Here is explanation why there is so many "bored of LOTRO" posts

Lobotomist

Lets make one thing straight first.  I play LOTRO and enjoy it. I do not think it is the "perfect" MMO , nor do i commend Turbine for not taking even one risk. However I do think that things that LOTRO does it does one notch better than other.

 

I came to sudden realisation why many people are so "bored" of LOTRO , the explanation is simple but points to a misunderstanding of game mechanics. I noticed this watching gameplay of my guild members. And their complaining of boredom - or not.

 

LOTRO , it is now clear was designed as (almost) forced grouping MMO , around lvl 30 almost all the quests become group quests, and are totaly not doable alone, no mather how good your character is.

Grinding in LOTRO can bring you experience , but in this game experience comes from quests , slaying MOB brings less than 1/3 of experience compared to other games.

Still some players have trouble comming to terms with that. They either go leveling by grinding - which in LOTRO is looooong and boring (since game was designed to discourage this) , or they search for SOLO quests - that are designed as "filler" quests and are far from exciting , and there are not many of them after lvl 30.

For this players LOTRO becomes a chore. They swim against the stream (group questing) , swim slow and tire easily.

This are the players that complain LOTRO is boring.

 

My advice. Get on LFG channel and start doing group quests

 

 

 

 

biggdoggid

I agree with you... either try groups... or craft. It's something you can do Solo

sylum69

I'm playing with the idea that part of the boredom stems from the uneventful music...think about it.

That was a big complaint during beta.

 

 

Rayana

Originally posted by Lobotomist



LOTRO , it is now clear was designed as (almost) forced grouping MMO , around lvl 30 almost all the quests become group quests, and are totaly not doable alone, no mather how good your character is.
 

Around level 30 all the quests are group quests? 0.o

I'm at level 38, and still got tons of solo quests. And I have had so since the beginning of the game. Especially after Evendim was out, my quest log was filled to the brim with solo quests after 30. The problem is however, that all of the solo quests are boring and of the same ilk. Dire wargs that share a spawn table with the elite Aurochs anyone? You get them west of Esteldin, you get them east of Esteldin. And if you don't do them, you don't get the follow up quests. And there are plenty more examples.

The problem doesn't lie in lack of solo quests, but lack of solo quests that are actually different from the last area. If at least the mobs were different in the areas...Then maybe it would be fun to do those solo quests. If you don't do them, a whole chain of quests that follow up will not be unlocked and that means: you have less quests.

 

Lobotomist

Originally posted by Rayana


 
Originally posted by Lobotomist



LOTRO , it is now clear was designed as (almost) forced grouping MMO , around lvl 30 almost all the quests become group quests, and are totaly not doable alone, no mather how good your character is.
 

Around level 30 all the quests are group quests? 0.o

 

I'm at level 38, and still got tons of solo quests. And I have had so since the beginning of the game. Especially after Evendim was out, my quest log was filled to the brim with solo quests after 30. The problem is however, that all of the solo quests are boring and of the same ilk. Dire wargs that share a spawn table with the elite Aurochs anyone? You get them west of Esteldin, you get them east of Esteldin. And if you don't do them, you don't get the follow up quests. And there are plenty more examples.

The problem doesn't lie in lack of solo quests, but lack of solo quests that are actually different from the last area. If at least the mobs were different in the areas...Then maybe it would be fun to do those solo quests. If you don't do them, a whole chain of quests that follow up will not be unlocked and that means: you have less quests.

 

No , there are no plenty more examples.

You just stated the only example. And by the way Aurochs are group quests...

After you finish these. Your solo quest book will get empty. Try it , and see

crystalshine

your suggestions are pretty good ..but ..not perfect , I did the group thing and the solo it still didn't make the game anymore glamourous for me , I really tryed hard to like it but if your bored well how can you say it ?  It was boring for me ,dosen't mean other's cannot enjoy it 

Lobotomist

Probably the only people left in the game , are people that have lives,jobs,and social life  and can not grind 24/7.And other silly people that think MMOs are not about grind grind grind raid raid raid grind grind , but about taking it easy and enjoying the ride...

I agree , any mmo that has not enough content for 26782 hours of grind is not good! What i was thinking about!

 

 

quaiky

i personally have lifetime access to lotro but i nearly never logg in now. for me part of the problem was that i did not really like any of the classes, so i tried them all and after doing the starting areas for 3-4 times these got really boring. (it also did not help for me that i did the same parts allready once in open beta).

2 starting areas are not really enough, also nearly all the starting quests are just the classic kill x wolves type quests. the small story instances are fun the first time you do them but on my 2nd or 3rd char i was asking myself where is the fastforward button.

So for those that like to try out a few chars till they find the one they like this game gets boring very fast, casue there is no other way to start than doing the same quests on every char (or at least on every 2nd if you switch between bree area characters and dwarf/elf characters). 

In most other mmos you have more starting areas or at least enough other options to level through the starting parts than just doing the same things with every char.

Maybe i would still play it more if i got one character over lvel 20 and got to other areas, but my max level character is still lvl 15/16.

 

 

 

 

 

Tweakee

The reason for boredom in LotR is twofold:

1) The game does nothing new. This is fine while your character is levelling up, exploring, doing quests, etc. But once you get near the "endgame", the sameness really jumps up in your face. It becomes impossible to ignore how little innovation LotRO attempts over EQ, DAoC, EQ2, WoW, etc.

2) LotRO's endgame is EXTREMELY poor, even taking into account how new the game is. When the levelling up ends, an MMO needs to have fun gameplay and a continued sense of accomplishment, and LotRO fails at both.

The final world zone (Angmar) is horrifically badly designed, with enemies spaced like pylons to make horse travel insanely irritating, including tons of archers. These enemies become elite later on, making ungrouped travel very difficult. Note that I'm not talking about areas with enemies guarding important locations, but rather -everywhere-, which is annoying gameplay, and immersion-breaking as well (why would orcs space out 1 every 20 feet across an entire desert?) "Solo" quests are also interspersed in areas with elite monsters, and a death anywhere in the massive north and eastern areas of the zone results in a respawn in the far south and another annoying horse ride.

Deeds are a bore, and provide little feeling of advancement. Legendary traits and epic quests often involve mindlessly grinding hundreds of enemies for often unremarkable rewards. Crafting is tedious (click and watch a progress bar) and provides largely useless results. PVP seems tacked on.

This sounds like I hate the game, but I actually enjoyed it quite a bit, until about level 40. That's when I realized how little lay ahead that combined building towards something (greater power, in-game fortunes, or even just a cooler-looking outfit) and -fun-.

And to pretend that this issue is about people who "rush to the end" is foolish. The game isn't particularly hard. I worked >40 hours a week, went out with friends, watched sports, etc, and still had little problem nearing level 50. I was in the open beta, which made it 15 levels faster, and love to quest and played a healer, so exp and levels came quite easily. When I stopped playing, my quest log was near-empty except for some tedious Angmar quests.

As the game goes on, this issue will loom for more and more players, and I don't see an easy solution. Hopefully Turbine is already aware of this and working on major revisions to alleviate a situation that most players will encounter at some point: the game feels over at (or before) level 50.

Lobotomist

 quaiky

You mate are borderline case.

I can not imagine many people dishing 200$ to buy a lifetime sub (equivalent of pay to play the game for two years) and than leveling character to lvl 15 (which is equivalent of leveling WOW character to lvl 6)

It is like a guy that bought Ferari , but does not drive it cause he dont like the smell of the seat leather?!

Or a guy that bought 1 ton of potato chips , but than figured out that he does not like chips cause they are salty

 

Word of advice , next time you buy the game , make sure you actually want to play.

 

And

Tweakee

You might be on to something there. I still didnt reach top levels although i play for two months on only one character.

But some Powerlevelers in my Kinship started to complain about Angmar. And true I agree about lack of innovation.

But on other hand Turbine invested lot into Roleplay experience enhancing. Something no MMO has done in long time...

That at least counts by roleplayers

 

nikoliath

 

Originally posted by Tweakee


The reason for boredom in LotR is twofold:
1) The game does nothing new. This is fine while your character is levelling up, exploring, doing quests, etc. But once you get near the "endgame", the sameness really jumps up in your face. It becomes impossible to ignore how little innovation LotRO attempts over EQ, DAoC, EQ2, WoW, etc.
2) LotRO's endgame is EXTREMELY poor, even taking into account how new the game is. When the levelling up ends, an MMO needs to have fun gameplay and a continued sense of accomplishment, and LotRO fails at both.
The final world zone (Angmar) is horrifically badly designed, with enemies spaced like pylons to make horse travel insanely irritating, including tons of archers. These enemies become elite later on, making ungrouped travel very difficult. Note that I'm not talking about areas with enemies guarding important locations, but rather -everywhere-, which is annoying gameplay, and immersion-breaking as well (why would orcs space out 1 every 20 feet across an entire desert?) "Solo" quests are also interspersed in areas with elite monsters, and a death anywhere in the massive north and eastern areas of the zone results in a respawn in the far south and another annoying horse ride.
Deeds are a bore, and provide little feeling of advancement. Legendary traits and epic quests often involve mindlessly grinding hundreds of enemies for often unremarkable rewards. Crafting is tedious (click and watch a progress bar) and provides largely useless results. PVP seems tacked on.
This sounds like I hate the game, but I actually enjoyed it quite a bit, until about level 40. That's when I realized how little lay ahead that combined building towards something (greater power, in-game fortunes, or even just a cooler-looking outfit) and -fun-.
And to pretend that this issue is about people who "rush to the end" is foolish. The game isn't particularly hard. I worked >40 hours a week, went out with friends, watched sports, etc, and still had little problem nearing level 50. I was in the open beta, which made it 15 levels faster, and love to quest and played a healer, so exp and levels came quite easily. When I stopped playing, my quest log was near-empty except for some tedious Angmar quests.
As the game goes on, this issue will loom for more and more players, and I don't see an easy solution. Hopefully Turbine is already aware of this and working on major revisions to alleviate a situation that most players will encounter at some point: the game feels over at (or before) level 50.

 

It's never a good sign to see words, such as those highlighted, assosciated with a game. Perhaps small and seemingly insignificant by themselves, but they surely have a hefty and negative cumulative effect.

 

To the OP.  So it is the people playing the game that are wrong? A poor argument IMO. Suggesting that the only people to have found it boring are those who do not understand the mechanics on the game is absurd. I played open Beta, not for long mind you because it was, quite simply, the most boring experience I have ever had in a new MMORPG, and I've played a few over the years.

 

Sure LOTRO was polished, gleaming infact but this was due in part I'm sure to the fact that they had little work to do in the first place. DDO was used, I imagine, and then they shoved in some generic "Go kill 20 boar"  "Go fetch me 20 hides, you will find these on boars"  Yawwwwnnnnn.

 

For those that enjoy the game, I'm happy for you. For those who got suckered in by the sensational hyperbole that surrounded this game near launch, and bought a lifetime sub as a result, I say unlucky.

 

Rayana

Originally posted by Lobotomist


 
Originally posted by Rayana


 
Originally posted by Lobotomist



LOTRO , it is now clear was designed as (almost) forced grouping MMO , around lvl 30 almost all the quests become group quests, and are totaly not doable alone, no mather how good your character is.
 

Around level 30 all the quests are group quests? 0.o

 

I'm at level 38, and still got tons of solo quests. And I have had so since the beginning of the game. Especially after Evendim was out, my quest log was filled to the brim with solo quests after 30. The problem is however, that all of the solo quests are boring and of the same ilk. Dire wargs that share a spawn table with the elite Aurochs anyone? You get them west of Esteldin, you get them east of Esteldin. And if you don't do them, you don't get the follow up quests. And there are plenty more examples.

The problem doesn't lie in lack of solo quests, but lack of solo quests that are actually different from the last area. If at least the mobs were different in the areas...Then maybe it would be fun to do those solo quests. If you don't do them, a whole chain of quests that follow up will not be unlocked and that means: you have less quests.

 

 

No , there are no plenty more examples.

You just stated the only example. And by the way Aurochs are group quests...

After you finish these. Your solo quest book will get empty. Try it , and see

You need to kill Aurochs to make Dire wargs spawn at one point. Awesome...You need to have a group to kill Elite cows so mobs for a solo quest can spawn

I did try, and yes, this particular quest doesn't have a follow up. But there are plenty of 'kill wolves', 'kill boars', etc in different areas that DO have follow ups. Wolves here, wolves there, boars here, boars there...How often do I need to kill yet another incarnation of a new wolf type (grey wolves, black wolves, striped wolves, speckled wolves) to unlock more solo quests? After 3 different areas, it started to become tiresome to me.

crystalshine

I enjoy the RP side of games ..but the crafting is my main reason to play any game and well LotR's talks big were its crafting is concerned and I guess compared with all the other games that are out right now it's not to bad ..but the game bored me to tears ..I'm a big fan of The Hobbit have all the books ,wasn't enough to keep me playing this game   I dont have the time to grind , I like doing the quests when I wish to do them but I will  sit for as long as possible to craft or as in some games I've played fish . LotR just didn't grab my attention that well

menancer

from my point of view, LOTRO is a lot like WoW, very similar featues, incl. similar shortcut keys....

i almost felt like i was playing WoW again with different characters and diff world.

tho my collegue plays it regularly, she thinks its the best MMORPG ever...she hasn't seen any others yet, actually she wasgiven that game for testing, but now likes it.

i dont know about many others i haven't played (EQ2, Anarchy, Lineage2 etc), but i am sure they will NOt be similar

 

P.S.

Im a game tester, part-time.

 

Ghakan

I'm going to be picking up LotRO today and I think I have an advantage that a lot of people aren't afforded.  What advantage  will you have? many of you are surely asking.  Believe it or not, its LIMITED TIME TO PLAY.  This will mean only getting to play 4 days a week at most, and only for 2-3 hours at that.  I'm assuming that this will mean not reaching level 50 for about 4 months, but it also means that I am pacing myself for two things.  The first is that they will be able to include more content before I can rush through it, and I won't reach end game for some time so I won't sit at the top bored complaining about nothing to do.  To be perfectly honest, I probably won't play LotRO after I get to 50 anyways because by then there will be many games either out or very shortly out so I won't waste my time simply beefing up my character and I'll move on to something else.  I realize that many people hate pacing themselves out, but it seems to be the only way to play LotRO and not be insanely bored.

 

-Kanthalos

P.S. Perhaps they should take a page from guild wars, and include "henchmen" for group quests, but perhaps that flies in the face of what they are trying to do.

Kyleran

I guess I play alot, and if I had focused on one character I would have probably reached level 50 fairly quickly.  As it was I decided to split my time between a Guardian (30) and an Minstrel (24) and I did take a lot of breaks.  One other thing I decided to do was  go back and grind out every deed in every starting zone for my Guardian so I would have access to a full range of titles and talents.

At the end of the first month, I found myself pretty bored.  My deeds in the Lonelands/North Downs were requiring like 120 kills for a title followed by 240 kills to get the talent point.  Its amazing how much experience you can earn doing these quests, I managed to have no problem leveling w/o quests while killing same level deed mobs.....

I also was a Scholar by trade, so I had to run around collecting fragments for silly jars all over the place.  I found the process to be particularly annoying and sort of wish I'd just been a regular gatherer.

My play was a mixture of soloing and grouping, say about 60/40... but as others have mentioned, most grouping was just quick pickups to complete a quest, which involved little social interaction and the fellowships most always broke up shortly after achieving the initial objective.

By the end of May, I was terribly bored of these activities and on a whim, downloaded the free trial for EVE.... and never logged into LotRO again.  Two days ago I canceled both of my LotRO founders accounts (my son had lost interest as well) and have decided to focus entirely on EVE until WAR comes out. (unless AOC turns out to be "the game" of the century... but I'm on the fence on it right now)

In the end, it was too much of the same.... too much like WOW and every other fantasy role playing game I'd played before, maybe I just burned out... who knows... but it just wasn't fun...guess I'm like a lot of folks and am looking for something different.

Scriar

Reason i got bored very quickly is simple. The game feels far to much like world of warcraft minus the pvp plus the story line, i just got to the point where i thought to my self why keep leveling?

its pratically the same game minus the addictiveness, and pvp. And tbh i think the community in it is worse than wow. Its fine to like lord of the rings, and not like world of warcraft but i dont need a dozen retards telling me how much wow sucked when their highest level in wow was 40 or lower. It seemed half the people i met just play the game because its not wow -_-

If your wondering why i am on these part of the forums, i heard their was an update for the game, doesn't look like its made it any better. Its annoying, i hate it when i try a game and it turns out to be a waste of money.

 

Anyway, don't let that post discourage any future players, im sure if this is your first mmo you will enjoy it. Its is a good game, just nothing new for me.

Pjay2k

Originally posted by Lobotomist


Lets make one thing straight first.  I play LOTRO and enjoy it. I do not think it is the "perfect" MMO , nor do i commend Turbine for not taking even one risk. However I do think that things that LOTRO does it does one notch better than other.
 
I came to sudden realisation why many people are so "bored" of LOTRO , the explanation is simple but points to a misunderstanding of game mechanics. I noticed this watching gameplay of my guild members. And their complaining of boredom - or not.
 
LOTRO , it is now clear was designed as (almost) forced grouping MMO , around lvl 30 almost all the quests become group quests, and are totaly not doable alone, no mather how good your character is.
Grinding in LOTRO can bring you experience , but in this game experience comes from quests , slaying MOB brings less than 1/3 of experience compared to other games.
Still some players have trouble comming to terms with that. They either go leveling by grinding - which in LOTRO is looooong and boring (since game was designed to discourage this) , or they search for SOLO quests - that are designed as "filler" quests and are far from exciting , and there are not many of them after lvl 30.
For this players LOTRO becomes a chore. They swim against the stream (group questing) , swim slow and tire easily.
This are the players that complain LOTRO is boring.
 
My advice. Get on LFG channel and start doing group quests
 
 
 
 

um no, maybe they are bored simply because the game is boring?

linear game play, the same old kill 7 of X and bring them to Y over and over again..

everyone got the same armor, clothes and equipement, no diversity and the players look all the same, character customization is just poor, you cant even change your heigth...

after a few weeks this game simply gets boring and it has nothing to do with solo play or group play..

dasX82

I bought the lifetime subscription i´m happy with my decision, i have played a lot of mmorpg like WOW, EQ2 ,EVE ONLINE, DAOC, this are great games, but LOTRO is a great game too

therain93

I only beta'd LotRO, I didn't bother buying it but one of the things that has not been mentioned (I think) is that there really is n't much replayability to the game.  In WoW you can start up on 2 distinct sides, in totally different zones for most of the races.  CoX give you diversity of powerset combinations and a marginal amount of differentiation in its storylines (terrible game for people with altitits), DAoC had 3 separate zones for the races. 

Unknown

I disagree about 95% with the OP's post.

Yes, he is correct in that a few quests require a group - but very few, and usually only the "end encounter". Aside from that, this game is 95% soloable.

There are many other reasons why so many are getting bored that have nothing to do with grouping.

Unknown

Originally posted by Lobotomist


 
 
No , there are no plenty more examples.
You just stated the only example. And by the way Aurochs are group quests...
After you finish these. Your solo quest book will get empty. Try it , and see

I cancelled my sub when I was level 39, and still had about 25 solo quests out of about 34 total.

Solo quests are not the problem - it goes much deeper than that, there are basic game design flaws, and there are a dozen or more reasons why people are getting bored.

Unknown

Originally posted by Rayana


 
You need to kill Aurochs to make Dire wargs spawn at one point. Awesome...You need to have a group to kill Elite cows so mobs for a solo quest can spawn

No you don't.

The Giants are the PH for the wargs, not the cows.

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

ellinium

ewwwww i tried this game and it sucked mean players

Salvatoris

Originally posted by Lobotomist


 
Originally posted by Rayana


 
Originally posted by Lobotomist



LOTRO , it is now clear was designed as (almost) forced grouping MMO , around lvl 30 almost all the quests become group quests, and are totaly not doable alone, no mather how good your character is.
 

Around level 30 all the quests are group quests? 0.o

 

I'm at level 38, and still got tons of solo quests. And I have had so since the beginning of the game. Especially after Evendim was out, my quest log was filled to the brim with solo quests after 30. The problem is however, that all of the solo quests are boring and of the same ilk. Dire wargs that share a spawn table with the elite Aurochs anyone? You get them west of Esteldin, you get them east of Esteldin. And if you don't do them, you don't get the follow up quests. And there are plenty more examples.

The problem doesn't lie in lack of solo quests, but lack of solo quests that are actually different from the last area. If at least the mobs were different in the areas...Then maybe it would be fun to do those solo quests. If you don't do them, a whole chain of quests that follow up will not be unlocked and that means: you have less quests.

 

 

No , there are no plenty more examples.

You just stated the only example. And by the way Aurochs are group quests...

After you finish these. Your solo quest book will get empty. Try it , and see

Evendim is pretty packed full of solo quests.  I was stalled at 34 before the patch, and through mainly solo quests over there I am up to 39 now.  Of course, I am not at all bored with the game  I have a good regular group I play with, and 4 alts to play with people at different levels.  I'm not in a hurry to get to max level... This game is really for more casual players.. I guess I am the kind of player they were aiming at, because I have been playing now for about 8 months, through closed beta til now, and I am not at all bored with the game.