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I can't believe it!
Rockgod99
Member Posts: 4,640
You guys know that feeling you got when you first played a mmorpg? That feeling that most gamers spend the rest of their gaming careers to find again? Well for me only games like SWG, WoW & EVE have ever recreated that feeling I had when playing UO for the first time until now. LotRO is such a wonderfully satisfying pve experience that I have become totally immersed to the point of unsubscribing to EVE!!!!! Which is crazy since I'm obsessed with that game ( I have a 8x10 poster of a megathron on my bedroom wall that's how crazy I am for that game). It's freaking nuts that this game is that good... I've been leveling a dwarf guardian and even dabbled with a champion, warden and captain and their all fantastic!!! I joined a small kin and these people are the most helpful people I've ever met. All I'n all the game is an absolute pleasure... So to those that haven't found a game that held them like their first, have faith and give games a chance it might be an older game that you ignored initially that does it.
Comments
Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
I'm happy that you managed to find a game that recaptures that initial fascination that you had when you first started MMO gaming. I have too, in Mortal Online, albeit buggier than the first game I played (Tibia). For me LotRO just couldn't do that. I really liked the game and thought it was polished, beautiful and fun. I loved going around the world and finding the new mobs and places. I must have taken so many screenshots in that game; they all looked like paintings. Unfortunately I had just come off WoW and was completely burned out on that kind of quest to advance game, so for me it got stale quickly. I've tried to go back a few times, now that some time has passed and Im no longer burned out on games like that, but every time I tried to it would give me some BS payment error. Maybe now that it's free I'll give it another go sometime, but I have Mortal to keep me happy at the moment.
The Chronicles of Spellborn was another game that reignited my passion for MMOs (hense my user name) but it sadly got shut down due to some missing features and incredibly poor handling by the publishers. Anyway, have fun in LotRO and keep spreading the word about it. More people need to try this game, I think.
Glad to see someone loving the game so much
Ps: yeah the iPhone hates this sate ...I can’t have my awesome green text when I post from it >_<
March on! - Lets Invade Pekopon
UO was my first experience as well, then Everquest 1. WoW created that feeling for me in Vanilla but its been downhill since. No challenge, no pride in receiving something nice anymore, and it's just not as immersive as it used to be.
LOTRO is a good game and they have a interesting model. I personally think the deed system is amazing as it fuels my ADD, anxiety, and OCD. (muuuuuuust cast this spell 900 more timessssss)
On my radar is Everquest Next and all we know about it is from the amazing 3 screenshots, and that it will be modeled after Everquest 1. Hopefully in challenge and immersion.
Glad to hear you are liking it. It truly is a fantastic game. I played for 3 years and really enjoyed my experiences with the game and the great community. I quit my sub a few months ago due to the end game of LOTRO being, IMO, one of the worst of any MMO I have ever played, but I must admit, the journey to get to the end game ( and for me, that was on four different toons) was wonderful.
Good luck, and many continued fun experiences!
Well, there's no use in arguing the validity of one's opinion, but it does strike me as odd that a game which I felt was a generic WoW clone is now considered the best thing since old school UO.
Care to explain why you think it's a WoW clone?
Current: None
Played: WoW, CoX, SWG, LotRO, EVE, AoC, VG, CO, Ryzom, DF, WAR
Tried: Lineage2, Dofus, EQ2, CoS, FE, UO, Wurm, Wakfu
Future: The Repopulation, ArcheAge, Black Desert, EQN
Yes I agree with you. I have found in LOTRO some feelings I didn´t had since my first MMORPG: EQ1, and one of those feelings is the immersion and need of exploration no other game could create on me. The world is so vast and well made that is astonishing.
LOTRO is a fantastic game, but not for everyone, I even think is a niche game.
Nowadays, all those sandbox loving carebears consider every game that has quests it in it a WoW clone, aka themepark. Funny isn't it?
I stopped reading right there. UO had a player-centric ecosystem of trades, merchandising, housing, open pvp with consequenes, etc.
I'd get bored with a vanilla pve-centric ecosystem where players don't play a central role with influencing game-play. I'd stick with EVE.
Yet nothing you mentioned actually affected the actual game play of UO. Sorry but making a player run a maze of abandoned houses and ships to get to a monster is not affecting gameplay.
With Lotro being as good as those other games.
Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
Hey Rockgod what server are you on? I'm on Riddermark. Maybe we can play together as this is my game of choice atm.
Steam: Neph
Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
It all affected the game-play of UO. It was a player-centric ecosystem. Your deflection is, well, wrong. So, go ahead and play a pve-centric single-player-esque whack-a-mole LOTRO where your interaction is against predictable coded mobs that offer absolutley no community or massively-multiplayer value, in a supposed massively-multiplayer game. I was just saying....that's all.
The interface is exactly the same
Quest mechanics are the same
Crafting is largely the same
Both of cartoony art styles
About the only differences I can think of lie in the fact that LotRO has trait grinding (...yay...), not much of an endgame, zero PvP, and a slow paced combat system, yet people fawn over this game because it has such a great community and amazing draw distance. If LotRO is worth it to you, enjoy. It simply wasn't for me.
Personally, the community of this game was ruined for me once I saw how laughably xenophobic so many of them were based on their reactions of LotRO going F2P, I found the art style to be horribly generic outside of a few of the elvish areas, and I struggled to think of anything I was doing in LotRO that was different or better than what I would be doing in WoW. As a result, I re-subbed to WoW and never looked back.
I don't think we are playing the same games. LotRO does not have cartoony graphics like WoW they are much more low fantasy then high fantasy. There is pvp in the form of player vs. monster. The combat, in my experience is the same pace as WoW or pretty much any other game that would fall into that category (WAR, Aion, etc.). It might also be worth pointing out that in the majority of the MMOs out there (not all) the interface, crafting, and quest mechanics are largely the same. While I certainly don't begrudge your choice of games (play whatever you like), I don't agree with your statements.
Steam: Neph
Played lotro and loved it at first but i got burnt out on it by level 45. Have went back a few times and just couldn't get in to it like when i first started. Its a beautiful game has a great community. I just find it to much of a repetitious grind.
I actually betaed this game and played it at launch but I never really got into it then. I came back to it this year sometime in March and this time the game had changed a lot and making the entire Book 1 soloable helped a lot because you do not have to rush through that part.
See when it launched people were forced to group to do the book bits but since usually everyone was on a different part they would rush thorough the encounter giving very little time for you to soak the story or even read anything. I was very frustrated by that but this time round I went at it at my pace and with two other friends and we really soaked it all up.
It is a darn pity that many people do not get to experience some parts of the story that are simply goosebump worthy like when the Fellowship leaves Rivendale. It takes time for you to like the game and how it develops and just trying it out for a week just will not quite enable you to experience it. I wish people had more patience with games and instead of dismissing them as clones of WoW to just leave your perceptions at the door and just enjoy a game. You will be surprised by how much you can enjoy a game if you just see past your skepticism to giving a game a chance to draw you in.
low fantasy =/= realistic graphics
Case in point:
I'd say this game takes place in a fairly high fantasy world, yet I wouldn't exactly call the art style cartoony. LoTRO on the other hand:
Not as cartoony as WoW, but it's clear that it went for a more animated look.
As for the rest of your post, well..I agree with you that the majority of MMORPGs all have extremely similar mechanics, and that's a huge problem. I'm simply saying there isn't much to LoTRO that I don't feel is done better elsewhere.
The example LotRO pic you used has extreme, night-time lighting. Plus it looks like it's oversaturated. There are many, many other screenshots that use more realistic and less-cartoony lighting. Plus your example highlighted one weak point of the game, imo: character models. The game world itself is awesome. The character models lag behind quite a bit.
Current: None
Played: WoW, CoX, SWG, LotRO, EVE, AoC, VG, CO, Ryzom, DF, WAR
Tried: Lineage2, Dofus, EQ2, CoS, FE, UO, Wurm, Wakfu
Future: The Repopulation, ArcheAge, Black Desert, EQN
Why? Because they look animated?
The model detail. Compared to the game world, they look too simplistic. Not all models look too simple, but player toons generally feel that way to me.
EDIT: Forgot to add that some character animations could use polishing too. For instance, who stands that way when in battle? Maybe mid-swing you might be in a similar position, but not your normal fighting stance.
Current: None
Played: WoW, CoX, SWG, LotRO, EVE, AoC, VG, CO, Ryzom, DF, WAR
Tried: Lineage2, Dofus, EQ2, CoS, FE, UO, Wurm, Wakfu
Future: The Repopulation, ArcheAge, Black Desert, EQN
lol calling this game a wow clone.
Good lord. I think we need to start applying "WoW clone" to real life things that are not games, and see how far that trend gets since it will sound just as idiotic there as it does here.
I tried the game out after the "combat upgrade", and the combat was MUCH more responsive. You could use interrupts during other abilities. You didn't have to wait for next swing for all of your abilities. You could move and break casts instead of being rooted till it finished.
But the no real PvP does take away a lot from this game. The PvE is great, the story is amazing combined with the story driven quests. But it's not everyones cup of tea. I come back and play it every so often, but it's been a while.
Because the game was aiming for a more stylistic approach with its graphics instead of hyper realism.