I logged into WoW on Friday and stared at the character selection screen for 15 minutes before closing the program. I think I’m officially burned out on WoW for a while. I spent most of this weekend playing LOTRO, after a couple-month hiatus post-trial account.
My first impressions of LOTRO were neutral, at best. By the time I finished the trial, I was more impressed but not enough to lay down $15 a month (and give up my WoW to make that $15 available).
Now, with (temporary) WoW burnout imminent, I decided to restart my subscription for LOTRO and I played most of the weekend. I’ve gotten a human loremaster to 11, a dwarf guardian to 6, and an elf hunter to 13. I have to go on break and finish this OP before my relief comes in, but I’ll be back.
Once you get out of the starting/intro area, the Tolkien flavor starts to become more distinct. I think a part of my problem was that a lot of the starting areas are places that were never in the books beyond a brief mention. Neither of the starting areas in the Blue Mountains (elf and dwarf) show up in the books at all, and both humans and hobbits start in Archet, which is mentioned as part of Bree-land but is never seen in the books. Once you start to adventure in the Shire and in Bree itself, it’s more enjoyable and there’s more of a LOTR feel to it. Even the non-newbie areas of the Blue Mountains are very Tolkienish (place names help a lot with that) and you lose the sense of “generic MMO” as you move forward.
I’m still feeling out the crafting and traits parts of the game, and I only figured out how to use my additional quickslots last night, but I’m looking forward to playing again tonight, which, as I mentioned, isn’t happening for me with WoW at the moment.
I enjoy LotRO quite a bit - it takes the essence of the WoW mechanics and makes a game that isn’t a soulless monster out of them.
I’m actually a little bit confused by people who have ‘tepid’ first impressions; I was fairly immediately sucked in by the storyline aspect of the intro, which is something that, to my knowledge, hasn’t been done anywhere else (Certainly isn’t done in WoW.).
That said, as all games of this sort do, LotRO gets richer and more interesting as you advance, but unlikely a lot of other games of the sort, it’s really NOT recommended to blitz to max level - there’s no “The game begins at 65” crap like you get in the more hardcore MMOs. It’s fun from start to finish, and there’s no big emphasis on endgame content. If you’re looking for something to play ‘hardcore’ like most people play WoW, I suggest you look elsewhere. If you’re more interested in taking it easy, exploring, seeing cool places, following a story, and playing in Middle Earth, then you’ve got the right game.
