Lord of the Rings Online

Palum said:

Here's my experience since I decided to try it again this weekend.

It's very friendly in some senses and unfriendly in others. The default world difficulty is faceroll. It's an experience meant to showcase the story and the world, but you can up the difficulty if you want. The world feels a bit sandboxy just because there's so much content, it's huge. The community is overly friendly. So from the perspective of a seasoned gamer, it's very friendly to have whatever experience you want. The world I'm on is busy enough to see people everywhere. It feels busier than a wow server aside from Tuesdays. Your character partakes in heroism but isn't the main character.

On the neutral side is the age and style of game. There's a ton of text and it often matters. It's old and the map is pretty bad so you have to actually search for things. The UI is clean and functional but dated. It's F2P so realistically some spending is required to not waste your time. There's so many expansions and new systems that it's very complex if you try to understand everything before just jumping in. Some of these may be good or bad depending on your taste.

Then there's the unfriendly things. You have to work around scaling issues on 1440p/4k monitors to read anything. Some of the classes and stats are fairly opaque, and the community while friendly doesn't produce the sheer volume of tutorial/guide content that exists for other games. There's a lot of retracing your steps. The normal servers still on 32bit servers lag periodically. The combat is thoroughly mid. You will get frustrated if you want modern guided tour experience and no longer have the patience for a true game.

Overall I think it's in a better spot than years passed when I tried it (literally since launch, every 3-5 years...). You do have to be prepared to be transported not just to Middle Earth, but also into the sometimes plodding tediousness of Tolkien which expresses itself often. The best thing about this game though is how traditional it all feels, both in how the world exists as itself outside of existing just for the player's convenience and how little modern woke trash has infected it so far. Tolkien is also relatively low fantasy, which I appreciate. It's a great chill game, especially with a group, IF you are into the lore.

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This is spot on.

My brother absolutely hates the game and will not play it with me. He prefers EQ, and what it boils down to is the reading. He's a very bad reader, and since the majority of what makes Lotro special is the stories in the game, that ruins it for him. He prefers to EQ because he just gets in a group, goes to a camp, and sits there mindlessly killing mobs for hours on end while watching TV.

I've said many times on the Lotro forums that they could expand their playerbase by a TON if they added a text-to-voice option to all quest dialogue windows at minimum. It falls on deaf ears. And, obviously, adding actual voice over work for all the dialogue in the game would cost millions with all the content they have, so that's never going to happen.

If a non-reader can get past the fact that they wont know what is going on 90% of the time when playing the game, they might like it, but as a non-story-based experience, it just feels like any other quest-hub chasing theme-park game with more dated graphics and servers that suffer from lag issues. In other words, the WoW games of the world beat out Lotro if you don't read the stories in Lotro.

I came across this video posted a few days ago which has me very hopeful for the future of the older servers.

Vinjin said:

I came across this video posted a few days ago which has me very hopeful for the future of the older servers.

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The big Nazgul public event (open raid) thing has been a major cluster fuck. It literally has been the worst part of the new servers. When there is a server wide announcement about the Nazgul spawning, everyone on the server rushes to that area, and the game goes in to stop motion. I've been in all of one of these events, and it was cool, but I honestly didn't get to do much before the game decided there was too many people in the area and booted me halfway across the world.

64bit servers is a step in the right direction, but it isn't the silver bullet that's going to fix everything. The devs have said as much. The bigger issue is the data. They are working on finding ways to optimize the data.

One of the big reasons that the new 64bit servers seem so much faster than the regular servers is quite simply because they have a fraction of the player data that regular servers have at this time. As more expansions open, more people complete the tens of thousands of deeds and other achievements, the more data will stack up on the server, and the slower it will get. Until they fix their data optimization issue, 64bit servers are not going to make the lag go away on the regular servers, and over time, you are going to see more people complaining about lag on the new legendary servers.

So after playing this game a bit more lately, I've basically settled on running it in 1080p and upscaling with Lossless Scaling app. It looks fine, but still a bit fuzzy. The new Swanfleet/Cardolan starting areas are what I accidentally chose on my first new char since like ehhh 2017ish? and they are mostly good and OP. Some of the mountain terrain bits are super annoying to navigate right out the gate with the map system but the rewards are better than like +10 level gear.

I almost find myself thinking this game is 'retro' now after a fashion. The main problem with it, IMO, is still the UI. There are a lot of really small (relatively) changes they could make, such as the ability to sell directly from bags, or allow you to zoom from the main map into the minimap, or zoom out on the minimap, etc. The biggest UI issue is obviously the scaling and 4k support. The main graphics scale to 4k fine, though.

I think with a little work and the right push this could really grow over time, especially as games just simply don't offer the breadth of content and stuff that respects the reader rather than modern audience slop. I actually like that it occasionally just sticks to the story and disrespects your time, if that makes sense, because it makes sense to ride back across the zone even if you don't want to do it. There was one or two times where it felt gratuitous or stupid, but most of the time it just feels like something you got to do. Having to traverse the landscape actually makes it feel different than hallway/boss rails RPGs. The only big gameplay negative, aside from the lag issues still persisting, is that if you don't have a mount closer to start it is very, very slow because of this. It's almost a completely different game at 25 with a mount, than at 1-20 in the old zones, which is the place I always struggled to go through because they felt inconsequential (except the dwarf area) due to the low level story beats.

I don't know if it will ever break out, but I feel like it could eventually become a bit of a viral thing that pops off again in the future IF they can fix some of the core UI things that would just make the game wildly more pleasant.

I've been super surprised at the number of new/newer players appearing in the LOTRO Discord. And not all of them head towards the legendary servers that just recently opened up either.

Retention is another discussion entirely, especially in the long term, but it definitely feels like it's a growing player base, which is pretty shocking for a game as old as this one.

Vinjin said:

I've been super surprised at the number of new/newer players appearing in the LOTRO Discord. And not all of them head towards the legendary servers that just recently opened up either.

Retention is another discussion entirely, especially in the long term, but it definitely feels like it's a growing player base, which is pretty shocking for a game as old as this one.

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Yea I dunno why either. It's not like there's some big marketing push or the new expansion is anything particularly noteworthy so far as I can tell. I just saw a few things in my normal video feed and was reading about it here for my part.

It's one of the few complete old school MMO games that's still actively supported. I have a feeling it's also something to do with the modern trash aesthetics of everything else coming out too. So it's got the traditional retro thing going on, while being more approachable than EQ or DDO or anything.

I think word of mouth is just really strong right now for LotRO. I believe you're right that other MMO's are causing it to be brought up in conversation. It's unbelievable that as more MMO's are released people are able to reference other, older MMO's who simply provide better experiences. LotR is also a pretty powerful franchise. When people talk about storylines, quests, raids, worlds, etc. it already has some buying power unlike ideas that others have never heard of.

I've also seen a lot of YouTube and streams lately that I had not seen for LotRO in a very long time. I do believe they created a decent stir with their future plans that was very timely with the desire of a new LotR MMO. I believe the actual new MMO was been canceled so they leaves LotRO to be the future of the online gaming world of LotRO.

I may not be completely accurate as I'm catching up with this wave of excitement for the game that has essentially came out of no where but I'm happy for them. It's a decent game and I've always been a fan. It was just up against EQ, WoW, and FF14 so it's always been by the wayside.

I do think it's a little stupid that the Station Pass doesn't include LotRO's subscriber pass or whatever its called. They need to work that partnership out in some way.

Muligan said:

I think word of mouth is just really strong right now for LotRO. I believe you're right that other MMO's are causing it to be brought up in conversation. It's unbelievable that as more MMO's are released people are able to reference other, older MMO's who simply provide better experiences. LotR is also a pretty powerful franchise. When people talk about storylines, quests, raids, worlds, etc. it already has some buying power unlike ideas that others have never heard of.

I've also seen a lot of YouTube and streams lately that I had not seen for LotRO in a very long time. I do believe they created a decent stir with their future plans that was very timely with the desire of a new LotR MMO. I believe the actual new MMO was been canceled so they leaves LotRO to be the future of the online gaming world of LotRO.

I may not be completely accurate as I'm catching up with this wave of excitement for the game that has essentially came out of no where but I'm happy for them. It's a decent game and I've always been a fan. It was just up against EQ, WoW, and FF14 so it's always been by the wayside.

I do think it's a little stupid that the Station Pass doesn't include LotRO's subscriber pass or whatever its called. They need to work that partnership out in some way.

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I'll explain a little bit about the wave of excitement, at least from my point of view.

I miss MMOs, and the only MMOs that are worth playing are games that are 10 to 20 years old and that sucks. Every new one that has released since around the early to mid 2000s has sucked nutz.

New servers and fresh starts excite people, especially fans of the original games as they usually have fond memories of the first few expansions, and as the game grew and the player based thinned out, people lost interest.

When I logged on to WoW classic, it was not classic at all. By the end of week 2 or so, you already had multiple guilds clearing MC with like 40 warriors etc. The player base was toxic as fuck, and it just wasn't a good experience.

In Lotro, despite learning that there are methods to hit 50 on day 1 or 2, the player base is much more relaxed, no one is yelling or screaming about knowing fights, watching videos, or raid stacking perfect comps for clear time. The player base is much more mature and there is very minimal toxicity at all.

The game is dated, the engine is dated, the combat is dated....but the player base makes the experience fun and enjoyable, and it's not toxic and full of try hards.

That's what I like about it at least.

I think you're all right.

I think the player base in LOTRO is different than typical MMOs because of the IP. If you want to experience Middle Earth there simply is no better representation of it than LOTRO. As a result, you get mostly players who are playing for the lore first and MMO mechanics second. That's the reverse of most MMOs.

If there were a steady stream of more high quality single player Lord of the Rings games, I bet LOTRO would have lost quite a few people who have no real interest in the MMO part of the game.

McCheese said:

I think you're all right.

I think the player base in LOTRO is different than typical MMOs because of the IP. If you want to experience Middle Earth there simply is no better representation of it than LOTRO. As a result, you get mostly players who are playing for the lore first and MMO mechanics second. That's the reverse of most MMOs.

If there were a steady stream of more high quality single player Lord of the Rings games, I bet LOTRO would have lost quite a few people who have no real interest in the MMO part of the game.

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Also just thinking about this, the lack of a wowhead style everything is meticulously instructing how to do every type of content. There's still a lot of discovery.

It's a very different game from everything else on the market because it is not only story-based but the stories are worth reading... and it's not just the main story arc but the side stories as well. Very little feels like a filler crap quests. Don't get me wrong, there are some filler crap quests in the game, but for the most part, each "quest hub" you go to has a story to tell that is worth reading.

That is why this game is so different from the rest of the industry.

If you pick up any other MMORPG available right now, the content between new character creation and current end-game content is completely avoidable and forgettable. The goal in any other MMORPG is to get to max level and uber gear as fast as possible because everything that came before the current expansion is worthless crap.

Lotro is the complete opposite. If you skip straight to the end-game in Lotro, you miss 99% of what makes the game worth playing. That means that content in the very first expansion is just as worth playing through as content in the second, third, fourth, fifth, and so on. Skipping any content is doing yourself a disservice.

Now that doesn't mean that the game mechanics that come and go with various expansions are all great and fun to interact with... mounted combat for instance is a big pile of dog shit in the Riders of Rohan expansion. But... the content IN that expansion is great. There are some awesome stories to experience. Just avoid actually trying to kill anything while on your war steed. It's an act of futility that will drive you to punching holes in the wall with your fists because the servers lag way, way, way too much to handle the speed of war steeds most of the time. Unless... you enjoy rubber banding all over the map and finding yourself dead 5 minutes later while thinking you were doing just fine riding down the road on your mighty war steed.

Plus, as a caster class, you can literally kill mounted mobs in a fifth of the time by getting OFF your war steed and just nuking the shit out of the mobs as they run by you.

And, there in is the issue with the game. Standing Stone Games employees have their heads lodged too firmly up their ass most of the time to admit that there are really, really broken shit in their game that SHOULD be fixed or removed. Instead, they work for a year on an expansion, throw it out the door, and ignore anything wrong with it as they work on making the next year's expansion. The things they get right are awesome. The things they get wrong stay wrong for the rest of time and they use the excuse "we are a small company and don't have the resources" to justify it.

Now don't get me wrong. I LOVE playing Lotro, and I will be playing it for many, many years to come.

Would I recommend Lotro to a friend or family member? Yes. 100% yes. It's far better than any other MMORPG on the market today.

I'm just not going to candy coat their issues. The server lag issue is huge, has existed for ever, and no matter how much they claim they are working on it, its been many years they have been "working on it" and it has not gotten better. The 64bit servers are just a bandaid. The legendary servers will start seeing the mega server lag as expansions open on their servers.

What Lotro needs is more resources that match the level of the IP. It shouldn't be a "small company" developing it. This is Lord of the Rings after all. It should have the kind of funding that you see in triple A games of their industry. The server lag should have been addressed and completely squashed years ago. The fact that it still exists is an indication of how little money is put back in to the maintenance and further development of the game.

My main has like 99% of the deeds in this game completed... and I just can't recommend this for the mass market over something like WoW.

If you are a Tolkien nut, you'll love the lore, but if you're just someone who wants an MMO to play, I just can't recommend WoW's mechanics done way worse years later. (E.g. mounted combat as the equivalent to WotLK vehicles.)

It would be nice if LoTRO had more resources, but consumers voted with their wallets on that a decade+ ago.

I am not going to shill for this game.

There are many mmos with better graphics, better combat, better sound, better UI, better damn near everything.

However, I have not played an MMO in the past 10+ years that has had a welcoming community like this one.

I dont need to know all fights, I dont need to do 100 dailys to get my gear score + 5 to be allowed in a raid, Im not shit on for having 5% less dps than the next guy, and I am not belittled for asking a question.

FF14 was about the most non-toxic community in an MMO that I had found, but the amount of weebism in that game with all the strip clubs and ERP shit was over the top.

WoW is about the most toxic mmo out there, what that game has become is trash...and its not so much the game itself, but the community that plays it.

I haven’t played WoW retail in roughly 15 years so I can’t speak to it. However, I did play WoW Classic through TBC and saw for myself quite a bit of toxicity there, so I get the reference.

Having said that, the worst, most toxic community I’ve ever witnessed first hand is New World. Just an absolute shitshow across the board. That was as recent as 5-6 months ago.

I’m still trying to catch up to the masses in LOTRO on my main. Haven’t really socialized yet but from what I can tell from World chat and even the official Discord, it’s definitely a positive and helpful community.