ZAM's Lord of the Rings ContestFollow

As all mmorpgs seem to get compared to World of Warcraft, since it is the biggest success to date in this genre of games, I will touch on that comparison a little. I played WoW off and on for about 2 years, I have a level 80 Tauren Hunter and a few other toons levels 47 and 30 and below. I also played on 3 different servers a pvp, pve and a RP one. Here on LOTRO I have a level 54 Elven hunter and a level 40 Elven lore master, on one server: Arkenstone. I think it's fair to say I have some experience in both games.

First and foremost you will notice a vast difference in graphics. Warcraft is very cartoon like whereas LOTRO is much more realistic in it's rendering. Both are nice in their own right but I personally prefer the realism and detail in LOTRO: I built an overclocking dual core machine to play some serious games after all.

The next thing I noticed (and you probably will too) is that as you play LOTRO you don't see too much garbage talk in the chat channels compared to what you see in Warcraft. As far as arguing, name calling and gutter speak that you see in WoW on a regular basis... it's just not there in LOTRO or is very rare. Continuing on about chat in LOTRO is the astoundingly helpful community you will find in LOTRO. Type a question about the game in the 'advice' channel and within seconds many times you get a polite response or many. The same example in WoW may generate helpful responses too but in many cases you will get mostly stupid or smart responses and be called a noob or worse. Bottom line: LOTRO players are in general much more adult like and helpful.

Game play wise both games are very similar in quest types, go here, kill that, get these, etc. but LOTRO again outdoes WoW with the Epic quests... the story line that ties in with the books. Nicely done! Perhaps a few more solo quests could be added but it's not hard to level in LOTRO and finding Fellowships is rather easy in many cases.

Most feel that pvp in LOTRO is lacking but I did some pvp on my 54 hunter and I thought the Ettenmoors was far more exciting than the battlegrounds in WoW. I am not very big on pvp as I thought it was mostly frustrating and annoying in WoW but I definitely plan on doing some more in LOTRO once I max level again. No more waiting to get into pvp, simply take the ride there and join the fray! Obviously in slow times there are not enough people in the Ettenmoors but perhaps Turbine could add some more to the pvp in the future for smaller groups? We'll see.

Crafting lacking in LOTRO? How so? I was making my own bow on my hunter right up until I got my legendary bow. My lore master regularly tailors himself (or my minstrel) some new armor. I don't see the issue here. I thought WoW's crafting was lacking since all the good stuff required you to spend days killing mobs for specific drops that rarely did. It was such a waste of time.

Speaking of wasting time... I love how LOTRO has fast travel in some areas... load screen... BAM... you're there! Love that! How many times did I spend on a 10 minute flight from one area to another in Warcraft? Lots! Want even better? Make a hunter, a high level hunter can take you everywhere you need to be.

Free content! I haven't mentioned how much Turbine is pumping out in this game! The game already is getting huge! Shortly after the expansion Mines of Moria they came out with more content! These guys/gals are busy!

Legendary weapons! Need I say more? Well maybe for those of you who haven't played the game... It's basically a weapon of great power that you can use, level like your character and forge into the weapon of your dreams! Something like that anyways.

As far as improvements, I think they should allow you to speak to vendors and quest givers from your mount. I would greatly appreciate that. I previously mentioned the need for more solo quests.... can't think of anything to complain about, really. At first I thought the character races and classes were lacking but they aren't.

I guess that's why I bought a life time subscription to the game and canceled my WoW account. Many of my friends are slowly doing the same.

One last thing I like about LOTRO compared to WoW... game stability. In warcraft, every time they made a new patch to "fix" and "tweak" stuff the game would run worse and/or crash. Not happening in LOTRO. I can count the number of times LOTRO has crashed on me on one hand and half of those were because I was running too much overclock on my computer, not the fault of the game. For a while on Warcraft I was lucky to run the game for more than 20 minutes before it crashed to desktop or froze my PC... on three different PCs!

Okay, I'm done babbling... Happy Hunting!

Sylarien and Meridien of the Arkenstone server.

I started playing from the day of launch and played for a few months before having to leave due to real life. I was impressed then..but even more so now since coming back and seeing the changes.
There is so much more to LOTR than grinding out kills. The crafting aspect is wonderful, the quests keep it intersting, the ability to wear different clothing keeps your character fresh. The lore realism is awesome, as are the landscapes. You even have a choice in how to make ingame money..grind out kills for drops, craft and sell, and of course quests.
Owning your own house adds another aspect...DECORATING! You can also buy your own horse...finally...a ride!
I find it hard to get bored with this game...I can't say that of any other game I have played.

Hello. I have been playing for a couple of months now. I never watch lord of the rings movies and never heard of Tolkien. In fact I was a big harry potter fan and thought Lord of the rings was too complex. I was introduce to the game by my finacee, at first i was um ok. Then within the couple of weeks, i became addicted. Lotro has been a wonderful game and it has become my stress reliever. Alot of people complain about its gameplay to due their lag well I been playing on a 512mb of ram and its like playing freeze tag with my character but I became so in love with the story that I gotten used to the lag. I now have much respect for Tolkien and the lore. Lotro is one of the best game i ever played, even better than the Sims.

I guees I will start with the positives. I have played many MMOs and would say that the community by far is the best I have been a part of. Community I include the Arkenstone server and the kin I belong in. To be honest if it wasn't for the kin I would have probably already left the game. SoA was wonderful, yes there were nerfs to classes, but overall the quest line and content was very good along with server stability. I will also say that by far the best instance in the game in Card Dum. If they would make that scalable to level 60 and possibly 12 man, it would blow away any raid or instance in Moria, including DN, Watcher, Waterworks, or the other instances.

The negatives is the release of Moria. Such a let down after SoA. The community expected alot more from Turbine. Like others have posted server stability and ingame bugs have increased with time. It should be the other way around. I don't mind the constant nerfs to classes or even the nerfing of content. All that does is keep me playing as much now. My biggest negative I see with game is the overall management within Turbine. Designers and VPs come out and promise content that doesn't happen or gets pushed back constantly. The Community Service Team is a joke. They never listen to the players and when they do respond they talk(write) like a used car salesman, say one thing but do another.

Like I said I stay because of the community, the story, and the potential of the game. My game time has really deminished because of the lack of potential of the people in charge.

Have been playing WoW since game release and untli recently was only online RPG i had played,but have recently been seeking pastures new. As has been said in previous posts WoW has had it's day and that really ended around 12-18 months ago. So over last few weeks have been using the free trials offered for other online RPG's Guild Wars, Warhammer, Age of Conan & LoTR in the hope of if not finding something to totally break my WoW addiction then something at least to ease it.

All four games as you would expect seemed reasonably similar in many ways, all looked pretty, controls seemed quite similar and mostly the quests were all similar (i.e. kill 10 of these, grab 5 of these, etc etc...). Now i don't know if it was because i knew the races better because of the movies and novels or just the excellent graphics work done by Turbine but the atmosphere in LoTR is vastly superiour, have only tried a dwarf in the starting area so far but the work done there leaves me drooling with anticipation at what i can look forward to. The gameplay is so engrossing that what was suppossed to be a quick 30 minute look at the game before i went out, some how became 4 hours of gameplay before i knew what was going on, yes missus went mad but it was worth it.

Now i know someone said that LoTR would never be a WoW beater but i disagree, I know a lot of the new online RPG's owe a lot to WoW and i don't think any of thier creators would deny that WoW has set a high standard for anyone who wants to compete, but i honestly feel Turbine have not only matched WoW but have improved on it significantly, and it can't be just a coincidence that more and more WoW players who finally get to the point where they want more than WoW offers are turning to LoTR.

In short Congratulations Turbine on a great game, just please don't be like Blizzard and break the 2 golden rules:

1. Players would much rather bugs already in a game to fixed than the early release of a content patch which just makes more bugs.
2. Don't take your long time players for granted, There is nothing that annoys people more than working really hard to achieve something then seeing it made really easy the following week in an attempt to attract more players. Chances are the new players would also prefer to have to work just as hard to egt the same satisfaction from accomplishing the feat.

Anyway there is my thoughts/entry, so many more ways in which i could praise the game but this post is getting long and to be honest would rather go and play the game than sit here writing about it, think i may try making a hobbit in a min :)

hope you like my post and you havent fallen asleep reading it

goodbye and thanks,

I have played lotro off and on since launch, when maps of the old forest didn't exist, the bridge to the trollshaws wasn't completed yet, etc. Love the game, the lore is what sells the game. Playing in the background of the main story is the number one seller of the game. The graphics, while not worth mentioning during launch, are incredible when cranked up on a high end system, likewise the quality of the music drags you into the mood, especially in a place like goblin town. I also love the new addition of taking the role of someone else in the game as part of the quest story line. Being a dwarf when the Balrog was freed was great, no other game I know does it so well, that needs to expand.

However the game is dying a slow death and with the addition of star wars, star trek and other mmo's on the horizon I see a drop off in players. First, there isn't much flexibility with the classes. Most of the classes are generic cookie cutter classes that have been drastically changed and harmed by the PvP system. Example, most captains (if not all) run with HoH and I have been kicked out of a group because I didn't want to trait for it. Your stats are dependent almost enitrely on your gear, and your gear (for the exception of the LI) is the same. There needs to be a way for players to distribute points across the stats during creation so they can have a more customizable character. Turbine does this very well with DDO, that game is all about creating unique characters. Second, There is no unqiueness with quests. They are all the same...kill this number of things, recover this number of things, or rescue this person. Thats it. The truly unique quests are few and far between. And they aren't very difficult, just kill things and survive. Do it over and over and over again until multiple characters and it gets boring. There should be a way for level 60s to start a new char at higher levels. Third, Equipment. I was never one for crafting, to me a waste of time. However, even crafting is not really unique. Every Rune Keeper in the world wants the same sublime dawn rose tactical rings, but thats it nothing else. Crafters should have a system where they can custom improve individual stats. Maybe one character wants more power and another wants more ICPR, crafters should be able to pick and choose what to craft and how much stats improve based on the request of the buyer. Again, uniqueness. Fourth, the story. What is great about lotro is that you start in a separate area based on your race and the game is wide open, however everyone in the game slowly gets funneled into Moria and lothlorien by level 60 and everyone follows the same path, in the next book, the game needs to open up again. Perhaps from lothlorien you want to follow the fellowship, or discover myrkwood, or rohan it should be your choice, but this leading us around on a linear path harms the game. Sixth, new classes. These classes are getting stale. Overall, there needs to be more freedom to explore, more uniqueness, more of ability of a player to choose what they want to do, thats what makes a MMO great.

The engaging stories and the depth of the lands is impressive, inviting, and exciting. The balance of the various classes is well thought out and the adjustments over the years have done nothing but tighten up what was well thought out in the first place. Turbine has done very well with the IP and the game is a credit to their efforts.

I have been part of Lotro since closed Beta. I came from playing UO for 9 years and FFXI for 3. Lotro was a breath of fresh air when it first arrived. The visuals are stunning and the story line is something you can sink your teeth into. PVE was far beyond anything out and the PVMP was a tad bit diffrent. I have played every class and maxed them out. I even bought the Mines of Moria expansion, which was a dark place but a bit of a surprise. This was also the turning point for me. The previous game gave the player the choice to raid and get gear or craft and obtain comparable gear to the raids. That in it's self was rewarding for the casual gamer. With mine's of Moria the players are now pretty much made to do the diffrent 6 man instances to acquire the better gear. Hands down this is far superior to anything crafted or dropped. The pre Moria raids of the Rift, and by the life of me the second name escapes me, was set out to take time and progress to the main boss. With the watcher you were shut into a room with a boss. With every scenario that was used to beat the boss with the following 2 book updates they took that away. They have contuined to "nerf" the classes to the point many people are walking away from the game. The last few months have given many of us a disappointment and if I was not a lifetime sub, I too would have walked away from the game. I hope Turbine and the devs read some of these comments and decide to return the game to what most of us loved to begin with.

Ive played Lotro on and off on a monthly basis for about a year and a half now. I love it personally because before Lotro i played WOW which i found way to easy and not worthy of my greatest efforts because its meerily a strugggle between the rich getting richer and the poor sucking. Anyways before Wow i played FFXI which is a very intensive time demanding MMO that i loved and Wow didnt cut my need for the glorious 12 hour partys i had on FFXI. However ever since switching over to LOTRO its been quite exhilerating simply because Lotro is like the exact median between wow and ffxi. I played FFXI for 4 years and still wanna go back but LOTRO is great i love it. Nice graphics, Reallly nice players, good all in all mature atmosphere, nice clean fighting and crafting system. Only thing that seems broken is auction house but i guess rares are that rare.

Mikiqua
Brandywine 44 Hobbit Guardian

I've been playing LoTRO since launch, and like any constantly updating game it has had it's ups and downs. For the first few Books it was the best game I had played to date. But round about Book 12 some changes started happening which, in my opinion, were for the worse. It was still a great game, and there were plenty of changes and fixes that were for the better, but you could detect a subtle shift in the overall game play.
With the release of Moria came lots of new content and lots of new changes. And unfortunately they decided to accentuate the, in my opinion negative, changes from the past few Books. Then it seems like every Moria Book either made these issues more apparent or added new problems.
It's actually kind of funny in a way. Several Kin-mates have said that they're boycotting Moria, that until things are fixed they're just going to level alts in SoA (Shadows of Angmar) content because that's where they had fun. That sums up my feelings pretty well too, though I'm not avoiding Moria content. Four or five months ago I leveled my RuneKeeper up and had a blast running around Angmar and Evendim and the rest of SoA, but as soon as I got to Moria... bleh. He's been level 55 for like three months now.

Overall it's still a good game, and I'm still playing (Life Time Sub ftw), but it's not at the level that it once was.

I have been playing LOTRO since Beta and enjoy very much. It is very story based which I like and the player base seems very friendly and mature. The graphics are amazing for a game of this type. I really love the changes made in MoM. The expansion into Moria and Lothlorien are great. The only thing I would change with LOTRO, Let us talk to vendors and quest givers on our horses, but hey that is a minor change *grins*.

I come from world of warcraft and I must admit, I should have switch to LOTRO WAY BEFORE. This is game is just wow! Really, it is really great, yes the gameplay is kinda the same on every mmorpg but in lotro with all the detail they've put in that game it make it really good. I love the quest, I love the crafting, I love the different class. This game Rock!

Best MMO that I've played! GOOD JOB TURBINE!

I absolutely love LOTRO. I downloaded the free trial a little over a year ago because a friend suggested I check it out. At the time I was a founding member of a fairly prosperous WoW guild, and had no intention of leaving. Well, within 24 hours of downloading LOTRO, I had said farewell to my guild and cancelled my WoW account. I was instantly hooked. LOTRO has hands down the best player community I have ever encountered in an MMO. The world is absolutely beautiful- breathtakingly so if you have the computer muscle to run it on max graphics. Leveling is fairly easy (especially since a recent patch lowered the exp requirements and streamlined some of the early quests), but at the same time there isn't a huge rush to level, because all the content is engaging. It isn't just a big race to hit endgame and start raiding (though that is there if it is your thing. Leveling isn't dependant on finding big groups for instances (though again, if you like them they are available). It's an MMO where you can sit back and enjoy the journey, instead of feeling like you are just jumping through hoops to get to the "real" game.