Well, reviews are entirely subjective. LotRO is a pretty decent diversion for a little while until better games come out. Right now, at least for me, it is better than the other offerings out there. It's a solid game and at times the graphics seriously blow everything else out of the water. Gameplay is relatively solid and the quests are well written. As long as I keep ooc chat turned off it is actually an enjoyable game. The community on the other hand... well.... ooc chat in lotro is a step down from your average barrens chat unfortunately.
I really do believe that Turbine has outdone everyone else in one regard though. No other mmorpg has released as stable as LotRO, if every other game in development today releases with the stability and apparent polish that LotRO had at launch then only good things can happen for this hobby.
First off LOTRO is absolutely not a WoW clone. Just because it is fantasy themed doesn't make it a WoW clone anymore than WoW is an EQ1 clone.
I was in the beta and I felt the game was OK, not great not bad, just OK. I will admit I was a bit soured by the fact that they couldn't get an annoying bug fixed before release: all servers would appear closed to some people even if they were actually up. When I was playing, I just didn't feel like I was in Tolkien's world. Fans of the books would probably recognize more lore than I would, so they will probably enjoy it more than I.
The players who find the game boring do so because they are not the type of player that Turbine is designing for, which is people who like Story and Community. Traditional hard core mmogers who are used to skipping the quests, skipping the lore, skipping the story and simply grinding to Level nn so they can hit the end game and PvP will hate LotRO. In the same way, most fans of LotRO will absolutlely hate a mmog like Darkfall, because it caters to a very different style of play and player.
Originally posted by Lukain I agree LOTRO is nothing like WOW , My analogy WOW is like a Porsche where LOTRO is more like a Ford its lacking all the refinements of the Porsche like Shared Bank , Dressing Room , Real Trade skills , LFG tool , UI enhancements , Guild Bank only 5 character slots, ect ect
Lukain "Worried Founder"
Not to bring up an argument here, but I just have to note a couple of things: LotR has a dressing room. CTRL+click an item (which I believe can be rebound if you wish), and it brings it up. LFG tool: They (LotR) have a TERRIFIC LFG tool. You can click on your quests to set yourself LFG for that exact quest, or set up a note for next to your name in the LFG window, etc. It has an absolutely awesome LFG tool... it's just hardly anyone uses the dang thing. No, they'd prefer to spam /lff and /ooc channels, and whine and complain that they can't find a group. <sigh>
Trade Skills: I hope you're not saying that WoW's trade skill system is a 'Porsche' here, because I thought (note, this is my personal opinion as a person who loves trade skills) that WoW's system was boringly horrible. I maxed it a few times, but was never impressed by it at all. I'm not going to rave about LotR's... I do like the crit system a lot, but the rest of it... meh. It's just a generic trade skill system, sure. Same as WoW's (again, in my opinion). Though farming is pretty 'new' trade-skill wise. I do hold out a little bit of hope for some more work in the trade skill field on Turbine's end.
Shared Bank, Guild Bank, more than 5 Character slots per server: Oh yes, I wish they had these, definitely! They will be adding more Bank Slots, I just have no idea if Shared or Guild will be a part of it, or how much more space it will be.
More UI Enhancements: I do believe Frosty (Turbine UI Dev) has stated that they're coming. He posts on the lotrointerface forums regularly. And I sure hope they do come. I really don't need WoW's full mod-anything (because I get sick and tired of having to fix my mods after tiny little patches, hah), but some more tweaking would definitely be nice.
-signed, a WoW Player & a LotR Lifer ...simply, a total MMO Addict.
I agree LOTRO is nothing like WOW , My analogy WOW is like a Porsche where LOTRO is more like a Ford its lacking all the refinements of the Porsche like Shared Bank , Dressing Room , Real Trade skills , LFG tool , UI enhancements , Guild Bank only 5 character slots, ect ect
Lukain "Worried Founder"
Not to bring up an argument here, but I just have to note a couple of things:
LotR has a dressing room. CTRL+click an item (which I believe can be rebound if you wish), and it brings it up.
You are correct "My Bad" would like to see a few more options like a larger window & zoom , maybe even a way to check quest rewards what they would look like before you hand in the quest .. again :My Bad"
LFG tool: They (LotR) have a TERRIFIC LFG tool. You can click on your quests to set yourself LFG for that exact quest, or set up a note for next to your name in the LFG window, etc. It has an absolutely awesome LFG tool... it's just hardly anyone uses the dang thing. No, they'd prefer to spam /lff and /ooc channels, and whine and complain that they can't find a group. <sigh>
Honestly does anyone use it ? I have set myself up in there & Never ever got a fellowship from it .. I guess I should have said better LFG tool as the current one just dosent work I got 80% of my groups from /lff 39 Hunter "Insert message here" & 20% from tells from people looking for a Minstril , actually being a minstril is maybe the best lff tool there is
Trade Skills: I hope you're not saying that WoW's trade skill system is a 'Porsche' here, because I thought (note, this is my personal opinion as a person who loves trade skills) that WoW's system was boringly horrible. I maxed it a few times, but was never impressed by it at all. I'm not going to rave about LotR's... I do like the crit system a lot, but the rest of it... meh. It's just a generic trade skill system, sure. Same as WoW's (again, in my opinion). Though farming is pretty 'new' trade-skill wise. I do hold out a little bit of hope for some more work in the trade skill field on Turbine's end.
Not really but WOW tradskills are better , but they have had 2 years to improve em , so the jurys out for the time being , I just expected a 2007 MMO to have better , like making Jewellry BOE a month after release , wasn't there any beta testing ?
Shared Bank, Guild Bank, more than 5 Character slots per server: Oh yes, I wish they had these, definitely! They will be adding more Bank Slots, I just have no idea if Shared or Guild will be a part of it, or how much more space it will be.
Are you sure More bank slot are going to be added ? I have not seen any posts on that , can you link it ?
More UI Enhancements: I do believe Frosty (Turbine UI Dev) has stated that they're coming. He posts on the lotrointerface forums regularly. And I sure hope they do come. I really don't need WoW's full mod-anything (because I get sick and tired of having to fix my mods after tiny little patches, hah), but some more tweaking would definitely be nice.
I loved the WOW mods , they could easy make it so you wouldn't have to update your mods every patch , Blizzard like to change the toc just to pissed modders of "well i think it is toc been so long
Originally posted by Lukain ...would like to see a few more options like a larger window & zoom , maybe even a way to check quest rewards what they would look like before you hand in the quest ...
You can check quest rewards (I do it all the time!) just CTRL+click the icon of the reward in the quest window. Zooming... oh yes, that would be wonderful, I absolutely agree!
Originally posted by Lukain Honestly does anyone use it ? I have set myself up in there & Never ever got a fellowship from it .. I guess I should have said better LFG tool as the current one just dosent work I got 80% of my groups from /lff 39 Hunter "Insert message here" & 20% from tells from people looking for a Minstril , actually being a minstril is maybe the best lff tool there is
Yeah that's why I said...sadly no-one ever uses it! It's great, so why do people never use it? But... it seems like people prefer to use chat channels rather than LFG tools. In just about every game I've played, the LFG tools sit (mostly) unused, while people clamor for LFG channels. I guess people (in general) just prefer the channels?
Originally posted by Lukain Not really but WOW tradskills are better , but they have had 2 years to improve em , so the jurys out for the time being , I just expected a 2007 MMO to have better , like making Jewellry BOE a month after release , wasn't there any beta testing ?
I guess it's just my personal preference, but I don't find WoW's tradeskill system to be any better (or any worse, really). Just a bit different. As to why nothing was BoE (not just jewelry)? I dunno. I am glad they fixed that, but I don't know why they didn't see that it needed to be that way after all the testing well before release.
Originally posted by Lukain Are you sure More bank slot are going to be added ? I have not seen any posts on that , can you link it ?
I don't recall if there was a quote on the forums... I found the info from some other source(s}, I think: interviews of Turbine's CEO, and one (or two?) of Turbine's regular IRC dev chats. Looking for linkage now... Ah hah! Here's one quote, from here: <warorc> Hi. Will you extend the bankroom? The bank is a little bit small <LOTRO_Tens> Yes. We agree! <LOTRO_Tens> We currently hope to have upgradeable bank storage ready to go for the Book 10 update. <LOTRO_Tens> So you can look forward to it then!
Turbine seems to do frequent (monthly?) Stratics HoC dev chats, so they're also good places to look for info. Here's the latest one. I think they're due for another one soon?
The players who find the game boring do so because they are not the type of player that Turbine is designing for, which is people who like Story and Community. Traditional hard core mmogers who are used to skipping the quests, skipping the lore, skipping the story and simply grinding to Level nn so they can hit the end game and PvP will hate LotRO. In the same way, most fans of LotRO will absolutlely hate a mmog like Darkfall, because it caters to a very different style of play and player.
Community? What community? I like the story. I don't like that if you aren't at the same quest as your friends, it has to be repeated to bring someone up to speed. Or, some play more hours than others, and you no longer can play with them, or vice versa. That puts a pox on community.
Congratz on your first day on the job Donna, we should all do the best with what comes our way. That said -i have to wonder how a game that brings absolutly nothing new to our playground can score a 8,5. Personatly im so sick and tired of dwarfs and elves i spit on people with short legs or big ears.
Credits go to the developpers for creating a smooth operating game, with beautiful graphics, hardly any game-killing bugs, and at times a true feeling of lore.
However, its just too bland for me. Or to put it otherwise, i was bored very soon. My two biggest gripes are :
1. that the game is very group based, and with my time-bursty schedule that most of times means i am spending more time looking for a decent group than actually playing,
2. Its really more of the same, do quest get xp level up. I really miss the UO days where i could fiddle with my own house, or be at Brit bank spending time trading or just for laughs, or pvp in the shadow world.
Personally i would give the game a 9 for performance and technical details, and a 6 for fun.
Currently playing browser games. Waiting for Albion Online, Citadel of Sorcery and Camelot Unchained. Played: almost all MMO pre 2007
I've played Lotro since day one, canceled my subscription last friday. Made it to 50L with my hunter. Did all possible quests, farmed all teh legendary hunters traits, only skipped some insane deeds like elite trolls in Trollshaws, its too boring to kill elites for many days for 1 stupid deed Also been to all the instances up to Book 9.
Lotro isnt a bad game, but aint revolutionary either. Why do I canceled my sub? I was missing something, something more deeper... simply got bored very vast. My previous game was WoW, I was in a hardcore raiding guild, think I've been in like 500 5h raids in total - it was fun in the beginning but then become an issue, now Lotro... looks like its heading the same way as we have in WoW. The last content patch introduced raiding, and some new instances, also some sets for all classes etc. If I want to raid again I'd prefer to play WoW, it has mastered it.
Basicaly Lotro playing is like:
- *first login* oh such a nice graphics, i love it! I wish WoW could have it! - doh, why this combat is so slow? - wee so many quests to do, and many "epics" (purple items) easily accessible thru them. - cool! so now I can play on a lute, but ...I cant, people asking me to stop it. Wonder why. - (at 35L) finaly got my horse mount, *next day* ffs! why I'm always getting dismounted whenever something hits me? it drives me crazy! - (at 50L) *Yaaaaawn*
Lotro is nice, but bores fast... I want pre-cu swg back
Currently playing: none Played: UO, SWG, CoV, WoW, Lotro, EQ2
LFG tool: They (LotR) have a TERRIFIC LFG tool. You can click on your quests to set yourself LFG for that exact quest, or set up a note for next to your name in the LFG window, etc. It has an absolutely awesome LFG tool... it's just hardly anyone uses the dang thing. No, they'd prefer to spam /lff and /ooc channels, and whine and complain that they can't find a group. <sigh> Honestly does anyone use it ? I have set myself up in there & Never ever got a fellowship from it .. I guess I should have said better LFG tool as the current one just dosent work I got 80% of my groups from /lff 39 Hunter "Insert message here" & 20% from tells from people looking for a Minstril , actually being a minstril is maybe the best lff tool there is
Trade Skills: I hope you're not saying that WoW's trade skill system is a 'Porsche' here, because I thought (note, this is my personal opinion as a person who loves trade skills) that WoW's system was boringly horrible. I maxed it a few times, but was never impressed by it at all. I'm not going to rave about LotR's... I do like the crit system a lot, but the rest of it... meh. It's just a generic trade skill system, sure. Same as WoW's (again, in my opinion). Though farming is pretty 'new' trade-skill wise. I do hold out a little bit of hope for some more work in the trade skill field on Turbine's end. Not really but WOW tradskills are better , but they have had 2 years to improve em , so the jurys out for the time being , I just expected a 2007 MMO to have better , like making Jewellry BOE a month after release , wasn't there any beta testing ?
IMO the only "problem" with the LFG tool is that for the most part, you don't NEED to use it. The game is very soloable [at least until the 30's]. As an aside: I'm not surprised that Hunters can't find groups in that the few that I've dealt with think they are Drizzt [or Legolas] and just won't play as "support" characters; they think they are either tanks or one-shot killers!
To the DDO lover: The LFG tool there is only better because it MUST be used - DDO isn't very soloable [at level or at speed - I've enjoyed playing DDO solo, but my highest 2 characters are 5 and 3 during 3 months playtime]
Tradeskills: I agree that they are not great, but other than Ryzom, I haven't seen one better. [Refuse to play cartoony WoW and saved by forums from playing Vanguard]
I've played Lotro since day one, canceled my subscription last friday. Made it to 50L with my hunter. Did all possible quests, farmed all teh legendary hunters traits, only skipped some insane deeds like elite trolls in Trollshaws, its too boring to kill elites for many days for 1 stupid deed Also been to all the instances up to Book 9.
Lotro isnt a bad game, but aint revolutionary either. Why do I canceled my sub? I was missing something, something more deeper... simply got bored very vast. My previous game was WoW, I was in a hardcore raiding guild, think I've been in like 500 5h raids in total - it was fun in the beginning but then become an issue, now Lotro... looks like its heading the same way as we have in WoW. The last content patch introduced raiding, and some new instances, also some sets for all classes etc. If I want to raid again I'd prefer to play WoW, it has mastered it.
Basicaly Lotro playing is like:
- *first login* oh such a nice graphics, i love it! I wish WoW could have it!
- doh, why this combat is so slow?
- wee so many quests to do, and many "epics" (purple items) easily accessible thru them.
- cool! so now I can play on a lute, but ...I cant, people asking me to stop it. Wonder why.
- (at 35L) finaly got my horse mount, *next day* ffs! why I'm always getting dismounted whenever something hits me? it drives me crazy!
- (at 50L) *Yaaaaawn*
Lotro is nice, but bores fast... I want pre-cu swg back
I call BS on "did all possible quests", unless you mean "all quests green or higher"[meaning that they still give xp].
You're claiming to have done the entire expansion in the week [10 days?] that it has been out?
If you are level 50 already, you are a powerleveller and LOTRO is not the game for you. It's not for the PvP-centric player, either.
As to "why is this combat so slow?", I believe it is to give it a more tactical feel - I admit that it turns into a "clickfest" too often for me also, but I guess that few would play a turn-based combat MMO...
Seems to me that hose that do not agree with the review mostly do not care much for Tolkien lore and are saying things like - I have all this in WoW why should I be paying any attention to this game. Maybe Turbine tried too hard to make this game as close to WoW to possible so the switch would be easier. We can almost all agree that LOTRO looks a lot like WoW - but the feel of the game is a whole different thing. What I admire about LOTRO is the effort put into the game too give you some depth and meaning - not like WoW's - come here mr. dragon I wants your headz so I can get shiny epix. The crowds that WoW and LOTRO appeal to most are completely different - which is so obvious from the comments to this review.
Congratz on your first day on the job Donna, we should all do the best with what comes our way. That said -i have to wonder how a game that brings absolutly nothing new to our playground can score a 8,5. Personatly im so sick and tired of dwarfs and elves i spit on people with short legs or big ears.
You can't very well fault Tolkien for having dwarves and elves. LOTR is the model upon which all generic fantasy is based.
The attention to detail of the story of the Lord of the Rings is what makes this game special. I protected Fatty Bolger from a bunch of birds at Crickhollow. That is what makes this game so immersive. I saw a patch note that they changed the floors of Bag End to tile, because it was a tile floor in the books.
Compare it to Vanguard.
Vanguard - no polish, stability issues, stupid broken quests, no bug fixes ever.
LOTRO - detail, fun game play, the fastest patcher I have ever seen, smart quests with a good story, a new way of thinking about fantasy gaming, for example; moral, dread, hope, defeat, victory.
LOTRO is the "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" of the gaming industry. An absolutely brilliant way to tell a story.
To those who don't know who Fatty Bolger is, read the books. If you can make it through the first 20 chapters or so, <snore> you will fall in love.
I am so sick of hearing from people that this is a WOW clone. news flash for you WoW fanboys out there, WOW is NOT original. It takes it's elements from various games and the storyline is a CHEAP attempt at a fantasy line that like all others takes it's cue from LOTR.
WOW is not the be all, end all of gaming that everyone makes it out to be. Blizzard has made a fortune off take others ideas and dumbing them down so they are EASY to play and give instant gratification and then passing them off as revolutionary.
WC was an idea stolen from Westwood and it's creation of the RTS genre. Starcraft was far from original, it was basically Warcraft wrapped in scifi. However becuase it was easy to play and gave instant simple game play compared to it's direct competition TA, it was heralded a master piece.
I call BS on that. SC was good kids game lacking in serious tactical depth of play when compared to TA. Add to that the fact that TA was a ton better looking and had an amazing depth of community support and you begin to see the two different players attracted. TA, players that wanted to think about the game while they played it. SC, players that wanted to play without thinking much.
WOW is a good game, no one willd eny that. But to say it is the be all of MMOs is nuts. it is just the most dumbed down and hence has the largest draw. As for WOW clones, lets be real WOW is a clone so who cares?
Congratz on your first day on the job Donna, we should all do the best with what comes our way. That said -i have to wonder how a game that brings absolutly nothing new to our playground can score a 8,5. Personatly im so sick and tired of dwarfs and elves i spit on people with short legs or big ears.
You can't very well fault Tolkien for having dwarves and elves. LOTR is the model upon which all generic fantasy is based.
You are right...And i don't. I fault Donna for rewarding this game with a top grade. In my opinion a game have to bring some new features to the party to score so high.
Nice review. I think Turbine did a great job considering how they were restricted somewhat by the lore.
First off I don't play Lotro, I beta tested it and the game just did not interest me enough to suscribe. But I think the 8.5 is completely fair. Extremely well done game. I have the utmost respect for Turbine. They listen to their suscriber base.
Oh and Wow is a very obvious EQ clone so you with the silly clone arguments can go back and crawl in your holes.
You are right...And i don't. I fault Donna for rewarding this game with a top grade. In my opinion a game have to bring some new features to the party to score so high.
Still you whinged about elves, dwarves etc. Whinging at Lord of the Rings for that is like saying Batman copied The Midnighter. It's back asswards.
The game does have new features and an attention to story detail that most of the other games in this genre lack. If they can round it out with live events that actually go off and a few of the missing features, such as housing, that are slated for the next expansion then the game will be peerless.
The monsterplay is the biggest innovation and a great way to get around the PvP/PK asshat problem. Its not just a clone.
If it's been mentioned and I missed it, I apologize. However, LotRO is not the first game to have player as monster PVP. The game Underlight had that years ago as players could play as Maran (the monsters of the game) for PVP purposes. I even think it's still up and running.
Edit
That's not to say that Underlight was the first, but that it did have this feature.
Comments
I really do believe that Turbine has outdone everyone else in one regard though. No other mmorpg has released as stable as LotRO, if every other game in development today releases with the stability and apparent polish that LotRO had at launch then only good things can happen for this hobby.
http://www.speedtest.net/result/7300033012
Does anyone even know what clone means?
In America I have bad teeth. If I lived in England my teeth would be perfect.
First off LOTRO is absolutely not a WoW clone. Just because it is fantasy themed doesn't make it a WoW clone anymore than WoW is an EQ1 clone.
I was in the beta and I felt the game was OK, not great not bad, just OK. I will admit I was a bit soured by the fact that they couldn't get an annoying bug fixed before release: all servers would appear closed to some people even if they were actually up. When I was playing, I just didn't feel like I was in Tolkien's world. Fans of the books would probably recognize more lore than I would, so they will probably enjoy it more than I.
By the way, an 8.5 is very generous rating IMO.
Bring back the old review which doesnt kiss ass so much.
WTB Shadowbane 2
Not to bring up an argument here, but I just have to note a couple of things:
LotR has a dressing room. CTRL+click an item (which I believe can be rebound if you wish), and it brings it up.
LFG tool: They (LotR) have a TERRIFIC LFG tool. You can click on your quests to set yourself LFG for that exact quest, or set up a note for next to your name in the LFG window, etc. It has an absolutely awesome LFG tool... it's just hardly anyone uses the dang thing. No, they'd prefer to spam /lff and /ooc channels, and whine and complain that they can't find a group. <sigh>
Trade Skills: I hope you're not saying that WoW's trade skill system is a 'Porsche' here, because I thought (note, this is my personal opinion as a person who loves trade skills) that WoW's system was boringly horrible. I maxed it a few times, but was never impressed by it at all. I'm not going to rave about LotR's... I do like the crit system a lot, but the rest of it... meh. It's just a generic trade skill system, sure. Same as WoW's (again, in my opinion). Though farming is pretty 'new' trade-skill wise. I do hold out a little bit of hope for some more work in the trade skill field on Turbine's end.
Shared Bank, Guild Bank, more than 5 Character slots per server: Oh yes, I wish they had these, definitely! They will be adding more Bank Slots, I just have no idea if Shared or Guild will be a part of it, or how much more space it will be.
More UI Enhancements: I do believe Frosty (Turbine UI Dev) has stated that they're coming. He posts on the lotrointerface forums regularly. And I sure hope they do come. I really don't need WoW's full mod-anything (because I get sick and tired of having to fix my mods after tiny little patches, hah), but some more tweaking would definitely be nice.
-signed,
a WoW Player & a LotR Lifer
...simply, a total MMO Addict.
Not to bring up an argument here, but I just have to note a couple of things:
You are correct "My Bad" would like to see a few more options like a larger window & zoom , maybe even a way to check quest rewards what they would look like before you hand in the quest .. again :My Bad"LotR has a dressing room. CTRL+click an item (which I believe can be rebound if you wish), and it brings it up.
LFG tool: They (LotR) have a TERRIFIC LFG tool. You can click on your quests to set yourself LFG for that exact quest, or set up a note for next to your name in the LFG window, etc. It has an absolutely awesome LFG tool... it's just hardly anyone uses the dang thing. No, they'd prefer to spam /lff and /ooc channels, and whine and complain that they can't find a group. <sigh>
Honestly does anyone use it ? I have set myself up in there & Never ever got a fellowship from it .. I guess I should have said better LFG tool as the current one just dosent work I got 80% of my groups from /lff 39 Hunter "Insert message here" & 20% from tells from people looking for a Minstril , actually being a minstril is maybe the best lff tool there is
Trade Skills: I hope you're not saying that WoW's trade skill system is a 'Porsche' here, because I thought (note, this is my personal opinion as a person who loves trade skills) that WoW's system was boringly horrible. I maxed it a few times, but was never impressed by it at all. I'm not going to rave about LotR's... I do like the crit system a lot, but the rest of it... meh. It's just a generic trade skill system, sure. Same as WoW's (again, in my opinion). Though farming is pretty 'new' trade-skill wise. I do hold out a little bit of hope for some more work in the trade skill field on Turbine's end.
Not really but WOW tradskills are better , but they have had 2 years to improve em , so the jurys out for the time being , I just expected a 2007 MMO to have better , like making Jewellry BOE a month after release , wasn't there any beta testing ?Shared Bank, Guild Bank, more than 5 Character slots per server: Oh yes, I wish they had these, definitely! They will be adding more Bank Slots, I just have no idea if Shared or Guild will be a part of it, or how much more space it will be.
Are you sure More bank slot are going to be added ? I have not seen any posts on that , can you link it ?
More UI Enhancements: I do believe Frosty (Turbine UI Dev) has stated that they're coming. He posts on the lotrointerface forums regularly. And I sure hope they do come. I really don't need WoW's full mod-anything (because I get sick and tired of having to fix my mods after tiny little patches, hah), but some more tweaking would definitely be nice.
I loved the WOW mods , they could easy make it so you wouldn't have to update your mods every patch , Blizzard like to change the toc just to pissed modders of-signed,
a WoW Player & a LotR Lifer
...simply, a total MMO Addict.
You can check quest rewards (I do it all the time!) just CTRL+click the icon of the reward in the quest window. Zooming... oh yes, that would be wonderful, I absolutely agree!
Yeah that's why I said...sadly no-one ever uses it! It's great, so why do people never use it? But... it seems like people prefer to use chat channels rather than LFG tools. In just about every game I've played, the LFG tools sit (mostly) unused, while people clamor for LFG channels. I guess people (in general) just prefer the channels?
I guess it's just my personal preference, but I don't find WoW's tradeskill system to be any better (or any worse, really). Just a bit different. As to why nothing was BoE (not just jewelry)? I dunno. I am glad they fixed that, but I don't know why they didn't see that it needed to be that way after all the testing well before release.
I don't recall if there was a quote on the forums... I found the info from some other source(s}, I think: interviews of Turbine's CEO, and one (or two?) of Turbine's regular IRC dev chats. Looking for linkage now...
Ah hah! Here's one quote, from here:
<warorc> Hi. Will you extend the bankroom? The bank is a little bit small
<LOTRO_Tens> Yes. We agree!
<LOTRO_Tens> We currently hope to have upgradeable bank storage ready to go for the Book 10 update.
<LOTRO_Tens> So you can look forward to it then!
Turbine seems to do frequent (monthly?) Stratics HoC dev chats, so they're also good places to look for info. Here's the latest one. I think they're due for another one soon?
Hope a little bit of that was good info for you
Community? What community? I like the story. I don't like that if you aren't at the same quest as your friends, it has to be repeated to bring someone up to speed. Or, some play more hours than others, and you no longer can play with them, or vice versa. That puts a pox on community.
I am a MMORPG vet and i am done playing lotro.
Credits go to the developpers for creating a smooth operating game, with beautiful graphics, hardly any game-killing bugs, and at times a true feeling of lore.
However, its just too bland for me. Or to put it otherwise, i was bored very soon. My two biggest gripes are :
1. that the game is very group based, and with my time-bursty schedule that most of times means i am spending more time looking for a decent group than actually playing,
2. Its really more of the same, do quest get xp level up. I really miss the UO days where i could fiddle with my own house, or be at Brit bank spending time trading or just for laughs, or pvp in the shadow world.
Personally i would give the game a 9 for performance and technical details, and a 6 for fun.
Currently playing browser games. Waiting for Albion Online, Citadel of Sorcery and Camelot Unchained.
Played: almost all MMO pre 2007
I've played Lotro since day one, canceled my subscription last friday. Made it to 50L with my hunter. Did all possible quests, farmed all teh legendary hunters traits, only skipped some insane deeds like elite trolls in Trollshaws, its too boring to kill elites for many days for 1 stupid deed
Also been to all the instances up to Book 9.
Lotro isnt a bad game, but aint revolutionary either. Why do I canceled my sub? I was missing something, something more deeper... simply got bored very vast. My previous game was WoW, I was in a hardcore raiding guild, think I've been in like 500 5h raids in total - it was fun in the beginning but then become an issue, now Lotro... looks like its heading the same way as we have in WoW. The last content patch introduced raiding, and some new instances, also some sets for all classes etc. If I want to raid again I'd prefer to play WoW, it has mastered it.
Basicaly Lotro playing is like:
- *first login* oh such a nice graphics, i love it! I wish WoW could have it!
- doh, why this combat is so slow?
- wee so many quests to do, and many "epics" (purple items) easily accessible thru them.
- cool! so now I can play on a lute, but ...I cant, people asking me to stop it. Wonder why.
- (at 35L) finaly got my horse mount, *next day* ffs! why I'm always getting dismounted whenever something hits me? it drives me crazy!
- (at 50L) *Yaaaaawn*
Lotro is nice, but bores fast... I want pre-cu swg back
Currently playing: none
Played: UO, SWG, CoV, WoW, Lotro, EQ2
IMO the only "problem" with the LFG tool is that for the most part, you don't NEED to use it. The game is very soloable [at least until the 30's]. As an aside: I'm not surprised that Hunters can't find groups in that the few that I've dealt with think they are Drizzt [or Legolas] and just won't play as "support" characters; they think they are either tanks or one-shot killers!
To the DDO lover: The LFG tool there is only better because it MUST be used - DDO isn't very soloable [at level or at speed - I've enjoyed playing DDO solo, but my highest 2 characters are 5 and 3 during 3 months playtime]
Tradeskills: I agree that they are not great, but other than Ryzom, I haven't seen one better. [Refuse to play cartoony WoW and saved by forums from playing Vanguard]
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I call BS on "did all possible quests", unless you mean "all quests green or higher"[meaning that they still give xp].
You're claiming to have done the entire expansion in the week [10 days?] that it has been out?
If you are level 50 already, you are a powerleveller and LOTRO is not the game for you. It's not for the PvP-centric player, either.
As to "why is this combat so slow?", I believe it is to give it a more tactical feel - I admit that it turns into a "clickfest" too often for me also, but I guess that few would play a turn-based combat MMO...
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Postmortem Studios
Roleplaying games to DIE for
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The attention to detail of the story of the Lord of the Rings is what makes this game special. I protected Fatty Bolger from a bunch of birds at Crickhollow. That is what makes this game so immersive. I saw a patch note that they changed the floors of Bag End to tile, because it was a tile floor in the books.
Compare it to Vanguard.
Vanguard - no polish, stability issues, stupid broken quests, no bug fixes ever.
LOTRO - detail, fun game play, the fastest patcher I have ever seen, smart quests with a good story, a new way of thinking about fantasy gaming, for example; moral, dread, hope, defeat, victory.
LOTRO is the "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" of the gaming industry. An absolutely brilliant way to tell a story.
To those who don't know who Fatty Bolger is, read the books. If you can make it through the first 20 chapters or so, <snore> you will fall in love.
WOW is not the be all, end all of gaming that everyone makes it out to be. Blizzard has made a fortune off take others ideas and dumbing them down so they are EASY to play and give instant gratification and then passing them off as revolutionary.
WC was an idea stolen from Westwood and it's creation of the RTS genre. Starcraft was far from original, it was basically Warcraft wrapped in scifi. However becuase it was easy to play and gave instant simple game play compared to it's direct competition TA, it was heralded a master piece.
I call BS on that. SC was good kids game lacking in serious tactical depth of play when compared to TA. Add to that the fact that TA was a ton better looking and had an amazing depth of community support and you begin to see the two different players attracted. TA, players that wanted to think about the game while they played it. SC, players that wanted to play without thinking much.
WOW is a good game, no one willd eny that. But to say it is the be all of MMOs is nuts. it is just the most dumbed down and hence has the largest draw. As for WOW clones, lets be real WOW is a clone so who cares?
Fun 9, oh god
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
Final Fantasy 7
You are right...And i don't. I fault Donna for rewarding this game with a top grade. In my opinion a game have to bring some new features to the party to score so high.
Nice review. I think Turbine did a great job considering how they were restricted somewhat by the lore.
First off I don't play Lotro, I beta tested it and the game just did not interest me enough to suscribe. But I think the 8.5 is completely fair. Extremely well done game. I have the utmost respect for Turbine. They listen to their suscriber base.
Oh and Wow is a very obvious EQ clone so you with the silly clone arguments can go back and crawl in your holes.
The game does have new features and an attention to story detail that most of the other games in this genre lack. If they can round it out with live events that actually go off and a few of the missing features, such as housing, that are slated for the next expansion then the game will be peerless.
The monsterplay is the biggest innovation and a great way to get around the PvP/PK asshat problem. Its not just a clone.
Postmortem Studios
Roleplaying games to DIE for
Shop here
Edit
That's not to say that Underlight was the first, but that it did have this feature.