LOL @ YO FACE if u think lotro is better than pr-cu swg.
Let see if we can get away from the personal attacks for a minute and maybe you can explain why if pre CU SWG was such a great game why did they have a CU and NGE? Why did SOE sell 400K boxes at release and 4 out of 5 people never subscribed.
Jackdog, we both know you have been here long enough to know that they brought in cu and nge because they dont listen to their players, and tried to emulate a wow system to get theirs subs in millions. They had 500k subs, and could have broke a mil if they spent time squashing bugs instead of revamping everything, but they didnt. It does not mean the cu was not the most complex, do whatever you want mmo that I personally ever existed.
*edited for morning spelling errors ( my c# is gonna suffer today)
They had 400K subs at release dude. By November of that year when I quit, the servers had less than 100K total. I betaed that damn thing from beta 2 till release and damn near cried when they announced they were gonna put it on the shelves it so broken at release. It damn near made Vanguards release look good.
Why did SOE sell 400K boxes at release and 4 out of 5 people never subscribed.
I'm kind of curious where you got those numbers from. SWG was quite successful from it's summer release until at least December when everyone recieved thier free holocron (the beginning of the end for the pre-cu game).
Don't get me wrong though. I actually agree with you about LoTRO. I'm loving the game. It's the first game in a looong time to actually hold my interest and I've been playing MMO's since the grand ol days of EQ, and I'm obviously not alone.
I pulled em out of my ass actually. I remember reading they had sold 400K boxes. I am pretty much using our guild and a couple of other guilds I was friendly with for the four out of five figures. Maybe it was not quite that severe but it was close, I know MoS Eisley ( sp?) population had at least halved if not more, I was a doc and the clinics were just about deserted much when I left.
According to Sir Bruce it sold 300K and had 250K left at NGE but that is ridiculous and not even close. We had over 100 members at release, by November we were down to around 15 and were merging with a guild who had suffered similar losses. I would say at that time servers probably had between 150- 250 K people left. More of course left with the great Jedi grind and even more after the CU and the NGE was the death blow. Only SOE knows the real figures of course and they are not going to tell, or if they did it would be PR bullshit numbers.
You should get a hobby stanley.... if you had any idea how pathetic you come off on these forums... going after LOTRO. It's like being anti-puppy, or leading a crusade against pie. It's just asinine. I understand the people who dog on SWG, or all of SOE... or Vanguard, DNL, even DDO... but this isn't any of those games. There just isn't anything there to engender so much hate... from a normal, well-adjusted person anyway. It really is kinda sad... how bereft of meaning and empty your days must be that THIS is your source of entertainment. The amount of effort you put in to criticizing a video game that you don't even play... it boggles the mind. /shakehead
I think this is the longest personal attack I've ever received. Thanks! I always take this type of diatribe as a compliment. It means that you cannot argue with me, therefore the only way you can make yourself feel better is to lash out at me.
My popcorn is hardly stale. I'm enjoying these fanboy chest beatings and banner wavings more than ever. Carry on.
You have to admit Stanly that LOTRO is the perfect example of a polished casual game. It does it so well that if your a Casual gamer I doubt you could find one more fulfilling Some people don't want new mechanics or excitement. In fact Id say a large number of people are happy and satisfied with LOTRO as a whole. Myself being one of those people. That being said.. from a ex-powergamer I can totally understand why it could be compared to a pile of moldy cheese..
You have to admit Stanly that LOTRO is the perfect example of a polished casual game. It does it so well that if your a Casual gamer I doubt you could find one more fulfilling Some people don't want new mechanics or excitement. In fact Id say a large number of people are happy and satisfied with LOTRO as a whole. Myself being one of those people. That being said.. from a ex-powergamer I can totally understand why it could be compared to a pile of moldy cheese..
Agreed. I use to be a borderline hardcore player. Never was the type to put in 12 hours a day. But I had my years of playing 4+ hours a day, every day.
If I was still like that, I doubt I would care for LoTRo much at all.
But, given that priorities change in life, which they have for me..I only have an hour or when I game to dedicate to it. When you have time constraints like that, many MMO's are just not enjoyable as you cant even finish many quests in that time. LoTRo on the other hand is probably the best casual game I have played.
There is no one game to meet every playstyle. LoTRo seems perfect for the limited time casual players, but I agree it would be pretty sub par if you have hours to dedicate to your gaming.
I think this is the longest personal attack I've ever received. Thanks! I always take this type of diatribe as a compliment. It means that you cannot argue with me, therefore the only way you can make yourself feel better is to lash out at me. My popcorn is hardly stale. I'm enjoying these fanboy chest beatings and banner wavings more than ever. Carry on.
I don't feel compelled to argue with you about how good the game is. I think that the universally glowing reviews from media, along with the abundance of overwhelmingly positive fan comments, serve to rebuff your original points just fine. If you to fail to see that you hold a fairly insignificant minority opinion on the subject, I guess i am not going to be the one to show you the light.
My comments are on the fact you are nothing more than an intentionally annoying troll on these forums. You want to call me out for a personal attack, while every post of yours here is an unwarranted attack on the LOTRO players. I am not saying this simply as an insult, but you really are pathetic, dude. Your posts here are worthless, absolutely devoid of value, and your incessant attacks on the game and it's players don't make you look nearly as cool as you seem to think they do.
I think this is the longest personal attack I've ever received. Thanks! I always take this type of diatribe as a compliment. It means that you cannot argue with me, therefore the only way you can make yourself feel better is to lash out at me. My popcorn is hardly stale. I'm enjoying these fanboy chest beatings and banner wavings more than ever. Carry on.
I don't feel compelled to argue with you about how good the game is. I think that the universally glowing reviews from media, along with the abundance of overwhelmingly positive fan comments, serve to rebuff your original points just fine. If you to fail to see that you hold a fairly insignificant minority opinion on the subject, I guess i am not going to be the one to show you the light.
My comments are on the fact you are nothing more than an intentionally annoying troll on these forums. You want to call me out for a personal attack, while every post of yours here is an unwarranted attack on the LOTRO players. I am not saying this simply as an insult, but you really are pathetic, dude. Your posts here are worthless, absolutely devoid of value, and your incessant attacks on the game and it's players don't make you look nearly as cool as you seem to think they do.
I couldnt agree more with Salvatoris and im going to take a very "Birds Eye" view on this. You cannot witness the glowing reviews and press and positivity on the internet for this product and yet try to validate a discussion point that its a failing game that needs server merges. The argument simply doesnt hold water, there is too much against your opinion.
Also i accept fully that there are also areas of negative player feedback for the games candering to the more casual / relaxed players due to the nature of its rewards and quest content (Which it has in abundance) and it is fine providing you are not a very dedicated and powerfully level driven gamer on the whole (generalisation). Turbine never created Lord of the rings online to cander to your player stereotype in this initial launch phase and that is very obvious, that doesnt make you a bad person nor this a bad product...it clearly isnt... it is one of the most polished at launch mmorpg games to hit the market with an incredibly solid engine something fans in this genre havent seen very often to date. In time as it matures then im sure the world of middle earth will fill out, content increased and toughened and this will become a very healthy and stable MMORPG.
The fact is Turbine when creating this product (And lets remember above all else they are a "business") needed to choose a business model in this newly "mainstream" (No longer Niche) and rapidly growing space that worked. Thus the similarities drawn between WOW and LOTRO are obvious for one reason...they are adopting similar priciples and LOTRO has followed a similar business and design model. Because it works and it sells. So Opinions of individual titles aside that is the higher ground.
Compare Vanguards release in January with LOTRO's release in April and regardless of your personal opinions for a moment you tell me which is the design model and style of MMO game which has recieved the greater reviews, praise, launch and ultimately solid start based on box sales and subscriptions, which company would you rather be an employee of?. The games are black and white, chalk and cheese. Vanguard is an example of a product failure...not Lord of the rings online, love or hate its more "casual" gameplay if there is such a thing, that is what a majority of the gamers playing MMORPG's are responding too with their money. So that is where the Business is, plain and simple. Sandbox at present however much as we wish we could have a sandbox product with LOTRO's pure Launch polish hasnt happened and is yet to happen, Sandbox doesnt have a good name in the market because of exactly that previous utter failures such as saga of heroes, and some near misses like sadly SWG.
I happen to be a Lord of the Rings Online fan and i think the game is currently healthy and will go from strength to strength given its due bedding in period that every MMO should recieve providing it isnt blatently broke in core mechanics and at an engine level when it comes to market. (Vanguard). Lotro doesnt break ground in the genre, no, but then it never claimed too, it offers the core mechanics of "any" game to a genre that is slightly deprived of these things to date, Polish, Playability, Approachability, Mass hardware scaling / system performance and of course fun (in the opinion of the player). Thus before it, World of Warcraft's massive success.
However my first MMORPG experience was with Star Wars Galaxies and i loved every minute, because it was my first experience and its boundries seemed limitless. SWG existed in the dieing days of the MMORPG gaming space being a "niche" market and thus it subscription rates for its time were particularly healthy at launch. However, as much as i loved it and will "always" cherish the time i spent there it was tragically way ahead of its time, limited by available tech, and tragically broken. I started 6 - 8 months after its release and my class "pistolier" specials were knackered, half of them didnt work. "Pop up" and "flash object" occlusion and culling in the graphics engine were awful and the Netcode optimizations were out right bad. Yet we all played and loved for its epic scope and more importantly the mmo gaming mechanics it had the innovation to offer way ahead of its time in my opinion. On an engine level however it was very very broken, in much need of code fixes and you would be hard pushed to argue otherwise.
Another point which i think i have to give credit to Turbine for at the end of such a long post, is there dogged determination to stay as faithful as possible to the middle earth tales in there design thus no Mage class and Flashy Spell Casters. One thing that for me looking back on SWG as a massive Star Wars fan i have to say, SOE took certain liberties with there potentially industry devetating IP, for example the presence of jedi during the galactic civil war...the overpowering superiorety of melee combat classes, to name but a few.
Got into beta last October and I still play at least 3 or 4 hours a day or more. This is the first time I have thought about a game at work since SWG was in beta. Too bad Lucas Arts chose SOE instead of Turbine to develop that game.
To the OP - I'm glad that the game has held your interest for 9 months. That's extraordinary. However, I believe it gives people an untrue and unrealistic expectation for the game. What is fun for one person isn't fun for everyone, right?
LOTRO does a lot of things well. Its technically stable and for the most part, bug free. It rarely crashes, I've yet to have any difficulty with lost items, lost xp, etc. There are a few quests that don't work properly, and GM assistance is nonexistent, but for the most part the technical issues don't interfere with gameplay. The graphics are beautiful, the music is beautiful, etc. This helps LOTRO score high on reviews that look for this sort of thing
The combat is, as another poster said, unspectactular. Target a mob, hit buttons, mob dies. Some abilities hit harder than others or add a very short unspectacular buff or debuff, but for the most part, its tab click. Even "group" content, everyone tab clicks, the minstrel heals, mob dies. Some abilities require executing another ability first to activate, but aside from that, its very straightforward and there's nothing new here. The death penalty is laughable. Any game where you intentionally die as a quicker way to travel back to town seriously needs its death penalty examined. Travel is pretty horrid in LOTRO also, taking sometimes the better part of an hour for a team to get together, and the world ain't that big.
The community is mixed, there are some decent people and decent players, but there is also a very large percent of the community that is pvp kiddie, whining day in and day out on the forums variety. There's LOTR fans and MMO fans and first-timers all mixed together. If you don't mind turning OFF all your public channels, its bearable - but I die a little inside every time someone says the community in this game is mature. I have played on 3 servers and seen the same sort of stupidity, so eh.
Its a decent game. A solid game. But all the content can be completed in a month or two even if you only play after work or on the weekends. I quit playing LOTRO about 3 days after Evendim was launched, in that time since release I'd managed to level two characters to 50, have 3 alts between 30 and 40, and grandmaster _EVERY_ tradeskill except metalsmithing, because my boyfriend grandmaster'd that. My minstrel had finished EVERY DEED in the game pre-evendim, and was making a big chunk in the evendim deeds when I decided that I wasn't enjoying the game anymore. There is absolutely no replay value (linear areas, same quests over and over, making alts = boring), and beyond a certain point you MUST join a group if you want to accomplish anything.
So, what am I saying? I'm saying, its pretty standard. Its popularity is largely based on the fact that it is Lord of the Rings rather than something original; fans of LOTR who perhaps have never played another MMO will adore this game, it has all the necessary elements. Long time MMO players will see that there's nothing new here. It was fun for a couple of months, but hardly innovative, and absolutely nothing to do once you've maxed out except level another character. There's no character customization whatsoever, (deeds nonwithstanding, but they don't make too big of a difference, and most people choose the same ones). The only way to increase your effectiveness is to procure better gear, but once again, the best gear comes from quests so most people wear the same mix of stuff. The result? Pick a class, now you're a clone of everyone else who picked that class, and you could log in and play THEIR toon without any difference other than how the hotbar is set up and perhaps a deed or two that need equipping. This does not create long time enjoyment.
If you're not an "achiever", I'd say go ahead and pick up this game. Hours of fun, lots to explore, meet friends, socialize, farm, play music, roleplay - its great. But if you like to see your character get better and improve and take on more and more challenging things, this game doesn't deliver.
Gaming? That's not gaming! That's just people sat 'round in costumes drinking...
To the OP - I'm glad that the game has held your interest for 9 months. That's extraordinary. However, I believe it gives people an untrue and unrealistic expectation for the game. What is fun for one person isn't fun for everyone, right? Agreed, from some of your other posts I guess you enjoyed Ao and thought it a great game. I did not care for it and found it one of the most repetitious grind games I ever played. LOTRO does a lot of things well. Its technically stable and for the most part, bug free. It rarely crashes, I've yet to have any difficulty with lost items, lost xp, etc. There are a few quests that don't work properly, and GM assistance is nonexistent, but for the most part the technical issues don't interfere with gameplay. The graphics are beautiful, the music is beautiful, etc. This helps LOTRO score high on reviews that look for this sort of thing Once again I agree The combat is, as another poster said, unspectactular. Target a mob, hit buttons, mob dies. Some abilities hit harder than others or add a very short unspectacular buff or debuff, but for the most part, its tab click. Even "group" content, everyone tab clicks, the minstrel heals, mob dies. Some abilities require executing another ability first to activate, but aside from that, its very straightforward and there's nothing new here. And other games including AO are different how? The death penalty is laughable. Any game where you intentionally die as a quicker way to travel back to town seriously needs its death penalty examined. Why? It has been proven that a harsh "death penaty" is unpopular with most people. If you desire harsher then every time you die destroy a piece of your equipment to punish yourself or take off all your armor for the next 15 minutes or whatever you feel like doing to punish yourself. Don't force your masochism on the rest of us please. Travel is pretty horrid in LOTRO also, taking sometimes the better part of an hour for a team to get together, and the world ain't that big. You ever use the fast travel option? Costs me a silver to go from Bree to Thorins Hall, or 20 silver to go to Rivendell from Bree.
The community is mixed, there are some decent people and decent players, but there is also a very large percent of the community that is pvp kiddie, whining day in and day out on the forums variety. There's LOTR fans and MMO fans and first-timers all mixed together. If you don't mind turning OFF all your public channels, its bearable - but I die a little inside every time someone says the community in this game is mature. I have played on 3 servers and seen the same sort of stupidity, so eh. An opinion, I find the community comparable if not better than EQII or DAoC. Much better than WoW. I suppose you think they should only sell games to those you approve of though. Good luck finding a game that fits that criteria. Its a decent game. A solid game. But all the content can be completed in a month or two even if you only play after work or on the weekends. Possible but unlikely. It would take a complete catass to finish the game in a month,sure it can be done but then there are people who can go max level in any MMORPG in that time or even less if they have a good guild supporting them . I have played every day for at least 3 hours and some days for far more than that since release and I am only mid 40's on my main and spemt maybe a week on my alts. I quit playing LOTRO about 3 days after Evendim was launched, in that time since release I'd managed to level two characters to 50, have 3 alts between 30 and 40, and grandmaster _EVERY_ tradeskill except metalsmithing, because my boyfriend grandmaster'd that. My minstrel had finished EVERY DEED in the game pre-evendim, and was making a big chunk in the evendim deeds when I decided that I wasn't enjoying the game anymore. There is absolutely no replay value (linear areas, same quests over and over, making alts = boring), and beyond a certain point you MUST join a group if you want to accomplish anything. Which proves what exactly? When EQ1 released the Legends of Ykesha expansion there was a player who had power leveled a Froglok to level 50 within 24 hours of the release. Most of my kinship has been playing since release and out of over 50 of us there are maybe 4 that have reached 50 and those are the guys/gals who are retired or housewives and play all day long. Most of us are in the 30's to 40's. I play an average of 20 hours a week and have one character at 42, one at 21, and 2 others at 15. I was talking to some 50's yesterday and they are working on crafting, helping other guildies, doing the raid content, MvP, and just finishing quests they had at 50. There is also hopusing to save for and I expect a max level increase with new areas this winter although that is just a guess for right now.
So, what am I saying? I'm saying, its pretty standard. Its popularity is largely based on the fact that it is Lord of the Rings rather than something original; fans of LOTR who perhaps have never played another MMO will adore this game, it has all the necessary elements. Long time MMO players will see that there's nothing new here. It was fun for a couple of months, but hardly innovative, and absolutely nothing to do once you've maxed out except level another character. There's no character customization whatsoever, (deeds nonwithstanding, but they don't make too big of a difference, and most people choose the same ones). The only way to increase your effectiveness is to procure better gear, but once again, the best gear comes from quests so most people wear the same mix of stuff. The result? Pick a class, now you're a clone of everyone else who picked that class, and you could log in and play THEIR toon without any difference other than how the hotbar is set up and perhaps a deed or two that need equipping. This does not create long time enjoyment. I would disagree with most everything you state in this paragraph. Obviously if you really believe this you have not actually played the game past level 15 or are trying to paint a false picture and mislead people for whatever reason. If you're not an "achiever", I'd say go ahead and pick up this game. Hours of fun, lots to explore, meet friends, socialize, farm, play music, roleplay - its great. But if you like to see your character get better and improve and take on more and more challenging things, this game doesn't deliver. I won't bother arguing any of this it is subjective opinion as is mine and everyone is entitled to their opinion.
I can't get into eq2, i never know what to make. I don't identify iwth anything in that game. I become OCD in the character creation process every time. I have leveled to 24 in the game though, and it felt pretty bland. It didn't hold the immersion level for me that eq did in 99, or daoc in 01. LOTRO is the first game that I have been addicted to since then. The only problem is the CSR's will ban you for just about anything so if you getinto the game, try to stay out of their radar.
mmmm yeeeah, thats greeat, a little to the left would be greeeat, ::sips coffee mug:::
LOTRO: I drop my pants and lay my poo upon this bad game. I point my peenes an launch pee (much) to this game. This is a bad game, I dont thik I like it.
If all these other games are so good, why are these people trolling forums and not playing them, I do not understand.
QFE
bashers enjoy lurking forums and sometimes even take their time to post almost half a page with reasons NOT to play this game, JUST so ppl dont get the wrong impressions having read the OP. hilarious
If all these other games are so good, why are these people trolling forums and not playing them, I do not understand.
QFE
bashers enjoy lurking forums and sometimes even take their time to post almost half a page with reasons NOT to play this game, JUST so ppl dont get the wrong impressions having read the OP. hilarious
OR paid for...
DB
Denial makes one look a lot dumber than he/she actually is.
I'm glad to see people both playing and enjoying LOTRO. It is, at its core a solidly built game that performs well on almost every system (and I should know, this machine is close to turning up in some paleontologist's lab for observation). The problem I have with it is that I'm losing interest with the PVE side. I don't really know why. It's solo play is enetertaining enough, group play is acceptable, crafting was too simplistic for me though, and I enjoyed the epic books. I guess that with my guardian up to 43 I simply feel as though I've finished that side of the game and that's the first time I've ever had that sensation about an MMO.
What's keeping me around is simple: a 6 month subscription plan and the fact that the one remaining thing I enjoy is monster play on my reaver. Probably because its flawed in favour of the heroes. Crowd control might be annoying but it truely is enjoyable to get a crowd of 20-30 slavering monsters together and go and pound on some over-privaleged freeps, especially those oh-so-pesky loremasters.
I would say if you want simple repetitive game play, Pong is better.
Now playing: VG (after a long break from MMORPGS) Played for more than a month: Darkfall online, Vanguard SOH, Everquest, Horizons, WoW, SWG, Everquest II, Eve
Comments
Let see if we can get away from the personal attacks for a minute and maybe you can explain why if pre CU SWG was such a great game why did they have a CU and NGE? Why did SOE sell 400K boxes at release and 4 out of 5 people never subscribed.
Jackdog, we both know you have been here long enough to know that they brought in cu and nge because they dont listen to their players, and tried to emulate a wow system to get theirs subs in millions. They had 500k subs, and could have broke a mil if they spent time squashing bugs instead of revamping everything, but they didnt. It does not mean the cu was not the most complex, do whatever you want mmo that I personally ever existed.
*edited for morning spelling errors ( my c# is gonna suffer today)
They had 400K subs at release dude. By November of that year when I quit, the servers had less than 100K total. I betaed that damn thing from beta 2 till release and damn near cried when they announced they were gonna put it on the shelves it so broken at release. It damn near made Vanguards release look good.I miss DAoC
Don't get me wrong though. I actually agree with you about LoTRO. I'm loving the game. It's the first game in a looong time to actually hold my interest and I've been playing MMO's since the grand ol days of EQ, and I'm obviously not alone.
I pulled em out of my ass actually. I remember reading they had sold 400K boxes. I am pretty much using our guild and a couple of other guilds I was friendly with for the four out of five figures. Maybe it was not quite that severe but it was close, I know MoS Eisley ( sp?) population had at least halved if not more, I was a doc and the clinics were just about deserted much when I left.According to Sir Bruce it sold 300K and had 250K left at NGE but that is ridiculous and not even close. We had over 100 members at release, by November we were down to around 15 and were merging with a guild who had suffered similar losses. I would say at that time servers probably had between 150- 250 K people left. More of course left with the great Jedi grind and even more after the CU and the NGE was the death blow. Only SOE knows the real figures of course and they are not going to tell, or if they did it would be PR bullshit numbers.
I miss DAoC
I think this is the longest personal attack I've ever received. Thanks! I always take this type of diatribe as a compliment. It means that you cannot argue with me, therefore the only way you can make yourself feel better is to lash out at me.
My popcorn is hardly stale. I'm enjoying these fanboy chest beatings and banner wavings more than ever. Carry on.
Equal opportunity troll.
You have to admit Stanly that LOTRO is the perfect example of a polished casual game. It does it so well that if your a Casual gamer I doubt you could find one more fulfilling
Some people don't want new mechanics or excitement. In fact Id say a large number of people are happy and satisfied with LOTRO as a whole. Myself being one of those people. That being said.. from a ex-powergamer I can totally understand why it could be compared to a pile of moldy cheese..
Agreed. I use to be a borderline hardcore player. Never was the type to put in 12 hours a day. But I had my years of playing 4+ hours a day, every day.
If I was still like that, I doubt I would care for LoTRo much at all.
But, given that priorities change in life, which they have for me..I only have an hour or when I game to dedicate to it. When you have time constraints like that, many MMO's are just not enjoyable as you cant even finish many quests in that time. LoTRo on the other hand is probably the best casual game I have played.
There is no one game to meet every playstyle. LoTRo seems perfect for the limited time casual players, but I agree it would be pretty sub par if you have hours to dedicate to your gaming.
My comments are on the fact you are nothing more than an intentionally annoying troll on these forums. You want to call me out for a personal attack, while every post of yours here is an unwarranted attack on the LOTRO players. I am not saying this simply as an insult, but you really are pathetic, dude. Your posts here are worthless, absolutely devoid of value, and your incessant attacks on the game and it's players don't make you look nearly as cool as you seem to think they do.
-----Zero Punctuation Eve Online Review-----
I don't feel compelled to argue with you about how good the game is. I think that the universally glowing reviews from media, along with the abundance of overwhelmingly positive fan comments, serve to rebuff your original points just fine. If you to fail to see that you hold a fairly insignificant minority opinion on the subject, I guess i am not going to be the one to show you the light.My comments are on the fact you are nothing more than an intentionally annoying troll on these forums. You want to call me out for a personal attack, while every post of yours here is an unwarranted attack on the LOTRO players. I am not saying this simply as an insult, but you really are pathetic, dude. Your posts here are worthless, absolutely devoid of value, and your incessant attacks on the game and it's players don't make you look nearly as cool as you seem to think they do.
I couldnt agree more with Salvatoris and im going to take a very "Birds Eye" view on this. You cannot witness the glowing reviews and press and positivity on the internet for this product and yet try to validate a discussion point that its a failing game that needs server merges. The argument simply doesnt hold water, there is too much against your opinion.
Also i accept fully that there are also areas of negative player feedback for the games candering to the more casual / relaxed players due to the nature of its rewards and quest content (Which it has in abundance) and it is fine providing you are not a very dedicated and powerfully level driven gamer on the whole (generalisation). Turbine never created Lord of the rings online to cander to your player stereotype in this initial launch phase and that is very obvious, that doesnt make you a bad person nor this a bad product...it clearly isnt... it is one of the most polished at launch mmorpg games to hit the market with an incredibly solid engine something fans in this genre havent seen very often to date. In time as it matures then im sure the world of middle earth will fill out, content increased and toughened and this will become a very healthy and stable MMORPG.
The fact is Turbine when creating this product (And lets remember above all else they are a "business") needed to choose a business model in this newly "mainstream" (No longer Niche) and rapidly growing space that worked. Thus the similarities drawn between WOW and LOTRO are obvious for one reason...they are adopting similar priciples and LOTRO has followed a similar business and design model. Because it works and it sells. So Opinions of individual titles aside that is the higher ground.
Compare Vanguards release in January with LOTRO's release in April and regardless of your personal opinions for a moment you tell me which is the design model and style of MMO game which has recieved the greater reviews, praise, launch and ultimately solid start based on box sales and subscriptions, which company would you rather be an employee of?. The games are black and white, chalk and cheese. Vanguard is an example of a product failure...not Lord of the rings online, love or hate its more "casual" gameplay if there is such a thing, that is what a majority of the gamers playing MMORPG's are responding too with their money. So that is where the Business is, plain and simple. Sandbox at present however much as we wish we could have a sandbox product with LOTRO's pure Launch polish hasnt happened and is yet to happen, Sandbox doesnt have a good name in the market because of exactly that previous utter failures such as saga of heroes, and some near misses like sadly SWG.
I happen to be a Lord of the Rings Online fan and i think the game is currently healthy and will go from strength to strength given its due bedding in period that every MMO should recieve providing it isnt blatently broke in core mechanics and at an engine level when it comes to market. (Vanguard). Lotro doesnt break ground in the genre, no, but then it never claimed too, it offers the core mechanics of "any" game to a genre that is slightly deprived of these things to date, Polish, Playability, Approachability, Mass hardware scaling / system performance and of course fun (in the opinion of the player). Thus before it, World of Warcraft's massive success.
However my first MMORPG experience was with Star Wars Galaxies and i loved every minute, because it was my first experience and its boundries seemed limitless. SWG existed in the dieing days of the MMORPG gaming space being a "niche" market and thus it subscription rates for its time were particularly healthy at launch. However, as much as i loved it and will "always" cherish the time i spent there it was tragically way ahead of its time, limited by available tech, and tragically broken. I started 6 - 8 months after its release and my class "pistolier" specials were knackered, half of them didnt work. "Pop up" and "flash object" occlusion and culling in the graphics engine were awful and the Netcode optimizations were out right bad. Yet we all played and loved for its epic scope and more importantly the mmo gaming mechanics it had the innovation to offer way ahead of its time in my opinion. On an engine level however it was very very broken, in much need of code fixes and you would be hard pushed to argue otherwise.
Another point which i think i have to give credit to Turbine for at the end of such a long post, is there dogged determination to stay as faithful as possible to the middle earth tales in there design thus no Mage class and Flashy Spell Casters. One thing that for me looking back on SWG as a massive Star Wars fan i have to say, SOE took certain liberties with there potentially industry devetating IP, for example the presence of jedi during the galactic civil war...the overpowering superiorety of melee combat classes, to name but a few.
Kind Regards and Enjoy whatever you ar playing
Mag
WHere is your upsetting fanboi since xx Jackdog?
eqnext.wikia.com
Same place as Vanguard's numbers, it took a trip to the basement and never returned
I miss DAoC
To the OP - I'm glad that the game has held your interest for 9 months. That's extraordinary. However, I believe it gives people an untrue and unrealistic expectation for the game. What is fun for one person isn't fun for everyone, right?
LOTRO does a lot of things well. Its technically stable and for the most part, bug free. It rarely crashes, I've yet to have any difficulty with lost items, lost xp, etc. There are a few quests that don't work properly, and GM assistance is nonexistent, but for the most part the technical issues don't interfere with gameplay. The graphics are beautiful, the music is beautiful, etc. This helps LOTRO score high on reviews that look for this sort of thing
The combat is, as another poster said, unspectactular. Target a mob, hit buttons, mob dies. Some abilities hit harder than others or add a very short unspectacular buff or debuff, but for the most part, its tab click. Even "group" content, everyone tab clicks, the minstrel heals, mob dies. Some abilities require executing another ability first to activate, but aside from that, its very straightforward and there's nothing new here. The death penalty is laughable. Any game where you intentionally die as a quicker way to travel back to town seriously needs its death penalty examined. Travel is pretty horrid in LOTRO also, taking sometimes the better part of an hour for a team to get together, and the world ain't that big.
The community is mixed, there are some decent people and decent players, but there is also a very large percent of the community that is pvp kiddie, whining day in and day out on the forums variety. There's LOTR fans and MMO fans and first-timers all mixed together. If you don't mind turning OFF all your public channels, its bearable - but I die a little inside every time someone says the community in this game is mature. I have played on 3 servers and seen the same sort of stupidity, so eh.
Its a decent game. A solid game. But all the content can be completed in a month or two even if you only play after work or on the weekends. I quit playing LOTRO about 3 days after Evendim was launched, in that time since release I'd managed to level two characters to 50, have 3 alts between 30 and 40, and grandmaster _EVERY_ tradeskill except metalsmithing, because my boyfriend grandmaster'd that. My minstrel had finished EVERY DEED in the game pre-evendim, and was making a big chunk in the evendim deeds when I decided that I wasn't enjoying the game anymore. There is absolutely no replay value (linear areas, same quests over and over, making alts = boring), and beyond a certain point you MUST join a group if you want to accomplish anything.
So, what am I saying? I'm saying, its pretty standard. Its popularity is largely based on the fact that it is Lord of the Rings rather than something original; fans of LOTR who perhaps have never played another MMO will adore this game, it has all the necessary elements. Long time MMO players will see that there's nothing new here. It was fun for a couple of months, but hardly innovative, and absolutely nothing to do once you've maxed out except level another character. There's no character customization whatsoever, (deeds nonwithstanding, but they don't make too big of a difference, and most people choose the same ones). The only way to increase your effectiveness is to procure better gear, but once again, the best gear comes from quests so most people wear the same mix of stuff. The result? Pick a class, now you're a clone of everyone else who picked that class, and you could log in and play THEIR toon without any difference other than how the hotbar is set up and perhaps a deed or two that need equipping. This does not create long time enjoyment.
If you're not an "achiever", I'd say go ahead and pick up this game. Hours of fun, lots to explore, meet friends, socialize, farm, play music, roleplay - its great. But if you like to see your character get better and improve and take on more and more challenging things, this game doesn't deliver.
Gaming? That's not gaming!
That's just people sat 'round in costumes drinking...
I miss DAoC
Everquest 2 is better than LoTRO. Next.
I can't get into eq2, i never know what to make. I don't identify iwth anything in that game. I become OCD in the character creation process every time. I have leveled to 24 in the game though, and it felt pretty bland. It didn't hold the immersion level for me that eq did in 99, or daoc in 01. LOTRO is the first game that I have been addicted to since then. The only problem is the CSR's will ban you for just about anything so if you getinto the game, try to stay out of their radar.
mmmm yeeeah, thats greeat, a little to the left would be greeeat, ::sips coffee mug:::
LOTRO: I drop my pants and lay my poo upon this bad game. I point my peenes an launch pee (much) to this game. This is a bad game, I dont thik I like it.
If all these other games are so good, why are these people trolling forums and not playing them, I do not understand.
QFE
bashers enjoy lurking forums and sometimes even take their time to post almost half a page with reasons NOT to play this game, JUST so ppl dont get the wrong impressions having read the OP. hilarious
QFE
bashers enjoy lurking forums and sometimes even take their time to post almost half a page with reasons NOT to play this game, JUST so ppl dont get the wrong impressions having read the OP. hilarious
OR paid for...
DB
Denial makes one look a lot dumber than he/she actually is.
Same place as Vanguard's numbers, it took a trip to the basement and never returned
LOL good one.At least, you know it would not fit. You are a LOTRO fanboi afterall...
Kudos to you my man.
eqnext.wikia.com
Content > Pretty graphics
I'm glad to see people both playing and enjoying LOTRO. It is, at its core a solidly built game that performs well on almost every system (and I should know, this machine is close to turning up in some paleontologist's lab for observation). The problem I have with it is that I'm losing interest with the PVE side. I don't really know why. It's solo play is enetertaining enough, group play is acceptable, crafting was too simplistic for me though, and I enjoyed the epic books. I guess that with my guardian up to 43 I simply feel as though I've finished that side of the game and that's the first time I've ever had that sensation about an MMO.
What's keeping me around is simple: a 6 month subscription plan and the fact that the one remaining thing I enjoy is monster play on my reaver. Probably because its flawed in favour of the heroes. Crowd control might be annoying but it truely is enjoyable to get a crowd of 20-30 slavering monsters together and go and pound on some over-privaleged freeps, especially those oh-so-pesky loremasters.
I would say if you want simple repetitive game play, Pong is better.
Now playing: VG (after a long break from MMORPGS)
Played for more than a month: Darkfall online, Vanguard SOH, Everquest, Horizons, WoW, SWG, Everquest II, Eve