ZAM's Lord of the Rings ContestFollow

Love this game since day 1

I have a founders Lifetime account have been playing from the launch I have played many MMORP games this by far is the most awsome of all of them I love the game and will continue to play as long as the game is here. There are some changes I would like to see come about and do think in the future they will. It just keeps getting better.

I have been somewhat of a gamer since I was about 8 years old (Atari 2600). I would have to say that for me LOTRO is the best game I've ever played over all. I started playing in open beta and have kept my subscription current. In that time I have bought no other games for my PC. Its, for the most part, the only game I play. I've actually tried trial accounts for WOW and CoH and neither were any competition IMHO.

This game was suprisingly easy to get into (I am rather new), I found the crafting especially enjoyable and rather useful to my character compared to other games. I think the pvp or pvmp for this game could be better and have better rewards.

I have played Lord of the Rings Online since beta, and I have always been in love with its rich enviornments and deep story. The game has always had a great sense of immersion. Never have I felt so 'into' a game as I have with LotRO. I sometimes find myself looking over my shoulder in fear there may be an orc sneaking up on me!

Crafting in LotRO is a great experience. The system used is the game's crafting is practical. It is not over the top as it can be in many games, and is also much more useful than it is in others (Warhammer Online comes to mind.)

I would recommend LotRO to anyone, and as I work to bring my friends into Middle-Earth, I hope you will do the same. See you in Eriador!

Having been used to a quick reward hack-n-slash online game it took a while to get use to the slower thought paced Lotro. Checking the level bar seemed to be common place. I still considered Lotro a race to end game and did indeed get frustrated with the pace and inability to advance at a pace I was used to.

Step in Lore.....

Being an avid J.R fan I began to slow down to check out familiar surroundings and associate them with the Trilogy. I began actually reading the content of quests and not the where do I go and what do I get. This has not only made the game much more enjoyable I think it has lowered my blood pressure :-). If you can ignore the GO GO GO LEVEL LEVEL LEVEL race then it can be a very enjoyable experience. The graphics are phenomenal and the game mechanics superb.

The content has everything one could want if one takes the time to read and explore. Sure there are some non imaginative parts as far as added mechanics such as crafting and certain item base required instances but for the most part it all fits nicely. The strategy and thought processes that goes in to winning battles seem more enjoyable at lower ends and i believe this is due to a more variance in player level characters and gear variances. End game type instances are only for the strong so everyone seems to have the same gear and same strategies.

Although you can solo many parts of the game the high end content or at least high end reward able content is fellowship based and has forced one to create relationships and friends which is not a bad thing. I have made friends while in game that now go beyond the game itself.

A personal thought or suggestion would be to make Book quests a mandatory requirement for level advancement forcing people to enjoy what the story and game founding is all about. After all, the game makes you do a quest to advance in the crafting department so why not the story line as well.

PS.. Please give Wadens their r and heart back...and maybe a cooky.

Cheers

LotRO can't just have open PVP like all the rest MMO's, obviously because of the lore. But PvMP has to be the most genius solution to this. I think PvMP is actually a lot more fun than any other forms of PVP i have seen. :)

Do you play? Currently, yes. I recently downloaded the game and am trying the free trial.

Have you tried the game? Yes.


What do you like about it? As a former World of Warcraft player, I found the interface and game play easy to learn. I really like the graphics and story content. I've been an avid fan of JRR Tolkein since I was a wee lad. I read the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings at early age. If I was to keep playing and be able to get a group of friends to play along with, I think I could get quite a bit of lasting enjoyment from the game.

What don't you like about it? So, far nothing, except perhaps it is a little too much like WoW. I don't really think it is a bad thing, but you can get into a routine and maybe not have as much fun. My only other peeve is just with MMO's in general. I don't like the monthly fee and am not particularly a social person, even less so when meeting virtual people online that I don't know.

Been playing since closed beta (a friend of mine that played EQ with me got an invite too, how lucky!) LOTRO is a story driven game that has a rich and full enviroment. There is no lack of breath-taking views or clear story paths for your character take. While playing LOTRO has done a great job of making you feel that your character is personally in the story line and that your actions will effect the outcome, very exciting game play while doing the Book quests that evolve the story line.
The Good..
Awesome story, personal feel, Rich enviroments, plenty of 6 man, 3 man and even solo content with great rewards, quests are very well defined with clear directions for fast leveling, very helpfull and mature community of players.

The Bad..
Not alot of raiding content as compared to most other games, lack of multiple high-end, diverse targets for your kinship to keep busy, no updates to previous raid content to keep them relevant and active. The few raids that are available at 60 are 12 man max. There is one level 50 raid that does cater to 24 raiders but the rewards are not relevant for level 60.

Way back in the day, when I first learned that they where developing an MMO based on Lord of the Rings, I immediately started imagining what that would possibly look like. Most of my knowledge of LOTR, is based off of the movies (animated/current trilogy), and knowing that the developers would be following the books more closely then the movies, was exciting as well.

Like most people, I signed up for Beta as soon as I could. Waiting for quite a while, eventually I was invited to take part in the last phase of beta, which then lead into open beta. After playing most of the other MMO's that where currently released at that time, I was very impressed with how LOTRO had turned out. The graphics where great, easy to learn your way around. Crafting was interesting, very tedious work, but fun over all. But, the most fascinating thing was working through the epic quest's right from the start. It really made you feel as if you where part it. Also, it was interesting to learn what was taking place outside of fellowships journey.

I continued to play for about 6 months after launch, then left for a short while.. I tend to play for a few months, take a month off, the play for another few months or after a book update. Sadly I have not reached the Mines of Moria yet, but I am slowly getting there. No rush for me, just enjoying the game as a whole. LOTRO has been out for 2 years now, I think, and we are just now getting to the Mines of Moria, with plenty more to go. I can not wait to see where they take the game next.

Your experience was quite different from mine. I was one of the first to suggest things like adding 'Report as Gold-Spammer' to mail and chat channels, that the devs have implemented. There are probably half a dozen features that I have suggested that have made their way into the game. Of course, others have undoubtedly made these suggestions, as well; I'm not trying to suggest that it is my voice that has made the difference. But clearly the devs do listen and implement at least some player suggestions.

Love it, I dropped EQ after many years simply because it became a place for idiots and GMs with a God complex. The quests are numerous enough that you can solo as much as you want or need to depending on your RL stuff and the crefting is not so outragous that you could never hope to master it. Whats not to like??