The Lord of The Rings, Online!

[Tom_Violence]

So, I've just gotten myself a free trial for this for a whopping three whole days! Does anyone out there play? Does anyone know if its any good? Does anyone know if I should even bother?

Incidentally, I've also got some spare keys for the trial, if anyone's interested.

[Erloas]

I thought the trails usually lasted for 10 days. I guess this is probably a different trail system then the buddy trials that come with the game.

I'm currently playing. The game isn't perfect, but it seems better then any alternatives currently out.
3 days is hardly long enough to get a good feel for the game though. A lot of what I like about LOTRO over the most common game of comparision, WoW, doesn't really start to be really noticable until the mid 20s.

[Ranis]

Ooh, can you pass me one of those free trials?

[Stoneburr]

Me too! I really would like to try out the game :smallbiggrin:

[Tom_Violence]

Done and done. That's 2 keys down, 3 left.

Enjoy downloading 5 gigs of installer. :smallamused:

[Stoneburr]

Wow, 8 hours, well I'll start downloading that now :smalleek:

Thanks alot Tom, this should be a small taste of whether or not to get this! :smallwink:

[....]

I wasn't very impressed with the beta.

Having bards as healers was pretty nifty, but it dosn't take long to see its just another XP grind like every other MMO out there.

(except Planetside)

[chiefwaha]

I love LotRO. There is the typical MMORPG grind, but they do a pretty good job of disguising it or giving you options. The one thing that sets this game apart from other MMORPGs is the story. I actually read the quest log the first time. If you don't have any interest in Lord of the Rings, I don't know if you'll get into it, but if you like RPGs in general and Lord of the Rings specifically you should have plenty of fun.

One other thing, if you love powerleveling this game probably won't be for you. I've found that levels come quickly when you're not trying to gain them and just enjoying the scenary and story, but really slowly when you are just trying to level.

[Shoemaker]

Can't say I've played it myself, but I have several friends who have.

They all rave about how great it is. I'm told it IS a bit of an experience slog (what MMORPG isn't?), but there's a lot of atmosphere and options to disguise it.

Oh, and if you're still giving out free trials, I'd actually love one, if it isn't too much trouble.

[The_Losar]

I play. I have characters on Windfola, Nimrodel, and Arkenstone.

None of their levels have broken into the 20s, but my Minstrel on Nimrodel is close. Give "Face" a wave if you ever see him on.

I enjoy the game when I get the time to play it (I was a Founder, and I still haven't broken into the 20s...), but I get distressed easily when I start getting too high a level to really benefit from quests I've taken up. I'm a bit of a completionist, I'm afraid.

Also, scholars have it bad. The resources are hard to find and too expensive to buy. People at the auction house are jerks. :smallyuk:

[Ranis]

Tried all three of the download sites, and none of them seem to work. The files I download can't open because the header is damaged (?) and so I haven't used the key that Tom_Violence gave me, if anyone else would like to use it.

[valadil]

I tried it briefly and wasn't impressed. A majority of the quests were kill 6 of something. Great, now kill 6 more and this time bring back a hoof from each beast killed. Seriously, I bet it took less time to program those quests than it does to play them.

Keep in mind that my MMO of choice is DDO, so if you don't like DDO you probably won't agree with my taste in games so LotRO might be better for you.

[Erloas]

I tried it briefly and wasn't impressed. A majority of the quests were kill 6 of something. Great, now kill 6 more and this time bring back a hoof from each beast killed. Seriously, I bet it took less time to program those quests than it does to play them.

Keep in mind that my MMO of choice is DDO, so if you don't like DDO you probably won't agree with my taste in games so LotRO might be better for you.

Well there are also a lot of "collect X things from the ground" quests as well, so its not all killing.

Really there are a lot of those quests, too many to even think about. The only good thing about it though is that often you can get several quests at the same time to kill the same thing so you can do parts of 3-4 quests at the same time.
There are also ones to go kill a single specific named guy and generally while doing that you end up killing others for the X quests too.

It really isn't much of an issue unless you end up getting the quests in the wrong order, so instead of doing quests for killing the same mobs together you end up killing them several different times for individual quests.

There are some quests that are much more interesting too, they are generally less often though.

The group aspect of many of the quests, at least at higher levels, makes the quests more interesting. There are a lot of quests that need groups of people to do, which is something I like, though I know a number of people like to be able to solo everything in MMOs, which to me defeats the purpose of an MMO entirely.


I'm playing on Firefoot of the US severs. Most of the time as Erloas or Loraes so anyone that happens to be there, say hi. I can also get a few buddy keys so if anyone wants one send me a PM and I'll see about sending you one.

[Indon]

I'm currently playing. The game isn't perfect, but it seems better then any alternatives currently out.
3 days is hardly long enough to get a good feel for the game though. A lot of what I like about LOTRO over the most common game of comparision, WoW, doesn't really start to be really noticable until the mid 20s.

Really? During the beta I played into the late teens. I found the game to heavily favor exploration/completeness over WoW's grind even then, but I'm interested in what other changes others found in later levels that I never got a chance to play.

[Erloas]

Really? During the beta I played into the late teens. I found the game to heavily favor exploration/completeness over WoW's grind even then, but I'm interested in what other changes others found in later levels that I never got a chance to play.

Well I like a lot of the class designs more in LOTRO then WoW. Classes don't develop all that much until you start getting a good set of abilities. It depends on the class though as to how much it changes based on where they decide to put many of the abilities.

The other thing I like about LOTRO over WoW is the casual group content. In WoW everything is either best done solo or in big overly long raids. LOTRO seems to have a lot of group quests that can, and usually are, done by single groups that get together and do them without having to spend an entire evening doing them or scheduling them and it doesn't require being in a guild to get them done. Pretty much the only place where thats true with WoW is in the instances which, when leveling up rather then end game, wasn't all that common and almost always took a lot of time. There are a number of group quests in the 15-20 range but they really start to pick up a lot more after that. Group content is big to me, because if I wanted to do everything solo I would just play single player RPGs which have a lot more freedom in what they can do. I want to play my MMOs with other people.
There is also not such a painful cut in exp by grouping and quest kill counts and item collection quests with a group becomes complimentative between the players as opposed to competative like it is in WoW. (although they may have changed this in WoW since I last played)

The community is better in LOTRO too. A lot of that seems to have to do with the group content too. The lower level areas can still be painful though with OOC chat, but it tends to be much better and more helpful at higher levels.

[Hawriel]

Ive ben playing the game sence beta. I really enjoyed the beta because I found alot of friendly helpfull peaple playing. sence release alot of rude little kids game over from wow but hay thats what the ignore command is for.

I found the crafting rather easy. Turbine is the developer who also made the D&D online game. the play is very similar. The character moddles and clothing art is rather bland to me. all in all its worth a shot. its not like another game wont come out that you may find better.

[alchahest]

I , too, play LOTRO, and am enjoying it. I think my favorite part is that there's a grind, sure, but it's not slogging througnh mobs, the fastest way through the game is questing. there are tons of quests. and they're all well written.

if anyone wants a referral (for founder pricing - cheaper than regular) just give me a PM or something and I'll get you set up :)

[Tom_Violence]

Well, I played the trial, and what can I say other than 'if you like WoW you should like this, as they seem to be the same game.' Then again, I am very picky about my MMOGs, with a strong dislike for a game that appeared to made entirely out of 'go there, kill x' quests. :smalltongue: It wouldn't be so bad if the combat consisted of more than selecting a target and then waiting for your skills to recharge.

Maybe I'll start another DDO trial. I quite liked that one.

[Desidus]

I just bought the game but haven't registered yet, trying to see if I can get a referral from a founder before I do (what can I say, I'm cheap :p)... so, ya, if anyone has one they want to throw out, my email is xtremex19 at gmail dot com...

and, I have no clue, is there an oots guild/fellowship/group on any of the servers? I have some friends on one, but I'm always looking for guilds based around things I enjoy

[Istari]

Me and my dad have been playing since alpha and we love I can't play to much but he does. We have 1 level fifty and several other high levels.