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Do people still play?
Viceryn
Member Posts: 177
I'm looking for another MMO to get into. My WOW subscription was put on hold for now and I'm looking back at old games I used to play. The 3 big ones were always City of Heroes, Warhammer Online, and LoTRO. LoTRO was always really fun, I just couldn't find many people to play with. How is it these days? Do people still play? How's the community?
If this game is a flop now, what are some of the other "in" MMO's at the current moment (besides WoW).
Comments
LOTRO has a healthy population, atleast thats what i find on EU servers, theres always people to group with and the community is very helpful, better community than most other MMO's ive played.
I just finished my third free trial of this game(I'm trying terribly hard to get in to it). Just make a toon on Brandywine. There were people around me constantly.
Not many people group up though, that's why I can't get into the game. No personal interaction in all my times playing it.
Yes LoTRO got closed down shortly after you left, and everybody was offered a free copy of WoW as compensation for their wasted time.
A suggestion, if you did play LoTRO head back to the official forums to see how alive the game is rather than coming to this board, you will find the answer alot quicker and get a better picture of the state the game is in.
Yes, a good amount of people still play this game.
Yep my EU server is rammed. Plenty of people to play with and always someone to answer questions.
Nobody really groups in the low levels. Honestly it's no different in the other "mature" games that have been around for more than a year or two. Most of the quests can be soloed up through about level 30, so unless you really ask around or know some people, you tend to not see much grouping until mid 20's at the earliest. And to be honest, as a vet of the game, I found that when I needed help I just asked nicely for help in /LFF or /GLLF (you have to look up on the forums what chat channel your server's global LFF is) and generally get it. In the low levels, you really cannot rely on others to make groups and advertise though, you will be waiting a while. Just make a group, advertise, and you will get people to come.
Landover is another very busy server at certain times there are still ques to get in. We have a healthy well populated server as well.
As far as groups i have seen many folks in the lower tierd parts of the game that constantly group. I have seen folks in the mid 30's area Esteldin constantly llf . While some areas seem barren others are full of users/ and their alts.
Moria is busy as well > At any given time i can log into Moria and find either a raid group or leveling group.
The game from what I can see at least still has a healthy population. I personally would start on one of the more populated servers myself (not necessarily Brandywine but one of the other more populated ones). Haven't had any issues finding groups so far anyways least on the server I chose.
The biggest issue I see at this point for me anyways is the amount of mobs suffering from the exploit bug that I haven't seen any timeline on when it is going to be fixed. There are quite a few it seems to happen with and that can get really annoying.
So, in general, realize that while you may not get invites out the ass if you choose a well populated server you should find members for most quests within a few asks in chat but you will probably only find people wanting to group for group oriented material. Nothing really new there but I know some prefer to be grouped at all times and most don't play this game that way.
CoH is doing quite well too although out of the two games I prefer this one, but if you choose CoH you would have a blast there as well. Personally, I think the CoH community, generally speaking, is actually a bit friendlier and more outgoing than LotR is. However, I also think Rings is the better game of the two and not like the community in Rings is bad or anything just not as personable.
As for War, eh, unless you're really into PvP stay away from that game. Has the least social interaction from a community standpoint out of the three games and PvE in that game is absolutely terrible. I will say that at least in the early tiers PvP can be quite fun in that game though.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
I don't have this issue. You are welcome to join my kin though.
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"Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me
"No, your wrong.." - Random user #123
"Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.
How are you?" -Me
There is a whole dedicated thread about it on the OF. Basic jist is, they are quite aware, but its been hard to track down, they are working on it, and some of the new server enhancements may include a fix.
ADD: its been a tough one to track down. Seems to have something to do with water.
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"Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me
"No, your wrong.." - Random user #123
"Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.
How are you?" -Me
Interesting, this is the total opposite of my experience with the game so far. I've never had a problem getting a group when I want one. There are several tools in game to help with this but the main ones are mentioned by another poster, the LFF and GLFF channels.
Lower levels are like any other game, mostly solo and asking questions. Some of the epic quests require groups at lower levels but again, this was never an issue for me once I figured out what 1.1.11 meant
People definitely still play. There's a lot of back and forth on the forums about the exact population, but Turbine doesn't release numbers, and to me the exact population really isn't all that important. Turbine is working on boosting server performance, if that tells you anything. Based on my own observations on the Nimrodel server (I think Brandywine is supposed to be the most populous), there always seem to be people running around, even if Bree, Ered Luin, and the Shire aren't as crowded as they were two years ago (which can actually be a good thing for getting through the lower tiers of crafting, since you don't have to worry much about competition for resources).
As far as the community goes, I've never really had a bad experience with anyone being a jerk to me, which says a lot, because I know I've played one or two games in which encountering rude people was a rather common occurrence. The other day, I was in a group of characters, none of whom knew each other prior to grouping that day, working on the Book 1 quest chain in Breeland, and one of the members mentioned that she was a bit clueless (no exaggeration), and was wondering if anyone would be willing to give her some advice on how to improve. One of the group members spent about an hour with her patiently explaining aspects of the UI, the trait system, which traits to focus on for her class, etc., and even made her some jewelry after inspecting her and noticing that she wasn't wearing any. Of course, this is just one example, but people generally seem to be more helpful than what I've experienced in other games (none of which I'll list here to avoid starting a flame war.)
I don't seem to have trouble finding groups, but I don't really look all that often. When I do, I can usually find at least a few people to help out with whatever needs to be done. Some people on here claim to have the opposite experience and not be able to find anyone, but it's hard to know exactly why that is.
There doesn't seem to be a lot of gold spam. I've come across maybe one or two spammers in the last few weeks (definitely not a daily occurrence), but all you have to do is click on the name in chat and select "report spam" and it automatically reports them and adds them to your ignore list, so there's an easy fix.
No real need to group to play this game, i pretty much soloed up to 52 with my Minstrel and can probably count the number of times i grouped on one hand, only really to get through the mid 30s to 40s i think, after that easy. If you want to play socially though best thing is to join a Kinship, the community has got rid of all the people who really never wanted to play in the first place and it's solid and mature now. I play on Laurelin, the EU RP server and it's just the way i like it, not too many people running around to take all the spawn and drops and just enough to make you remember you're in an mmorpg. Also people are clustered in the right places like the towns and main population areas. Not many out in the wilds, but then why would there be? I could never get over games where there are hundreds of people in a forest miles from anywhere, it never made sense. Moria and the new legendary items have added a whole new dimension to the game but they need to keep up the expansions because it is pretty easy to reach the 60 level cap. Having said that, traits and other features of characterisation make it involving and fun.
Look me up on Brandywine. I can always help. Brandywine is a very populated server and has a great community,
lateris-guardian
I was running my little leve 18 Warden around the lone lands tonight and thought if this thread and laughed. I must have seen 30 peoplet in around the Forsaken Inn and stables next to it. The ruins where you get the pottery shards had at least 3 or 4 duo and trio groups working the area. Earlier I was in barrow downs working on the barghest trait and it had quite a few people also. This is on Silverlode which is not considered a high pop server. I would blow it off as free trial people but most had a kinship tag. I am glad as hell my kinmates decided to not roll on one of the big two servers, Silverlode felt just right, not too crowded in the quest areas but still enough people so you don't get lonesome.
I miss DAoC
I recently purchased the game because of their $9 offer. My character is on Brandywine (continuing an old free trial chara) and is lower than level 20 at the time of writing this.
My experience has been that there are usually other players around. Far corners of the map may not have other players, but I have yet to get the feeling that any location is dead. Towns in particular are busy places. We're not talking WoW numbers here, but an obvious population none the less.
Grouping has been hit and miss. I've had players standing in front of me flat out ignore m /say requests to work together for the same obvious goal, but I've also had a level 60 plow through two instances for me to work on some sort of trait. It seems that, generally speaking, people in LoTRO don't like to group (yet anyway).
The population is certainly there though, complete with /ooc arguments about religion, gays, sports, and other blahblahblah. I turned off the channel.
There is alot of ppl playing this game, atleast on my server (EU) Eldar. Players are really helpful and it's easy to get help an no problems to form groups.
LotRO is one of those games that passes under the radar. People just shrug it off assuming no one is playing it, when in fact it has a very healthy population and probably a very long future ahead of it.
Just don't log on expecting 600 people to be standing around a mailbox doing nothing night after night like WoW.
One of the things I did not like about LoTRO was the grouping issue......While you might like the level 60 plowing through the dungeon for you, I do not like that.....I like to work with a group of players my own level to beat the content, but in LoTRO I found all too often that players would not do the instances unless they had someone like the level 60 (or 50 when i was there) blowing through the content for an easy win.......To me the LoTRO community was friendly but too casual for my tastes.....LoTRO felt too much like WoW in the gameplay and I found the combat and animations very lackluster and boring........To me LoTRO is an OK game but not one I could play for very long......Also if the game is not having some population issues why is the game now 10 bucks with a 10 dollar monthly??......
Actually, you can get a very similar feeling these days. If on any evening you log in to LOTRO, and happen to be in the 21st hall in Moria, you will not even be able to move - at least on my server (Snowbourn EU). Everything is packed - the mailbox, the crafting hall, the AH, the bank. It's a HUGE crowd.
But really, you have to switch off the names, otherwise you won't see a damn thing, only that brownish color of the name font
I posted about 20 items in the AH last night. 4 or 5 sold in less then a minute, and more than 10 sold in the next 2 hours. Go figure
DB
Denial makes one look a lot dumber than he/she actually is.
The 10 USD monthly is a promotional offer, normal monthly fee is 15 bucks.
The box is cheap because even the expansion came out half a year ago - also, MMO's are not supposed to make money on the box (except for release), but on subscriptions. At least most of them, of course there is the opposite model of no fee, only box sales, but I'm not sure if Guild War's model is better. As a hind effect on their policy, all GW game boxes are quite expensive up till today, which has always discouraged me from buying them.
I'd rather have a free client download on an MMO, buy my account once (for 30 days gametime) and keep paying montly fees later. I am sure more people prefer this model.
DB
Denial makes one look a lot dumber than he/she actually is.
LOTRO will always have a healthy population. Want to know why? The Tolkien Society. And the games mature playerbase. Tolkien created an entire genre of fantasy and Turbine IMO has done well to adhere to TTS' strict rules on the lore. As long as Turbine sticks to those rules, (I think they have to in order to keep the license anyway), LOTRO will always have a very respective playerbase. They arent looking to beat WoW, they are looking to cater to millions of fans around the world who want to immerse themselves in Tolkien's world. LOTRO will never use features or mechanics to attract its players, all it needs is that very solid IP and its golden.
Edit: Nuff said. Il rephrase this then. While running a stable MMO is an important thing (i.e. having good mechanics, working combat system, etc), Turbine is trying to form a visual representation of Tolkiens world, not have the best "end game" or coolest attacks.
Better.
While I don't dismiss your argument completely, and find your comment more on the positive site, i have to very strongly disagree with the part in red.
Not even disagree, rather saying that it doesn't make sense - I don't care a rat's whisker about Turbine, and while I like Tolkien, by no means am I a fan.
I like the game because of it's (list not in any kind of order) narrative, it's graphics and performance, it's mechanics (combat is excellent:P), the maturity of the players, the atmosphere, the community, etc. The IP could be anything, if these things all work. And the do with LOTRO, brilliantly, actually.
DB
Denial makes one look a lot dumber than he/she actually is.
Fixed for a better point
Definitely better, can't argue with that
Good job mate 
DB
Denial makes one look a lot dumber than he/she actually is.