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[Column] General: Three Things LOTRO Does Right
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Although I haven’t played The Lord of the Rings Online since about the Siege of Mirkwood / Rise of Isengard era, there was a time when it was my go-to MMORPG regardless of what else I was playing. I’ve spent countless hours in Turbine’s representation of Middle-earth, and find that I still measure other MMOs up against the quality of their flagship title.
Read more of Som Pourfarzaneh's Three Things LOTRO Does Right.
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Used to be my favourite MO. Went back to some time after it went f2p, and its cashshop isn't all that bad.
The way they overhauled the trait system after the new expansion didn't sit well with me, though. I don't play it anymore mostly because of that.
Rp events, there's a Winterstock too since you've left
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/402875/PEACE-LOVE-AND-DWARVES.html (but Weatherstock has a thread as well)
World building, there's a vista collection thread on the official, https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?561221-A-Scenic-Middle-Earth/page5 love the Argonath, and Bilbo's Trolls
"What are some of your favorite things about LOTRO?" I'd list those three as well: Festivals / player events and music system, world, story / writing. Plus the community, and -though I'm not an avid clothing fan- the cosmetic system. Also the warden's gambit system. Cool instas, nice group mechanics.
Mostly the whole game I guess... except the LI grind, and the trait tree introduction instead of the good ol' system.
"LOTRO even has fun non-combat skills that add to its roleplaying as a category, such as the Burglar’s Practical Joke, which makes everyone around them sneeze, or the Minstrel’s Irresistible Melody, which makes everybody dance." Actually there are so many new ones Turbine had to add a "disable involuntarily emotes" checkbox under the settings because those were heavily over-used
Love the one which summons a huge fire-dragon and sets the target aflame - cosmetically, no damage and stuff, just looking cool.
I loved LOTRO but couldn't get my friends from other games to enjoy it. So I played it mostly solo and sometimes with my brother. Still It was a great feeling. It is probably the only game in which I sat down, looked at the environment and smoked my pipe. I got that wonderful feeling of being in Tolkien's world. Maybe because I have read the books 10-15 times through the years.
I think this game would be even more epic if they had two factions (good vs bad) and that the evil side also had to level up. I know there is the monster vs players zone and I know the monsters leveled up in there but it was not the same thing. It was fun though I must say even though the PVP had two things I hated:
- Too long killing time. Sometimes you chased an opponent for minutes because since it took so long time to kill someone the opponents decided to run when things turned bad in the battle. I hate that. Looks so silly.
- Not balanced crowdcontrol. I was insanely overpowered with my Loremaster thanks to all the crowdcontrol I had on short timers.
So it was a great game that I'm sure I will come back to soon. Mostly because of nostalgic reasons.
"If I offended you, you needed it" -Corey Taylor
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
I loved Lotro going f2p because I'd stopped playing when I wasn't spending enough time on it to justify a monthly sub. With f2p there is no pressure to get my money's worth out of it and I can buy the parts I'm interested in when I'm ready for them. I also really like how you earn TP in-game so that you can buy many things without spending cash. About the only things that I buy with cash are the expansions.
My biggest complaint is the limited API for scripting compared to games like WoW.
The things I don't like about LOTRO are related to the crafting system and the leveling. It's showing it's age severely in those two departments. Anytime that any company tries to hold onto the 1% of gamers who are nostalgic about the good ole days when it comes to game design in the MMO genre there's always a huge loss of players and there's always serious issues that don't attract new players and retain them long enough to make a difference. This game is suffering from both of thos things.
Progression in this game should have stopped in Mirkwood when it comes to armor, LIs should have been revamped years ago to make them not P2W and simplify them to make them less complicated.
The Leveling in this game is as tedious and boring as all of the other ancient MMOs before them where you seriously have millions of XP points to get through just to reach the next level. The XP bloat is terrible on this game.
It had some great features but they have a long long way to go.
I absolutely love LOTRO. It has the best social scene of any MMO -- music concerts, theater, murder mystery games, even horse racing. If you're looking for a game where you do more than "Kill # of Mob X", this one is brilliant. The players are the most friendly and helpful bunch I have ever encountered. LOTRO lacks the vast array of trolls and griefers that chased me away from WoW.
If you want to attend some upcoming social events and see for yourself, check this out: youtu.be/DOMInxEu6s8
Also watch for the announcement for Weatherstock, an epic annual battle of the bands.
Lotro started to go downhill with Siege of Mirkwood when Skirmishes and tokenization were added and quality of world dropped hugely.
F2P, cash shop and other changes that went with it (instance join teleport, scalable dungeons, removal of fog of war, Legendary weapons revamp, wrestling EU servers from Codemastes to Turbine and US + many others) completly ruined once very good game.
Lotro had good initial game with SoA and they've started to go bad way right after. Moria already make huge mistakes, althrough that was compensated to some extrend with 2 really great classes and sheer size of this content rich expansion.
In last few years Lotro is just an empty husk of great game it once was. Now it's just bad. Really bad. (I've tried it during expansion public betas for a short bit)
I love LoTRO. That was the best $199 I ever spent in my life:)
That "$199 Lifetime" option gave me the freedom to come and go as I chose. I've tried many other new and shiny games over the last 8 years but they only hold my interest for 1-2 months. LoTRO never bores me. I miss it when I'm away visiting the latest new thing.
These are the things that I love about LoTRO:
World graphics and audio- that 8 year old game world is more beautiful that any game I have ever played. I just recently bought noise-cancelling headphones so I could drown out my husband's voice. I was amazed because the sounds in that game are a symphony - insect sounds, wind blowing, leaves rustling. The depth of sounds blew my mind. They put constellations in the night sky.
Classes- none are boring, impotent or redundant
Community- people answer questions when you ask. People help when you need it. World chat has interesting, intelligent debates about Game of Thrones, sci-fi books and other nerdy stuff.
Elegance- everything is high class in that game. There will never be any skanky armor or undulating, pole-dancing emotes.
Wide open world- I HATE how some other game worlds funnel you from one zone to another through some miniscule path. I love "real-world" game worlds like LoTRO's where you can enter zones from anywhere in their perimeter. I am not a cattle that needs to be herded in a line to the next area.
Maps- exceptionally well done and explicit in LoTRO.
Fun Clothing and 6 Outfit selections to choose from to show
2007 $199 Lifetimer Option- thank you Turbine:) I love you:)
There are things I don't love about the game ( war steeds, legendary items, no "skinny" option for hobbits, weird elven face options) but those are so outweighed by the other 95% of the game that I do truly love. I'll be playing that game till they close all the servers.
LotRO nailed immersion.
Immersion is a combination or art, music, story, and intangibles that few games have really nailed the way LotRO does. I can say it best like this: the first time i logged onto the game, and got to the shire, i actually cried. that wistful wood-pipe music was the straw that broke it. it was the shire, it really just was.
RIP Ribbitribbitt you are missed, kid.
Currently Playing EVE, ESO
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.
Dwight D Eisenhower
My optimism wears heavy boots and is loud.
Henry Rollins
I recently returned to LotRO a couple weeks ago and honestly am having a good time. I played beta, up to Moria initially. WoW was my baby then and no matter what I always went back. I've been there, done that on most the new MMOs and recently, and thinking I've done my time on WoW I'm back.
Started completely fresh, deleted old toons and everything! I love the works of Tolkien, and have found myself playing, then picking up a work of his. Really just appreciating where I am in Middle-Earth. And the spark has ignited an old flame!
I suppose this post doesn't include anything constructive, more of my feelings with the game right now. So if your bored, burned out in other worlds give it another shot. Slow down and enjoy the little things!
(Also looking for a Kinship on Landroval if anyone is recruiting a Tolkienite. Celadhir is the name!)
Funny, that is the best thing about Lotro, you can't level a new character to max level in a few weeks. So it is definitely not a game for the "I want it now" crowd.
It is really ludicrous for anyone to mention the term "pay-to-win" about this game because there is no such thing.
The one thing I don't like is the fighting on horse bit, very poorly done.
Actually, that's the worst part of this game. Because every quest hub is so like the last, that the slow pacing becomes a nightmare. Which is the main reason why I left the game.
No such thing as pay-to-win? That's rubbish, and if you really know this game, you also know this. Since it's a long time since I played, I don't remember the terms, but you can buy upgrades like... was it trait slots or somthing like that it was called? Don't remember, but it's certianly advancing your toon. And have you forgotten about the books, or whatever, you can buy? The ones that increases int, str, etc with x points?
If that's not pay-to-win, feel free to clarify, because (imo) there are not many games out there with such an obvious pay-to-win shop as this game has. Unless they've changed that recently, of course.
I don't mind the actual gameplay of it too much, though for some classes TTK is ridiculous. Some cases I just get off my horse and make them approach.
The big problem for me, is it performs horribly. Massive lag and rubber banding, poor response... mobs not appearing until you're right on top of them...
I figure it's probably their hardware, because in instances it plays fine.