Originally posted by CamShirayuki I don't have a lot of money, and Lord of the Rings is one of my favourites. How is this game on the F2P part? I've heard a lot about it, good and bad.
There would be always people with over-excited opinion("da best game ever!") or with too much scepticism. Decision is up to you.
My personal experience: you can be free player, enjoy all the content and still don't pay a penny. You start game with the basic free quests and 4 free regions (Bree land, Shire, Ered Luin, Lonelands), basic wallet (up to 2 gold). Epic quests are free, at least up to Helm's Deep, they (epic quests) will guide from sunny Shire to grumpy Angmar to the fortress of Saruman and green fields of Rohan riders.
After Lonelands, you would want to purchase additional content and may pay with Turbine points. These are awarded for doing deeds, like slayer ("kill NN wolves"), exploration ("found points A, B, C"), reputation with factions, doing quests ("complete NN quests in this region"), sometimes - for meta-deeds ("complete deeds A-J in this region"; "become Kindred with factions A, B, C"). Standard deed usually gives 5 Turbine points, advanced - 10 points. Example: Bree land deeds gives some 150 Turbine points.
So far I have purchased much of the content, most time - using discounts, spent some 5000 Turbine points and spent 0 dollars and 0 cents.
My advice: give Lotro a try. Maybe you would want to choose Withywindle server so that my Dwarven Champion could aid you.
Well, additional content must be bought anyway - paying with ca$h or with time. I chose my time. However, situation is not that bad if one is to act wisely.
Example: reputation. From Friend to Kindred, it gives you some 50 Turbine points. Fact: there are some factions that accept certain items and gives +reputation if you use that item. Example: Rings of Numenor gives +700 reputatio to the Wardens of Annuminas reputation, while Black Badge gives +50 to Wardens of Annuminas reputation. Situation: any player in Annuminas city would be forced to fight his way through hordes of Angmarim, from soldiers to crossbowmen. There are deeds to kill Angmarim in Annumimas. So - gather items while questing/deeding and if you have 122 top-pevel rep.items, your next toon may reach Kindred (remember - 50 TPs?) in no time. Simple strategy requiring only to do deeds and do not use deed accelerator. Oh, have I forgotten Sarnur where various mobs drops reputation item? And repeatble quests that grant +reputation with Thorins Hall, and mobs themselves drop Thorins Hall reputation items?
Trust me, I created many toons, got quickly through intro quests, ran to Bree, used 3 factions items...and 150 TPs were mine. If I was to do only basic quests in Bree - I would earn ~300 Turbine points. Not too hard if one has patience.
First of all I didn't try LOTRO out for a long time because I was familiar with Dungeons and Dragons Online's abyssmal F2P model with Turbine Points and thought LOTRO would be pretty much the same. Luckily that is nowhere near the case at all and TP is far easier to earn in game than it is in DDO.
LOTRO's F2P isn't nearly as bad as most people here are making it sound by any means. It's true there are a number of things you'll really want to get from the cash shop as a F2P player but earning Turbine Points in game is pretty easy. By the time I reached the end of the free content (not counting the main epic story line which is always free regardless of which areas you own or don't) I had acquired more than enough TP ingame to buy a whole quest pack to continue on as well as riding skill and a good bit of TP left over. On top of that you can easily create throw away alts and making a quick farming run to earn 140 TP in about an hour and a half for your account.
That being said I would look at LOTRO more like a Buy2Play game with a really good free trial. You can easilly play to your 30s or so through the first bunch of areas which are compmletely free and if you really enjoy the game by that point you have a few options. You can do your deeds and farm TP to buy more content or you can dish out a little bit of cash to unlock virtually the entire game. Paying a mere $14.99 for 1 month of VIP gets you 500 TP, unlimited access to the game for that month and best of all, a whole lot of unlocks that are permanent for your account even after you cancel VIP and drop down to Premium (you'll go to premium instead of full f2p after spending any cash on the game). These unlocks include removal of the credit cap, access to all traits, 5 bag slots instead of 3, all swift travel routes unlocked, and a few other very useful things for any character you log on during this time. You'll also get a permanent 3rd character slot (and 2 more for a total of 5 if you ever buy moria xpac which is in the quadpack). In addition to that you can buy the expansion quadpack for $40 to get all 4 expansions which includes pretty much ALL content for lvl 50-85. The best part is the sales LOTRO constantly has, I was actually able to pick up the quadpack and get all 4 expansions for only $20 which was one hell of a deal. With the newest expansion getting real close I wouldn't be suprised in the least if the quadpack went on sale again or just straight up dropped in price.
All in all you can pretty much play compleyely free to mid 30s or so and then you can either grind xp and do just epic questline, take a lot of time and farm TP with throwaway alts, or spend $55 for virtually full access to the game without subbing. All depends on how much you enjoy the game and can afford to spend if you want to but either way I highly recommend at least trying it out through the areas that are completely free and any beyond that you can afford to buy with earned ingame TP.
This the most accurate reply in the whole thread. Many others have varying degrees of misinformation.
I agree that to pay for a month's sub is a wise move for all the things it permanently unlocks. After that I would definitely advise not to sub unless you're bothered about getting every last minor detail of fluff that enttitles you to. Using the freemium method and just buying the content you need as you need it is far cheaper. You can get to around level thirty five without buying any quest packs.After that just buy the ones you want. Absolutely no need to buy them all as some have suggested. There is far more content available than you'll ever need if you simply want to level a character.
The world is mainly open with fast loading screens for the mini instances you'll encounter for some questss you'll encounter along the way. It's possible to go all the way from the Shire in the West to The Misty Mountains or Ergion in the East without any loading screens and that's probably a thirty minute journey even with a mount.
There are no instakill portals that you can't pass without paying money as has been suggested. Simply playing through the main storyline, which is completely free by the way, will unlock these.
You can work your way to the outskirts of Moria at level 50 by spending $50 or less without having to do any grinding for TP's.
After that, you don't have to buy expansions, you can simply carry on buying the quest packs you want which are much cheaper. If you do buy the expansions, you will get bonuses though, such as extra character slots, special mounts, armor etc. There are special offers all the time. The last time I looked in the shop last week it was possible to buy a job lot of previous expansions for a vastly reduced price.
As for the OP's follow up question about PC requirements. The game has been out six years now. The system requirements the time were quite high but what was a high end PC in 2007 would be quite a low end one now. I can't imagine there are many PC's that can't run it. I still have it installed on my backup PC which has a Core 2 Duo 3200 processor and it runs perfectly on that..
Just give it a try. It doesn't cost anything. Be warned the starter area is ridiculously easy. Don't judge the game by that, It doesn't really start until you're about level 9 or so.
Every single building you can enter (when you can enter at all) has a loading screen indeed, even the smallest farm house. The interiors also never fit the outside design of the building.That definitely contributes to that amazing "open world" feeling this game provides...
(end of sarcasm)
PS: SoA isn't seamless either. You have a loading screen between The Shire and Ered Luin.
I mentioned it too, and 6 years ago seamless interiors weren't a common thing I guess.
WoW has seamless interiors and it's 9 years old...
Asheron's Call has seamless interiors and it's like 14 years old (and is a Turbine game).
Hell, even UO had them...
PS. There isn't any loading screen, just walk / ride up to Needlehole, follow the Water, through the bridge and you'll find yourself near Falathorn in Ered Luin. (the elven homesteads, next to Duillond)
There is a zoning border with a loading screen.
Not a big deal, but it's still there. I'd rather have the few zoning borders than having to load each time I enter a building to be honest. That has always been a pet peeve of mine.
The reason I'm playing LotRO, is because I have a, for the lack of better words, shitty computer. I can't play most high graphic MMO's and I don't really have much memory in my HDD.
But, if any of you have a suggestion for an MMO I should be able to play if I can play LotRO, by all means, go ahead. I just want a good MMO thats fun and I can play often.
I think playing LOTRO can be a fun choice
play it until you feel like trying other mmos
you should be able to run Vanguard, RIFT, EQ2 too -- just not on high settings
I'M coming to realize that there is no such thing as a f2p mmo. To the op, just look at some of the replies to your question. They tell you will have to spend money at some point in the game. And lotro will ask you to spend money on screen any chance it gets. I haven't come across any real f2p AAA game's that don't make you to spend money. As you get higher in lvl you will have to. Your better off finding an old school game or bite the bullet and sub to a game. There are some old school game's out there that were either shut down and have an emulator or the code was sold to someone else to take over. I could name a couple but i don't know if i should here.
As I originally posted LOTRO is great to try out at least and if you like it enough spend some cash on to get the full experience. That being said however if you want a game that is completely F2P and can run easily on an older or lower end system Vanguard is one that is great to try out. You can easilly play it completely f2p from beginning to endgame and all without ever spending a dime. There are no content restrictions whatsoever and the world is incredbily massive. The ONLY restrictions a non paying player has in Vanguard really is being unable to equip high quality gear. This however is easily countered by the fact that you can buy item unlockers pretty cheap from other players off the AH for ingame gold to unlock items individually whenever you actually need to. Levelling its no big deal anyways as gear gets updated and replaced so fast anyways. The only other thing is that VIP members do get some increased xp rates but this is seriouslly no big deal at all. The world of Vanguard is so massive with so many places you can go at all level ranges I have frequently turned my XP off while playing and I am a full f2p member with no XP boosts. There are also a lot of free +10% xp boosts you get from quests as you go and you can buy bigger ones off the AH as well if your eally wanted to. Thats the other cool thing with Vanguard, pretty much all of the useful cash shop items are tradeable and thus can be bought from other players off the AH and such.
In summation LOTRO is a lot of fun but to get the most out of it you really will ahve to dish a little cash out to experience it all at 50+ if not sooner. You could technically get all the 50+ content free but it'd take ages of grinding. As I mentioned in my original post I'd treat it more as a B2P game with arather long and good trial. If it doesn't work out for you however Vanguard is a very good game worth checking out as well that will never require you to spend a dime.
Am currently level 58, have been playing for almost 2 years. I have not spent a cent in this game.
Obviously I haven't been able to do all the quests, but I have followed the epic line and am now in Mirkwood. Sometimes the line runs out and you have to grind a bit to get to the next level to re start the thread. Playing as a Guardian has made it a bit easier as I am able to hold my own against higher foes. Every now and then I get my high level Kinnies ( Lords of Moria, great bunch of people from all over the world) to come help me get past tough bits.
i have up trying to craft ages ago as it was a pain trying to keep up when moving through the higher levels. But the last 2 days I decided to go full on and develop as a scholar. So I farmed for a few hours and am now working on Artisan scholar. It's been good to have a break from the epic quest, and I am still getting some Xp. I try and do some grinding for deed tp every now and then, mani ly to buy exp boosters.
anyway am still enjoying the game. I still reckon it has the best interface of any game I ve played online.
Originally posted by CamShirayuki I don't have a lot of money, and Lord of the Rings is one of my favourites. How is this game on the F2P part? I've heard a lot about it, good and bad.
F2P, not so much, if you pay for a subscription, this game is great.
PS, SWTOR F2P vs LOTRO F2P
~ Lotro wins hands down, in Swtor you have to pay for even the fracking hotbars so you can set up your abilities on your bars in a proper organized format
Check out these links, SWTOR F2P is HIGHLY LIMITED and GAME BREAKING, not even trolling SWTOR, I actually have a paid subscription currently to both swtor and Lotro.
2) lags even on some very good gaming PCs. In last years the devs have left and new devs are quite bad. The game is not optimized at all. They even introduced a memory leak which causes the game to crash. This is well known and documented but they pretend it does not exist.
3) housing is pretty awful, but at least they have basic housing
4) bag space is terrible - never enough and tons of items and crafting items
5) they have destroyed the loot system for raids and dungeons
6) AH is terrible - but it works barely
7) new content is often poorly made or was rushed
8) they don't fix some bugs. still selling a broken Raid in the cash store
9) mail system substandard - can only mail 1 item
Overall, they have done a terrible job with this game.
If you don't mind a poor MMO (much worse than Rift, GW2 or WoW) in terms of game play, and don't mind slow combat and lag, then you might like it.
People playing are nice and helpful mostly. And it has some nice areas and graphics. You can play for a while with only subscribing for one month - but the store is always in your face and gameplay is grindy.
Oh and this Free to Play game will cost you at least $80 to get most of the expansions and content.
tl;dr was a pretty good game; still playable; quite expensive to get expansions; very substandard game now; pretty landscapes; tolkien!
2) lags even on some very good gaming PCs. In last years the devs have left and new devs are quite bad. The game is not optimized at all. They even introduced a memory leak which causes the game to crash. This is well known and documented but they pretend it does not exist.
3) housing is pretty awful, but at least they have basic housing
4) bag space is terrible - never enough and tons of items and crafting items
5) they have destroyed the loot system for raids and dungeons
6) AH is terrible - but it works barely
7) new content is often poorly made or was rushed
8) they don't fix some bugs. still selling a broken Raid in the cash store
9) mail system substandard - can only mail 1 item
Overall, they have done a terrible job with this game.
If you don't mind a poor MMO (much worse than Rift, GW2 or WoW) in terms of game play, and don't mind slow combat and lag, then you might like it.
People playing are nice and helpful mostly. And it has some nice areas and graphics. You can play for a while with only subscribing for one month - but the store is always in your face and gameplay is grindy.
Oh and this Free to Play game will cost you at least $80 to get most of the expansions and content.
tl;dr was a pretty good game; still playable; quite expensive to get expansions; very substandard game now; pretty landscapes; tolkien!
Well I would disagree with pretty much everything you said.1) combat is no better or worse then wow but way better then ffxiv 2) Lag is an issue sometimes on certain dungeons (that's why we hide cloaks only on certain dungeons and pvmp) 90% of the time you don't need to worry. I have played since beta and could probably count the times I've crashed on one hand. 3)how is housing awful? You get trophies from playing the game a decorate your house with your accomplishments. Kin house are used all the time for kinship events. 4) use your vault, your "awful" housing storage and wardrobe vault to manage your inventory. There is plenty of storage you just need to manage it. 5) how exactly have they destroyed the loot system? 6)ah is horrible? Come on it is not it works exactly how its supposed to. It may not have the addons to hold your hand like wow but works perfectly. 7)RoR was neither poor or rushed. Its was a very good expansion. 8)not sure which raid your referring to here please post a link. 9)oh no send multiple mails. Overall its still one of the bette MMOs out today. As for f2p I sub so can't comment. As for having to buy the expansion well good we all do. No f2p gives you everything for free. Actually in lotro if you save up enough turbine points you can buy every expansion. You gain points but completing in game activities so you could technically play all for free.
Pretty uneducated response. Maybe you are new or play alone a lot?
For example:
Compare housing to Rift or EQ2 (which you probably have no clue about) and you can see how lacking it is. There is a reason 1) most players don't use the house they bought and 2) players have been asking for years for housing upgrades. Turbine is finally making a very small improvement to housing.
Combat. No one is going to take you seriously if you say Lotro's combat is the same as Wow's. Wow is know for being very responsive in movement and combat. Lotro is known for having slow combat with many inductions.
I guess you don't read the forums or you would know how many players have reported lag issues. Just a few thousand posts on this problem, including POSTS BY TURBINE themselves saying they are trying to fix these issues. This has been going on for years. Glad you never have lag or notice it.
Housing storage is limited - of course it would not help with storage much. This is the MMO where you cannot actually get any large size bags. Compares to Rift or Wow, storage sucks and you have to spend real money to buy it.
Now when you run a dungeon you may not get any good loot - and maybe no one will.
The broken raid is Dragioch.
Seriously - read the forums or read these forums: http://lotrocommunity.com/forum/forum/2-general-discussion/ if you want to know about the things that make players of Lotro really unhappy. Your view is of someone who doesn't have any global perspective, never raids, and is not very good at comparing game features cross games. The AH without mods works much better in WoW.
Lotro can be a fun game for some - but it compares badly and is too expensive. Paying more than $80 for part of a game - when $40 will get you all of GW2 with no nagging store popping up all the time.
The reason I'm playing LotRO, is because I have a, for the lack of better words, shitty computer. I can't play most high graphic MMO's and I don't really have much memory in my HDD.
But, if any of you have a suggestion for an MMO I should be able to play if I can play LotRO, by all means, go ahead. I just want a good MMO thats fun and I can play often.
WoW runs a millions times better than Lotro on an older computer. Lotro has a memory leak - if you have 32 bit Windows and want to play search the forums for the fix to stop it crashing. You might be able to play Lotro on low settings, and the beginning is pretty nice if you have never played. You can try it.
WoW has a great free trial up to Level 20 with PvP and dungeons included also.
Comments
There would be always people with over-excited opinion("da best game ever!") or with too much scepticism. Decision is up to you.
My personal experience: you can be free player, enjoy all the content and still don't pay a penny. You start game with the basic free quests and 4 free regions (Bree land, Shire, Ered Luin, Lonelands), basic wallet (up to 2 gold). Epic quests are free, at least up to Helm's Deep, they (epic quests) will guide from sunny Shire to grumpy Angmar to the fortress of Saruman and green fields of Rohan riders.
After Lonelands, you would want to purchase additional content and may pay with Turbine points. These are awarded for doing deeds, like slayer ("kill NN wolves"), exploration ("found points A, B, C"), reputation with factions, doing quests ("complete NN quests in this region"), sometimes - for meta-deeds ("complete deeds A-J in this region"; "become Kindred with factions A, B, C"). Standard deed usually gives 5 Turbine points, advanced - 10 points. Example: Bree land deeds gives some 150 Turbine points.
So far I have purchased much of the content, most time - using discounts, spent some 5000 Turbine points and spent 0 dollars and 0 cents.
My advice: give Lotro a try. Maybe you would want to choose Withywindle server so that my Dwarven Champion could aid you.
http://www.mmoblogg.wordpress.com
My computer is better than yours.
Well, additional content must be bought anyway - paying with ca$h or with time. I chose my time. However, situation is not that bad if one is to act wisely.
Example: reputation. From Friend to Kindred, it gives you some 50 Turbine points. Fact: there are some factions that accept certain items and gives +reputation if you use that item. Example: Rings of Numenor gives +700 reputatio to the Wardens of Annuminas reputation, while Black Badge gives +50 to Wardens of Annuminas reputation. Situation: any player in Annuminas city would be forced to fight his way through hordes of Angmarim, from soldiers to crossbowmen. There are deeds to kill Angmarim in Annumimas. So - gather items while questing/deeding and if you have 122 top-pevel rep.items, your next toon may reach Kindred (remember - 50 TPs?) in no time. Simple strategy requiring only to do deeds and do not use deed accelerator. Oh, have I forgotten Sarnur where various mobs drops reputation item? And repeatble quests that grant +reputation with Thorins Hall, and mobs themselves drop Thorins Hall reputation items?
Trust me, I created many toons, got quickly through intro quests, ran to Bree, used 3 factions items...and 150 TPs were mine. If I was to do only basic quests in Bree - I would earn ~300 Turbine points. Not too hard if one has patience.
http://www.mmoblogg.wordpress.com
This the most accurate reply in the whole thread. Many others have varying degrees of misinformation.
I agree that to pay for a month's sub is a wise move for all the things it permanently unlocks. After that I would definitely advise not to sub unless you're bothered about getting every last minor detail of fluff that enttitles you to. Using the freemium method and just buying the content you need as you need it is far cheaper. You can get to around level thirty five without buying any quest packs.After that just buy the ones you want. Absolutely no need to buy them all as some have suggested. There is far more content available than you'll ever need if you simply want to level a character.
The world is mainly open with fast loading screens for the mini instances you'll encounter for some questss you'll encounter along the way. It's possible to go all the way from the Shire in the West to The Misty Mountains or Ergion in the East without any loading screens and that's probably a thirty minute journey even with a mount.
There are no instakill portals that you can't pass without paying money as has been suggested. Simply playing through the main storyline, which is completely free by the way, will unlock these.
You can work your way to the outskirts of Moria at level 50 by spending $50 or less without having to do any grinding for TP's.
After that, you don't have to buy expansions, you can simply carry on buying the quest packs you want which are much cheaper. If you do buy the expansions, you will get bonuses though, such as extra character slots, special mounts, armor etc. There are special offers all the time. The last time I looked in the shop last week it was possible to buy a job lot of previous expansions for a vastly reduced price.
As for the OP's follow up question about PC requirements. The game has been out six years now. The system requirements the time were quite high but what was a high end PC in 2007 would be quite a low end one now. I can't imagine there are many PC's that can't run it. I still have it installed on my backup PC which has a Core 2 Duo 3200 processor and it runs perfectly on that..
Just give it a try. It doesn't cost anything. Be warned the starter area is ridiculously easy. Don't judge the game by that, It doesn't really start until you're about level 9 or so.
WoW has seamless interiors and it's 9 years old...
Asheron's Call has seamless interiors and it's like 14 years old (and is a Turbine game).
Hell, even UO had them...
There is a zoning border with a loading screen.
Not a big deal, but it's still there. I'd rather have the few zoning borders than having to load each time I enter a building to be honest. That has always been a pet peeve of mine.
My computer is better than yours.
I think playing LOTRO can be a fun choice
play it until you feel like trying other mmos
you should be able to run Vanguard, RIFT, EQ2 too -- just not on high settings
you may like Turbines other game, DDO
EQ2 fan sites
If you love tolkien stories, you realy need to play trough the content once...
Its not hard, it took me to level 20 in one day, withouth dieing even once...
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
As I originally posted LOTRO is great to try out at least and if you like it enough spend some cash on to get the full experience. That being said however if you want a game that is completely F2P and can run easily on an older or lower end system Vanguard is one that is great to try out. You can easilly play it completely f2p from beginning to endgame and all without ever spending a dime. There are no content restrictions whatsoever and the world is incredbily massive. The ONLY restrictions a non paying player has in Vanguard really is being unable to equip high quality gear. This however is easily countered by the fact that you can buy item unlockers pretty cheap from other players off the AH for ingame gold to unlock items individually whenever you actually need to. Levelling its no big deal anyways as gear gets updated and replaced so fast anyways. The only other thing is that VIP members do get some increased xp rates but this is seriouslly no big deal at all. The world of Vanguard is so massive with so many places you can go at all level ranges I have frequently turned my XP off while playing and I am a full f2p member with no XP boosts. There are also a lot of free +10% xp boosts you get from quests as you go and you can buy bigger ones off the AH as well if your eally wanted to. Thats the other cool thing with Vanguard, pretty much all of the useful cash shop items are tradeable and thus can be bought from other players off the AH and such.
In summation LOTRO is a lot of fun but to get the most out of it you really will ahve to dish a little cash out to experience it all at 50+ if not sooner. You could technically get all the 50+ content free but it'd take ages of grinding. As I mentioned in my original post I'd treat it more as a B2P game with arather long and good trial. If it doesn't work out for you however Vanguard is a very good game worth checking out as well that will never require you to spend a dime.
Am currently level 58, have been playing for almost 2 years. I have not spent a cent in this game.
Obviously I haven't been able to do all the quests, but I have followed the epic line and am now in Mirkwood. Sometimes the line runs out and you have to grind a bit to get to the next level to re start the thread. Playing as a Guardian has made it a bit easier as I am able to hold my own against higher foes. Every now and then I get my high level Kinnies ( Lords of Moria, great bunch of people from all over the world) to come help me get past tough bits.
i have up trying to craft ages ago as it was a pain trying to keep up when moving through the higher levels. But the last 2 days I decided to go full on and develop as a scholar. So I farmed for a few hours and am now working on Artisan scholar. It's been good to have a break from the epic quest, and I am still getting some Xp. I try and do some grinding for deed tp every now and then, mani ly to buy exp boosters.
anyway am still enjoying the game. I still reckon it has the best interface of any game I ve played online.
Cheers
F2P, not so much, if you pay for a subscription, this game is great.
PS, SWTOR F2P vs LOTRO F2P
~ Lotro wins hands down, in Swtor you have to pay for even the fracking hotbars so you can set up your abilities on your bars in a proper organized format
Check out these links, SWTOR F2P is HIGHLY LIMITED and GAME BREAKING, not even trolling SWTOR, I actually have a paid subscription currently to both swtor and Lotro.
http://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Account_Types
http://www.swtor.com/free/features
It is a lot like WoW, except
1) much worse combat
2) lags even on some very good gaming PCs. In last years the devs have left and new devs are quite bad. The game is not optimized at all. They even introduced a memory leak which causes the game to crash. This is well known and documented but they pretend it does not exist.
3) housing is pretty awful, but at least they have basic housing
4) bag space is terrible - never enough and tons of items and crafting items
5) they have destroyed the loot system for raids and dungeons
6) AH is terrible - but it works barely
7) new content is often poorly made or was rushed
8) they don't fix some bugs. still selling a broken Raid in the cash store
9) mail system substandard - can only mail 1 item
Overall, they have done a terrible job with this game.
If you don't mind a poor MMO (much worse than Rift, GW2 or WoW) in terms of game play, and don't mind slow combat and lag, then you might like it.
People playing are nice and helpful mostly. And it has some nice areas and graphics. You can play for a while with only subscribing for one month - but the store is always in your face and gameplay is grindy.
Oh and this Free to Play game will cost you at least $80 to get most of the expansions and content.
tl;dr was a pretty good game; still playable; quite expensive to get expansions; very substandard game now; pretty landscapes; tolkien!
It is a lot like WoW, except
1) much worse combat
2) lags even on some very good gaming PCs. In last years the devs have left and new devs are quite bad. The game is not optimized at all. They even introduced a memory leak which causes the game to crash. This is well known and documented but they pretend it does not exist.
3) housing is pretty awful, but at least they have basic housing
4) bag space is terrible - never enough and tons of items and crafting items
5) they have destroyed the loot system for raids and dungeons
6) AH is terrible - but it works barely
7) new content is often poorly made or was rushed
8) they don't fix some bugs. still selling a broken Raid in the cash store
9) mail system substandard - can only mail 1 item
Overall, they have done a terrible job with this game.
If you don't mind a poor MMO (much worse than Rift, GW2 or WoW) in terms of game play, and don't mind slow combat and lag, then you might like it.
People playing are nice and helpful mostly. And it has some nice areas and graphics. You can play for a while with only subscribing for one month - but the store is always in your face and gameplay is grindy.
Oh and this Free to Play game will cost you at least $80 to get most of the expansions and content.
tl;dr was a pretty good game; still playable; quite expensive to get expansions; very substandard game now; pretty landscapes; tolkien!
Well I would disagree with pretty much everything you said.1) combat is no better or worse then wow but way better then ffxiv 2) Lag is an issue sometimes on certain dungeons (that's why we hide cloaks only on certain dungeons and pvmp) 90% of the time you don't need to worry. I have played since beta and could probably count the times I've crashed on one hand. 3)how is housing awful? You get trophies from playing the game a decorate your house with your accomplishments. Kin house are used all the time for kinship events. 4) use your vault, your "awful" housing storage and wardrobe vault to manage your inventory. There is plenty of storage you just need to manage it. 5) how exactly have they destroyed the loot system? 6)ah is horrible? Come on it is not it works exactly how its supposed to. It may not have the addons to hold your hand like wow but works perfectly. 7)RoR was neither poor or rushed. Its was a very good expansion. 8)not sure which raid your referring to here please post a link. 9)oh no send multiple mails. Overall its still one of the bette MMOs out today. As for f2p I sub so can't comment. As for having to buy the expansion well good we all do. No f2p gives you everything for free. Actually in lotro if you save up enough turbine points you can buy every expansion. You gain points but completing in game activities so you could technically play all for free.Pretty uneducated response. Maybe you are new or play alone a lot?
For example:
Compare housing to Rift or EQ2 (which you probably have no clue about) and you can see how lacking it is. There is a reason 1) most players don't use the house they bought and 2) players have been asking for years for housing upgrades. Turbine is finally making a very small improvement to housing.
Combat. No one is going to take you seriously if you say Lotro's combat is the same as Wow's. Wow is know for being very responsive in movement and combat. Lotro is known for having slow combat with many inductions.
I guess you don't read the forums or you would know how many players have reported lag issues. Just a few thousand posts on this problem, including POSTS BY TURBINE themselves saying they are trying to fix these issues. This has been going on for years. Glad you never have lag or notice it.
Housing storage is limited - of course it would not help with storage much. This is the MMO where you cannot actually get any large size bags. Compares to Rift or Wow, storage sucks and you have to spend real money to buy it.
This also just shows how clueless you are - or maybe you just solo and don't talk to other players who do group content: https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?493087-Update-9-Loot&p=6577517#post6577517
Now when you run a dungeon you may not get any good loot - and maybe no one will.
The broken raid is Dragioch.
Seriously - read the forums or read these forums: http://lotrocommunity.com/forum/forum/2-general-discussion/ if you want to know about the things that make players of Lotro really unhappy. Your view is of someone who doesn't have any global perspective, never raids, and is not very good at comparing game features cross games. The AH without mods works much better in WoW.
Lotro can be a fun game for some - but it compares badly and is too expensive. Paying more than $80 for part of a game - when $40 will get you all of GW2 with no nagging store popping up all the time.
WoW runs a millions times better than Lotro on an older computer. Lotro has a memory leak - if you have 32 bit Windows and want to play search the forums for the fix to stop it crashing. You might be able to play Lotro on low settings, and the beginning is pretty nice if you have never played. You can try it.
WoW has a great free trial up to Level 20 with PvP and dungeons included also.