The Lord of the Rings Online: The Re-Review In Progress | MMORPG.com

System · October 10

The Lord of the Rings Online: The Re-Review In Progress | MMORPG.com

Bradford is diving headlong back into the MMO that started it all for him, The Lord of the Rings Online, re-reviewing the experience as it stands in 2024. Check out our first review-in-progress.

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2TonGamer · October 10

WIth every new expansion, they need to do like most MMO's do and offer up the ones before it with the expansion for free instead of making people pay for old content. That alone keeps many players from joining or paying for a new expansion and the idea that LOTRO even has packs over $100 is just insane to me.

Sovrath · October 10

2TonGamer said:

WIth every new expansion, they need to do like most MMO's do and offer up the ones before it with the expansion for free instead of making people pay for old content. That alone keeps many players from joining or paying for a new expansion and the idea that LOTRO even has packs over $100 is just insane to me.

I have never seen the need for this.

They are a small developer and need to get money from more than just that shop.

Gorwe · October 10

It is a beautiful game, but also really outdated imo. Haven't really followed LoTR:O, but that was always my impression of it.

Nebless · October 10

2TonGamer said:

the idea that LOTRO even has packs over $100 is just insane to me.

Beyond the reason Sovrath gave you also have the fact that:

a) if you sub you can do 3 of those expansions as part of the sub (so only costing $15), that means you really only need Gundabad, Umber and the latest.

b) Directly at your comment: You can buy those expansions for $39.99 each. If you want to pay over $100 for one that's totally on YOU.

No different than buying a car; you can pay for the base edition or spend a lot more for the version with all the fancy bells and whistles.

[Deleted User] · October 10

The user and all related content has been deleted.

Sovrath · October 10

Kageno said:

I wish they would remake the whole game with a new coat of paint and a better engine the game is genuinely awesome but the lag spikes hurt to much.

Good game but if any game deserved a remake it would be this.

I agree but I doubt that investment would pay off. That would take a lot of work and money.

They would have to offer a completely different story to follow as well as a lot more to do for players who have played it for years.

not to mention the current crop of players who wouldn’t want to pay for that upgrade.

FrodoFragins · October 10

I recently returned and have now quit due to the ridiculously grindy, and super alt unfriendly, Virtue Trait passive system. You gain a good amount of power by maxing out every trait, whether slotted or not, thanks to the passives each one provides.

That system is where I've hit the wall in my return to the game. It is clearly designed to get people to buy virtue trait XP boosts. I absolutely consider this to be a predatory P2W monetization model and a motivation killer.

I have to assume the Legendary Item grind system is still pretty bad as well.

They are able to put out a lot more content than say SWTOR because of their predatory monetization and high prices. But even as a lifetime sub, the game never holds me for even two months at a time.

It's really not a game I would suggest as a main MMO, but I would suggest it for people who just want to level through the expansions and see what they've made. Just be prepared for a lot of quests where you keep running back to turn in and get the next part.

renegeed · October 10

The UI needs a major overhaul, why this doesn't seem to be a priority is beyond me.

Elidien_ga · October 10

The thing that keeps me from returning is I have no idea what x-packs I own, which ones, I need, what I would need to by, what a sub gives and does not, etc... It feels cumbersome and weighty and as opposed to other MMOS where I just login and go have fun, LOTRO seems like a confusing chore.

vanderghast · October 10

the game was outdated visually when it launched, I can't imagine playing it now.

Sovrath · October 10

renegeed said:

The UI needs a major overhaul, why this doesn't seem to be a priority is beyond me.

I complained about their User Interface many times in closed beta.

I’m guessing they either don’t think anything is wrong or it’s too expensive to change for limited benefit.

Ginaz · October 10

If anyone who has never played this before or it's been years since you did play, I suggest playing a hunter or champion first. Both are very straightforward and familiar but are also fun to play. Warden and Mariner are the 2 classes I would suggest to avoid in the beginning due to being more complicated to play but play what you want, really. There's no real meta classes in LOTRO and they're all fun in their own ways.

hovsep159 · October 10

the game desperatly needs another lotr mmo, i appreciate the small dev team trying to keep this game running but because of that they will never be able to rework the game to keep it up with current standards with no intention to even try.

even mabinogi is getting a full remake and that has a playerbase of 500
while i doubt ags lotr mmo will be even close to lore accurate i just hope the gameplay is good atleast.

olepi · October 10

Turn off the name plates above stuff. Bump up the difficulty a level or two. It can still be fun.

Neoyoshi · October 11

This really fell off my radar when it occurred to me that the graphics engine overhaul was never going to actually happen, that would have without question brought me back to this game.

I played a ton of Dungeons & Dragons Online, and i know how weird that engine is, while it was something to marvel at back in the days of Asheron's Call and when DDO: Stormreach launched- the Microsoft toolsets and the art that was created with them have not aged well.

Abimor · October 11

Nebless said:

2TonGamer said:

the idea that LOTRO even has packs over $100 is just insane to me.

Beyond the reason Sovrath gave you also have the fact that:

a) if you sub you can do 3 of those expansions as part of the sub (so only costing $15), that means you really only need Gundabad, Umber and the latest.

b) Directly at your comment: You can buy those expansions for $39.99 each. If you want to pay over $100 for one that's totally on YOU.

No different than buying a car; you can pay for the base edition or spend a lot more for the version with all the fancy bells and whistles.

I mean everything you said is true but compare it to wow. I don't have to figure out how to build a nuclear reactor to understand what I get with the latest expansion. I shouldn't have to take longer than 2 minutes to figure it out.
lotros pricing schemes are a final question on jeopardy level hard to understand.
I own every exp so it's not to expensive to keep going. if you go to their site right now I feel it scares away people because of the poor communication on cost.
if they followed the wow method they would make more money just from people saying I can do 49.99 as opposed to 0 from people who are scared away.

Also ssg overpromises and underdelivers on everything they do. small or not you shouldn't promise game systems you don't even know at the time if you can do. It's predatory.
I respect what they do and love lotro they have some major flaws though.

Scot · October 11

Well maybe some of the people who watched RoP and liked it may be thinking about playing LotRO, so good time for a re-review.

As a poster mentioned this, the game has had two major graphic updates I think and it is still hits the minimum I expect from a MMO graphic wise. When you consider the games age that is a real achievement.

waveslayer · October 11

Scot said:

it is still hits the minimum I expect from a MMO graphic wise. When you consider the games age that is a real achievement.

there are some places that still look awesome in game, overall IMO its still a good looking game, the characters are the part that havnt aged well.

LotRO is still on my comp but I seldom play anymore except every so often I log in and run around Bree or the Shire, after lothlorien the game kinda loses me never made it past level 100 after all these years

cameltosis · October 11

@lotrlore there is one paragraph that really stood out to me in the article:

"Each class feels functionally different, and while LotRO hasn’t added a ton of new classes to its roster of the years (looking at you, Black Desert Online), each one feels inherently different. This provides a ton of variety for anyone coming in with a blank slate, and while they are all wrapped up at the altar of the Holy Trinity of Heals, Tank and DPS, the way they get there feels unique enough that I never felt like I was simply repeating myself throughout my class testing over the years. "

I haven't played LotRO in a long time, but back when I was playing there were 6 combat roles. Have they really removed buffer / debuffer / cc roles from the game?

Those three separate support roles were a big part of what made combat so much fun in the early years. They added a lot of depth to the game, offering up a whole variety of options when it came to tactics. I had so much fun figuring out how to complete dungeons without tanks or healers because we could CC everything, or debuff the shit out of a boss. Or trying to run a dungeon with a party of 6 captains, or 6 loremasters, was a blast!

If they have gotten rid of those 3 extra combat roles, where do captain, loremaster and burglar now sit? Are they just different flavours of DPS now?

Slapshot1188 · October 11

I went back and played it a few months ago. I had a fun time. My groupmates couldn't deal with the old UI etc... but it's a fun game that just needs a facelift.

And a passover on monitization because as some have said above, it's as clear as mud.

lotrlore · October 11

cameltosis said:

@lotrlore there is one paragraph that really stood out to me in the article:

"Each class feels functionally different, and while LotRO hasn’t added a ton of new classes to its roster of the years (looking at you, Black Desert Online), each one feels inherently different. This provides a ton of variety for anyone coming in with a blank slate, and while they are all wrapped up at the altar of the Holy Trinity of Heals, Tank and DPS, the way they get there feels unique enough that I never felt like I was simply repeating myself throughout my class testing over the years. "

I haven't played LotRO in a long time, but back when I was playing there were 6 combat roles. Have they really removed buffer / debuffer / cc roles from the game?

Those three separate support roles were a big part of what made combat so much fun in the early years. They added a lot of depth to the game, offering up a whole variety of options when it came to tactics. I had so much fun figuring out how to complete dungeons without tanks or healers because we could CC everything, or debuff the shit out of a boss. Or trying to run a dungeon with a party of 6 captains, or 6 loremasters, was a blast!

If they have gotten rid of those 3 extra combat roles, where do captain, loremaster and burglar now sit? Are they just different flavours of DPS now?

So it's interesting because I always looked at those classes as different flavors of either Tank, DPS or Heals. Captains were great off-tanks and off-healers thanks to heavy armor, buffs and more, but weren't great with Damage. Loremasters can heal, revive, deal damage and CC everything. They had more utility than the standard trinity typically offers, but they felt like they were cadet branches of that trinity, so to speak.

Those roles are still there, and I'll have to tinker with the classes a bit more during this re-review process, especially in grouping, but I think lines of thinking are true: they fall under the trinity so to speak, yet are different enough that they filled a certain role within a fellowship that felt outside of it.

Burglar is another example: great CC, but ultimately is a DPS class. Each class has this type of utility built into its core, but at the end of the day, at least how I've always looked at it, felt like part of the trinity's whole.

KnightFalz · October 11

Sovrath said:

2TonGamer said:

WIth every new expansion, they need to do like most MMO's do and offer up the ones before it with the expansion for free instead of making people pay for old content. That alone keeps many players from joining or paying for a new expansion and the idea that LOTRO even has packs over $100 is just insane to me.

I have never seen the need for this.

They are a small developer and need to get money from more than just that shop.

There is no need for it, but reducing the monetary barrier for entry could be beneficial for them if it increases the interest in subscription sufficiently for that to offset the lost sales revenue.

KnightFalz · October 11

Nebless said:

2TonGamer said:

the idea that LOTRO even has packs over $100 is just insane to me.

Beyond the reason Sovrath gave you also have the fact that:

a) if you sub you can do 3 of those expansions as part of the sub (so only costing $15), that means you really only need Gundabad, Umber and the latest.

b) Directly at your comment: You can buy those expansions for $39.99 each. If you want to pay over $100 for one that's totally on YOU.

No different than buying a car; you can pay for the base edition or spend a lot more for the version with all the fancy bells and whistles.

To be fully caught up with ESO costs about $58 without the bells and whistles in comparison to that almost $120. So, LotRO is a bit expensive compared to at least one alternative. If it is similarly so compared to many other alternatives they may be pricing themselves a bit too high.

FrodoFragins · October 12

KnightFalz said:

Nebless said:

2TonGamer said:

the idea that LOTRO even has packs over $100 is just insane to me.

Beyond the reason Sovrath gave you also have the fact that:

a) if you sub you can do 3 of those expansions as part of the sub (so only costing $15), that means you really only need Gundabad, Umber and the latest.

b) Directly at your comment: You can buy those expansions for $39.99 each. If you want to pay over $100 for one that's totally on YOU.

No different than buying a car; you can pay for the base edition or spend a lot more for the version with all the fancy bells and whistles.

To be fully caught up with ESO costs about $58 without the bells and whistles in comparison to that almost $120. So, LotRO is a bit expensive compared to at least one alternative. If it is similarly so compared to many other alternatives they may be pricing themselves a bit too high.

LOTRO's financial model is much worse than SWTOR's as that game unlocks all leveling content(expansions) up to the point when you last subbed. But SWTOR also adds much less content each year.

LOTRO is what it is and I think they have a very fragile ecosystem. They know that making certain things less expensive or grindy means less income. And they probably have no reason to believe it would result in an increase in the number of paying players. Although they did give away a decent chunk of expansions during COVID.

They also do allow you to grind for points to unlock content, which is something SWTOR doesn't do. With each character able to gain points for redoing what you've done on other characters.

If you care about min maxing characters, you will be earning a decent chunk of LOTRO points for that purpose.

Abimor · October 12

FrodoFragins said:

KnightFalz said:

Nebless said:

2TonGamer said:

the idea that LOTRO even has packs over $100 is just insane to me.

Beyond the reason Sovrath gave you also have the fact that:

a) if you sub you can do 3 of those expansions as part of the sub (so only costing $15), that means you really only need Gundabad, Umber and the latest.

b) Directly at your comment: You can buy those expansions for $39.99 each. If you want to pay over $100 for one that's totally on YOU.

No different than buying a car; you can pay for the base edition or spend a lot more for the version with all the fancy bells and whistles.

To be fully caught up with ESO costs about $58 without the bells and whistles in comparison to that almost $120. So, LotRO is a bit expensive compared to at least one alternative. If it is similarly so compared to many other alternatives they may be pricing themselves a bit too high.

LOTRO's financial model is much worse than SWTOR's as that game unlocks all leveling content(expansions) up to the point when you last subbed. But SWTOR also adds much less content each year.

LOTRO is what it is and I think they have a very fragile ecosystem. They know that making certain things less expensive or grindy means less income. And they probably have no reason to believe it would result in an increase in the number of paying players. Although they did give away a decent chunk of expansions during COVID.

They also do allow you to grind for points to unlock content, which is something SWTOR doesn't do. With each character able to gain points for redoing what you've done on other characters.

If you care about min maxing characters, you will be earning a decent chunk of LOTRO points for that purpose.

They do let you earn bundles of points and there are pretty fast ways to do it. with the newer expansions the turbine points you get from deeds have gone the way of the dodo. I don't think umbar stuff gives any points at all.
that being said you can make a mini and earn about 1k in two hours or less if you wanted to by doing eruid luin shire and bree maybe 3 hours if your new.
I think they just scare away people with that big first time investment.
I will always wonder if they went the eso wow route on exp if the would be better off.

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