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This game has a bad buzz, and I don't get it
smitty0356
Member Posts: 368
I have played lotro for a while now, both with a guild, as a guild leader, and alone, and I think it is a pretty solid game.
Next big game? Not really, although when all of the areas are put in, it will be huge, and very content filled.
Only real negatives I have, are as follows:
1. No differences in characters of the same class! a tank is a tank is a tank... not one difference.
2. Has anyone else noticed how petty the players are in this game compared to COX, MXO, or AO? I have never seen people hold a grudge for months over comments a person I didn't know in my guild made.... and the comments weren't even that bad. That wasn't an isolated incident... there are some pretty weird players in this game (and some mean rp'rs which is rare). This is actually the primary turn-off.
Everything else (like the lack of end-game), should self-correct once the pvp raids, and the new zones hit.
With such a smooth, good looking, and emmersive game, I can't see why there are so many nay-sayers. Considering I am hard on games, it's strange that I would be saying that it might be excessive by a small bit (only a small bit though 
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Comments
Well, I think you did a pretty good job describing why some folks don't care for the game. Lack of character/gear differences, lack of end game (which will never really change, you'll kill the same boars, goblins etc over and over), wonky PVP model, which also isn't changing all contribute to that perception.
Now your complaints about the community are unusual, most people feel the community is one of the games strengths, though it probably is intolerant of those who break the immersion.
Sure, LoTRO gets a lot of things really right, yet it misses in many important ways that matter to certain players like myself, therefore they give a thumbs down to the game.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
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Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
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"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Just feels like a game to me. I expect a "world" from my MMORPG. EQ was the last of those for me though. It is an okay game, but that is all it is. Quest, quest, quest, quest .. blah blah blah blah .. do developers think we need linear garbage to keep us entertained? I personally want a world with monsters in it, and some rare ones lurking in cracks here and there. Let me make my own adventures with others ..... you just provide the interesting world to do it in.
EQ was great for this and sadly WoW has made this genre shallow. WoW had some good points but they took away too much of a world feel and turned this genre into just another game and LOTRO just took the baton after WoW passed it to them.
It's really unusual for a player to say that the biggest downfall of lotro is it's community. Like the post above, most people love the community of lotro. If you have played some other MMO's over the last year (*cough-Tabula Rasa-cough*) then you'll know that lotro has a pretty laid back and helpful community.
Turbine is trying to make classes more non-linear then what they are. With minstrel and guardian offensive stances, champions having sub-tanking abilities, etc. I personally like classes to be linear if you're implementing classes in a game. It seperates who can play the class they chose and who can't. Yeah it's cool for a guardian to have offensive stance...but why not try to upgrade his defensive skills first.
When you say that end-game content, lack of gameplay, and PvP is a self-correcting process....well, it usually is. The way Turbine has been though is showing that their decisions are either neutral to changing the process right now, or taking it back to a more "casual gamer" no difference in gear content.
I've been pretty bored with the game since about middle of December. My kinship finally completed the task of being the first kinship on the server to beat Balrog...and after that, it didn't seem like there is anything to do. PvP isn't really a fun alternative...so we've all moved on to different games while we await book 12....and Warhammer Online.
When you take things such as this - PvP, end-game content, no gear differences, crappy crafting system....then you're killing all the fillers in the game. I could spend months, and did, just exploring the world in lotro...just for its beauty and lore. But that only lasts for so long until I want something more, and I believe lotro players are running out of stuff to do right now.
WoW I don't believe made the genre sour, other developers trying to mock a great success is making this genre sour. Blizzard's WoW was a success. Just like most blizzard games in the past. We should be blaming the current developers for not using their imaginations and creative minds like Blizzard did, to create something just as successful, but different.
______________________
Founder of Blind Gnome Entertainment
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Now, whenever some WoW crazed kids come to a game's development forums and cry "this game is NOTHING how it should be" rather than what the game IS. The game is made easier and nerfed down from awsome complicatedness to: "Hmm, this pretty much is like every other mmo, yawn".
If people want to start getting better and fresh MMO's they need to let every game they've ever played GO. It really gets irritating when people start to complain about a new game because they are comparing it to a 6yr old polished MMO.
/rantoff
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Blizzard were just lucky in what they created. WoW appeals to a large amount of kids because it is the current most easy MMO to play. It teaches them what an mmo actually, or at least, what an mmo can be and do. When people start leaving WoW because they realize that, in fact, it is the starter MMO. So when people start branching out looking for a real MMO they get a stark reminder that they were left out of the good old days of MMO's (EQ, UO, Planetside 1st-2nd year).
Now, whenever some WoW crazed kids come to a game's development forums and cry "this game is NOTHING how it should be" rather than what the game IS. The game is made easier and nerfed down from awsome complicatedness to: "Hmm, this pretty much is like every other mmo, yawn".
If people want to start getting better and fresh MMO's they need to let every game they've ever played GO. It really gets irritating when people start to complain about a new game because they are comparing it to a 6yr old polished MMO.
/rantoff
You saying that Blizzard "just got lucky" is definately a mockery of their development company. Blizzard designed their MMO to appeal to a mass audience, they did just that.
The fact that everyone knocks WoW is beyond me. It's a fun, simple, easy to pick up MMO that had great gameplay. It offered nice raiding and some decent PvP, as well as the whole open-PvP system.
The same could be said for games like Halo. Easy to pick up, console game, fun decent FPS action. It's appeal stretches from the oldest of adults to the youngest of kids. You cannot blame Bungie for doing this, they did what they were supposed to and made a successful game.
If you're looking for more in an MMO besides the whole WoW experience then maybe YOU shouldn't compare every game to WoW either.
______________________
Founder of Blind Gnome Entertainment
www.blindgnome.com
The only place I see LotRO get a bad buzz is here and a couple other elite gaming sites. Everywhere else that counts everyone says what a great game it is. Forums are well known to allow people who are unhappy a voice, whereas people who are happy usually don't bother to speak up.
In America I have bad teeth. If I lived in England my teeth would be perfect.