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To anybody thinking of playing

shakermaker0shakermaker0 Member UncommonPosts: 194

I have recently written a review about this game on thatmmoguy.blogspot.com

Hopefully to anybody wanting to try, this should give you a brief idea of what to expect etc, hope this helps!

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Comments

  • QueinaiQueinai Member Posts: 76

    Nice review, considering resubbing now. I especially agree that the quality of the quests are a major draw. They tend to read like a book as opposed to a series of directions with a plot carrot diced and tossed in. This quality pulls me into the storytelling element in such a way that I unconsciously paint my character onto the pages by my own volition.

     

  • shakermaker0shakermaker0 Member UncommonPosts: 194

    Thanks, I find the questing system in this game to be its biggest draw, you actually feel like you are part of the game rather than just following a series of goals for no real reason. Its almost like a quality single player expierence in a multiplayer game.

  • Thats a pretty great review. I think you hit the nail(s) on the head.

    To me, LOTRO puts the RPG back into MMORPG. Great quests and excellent story telling gives LOTRO a different feel from the standard MMORPG. I also agree that there is an EQ1 feeling about it which has made me decide not to play this game, but except for that, LOTRO is polished very well put together.

    Nice job!

  • NeblessNebless Member RarePosts: 1,835

    Very nice review.

    The only thing I think you could have expanded on in the graphic's section would be while the scenery is very appealing and lush, the character models are a shade on the cartoony side.

    The two people that I've tried to get interested in the game have pretty much acknowledged all your high points and think that it's a very nice game, but have had major problems with how their avatar would look.  While I just gloss over that point personally, some really identify with their in game self.

    As this seems to be a common comment on the O-boards, it is an item that would be nice for Turbine to overhaul.  My guess is that this is just how Turbine does avatars as the models in DDO looked pretty much the same.  How were the one's in AC?  Anyone?

    SWG (pre-cu) - AoC (pre-f2p) - PotBS (pre-boarder) - DDO - LotRO (pre-f2p) - STO (pre-f2p) - GnH (beta tester) - SWTOR - Neverwinter

  • shakermaker0shakermaker0 Member UncommonPosts: 194

    Hmm this is something I didn't really notice untill you have just said, I guess it is because I had been playing WoW before this so anything would look normal after that.

  • NeblessNebless Member RarePosts: 1,835

    One of the guys I talked to even said they look WoWish and he doesn't even play WoW. 

    From O-board comments it seems most give LotRO pluses for not having stuff 'growing out of their shoulders or huge shoulder pads that could double as airplane wings', in effect cartoony but not so over the top.

    I think Turbine tried to hit a middle ground, but with avatars you almost need to go over the top cartoon or push towards the realistic (SWG ..., well kind of in a 48DDD world :) ).  Middle ground never satisfy's either side.

    SWG (pre-cu) - AoC (pre-f2p) - PotBS (pre-boarder) - DDO - LotRO (pre-f2p) - STO (pre-f2p) - GnH (beta tester) - SWTOR - Neverwinter

  • SovrathSovrath Member LegendaryPosts: 31,937

    The experience from one to sixty is a very enjoyable one, taking around five to ten days of solid play time to achieve

     

    I find this a little hard to believe. I know they changed the xp curve but unless you are playing 24/7 I'm not sure this is true.

    Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb." 

    Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w


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    Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo 
  • DarkRanger65DarkRanger65 Member Posts: 83

    The avatars look great. IMHO.

    MMO Played-EQ, EQ2, WOW, DDO, GW, COH, Vanguard, WAR

    MMOs Playing-LOTRO

  • ThradarThradar Member Posts: 949

    I'm a lifetime subscriber and have been playing the game since beta.  They are slowly transforming LotRO in something that resembles the WoW mechanic of mmo'ing.

    In other words:  grinding 6 mans for gear progression, reputation grinds, and dailies.

    The gear sets in all the 6 mans made all the crafted armor obsolete (unless you need them for an alt), and the legendary item system has made weapon crafting obsolete.  So crafting is horribly broken at the moment.  I often check my server's AH for high level crafted items, and most of the time there is NOTHING listed at all for level 48+.  Not a single crafted item.

    IMO the game is taking a turn for the worse for veteran players who started playing this early at the expense of attracting new players.  That's fine...that's Turbine's call.  I'm just not happy with where the game is going right now.

  • ColdrenColdren Member UncommonPosts: 495

    I give this entry two thumbs up for two reasons:

    1)  Bill Hicks icon. Yes, that warrants a thumb-up in my book.

    2) Content. Although I will nit-pick, being the grammar you-know-what I can be, and say commas are not your friend. Run on sentences kinda break the flow of the words in odd ways, but that's a small concern. Excellent choice of images, and overall, it was a good overview.



    Nicely done.

  • takayitakayi Member Posts: 158

    Not bad, I actually liked your review. Especially the stuff you told about classes was really interesting.



    Ive played the game for about a year now, and in my opinion, the two (2) new classes (Warden and Runekeeper) were a good add. Especially for me, because I was missing a hybrid (Warden = DPS / Tank hybrid)... Still, Runekeeper's were a bad choice in my opinion, I really dont like that there is the superior magic users in the world of LotR...



     

    image

  • MrbloodworthMrbloodworth Member Posts: 5,615
    Originally posted by Thradar


    I'm a lifetime subscriber and have been playing the game since beta.  They are slowly transforming LotRO in something that resembles the WoW mechanic of mmo'ing.
    In other words:  grinding 6 mans for gear progression, reputation grinds, and dailies.


    No, they are not. they are simply adding a handful of things that players wanted. But in comparison, its about 2% of the entire game, and still more assessable to casuals then any other game on the market.

     

    ----------
    "Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me

    "No, your wrong.." - Random user #123

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    How are you?" -Me

  • levsixlevsix Member UncommonPosts: 363

    The avatars look great. Just look at my photo album for examples!

    Seriously, though, I was a former player and I recently resubbed. LOTRO has very cool instances (the game is not all instanced for those who never played). I like how you go into Books or epic instances and follow a story. Some are mediocre, some are great. The lowbie stuff can be very burnt with the typical kill 10 boars, kill 10 spiders, etc, but there is a strong RPG element that helps to sustain it throw the more familiar moments.

    If you're on the fence, check it out. I played through the betas and for a year. I left pre-Moria and just came back. I'm having a good time with it. It has shortcomings but what game doesn't? The conjunctions and small fellowship quests are a blast, too. I'm not saying that it is all original but there are plenty of things that are.

    I'm on Meneldor. Look me up: Levathar.

    My friends and I get together and we have always run stupid events like chicken races (where you spawn as a chicken and then run across Bree). We've had drunken swim meets where you pound ale and your screen goes crazy and you have to swim with your knee caps broken. Right now we do a "nightgown fellowship" where we put our male avatars in dresses and run around looking like imbeciles. I know this makes some people mad but we play games to have laughs and fun, not to be serious and feel powerful through pixels.

    Have a winner and don't go on a game over! Does your avatar make you powerful in real life? Check out the Mystical Enders gaming community. www.mysticalenders.com

  • CognomanCognoman Member UncommonPosts: 75

    This is a great thread, thanks for your review OP.

    I did the 10 day trial and it was alot of fun.  Although I only reached lvl 22. 

    I am tempted to sub cause only $10/mn plus I saw the CE box for only $30 at EB Canada.

     

  • trancejeremytrancejeremy Member UncommonPosts: 1,222

    Two comments:

    I have well over 250 hours invested into my highest level character, and he's only 44.  Maybe if you have someone power leveling you, you could reach it in 5 to 10 days. But even with the new xp curve (which does help) I doubt it. Then again, I apparently don't have the tolerance for grinding that some do (hard to believe, since I've played Korean games). But I have almost none of my grinding deeds done (except the return to bree one)

    The quests stop being interesting (and numerous) around level 20. (I discovered this after buying my lifetime sub, sadly).  This also (at least for me) was when I was basically playing the game alone, since the numbers of other players dropped off after the trial area.

    I would suggest subbing, but don't buy a lifetime sub unless you have a lot of money, or you've played from 20-30 without disliking the game (since the rest of the way to 50 is a slog like 20-30)

    R.I.P. City of Heroes and my 17 characters there

  • BesCirgaBesCirga Member Posts: 806
    Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

    Originally posted by Thradar


    I'm a lifetime subscriber and have been playing the game since beta.  They are slowly transforming LotRO in something that resembles the WoW mechanic of mmo'ing.
    In other words:  grinding 6 mans for gear progression, reputation grinds, and dailies.


    No, they are not. they are simply adding a handful of things that players wanted. But in comparison, its about 2% of the entire game, and still more assessable to casuals then any other game on the market.

     



     

    Actually Mrbloodworth, Thradar is correct. Lotro has become a grind for gear, reputation and dailies. The general motivation/drive to do quests in lotro has gone from <having fun> to <greed>.

    Those 2% of the entire game, is sadly, the entire endgame alternative at the moment. So telling us that its only 2% of the entire game is alittle missleading.

    What players wanted was more group content, and we got it, but I most certainly did not ask for quest clusters, gated content and for the community to plummet to the ground like 500 pound gorilla just because Turbine changed the motivation/drive to do quests to greed. 

    Lotro is a great game from level 1-50! Actually, its fucking great! But, its obvious that the developers who designed SoA have moved over to Turbine's new prosject a long time ago. The proof is in the pudding; Volume 1 is astronomically better that Volume 2, in both story and quest design.

    To the OP: I generally liked your reveiw. Well done! 

  • AndraxxAndraxx Member UncommonPosts: 256
    Originally posted by BesCirga



    Lotro is a great game from level 1-50! Actually, its fucking great! But, its obvious that the developers who designed SoA have moved over to Turbine's new prosject a long time ago. The proof is in the pudding; Volume 1 is astronomically better that Volume 2, in both story and quest design.


    You may have a point there. Take a look at this blog from a former Turbine dev who worked on AC2.

    http://www.eldergame.com/2009/07/08/the-warcraft-live-teams-b-squad/

    Some of the bugs and longer waits for the post-Moria Books may be due to this. However, I still see devs posting that have been around LOTRO since before launch, like Floon, Scenario and Orion. Others have left Turbine entirely, like Mithril Miser.

    For the record, I actually like Moria itself. Some areas are better than others from a quest perspective, but visually it is stunning.

     

     

     

  • EthianEthian Member Posts: 1,216
    Originally posted by Thradar


    I'm a lifetime subscriber and have been playing the game since beta.  They are slowly transforming LotRO in something that resembles the WoW mechanic of mmo'ing.
    In other words:  grinding 6 mans for gear progression, reputation grinds, and dailies.
    The gear sets in all the 6 mans made all the crafted armor obsolete (unless you need them for an alt), and the legendary item system has made weapon crafting obsolete.  So crafting is horribly broken at the moment.  I often check my server's AH for high level crafted items, and most of the time there is NOTHING listed at all for level 48+.  Not a single crafted item.
    IMO the game is taking a turn for the worse for veteran players who started playing this early at the expense of attracting new players.  That's fine...that's Turbine's call.  I'm just not happy with where the game is going right now.



     

    I couldnt agree more. You basically wrote exactly what I planning to post...LOL. I played for almost 2 years (a great Kinship kept me coming back) but since Moria's release, LOTRO headed in the wrong direction IMO. I'm sure not all agree but LOTRO to me is a huge dissapointment. Turbine did exactly what I was hoping they wouldnt do to LOTRO. The games always had potential but unfortionately its an average MMO at best, if your able to look past the bland character graphics and combat. I had always hoped LOTRO would turn out to be a great "RPG focused" MMO but its far from it unfortionately.

    I'm sorry but the quests in LOTRO are no better then most MMOs out. Abd the epic books are kindof cheesy no? LOL They simply seem great because most of you are Tolkien fans...Turbine truely has you all hooked and their making plenty of money in mean time. Why LOTRO is rated so high on this site beats me because I've been there, played it, lived it, and was truely dissapointed in the end. I've no doubt that someone working for mmorpg.com is a tolkien fan because most other MMOs I've played make LOTROs gameplay look horrible.

    I wish LOTRO the best but a part of me hopes for an compeny to give Middle Earth another shot to show Turbine how it should have been done, but it'll never happen. LOTRO for me was a huge let down, I now read the books if I want a Tolkien fix. :-)

    "I play Tera for the gameplay"

  • handshakeshandshakes Member Posts: 73

    Maybe I'll resub, maybe.

    In all fairness, I didn't give it that much of a go, but I found the side-quest plots to be paper thin. Go to suchandsuch and kill X amount of whatevers, says the NPC who doesn't so much as move from a fixed spot all day and night. Yiggity yawn. The main "chapter" quests, or whatever they called them, were kind of neat though. I also really enjoyed PvMP, it really gave you a sense of being the bad guy.

    Why does it hurt when I pee?

  • YeeboYeebo Member UncommonPosts: 1,361
    Originally posted by trancejeremy


    Two comments:
    I have well over 250 hours invested into my highest level character, and he's only 44.  Maybe if you have someone power leveling you, you could reach it in 5 to 10 days. But even with the new xp curve (which does help) I doubt it. Then again, I apparently don't have the tolerance for grinding that some do (hard to believe, since I've played Korean games). But I have almost none of my grinding deeds done (except the return to bree one)
    The quests stop being interesting (and numerous) around level 20. (I discovered this after buying my lifetime sub, sadly).  This also (at least for me) was when I was basically playing the game alone, since the numbers of other players dropped off after the trial area.
    I would suggest subbing, but don't buy a lifetime sub unless you have a lot of money, or you've played from 20-30 without disliking the game (since the rest of the way to 50 is a slog like 20-30)

     

    Dude, why do you keep posting that there are hardly any quests after 20?  If you are 44 head to Foreschel there is a ton there you can do.  More than you will need to hit 50.  There are also quests in western Angmar and a handful in eastern Misty Mountains.  If you are willing to actually group, even more than that opens up.

    As for how long it takes to level, I was sure that you were full of it.  Logged on and did some "played" on my toons.  Sure enough, all of them had insane hours in compared to what it would have taken in something like RoM or WoW.  The thing is, I was having so much fun on them I didn't even realize the hours I've put in since launch.   

    The thing I love about LoTRO is that, to my tastes, the journey really is worth savoring.  My main has more than a month played now (something like 1100  hours played).  I've never hit half of that in any other MMO without getting bored out of my skull.

     

    I don't want to write this, and you don't want to read it. But now it's too late for both of us.

  • daeandordaeandor Member UncommonPosts: 2,695

    Now, I don't want to knock your review, because I don't really have any problems with it.  What I am going to say is that without having been through Moria, it is all fluff.  Because Moria is the meat and potatoes of LOTRO now.  You by far spend the most time there while playing LOTRO, and I'll tell you, it's nothing like the rest of the game.  Well, actually, you could just level all your toons to 50 and stop.  Then it might remain fun for a while.

     

    Honestly, in order to do a full and fair review of LOTRO, you need to get a toon through Moria and legendaries, and relics, and more legendaries, and relics, and radiance runs, and more radiance runs, and failed watcher runs, etc, etc, etc, ad nausium.  Because honestly, if you play the game to max level, which getting to 60 is super easy, the game really slows down.  Now, bear in mind that the reality of LOTRO is that the game is wonderfully fun to level to about fifty -something, but beyond that, it's time to make an alt and repeat.

     

    Lastly, I want to say that even though I am negative about LOTRO, I honestly do like the game.  There aren't many pve mmorpgs out there that I enjoy more.  To a point.  And that point is when I enter Moria.  Then I feel like I have entered a Korean grind-fest or an old EQ Frenzied Ghoul camp, well probably a combination of the two.

  • ericbelserericbelser Member Posts: 783

    Something I would like to add: I found Moria to be very enjoyable and only as "grindy" as I chose to make it.

    I understand the whole radiance-gating thing, but lets face it - right now radiance gear is required for *one* raid...that you can choose to ignore...I mostly have. It's too early to tell if Turbine "got the message" and will listen to all the complaints about the radiance gear, if when the next big expansion hits you simply don't need the radiance gear for the new raids, then it will cease to be an issue. (And honestly that is what I expect to happen, most of my characters are decked out in crit-crafted gear and Lothlorien/late moria quested stuff and I'm having no problems in the newest raids just released)

  • PapadamPapadam Member Posts: 2,102

    I strongly dissagree that SoA was better than MoM.. I actually think its the opposite, most things are much better now than it was in SoA but some people just like to look back with rose-colored glasses. Seems to me most of the old devs are still working in the game since its the same people posting on the forum.

    I find the epic quests more interesting and better story than the old ones, leveling 50-60 is the best in the game, the end-game isntnace are better and are actually worth doing. Itemeization is much better now, PvMp is better and so on. The only thing lacking is crafting but its not that bad. The thing lacking have been QA and bug fixing. MoM was abit rushed out the door probably because of Wotlk

    so MoM>>SoA in my opinion :)

    If WoW = The Beatles
    and WAR = Led Zeppelin
    Then LotrO = Pink Floyd

  • BesCirgaBesCirga Member Posts: 806

    You say we look back with rose-coloured glasses, I wonder what kind of colour your glasses are? 

  • shakermaker0shakermaker0 Member UncommonPosts: 194

    Appreciate your comments, I will say that I did point out that I was not going to mention any aspects of the MoM expansion and in previous posts I explained I do not enjoy MMORPG's just for the end game, the expierence for me is that travel to the level cap, Having expierenced the majority of the game except the end game content I think it would be fair to assume I have a decent opinion of the game.

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