F2P is, from my perspective, a disaster. Aside from Enedwaith, there is not actually any new content. Somehow turning Helegrod into a skirmish-like instance is suddenly new content to players who have had none since Mirkwood. I don't know what that means for long-term new content. Maybe they'll just keep redoing instances and adding increased radiance to old items that have been recolored as a 'reward' for those instances.

Dynamic Layers are somewhat of a pain when you experience them...one minute you are in Bree with other players, the next minute you've been sent into a new layer and few, if any, other players are visible. It's supposed to reduce lag, but it's mostly just annoying.

I haven't paid much attention to anything else, since I've given up on playing like I used to.

Yuck, the dynamic layers in particular sound dreadful.

I know I said that I'd probably go back to keep up with the story at some point...but I'm not sure anymore. I really have no desire to play that game.

I probably will go back at some point, but I think my days of playing that game are pretty much over.

I will probably log into LOTRO from time to time. At the moment, I'm going to wait until the next update (whenever that is), as Turbine has promised to take a closer look at some of the annoying features of the game (like radiance, the legendary item time-sink, etc). If it only gets worse after that point, I'll know I'm done. But I don't expect them to get around to that until early next year, at best.

I shudder to think what "new" or "innovative" ideas they have for Rohan, as all of the choices they've made on gameplay and features since SoA concluded have been major blunders.

Actually, Turbine has blundered ever since changing MEO into the mutant LOTRO. The world was scaled back, the adherence to canon was sacrificed, and the controls and feel of the game were redesigned to emulate WoW. They plopped tedious PvP sandboxes in where players eternally play capture the flag, plopped absurd sci-fi creatures in, segregated the North American and European player communities, and now forced everyone into a free-to-play situation that will certainly rub long-time players the wrong way.

Humorously, the Turbine motto is 'powered by our fans'. They do not know who their fans are, nor do they care.

:eek:

I'm shocked to see that they are willing to admit that those were all horribly implemented...especially considering that they *still* (years later) haven't officially admitted that a "little" thing like the troll/ranger session play thing was a complete fiasco.

You and me both.

Truer words were never spoken. They really are a joke of a development studio at this point. I am officially coming out and saying that I hope they go belly up and that somebody else can get the Tolkien license...although my level of confidence in most game developers is pretty low.

I personally think that the whole move to f2p across the board in MMOs is caused by most developers not having a clue how to make quality products and their incompetence is being shown by the hordes of small time people who are making small f2p games that are better in quality to almost anything being put out by a big name studio.

The saddest part of all of this is that had Turbine maintained their original MEO concept, stayed truer to the lore and eschewed the WoW influence, they'd have as many loyal customers, if not more, than they do now. Having MEO as a boutique design for 300,000 to 400,000 zealous Tolkien fans worldwide may have commanded a higher monthly fee, and would certainly have assured a higher customer retention rate. How do I know this? Well, from a personal standpoint, I am still in touch with most of the people involved in the design prior to LOTRO's release. It was always Middle-earth and not necessarily the game, a fact lost on Turbine.

Once they cheapened the game with lustful dreams of stealing customers away from WoW, they lost many adult fans, such as me, who would have paid more simply because the game DID NOT attract the WoW crowd. But they lost a ton of money by going immediately for marketshare, offering ridiculously low lifetime rates at the game's release. Start high while the game is fresh and people are excited (that's at least what I learned in college Marketing). You can always go lower, but you can never go higher without attrition.

Just plain ig'nant.

That's the truth. CoD can attest to how long and how much I bellyached about how the Tolkien feeling was rapidly lost from the game. For me it was gone before I was halfway through SoA and it never returned.

*wonders aloud if some of these developers could somehow grab hold of rights to the Sil* ;)

You'll have to wait for Christopher Tolkien to take the last ship from Gray Havens before that ever comes to pass.

I suppose rights to make an MMO from the movies would fall under the same umbrella...not that I would necessarily want that either.

I am really no fan of MMORPGS or such things (and, well, even the time of ruthless pc game-playing is behind me), but I actually have tried LOTRO a long time ago, around the time the Mines of Moria came out, as a trial thing for a week... Given my general restraint towards any depictions of Middle-Earth in the "wide public", I found it quite good still, and now that the announcement about it being free came to me, I have sort of randomly returned to try it again.

It is still all brand new to me, so I don't feel any side-effects like those things Kuru and Morth mentioned, and for now I am fine with basically running around for various quests and enjoying the scenery. But if there were some 'Downers I could meet, it would be definitely worth it. I am not sure how much the communities are compatible, right now I have both my old and my current (both rather low-level) characters on the Meneldor server, so if anybody was there... or at least let me know on which server should I make my future characters, if it came to that. :D (Although maybe I won't know that the game exists anymore after some time... but if I got hooked, for instance by other 'Downers...)

I remember when this came out and a few of my friends at the time (casual LOTR fans- saw the films and read the book, and that was about it) signed up, with one buying a lifetime account, though at the time I didn't really see the point in it. Anyway, I might just try it out now and see how I find it.

Well, Legate, I'm about to download it now (through the US bit, since it isn't officially Free-to-Play in the UK yet), and I'll tell you what I think.

Having people around that you know definitely helps. That, actually, is the reason why many people continue to play MMOs for ages and ages; they don't want to lose touch with their friends.

CoD and I are both on Silverlode...I'm not sure how much either of us will ever be around though.

My toon on Silverlode will be very easy for you to find. ;)

Good! So I should mark Silverlode as first for making any new characters... :) although probably both of you are some ridiculously high level, so we could at most come and chat (if I start from zero there, I definitely could not go with you to some ridiculously dangerous areas from beyond the borders of my map - although again, if you are barely around, then maybe I will have time to get to a ridiculously high level too before I meet you :D ). Also, right now I got quite happy with playing for my new character and developing her, and perhaps would like to focus on her, most of all... But if it seemed reasonable and possible to maintain contact with the rest of you there, it'd be nice.
Nice to hear that, Eönwë. I think it's quite good, you must judge for yourself. :) If you want to, then you could make your first character(s) on Meneldor and if you feel like it (maybe after you get the handle of things, or I could be of some advice in the starting mechanics, if you needed them), we could eventually meet up somewhere and even join into a fellowship for some quests (or just as an excuse to keep around each other) - given that I am not very far in the storyline and exploring. Currently my elven champion is ripe for travelling anywhere (and maybe I will also recover my old dust-covered man captain from Bree someday). Anyway, if any of you folks happened to be on Meneldor these days, you could look out for Curufinwen (or Guthlic)... Well, surely we could contact each other about anything specific anytime anyway...

Well, it turns out I downloaded the wrong version (And it was 10GB! :eek:)

Anyway, I think I'll just wait until it becomes Free-to-play in the UK before doing anything else, so 'll get back to you all when that happens.

Probably the best thing to do if you want to see me is to schedule it...otherwise I probably won't turn up.

Although scheduling isn't always easy either as I'm married now and don't have as much time for this sort of thing as I once did.

I just returned to the lotro game after getting an E-mail that it was free. I got all nostalgic about LOTR and the chance to visit places that I had read about was not to be missed… that is until I tried to play the game. What a disappointment. The game has no feeling of being in the realm of middle earth. If anything it felt like wow without the cartoon avatars.

I just can’t be bothered to play it after the letdown to my expectations.
I think I will just read the sil again instead.

I'm still on Silverlode as is CoD...we don't really play much right now, but...we got lifetime subs way back so we're not paying for anything.

It was a good MMO for me, and my first MMO. I enjoyed it. I was in a good, active guild for a long time. Unfortunately it failed, partially simply because they did not have the money backing them, and probably they didn't make the money to put back into the game because of bad decisions, etc. They haven't been able to put out any real content for a long time.

Anyway, I think the landscape design was great, actually. I'm not a huge lore person, and I never expected an intense adherence to lore out of an MMO which necessitates a gazillion epic heroes running around and lots of epic enemies to kill. Basically if you want the *real* Middle-earth...you're not going to get an MMO out of it. Which is fine. No need to have an MMO...but I enjoyed a Middle-earth-based MMO and the style of MMO they developed, with pretty much no emphasis on PvP (also part of why it failed).

Certainly it could have been done better. But part of what is necessary for better (such as for WoW), is lots of money. And yes, every MMO is trying to be WoW, because what does everyone compare every MMO to now...WoW...haha. Even though it was far from the first.

Anyway I'm still going to play occasionally, such as when I get more time... Legate already found me (I still need to respond to his mail...) My main is Rakein.

So once I get time again I'll be glad to do some questing and instances with people and help you out with getting gear and such. :)

Looks like what Dury says is mostly what I would think... I think the bad part is when one starts to make compromises, as I think the LOTRO guys did, and retreating from their original "pure" idea more towards the "classic WoW"-type, but they still cannot completely move it into that type, so it tends up to be some awkward crossbreed which eventually probably disappoints the "pure LotRists" while still not satisfying the "commercial public". Not that I would advise them to continue in that direction, though...

As for right now, actually, I seem to be on relatively frequently (fresh enthusiasm still works), also as now the Harvestmath Festival is going on and since I have never before experienced anything like that, I find it's a lot of fun (unlike I expected, as I thought it will be just some silly big thing to appease the audience... but I like it. Best experience: running around the Shire with the aim to get acquaintance with the Inn League... I think everybody knows this already, but that seriously made my day). I have started developing my character on Silverlode, so now I can join other 'Downers who happen to be around.

I actually thought the festival wouldn't be as fun and thought it to be something to cause my game to lag worse than it does...well, it still lagged due to there being so many on the Silverlode server, but it was still fun. I've attempted to do the Inn League and every stinking time, due to the there being so many on the internet here where I live, my internet will lose connection. But It's still a trip to do! Be it a glitch in the game or what, but my elf (odd I know for an elf to actually get intoxicated :p) actually tripped over a fence. Have you went to the small festival they're doing in Duillond? There's not much there like there is in the Shire, but there's still a small festival going on.

Yea, I'm not around much. I do still pop in from time to time, mostly to check my mail and auctions. But, if I happen to be online or anyone wishes to schedule "adventure", you can usually find me on one of my main characters: Sevira, Sordatha, or Letania.

And, since Rakein mentioned getting gear, I also do the armor and jewelry crafting for both of our character sets. I probably still have a lot of left over materials...

There is a small festival in each of the places. The last thing I have done is actually participating in a horse race near Bree. The last thing I remember is desperate need of money to buy the festival mount :)

Well, I have a jeweller myself. Nonetheless, perhaps a colleague-cooperation could be performed some day. Whatever, we shall see if we see...

Nice Hurlock there CoD. (now there is a setting that might make a nice MMO)

I heard a rumor that there is going to be another update soonish.

I thought asking here might be a good way to get an honest appraisal of its potential. ;)

Well, they are finally putting in a new PvMP zone in the expansion. That's about all I know of Rise of Isengard.

As for the mini-update coming whenever-ish, judging from the patch notes it won't be much. RKs and LMs get some slight upgrades.

And yes, Dragon Age would be a wonderful MMO setting. :)

Somehow hearing that doesn't really thrill the cockles of my heart.

I wonder what they are going to do for the new PvMP zone. If its just basically a copy of the moors I don't think it will work...but if it has new features they will probably be implemented badly.

Are other older players staying around or are they quitting too?

I spent hours downloading this game, it froze when it installed framework, finally downloaded that separately, then it wouldn't recognise my screen name! Turns out I'd downloaded the US version not the European. Now the download of the game is at 0 kbyes a second for no reason and I think I'm about to crack up. :( I've never played a game like this before and this hassle is putting me off them. I guess it's good fun though?

It seems they've indicated a willingness to try something new with the next PvMP zone, but we'll see.

As for other older players leaving, I can't really say. I've seen a few leave, but I don't know if it constitutes boredom with the current game, or if it's just part of the ebb and flow.

We'll see if I ever go back.

At the moment I'm leaning no...but never say never. :)

Whee! I finally cleared enough space on my computer to DL this. My hunter Reprimand is on Silverlode from time to time.

So far the the comparisons to WoW are...wow, very similar. I'm not a hardcore MMORPGer anyway, so this'll do.

Great, somebody else to carry the torch of initial enthusiasm? :)

I think it is more akin to a candle in the wind...

At least until the grinding gets to me. Oh who am I kidding, it's all grinding, in the end.

I'm hoping to drag one of my RL friends onto it as well, she's been looking forward to it, and hopefully that will lead her into becoming active here. She has an account but hasn't used it yet.

Maybe my second toon will be named Eltundu Iondo.

I'm thinking of sticking around, see what chaos they can throw at us next. I log in when I can on my toon on the Silverlode and was hoping to finish up SoM before they came out with Rise of Isengard, but that doesn't seem to be happening. Heck, I still haven't even finished SoA due to not being able to log in as regularly anymore.

I've not even attempted the PvMP yet, mainly because I want to wait until I'm level 65, but I've been to the moors and given the creators' history with this game...I'm kind of leaning towards what Kuruharan said about it. No doubt though, the new zone will just be a copy of the moors, but we'll see.

Today I walked to Hobbiton, and stood beneath the party tree. Then I jogged to Bag End and stared at the Sackville-Bagginses for a bit. It was a very nerdy moment. Perhaps tomorrow I will log back in and make rude gestures at them.

:D

Bumpity bump bump.

Anyone still play? I just downloaded it, and I think it's alright. Granted, I've never played any kind of MMO (well, unless you count text-based ones like Medievia), so I don't have anything to base it off of.

I'm on Vilya right now, but if any 'Downers are still active on other servers, I'd be more than happy to start a new character on one of them.

I haven't played in a month or more due to a trip, but I usually get on a couple of times a week.

I (Reprimand, Maelusalph, Bruiwen, Daltrey, Derndwimmer, Heypresto) am mainly on Silverlode, though I do have auxiliary characters on Nimrodel and Firefoot.

My highest character is 32, haven't gotten to Rivendell yet.

Would there be any interest in starting our own guild? We need eight characters (not players) to start, plus golds for a house.

As we briefly talked about this with Oddwen during Finlandmoot, my not-so-active-lately interest in the game was rekindled. I have a character on Silverlode (Curufinwen) and I am all the time thinking about getting another one (but I never really got to make them); I also have older characters on Meneldor, whom I don't play much anymore, though. I would be all for starting a guild, and I think money for a house will be the smallest problem, with several characters we can organise some random grinding (well, or not grinding) operations... so in any case, I can "supply" my character(s) for that.

I have two characters on Gladden (Crabannan and Gwathagor -- surprise, surprise!), but I may abandon them and start playing on Silverlode in order to hang out with you guys. One of them's a level 21, so that's a lot of playing time that would be unfortunate to leave behind, but whatever. I just which they'd let you pay for character transfer with Turbine points.

And I would totally do the guild thing with you.

Ok, I now have a dwarf Guardian (Frarr) and a hobbit hunter (Browningar) in Silverlode. Hopefully I'll see some of you there soon.

As I have a couple of exams coming up this week, I think for at least a few days now I won't be there to be encountered, but once I happen to log in, I'll make sure to look out for your characters...