Lord of the Rings: Online

[Hurin]

Howdy All,

I'm on the Landroval server.

Pre-order allowed early access (was in closed beta test too).

If there's interest, we should get a MW kinship going.

H

[mister_e]

I didn't know the game was out yet. Is it any good? I might be interested in trying it out. I gave up WoW some time ago and have kind of been itching for another MMO.

Edited March 31, 2007 by mister_e

[Hurin]

I haven't gotten seriously into a MMORPG since Ultima Online. But I'm already hooked on this one. Very well done. Even though it's still officially a Beta, it's very highly polished already!

[Hurin]

Oh just to be clear, it's now in "Open Beta" which means anyone can try it before it is released in late April. But, only pre-order customers got early access to it. General access begins March 6.

Another benefit to Pre-ordering (which is still available) is that you get the option to buy a lifetime subscription rather than paying $10-15 per month. The liftetime subscription is $199. . . but for someone like me who is certain to play the crap out of this thing and at least come back for each expansion back (Rohan, Gondor, Mordor, etc.). . . it does indeed make sense.

At launch, the game only coveres Eriador. . . as far West as the Ered luin. As far East as the Misty Mountains. North to Angmar, and South to. . . I dunno. But not far enough to get to Moria or super-far to Rohan.

[Warmaker]

After my experience with Star Wars Galaxies, I've taken to a "wait & see" approach.

From the few previews I read, it looks interesting. I hope it turns out well. I hope there's mounted combat in LotRO. Mounted combat has yet to be really done well enough in any RPG, console or PC format. Even the PC's latest, big RPG, Oblivion, doesn't have mounted combat despite horses being put in the game. Also, I haven't read the books, just saw the movies. I'd like to be some sort of cavalryman

Right now my MMO experience is on Guild Wars. It's not perfect but it's fun. But if there is one thing that GW oozes is polish. Very fine, finished product.

Edited March 31, 2007 by Warmaker

[Hurin]

Sorry, no mounted combat.

Horses only appear as a means of "rapid transit." You go to a stable, pay some money, and you hop on a horse that takes you to the nearest town at a much faster pace than you could otherwise walk. If you see something interesting along the way, you can pop off the horse. But then you're stranded and will need to walk the rest of the way.

Now, if mounted combat (etc.) means a lot to you, I can see that as a major disappointment. But if it isn't, it's actually sorta nifty.

Edit: Actually, at lvl35, you can buy a horse that you control and ride it wherever you can walk. But you can't fight while mounted.

[SpacePirateNeko]

Booooooooooooooring.....

I tried out the beta just because i was invited....it offers nothing new innovative or deep. I mean if theres nothing wrong with the game, the mechanics are fine the graphics are decent and the gameplay is standard. However if you play EQ2 or WoW you already own this game. Its one catch is that it takes place in "their" vision of middle earth.

Ive been playing Vanguard since beta 2 and im completely hooked. The mechanics are very deep and the game is just abundant with choices on whatever you feel like doing. Diplomacy is a pleasent suprise.

[Hurin]

Yeah. . . well. . . the "catch" of being in Middle-earth is sort of a big one for a lot of people. My wee brain has never been able to get into these other made-up universes, etc.

I played Warcraft. . . but I never liked the fiction around it so much that I wanted to "live" in that world. So WoW left me cold. Same thing with DaoC.

Ultima Online grabbed me when it was new because I was a huge Ultima fan. I tried SW Galaxies. . . but it was just terrible and never grabbed me.

So, clearly I'm biased as a Tolkien fan. I especially like that it's based on the books rather than the movies. No Elijah Wood!

UO was great because it was the first, and was the "Wild West" in its original incarnation. There were no laws, and the players really ran the show. I remember trying to be a good guy and repeatedly getting my ass handed to me by l33t d00d kids for a year or two before they put the training wheels on the game.

SWG was just terrible. Even though I was an original trilogy fan, it was just so bad that I only gave it a couple half-hearted tries before giving up on it. So, even my status as a fan doesn't blind me to a truly terrible game design. . .

I think LotRO has a great mix. An intellectual property that I love (and taking my preferred angle on it), and a great design. As you said, nothing terribly new or innovative (though I think monster play is pretty f'ing cool). But, something doesn't need to be either to be darn good.

H

[Warmaker]

SWG is the reason I don't touch Sony's SOE products anymore... including Vanguard. Like Garlic is to a Vampire

I'll leave it at that, since the experience with SOE was that bad.

[Mechwarrior]

SWG is the reason I don't touch Sony's SOE products anymore... including Vanguard. Like Garlic is to a Vampire

I'll leave it at that, since the experience with SOE was that bad.

Same here, ever since they ruined SWG I been abit cautious about other MMORPG's. WOW kinda sucked to me, but i was used to Galaxies in the first place. But if it is like WOW and Everquest, ill most likely stay away from it, but hopefully you guys playing can give a little but of a review and gameplay so far.

[SpacePirateNeko]

SWG is the reason I don't touch Sony's SOE products anymore... including Vanguard. Like Garlic is to a Vampire

I'll leave it at that, since the experience with SOE was that bad.

Vanguard isnt an soe product , it was made completely by sigil. Soe publishes it ie takes care of the station account and some promotion. They dont have any financial backing in the game at all and sigil is pretty adamant about that . They also have no control in any shape or way in the design or direction of the game. Clearly it shows...just from the risk vs reward thats already in game.

So sure they get to flash their little brandtag on it and make a small money from the station account but it frees sigil up from having to throw lots of money into promotion and ip and instead of using it on the game. They were previously being published by microsoft who wanted to put too much of their hands into the direction of the game which is why they switched to soe.

Either way the game is tons of fun and im having alot of fun between school semesters ...and thats all that matters really.

I wish with Lotro before the game changed hands...they had kept the original idea...which was a huge morallity system which would have given you the ability to side with saurons forces or do things which would benefit the fellowship ....but in a non intrusive way concerning canon.

[Phyrox]

If I can't play a minotaur, I don't want any part of it.

[Warmaker]

Sorry SpacePirateNeko, for me, if there's "SOE" anywhere on or associated with a product, I stay away from it.

I was with SWG starting in Feb.2004, even after the "Coaster of the Year Awards" that it received on release in July 2003. I stuck around even with the weird "Combat Upgrade" revamp. But I left after the disastrous and unwanted "New Game Enhancement"* revamp that appeared with pretty much no warning after the "Trials of Obi-Wan" exp.pack. Also, SOE's customer service and player treatment is abysmal.

Again, my experience with SOE was the worst in my computer gaming experience. I see an SOE label on Vanguard, so I feel the need to steer clear of that game. I hope it continuously works out for you, but I won't touch it.

-----

* = Emphasizing my saracasm with that hated revamp.

[1st Border Red Devil]

After being on the Middle-Earth Online/Lord of the Rings Online boards since September of 2003, I can say without a doubt that the Developers at Turbine are all jackholes. As far as Im concerned, the only relation The Lord of the Rings Online has to The Lord of the Rings is the title. Between the totally f'd up armor (plate out the wazoo, and spikey no less) to the idiotic architecture (Ruined Watchtower looked like, as Unthor put it, something out of Buck Rogers), among other things, its basically been turned into a bad WoW clone. The armor had to be one of the biggest disappointments for me, and I wasn't alone. I decided not to apply for Beta status, eventhough I could have months ago. I won't be playing the game upon release either. As far as Im concerned, Turbine turned its back on the Tolkien fans (like me, Futsie, Morthoron, Unthor et al) and basically made the game for the pack of weenies that have infested the board for the last year (way too many morons there now) and their close brethren, the Turbine Apologists like Khafar and Electprogeny.

[Warmaker]

It sounds like what happened with Star Wars Galaxies.

Originally, the game was focused on the Original Trilogy era... Empire vs Rebels, all the classical stuff. As time progressed, to capitalize on the released prequels, Old Republic / Clone War era subjects began to dominate.

- We had Old Republic / Clone Wars gear vastly superior to the newer gear used from the Imperial-era by the Empire and Rebels.

- It was easier getting Clonetrooper Armor than getting Imperials to wear Imperial Trooper Armor (Stormtrooper, Scout Trooper). As a matter of fact, you had just as many Rebels wear Clonetrooper Armor...

- After Publish 9, the eventual push and overemphasis on the Jedi. Jedi were once extremely rare in SWG. There were Jedi players before Publis 9, but it was hard and mysterious to become one. Even then, becoming a good one was a huge undertaking. If their abilities were spotted by players, they could be hunted by Bounty Hunter players via special missions. The Jedi then were subject to Permadeath... die x3, that character was gone. But Jedi, once developed, were extremely powerful, capable of taking on several good players on by themselves. It was the whole Risk vs Reward thing, since Jedi back then were very difficult to make good.

--- Also, during the Original Trilogy, Jedi were to be essentially extinct. Having Jedi in SWG when it came out was a questionable as far as Star Wars themes go, but because Jedi were so rare and so hidden in SWG, that it actually was fine. They were there, but didn't want to be found and hunted by the Empire and Bounty Hunters.

------ When SWG came out, if you became "visible" enough as a Jedi, Darth Vader could be looking for you. Oh yeah, remember "Permadeath"

--------- After Publish 9, all the risks for Jedi were being slowly removed. Jedi became increasingly numerous, many parading around with their Ligthsabers and powers in front of everyone and everything. More and more Publishes were dedicated to them while neglecting the rest of the game and the other professions.

The Jedi infestation got so bad that it looked like this: For a game set in the Original Trilogy era, the days of the Empire and Rebellion, you have more Jedi running around than Stormtroopers. Think about that... It's like Order 66 never occured, like the Emperor forgot to bring it about.

SWG continued to progress where Star Wars fans, especially to the older movies and that era, were disregarded for new blood.

Ah, but that's just the tip of the "Titanic Iceberg" that was SWG. I really can go on. Thanks for making me remember the bad memories

-------------------------

P.S. - Early in SWG, Jedi characters were revered because it was hard to become one, develop one, and retain one. It was awesome to see one live. As a lone Imperial player wandering Dantooine, in about March 2004, I saw what looked like combat in the distance. I hurried over to investigate, thinking there was an Imperial vs Rebel fight. I arrived and I saw a lone Jedi fighting a group of wild creatures. It was the first time I ever saw a Jedi in the game and I was amazed. I didn't shoot either, despite me wearing Stormtrooper Armor. When the Jedi finished combat and saw an Imperial Stormtrooper player, he said along the lines:

"Oh... you weren't supposed to see that."

I told him that I was watching for the past 2 minutes. I could have lit him up if I wanted to, but didn't.

"So what now?"

"You're the first Jedi I ever saw in the game, it was great. But let's part ways here in peace."

"Alright then. Take it easy trooper."

"See you some other time Jedi."

Before Publish 9, that was the ONLY Jedi I ever saw. After Publish 9, you saw multiple groups of them wandering around.

[Hurin]

Hmmmmm, not sure where this "Buck Rogers" thing comes from. I've been a Loremaster searching out Dunedain ruins and they've all been tastefully done. . . and downright beautiful.

I don't think Tolkien fans come much bigger or more fanatical than me. And I think the game is very good. But, of course, I also realize that in order for the game to thrive, it will need to appeal beyond me and my seven Tolkien dork friends and those who've read The Silmarillion five times (I'm on #7).

The Middle-earth game for Tolkien uber-fans was the original Middle-earth Online. And it was canned because it was judged not to be commercially viable given the realities of MMORPGs as being demonstrated at the time by Ultima Online and Everquest. While I would have loved to have played that "original vision" with "perma-death" and all that wonderful "true-to-the-books" stuff. . . I probably only would have enjoyed it for a few months before either the plug was pulled on it or it went through a SWG-like revamp in order to bring in the more casual gamers.

As it stands now, I wander the beautifully rendered hills exploring Dunedain ruins and collecting artifacts of bygone ages while wearing only cloth armor (as my class dictates). . . tonight we plan on journeying to the Barrow-Downs. As a Tolkien fanatic, I have to overlook the fact that everyone I meet is an "adventurer" and not a "commoner" there only to provide a setting for my adventure. And they are often armed to the teeth. But I also realize that I'm playing a game and it's not really possible to "live the books" along with thousands of others who want to "live the books" as they saw them as well.

What I would want and what I'm getting are two very different things. But what I'm getting is just fine considering all the factors involved.

H