i havent played the game....but all i hear is negative comments about this game....
The game has gotten great reviews, and unlike many other mmorpgs, it was released very polished and ready to play. It has a very good following. The main people who dont seem to like the game are mainly hardcore players (its not a long grind to level) and PvPers (its a PvE-based game). It simply isnt designed for those players. However, those players are exactly the type who come to MMORPG.com, so you arent going to get an unbiased assessment looking here. LotRO is aimed more at non-hardcore players, people who enjoy the immersive world and the storyline, roleplayers, Tolkien fans, etc. I think any unbiased observer would admit its a good game... but its not a game designed for all players. If you love PvP, or if you are a hardcore player whose goal is to level fast and not even read the quests, well, this simply isnt a game for you. That doesnt make it a bad game though. I mean, I dont like the cartoony graphics of WoW, but that doesnt make it a 'bad' game.... its a good game but just not the game for me.
i havent played the game....but all i hear is negative comments about this game....
The game has gotten great reviews, and unlike many other mmorpgs, it was released very polished and ready to play. It has a very good following. The main people who dont seem to like the game are mainly hardcore players (its not a long grind to level) and PvPers (its a PvE-based game). It simply isnt designed for those players. However, those players are exactly the type who come to MMORPG.com, so you arent going to get an unbiased assessment looking here. LotRO is aimed more at non-hardcore players, people who enjoy the immersive world and the storyline, roleplayers, Tolkien fans, etc. I think any unbiased observer would admit its a good game... but its not a game designed for all players. If you love PvP, or if you are a hardcore player whose goal is to level fast and not even read the quests, well, this simply isnt a game for you. That doesnt make it a bad game though. I mean, I dont like the cartoony graphics of WoW, but that doesnt make it a 'bad' game.... its a good game but just not the game for me.
Well said. If only this venerable forum had more posts like this.
i havent played the game....but all i hear is negative comments about this game....
The game has gotten great reviews, and unlike many other mmorpgs, it was released very polished and ready to play. It has a very good following. The main people who dont seem to like the game are mainly hardcore players (its not a long grind to level) and PvPers (its a PvE-based game). It simply isnt designed for those players. However, those players are exactly the type who come to MMORPG.com, so you arent going to get an unbiased assessment looking here. LotRO is aimed more at non-hardcore players, people who enjoy the immersive world and the storyline, roleplayers, Tolkien fans, etc. I think any unbiased observer would admit its a good game... but its not a game designed for all players. If you love PvP, or if you are a hardcore player whose goal is to level fast and not even read the quests, well, this simply isnt a game for you. That doesnt make it a bad game though. I mean, I dont like the cartoony graphics of WoW, but that doesnt make it a 'bad' game.... its a good game but just not the game for me.
Well said. If only this venerable forum had more posts like this.
Bingo!
We aren't all going to like the same games. That isn't a bad thing. It doesn't make this game bad, your game bad, anyone's. Not saying that I don't find plenty of games bad for me... but if someone else wants to play it. Why do I care? Good for them. If it makes them happy, who am I to say they are wrong?
Too many people try to force-feed the negative MMO gaming trend. If a person is that bitter, perhaps MMO gaming isn't a very good hobby for them? Geeshh... it's a game for crying out loud... not the end of the world!
Well I have had a good time with the game off and on since beta 1. I took a month off from gaming completely last winter, but been back at it since last month. I just ignore these forums, it's just same old posters posting the same drivel since release. Not worth the time or energy to respond
heh heh 2 posts in 3 days , more than I have posted in the last 4 months combined. Exactly how many times can you post "the game sucks" ....."no it doesn't it is great"...... "it sucks"........" no it doesn't, I like it"? Anyway I might check back in 3 or 4 months but for now I just remembered why I stopped reading/posting over here. Have a good time under the bridge guys.
Actually had a lot of fun with this game.. levelled a minstrel to 34, hunter/burg/champ/LM all to around 20. One day I was in Dol Dinen with my min and I agreed to help groups finish their quests there (I was done and just looking for rep stuff). Three times half the gang bailed and ran as soon as they got their trolls or whatever.. and twice they ran off while the group had lots of aggro. Of course when half the dps vanished from the group the rest of us got waxed pretty quick.
I like helping folks so the minstrel was fun for me. Some fellowships (even duos) were fantastic and we never even broke a sweat in hard instances... but overall my experience was with (no other way to put this) rude little kiddies that never paid attention, ran off from the group then cried when they got killed, etc.. And the little twits wouldn't even say thanks before bailing from the fellowship!
I was spoiled by 3.5 years in EvE where I made friends that I will have forever. I think I may be unfairly judging LOTRO by comparing it to Eve. The learning curve there is an effective barrier to the kiddies and people that can't figure the game out, so the community there is almost all college/graduate/professional level (there are younger people there but they are pretty high functioning). I won't go on about EvE other than to say that I do think (even with all of its problems) it is the best game ever created, MMO or otherwise. I had to retire because my life got way too busy to play EvE properly.
So anyway, I had 4 gold ready to buy my mount, was ready to become a master jeweller, everything was going great.... then all of a sudden I just couldn't kill another frickin orc, goblin, warg, boar , spider or wolf. It hit me like a wall- my interest went from moderate to zero in 10 seconds. I was so sure I was done I gave away all my cash and stuff that wasn't bound, cancelled my account, and uninstalled the client within the hour.
Lotro seems like light and fluffy fun to me- pretty pictures, no death penalty. no PvP. There just wasn't much to hold my interest. I might have been on longer if the community had been a bit more adult, the crafting and market were more complicated and interesting, and if the world had felt less "scripted" (yes I know that's status quo for the genre, but like I said I came from the biggest "sandbox" game ever created).
Hehe wrote more than I meant to.. guess that's easy to do when you are gameless and have more time to kill...
deviliscious: (PS. I have been told that when I use scientific language, it does not make me sound more intelligent, it only makes me sound like a jackass. It makes me appear that I am not knowledgable enough in the subject I am discussing to be able to translate it for people outside the field to understand. Some advice you might consider as well)
Actually had a lot of fun with this game.. levelled a minstrel to 34, hunter/burg/champ/LM all to around 20. One day I was in Dol Dinen with my min and I agreed to help groups finish their quests there (I was done and just looking for rep stuff). Three times half the gang bailed and ran as soon as they got their trolls or whatever.. and twice they ran off while the group had lots of aggro. Of course when half the dps vanished from the group the rest of us got waxed pretty quick. I like helping folks so the minstrel was fun for me. Some fellowships (even duos) were fantastic and we never even broke a sweat in hard instances... but overall my experience was with (no other way to put this) rude little kiddies that never paid attention, ran off from the group then cried when they got killed, etc.. And the little twits wouldn't even say thanks before bailing from the fellowship! I was spoiled by 3.5 years in EvE where I made friends that I will have forever. I think I may be unfairly judging LOTRO by comparing it to Eve. The learning curve there is an effective barrier to the kiddies and people that can't figure the game out, so the community there is almost all college/graduate/professional level (there are younger people there but they are pretty high functioning). I won't go on about EvE other than to say that I do think (even with all of its problems) it is the best game ever created, MMO or otherwise. I had to retire because my life got way too busy to play EvE properly. So anyway, I had 4 gold ready to buy my mount, was ready to become a master jeweller, everything was going great.... then all of a sudden I just couldn't kill another frickin orc, goblin, warg, boar , spider or wolf. It hit me like a wall- my interest went from moderate to zero in 10 seconds. I was so sure I was done I gave away all my cash and stuff that wasn't bound, cancelled my account, and uninstalled the client within the hour. Lotro seems like light and fluffy fun to me- pretty pictures, no death penalty. no PvP. There just wasn't much to hold my interest. I might have been on longer if the community had been a bit more adult, the crafting and market were more complicated and interesting, and if the world had felt less "scripted" (yes I know that's status quo for the genre, but like I said I came from the biggest "sandbox" game ever created). Hehe wrote more than I meant to.. guess that's easy to do when you are gameless and have more time to kill...
Let me guess - you never played anything else besides EVE before LOTRO - especially not WoW
The community in LOTRO is miles above the average MMO community, in terms of maturity. Yes, occasionally you get idiots (i met 3 or 4 in my 10 month session so far), but they are drastically under-represented. I think you were really, really unlucky, and you have made a quick judgement out of a days's bad experience. Might not be so, but this is what you have written down!
If you are expecting LOTRO be more like EVE, however, then this game is definitely not for you at all.
DB
Denial makes one look a lot dumber than he/she actually is.
Actually I did play WoW (up to L26) because I have a couple really good RL friends that wanted me to play. I had almost the exact same experience there.. one day I was just over it.
With regard to the maturity of the player base, maybe I did have bad luck. I had similar experiences over the two months that I played the game, but it really seemed to me that the quality of the playerbase was deteriorating even over that short time. I guess thats part of the curse of popularity- all of the wannabes and trend followers show up.
Your post made me realize something though: when I quit WoW and Lotro, both times it was right after I had figured out how to make pretty much unlimited cash. In WoW I had figured out that I could strategically post certain potions in the AH at very high prices and they would sell. In Lotro I found that just picking up rich iron ore and selling the ingots (plus selling crits on a few specific pieces of jewelry) provided more gold than I could spend. At that point I realized there was nothing more that really interested me- I would get a level 37 weapon to replace my level 31 weapon, with better enchants, better armor, a horse, a bigger house... but really it was more of the same thing.
I think there were several things that kept me in EvE for so long. For one, building wealth there was a daunting challenge. In the beginning of the game i mined/ missioned/ ratted for a month to buy my first properly fitted cruiser.. then I went out to "low security" space because the NPCs there had bigger bounty and dropped nicer loot (which of course would lead to me getting richer quicker). Five minutes after I arrived in low sec I was dead and podkilled by another player.. I lost everything I had worked for a month to build in 30 seconds. I was furious and devastated and ready to quit.. but I wanted revenge. And I realized that getting revenge would take probably not weeks, but years. So I went back to square one, and started building again with renewed zeal and a bit more wisdom than I had before. Each success after that was all the sweeter because i was aware of the perils I had avoided to get there.
3 years later I had built a 50 man corp, had my own personal fleet of capital ships, and I was dedicated to helping and protecting the kinder/gentler people in EvE. That was my persona there.. I guess people would have called me a "carebear" but I went looking for fights all the time.. usually by putting myself in places where I knew the "less kind" players in EvE would come looking for me. I had figured out how to make very good money in game with a combination of exploration, manufacturing, and research.. and these professions required utilizing a huge host of skills, ships, and techniques and the market was extremely dynamic, so you had to adapt constantly.
Here's the heart of why I think some people love/ hate EvE and some people love/ hate games like Lotro: In EvE I still felt like a complete noob to huge parts of the game even after three years. I could fly battleships, carriers, recons, and command ships reasonably well, but there were 6 month old players that could kick my butt in ANY of my ships of choice because they had focused their skills on PvP in one particular ship and/ or they used superior tactics. I barely scratched the surface with regard to eve politics and alliances. I was just barely at the point financially and skill-wise where I could have started looking at supercapital ships and outpost construction when I left. The point is, no matter how wealthy/ experienced you were in EvE, there was ALWAYS something new to shoot for. The downside of all of this was that EvE was so complex and involved that just managing your world can become prohibitively time consuming if you actually have a real life to worry about (which I do).
In games like Lotro, you have to follow quest lines to level, there is and actual "end game," and there is no real risk in any part of the game. The lack of risk or "death penalty" for me I think made accomplishments like leveling seem hollow- I notice that some people even try to add this type of feel by doing things like going for the undefeated/ undying titles. Imagine a Lotro where the best gear and resources were in widely scattered randomly appearing nodes, and that you had to fight or sneak your way thru the best PvPers in the game to get there, and that you would lose ALL of your gear (either destroyed or looted) if you got killed. That would be a game that could keep me interested for more than a couple months. You would HAVE to work with talented people that you trusted to get anywhere in the game and the spoils would be incredibly sweet.. as opposed to "I ran great barrows again and got another purple sword." I think you are correct when you say that this game (and more precisely this genre/style of game) are just not for me.
I see alot of "my game rules, your game sux" posts on this forum and it really is all silliness.. I guess it's just human nature to defend something you love. People are (thankfully) not all the same so not everything is going to appeal to everyone. Lotro is a great game for it's genre, it is very pretty to look at and one thing I forgot to mention.. the ingame music is FANTASTIC.. the devs really did a good job there.
Bottom line is, if you like a game play it and ignore what anyone else says (yes, I see the irony making this statement after typing a short novel).
deviliscious: (PS. I have been told that when I use scientific language, it does not make me sound more intelligent, it only makes me sound like a jackass. It makes me appear that I am not knowledgable enough in the subject I am discussing to be able to translate it for people outside the field to understand. Some advice you might consider as well)
I gave LotRO and honest shot. At first I thought it was a great game. That feeling started to wear off after the initial honeymoon phase (about 3 months) and including the beta, I lasted 5 months in total.
Basically, everything about the game feels a bit...blah. The quests, the graphics, the combat system. I had 4 real beefs that finally turned me away and made me go back to play City of Villains for a few months, then back to WoW:
1. Level ranges are too narrow. The power gains from level to level are minimal, and so you find yourself looking for any way possible to get even the tiniest gains in power or else you'll outlevel the stuff that you can actually fight decently. This gets frustrating.
2. Too much grinding. This goes hand-in-hand with #1 above. Since you need any little thing you can get, you'll go for that miniscule power boost from killing ANOTHER 400 Worgs or whatever. This gets old really, really fast, especially when the ones you need to kill are freaking annoying (bog lurkers, etc)
3. Bad mixture of solo and group quests. I mostly preferred to play solo or with one other person to keep the casualness and freedom to do whatever I wanted to whenever I wanted to (especially after a year of nightly raiding in WoW where my time was never my own). I kept running headlong into group quests along what was a solo quest line. I wouldn't have minded so much--I didn't care for uber rewards or xp, I just wanted to see the sights. But with the power gains between levels so small, many of the group quests you can't solo/duo even 10, 15, or 20 levels past the designed range.
4. Slow combat and not enough monster variety. LotRO combat literally made me fall asleep. Literally. Keyboard marks on the face and all. The pace is too slow, and it felt more technical than natural with having to use the different tiers of attacks. The slow pace is, IMO, mostly because of the extreme restrictions on healing. The limited monster variety also made it a bore after a while.
I stopped playing late last summer (August I think) so maybe things have changed. But if they have not, here are my suggestions:
1. Loosen up the restrictions on healing (including potion use) to make combat more fast-paced
2. Make the power gains between levels larger to make certain content more accessible to different styles of play.
3. Fix the quest lines so that solo/duo aren't always running into roadblocks and having trouble finding others who happen to be on the same step they are
4. Enough with excessive "Kill X a million more times" tasks. Find ways to make that more interesting.
Overall I just find WoW a much more fun game, despite its many flaws. LotRO has the basic structure to make it just as good, but certain fundamental design decisions are just holding it back. I have a lifetime subscription (just shows how much promise I originally thought it had) so I may revisit it once in a while, but unless there are many changes, it will never hold me for long.
You sir, have just provided one of the most excellent posts on the whole of MMORPG:COM. Not only is it a perfect desription of how and why casual/hardcore, PVE/PVP etc. games are (and should always be) different, but the attitude you think that people should have towards games and other people is also flawless.
I have to agree in the sad fact, that it is not very common to see people accepting how other people's choices and flavors can be utterly different, and not feeling a weird "urge" to post troll/hate towards people who like or even love a game they do not.
I have also played EVE for a couple of months, until the point where I realized some basic things: - that I will never be as good as those who started a year or more ago, - that I can lose things I spent months or years to achieve, - that I need almost a full life to dedicate to it if I wish to be as good as always want to be in something that I start doing.
Thus, I stopped playing and realized that in my age and with my lifestyle, all I want is a couple of hours of enjoyment now and then, with no serious ties and no serious penalties. This is what LOTRO is good for, and what EVE is not - besides it being one of the very best MMOs out there, almost a whole "second world" to live in.
It's good to live in a world where everyone is different - just wishing more people would start to realize that, and stop their childish "crusades" to convince everyone and their mother that a certain game is "BAD" or "GOOD". There is no such thing, and we know it....
DB
Denial makes one look a lot dumber than he/she actually is.
Nothing for the normal players here. Raid, Raid, Raid...
I can restore my sub to EQ if I want to raid.
I want a game which is totally and unquestionnably commited to PvE-grouping...and this is not the case. Sure, a few fast talkers will try to tell you it is coop, PvE and all, but in the end, you are subpar unless you raid.
Do I want to raid? No. Then I will just wait for something else, cause a raid-ending is just that bad.
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
Nothing for the normal players here. Raid, Raid, Raid...
I can restore my sub to EQ if I want to raid.
I want a game which is totally and unquestionnably commited to PvE-grouping...and this is not the case. Sure, a few fast talkers will try to tell you it is coop, PvE and all, but in the end, you are subpar unless you raid.
Do I want to raid? No. Then I will just wait for something else, cause a raid-ending is just that bad.
Except that is not accurate. Crafted kit is on par with raid kit. I know several players who have a mixture of raid and crafted. And given the way LOTRO calculates power, damage, attack etc. many high end looted items (non raid) remain viable alternatives to raid gear.
_____________________________ 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.
Actually I did play WoW (up to L26) because I have a couple really good RL friends that wanted me to play. I had almost the exact same experience there.. one day I was just over it. With regard to the maturity of the player base, maybe I did have bad luck. I had similar experiences over the two months that I played the game, but it really seemed to me that the quality of the playerbase was deteriorating even over that short time. I guess thats part of the curse of popularity- all of the wannabes and trend followers show up. Your post made me realize something though: when I quit WoW and Lotro, both times it was right after I had figured out how to make pretty much unlimited cash. In WoW I had figured out that I could strategically post certain potions in the AH at very high prices and they would sell. In Lotro I found that just picking up rich iron ore and selling the ingots (plus selling crits on a few specific pieces of jewelry) provided more gold than I could spend. At that point I realized there was nothing more that really interested me- I would get a level 37 weapon to replace my level 31 weapon, with better enchants, better armor, a horse, a bigger house... but really it was more of the same thing. I think there were several things that kept me in EvE for so long. For one, building wealth there was a daunting challenge. In the beginning of the game i mined/ missioned/ ratted for a month to buy my first properly fitted cruiser.. then I went out to "low security" space because the NPCs there had bigger bounty and dropped nicer loot (which of course would lead to me getting richer quicker). Five minutes after I arrived in low sec I was dead and podkilled by another player.. I lost everything I had worked for a month to build in 30 seconds. I was furious and devastated and ready to quit.. but I wanted revenge. And I realized that getting revenge would take probably not weeks, but years. So I went back to square one, and started building again with renewed zeal and a bit more wisdom than I had before. Each success after that was all the sweeter because i was aware of the perils I had avoided to get there. 3 years later I had built a 50 man corp, had my own personal fleet of capital ships, and I was dedicated to helping and protecting the kinder/gentler people in EvE. That was my persona there.. I guess people would have called me a "carebear" but I went looking for fights all the time.. usually by putting myself in places where I knew the "less kind" players in EvE would come looking for me. I had figured out how to make very good money in game with a combination of exploration, manufacturing, and research.. and these professions required utilizing a huge host of skills, ships, and techniques and the market was extremely dynamic, so you had to adapt constantly. Here's the heart of why I think some people love/ hate EvE and some people love/ hate games like Lotro: In EvE I still felt like a complete noob to huge parts of the game even after three years. I could fly battleships, carriers, recons, and command ships reasonably well, but there were 6 month old players that could kick my butt in ANY of my ships of choice because they had focused their skills on PvP in one particular ship and/ or they used superior tactics. I barely scratched the surface with regard to eve politics and alliances. I was just barely at the point financially and skill-wise where I could have started looking at supercapital ships and outpost construction when I left. The point is, no matter how wealthy/ experienced you were in EvE, there was ALWAYS something new to shoot for. The downside of all of this was that EvE was so complex and involved that just managing your world can become prohibitively time consuming if you actually have a real life to worry about (which I do). In games like Lotro, you have to follow quest lines to level, there is and actual "end game," and there is no real risk in any part of the game. The lack of risk or "death penalty" for me I think made accomplishments like leveling seem hollow- I notice that some people even try to add this type of feel by doing things like going for the undefeated/ undying titles. Imagine a Lotro where the best gear and resources were in widely scattered randomly appearing nodes, and that you had to fight or sneak your way thru the best PvPers in the game to get there, and that you would lose ALL of your gear (either destroyed or looted) if you got killed. That would be a game that could keep me interested for more than a couple months. You would HAVE to work with talented people that you trusted to get anywhere in the game and the spoils would be incredibly sweet.. as opposed to "I ran great barrows again and got another purple sword." I think you are correct when you say that this game (and more precisely this genre/style of game) are just not for me. I see alot of "my game rules, your game sux" posts on this forum and it really is all silliness.. I guess it's just human nature to defend something you love. People are (thankfully) not all the same so not everything is going to appeal to everyone. Lotro is a great game for it's genre, it is very pretty to look at and one thing I forgot to mention.. the ingame music is FANTASTIC.. the devs really did a good job there. Bottom line is, if you like a game play it and ignore what anyone else says (yes, I see the irony making this statement after typing a short novel).
This is one of the best posts I've ever seen. I'm quoting it so others can read.
Why do people hate the game? Probably because it isn't exactly what they were looking for or didn't give it enough of a chance, so they decide that the game sucks. They get invested in whatever new or previous MMO they are/were playing, so they trash LOTRO.
I'm a lifetime subscriber to LOTRO, and I like the game pretty well. There are a lot of ideal qualities that I think an MMO should have. LOTRO doesn't have all of them, but it has a good many- including some important ones that were sorely lacking in my last couple of MMO's. For example, I think an MMO should focus on story and making player's actions and lives relevant to the world. Maybe that goes back to my first mmo being Asheron's Call which was almost like an online soap opera. There was always something going on in that world, and they had live events where you could take part in making history- meeting heroes or fighting villains (controlled by the dev team).
So far LOTRO has done a nice job of making you feel like your character is truly part of the online world, so that's a big win. The epic "book" quest series is great, especially because the source material that these events are based around is so amazing. The only thing the game is missing in this department is live events which according to the devs will be incorporated into the game at some point. "WarCry: Falthorn: Will we be seeing any live events soon, such as attacks on Trestlebridge?
LOTRO_Saffron: Yes! We currently have tons of live events plans, including attacks to areas at some point in the future. ;-)"
Through the epic quests LOTRO has developed some interesting heroes and villains which they could develop dramatic events around, so I'm cautiously optimistic that LOTRO will deliver some great experiences. The game really does have an incredible amount of potential.
Anyway that's one of the big reasons that I like lotro. To keep this short i'm just going to list some other positives and then also some things that the game doesn't do well.
+ Music system. This is a great feature, and no other MMO I'm aware of has anything like it.
+ PVMP. A unique take on pvp, and I've enjoyed it a lot. It's not perfect, but I've played games that are much more focused on PVP and they have just as many problems.
+ Beautiful environments.
+ Crafting. Crafted items are competitive (and sometimes better than other gear) throughout the game. Comparing my previous mmo's- AC1 and COH lacked true crafting. Crafting in WOW was pretty much a waste of time except in select circumstances.
+ Housing. Home, sweet home.
+ Voice chat. It's becoming more common, but at the time most other MMO's didn't have it built in.
+ Variety of content. Quests can be anything from klling to exploring to delivering pies in the shire. You can play as a chicken or pvmp as a monster. There's lots of good missions and some nice instances. There's raids and music and crafting. I mentioned these individually to point out their good qualities, but what I'm getting at here is that there are many ways to play lotro.
And here are some things that aren't so good. These may cause certain people to not like the game, but IMO if you can get over them there's a quality MMO to be played.
- Fairly low variety of classes to play.
- Classes are pretty mundane (as in not very flashy/spectacular) for the most part.
- Repetitive enemies. 95% animals, orcs, wargs, or trolls.
- Not a lot of choices and specialization for individual classes.
- Combat (IMO) is not as refined as it is in some other game.
- Character models and animations are not that great.
- UI has some problems and is weak in customization.
- Not focused on PVP.
~~~ Currently Playing ~~~ LOTRO- Guardian Wrymstrum & Lore-master Stabler on Nimrodel.
Conan- Zoltar <Angels of Death> Guardian on Stormrage.
Why do people hate the game? Probably because it isn't exactly what they were looking for or didn't give it enough of a chance, so they decide that the game sucks. They get invested in whatever new or previous MMO they are/were playing, so they trash LOTRO. I'm a lifetime subscriber to LOTRO, and I like the game pretty well. There are a lot of ideal qualities that I think an MMO should have. LOTRO doesn't have all of them, but it has a good many- including some important ones that were sorely lacking in my last couple of MMO's. For example, I think an MMO should focus on story and making player's actions and lives relevant to the world. Maybe that goes back to my first mmo being Asheron's Call which was almost like an online soap opera. There was always something going on in that world, and they had live events where you could take part in making history- meeting heroes or fighting villains (controlled by the dev team). So far LOTRO has done a nice job of making you feel like your character is truly part of the online world, so that's a big win. The epic "book" quest series is great, especially because the source material that these events are based around is so amazing. The only thing the game is missing in this department is live events which according to the devs will be incorporated into the game at some point. "WarCry: Falthorn: Will we be seeing any live events soon, such as attacks on Trestlebridge?
LOTRO_Saffron: Yes! We currently have tons of live events plans, including attacks to areas at some point in the future. ;-)" Through the epic quests LOTRO has developed some interesting heroes and villains which they could develop dramatic events around, so I'm cautiously optimistic that LOTRO will deliver some great experiences. The game really does have an incredible amount of potential.
Anyway that's one of the big reasons that I like lotro. To keep this short i'm just going to list some other positives and then also some things that the game doesn't do well.
+ Music system. This is a great feature, and no other MMO I'm aware of has anything like it. + PVMP. A unique take on pvp, and I've enjoyed it a lot. It's not perfect, but I've played games that are much more focused on PVP and they have just as many problems. + Beautiful environments. + Crafting. Crafted items are competitive (and sometimes better than other gear) throughout the game. Comparing my previous mmo's- AC1 and COH lacked true crafting. Crafting in WOW was pretty much a waste of time except in select circumstances. + Housing. Home, sweet home. + Voice chat. It's becoming more common, but at the time most other MMO's didn't have it built in. + Variety of content. Quests can be anything from klling to exploring to delivering pies in the shire. You can play as a chicken or pvmp as a monster. There's lots of good missions and some nice instances. There's raids and music and crafting. I mentioned these individually to point out their good qualities, but what I'm getting at here is that there are many ways to play lotro.
And here are some things that aren't so good. These may cause certain people to not like the game, but IMO if you can get over them there's a quality MMO to be played.
- Fairly low variety of classes to play. - Classes are pretty mundane (as in not very flashy/spectacular) for the most part. - Repetitive enemies. 95% animals, orcs, wargs, or trolls. - Not a lot of choices and specialization for individual classes. - Combat (IMO) is not as refined as it is in some other game. - Character models and animations are not that great. - UI has some problems and is weak in customization. - Not focused on PVP.
Very well done. I think you did a great job of balancing the pros and cons of the game. There may be other items that you didn't list on either side, but what you did list would probably cover the majority of people.
The part that I'll never get for as long as I play MMOs is the venom, and hate that people express towards something as unimportant as a silly video game.
The journey up to Lvl Cap 50 was decent. The game is beautiful, fairly balanced, and was relaxing. However I feel it lacks depth. Doing quests, hanging out with your friends, meeting people, enjoying the games pretty scenery, are all wonderful experiences in MMO's, but when it's all said and done, it comes down to player advancement (IMO). Which brings me to the biggest flaw I see with LOTRO atm, it's end-game/reward system. You need content when you are bored, and you need a reason to do the content. Not only does LOTRO provide a lack of end-game content, but the reward for doing them is absolutely absurd. Here is an example:
Here are the 3 current armor set's that, I would say are the best in the game ATM~
Crafted Armor Lv.47 (Crafted) - released since launch?
Helegrod Armor Lv.50 (24 man raid) - released fairly recently after launch?
Rift Armor Lv.50 (12 man raid) - released recently.
Crafted armor was released first upon the games release. The Lv.47 set was by far the best armor you could obtain in the game. To obtain some pieces, it took some effort along with luck, while other pieces were a bit easier to obtain. However the developers at Turbine saw that only 30%~ of the 70%~ end game community had the best armor in the game, and thought that to be unfair?! So they changed the ways to obtain these crafted armor, so that literally every person at Lv.47+ now could, and is decked out in this gear... genius! (Old price of armor = 25-40 Gold | New price of armor = 4-8 Gold?)
Then they released the Helegrod armor set, 24 man raid! Sounds promising doesn't it? It was suppose to until they decided to make the stats on the Helegrod set worse than that of the crafted armor... where is my motivation to join a 24 man raid to farm this armor?
Then they added the Rift armor set, 12 man raid! However this time they took a step up... they actually made the armor set relatively good. But still some still prefer their Lv.47 crafted armor set over rift... so I'm going to go ahead and put the Rift and Crafted armor set on the same level then.
So in conclusion, Your crafted armor (EASILY OBTAINED), is on top of the list, or tied with Rift (12 man raid), and your 24 man raid set is worse than your 12 man raid, and worse than your crafted armor set that you could solo farm. Bravo Turbine, bravo!!!
Tune in for book 12, when they released the Ettemoors set, which is more or less, equivalent to crafted/rift, however each piece is obtained from a scaling rank system. Starting with your first pieces obtained at Rank 2 (a few SHORT hours to get rank 2)... I'm not even going to get into the flaw of that system. Also keep in mind that the way the equipment/class design was made, you don't necessity have different sets of armor for different type of situations. So it's not like they are creating a bunch of equivalent items that you would swap in or swap out for this battle or that battle (which would be cool!!) Every single one of these damn sets gives off the same damn stats... Oy... I'm not even going to bother lol, short answer, REWARD SYSTEM = TRASH in LOTRO.
I kind of ran across all the posts, so if I missed the one I was looking for, let me know. I was looking for
ROLEPLAY
I've played and stayed in this game for almost one year now, because of roleplaying. Period. Rift is ok, PvMP is ok, Instances are fun, the storyline is ok. But what REALLY sets this game apart ist he ability to have a fun but non-dogmatic roleplay experience. It has exactly the level you'd wish for, even after one year. Roleplay is there, on the street, in houses, in guilds. Sure, there are many many people not actually roleplaying. They run, keep their battle equip on all the time and don't say a word in /say.
But if you talk to them, they stick to the minimum level that keeps the atmosphere. And if you tag yourself white as a roleplayer, people will RP-steal from you, RP-talk about your hair, RP-ask you for pipeweed, RP-confront you with a love story. There are RP-plots going on with arranged events (Europe DE-RP Belegaer, German Server). There are markets, bands, horse races, taverns...
It's the atmosphere of "nobody has to, but everyone CAN".
And after one whole year the Gamemasters are still enforcing naming and channel-policy. You can see JohnDoes, Analanators and ChuckNorris changing their names daily.
It is for all these things that I keep playing this game. Not for phat loot or stupid Ettenmoors-Camping
"why do so many people hate this game?" Because it sucks.
Wow...your name really matches up well with your posts. All negative and just filled with poopy stuff. I don't think another person here could have given you a better name while also providing implications to your overall maturity.
Myself, I have not heard/seen a lot of hate for the game, I see this usual I don't like X or Y about the game. I think that is a normal aspect of you can't please all of the people all of the time, nor do you want to. The addage that "if you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing no one" holds true.
"It is easier to be cruel than wise. The road to wisdom is long and difficult... so most people just turn out to be assholes" Feng (Christopher Walken)
Comments
The game has gotten great reviews, and unlike many other mmorpgs, it was released very polished and ready to play. It has a very good following. The main people who dont seem to like the game are mainly hardcore players (its not a long grind to level) and PvPers (its a PvE-based game). It simply isnt designed for those players. However, those players are exactly the type who come to MMORPG.com, so you arent going to get an unbiased assessment looking here. LotRO is aimed more at non-hardcore players, people who enjoy the immersive world and the storyline, roleplayers, Tolkien fans, etc. I think any unbiased observer would admit its a good game... but its not a game designed for all players. If you love PvP, or if you are a hardcore player whose goal is to level fast and not even read the quests, well, this simply isnt a game for you. That doesnt make it a bad game though. I mean, I dont like the cartoony graphics of WoW, but that doesnt make it a 'bad' game.... its a good game but just not the game for me.
Elladan - ESO (AD)
Camring - SWTOR (Ebon Hawk)
Eol & Justinian - Rift (Faeblight)
Ceol and Duri - LotRO (Landroval)
Kili - WoW
Eol - Lineage 2
Camring - SWG
Justinian (Nimue), Camring - DAoC
The game has gotten great reviews, and unlike many other mmorpgs, it was released very polished and ready to play. It has a very good following. The main people who dont seem to like the game are mainly hardcore players (its not a long grind to level) and PvPers (its a PvE-based game). It simply isnt designed for those players. However, those players are exactly the type who come to MMORPG.com, so you arent going to get an unbiased assessment looking here. LotRO is aimed more at non-hardcore players, people who enjoy the immersive world and the storyline, roleplayers, Tolkien fans, etc. I think any unbiased observer would admit its a good game... but its not a game designed for all players. If you love PvP, or if you are a hardcore player whose goal is to level fast and not even read the quests, well, this simply isnt a game for you. That doesnt make it a bad game though. I mean, I dont like the cartoony graphics of WoW, but that doesnt make it a 'bad' game.... its a good game but just not the game for me.
Well said. If only this venerable forum had more posts like this.
The game has gotten great reviews, and unlike many other mmorpgs, it was released very polished and ready to play. It has a very good following. The main people who dont seem to like the game are mainly hardcore players (its not a long grind to level) and PvPers (its a PvE-based game). It simply isnt designed for those players. However, those players are exactly the type who come to MMORPG.com, so you arent going to get an unbiased assessment looking here. LotRO is aimed more at non-hardcore players, people who enjoy the immersive world and the storyline, roleplayers, Tolkien fans, etc. I think any unbiased observer would admit its a good game... but its not a game designed for all players. If you love PvP, or if you are a hardcore player whose goal is to level fast and not even read the quests, well, this simply isnt a game for you. That doesnt make it a bad game though. I mean, I dont like the cartoony graphics of WoW, but that doesnt make it a 'bad' game.... its a good game but just not the game for me.
Well said. If only this venerable forum had more posts like this.
Bingo!We aren't all going to like the same games. That isn't a bad thing. It doesn't make this game bad, your game bad, anyone's. Not saying that I don't find plenty of games bad for me... but if someone else wants to play it. Why do I care? Good for them. If it makes them happy, who am I to say they are wrong?
Too many people try to force-feed the negative MMO gaming trend. If a person is that bitter, perhaps MMO gaming isn't a very good hobby for them? Geeshh... it's a game for crying out loud... not the end of the world!
Well I have had a good time with the game off and on since beta 1. I took a month off from gaming completely last winter, but been back at it since last month. I just ignore these forums, it's just same old posters posting the same drivel since release. Not worth the time or energy to respond
I miss DAoC
And you will notice Jackdog being one of those usual posters
Anyway it is a good game. There are quite a few design desicions I don't agree with, but on the whole it is a good game and the setting is the best!
heh heh 2 posts in 3 days , more than I have posted in the last 4 months combined. Exactly how many times can you post "the game sucks" ....."no it doesn't it is great"...... "it sucks"........" no it doesn't, I like it"? Anyway I might check back in 3 or 4 months but for now I just remembered why I stopped reading/posting over here. Have a good time under the bridge guys.
I miss DAoC
Actually had a lot of fun with this game.. levelled a minstrel to 34, hunter/burg/champ/LM all to around 20. One day I was in Dol Dinen with my min and I agreed to help groups finish their quests there (I was done and just looking for rep stuff). Three times half the gang bailed and ran as soon as they got their trolls or whatever.. and twice they ran off while the group had lots of aggro. Of course when half the dps vanished from the group the rest of us got waxed pretty quick.
I like helping folks so the minstrel was fun for me. Some fellowships (even duos) were fantastic and we never even broke a sweat in hard instances... but overall my experience was with (no other way to put this) rude little kiddies that never paid attention, ran off from the group then cried when they got killed, etc.. And the little twits wouldn't even say thanks before bailing from the fellowship!
I was spoiled by 3.5 years in EvE where I made friends that I will have forever. I think I may be unfairly judging LOTRO by comparing it to Eve. The learning curve there is an effective barrier to the kiddies and people that can't figure the game out, so the community there is almost all college/graduate/professional level (there are younger people there but they are pretty high functioning). I won't go on about EvE other than to say that I do think (even with all of its problems) it is the best game ever created, MMO or otherwise. I had to retire because my life got way too busy to play EvE properly.
So anyway, I had 4 gold ready to buy my mount, was ready to become a master jeweller, everything was going great.... then all of a sudden I just couldn't kill another frickin orc, goblin, warg, boar , spider or wolf. It hit me like a wall- my interest went from moderate to zero in 10 seconds. I was so sure I was done I gave away all my cash and stuff that wasn't bound, cancelled my account, and uninstalled the client within the hour.
Lotro seems like light and fluffy fun to me- pretty pictures, no death penalty. no PvP. There just wasn't much to hold my interest. I might have been on longer if the community had been a bit more adult, the crafting and market were more complicated and interesting, and if the world had felt less "scripted" (yes I know that's status quo for the genre, but like I said I came from the biggest "sandbox" game ever created).
Hehe wrote more than I meant to.. guess that's easy to do when you are gameless and have more time to kill...
deviliscious: (PS. I have been told that when I use scientific language, it does not make me sound more intelligent, it only makes me sound like a jackass. It makes me appear that I am not knowledgable enough in the subject I am discussing to be able to translate it for people outside the field to understand. Some advice you might consider as well)
The community in LOTRO is miles above the average MMO community, in terms of maturity. Yes, occasionally you get idiots (i met 3 or 4 in my 10 month session so far), but they are drastically under-represented. I think you were really, really unlucky, and you have made a quick judgement out of a days's bad experience. Might not be so, but this is what you have written down!
If you are expecting LOTRO be more like EVE, however, then this game is definitely not for you at all.
DB
Denial makes one look a lot dumber than he/she actually is.
Actually I did play WoW (up to L26) because I have a couple really good RL friends that wanted me to play. I had almost the exact same experience there.. one day I was just over it.
With regard to the maturity of the player base, maybe I did have bad luck. I had similar experiences over the two months that I played the game, but it really seemed to me that the quality of the playerbase was deteriorating even over that short time. I guess thats part of the curse of popularity- all of the wannabes and trend followers show up.
Your post made me realize something though: when I quit WoW and Lotro, both times it was right after I had figured out how to make pretty much unlimited cash. In WoW I had figured out that I could strategically post certain potions in the AH at very high prices and they would sell. In Lotro I found that just picking up rich iron ore and selling the ingots (plus selling crits on a few specific pieces of jewelry) provided more gold than I could spend. At that point I realized there was nothing more that really interested me- I would get a level 37 weapon to replace my level 31 weapon, with better enchants, better armor, a horse, a bigger house... but really it was more of the same thing.
I think there were several things that kept me in EvE for so long. For one, building wealth there was a daunting challenge. In the beginning of the game i mined/ missioned/ ratted for a month to buy my first properly fitted cruiser.. then I went out to "low security" space because the NPCs there had bigger bounty and dropped nicer loot (which of course would lead to me getting richer quicker). Five minutes after I arrived in low sec I was dead and podkilled by another player.. I lost everything I had worked for a month to build in 30 seconds. I was furious and devastated and ready to quit.. but I wanted revenge. And I realized that getting revenge would take probably not weeks, but years. So I went back to square one, and started building again with renewed zeal and a bit more wisdom than I had before. Each success after that was all the sweeter because i was aware of the perils I had avoided to get there.
3 years later I had built a 50 man corp, had my own personal fleet of capital ships, and I was dedicated to helping and protecting the kinder/gentler people in EvE. That was my persona there.. I guess people would have called me a "carebear" but I went looking for fights all the time.. usually by putting myself in places where I knew the "less kind" players in EvE would come looking for me. I had figured out how to make very good money in game with a combination of exploration, manufacturing, and research.. and these professions required utilizing a huge host of skills, ships, and techniques and the market was extremely dynamic, so you had to adapt constantly.
Here's the heart of why I think some people love/ hate EvE and some people love/ hate games like Lotro: In EvE I still felt like a complete noob to huge parts of the game even after three years. I could fly battleships, carriers, recons, and command ships reasonably well, but there were 6 month old players that could kick my butt in ANY of my ships of choice because they had focused their skills on PvP in one particular ship and/ or they used superior tactics. I barely scratched the surface with regard to eve politics and alliances. I was just barely at the point financially and skill-wise where I could have started looking at supercapital ships and outpost construction when I left. The point is, no matter how wealthy/ experienced you were in EvE, there was ALWAYS something new to shoot for. The downside of all of this was that EvE was so complex and involved that just managing your world can become prohibitively time consuming if you actually have a real life to worry about (which I do).
In games like Lotro, you have to follow quest lines to level, there is and actual "end game," and there is no real risk in any part of the game. The lack of risk or "death penalty" for me I think made accomplishments like leveling seem hollow- I notice that some people even try to add this type of feel by doing things like going for the undefeated/ undying titles. Imagine a Lotro where the best gear and resources were in widely scattered randomly appearing nodes, and that you had to fight or sneak your way thru the best PvPers in the game to get there, and that you would lose ALL of your gear (either destroyed or looted) if you got killed. That would be a game that could keep me interested for more than a couple months. You would HAVE to work with talented people that you trusted to get anywhere in the game and the spoils would be incredibly sweet.. as opposed to "I ran great barrows again and got another purple sword." I think you are correct when you say that this game (and more precisely this genre/style of game) are just not for me.
I see alot of "my game rules, your game sux" posts on this forum and it really is all silliness.. I guess it's just human nature to defend something you love. People are (thankfully) not all the same so not everything is going to appeal to everyone. Lotro is a great game for it's genre, it is very pretty to look at and one thing I forgot to mention.. the ingame music is FANTASTIC.. the devs really did a good job there.
Bottom line is, if you like a game play it and ignore what anyone else says (yes, I see the irony making this statement after typing a short novel).
deviliscious: (PS. I have been told that when I use scientific language, it does not make me sound more intelligent, it only makes me sound like a jackass. It makes me appear that I am not knowledgable enough in the subject I am discussing to be able to translate it for people outside the field to understand. Some advice you might consider as well)
I gave LotRO and honest shot. At first I thought it was a great game. That feeling started to wear off after the initial honeymoon phase (about 3 months) and including the beta, I lasted 5 months in total.
Basically, everything about the game feels a bit...blah. The quests, the graphics, the combat system. I had 4 real beefs that finally turned me away and made me go back to play City of Villains for a few months, then back to WoW:
1. Level ranges are too narrow. The power gains from level to level are minimal, and so you find yourself looking for any way possible to get even the tiniest gains in power or else you'll outlevel the stuff that you can actually fight decently. This gets frustrating.
2. Too much grinding. This goes hand-in-hand with #1 above. Since you need any little thing you can get, you'll go for that miniscule power boost from killing ANOTHER 400 Worgs or whatever. This gets old really, really fast, especially when the ones you need to kill are freaking annoying (bog lurkers, etc)
3. Bad mixture of solo and group quests. I mostly preferred to play solo or with one other person to keep the casualness and freedom to do whatever I wanted to whenever I wanted to (especially after a year of nightly raiding in WoW where my time was never my own). I kept running headlong into group quests along what was a solo quest line. I wouldn't have minded so much--I didn't care for uber rewards or xp, I just wanted to see the sights. But with the power gains between levels so small, many of the group quests you can't solo/duo even 10, 15, or 20 levels past the designed range.
4. Slow combat and not enough monster variety. LotRO combat literally made me fall asleep. Literally. Keyboard marks on the face and all. The pace is too slow, and it felt more technical than natural with having to use the different tiers of attacks. The slow pace is, IMO, mostly because of the extreme restrictions on healing. The limited monster variety also made it a bore after a while.
I stopped playing late last summer (August I think) so maybe things have changed. But if they have not, here are my suggestions:
1. Loosen up the restrictions on healing (including potion use) to make combat more fast-paced
2. Make the power gains between levels larger to make certain content more accessible to different styles of play.
3. Fix the quest lines so that solo/duo aren't always running into roadblocks and having trouble finding others who happen to be on the same step they are
4. Enough with excessive "Kill X a million more times" tasks. Find ways to make that more interesting.
Overall I just find WoW a much more fun game, despite its many flaws. LotRO has the basic structure to make it just as good, but certain fundamental design decisions are just holding it back. I have a lifetime subscription (just shows how much promise I originally thought it had) so I may revisit it once in a while, but unless there are many changes, it will never hold me for long.
RE: Enkindu, #135
You sir, have just provided one of the most excellent posts on the whole of MMORPG:COM. Not only is it a perfect desription of how and why casual/hardcore, PVE/PVP etc. games are (and should always be) different, but the attitude you think that people should have towards games and other people is also flawless.
I have to agree in the sad fact, that it is not very common to see people accepting how other people's choices and flavors can be utterly different, and not feeling a weird "urge" to post troll/hate towards people who like or even love a game they do not.
I have also played EVE for a couple of months, until the point where I realized some basic things: - that I will never be as good as those who started a year or more ago, - that I can lose things I spent months or years to achieve, - that I need almost a full life to dedicate to it if I wish to be as good as always want to be in something that I start doing.
Thus, I stopped playing and realized that in my age and with my lifestyle, all I want is a couple of hours of enjoyment now and then, with no serious ties and no serious penalties. This is what LOTRO is good for, and what EVE is not
- besides it being one of the very best MMOs out there, almost a whole "second world" to live in.
It's good to live in a world where everyone is different - just wishing more people would start to realize that, and stop their childish "crusades" to convince everyone and their mother that a certain game is "BAD" or "GOOD". There is no such thing, and we know it....
DB
Denial makes one look a lot dumber than he/she actually is.
It is just another raiding game.
Nothing for the normal players here. Raid, Raid, Raid...
I can restore my sub to EQ if I want to raid.
I want a game which is totally and unquestionnably commited to PvE-grouping...and this is not the case. Sure, a few fast talkers will try to tell you it is coop, PvE and all, but in the end, you are subpar unless you raid.
Do I want to raid? No. Then I will just wait for something else, cause a raid-ending is just that bad.
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
Except that is not accurate. Crafted kit is on par with raid kit. I know several players who have a mixture of raid and crafted. And given the way LOTRO calculates power, damage, attack etc. many high end looted items (non raid) remain viable alternatives to raid gear.
_____________________________
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/
This is one of the best posts I've ever seen. I'm quoting it so others can read.
Why do people hate the game? Probably because it isn't exactly what they were looking for or didn't give it enough of a chance, so they decide that the game sucks. They get invested in whatever new or previous MMO they are/were playing, so they trash LOTRO.
I'm a lifetime subscriber to LOTRO, and I like the game pretty well. There are a lot of ideal qualities that I think an MMO should have. LOTRO doesn't have all of them, but it has a good many- including some important ones that were sorely lacking in my last couple of MMO's. For example, I think an MMO should focus on story and making player's actions and lives relevant to the world. Maybe that goes back to my first mmo being Asheron's Call which was almost like an online soap opera. There was always something going on in that world, and they had live events where you could take part in making history- meeting heroes or fighting villains (controlled by the dev team).
So far LOTRO has done a nice job of making you feel like your character is truly part of the online world, so that's a big win. The epic "book" quest series is great, especially because the source material that these events are based around is so amazing. The only thing the game is missing in this department is live events which according to the devs will be incorporated into the game at some point. "WarCry: Falthorn: Will we be seeing any live events soon, such as attacks on Trestlebridge?
LOTRO_Saffron: Yes! We currently have tons of live events plans, including attacks to areas at some point in the future. ;-)"
Through the epic quests LOTRO has developed some interesting heroes and villains which they could develop dramatic events around, so I'm cautiously optimistic that LOTRO will deliver some great experiences. The game really does have an incredible amount of potential.
Anyway that's one of the big reasons that I like lotro. To keep this short i'm just going to list some other positives and then also some things that the game doesn't do well.
+ Music system. This is a great feature, and no other MMO I'm aware of has anything like it.
+ PVMP. A unique take on pvp, and I've enjoyed it a lot. It's not perfect, but I've played games that are much more focused on PVP and they have just as many problems.
+ Beautiful environments.
+ Crafting. Crafted items are competitive (and sometimes better than other gear) throughout the game. Comparing my previous mmo's- AC1 and COH lacked true crafting. Crafting in WOW was pretty much a waste of time except in select circumstances.
+ Housing. Home, sweet home.
+ Voice chat. It's becoming more common, but at the time most other MMO's didn't have it built in.
+ Variety of content. Quests can be anything from klling to exploring to delivering pies in the shire. You can play as a chicken or pvmp as a monster. There's lots of good missions and some nice instances. There's raids and music and crafting. I mentioned these individually to point out their good qualities, but what I'm getting at here is that there are many ways to play lotro.
And here are some things that aren't so good. These may cause certain people to not like the game, but IMO if you can get over them there's a quality MMO to be played.
- Fairly low variety of classes to play.
- Classes are pretty mundane (as in not very flashy/spectacular) for the most part.
- Repetitive enemies. 95% animals, orcs, wargs, or trolls.
- Not a lot of choices and specialization for individual classes.
- Combat (IMO) is not as refined as it is in some other game.
- Character models and animations are not that great.
- UI has some problems and is weak in customization.
- Not focused on PVP.
~~~ Currently Playing ~~~
LOTRO- Guardian Wrymstrum & Lore-master Stabler on Nimrodel.
Conan- Zoltar <Angels of Death> Guardian on Stormrage.
The part that I'll never get for as long as I play MMOs is the venom, and hate that people express towards something as unimportant as a silly video game.
I think that LOTRO has great potential. With each content update they are making a better game.
In a year LOTRO will be a much better game and some of the negatives will be addressed.
My computer craped out so i had to change the motherbord.
After that Lotro dint let me back into the game. so i canceled and never
Even botherd to find out why.
If it hadent done that id probly still be playing it.
The journey up to Lvl Cap 50 was decent. The game is beautiful, fairly balanced, and was relaxing. However I feel it lacks depth. Doing quests, hanging out with your friends, meeting people, enjoying the games pretty scenery, are all wonderful experiences in MMO's, but when it's all said and done, it comes down to player advancement (IMO). Which brings me to the biggest flaw I see with LOTRO atm, it's end-game/reward system. You need content when you are bored, and you need a reason to do the content. Not only does LOTRO provide a lack of end-game content, but the reward for doing them is absolutely absurd. Here is an example:
Here are the 3 current armor set's that, I would say are the best in the game ATM~
Crafted Armor Lv.47 (Crafted) - released since launch?
Helegrod Armor Lv.50 (24 man raid) - released fairly recently after launch?
Rift Armor Lv.50 (12 man raid) - released recently.
Crafted armor was released first upon the games release. The Lv.47 set was by far the best armor you could obtain in the game. To obtain some pieces, it took some effort along with luck, while other pieces were a bit easier to obtain. However the developers at Turbine saw that only 30%~ of the 70%~ end game community had the best armor in the game, and thought that to be unfair?! So they changed the ways to obtain these crafted armor, so that literally every person at Lv.47+ now could, and is decked out in this gear... genius! (Old price of armor = 25-40 Gold | New price of armor = 4-8 Gold?)
Then they released the Helegrod armor set, 24 man raid! Sounds promising doesn't it? It was suppose to until they decided to make the stats on the Helegrod set worse than that of the crafted armor... where is my motivation to join a 24 man raid to farm this armor?
Then they added the Rift armor set, 12 man raid! However this time they took a step up... they actually made the armor set relatively good. But still some still prefer their Lv.47 crafted armor set over rift... so I'm going to go ahead and put the Rift and Crafted armor set on the same level then.
So in conclusion, Your crafted armor (EASILY OBTAINED), is on top of the list, or tied with Rift (12 man raid), and your 24 man raid set is worse than your 12 man raid, and worse than your crafted armor set that you could solo farm. Bravo Turbine, bravo!!!
Tune in for book 12, when they released the Ettemoors set, which is more or less, equivalent to crafted/rift, however each piece is obtained from a scaling rank system. Starting with your first pieces obtained at Rank 2 (a few SHORT hours to get rank 2)... I'm not even going to get into the flaw of that system. Also keep in mind that the way the equipment/class design was made, you don't necessity have different sets of armor for different type of situations. So it's not like they are creating a bunch of equivalent items that you would swap in or swap out for this battle or that battle (which would be cool!!) Every single one of these damn sets gives off the same damn stats... Oy... I'm not even going to bother lol, short answer, REWARD SYSTEM = TRASH in LOTRO.
I kind of ran across all the posts, so if I missed the one I was looking for, let me know. I was looking for
ROLEPLAY
I've played and stayed in this game for almost one year now, because of roleplaying. Period. Rift is ok, PvMP is ok, Instances are fun, the storyline is ok. But what REALLY sets this game apart ist he ability to have a fun but non-dogmatic roleplay experience. It has exactly the level you'd wish for, even after one year. Roleplay is there, on the street, in houses, in guilds. Sure, there are many many people not actually roleplaying. They run, keep their battle equip on all the time and don't say a word in /say.
But if you talk to them, they stick to the minimum level that keeps the atmosphere. And if you tag yourself white as a roleplayer, people will RP-steal from you, RP-talk about your hair, RP-ask you for pipeweed, RP-confront you with a love story. There are RP-plots going on with arranged events (Europe DE-RP Belegaer, German Server). There are markets, bands, horse races, taverns...
It's the atmosphere of "nobody has to, but everyone CAN".
And after one whole year the Gamemasters are still enforcing naming and channel-policy. You can see JohnDoes, Analanators and ChuckNorris changing their names daily.
It is for all these things that I keep playing this game. Not for phat loot or stupid Ettenmoors-Camping
Meridion
"Freedom is just another name for nothing left to lose" - Janis Joplin
.jpg)
"why do so many people hate this game?"
Because it sucks.
i think this game is awsome. no contest
Wow...your name really matches up well with your posts. All negative and just filled with poopy stuff. I don't think another person here could have given you a better name while also providing implications to your overall maturity.
Myself, I have not heard/seen a lot of hate for the game, I see this usual I don't like X or Y about the game. I think that is a normal aspect of you can't please all of the people all of the time, nor do you want to. The addage that "if you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing no one" holds true.
"It is easier to be cruel than wise. The road to wisdom is long and difficult... so most people just turn out to be assholes" Feng (Christopher Walken)
People hate it because combat/animations/art look amateur and low budget.
People hate it because it's in Eriador.
People hate it because we can't go to Mordor, Rohan, Gondor, etc.
People hate it because the UI isn't friendly.
People hate it because the music puts them to sleep.
People hate it because it's not based on the movies.
People hate it because the AH & Banks are implemented horribly.
People hate it because traveling in this game with a horse is painful.
People hate it because there's few classes.
People hate it because PvMP is restricted to one zone.
People hate it because you need to dismount to talk to NPCs, use Bank and AH.
People hate it because you can't store quest items in Bank or Storage.
People hate it because Housing wasn't great.
People hate it because it's just not fun to them.
People hate it because you need kill 400+ mobs for traits/deeds.
Don't get me wrong here, i'm still playing the game and can't wait for bk12, but these are issues why people dislike and/or hate LotRO.