Why or why not play Lotro?

Lord.Bachus

I am doing some research about a few games..

why are you playing Lotro, or why did you quit?

what are your 3 favorite things of this game
what are your 3 negative things in this game
please list both possitives and negatives, as well as answer my question..

GrumpyHobbit

On and off playing. 

Love the lore and feel of the world. 
Love the different classes that all feel unique and how grouping works between classes. 
Love the social aspects of the game (Play on RP server).

Has a cash shop (although this is minor as I never use it).
It is very themepark in structure and pretty much plays on wheels. 
Development is too slow (but I guess that is because when we reach Mordor it is game over for the story). 

I like that I can jump in and out of the game with the F2P model and I think it is one of the best F2P models but....I would prefer it to be sub based again so that they could get rid of all the meta influences on teh game from cash shop etc...

Horusra

Would be a great game for me except for animations and slow combat feel. 

Athisar

I play it on and off.

Like: story/lore/etc, enormous amount of content, community.
Dislike: dated engine, slow combat, too easy levelling.

I don't think many MMOs can compete with it in terms of the amount of content and the depth of the story. I'm happy with the free to play model, but I think the expansions should be included in VIP given their age. Graphics aren't anything near as bad as some people make out and some of the landscapes rival the best there is.

k61977

I just started playing again this week, been off and on for years.

Like:
story lines - massive amounts of content to go thru.  If you do all the side quest you will be playing for well over a year before you get to the last xpac or build which launched this week.
ability to complete deeds which earns store credits that you can use to purchases real money items
helpful community not to many toxic players but most all are max level or will be in a week or two.

Dislike:
Outleveling content - there are a lot of areas that are the same level so you can explore whichever you choose, I do them all as I am a content person so I end up being about 10 levels higher than content.
Crafting can be very boring as in set it to do what you want come back 30 mins later to change to next thing.
archetypes locked by race is one of my biggest let downs, I understand the reasoning but I think that it could have been avoided.

Overall this a very good game.  A lot of people stopped playing around Mines of Moria because they didn't like some of the changes made with the game but I like that things are a little different as you play through.  I do wish they had changed legendary weapons to start from the first time you get one to the way they are now but you have to wait till I think it was the rohan xpac to get the newer system. 

If you don't mind playing as a solo player for a while until you reach the lastest xpac this is an amazing game.  There are some good kins around that you can join to avoid playing solo but I recommend solo for a while till you get a good grip on how to play your class. 

immodium

k61977 said:

Dislike:
Outleveling content

Should purchase turtle stone from store. When equipped it stops all xp gain.

The reason I don't play any more is because it's a game that has not aged well at all. Like a lot of old MMOs.

Sovrath

I stopped playing.

I can't stand the art design of the armor and weapons
The quests have gone down hill since the start of the game
Mounted combat for me seems "borked" as my horse slides all over the place
Helm's Deep was a huge disappointment. I finished it with one character and never want to do it again. It felt tedious. 

I just can't do it anymore. It doesn't feel like "Lord of the Rings" to me.

joeslowmoe

This game is really fun from an immersion and story stand point.  Combat is fine for an old dog like me that doesn't mind the older combat style of MMOs and I really like some of the systems they have such as the gambit and rune systems.  I find most of the classes are pretty fun to play, but definitely wish there was more social activity at the lower levels whenever I start a new character.

Filbur

Lord of the Rings Online was fun until Mirkwood and Isengart, after that you could actually see the layoffs that happened at Turbine and the quality quickly went downhill. Nowaday the game is just a shell of its former self, with poor writing, rehashing of ten year old art assets and awful world building.

xpowderx

I am enjoying LOTRO.  But then I am a new player.  So I dont have the disgruntled burnt out veteran look.  I play it slow.  Even do quests that give little experience.  Just to enjoy the full immersion of LOTRO.  While older players who have played it for years move on. A newer player like me moves in.  Population is not bad.  Im on Landroval.  Like my server and the kin I joined.  Very welcoming place for a noob like me!

Po_gg

@xpowderx ; So you got the quad-pack, maybe missed my comment to you   Most likely it will be on sale in two weeks, at the Anniversary... especially if you take it slow anyways, and not at the expansions yet, you could've wait for a bit maybe. The account-wide mount is great, last year there were several key-throwing campaign on mmo sites (here on mmorpg.com I think they had it twice), with an account-wide mount in it. Perhaps a few of those keys are still floating around, but since you can unlock it only once, that's already water under bridge
Landy is a great server, if you're curious about the biggest events in LotRO you're in the right place. There will be the Spring racing carnival in May, one of my favourite riding events (I'm only a low-level there, my mains are here in Eu)


As for Bachus's research, I play it because it's one of my main games, simple as that.
3 favs, the lore / story, the community and roleplay, and the world (especially the Shire ).
A few more honorary mentions, the class design (sadly it was watered up somewhat by the changes over the years), the music system, chicken play ( :waving: ), in-game music (Chance is great), housing and neighborhoods, crafting (sadly also watered up a bit).
3 dislikes, the skirmish system, the LI grind (we'll see how imbueing will address that), and the trait trees introduction.

Kayo83

I played it for years before F2P and have recently considered joining up again with some old friend(s). Downloaded the game, played for an hour or so and its just not the same game anymore. First its the cash shop ... first loading screen I got was one promoting stat increase items. Played for a bit only to find its been dumbed down more than ever.

Needless to say that was weeks ago. While its still in the back of my mind to join, for friends and since there are hardly any better options left at this point, I havent touched it again since.

That said the game still has a great environment, and cleverly designed classes. Not to mention great story... albeit thats probably because it piggybacks off of the LotR trilogy. If I HAD to choose an MMO to play right now, LotRO would probably be it.

PurplePoloPlayer

By far the worst PvP in an MMO ever.

Excession

PurplePoloPlayer said:

By far the worst PvP in an MMO ever.

PvP in BDO would like a word with you.....

PvMP is what kept me playing LoTRO for as long as I did.

Playing as a creep was a lot of fun, (a lot more fun for me than playing a freep) even if it was only in the moors.

Amathe

I played LOTRO briefly. What I didn't like was that the scenes and images in the game did not match the scenes and images I had formed in my mind while reading the books many, many times. That is not a criticism of the game. I just didn't enjoy replacing my own images with ones they created. 

Sulaa

I did quit few months after F2P transition.


Why?  

1. Cause I can't stand microtransactions/RMT/cash shop.

Additionally:

2.  - quality drop, streamlining and some design changes also did pushed me out of game (althorogh if it would be P2P without cash shop/RMT  then propably I would play longer before quitting)

3. Lack of improvement in AI,   long time to fix bugs/exploits, etc


Out of curiosity I did revisit Lotro some time late on, but it was just a sad husk of former Lotro. 

rodarin

PurplePoloPlayer said:

By far the worst PvP in an MMO ever.

Ironically at one point it could have had the best. But they had a bunch of idiots in charge of it and they tried to do all sorts of stupid crap to spice it up and it just killed it. They also have zero idea about balance or how to scale damages in groups verses solo.

But at launch and despite its age you could have 300 or more player characters all moving in the same space. It was slide show for some but with a decent computer it was playable. But anything under 200 was not bad.

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

Nebless

Played off and on since 2008/9 ? both a sub and F2p.  Played steady when I had my sub, only play off and on now that it's F2p.  Played last night for the first time in a month.

Like
- Stories / quest write up's
- The world look
- The different zone's.  If I don't want to do a zone, I have other choices.

Dislike
- Housing set up, too confining with it's decoration hooks
- Combat.  Not very action packed.  If I'm on my Champ it's like playing with piano key's, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4 etc.... with some specials popping up.  If it's my warden it's just fist, shield, fist, shield, gambit repeat.
- The music as it rarely fit's the game action.  Sure if I'm just riding along a quiet instrumental is fine mood music.  But if I'm in a life and death fight?  Like how AoC's music changes as you fight.

The middle items
- Character look, sure they could be better.  A nice slider system to really make your guy unique would go a long way to help
- Quest's.  Too many gather / fetch filler's. 

Lord.Bachus

blueturtle13 said:

I never liked the classes and how they played. The world is pretty though.

There is only one class i am interested in this game, and thats the warden.. probably hte most fun class i played in any tab targetting game...  Untill the big battles where added, i disliked them so much that i never looked back to the game..  i can not push my Warden trough the content..  Sad thing is they are part of the main story line...

Here are my LIkes : 
- Warden Class
- Story and Lore, feeling connected to the Books
- Community, by far the best roleplaying community in any game...

Dislikes : 
- Big battles
- lack of Dungeons and raids in the last few expansions which turned the game into a solo experience
- annimations and combat (outside of my Warden) have allways felt not really fluent...

But i have very favorable memmories of this game, and probably will allways be remembered as Bachus the Brave..   Its the only game where actually a wellknown bard sung a song about my "bravery" 

eddieg50

"I stopped playing.

I can't stand the art design of the armor and weapons
The quests have gone down hill since the start of the game
Mounted combat for me seems "borked" as my horse slides all over the place
Helm's Deep was a huge disappointment. I finished it with one character and never want to do it again. It felt tedious. 

I just can't do it anymore. It doesn't feel like "Lord of the Rings" to"

Quests are certainly much better than Terra 

perrin82

Torval said:

There is a lot I like about the world. It's immersive. I enjoy the lore and the quests.

I just hate how Turbine runs and mmo. I pretty much blame the upper management for a design by committee feeling, lack of follow through with systems they create, and a design direction that can feel all over the place. It's not that they make content focusing on one thing in an expac and then different in another, but that the game feels like it's constantly going in different directions all the time. It's just feels frenetic and chaotic a lot of the time. U18 is a pretty good example.

That said, I love my characters. I still play, usually until Turbine does something boneheaded like U18 and I need to take a break.

By any chance did you play on Gladden?

Po_gg

Torval said:

That said, I love my characters. I still play, usually until Turbine does something boneheaded like U18 and I need to take a break.

You said in the other thread no Anniversary resub this time, because of U18 May I ask what's the issue with it? Not pulling the leg here, I haven't bought it so far either, but mosly because of I'm heavily in TSW currently, so I wouldn't play U18 anyways.

What I collected so far: it's massively overpriced, without a reason (you should pay for the raid, which will only arrive months later), and it's a swing back to the dark side of "regular endgame grind", with the Morgul Crests. Price will be dropped I think, so just a temporary issue, but the dungeon / raid grind is not my cup of tea so I'll skip that part, along with the top quality items and gear set. Never was an endgear-chaser player anyways, hated the radiance too  
Is there something more bad in U18 I've missed?