I didnt find a full thread for this just a few mentions...

Bugger me. I used to play World of Warcraft about 8 years ago, I briefly tried a few other MMORPG's the most recent being Star Trek online.

Now WoW was a great game, but it was hampered by a few big problems that they had due to being the very first big MMORPG, so they had no one elses mistakes to learn from, a lot of the problems I and many other had with WoW is it got way to complicated, hundreds of boring repetitive quests, no real over arching story line, shity expansions that ruined the story. And to top it off it was $15 a month and about $50 per expansion.

The other side was Star Trek online which is free... but I got to level 50 in 2 weeks and the end game content is boring as shit, and the ground combat is still shit after 3 years of trying to fix it. It was okay, especially considering it was free, but it didnt hold me or offer anything new or great, EVE online apparently is a much better space based game.

I have heard of LOTR online for a few years, but I didnt know much about it, I kind of assumed it just going to be shitty and just whoring out the LOTR name.

But bugger me... the single best MMORPG I have ever played and it is 100% free, you can spend mosey to get extra shit but you dont have to, and 90% of what you buy you can get in game by just working for it. Its not like STO where the best 25% of shit is stuff you have to buy.

Its not good vs evil, you can only play the 4 good guys, Dwarves, Hobbits, Men and Elves, standard race attributes apply, some really interesting character types and they are very limited to who can play them, Hobbits cant be warriors and Dwarves cant be burglers ect.

The questing system is much better, there is one, long full game epic plot line which loosly follows behind the fellowship or dealing with issues of your race, and other quests that link into it, but it is very tight, no useless "go get 10 claws" in a million different types.

Also there is a real sense of achievement, even your mount which in every other game I played is all the same and the more you pay the better it is, here you name it and train it and the mount works with you in combat.

Even your weapons, it used to piss me off having a great weapon I built or won and then having to toss it for another with just slightly better stats, on LOTRO you can break down legendary items and instill their essence into your own, making your own personal weapon a legendy item by itself. although this is right at the top level of the game.


Even the crafting is done smoother with less grinding and more real achivements.

The first 10 levels and the standard getting to know the game, but once you are out of your races starting zone it is really good.

Animals for some reason dont carry money on them... strange that.

LOTRO has won 4 out of the last 5 years best MMORPG awards form the major sites and I can see why.

When it came out it was 200 for a life time subscription or 15 a month, now it is totally free. I cant see how WoW is still around appart from the fact that like me, people dont know about it.

www.lotro.com

 

I solo'd it with an elf bard from the beginning till Lothlorien and it was kinda boring. You mentioned the "get 10 claws quest", it is exactly like that, bar the arch quest, all the other quests are like that. It is a decent MMO but, to me it was meh...

 

I'm playing a Dwarf Champion and so far it seems much more dynamic than WoW was.

I have been doing mostly story line arcs though so might be why havent seen a lot of the 10 claw quests.

 

Play LEGO LOTR, much better

 

Played a Human Warden for a while, was even in a guild.

The game just...wasn't interesting enough to keep me around. Don't get me wrong, seeing all the things I've read about over the years in video game form was awesome (Watching Bombadil skip around like he was high on shrooms was a 'highpoint'), but that's not enough for me to stick around.

Actually just got an email saying that my house is now in default, getting foreclosed upon in a video game... harsh.

 

LotRO has a lot of really good things going for it, but I just can't get into it. The music system is wonderful. Cosmetic outfits are brilliant. Shared storage should be standard in MMOs. The free to play system is one of the least offensive. The classes are fun and diverse. It's really pretty at times too.

The trouble is, the characters still feel like they're moonwalking in place while the world slides around underneath them. There's no sense that they're ever actually touching the ground beneath them. Jumping is worse, everything is far too floaty and there's no momentum at all. All of that feels even worse when you mount up and have to look at the dumb horse animations.

Say what you will about WoW, but one of the things they absolutely nailed was making you feel like your character was interacting with the world. Jumping and movement in WoW has a sense of weight that most other MMOs can't compare with. It's actually better than a lot of platformers.

 

Cant say I have noticed that to much, what I did notice is the water, very basic graphics on it.

 

Lord of the Rings online just opened up all content free until at least the end of April.

May be time to fire up old account. I stoped playing in Rohan and they have apparently added loads since.