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Just wanted to talk about my experiences of starting LOTRO about 2 weeks ago for the benefit of anyone who is thinking about joining.
I have to say coming to LOTRO was just what I needed. Having come from Aion as my latest escapade I really needed something, quiet, casual, immersive and a nice community. I signed up for the free trail and got underway, starting the game you can see the clear empathise on the storyline and lore of the game. This was just what I happened to be looking for. Other games I play really give me enjoyment reading all the lore and text, if the content is well written and enjoyable, be it offline or online. I love the way I can level my character with the storyline making it interesting as I go.
Looks wise I thought it was well made. I enjoyed the creation of the landscapes, which really drew me in, often unachieved in games I play. Sometimes the graphics can look dated, like the character models, however you get some nice moments with direct X 10 in parts of the game.
The gameplay itself was good, combat is rather standard for RPG's (nothing wrong there) but I found the ways you could spec your avatar interesting with the deeds and traits. The little touches were also nice, from the music system to the player housing and crafting. Personally when I have a session on an MMO I like to level for a bit then return home and wittle around a bit. Be it playing music to people, or rearrganging your abode, theres plenty to do.
The instance I have tried was enjoyable, although would have liked to have seen more between the levels of 1-50. I do like the prospect of 3 man instances however and the skirmish system.
All this basically fits into what I needed from an MMO at this time. I have been playing them for around 10 years now and have had my spell of playing in more of a "hardcore" nature, but now I just need a game which I can play casually to fit around my life, without the pressure to play for obsence abouts of time.
I have only been playing for two weeks (the free trial) so who knows if it will hold my attention in the long run, but the free trial plus the game with 4 weeks play time costs £4. Thats pretty damn good for 6 weeks of play, which i'm sure I will enjoy and you could too.
Just my two cents anyway.
Comments
Yeah it really is a gem. I had one of my best moments yesterday, I travelled to Rivendell for the first time. I was as happy as a pig in shit I tell you. Everyone was there, Bilbo, Frodo, Gandalf, the whole fellowship. Was awesome. I had no business there because I was too low level, but I had just gotten a skill that allowed me to travel to Rivendell, so I decided to take a look. Wasted a good two hours just looking around talking to npcs.
Agree with most of what you said. Combat is good, classes are solid, deeds that gives you bonuses and traits you slot and further customize your character are well-made. I like the deeds book with a short description of all deeds adding much to the lore (especially for exploration deeds). I also agree there could be a bit more dungeons between level 1-49.
REALITY CHECK
I had a hardtime getting into Lotro. The combat animations and running animations bothered me so much.
It took me around mid level to even ignore them completly.
While certain dungeons were ok I found most of the leveling dungeons uninspired and as for the classes I never really found one to even be average.
The melee Dps was plain, tanking was easy and the casters oh god how I wanted to take my own eyes out watching that same animation over and over and over.
Even the mobs didnt seem to fit the game world.
I will give it up to Turbine for creating a awesome looking world but I think they should have focused more on class mechanics and animations.
Lotro is just one of those games for me anyway that just begs for you to uninstall it.
Too many negatives and only one or two positives won't keep someone like me in game.
With that said I respect your opinion OP and i'm glad you found a game you enjoy.
PLaying: EvE, Ryzom
Waiting For: Earthrise, Perpetuum
"Freedom is just another name for nothing left to lose" - Janis Joplin
Being a LOTRO player, i would agree. the biggest drawback of this game is the lack of group based instances from 1-49.. the game really shines once you hit moria, and that's a long way to go..
But personally, I"m pretty casual, and the pace was right.. i'm 57 on my main and getting into the group stuff now, and am having a blast still as i was before i reached the expansion, jsut more of a blast now.
I haven't gone through the low level content in a while, but there are a few group instances and (atleast when i went though) a whole bunch of group quests. The books are a good source of them, and at around 17 or so you can go into the Great Barrows. Once you get into the Lone Lands (this was just redone with SoM so i don't if its still accurate) you have a bunch of small group quests and Weathertop (mid 20's), which is a fellowship one - its not a dungeon by any means but it can keep you busy until the higher 20's Then there is GA, a lot of people skip Garth Agarwen because its difficult at the level you go through but its pretty good instance(high 20s). After that you head over to Estilden and there isnt much by way of dungeons until Fornost (high 30's - low 40's). I have to disagree with Lotro not shining until Moria, the level 50 content is exceptional. I'm going to list em all by difficulty/area.
Angmar instances:
Urugarth (6man)
Carn Dum (6man)
Barad Gularan (6man)
The Rift of Narz Gashu (12man)
Misty Mountains:
Helegrod (24man)
Anuminas:
Glingant (6man)
Ost Elendil (6man)
Haudh Valandil (6man)
The Level 50 content was amazing, roughly half of the epic story line was for lvl 50's in SoA (book 7-15) and the difficulty scaled very well between them. It is really to bad that most of this content is passed over now by people who just want to get to the end game, all of those instances are fun and challenging if you do them in the order of their difficulty (angmar 6mans-> anuminas 6mans-> helegrod-> rift)
I really, really enjoyed my time In LOTRO. If any MMO could hold my attention longer than 6 months anymore, I would still be playing. Logging into the game always felt like putting on a comfy pair of slippers. I just felt at home there, loved the landscapes, and the storyline.
I tried to get my friends to play, but their big complaint was not feeling "heroic" enough. They didn't want to be farmers, they wanted to conjure big magic or something. Personally, I liked feeling like a real person in the world by farming, music making, housing etc... To each his own.
Playing Aion atm, waiting for TOR, don't think I will return to LOTRO soon, but maybe someday. It really is a little gem of a game.
Seems like noone wants to do those things anymroe tho i think the game could benifit from as much rebalancing as expansion.. lol.. i personally liked the game alot pre-moria.. but love it in moria .. if that makes sense.. the only two mmo's to hold my attention this long were asheron's call during it's prime, and wow pre-bc....
Well we know they do have some kind of scaling tech, since they use it for the skirmishes.. hopefully they find a way to scale all that content to your current level.
I had a hardtime getting into Lotro. The combat animations and running animations bothered me so much.
It took me around mid level to even ignore them completly.
While certain dungeons were ok I found most of the leveling dungeons uninspired and as for the classes I never really found one to even be average.
The melee Dps was plain, tanking was easy and the casters oh god how I wanted to take my own eyes out watching that same animation over and over and over.
Even the mobs didnt seem to fit the game world.
I will give it up to Turbine for creating a awesome looking world but I think they should have focused more on class mechanics and animations.
Lotro is just one of those games for me anyway that just begs for you to uninstall it.
Too many negatives and only one or two positives won't keep someone like me in game.
With that said I respect your opinion OP and i'm glad you found a game you enjoy.
I disagree completely about the classes in lotro. I actually have a hard time accepting other classes in different games becuase they are too super-mario-hero-style, in my view. Classes in Lotro on the other hand are more "simple and toned down", i like that (I dont mean simple by simple-to-play)
Also, by playing the new classes, you can see that Turbine have taken a step forward in creating some great animation for Warden and the "class that shall not be mentioned".
The lack of dungeons 1-49 is a problem, but there are a couple to do still. My favorites are; Garth Agarwen, Carn Dum, Goblin Town & Fornost.
To the OP: You play for the very same reasons I do, and its a great game to furfill a casual's mmo needs
You really need to understand the meaning of word IRONY. Hahahah you are such an amazing source of unintentional jokes.
Nice to see someone come to LotRO from another, seemingly more popular game and stay to enjoy LotRO. I have played since beta and have enjoyed the crap outta LotRO. I am not too fond of the end game stuff being the standard 'raid for more gear' type thing, but then again it is no different in most standard, casual MMO's; you have to go to the more PvP, hardcore niche MMO's to move away from that gameplay model...and there's usually way too many asshats in those games. I find it a bit funny that you have come to LotRO from Aion, whereas I was getting burnt out on LotRO so I tooka couple month break in which I tried out Aion and all Aion did was make me realize how much more I like LotRO. Really enjoying the Mirkwood expansion right now (although it technically is nothing more than another update with a lvl cap increase tacked on to warrant a price tag) and looking forward to the next expansion of Rohan and beyond.
In my opinion, scaling content is a huge step against the roleplaying part in the game. The feeling you're improving in contrast to the world and to the content should be dominant in any kind of RPG game. If you take it away with scaled content, it becomes an FPS - always constant difficulty is a plague.
REALITY CHECK
"Freedom is just another name for nothing left to lose" - Janis Joplin
Br careful in there!
LOTRO is a gem and as one poster stated it is like my "home" in the mmo world. I go out and play other MMO's but always return to LOTRO because there isn't much out there that is better (if any at all).
There does need to be more dungeons 1-49 but the game is pretty awesome. I just got into Moria and it's great! I had been suffering from the grindies after I hit about 48 it just felt hard to get anywhere the quests were all over the place but my persistence paid off. Now I'm 52 and in Moria and very excited about playing again.
"Freedom is just another name for nothing left to lose" - Janis Joplin
Good read OP.
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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
I had a hard time liking this game, it could be cause i only did the trial, but the first impressions are usually good for depicting a games potential. First off, and i know ill be hated for this, i saw a lot of similarities between this and WoW, and i dont think WoW is the best mmo ever. Im not saying its a clone, i do believe it borrowed the good stuff from WoW and added its own rich lore/story etc. I found the combat standard, and i had my fair share of it (no i havent played WoW, only the trial) so i wasnt really thrilled, i also think the game is too much PvE oriented.
This is of course my own opinion, and i fully respect the people who love the game, but they shouldnt avoid meaningful discussions by blocking users, we are on a forum for god sake
Seeing posts like this drives me nuts. WoW did not invent the current MMO standards. LotRO's influence comes from EQ1, and to a greater extent, Asherion's Call 1, both of which WoW copied, not the other way around. WoW took everything that was being done at the time and refined it, but they didn't really do much in the way of innovation when WoW was first released.
Seeing posts like this drives me nuts. WoW did not invent the current MMO standards. LotRO's influence comes from EQ1, and to a greater extent, Asherion's Call 1, both of which WoW copied, not the other way around. WoW took everything that was being done at the time and Simplified it, but they didn't really do much in the way of innovation when WoW was first released.
Fixed that for ya
Hey. My first post so dont shoot...and sorry for my bad english. I think is all about age, time to spend and what you really need. After few years of games I found Lotro and is a fresh breath for me. Ok I like a lot pvp and isn't a strong point in Lotro...but I can play sporadic (I have a child so often I'm afk), I can do a fast instance, I can help anyone....bla bla. My point is that everyone must take what is good from a game and what he needs. I read posts from many sites and all about epicfail bla bla (is true that sometime I dont know what those words means and I dont wanna ever find). I like a game, I play....I dont like, I dont play, no need to argue. For me Lotro is a nice game that I can play anytime with friends or with anyone. So yes is a gem in my opinion with good and bad things.
PS: Also my opinion, I dont understand why many speaks about avatar and armours look, I spent about 2 mins per days to watch them and only when I look like a clown and I must dye hehe.
777
Seeing posts like this drives me nuts. WoW did not invent the current MMO standards. LotRO's influence comes from EQ1, and to a greater extent, Asherion's Call 1, both of which WoW copied, not the other way around. WoW took everything that was being done at the time and refined it, but they didn't really do much in the way of innovation when WoW was first released.
I have played EQ 1, and ofcourse WoW copied certain things from other games, but i think that it set the standard for themepark mmos like LoTRO. I just see more similarities between WoW and Lotro then between Lotro and EQ 1, based on my own (somewhat limited) playtime.
Seeing posts like this drives me nuts. WoW did not invent the current MMO standards. LotRO's influence comes from EQ1, and to a greater extent, Asherion's Call 1, both of which WoW copied, not the other way around. WoW took everything that was being done at the time and refined it, but they didn't really do much in the way of innovation when WoW was first released.
I have played EQ 1, and ofcourse WoW copied certain things from other games, but i think that it set the standard for themepark mmos like LoTRO. I just see more similarities between WoW and Lotro then between Lotro and EQ 1, based on my own (somewhat limited) playtime.
LOTRO and AC2. AC2 = The inspiration for most wow systems. It is also irrelevant really. A game is fun if it is fun. However fun is subjective, but is commonly agreed on.
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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
Seeing posts like this drives me nuts. WoW did not invent the current MMO standards. LotRO's influence comes from EQ1, and to a greater extent, Asherion's Call 1, both of which WoW copied, not the other way around. WoW took everything that was being done at the time and refined it, but they didn't really do much in the way of innovation when WoW was first released.
I have played EQ 1, and ofcourse WoW copied certain things from other games, but i think that it set the standard for themepark mmos like LoTRO. I just see more similarities between WoW and Lotro then between Lotro and EQ 1, based on my own (somewhat limited) playtime.
LOTRO and AC2. AC2 = The inspiration for most wow systems. It is also irrelevant really. A game is fun if it is fun. However fun is subjective, but is commonly agreed on.
100% agreed