The LOTR Online F2P

[TheCommandTent]

I saw LOTR Online F2P show up on STEAM.  I'm downloading it now just to see what its about.  Does anyone else play or can tell me if its worth my time?

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I really don't like most MMOs.  The only one I ever played, paid for, and enjoyed was WWII Online (but it's not really an MMORPG,  more like an MMOSim).

Having said that, I really enjoyed LOTRO for a few months.  They did a great job of capturing the look and feel of Tolkien's world (with the exception of the Dwarven start location).   I enjoyed wandering around and just exploring the world and I even ended up dropping about $40 in LOTRO gold. 

It started to bog down for me at about level 40 or so as it started to get really hard to finish quests solo.  You really needed to team up with others to tackle some of the the major quests.  Trouble was finding a group willing to do so, even in a heavily populated, RPG centric server.  In my case, most higher level players were just interested in grinding the same instances over and over again and then crafting items.  That's about the time I quit playing.

[Nefaro]

One of the best MMOs out there.  Probably the most in-game time I've spent in one, too. 

I had a couple complaints about the occasional time-wasting & boring grinds stuck in the game.  Such as the ignorantly long walks back & forth in the horse quest series.. that's right you rode a horse a long distance, then walked back to the horse master, to be repeated two more times.   Some of the quests make you do such useless (and obviously time-sink promoting) travel or FedEX junk.  But most are the usual hack 'em up and/or find something quests.

What kept me going in the end game, for so long, was being in a Fellowship (aka Guild) that was quite relaxed but also tackled the difficult 6-man dungeons quite well because those require a lot of teamwork and we got to be pretty damn good at that.  Made running those things multiple times pretty fun, especially since failure was a regular happening for most teams.

While the game mechanics are fairly typical of most MMOs, the character classes play a bit differently from the run-of-the-mill games. 

[Michael Dorosh]

There is a lot going in in LOTRO, but there is little "combat" in it. I've heard the expression "care bear" used. I enjoy the scenery and the visuals, and the game really increased my enjoyment of the movies and particularly the book, which I had to try several times over the course of many years to try and get through, which I finally did sometime back in the 90s when I was in university. I really didn't enjoy it much to be honest. But the thing is, you don't have to be a huge Tolkein fan to get a lot out of the game.

It is multi-layered, so there is something for everyone. There is a dedicated person-to-person combat zone, where all direct combat is marshalled. There is fighting everywhere else, but it is against AI-driven opponents. A lot of the game is driven by the usual 'questing', but there are also Tasks, which are slightly different and revolve around resource gathering. There is Crafting, which lets your character pursue a trade (three, actually). There are different levels of quests - solo, fellowship, and raids, which are massive fellowship quests requiring large parties.

There is the Epic Storyline, which involve Instances (private quests taking place outside the regular world) in which you follow a soap-opera like story thread.

There are the quarterly Festivals, which offer low-level quests and games - bar fights, horse races, hedge mazes, etc., themed around Christmas, hallowe'en, springtime, summer.

And the relatively new Skirmish system, which are a whole series of Instances with a greater focus on combat rather than resource gathering.

The beauty of it all is that you can decide which elements are attractive to you and concentrate on them. Don't like the "hobby" part (fishing)? Don't do it. You don't have to craft if you're more into exploring and hunting; you can generally buy what you need to advance in the auction house, or now, in the LOTRO Store, which they shove in your face at every opportunity.

Best way to see if it is for you is obviously to play for free. But it is sufficiently unlike other games in that it is defintely a 'softer' kind of game, with pleasing visuals and soothing music for the most part. To see some of the sunrises and sunsets, walk among the ruins, look at the level of detail that has gone into creating the world, it's definitely a feast for the imagination. Call it computer-assisted day-dreaming. Avoid it like the plague if you're interested in deep military strategy or challenging combat.

[Greybriar]

I guess they ran out of money during development because LotRO does not have female Dwarves.

Minstrels being the primary healers in the game seems rather strange.

[Nefaro]

I guess they ran out of money during development because LotRO does not have female Dwarves.

Minstrels being the primary healers in the game seems rather strange.

A "Minnie" was one of my higher level characters.   Had some fun there, especially in groups. 

Keep in mind that I've not played the game since it went Free-to-play.  But judging by how they previously did the same thing with DDO, it probably wasn't too bad of a change.



**Some other F2P MMOs you might wanna check out:  Pirates of the Burning Sea - 18th century wooden ships & such, [/i]Fallen Earth[/i] - Post Apoc setting w/ big focus on scavenging & crafting, Champions Online & Star Trek Online - these can be fun.. for a bit.

[Tpek]

I guess they ran out of money during development because LotRO does not have female Dwarves.

Minstrels being the primary healers in the game seems rather strange.

Actually, most High Fantasy worlds don't have female Dwarves.
Warhammer doesn't have them either. D&D Does though.

In Discworld, Terry Pratchett declared that there are female dwarves, they just look and sound exactly like the male ones, with beards and all. :P

[Greybriar]

Actually, most High Fantasy worlds don't have female Dwarves....

EverQuest has female Dwarves. World of WarCraft has female Dwarves. I don't recall playing any PC game that does not have female Dwarves other than LotRO. Nor do I remember reading any books about High Fantasy that do not include female Dwarves.  ::)

[Bison]

There weren't any female dwarven heroes in the LotR or Hobbit books.

[Greybriar]

Female Dwarf characters may not have been in the books, but female Dwarves existed. How else would male Dwarves come to be?

[TheCommandTent]

Tolkien does mention one female dwarf, Dis

I found this little run down of them in Tolkien's world.

http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Dwarf-women



In the LOTR Appendix about Durin's Folk

For not all the women take husbands: some desire none; some desire one that they cannot have, and so will have no other.  As for the men, very many also do not desire marriage, being engrossed in their crafts. -LotR Appen. A, Part III

[Nefaro]

Aren't the Tolkien Dwarf Women supposed to be never-seen hermits or something?

Perhaps the dwarves got smart and lock them away.  :P  Probably got sick of them nagging about when they're gonna make 'em more jewelry n shiz.

[Tpek]

Female Dwarf characters may not have been in the books, but female Dwarves existed. How else would male Dwarves come to be?

Please be aware that this is the video games discussion area and not the place for any sort of the kind of jokes your question would demand :P


In any case, I don't really care that much about WoW and such, and other universes created for gaming. But with High Fantasy ones created for literature and others,
Female Dwarves are indeed a rare thing.
Mind you, try to find a female Orc or Uruk in it as well :D

[T2Paradis]

I played LOTRO for a bit and enjoyed it. Unfortunately playing it cuts into my WoT time so I don't play it as much as I probably should.  I reached level 20 without it feeling too repetitive (grinding for xp). 

Recently, I found all my characters wiped and I had to start over.  Much cursing ensued.  I still am not sure what happened.  Did they restart everyone? 

[Nefaro]

Recently, I found all my characters wiped and I had to start over.  Much cursing ensued.  I still am not sure what happened.  Did they restart everyone?

Good god.  I seriously doubt it unless maybe they wipe little-used starter accounts. 

You sure you didn't have two accounts.. or that it wasn't hacked??