Polished game hmm.. yeah I will hand it to LOTRO for this, but I must say.. there is ZERO depth to this game. I can play this game solo all the way to the finish line-- Wheres the sense of community? Oh wait, let me see, there is a chat box.. yep and you can ask questions and get them answered by some willing soul. Grouping is made available, but all people want to do is get thier quest finished, out of the way and then its see you later-- which incidently you never do. I've grouped about 5 times for no more than 5 minutes each time. Why? Because I happened to run by get a random invite and once THIER quest was complete, they disband. Oh boy, thats alot of fun.. and off on my own again. I may as well play this game on Xbox as a solo player game and if I have questions about where this town is or that npc is, I can go to VN boards and get it answered just as quickly.. blah
News flash: Gamers dont want depth. They want to game, kill things, look cool, and overall have fun. Why do you think WoW is so succesful? Trust me it's not the depth of the game that counts, it's the 'fun factor'.
I played the beta of LOTRO for about a month maybe a little more. I just wasnt impressed by it. If you love LOTR lore you will probably love the game. As a stand alone game its just not all that great. Im not saying its horrible. Im not saying dont buy it. Its just pretty average for someone who is not a big fan of LOTR.
As far as the community goes my experience didnt show them to be anything great. it kind of reminded me of the WoW crowd. Honestly though I wouldnt judge the community by a beta experience good or bad. You really have to wait for it to go live and see what you end up with. It always seems that a beta brings out the worst in people.
The game world is kind of small but well done. The game looks really nice and since the system requirments arent all crazy like VG a lot more people should be able to see them. Combat is pretty much more of the same. Nothing new here but it works and if you have ever played an MMO there really isnt much of a learning curve. You should be able to pick up on it pretty easily.
I never really had to group in a pug since I was playing with friends so im not sure how that whole thing works. Some say its easy to find a group for others its not so easy.
All in all its a good game just really seemed like somehting was missing to me. It may be that Im just not huge LOTR fan so maybe Im just not "getting it" On its own its a very vanilla feeling MMO. Everything they are doing has been done but LOTRO puts it all together pretty well. For me it would be a try before you buy.
I have to say, LOTRO disappointed me as well, the graphics are nice, but the world is small, the quests are soloable, no need for community, and when I did get in a group if I didnt have the rest of my quest done and 1 or 2 of the members from the group did, it disbanded, not very friendly or nice, also, what is the fun in going into everything being instanced, even going into building in the towns are instanced, its just you and the NPC's WOW loads of interractment, dungeons are instanced too, I mean come on, the only thing that is not instanced is the world itself, and if you want to stop and say high to someone, pfft forget about that happening, I tried to talk to other players, and it was like we are too good or to busy to talk to you. The community is totally rude, and obnoxious, I see this being more of a kids game than an adult.
News flash: Gamers dont want depth. They want to game, kill things, look cool, and overall have fun. Why do you think WoW is so succesful? Trust me it's not the depth of the game that counts, it's the 'fun factor'.
umm I personnally want depth, I personnally want to fee like I am in the game, yes I want to kill thing, look cool in some uber armor or clothing, and I want to have fun, but I also want to feel like the game is mine, I want to get lost in the emmense beauty of the land, I want to go deaf from the heart thumping sound of swords clashing, sheilds banging and overall sound quality of the game. I want emersion.
The game is not out so to talk about the player base when it is only beta tester seem very foolish to me.
So you could not get a group to form, so what, only games I know that groups jump out of the wood-work for you is COH/COV, it takes maybe a second to get a group as that game is set-up so that the more people you have the more mobs you have and groups get huge exp over solo because of that one reason.
As far as other games go like WoW I normally only group with people from my guild or people I knew by seeing them around and how they acted before grouping.
If you like to talk about how the group system makes you want to solo, or the group system is useless as people do not use it because of a bug or something like that is one thing.....but to talk about the people playing in the beta make less then zero sense....after all it is only beta testers
Good luck on your solo life and my God Bless you and yours.
The game is not out so to talk about the player base when it is only beta tester seem very foolish to me. So you could not get a group to form, so what, only games I know that groups jump out of the wood-work for you is COH/COV, it takes maybe a second to get a group as that game is set-up so that the more people you have the more mobs you have and groups get huge exp over solo because of that one reason. As far as other games go like WoW I normally only group with people from my guild or people I knew by seeing them around and how they acted before grouping. If you like to talk about how the group system makes you want to solo, or the group system is useless as people do not use it because of a bug or something like that is one thing.....but to talk about the people playing in the beta make less then zero sense....after all it is only beta testers Good luck on your solo life and my God Bless you and yours.
how is it foolish, a majority of the player base is usually ones who played in beta, I feel sorry for the ones who come into the game with the understanding of making friends and building a community, because its not going to happen in LOTRO.
Can't wait till everything is tuned up and release, what will be cool is that poeple who don't like the game will boil away and fun adventures will take over the landscape . Most every time That i log in , someone in kinship is looking for an adventure.
Today 3 of us who are lvl 15 tried to do the Great Borrows, We didn't even make it past the 2 dwarfs lol .
Trying to match this game up with any mmo is not really going to work becuae the game is all it's own thing. It is Middle Earth.
your not comprehending what I am saying. Usually the ones who beta test a game will more than likely become subscribers and part of the community, your wanting to start a flame fest, well I am not going to feed the trolls.
I really look forward to trying this game out. The vanguard fanboys saying it lacks depth and stuff just makes me want to try it more since their idea of a good game is very far from mine.
everything being instanced, even going into building in the towns are instanced, its just you and the NPC's WOW loads of interractment, dungeons are instanced too,
This is flat out untrue -- you can go into the auction house and find many fellow players listing items, or you can go into a tavern with your friends. Sure you might go into a tavern and no one else will be there, but that doesn't mean they can't be!
The epic quest lines have instanced dungeons. Yep. So what? This way the story line can focus around the group of players that you gather together to complete the epic without someone coming in and ruining it by training mobs, kill stealing, or ninja looting. That to me is just great game design.
As for grouping, I see very few people having trouble getting a group together. In fact, from my days in EQ1, it is far quicker to get a group going. And if you can't get a group together in LOTRO, you have solo quests to fall back on unlike EQ1 where if you couldn't group, you couldn't progress very easily.
If it's the length of time the groups last in LOTRO that bothers you, then find like-minded marathon players. Form a guild. You can't complain about the 'hand-holding' quests and then expect the game to hand hold you in finding a group. That is the definition of hypocrisy.
_____________________________ Currently Playing: LOTRO; DDO Played: AC2, AO, Auto Assault, CoX, DAoC, DDO, Earth&Beyond, EQ1, EQ2, EVE, Fallen Earth, Jumpgate, Roma Victor, Second Life, SWG, V:SoH, WoW, World War II Online.
Games I'm watching: Infinity: The Quest for Earth, Force of Arms.
Your pleasantly surprised after VG tragedy? I dont see what the problem is with VG. Most people moaning about VG are the bored WOW players who realised this wasnt a rip off game from WOW that they could just come to and enjoy. Its a clone from EQ1 and EQ1 was great. VG for me is the best MMO i have played since EQ1... no doubt. VG to me has been great and i have been playing MMO's for a long time. The mounts and flying mounts and huge world are rarely around in other MMOs. People are slating VG as there own machines are not up to scratch to play it.. and they know its not easy. How long did you try VG? its only been out a month. Its not dead its beginning.
LOTRO will be a very restricted MMO. 4 races says alot already.. class customisaion non apperent and shallow crafting (if you call it that). You are looking forward to an MMO like this? Sure people keep saying "well they had to stick to tolkien lore" and they did this... but that is why it is such a restricted/casual mmo. People who want to be frodo for a few weeks will love it.. as will most people who like the books. But people who love mmos ... this will just not have enough there to keep them playing it.
What, the VG servers crashed again so you thought you post on the LOTRO forums to kill time?
It's really starting to get funny, all the Vanguard fans coming on the LOTRO boards. I know you're angry at having to pay for beta 6. I know you're angry that Brad is abusing your loyalties to pay for the game. But please, try not to take it out on we LOTRO players. It isn't our fault that Turbine will release a finished, polished game. So try not to be too jealous of our good fortune.
_____________________________ Currently Playing: LOTRO; DDO Played: AC2, AO, Auto Assault, CoX, DAoC, DDO, Earth&Beyond, EQ1, EQ2, EVE, Fallen Earth, Jumpgate, Roma Victor, Second Life, SWG, V:SoH, WoW, World War II Online.
Games I'm watching: Infinity: The Quest for Earth, Force of Arms.
Your pleasantly surprised after VG tragedy? I dont see what the problem is with VG. Most people moaning about VG are the bored WOW players who realised this wasnt a rip off game from WOW that they could just come to and enjoy. Its a clone from EQ1 and EQ1 was great. VG for me is the best MMO i have played since EQ1... no doubt. VG to me has been great and i have been playing MMO's for a long time. The mounts and flying mounts and huge world are rarely around in other MMOs. People are slating VG as there own machines are not up to scratch to play it.. and they know its not easy. How long did you try VG? its only been out a month. Its not dead its beginning.
LOTRO will be a very restricted MMO. 4 races says alot already.. class customisaion non apperent and shallow crafting (if you call it that). You are looking forward to an MMO like this? Sure people keep saying "well they had to stick to tolkien lore" and they did this... but that is why it is such a restricted/casual mmo. People who want to be frodo for a few weeks will love it.. as will most people who like the books. But people who love mmos ... this will just not have enough there to keep them playing it.
I think VG looks like an amazing MMO, but I will not play it until everyone stops talking about how buggy it is. LOTRO is an amazing MMO, and i know because I'm playing it. Yeah there are four races, but this game is sticking to the Tolkien lore (thank god). I believe that in time you'll find that more freedom will be introduced into every aspect of the game. There is so much that could be added in, many times more than what is in already.
VG has its points, and so does LOTRO. Someday I will play both, and be at peace with the MMO world, making friends with elf and orc alike.
Currently: Playing EVE Online Previous: FFXI, Dragonrealms, sad little stint in WOWland. Awaiting: Fallen Earth, Hero''s Journey, Tabula Rasa, Age of Conan.
I am pretty much sold on LotRO. still some wrinkles to iron out but all in all it is a blast to play. Was grouped through the whole session and we had a pretty good time, Died a lot though .
I want to add, I am finding the world to have a tremendous amount of freedom, Just as much freedom as Lineage 2. I don't need to see vast waste lands of none populated areas , i'm not a virtue tourist, i'm a gamer
I have seen the beta running first hand. It looks great, it runs great, I have no complaints about system requirements, quest bugs, or even lag spikes to complain about. What I do have is pretty simple, I don't need you in order to get on with this game, I don't need you at all, ever. If I actually do need you, it is for no more than enough time to kill X boss so I can move my scraggly arse on.
Turbine really has done it again. This game does have a good deal of polish, but no real depth. I know this is okay for some of you, but my MMO life is not about leveling and collecting (although being competitive is nice). It IS about community, fun, knowledge, learning and uncertainty. LoRTO has failed in all but one, and that is fun. I am sure this will happily wear off for me before it goes live.
Played (more than a month): SWG, Second Life, Tabula Rasa, Lineage 2, Everquest 2, EvE, MxO, Ryzom.
I have seen the beta running first hand. It looks great, it runs great, I have no complaints about system requirements, quest bugs, or even lag spikes to complain about. What I do have is pretty simple, I don't need you in order to get on with this game, I don't need you at all, ever. If I actually do need you, it is for no more than enough time to kill X boss so I can move my scraggly arse on.
Turbine really has done it again. This game does have a good deal of polish, but no real depth. I know this is okay for some of you, but my MMO life is not about leveling and collecting (although being competitive is nice). It IS about community, fun, knowledge, learning and uncertainty. LoRTO has failed in all but one, and that is fun. I am sure this will happily wear off for me before it goes live.
MMOs are not about sitting on your arse waiting for 12 hours waiting to kill boss xx either in hopes that the sword of extreme whupass will drop, nor is it about endless time sinks like corpse runs. Sorry but tsomeone needs to tell Brad the days of the Diku mud with a graphical overlay are history now. Timesinks and mob camping are not challenging or deep they are only painful and boring
Lotro was crap felt like i was in a cage with all the damn instances and it was not fun at all. Vanguard was wide and open like an adventure could start anyware. To me it was basically DDO with hobbits.
I'm on the LotRO bandwagon. Looks great and plays great.
I understand that some people want depth (whatever definition of depth is to them) and believe the game will be hurt because it lacks it. I tend to disagree. I think people play games to have fun. Tedium doesn't equate fun. And if "depth" is the ultimate killer of MMOs, then people really need to tell Blizzard and NCSoft that WoW and COH should be shutdown. Clearly those 2 games are over 2 years overdue of crashing and burning.
Lotro was crap felt like i was in a cage with all the damn instances and it was not fun at all. Vanguard was wide and open like an adventure could start anyware. To me it was basically DDO with hobbits.
Really , anywhere ? But your still waiting for it to start ? Almost a month after release , here have one on me dude
That reminds me when I sipped my first ale in (LotRO) game , and my monitor started going all crazy. It hought my video card was bugging out, but here , i'm just drunk in game totally freaked me out , ithought I broke my new computer
Lotro was crap felt like i was in a cage with all the damn instances and it was not fun at all. Vanguard was wide and open like an adventure could start anyware. To me it was basically DDO with hobbits.
this is like: "The sky outside was so wide and open, like I could fly anytime.... but it never happened" ^^
I have to say that after playing the beta for a few days that this has got to be the most polished beta I have ever played. It looks good, performance is fantastic even on top settings and most important it is fun to play. This is the first game that's come along which has a chance of denting the WoW subscription base.
Lotro was crap felt like i was in a cage with all the damn instances and it was not fun at all. Vanguard was wide and open like an adventure could start anyware. To me it was basically DDO with hobbits.
I just laugh as I read this post. All the damn instances? EQ2 has a lot of instances but not LOTRO. By the way I have played LOTRO since nov. not just a temp stress test invite. I was in Vanguard beta also, tried for over a month. Yes Vanguard is wide open and empty. LOTRO is smaller in land mass (but still huge 50,000 sq. acres at the moment) and filled with lots of stuff not long empty spaces. The topper is DDO with Hobbits? I am a DDO player have been since it came out. LOTRO is nothing like DDO not even close. Now this person may not like LOTRO but it is not for the reasons mentioned since the things mentioned are simply not true at all and not a matter of opinion. If this poster actually played LOTRO as he said then he is simply trolling since the comments are absolutly silly and untrue. Like I said they may not like LOTRO but the reasons stated makes me wonder if they were actually playing LOTRO.
Doubt full that they tried the game , The game is pretty much as wide open as any mmorpg that is out. The Barrows area is 3 times the size as lineage 2 Execution grounds, The Start areas are on par with any start area , and to top off the start are they introduce the end noobie instance , which imo is brilliant.
LOTRO is a great game IMO. The devs have done a great job with immersion, and kept to the lore as much as possible, and still made a MMO that is fun to play. Kudos to Turbine.
How anyone can say anything positive about Vanguard is amazing. Must not have played it much. I was playing this morning and finally in disgust stopped. Far too many bugs, too much code that forces the game to move like a slug at times. So typical of Sony to release such buggy software.
Comments
I played the beta of LOTRO for about a month maybe a little more. I just wasnt impressed by it. If you love LOTR lore you will probably love the game. As a stand alone game its just not all that great. Im not saying its horrible. Im not saying dont buy it. Its just pretty average for someone who is not a big fan of LOTR.
As far as the community goes my experience didnt show them to be anything great. it kind of reminded me of the WoW crowd. Honestly though I wouldnt judge the community by a beta experience good or bad. You really have to wait for it to go live and see what you end up with. It always seems that a beta brings out the worst in people.
The game world is kind of small but well done. The game looks really nice and since the system requirments arent all crazy like VG a lot more people should be able to see them. Combat is pretty much more of the same. Nothing new here but it works and if you have ever played an MMO there really isnt much of a learning curve. You should be able to pick up on it pretty easily.
I never really had to group in a pug since I was playing with friends so im not sure how that whole thing works. Some say its easy to find a group for others its not so easy.
All in all its a good game just really seemed like somehting was missing to me. It may be that Im just not huge LOTR fan so maybe Im just not "getting it" On its own its a very vanilla feeling MMO. Everything they are doing has been done but LOTRO puts it all together pretty well. For me it would be a try before you buy.
umm I personnally want depth, I personnally want to fee like I am in the game, yes I want to kill thing, look cool in some uber armor or clothing, and I want to have fun, but I also want to feel like the game is mine, I want to get lost in the emmense beauty of the land, I want to go deaf from the heart thumping sound of swords clashing, sheilds banging and overall sound quality of the game. I want emersion.The game is not out so to talk about the player base when it is only beta tester seem very foolish to me.
So you could not get a group to form, so what, only games I know that groups jump out of the wood-work for you is COH/COV, it takes maybe a second to get a group as that game is set-up so that the more people you have the more mobs you have and groups get huge exp over solo because of that one reason.
As far as other games go like WoW I normally only group with people from my guild or people I knew by seeing them around and how they acted before grouping.
If you like to talk about how the group system makes you want to solo, or the group system is useless as people do not use it because of a bug or something like that is one thing.....but to talk about the people playing in the beta make less then zero sense....after all it is only beta testers
Good luck on your solo life and my God Bless you and yours.
lets see 10000 to 100000 beta tester make up for over millions of players in released games
WOW says over 9 million
L2 says over 20 million
EQ2 says over 2 million
yea the player base is the thousands of beta testers...remeber this is not the open beta either
Today 3 of us who are lvl 15 tried to do the Great Borrows, We didn't even make it past the 2 dwarfs lol .
Trying to match this game up with any mmo is not really going to work becuae the game is all it's own thing. It is Middle Earth.
who me ?
your not comprehending what I am saying. Usually the ones who beta test a game will more than likely become subscribers and part of the community, your wanting to start a flame fest, well I am not going to feed the trolls.
This is flat out untrue -- you can go into the auction house and find many fellow players listing items, or you can go into a tavern with your friends. Sure you might go into a tavern and no one else will be there, but that doesn't mean they can't be!
The epic quest lines have instanced dungeons. Yep. So what? This way the story line can focus around the group of players that you gather together to complete the epic without someone coming in and ruining it by training mobs, kill stealing, or ninja looting. That to me is just great game design.
As for grouping, I see very few people having trouble getting a group together. In fact, from my days in EQ1, it is far quicker to get a group going. And if you can't get a group together in LOTRO, you have solo quests to fall back on unlike EQ1 where if you couldn't group, you couldn't progress very easily.
If it's the length of time the groups last in LOTRO that bothers you, then find like-minded marathon players. Form a guild. You can't complain about the 'hand-holding' quests and then expect the game to hand hold you in finding a group. That is the definition of hypocrisy.
_____________________________
Currently Playing: LOTRO; DDO
Played: AC2, AO, Auto Assault, CoX, DAoC, DDO, Earth&Beyond, EQ1, EQ2, EVE, Fallen Earth, Jumpgate, Roma Victor, Second Life, SWG, V:SoH, WoW, World War II Online.
Games I'm watching: Infinity: The Quest for Earth, Force of Arms.
Find the Truth: http://www.factcheck.org/
What, the VG servers crashed again so you thought you post on the LOTRO forums to kill time?
It's really starting to get funny, all the Vanguard fans coming on the LOTRO boards. I know you're angry at having to pay for beta 6. I know you're angry that Brad is abusing your loyalties to pay for the game. But please, try not to take it out on we LOTRO players. It isn't our fault that Turbine will release a finished, polished game. So try not to be too jealous of our good fortune.
_____________________________
Currently Playing: LOTRO; DDO
Played: AC2, AO, Auto Assault, CoX, DAoC, DDO, Earth&Beyond, EQ1, EQ2, EVE, Fallen Earth, Jumpgate, Roma Victor, Second Life, SWG, V:SoH, WoW, World War II Online.
Games I'm watching: Infinity: The Quest for Earth, Force of Arms.
Find the Truth: http://www.factcheck.org/
VG has its points, and so does LOTRO. Someday I will play both, and be at peace with the MMO world, making friends with elf and orc alike.
Currently: Playing EVE Online
Previous: FFXI, Dragonrealms, sad little stint in WOWland.
Awaiting: Fallen Earth, Hero''s Journey, Tabula Rasa, Age of Conan.
I want to add, I am finding the world to have a tremendous amount of freedom, Just as much freedom as Lineage 2. I don't need to see vast waste lands of none populated areas , i'm not a virtue tourist, i'm a gamer
who me ?
Turbine really has done it again. This game does have a good deal of polish, but no real depth. I know this is okay for some of you, but my MMO life is not about leveling and collecting (although being competitive is nice). It IS about community, fun, knowledge, learning and uncertainty. LoRTO has failed in all but one, and that is fun. I am sure this will happily wear off for me before it goes live.
Played (more than a month): SWG, Second Life, Tabula Rasa, Lineage 2, Everquest 2, EvE, MxO, Ryzom.
Tried: WoW, Shadowbane, Anarchy Online, Everquest, WWII Online, Planetside
Beta: Lotro, Tabula Rasa, WAR.
MMOs are not about sitting on your arse waiting for 12 hours waiting to kill boss xx either in hopes that the sword of extreme whupass will drop, nor is it about endless time sinks like corpse runs. Sorry but tsomeone needs to tell Brad the days of the Diku mud with a graphical overlay are history now. Timesinks and mob camping are not challenging or deep they are only painful and boring
I miss DAoC
I understand that some people want depth (whatever definition of depth is to them) and believe the game will be hurt because it lacks it. I tend to disagree. I think people play games to have fun. Tedium doesn't equate fun. And if "depth" is the ultimate killer of MMOs, then people really need to tell Blizzard and NCSoft that WoW and COH should be shutdown. Clearly those 2 games are over 2 years overdue of crashing and burning.
That reminds me when I sipped my first ale in (LotRO) game , and my monitor started going all crazy. It hought my video card was bugging out, but here , i'm just drunk in game
who me ?
who me ?
How anyone can say anything positive about Vanguard is amazing. Must not have played it much. I was playing this morning and finally in disgust stopped. Far too many bugs, too much code that forces the game to move like a slug at times. So typical of Sony to release such buggy software.