<![CDATA[The Lord of the Rings Online™ Forums - New Player Questions & Impressions]]>

Caution, I don't believe in TL;DR.This is a little bit lengthy, and I apologize for that, but I just thought I'd share my thoughts; and hey, why come to a forum if you aren't interested in reading any way, right? However certain sections may be of more importance insofar as discussion fodder goes. So please DO skip to certain parts :). Also, the reason why I haven't addressed PvMP, or crafting, is because I don't feel I've experienced either enough to speak on it yet.

I have been regularly playing for a little over a month now on a VIP account, reading these forums through out

Hello there, not necessarily new to the game, however I feel that I am truly experiencing it for the first time. I had played briefly for some time in 2011 (if I remember correctly) but had to leave it due to real life circumstances and other things and games just caught my attention; so I've never got around to really trying LOTRO until just recently and have so far been having a very great MMO experience, however I have a few misgivings and been hearing some conflicting thoughts as well. My highest toon is a 32 Cappy on Landroval, so my perceptions and views may change based upon what I find as I progress through content and expansions.

Context
A couple misc things about this lotro-newb, said for the sake of context of where I'm coming from in posting this: MMOs that I've played that would be noteworthy are EQ (moderately) Dark Age of Camelot (moderately) Star Wars Galaxies (moderately) City of Heroes (extensively) World of Warcraft (extensively) and Champions Online (more than moderately). I'm a player of Pen n' Paper RPGs (DnD, World of Darkness, Middle Earth Role Playing, Hero System) a fan of cRPGs of an older bent and MMO text RP as well. Consider myself a Tolkienite being a great admirer, and having read, the LOTR Novel, Hobbit and the Silmarillion.

An MMO, in my opinion, is great when is has good building blocks as a world. Setting, environmental and character design, solid mechanics and some good 'fluff' here and there. Good mechanics its mind and spine, a decent setting as its heart and good solo play and group play that is complimented by those mechanics (along with PvP ). The current trend of faster leveling and emphasis on 'power fantasy'--this doesn't necessarily include getting 'leet lewts' from 'epic' raids, or even feeling a sense of accomplishment. One of my favorite games was a Super Hero MMO after all-- via this quick progression, more focus on an ROFLstomp game-play with an illusion of difficulty at best in places, all in the name of making the player feel powerful. A sense of accomplishment, things that add to a good experience and not necessarily an illusory 'power fantasy immersion' is, methinks, what makes a good MMO.

The emphasis on 'great graphics (!)' also troubles me. The aesthetics of a game, a cohesive art design to a game, being what is actually important. The brown and more brown and sienna and umber of certain shooters being a sure second to something vibrant, with a cohesive color palate, such as Ocarina of Time or Windwaker, despite the recent Brown Shooter having 'superior' graphics.

Lastly as an RP'er I think characters should be created with the setting and lore in mind, a rather short statement that has some implications however.

How I Got Here
My previous MMO had not received a content update in some three odd years or so, and I was getting tired of essentially paying for, what amounted to in that MMO, a VIP Account for a 3d RP chat room and I'd written off WoW some time ago, though I had fond memories of it from Vanilla to Wrath, as an alternative. I was having these thoughts around September of last year and decided I needed to find a new game.

I was considering going back to City of Heroes, having loved the community, game play and RP there, only to be met with the grim news of NCSoft closing their doors. Naturally I was rather peeved, having even fonder memories of CoH, and while I had a passing interest in GW2 and even the upcoming WildStar Online I've decided to never trust or play an NCSoft MMO every again, despite Carbine Studios and Arena being good folks from what I've read.

I'm going to have to do a wesbsite or a podcast a disservice here because I can't remember exactly where I read or heard these things (massively's Road to Mordor? A Casual Stroll to Mordor?) however I do remembered reading somewhere about LOTRO's superlative community--giving me echoes of CoH's-- as well as the gang busters PvE-- which reminded me of what I enjoyed of WoW-- 'so LOTRO it is' I decided.

I originally rolled a Cappy (I enjoy hybrid classes and wearing multiple hats) on Laurelin but decided to roll on Landroval because it was where I had rolled previously the first time I'd played and was curious if some of the people I met there were still there, and the fact that there are more US players in Landroval, for the sake of time zone and scheduling things.

Good Stuff
As already implied I don't mind slower level progression as long as its driven by good questing and good instanced/PvP content. Thus far I've found nothing mechanically to grumble over in-game. The game very much so reminds me of a strange, in a good way, shade of EQ and DAoC (with just a dash of SWG) if either were made with the 'Post-WoW lessons' in mind, but still sticking to the formula of either EQ or DAoC. I very much so like this.

Morale, Power, Hope and dread are welcoming names for things, while de rigueur for many MMOs, because they add to some 'Tolkieny' themes to the 'skin' of the game.

The questing is extremely solid and I actually enjoy reading the quest text (which I do out of habit anyway, but to actually enjoy quest text is something that I don't find doing very often lately!) and Turbine's faithfulness to "the spirit' of Tolkien's Legendarium, even if some concessions and alterations must be done because this is an MMO. Where Turbine has altered, from what I observe so far, they've always attempted to stay within the Legendarium's spirit.

Skirmishes are an intriguing and enjoyable mechanic, the skirmishes themselves being solid PvE 'pops' of content and their 'theme' and design always adding to the sense that you are in Middle Earth.

The cosmetic outfit system is very neat. A very good direction to go for appearance customization in a 'EQ-WoWesqu' character creator MMO. The prices of certain limited time outfits in the LOTRO store is a little bit much, however it can count as 'fluff' on a 'take it or leave it' basis. The wardrobe and dying system is great, and I have hopes of seeing a form of a 'cosmetic weapons system' in the future despite the difficulties with weapon animations.

The RP scene, so far from what I've encoutnered, is pretty good. Often times lore based, serious and sometimes light hearted. Tavern RP can be Tavern RP, but so far, even in the pony I've found a great time RP'ing

So three anecdotes: I've been struck poorly by 'nerds' and 'gamers'. Often finding the petty venom of 'gamer culture' very tiresome and worthy of head shaking (see League of Legend's horror stories or even XBOX Live badness). This isn't to say there isn't great people in these 'subcultures' but due to experience I was, naturally, wary when during my first GB run on Landroval I was asked to enable voice.

There were mostly ladies on the microphone that evening, with a couple folks unable to use voice, and I had an utter blast. Friendly, helpful, personable folks! We had an RK in our group who kept thinking herself a tank and while there were jokes of 'pulling a Leeroy' and squealing the RK's name in giddy exasperation--the RK herself being extremely good natured about it, almost giggling in mild embarrassment as she apologized, bantering along with the rest of us--, there were no insults, there were no petty words, and through it all we managed to slay Ivar and emerge from the Great Barrow unscathed having had a great time, and myself happy that hearing of LOTRO's Superlative Community was not a deception.

GB itself was solid, and I actually like the concept of the 'cluster' of instances. The cluster system giving a sense of progression and also helping with managing time. Though I imagine some world instances take longer than others, as with any other instance in any other game. There was talk about perhaps running Road to Erebor but I don't own RoR so we were unable to do so, unfortunately.

There was also this other time where I asked someone where they got a certain cosmetic and they freely lent it to me, I gave it back and to my surprise they told me that they'd lent out many, many, many cosmetics and always received them back, even getting new cosmetics sometimes!

Also Turbines customer support over the phone was extremely friendly and helpful, though unable to resolve my issue of a char my friend "accidentally deleted, were so forthcoming and accommodating ("Call us back in..about a month and we just be able to resolve this for you...anything else I can help you with though?") that I was put at ease. Now one might say "well duh! Tech support, they're job to be polite" I have had, in the past, terrible experiences with MMO support.

Misgivings and Conflicted Thoughts
My primary regret as it relates to LOTRO is that I did not play it around launch, and the reason for this is not merely because I've had a wonderful time (thus far) but because of some rather dark thoughts.

Now there are two areas that are of conflicting thoughts for me, as a relatively new player, and those are of things I have actually experienced and things I am hearing. The latter largely being things that I cannot account any evidence for, but the mere fact that it is being said, and the frequency it is said, could mean something.

Now of what I've experienced I can say that, while the LOTRO store is great, the prices on certain things seem to be a little steep. While cosmetic fluff 'is take it or leave it' it should still be priced as such, the obvious counter point being that many cosmetics you can now buy are quest rewards and can be made by crafting professions, so its really a matter of convenience vs time, and this is a fair point.

I have noticed , as I've been reading these forums, some Stormcrowing and Doom foreseeing posts. Whether or not this is true (Turbine's ability to bring back Asheron's Call 2, to me any way, is a good sign of the opposite of this stormcrowing being true) is not my primary concern, more so the dissatisfaction I'm regularly hearing that there was over Rise of Isengard and Riders of Rohan insofar as it relates to instanced content and raids. Some of these posts I can sympathize with and others I pause and arch my eyebrow, being a fan of instanced content and raids myself but also of solo play.

For me the former being the little thrill of planning, conflict, and ultimately victory and that sense of achievement and the latter being a nice adventure, the ease of which is being able to do so at your own time and pace.

Stormcrowing can be just stormcrowing because someone, is, in fact a malcontent cantankerous Stormcrow, however why its troubling to me, as a relatively new player, is that it echoes some of what I was often hearing in MY LAST MMO when I left it. The Doom Seeing and Stormcrowing in my last MMO was over lack of content generally , however the grumbling here, while about a 'similar but different' thing, is of the same tone and general message.

From one or two people In-Game hearing "I hate x y z about LOTRO" and prefer "GW2" or "New Shiny Adventure Blah". A lot of these things that I've heard as to the 'betterness' of these alternatives stem in the fact that they're 'quicker leveling' and generally 'more power fantasy' geared. I've already said my view of such things in Context, so this is a matter of differing taste rightly or wrongly, BUT if this the way the market is geared it could be very bad, bad news IF, as this person claimed, he hears such sentiments, like his own, "all the time".

Another being, and it relates to some of the above, what I'm hearing of WB's --a company that I have a very mixed and wary feeling towards. Them owning the rights to produce certain things that are of some of my favorites intellectual properties, properties that they haven't always treated well, i.e DC Comics and LOTR--spreading Turbine thin and the dark possibility that LOTRO is a 'Daddy Warbucks or bust!' cash cow flash in the pan as far as WB is concerned.

Running it into the ground until the Cow is exhausted, out of milk, unable to even plow any more and, having out lived its usefulness ,as far as Wicked Brown, the farmer, is concerned, slaughtered for its meat, offering it to market, the last time the cow is ever to produce anything ever again. This image is very dark, disturbing, and sad, as I've come to be very fond of this Cow named LOTRO.

The cow hasn't kicked me, nor shown itself to be a poor cow to me yet, and I'll be rather upset if Wicked Brown kills this rather amiable cow. I was rather upset when my old friend ,the cow named CoH, was slaughtered by NorbertSnotty, especially considering I remembered her fondly, she hadn't run out of milk yet, was still quite well liked and to boot I didn't even get to say goodbye properly.

Wrapping Up
This could be considered something of a TL;DR I suppose, anyway...

At the end of all these thoughts and observations I have to say that I feel extremely happy with LOTRO as a game and welcomed by the community that I have met.

I have some troubled thoughts about some of the possibility of the Foreseer's of Doom and Sromcrows being right--if only because they echo the tone and theme of comments in the forums of my previous MMO and because of the context of CoH, which I intended to return to but did not because, that poor cow, it was slaughtered at the whim of farmer NorbertSnooty-- about WB spreading Turbine too thin, the (sometimes) justifiable grumblings about RoI and RoR insofar as they relate to instanced content and raiding (which I can only judge based on what is written, as I haven't either expansion yet), but none the less I intend to buy the expansion 3-pack on Steam when I can afford it and regularly being a sucker for cosmetics in the LOTRO store when I don't miss those diabolically tempting limited time outfits.

I expect to enjoy Mines of Moria given what I've read of it, and the Warden class seems intriguing. I'm hoping to stay here for quite a long time. At a MMO Panel at PAX East, some heads of certain MMO studios being what this panel was composed of, it was said by , I think, the EQ guy in terms of CoH's closure (paraphrasing) "Its a bummer, yeah. There is no reason, ideally, why these things shouldn't just stay around for as long as they wish to".

This statement is palpable when you think that EQ is still around and Turbine's own Asheron's call is still humming along itself too, along with games like RuneScape and even the still lingering Dark Age of Camelot.

So I'll finish this post with an Image that I truly hope to see in this game someday, from a very good DeviantArtist . The image reminds me a lot of something you'd see in the Book of Kells were it written in Middle-Earth.

I appreciate your taking the time to read this!

Sincerely,
Sir Alleyne, The Long Winded

http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs71/i/20...04-d5xsi5a.jpg