I haven’t found a thread on this multi-player online game, so thought I’d start this one.
It’s faithful to the books and as a Tolkien fan, I find it a wonderful experience.
You play a single character (choosing from Hobbit, Dwarf, Elf or Human) and have several classes available (fighting, healing, leadership and crowd control for example.)
The game shows a camera position just behind you and it’s easy to move and swivel your viewpoint.
You start with a standard introduction (based on what race you chose), which lets you get used to movement, equipment and combat.
Storylines are brought in right from the start (the game is initially set during the Fellowship of the Ring, but later updates move the timeline along.)
You will see many other character Avatars roaming the world and you can help them with advice or join up to complete a combat or a mission.
Each character learns a Vocation, made up of three trades such as Forester Woodworker or Tailor. These trades lead to trading between players, with e.g. a Forester gathering wood and processing it; then selling it to a Woodworker to make Bows or Spears etc.
The game consists of areas of Middle Earth, which are rated for danger. So lower level characters can explore the Shire (visiting places like the Party Tree and folk like Gaffer Gamgee.)
Meanwhile the Barrow Downs await with wandering Barrow-Wights and other fell creatures.
Players gain experience through combat and completing quests. They constantly improve their equipment and learn new skills.
There are online Gamemasters to resolves difficulties and I’ve found the whole community (iwhich is divided into many Servers because of the sheer number of players) very polite and helpful.
Questions such as “Where can I buy a horse?”, “how can my character play music?” and “anyone want to help me defeat the Marsh Queen Spider?” are usaully answered quickly!
The game can be played for free up to level 65 (that should take you over a year!), or you can subscribe (which gives your character some benefits and pays you regular game money so you can buy extra stuff.)
I’d like to give two specific examples of why I enjoy this game so much:
my first character was a hobbit Minstrel, born in Little Delving.
This is a real backwater and my early experiences included defeating some wolves and delivering post to Michel Delving.
I came across the ‘Bird and Baby’ pub.
This contained some familiar-sounding names … I realised that this was a reference to the Eagle and Child pub in Cambridge where the Inklings used to meet. Just imagine - Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and others, reading their works aloud.
I have no financial interest ion the game - I just think many Dopers would enjoy it.
Here’s the link:
I used to play this when it first came. There’s so many charming details - like the fact that the star constellations in the skybox are modelled after the real star constellations, as seen from the northern hemisphere. But the real kicker is that most of them have descriptions and stories in Tolkien’s works as well, like Valacirka, the Sickle of the Valar.
It’s an engrossing game and if I had time for two MMOs in my life, LOTRO would definitely be the second.
I played a hobbit through the Shire (on the cheapskate plan), which was awesome, then got to Bree and pretty much instantly lost interest. Not sure why.
I play on Gwaihir server, my main is Blaulotos, a human loremaster. Yes, I realize it is a German speaking server, and I don’t speak German:smack: but a fair number of people in my guild speak English and I muddle along just fine. [I had to sort of cheat my way onto the server, I did it back when they separated euro from US servers]
I actually am really enjoying it, I am just about to pop 74 so I am close to being able to kill in Isengard, and I am really looking forward to it.
One of the things I find enchanting is that you can either go ahead and do the epic quests that are storyline to the books, or you can run around doing quests that have nothing to do with the books at all, and either way can level all the way up to endgame. You can also manage to not group almost the time if you so choose, or do nothing but group and have fun either way. I think I have actually grouped maybe 10 times total, and done maybe 4 or 5 instances with groups, I like to solo =)
[And yes, I do still play Eve Online as well =)]
If anybody ends up on my server, shoot me a tell and Ill make you level appropriate potions and armor =)
I play occasionally. I have a Level 48 Dwarf Champion. (Dwaim) There is a SDMB guild (The Third Gry on Silverload) but it isn’t active (I rarely see others on)
One of the nice things about the lifetime subscription is I can go for months without hitting the game, then start playing again when I feel like. Keeps the burnout lower. One of the bad things about the lifetime subscription is I don’t feel any urgency to get back to the game, it will be there later. I can’t wait to see how much I owe for back rent on my house.
Thanks for posting everyone - I didn’t realise there’d been threads on this a couple of years ago.
I’ve got some characters on the Eldar Server, which I partner with friends.
My Solo characters are on Gladden.
I’ve mainly played Hunters (great for travelling and keeping out of trouble) and Loremasters (I like the pet and the spells.)
As a big Tolkien fan, I relish the opportunity to see how others visualise places like the Shire and also the chance to meet book characters.
I’m hopeful that Turbine will keep filling in regions and moving the level cap upwards.
What does particularly strike me is the friendliness of the players - you can easily get advice or crafting items you need.
I got the lifetime too and I haven’t played in maybe a year. It’s because of the lifetime that I don’t feel the need to play which is nice because I don’t feel guilty for not playing.
But yeah I love the game. I mostly play hobbits because their hobbits. I have a hunter at lvl 51. I got the Moria expansion but I had already stopped playing and just haven’t got back into it but I still love the game.
One of the best things I think is that you can turn your feet armour off. None of my hobbits will lower themselves to wearing shoes so I have them turned off on them. It’s the little things.
LotRO still has the best appearance customization options of any MMO I know of - not only can you dye stuff and turn on and off your hat, shoes, and cloak, but you can create two (or more if you want to buy them) complete OUTFITS out of other equipment or cosmetic only items, without affecting your gear/stats at all. It’s really very slick, and you never have to worry about the fact that item of gear X looks ridiculous, or clashes with your look.
I still want cosmetic shields though. The best looking shield I ever had was like, level 40 gear. -_-
LOTRO is nice with the cosmetic costume slots, but they are still very limited in comparison to City of Heroes. CoH was my first MMO and when I joined LOTRO, I was really disappointed by what they had available. No cosmetic slots at that time. The biggest problem I have with them is the space you need to use for storage of costume pieces. Storage is always tight, having to use it for non-functional items sucks. But it is much better than it used to be.
Actually, this is almost entirely false; City of Heroes offers lots of options in customization, but mostly these are done as part of character creation. If your character just happens to want to put on a hat or change clothes…good luck with that. Additionally, there’s a thematic element to consider here - while LotRO has “fewer options” that is because they confine themselves to items that would seem vaguely reasonable in Middle Earth (And they push the ‘vaguely’ pretty hard for all that) whereas City of Heroes has to accomodate the idiotic ideas of thousands of amateur comic book character creators. One is working within a deliberate thematic limitation, while the other is pretty much required to go nuts or suck. I guess it really depends on what you want. If you want your character to be able to look like a midget with a bowler hat, tutu and bat wings, City of Heroes is your game. If you want your character to be able to dress up in fancy robes for attending a festival - and then take them off later and wear armor - you’ll be better off in LotRO.
Also, apparently you’re either many years behind the times (Seems like this is the case since you seem to be saying they didn’t even HAVE cosmetic items at the time? But then you complain about storing them?) or just didn’t explore LotRO very thoroughly, because they’ve had dedicated storage for cosmetic only items for several years now.
Okay, it sounds like you haven’t played CoH in quite a while. First, if you are only using the slot you got at character creation for COH, you are missing out. There are 5 free slots available in the game, including the beginning one. (6 if you are a VEAT) You can earn 1 at 20, 30, and 40, plus there is one you can get collecting treats during Halloween trick or treating (You almost always buy the salvage during the year, price varying depending on how long it has been since Halloween. And the CECIL Base on Virtue has a Salvage bin literally overstuffed with the salvage.) And you can switch between any of those slots every 30 seconds. With either creative binds or using the Costume Change emotes, you can really individualize your characters. And there are 5 other slots available for purchase in the store, each available from level 1 for every character on the account.
Second, while you can’t just change out a hat or shirt the way you can in LOTRO, you can easily change your costume by hitting up one of the many tailors in the game. So each slot is different, easily switched between, and you start with 5 free ones.
Yes, I know they have dedicated storage for cosmetic stuff now. The last I knew it was something like 40 slots per server per account. So my 7 characters on Silverlode all had to share the same slots. Gee, how many cosmetic items are in the game? Quite a few more than 40, since they do a good job of constantly adding more. Even deleting duplicates that each character gets, to keep a wide selection available, you need to use up regular storage for the cosmetic stuff. Not cool. But they like it since they have that available for purchase. (Hmm, wonder how many Turbine Points I have saved up now. ) They may have increased or changed the way cosmetic storage works, but given the way they constantly put out more items (Again, a good thing) it is pretty much impossible to not use up regular storage. Unless you don’t care about the cosmetic stuff of course.
This is is the equivalent of going to the barber in LotRO - you’re not changing your “clothes”, you’re essentially rebuilding your character.
Honestly, the two games aren’t comparable - one has “gear” the other just has “what your character looks like”. They both have plusses and minuses.
Lots more slots ARE available both for in game currency and turbine points, and each slot actually holds more than 1 “item” because it can store as many different colors of a given item as you can get your hands on. And this of course is to say nothing of the outfit slots themselves.
To wit: CoH may have more options, but LotRO handles them better, IMHO.
Difference in outlook for the genre I think. Spider-Man wasn’t really any different when he wore black, he just looked different. Tony Stark never changes looks, he just has different types of armor. So when I hit a tailor, I am only changing clothes, not the character. But going to the barber in LOTRO is only done to make changes to the actual character’s look, not just its clothing. As you say, the clothing can be changed at any point.
You can stack different color items in the slots? That is nice, either new or I missed it. Wish I could access the store out of game (for both games, wish COH had picked a different design rather than copying LOTRO’s.) to see how many points I have and maybe pick up something.
but a fair number of people in my guild speak English and I muddle along just fine. [I had to sort of cheat my way onto the server, I did it back when they separated euro from US servers]
) They may have increased or changed the way cosmetic storage works, but given the way they constantly put out more items (Again, a good thing) it is pretty much impossible to not use up regular storage. Unless you don’t care about the cosmetic stuff of course.