Anyone here play LOTRO?

[Gravekeeper]

You know, we said the same thing about WAR when I played with you guys... :P

Yeah, but War had pvp which creates self sustaining content ( It was just horribly unbalanced >< ). LOTRO has PvP....but its....well pretty weak honestly. Has some good ideas but it doesn't pan out very well in practice.

LOTRO's main book quests are great for story. But the rest is pretty standard mmo quest fair. Even worse, honestly. There are very very few quests outside of the Book epics that aren't kill x or gather y. Basically any Fellowship Quest or Book Chapter quest is probably going to be good. Everything else will be pretty generic. Its more fun grouped than most games, but solo is remarkably stale.

Your killing speed is all that matters for leveling, which makes some of the classes a bit more painful than others.

I dunno, its a good game. It just doesn't shine anywhere, which is its problem. The game world is beautiful though, I'll give it that.

As for what I'm playing. NFI. Never had this much trouble picking a main in an MMO before. Mainly due to the fact all the classes mature *very* late. Expect to play one till at least 25-30 ( A couple weeks ) before you get an idea of how it handles. Kind of why we're not playing lately. Used up a lot of time and energy on my Captain just getting it to the point where I could get a feel for it, than ending up not liking the playstyle. After that it was just a series of alts mucking around, but nothing serious.

[RayvenQ]

Youz best be playin' as da Orks as dey da best at stompin' lootin' and killin' da 'umies

Ahem

Sorry about that. :lol

[Gravekeeper]

Youz best be playin' as da Orks as dey da best at stompin' lootin' and killin' da 'umies

Ahem

Sorry about that. :lol

Dark Elf Blackguard, actually. -.-

[Megg]

GK - We've actually been playing Age of Conan. There are some problems still, but overall a good game. The combat is different, your placement matters, which attacks you use makes a big difference, and there is no such thing as auto-attack. The early levels are fun ... the first couple of times. I am enjoying my 48 assassin a lot, the 20 Priest of Mitra is fun too. The armor graphics need work, but the PvP armor is hot. There's a big patch coming out soon, though. 1.05 will change the whole game, but it seems fun on the test server so far. Haven't really decided yet.

So far, it is enjoyable - plus, it's Funcom, not SoE, so it gets points from me for just not being Sony.

[Fenrus]

Okay, so I made myself download the 10 day trial... and oh my god, everything's so pretty...

High resolution + Ultra High graphics = *drool*

I'm playing a Man Captain... that doesn't sound dirty at all! >_<

[Slytovhand]

I've just been looking at the Wiki for it, and damn... other than the lack of trees/paths you can take (at least, obviously), it seems just the same as WoW... (bar races - naturally!)

I'll probably pull my finger out and install (I presume I'm about to get hit with a million updates, and giga-ges of downloads...).

But from what little I've seen (and my presumption it's similar to WoW), I'm inclined to play melee DPS... prob Elf Champion (maybe try out Hunter... I love to snipe in FPS ).

So... someone tell me how much it isn't like WoW??

[Gravekeeper]

I've just been looking at the Wiki for it, and damn... other than the lack of trees/paths you can take (at least, obviously), it seems just the same as WoW... (bar races - naturally!)

I'll probably pull my finger out and install (I presume I'm about to get hit with a million updates, and giga-ges of downloads...).

But from what little I've seen (and my presumption it's similar to WoW), I'm inclined to play melee DPS... prob Elf Champion (maybe try out Hunter... I love to snipe in FPS ).

So... someone tell me how much it isn't like WoW??

Trees/paths are handled by equipping Deeds. Rather than assigning skill points.

Champs just mow through mobs, but don't do much else. DO NOT TOUCH HUNTER. EVER. DON'T TOUCH IT.

Seriously. It's on par with a WoW Hunter in that everyone and their god damn dog plays one. They are *everywhere*, like locusts. Not only are they the most popular class on every server but sometimes they're the most popular by nearly twice as much as the next class down. Yet they still only fill a DPS slot, so good luck finding a group that doesn't already have a Hunter in it. ;p

Its sort of like WoW 2.0. Many of the same concepts are there, but executed much much better. Also, the graphics wizz all over WoW without being too hard on system resources.

Group combos are kinda neat though. ( Multi character chain attacks ).

GK - We've actually been playing Age of Conan. There are some problems still, but overall a good game.

Never. Again. It is not a good game overall. It is a heaving mess of a game. It was a good game up till level 20, than the rest of it was completely unfinished and half assed. Not to mention the horrible balance problems and bugs.

Textbook case of shoving something out the door for a buck before its even remotely finished. ><

[Shards]

GK, I agree with you that booting a product out the door before it's ready is a bad idea, but we're talking about an MMO here. The thought process is pretty much 'we can patch it later,' which they've even started applying to games for the PS3 and Xbox360, which annoys the hell out of me because I neither have nor want to set up my consoles for online gaming. I like my games the way they are: Single player or local multiplayer. Apparently, though, I'm a dying breed because I'm not interested in finding out weather or not I'm as 'skilled' as generic-nerd-who-does-nothing-but-play-this-specific-game #498000, and so it's OK to say to gamers like me: "Well screw you! Go get a life (and by get a life we mean play with people you don't know over an internet connection as opposed to finding some real friends to play with you... heaven forbid you ever need to pick up a player 2 controller."

Sorry, that got ranty. Patching content pisses me off, because it leaves developers feeling it's OK to kick unfinished games out the door, and that's not cool with me. I bought your game, I should be able to play your game, not the little bit of broken pixels that was shat out in order to be patched up later.

[Megg]

Never. Again. It is not a good game overall. It is a heaving mess of a game. It was a good game up till level 20, than the rest of it was completely unfinished and half assed. Not to mention the horrible balance problems and bugs.

Textbook case of shoving something out the door for a buck before its even remotely finished. ><

LOL! Obviously, you played at release. It is a completely different game now, but I have those rabid "No way, no HOW!" games myself, so I will just respect your opinion.

[Gravekeeper]

LOL! Obviously, you played at release. It is a completely different game now, but I have those rabid "No way, no HOW!" games myself, so I will just respect your opinion.

Not exactly an opinion. >< The game was NOT finished past level 20 at release. That's a fact. It's also shut down 31 servers since than and the producer quit. It was a complete mess of a game to begin with and I honestly don't think its much better now.

It had some good ideas, but they were badly implemented or rushed.

Sorry, that got ranty. Patching content pisses me off, because it leaves developers feeling it's OK to kick unfinished games out the door, and that's not cool with me. I bought your game, I should be able to play your game, not the little bit of broken pixels that was shat out in order to be patched up later.

Welcome to Age of Conan! -.-

But yeah, I hate that. The mmo industry pulls it so much now too. I don't understand why. Nothing, nothing is more of a kiss of death for an MMO than a bad launch. Its too competitive a market to begin with to be jerking around in. But the problem is that once someone is turned away and quits an MMO due to a bad play experience, it's extremely difficult to get that person back.

I don't mean played it, enjoyed it, stopped playing. I mean played it, it sucked, left. Its extremely hard to convince MMO players to give something a second chance after a horrible first impression.

Look at Warhammer. Lot of potential, but they cut so so SO much out of the game to make release and have been feverishly patching back in content that should have been there to begin with. Than acting like its new. As a result, the game population dropped like a *rock* after the trial month ended and has been bleeding off ever since.

Couple that with the fact they're using a 2 realm system with open PvP ( Instead of 3 realm like DaoC, where the 3rd side acted as a natural balancer ) and the servers went to hell. Once one side had a leg up on the other, it snowballed until it was just 5 on 1 everywhere you went. Till you finally quit in disgust over the population, the bug or the class balance. ;p

Its been months since I quit Warhammer. I check back on it out of amusement from time to time and they still have not fixed a single thing that was destroying the game and the community when I left. I watched guild after guild dissolve because players were quitting out of disgust over the realm balance.....yet they still haven't addressed it? What the fark, guys. Your game is DYING. Wake up.

LOTRO is just.....how do I put it. Its solid, its a good game and nothing is missing, broken or unfinished. It's not the greatest game in the world, but at least its FINISHED and doesn't have any huge balance or technical issues.

[Shards]

That's the impression that I got from it that I liked.

Also, I liked how they segregate things into the different plot arcs for different levels, so it doesn't feel like if you don't have a high level character yet you're just plain not invited. The game's been going for 2 years now and I can still make a first level character without fear of being ganked the second I walk out of my starting town. I can't say that for WoW. My friend S started playing WoW 18 months after it started up, on a PvE server, and about 6 months later, some of my other friends and I followed him. He fiddled around on PvP servers a bit at the same time and got some characters pretty high, so then he wanted to switch to those permanently. Fine. R and I, the others who still played WoW with S, went to make characters on PvP servers, at this point 2.5 years after release, and I swear we didn't make it to level 10 or even out of our racial territories before we were getting swarmed by max-level characters. After continuing to play WoW from there to current, and my characters still getting ganked (took me a while to figure out which class I wanted to play, and I still haven't made it to max level because frankly I stopped giving a shit), I just got so fed up I didn't want to play it anymore.

[Fenrus]

Right, well.. I'm playing on Landroval server, name's Kariul (Man Minstrel... not so dirty sounding as Man Hunter)

[Slytovhand]

And...back to LOTRO....

I'm trying to get on, but cos I bought the box 2nd hand (Angmar), and there wasn't a product key with it, I'm having hassles!! So, I've got to d/l 10G of Moria (which I paid for .. only $10, so not much of a hassle.. til the exchange rate kicks in ). It reckons it'll finish it's d/l 5:20.... am... tomorrow..... (and I obviously need more sleep... couldln't even spell that word )

I only played WoW on PvE.. for similar reasons - I just didn't need to experience morons in action, cos I knew they'd be there. And other than the arena combat, the only times I specifically went PvP was when some of my guildies were getting ganked by some guys about 5 levels up on them... so they asked for my help... (and, as a rogue about 10-15 levels higher than them.. it was fun ... they stopped camping them then ..hehehehe).

The reason we're a dying breed is that MMO's make a crap load of money... so, push it out the door, make a ton of cash, then they can run away! And it's a constant. If you buy a game and don't like it, you shelve it... but that money is still gone whether you touch it again or not. Buy an MMO, you've already paid the same amount for it, whether you touch it or not again after free trial... if you do continue on, there's a stack more cash for them..

But it might bite them later on any further releases they put out. If you don't like the first product, much less likely to buy their second and third (unless it's truly spectacular.. and as GK said, most MMO's are pretty much the same and there's lots of competition out there for your MMO$$$).

[Slytovhand]

Ok, I'm on and playing.

What's happening with you, Shards? And is anyone else here playing?? (Other than Fenrus.. cos I've sent you mail!)

I've gone and done it GK... hunter (cos, it suits my style of game-play... I was the campy bastard who takes ppl out in 1 hit from range )

But I've also done up an Elf Champion. (which really isn't suiting my gameplay...).

But I can try other stuff.... (but I don't really see the point in wasting 40 metres...)

[draggar]

I did my 1 month trial and then paid for a lifetime membership. A month later - I stopped playing.

I went back on about 6 months later for a few weeks, but I haven't been back on since (~3-4 months ago). I should get back on.

I haven't even gone on EQ in months.