My perspective as someone who quit for a second time a while ago, but am coming back to take advantage of the deals associated with the SoM expansion and see what has improved (and right now I don't have another MMO I like better hehe):

1) My biggest gripe was the game being too group oriented once you hit mid 20s.  Some people love that, so that's just a matter of preference.  I don't mind grouping, but when my quest log is filled with quests I can't do because there aren't enough players my level that want to do them, then it starts to suck.

2) I found crafting to be hit and miss.  Part of me likes having to find semi rare drops, both for recipes and some components, other parts of me feels it is an unnecessary grind.  Some crafting skills are totally self sufficient and some are somewhat dependent on others...for example, an armorer needs someone with forester skill to tan hides for making leather bindings.  Again, some people love the community aspect of needing to rely on others, and some don't.  At lower levels at least, it seems crafted gear is superior to anything you'll get from world drops/quests, especially gear that you get critical success on, so at least it's not useless.  Of course at higher levels, raid type gear will be better.

3) The person talking about the ridiculous amount of FedEx quests I can only assume played as a Hobbit, in which case I would agree it is near torture to level in the starter Hobbit area.  Not only is there an excessive amount of running from point A to point B, C and back to A quests, but they are ridiculously stupid.  My "favorite" was one where you had to collect some eggs for a farmer, but you couldn't let the rooster see you...I was like "WTF is the rooster gonna do about it?", along with mail and pie deliveries ugh.  Fortunately, you don't have to stay there and you can hop on a horse and go to the Human, Elf or Dwarf starter area and do those quests.  Of course there is some FedExing there also, but not nearly as bad.

4) Put me in the camp that thinks the world and most of the mobs look spectacular, but think the character models look like ass.  Everyone has helmet hair, and the characters in general just look too blocky for my taste.  I can't really even stand to play a Dwarf or Hobbit, they look so bad.  Tier 1 crafted leather armor looks like purple pajamas with footies and may very well be the ugliest armor ever seen in a MMO.  At least you have the option of cosmetic clothes you can wear over your armor without gimping yourself.

I have to disagree with the person that thought the community was bad.  My experiences couldn't be more opposite.  I'd probably rate LotRO community as the best one out of the 10 or so MMOs I've played.  Of course, I played on Landroval, the unofficial RP server.  I don't think I've ever seen anyone be rude to noobs in the advice channel unless they were asking for it, and people actually answered questions and gave good advice, unlike some games where I'd see people intentionally giving wrong info just to mess with people. 

Originally posted by trancejeremy

Originally posted by Phasma

 

 

Hey guys, about to try this trial for LOTRO, it looks promising, but as I'm downloading I wanted some info from the veterans and current players before I myself test it.

A few basic things first...  Currency farmers, botters?  Are there many of them?  Are they handled  proffessionally the staff of LOTRO?

How linear/grind tough is the game?  I don't mind grinding, I just want to know the extent of it.

How's the community?  Accepting, elitist jerks, mix of both, etc.

I think that just about covers what I want some basic info on, thanks!

 

 

1) I've never seen any gold farmers in game, but have on occasional seen them spam in Bree. There's a button that both reports and ignores them, real nice

2) Lots and lots of grinding. And I say that having played two Korean MMORPGs (Atlantica and Sword of the New World). I would say they have less grinding than this.  Not only the leveling, what's worse is the grind you have to do to do deeds. Kills hundreds, almost 1000s of a given type of monster on a map.

3) Quiet, almost non-existent, but when you do finally interact with people, they are generally elitist jerks.

Please keep in mind, this poster loves him some SOTNW, where there is a feature for AFK grinding built into the game.

Originally posted by trancejeremy

Originally posted by Phasma

 

 

Hey guys, about to try this trial for LOTRO, it looks promising, but as I'm downloading I wanted some info from the veterans and current players before I myself test it.

A few basic things first...  Currency farmers, botters?  Are there many of them?  Are they handled  proffessionally the staff of LOTRO?

How linear/grind tough is the game?  I don't mind grinding, I just want to know the extent of it.

How's the community?  Accepting, elitist jerks, mix of both, etc.

I think that just about covers what I want some basic info on, thanks!

 

 

1) I've never seen any gold farmers in game, but have on occasional seen them spam in Bree. There's a button that both reports and ignores them, real nice

2) Lots and lots of grinding. And I say that having played two Korean MMORPGs (Atlantica and Sword of the New World). I would say they have less grinding than this.  Not only the leveling, what's worse is the grind you have to do to do deeds. Kills hundreds, almost 1000s of a given type of monster on a map.

3) Quiet, almost non-existent, but when you do finally interact with people, they are generally elitist jerks.

You are going to have to define grinding then. Oh sure, at lvl 60 there is a rep grind that is tedious to my tastes and there are many kill x amount of y quests, but this really isn't a "oh well nothing to do so I'm going to go out in a field and grind for xp" game.

There are many quests and if one is not happy with the quests in one area, in some cases you can go to another area.

There is some grinding for some of the traits such as "kill 30 orcs (or whatever) and you get a bump to a trait". I can see some poeple being turned off of that.

Originally posted by Phasma

 

 

Hey guys, about to try this trial for LOTRO, it looks promising, but as I'm downloading I wanted some info from the veterans and current players before I myself test it.

A few basic things first...  Currency farmers, botters?  Are there many of them?  Are they handled  proffessionally the staff of LOTRO?

How linear/grind tough is the game?  I don't mind grinding, I just want to know the extent of it.

How's the community?  Accepting, elitist jerks, mix of both, etc.

I think that just about covers what I want some basic info on, thanks!

 

I see very few botters though there are some here and there rushing to nodes to farm them. Some spam but they are usually removed very quickly.

I dont' think the game is tough at all. Please note that this is a story based game so the main quest line is going to be linear. No getting around that. However, fi you don't want to do the main quest line then you should be able to find quests in a variety of areas.

I think the community is one of the better ones. You are going to find jerks everywere but they don't seem to hang around lotro very much.

Some very nice and very intelligent people seem to play.

Originally posted by elvrage

I'm currently trying the trial too and I was wondering what the PvP was like.
I've not really heard much about it at all, but I'm expecting there is some form of it. =)
 

I played LOTRO for almost 2 years and quit not long after Moria's release, mostly because I didnt like the direction Turbine was going. It was a great pve game at one point but its not much different then any of the others these days unfortionately.

Pre-Moria LOTRO was a fantasic game but its slowly taken a turn for the worse imo. Playing now you'll likely find plenty of pve content but if your looking for a challenging MMO or even some exciting pvp you likely won't find what your looking for. Don't get me wrong, LOTRO is an excellent MMO for lovers of fairly basic pve content but if your into anything more LOTRO won't deliver for you. 

This is all a matter of opition of course. For me, I tried Aion (a fairly challenging MMO with intense pvp content) and I could never imagine myself back playing LOTRO. Quite simply, LOTRO is generic pve MMO imo. But again, thats right some folks ally.

Hope you find what your after!!

Originally posted by solareus

The biggest negative, to me are the people who have no imagination to play their role in middle earth. Think lotro is a great role playing outlet, and way to many people from other games are coming and it just feels to crowded at times. I think lotro thrieves better on a mid size community, not one that is way to populated where the developers just start painting a broad brush to satifsfy everyone.

The population size if perfect for lotro, it able give that genuine community relation to the player and the developers.

So if you are just trying this game because your bored of flapping your emo wings in iother games, please, don't even bother with lotro. You are simply not the type of person that fits into a game of this caliber.

Of this caliber? Seriously dude? **chuckles**

Originally posted by Phasma

 

 

Hey guys, about to try this trial for LOTRO, it looks promising, but as I'm downloading I wanted some info from the veterans and current players before I myself test it.

A few basic things first...  Currency farmers, botters?  Are there many of them?  Are they handled  proffessionally the staff of LOTRO?

How linear/grind tough is the game?  I don't mind grinding, I just want to know the extent of it.

How's the community?  Accepting, elitist jerks, mix of both, etc.

I think that just about covers what I want some basic info on, thanks!

 

Currency farmers are in the game but you will really only encounter them in the main cities and there is a function that alowys you to "report spammer" which also adds them to your ignore list so basically you have maybe a fifty percent chance to come across one gold spammer a week.  I haven't seen any in months though.  Botters I've never been able to come across any of those either, in WOW I actually learned to spot them and once I did I was amazed at how many of them there were in LOTRO I've never come across another that I suspected of being a "bot".

  The game is pretty linear and can easily be played without any real grind, there are multiple areas serving most levels so if you chose you can quest without any grind until very close to the end.

  The community is the best I've ever been a part of in an mmo it's generally easy to find groups and even easier to just find help or advice, every community has it's less than desirables but I've never seen any of them speak out without quickly being chastised by many more than would egg them on and again I would only see that maybe once a week on my server which is the unofficial roleplay server and I believe second most populated.

Originally posted by RendRegen

I was thinking more along the lines of the crafted items in LotRO being useful, while in WoW it's all junk you would never actually craft to use. You only craft to gain skill.

 

Crafting is actually good up to 60 at this point(in your guilded craft), though the new rad gear from high lvl raids and quests makes crafted armor less necessary, but still competitive.  I'm at lvl 60 and still use mostly crafted armor.

What most of the naysayers aren't aware of is the crafting mastery system.  Once you've mastered a tier in crafting, you have a small chance of critical success which makes a significantly more powerful item.  You have the option of adding an item to the recipe  (usually a loot or harvest drop) that greatly increases that critical chance.  It's these rare items that are significantly better than random drops and quest rewards.

Also, you eventually choose a crafting guild to be in, which gives you access to even better recipes as you gain rep in that guild.

Thing is, there's alot to LotRO that you might not catch onto in a 10 day trial.  Deeds can grant you more than just titles, for example.  They also give traits, which give you bonuses, and sometimes, special attacks.

There's also the legendary item system(which drop and can be crafted from shards of other legendary weapons).

LotRO is fairly deep, but it's also very BROAD.  there's alot of different things to do to advance your character, though currently, hobbies are still pretty weak.

PVP however, is pretty bleh, I'm told.  If PvP is of significant importance to you, you'll probably be disappointed.

Character animations aren't horrible, but they aren't good either.  Elves are a bit prancy, and dwarves a bit hobbly.  Swimming is the worst(note the legs).  And while armor does look much better as you progress, I'll borrow what another poster said, "beginning armor looks like jammies".

The world looks impressive, but as others have stated, your toon is so-so.  DX10 improves things significantly, though dynamic shadows are flat out maddening in Moria.

Once you've gotten a feel for the quests and basic gameplay, do some digging around through your character and deeds screens.  There's alot more to advancement than just leveling.

Originally posted by PhelimReagh

Originally posted by RendRegen

... The crafting was also an upgrade over WoW's...

 

This has to be some cruel joke.

 

As bad as WoW's crafting is, WoW allows you a combination of 5 professions/secondary (2/3) skills. LotRO has a combination of 4 skills/hobbies (3/1).

 

In WoW you could just play the game with a complementary gathering/crafting profession and progress fairly easily, only requiring a special item to make a piece of Epic Gear. LotRO recipes ALL, even at the most basic, require you to purchase items from in-game vendors. That is a horrible feature (I would say "bug" had it not been purposefully designed that way) to have in a crafting system.

 

I think WoWs could be better, but LotRO's crafting system needs to just be thrown out.

Sorry but you're losing on this point for one simple reason regardless of if most (not all) crafted items take vendor bought items the itmes crafted in LOTRO are infinitely more important than in WOW so it more than balances out against wow crafting.  I had very high level crafters in both games WOW (til right after TBC) and LOTRO til present and as I stated the work you do to craft in LOTRO surpasses WOW's simply on it's actual importance and use in the game.  I certainly didn't feel like I do much more in LOTRO to be a crafter than I did in WOW the only difference was in WOW I can't recall anything crafted useful for more than a level or two and many other consumables crafted that made little difference while in LOTRO consumables are much more useful and armor/weapons often are better than quest and loot drops.

  so again while it may be slightly more work to craft in LOTRO items crafted are signifigantly more important.

Hey there...

Been playing LotRO for about a year now, and for the most part....I love it.  There are a few negatives that I have noticed, though. The gear you get isn't really "flashy" like in other MMO's,  I realize this would go against the lore of the game, but some diversity in the outfits would be nice.  It seems, to me at least, all the robes look basically the same.  I know you can dye them different colors, but how about adding some new textures.  The outfitters help with this a bit, though.  I seem to show my outfit more than the armor because it's nicer.  Anyway, just a gripe.

I, personally, love the crafting.  I love being able to craft something and it be useful (hear that WoW).  I really enjoy the crafting, but at times it seems a bit tedious to level up.  Especially the prospecting, and forester.

I just love the community.  Everyone is very helpful.  I try to help as many people as I can as well.  An example of this:  Someone asked be the other day where I got my costume quiver.  I told the, "The AH".  She later informed me that the AH had outlandish prices for said quiver.  I asked her to give me a second to log on to my tailor to see if I had the recipe.  I did.  So, I went to the crafting hall and made the quiver (I had a bunch of raw materials in my bank gathering dust).  I then mailed her the quiver.  She was extremely happy.  She asked how much she owed me and I said, "Just pay it forward."  The reason I did this is because it was done for me.  Someone noticed that I needed new gear when I first started the game.  They made me an entire set.  It's things like this that set this community apart.

The PvP isn't that great.  I've not done it, but my kinship often discuss their problems with it, such as some OP toons. 

I love the graphics of the game.  Sometimes I just stop and look at the world around me.  It is quite beautiful.  The character animation aren't the best, but you get used to them.  They aren't bad.  Just a bit off.  I don't know how to describe it.  The character models themselves are quite extraordinary.  I just love that my character has facial expressions.  The hair in game needs  a LOT of work though.  It looks as though they just slapped some playdough on someones head and molded it into some kind of hairstyle.

LotRO is one of the best MMO's on the market for PvE, especially for the price. (9.99$) I seen some people complaining about the quests.  I love the quests.  I'm one of those oddballs that actually read the quest before accepting.  They are some of the most well-written quests I have come across in an MMO.  Granted you do still have to kill those 10 boars, but I feel like I'm doing it for a reason. 

As far as population, Brandywine has a very healthy population.  You see people grouping all the time.  You generally see a fair amount of people at each questing hub.

Anyway, I couldn't just give negatives of the game without some positives.  I think the game has a lot more positives than negatives.  I hope you enjoy your jaunt through Middle Earth.

Also, to give you a little history, I trialed LotRO several times since it started, and incorrectly concluded that it was WoW in Middle Earth.  After playing AoC for the 3 months and quitting this spring, I tried again, this time finding a bit more out about the system.  I've been there ever since and have enjoyed it more than any game I've played in 5 years.

The best advice I can give you is find yourself a good kin this game is more about the community than it is about the individual than any other recent mmo. I found a long standing kin that is one of the best on the server and is highly organised. Claiming eveyones elite and you won't break in is false, if you write a nice application Im sure you will find a spot and people to help you. Lotro has THE best community over any other game in recent history.

My only criticism is the fact that there are alot of elite quests and sometimes its hard for new folk to work out where to move onto if you dont know the game or have people feeding you advice and in some cases in my opinion can be a frustrating game breaker. However they have just started redesigning zones.

Originally posted by elvrage

I'm currently trying the trial too and I was wondering what the PvP was like.
I've not really heard much about it at all, but I'm expecting there is some form of it. =)
 

The PvP is ok.

You can select Moster Play at ,,, well it was lvl 15 back in the early part of the games life, it may be ten now, anyway, you go in as a monter payer, known as,"Creeps" lvl 50 when I started, and thats probably up now.

Anyway you battle against the Free Peoples, "Freeps" which are the players who have gotten high enough lvl to battle in the PvP zone.

Having a Creep, does not keep you from having a Freep, when you've lvl'd your regular toon, high enough, tho there is a time limit, as to how soon you can "Flip" from your Creep, to your Freep.

Some folks play either Freeps, or Creeps, exclusevly,some dont, and there are some Monster Play, "MP" only kinships, that your Creep can join, and that doesnt mean your regular toon has to join.

the PvP zane has sevral "Keeps" which are capturable objectives.

And the are alot of other cool things in PvP, like, Gear, Abilitys, etc etc, which add a little more to the mix.