Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Lack of Community????
Palatine
Member Posts: 65
I have played this game since day one, it replaced SWG when the NGE hit. I like the game because I’m a fan of the books and films. One thing I don’t like is the lack of community; everyone seems to be in their own world rather than being a part of middle earth. There is way too much, I’m doing my own quests (solo) and not enough grouping and having a laugh and getting things done. I don’t know about you guys, but I play a MMO for player interaction. All LOTRO feels like now is a RPG.
I played SWG and this had the best community ever before the NGE hit. I used to have all my weapons made by the same trader on Ahazi called Wednesday because she made the best weapons ever. I loved hanging around in the cantina talking to people and hanging about in player housing and so forth. The community and the economy were awesome and pretty similar to real life in some ways.
I play on an EU server called Snowborne and when I played BETA I played the US version. People seemed to be more willing to take time to say hello, or help with a quest ect. I'm not too sure the lack of community is because some people don’t speak English on the EU servers. I just can’t put my finger on it.
I would like to join a Kin which helped out and i really do like helping others. I know it’s sad but sometimes I just hang out in the barrow downs helping noobs through. I just like playing with people, isn’t that what MMORPG stands for???? RGP is something which resembles Neverwinter Nights.
Is it just me or is there something wrong with the MMO market today and LOTRO?
Comments
As much as I hate to agree with this, I have to. I played this game during the beta and enjoyed it. I still enjoyed it when I came back to it two times. I played on a US server and the kin I was in, was very friendly but after I left the game and came back I found no community. When I play games, I prefer to have people who I can talk with and actually level together with. It gets boring fast when that happens.
My experience has been the exact opposite.
I've had almost no trouble finding on level PUGs (level 44 Guard). There have been some tools, as there always are. But I have some solid non-kin friends in the friendlist from these. For some fellowship quests I have had to try over 3-4 days to get done, but this has been the exception.
I am also in a great kin.
So far, this is the best experience I've had with an MMO (been playing MMOs for 5 years).
I am on Brandywine, which is supposed to be the largest US server; so maybe this is a factor.
I played on Brandywine in US beta and i was loving it. Snowborne is one of the largest EU servers but i have felt lost latley due to all the masses of solo content.
That's basically why I never play LOTRO anymore. I play on the 3rd largest server (Landroval). There's no one around when I am. I didn't mind at first, since there were plenty of solo quests. But more and more are group quests, or designed for solo characters with much, much better gear than I (the stuff gained from group quests).
R.I.P. City of Heroes and my 17 characters there
This is more a problem with the MMO community than any specific game. I would rate Lotro as one of the more community friendly games. Alot of the PvP games are downright mean if you aren't at the top of the charts.
I think the OP makes a good point and probably shouldn't be isolated to the LOTRO forums.
Once an MMORPG gets beyond the 2nd year it does feel like a RPG if you're not playing with a group of friends or a good guild (kinship). I recently returned to LOTRO and for the most part it has been a solo experience. I'm not disappointed with that because I expected it and have nonetheless been enjoying the game. I joined a kinship and when I reach max level and raid it will probably feel more like an MMO that it does now.
If I started playing WoW again it would be no different. 1-80 is completely solo and because you just spent 80 levels by yourself you don't know anyone at 80. In fact, I think you'll find a correlation with the longer the game has been released the less it feels like a MMO. When a game is newly released the players generally don't know much about the game, are unguilded, and rely more on other players. Over time they meet people and seperate into their own cliques (guilds) and the world feels less connected.
I think earlier games, like EverQuest stayed a community longer because early MMO adopters were "true geeks". Remember Guides in EQ? These were players who applied for a program so they could run around and help other players out. I remember a Guide showing me how to run from Qeynos to Freeport at lvl 15. (That was a massive run and the Guide was happy to help.) Today's players are more mainstream. For example, I have an Aunt that recently began playing an MMO. If you saw she was doing the same quest as you and messaged her to group up she wouldn't reply to your message. It's not that she doesn't want to group, she's just genuinely never paying attention to the chat box. Until I showed her the chat box she didn't know what it was for.
I bet creating a community feel has become a bigger challenge for developers recently.
http://www.jasonparmele.com
Another community building tool from the EQ era that has been lost is information. If you wanted help leveling, where to go at your level or how to get to somewhere else, you had to go to a populated area (commonlands or GFaY) and ask. Now people follow the ingame quests or go to spoiler sites before they even think of asking, or even ingame spoiler sites are coming. Just another way for people to ignore each other.
Maybe they should add chatting with others to the tutorial quest.
Personally I think its probly the game...I have no issues whatsoever finding groups with the current MMO I'm playing. Turbine went in the wrong direction with LOTRO imo which is why it will never be what it once was. I truely do hope Turbine turns it around though for the sake of the Tolkien fans...or to have another company give it a shot would be even better :-)
"I play Tera for the gameplay"
Silvermink makes a very good point. That's such a simple example (were we get quest info) and so right on target.
http://www.jasonparmele.com
in lotro there is a great diversity in the type of kinship out there (as with most games i suppose but i really noticed this in lotro).there are the large kinships who dont care about low lvls and only gear up for raiding.there are the severe roleplaying kinships ( roleplaying and lord of the rings seem to go hand in hand) who dont care about endgame so much as enjoying tolkeins world. And there are the small kinships that enjoy playing the game together and lvling lowbie friends. I would really advise looking for the latter and it should be easy. A simple request on general should put you in contact with a kinship of this sort as new blood is not as easy to come by in lotro and the larger more established kins will probably ignore the request, and unless you phrase the question as a hobbit might, the roleplayers will ignore the request too.these small kins are a very tight knit groups who often stay in contact in RL also. look and i am confident you will find what you are looking for.
Nah.. it's a trend happening in the genre, and sadly, it seems Turbine is embracing it since I've read a few times now that they're altering content to be more solo friendly. So if you're looking for community... LoTRO isn't likely the best place to find it.
Back when I was playing it - through the first retail expansion - the game was largely anti-social. People wanted to keep to themselves unless they needed help with a quest, through which they would sometimes bitch about "being forced to group" and how annoying it is, etc. etc. As soon as the quest was finished and they were able to turn it in, they'd drop group. Sometime later, you'd see them asking for help again with another quest... only to do the same thing.
I ended up in a group with one individual on 3 different occasions and they did the same thing each time.. complained about us taking too long, that he just wanted to get it over with, that this is why he hated grouping... thing is.. we were going as swiftly as possible without being reckless and getting everyone killed. I finally asked "If you hate having to group up so much, why are you playing a game that includes grouping?" He said, and I quote, "because I like the books, but I don't remember the books saying anything about being forced to group with morons who don't know how to play the game right". He was kicked from the group shortly after.
Were they all like this? No. There were some cool ones in the mix and they ended up on my friends list.... most of them left the game or changed servers not long later, for the same reason. The majority of people I grouped with, though, were anti-social, impatient and all about what *they* wanted... once they got what *they* wanted, they were gone, and what anyone else needed help with wasn't their problem.
Good friend of mine and long-time guild/clan leader found LoTRO to be the *only* MMO he was unable to get a good guild/kin going in. Why? Because unless they needed something, people wouldn't talk. When they learned we weren't doing raids for better stuff, they'd leave. They would only ask for help... never offer it. They'd eventually leave the kin without even a word and then would ignore you if you asked if there was some reason they left. He finally gave up on LoTRO and has since called it "The Anti-Social MMO".
And before anyone here feels compelled to tell me I or my friend were doing something wrong... save it. You don't know me, you don't know how active I was in trying to start groups, get events going in the kinship, etc. I love the social aspects of MMOs and always try to get myself as involved as possible.
The only time I saw any kind of sense of community was among already close-knit groups of people.... cliques, in other words. If you were in that "clique", the community seemed great, I'm sure. If you weren't... well... it was hit and miss.
I'm playing Ryzom again and, though I'm still on the starting area, you can already tell tehre's more sense of community in that game than in most I've played.
FFXI, L2, Ryzom and a few others have always had active and social communities... but then again.. those games were built around exactly that.... community.
So... at the end of the day... If you want a game with a stronger social community, you're going to have to start looking for the games that support and nurture it. LoTRO is not in that group.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
I'm sorry you had such a anti-social time in lotro, although I'm not surprised. The grouping and leaving I experienced regularly, sometimes without even saying goodbye. I didn't have anyone bitch about it though. My experience with the community and Kins on Landroval was much better though.
As for the books not force grouping, at no point in any of the 3 books were any of the hero's alone, except when frodo gets captured by the spider. That doesn't seem like a very good example to use to promote soloing. Through out the 2nd and 3rd books, the fellowship members are constantly trying to put the group back together or do what they can to help group members they can not reach.
I played in Snowbourne aswell, and I think the community was allright. What I mean by allright, is that it was lacking the "4chan-bros" (+ thats a good thing!), and people were really helpful. Sometimes it was hard to find group to do some quests, but after finding a great kinship, that problem was solved...