), and exploration of ruins. Any ruined statue/ castle I find I find myself wondering what the history is behind it and what it’s story is. The world feels lived in not just by us players but by some unknown people before hand.

My point is in a nut shell, that any one who tell you that lord of the rings quests are boring is on crack…full stop. I know opinions are never wrong, but this one is. Anyone who is saying that the graphics/world is boring needs to have a frontal lobotomy done and I mean ASAP. I cannot wait to get to the mines, see the Balrog and Balins chamber. What excites me most is the furthering of the story we all know and love. The green fields of Rohan, the defense of helms deep. The Battle at Pellenor and the the culmination of all our efforts at Mordor. For now I am content exploring my own little story.

Sorry for the rant, but I had forgotten what an MMO was capable of doing to your imagination
 

It's not that LoTRO did anything THAT different, it's just that you're more passionate and knowledgable of the story. People who love the Warcraft series and the lore surrounding it really get into the quests and dungeons in that game. It really is no different. The only difference is that LoTRO has magnificent graphics, which adds an extra layer to the game that WoW doesn't have.

I play both for the story. The difference is that I know who Arthas is, but have no idea who Elrond is, so I wasn't impressed. He was just some frail elf to me.

Originally posted by altairzq

Why no major site review?

Why no open beta?

Why no information about d/l, preorders, requirements?

I think there are only a few logical explanations and they are all bad.

I agree. You really can't argue with logic, and win. I want DF to be real so bad and I've followed it for years now, but I'm a logical man and everything they haven't done, logically says one thing...

This is why I have started a new game that I probably won't complete until well after DF's supposed release date.

They are two totally different games, and I play both. It doesn't matter what anyone here on these forums have to say, because you've made your decision on which game you like more concerning instances.

Well, several months after LoTRO came out, I asked this question and everyone replied Landroval. I know things change, which is why I asked here.

My download completed before anyone responded, so I rolled one on Landroval after looking on the forums and seeing twice as many posts on the Landroval forum than Brandywine.

BUT...since I am just trying out different classes, and after reading most suggesting Brandywine on this forum, I rolled a Captain on Brandywine. I'm still in the Starter area, so I won't know how the population is until I start trying to find groups.