I've relativley new to MMOs, I usually played my Xbox mainly but then I experienced the red ring of death and couldn't afford to get it fixed at the time. I fancied having ago at online gaming but becasue my gaming time is few and far between I never committed, but then I'd heard about Lotro going F2P. So I gave it a shot, I had no idea what I was doing or what I was supposed to be doing. I made blunders such as stacking gear that was the opposite to what my class rerquired thinking I had to make up the difference, Chat? could not figure out how to whisper so would have global conversations. Lol. I would also forget to click out of the chat box and so at times during battle with a fellowship I'd just be doing auto attacks while my chat box would be showing 11213333232311 hehe.
Eventually I moved to Wow (because of a girl) It was ok, good fun and well developed but then moved to Star Wars becasue I love the films and everything connected to it. Unfortunatly due to financial difficluty and the fact I was averaging 1 hour a week I though whats the point in playing, just go F2P and purchase extras as I go, and so came back to LOTRO.
Now that I'm a little more experienced with the world of MMO I can confidently say this is one of the best. Ok it misses pvp but although i enjoyed it I was terrible! Graphics wise its georgous and my ###### spec laptop handles it fine at high settings...and it still looks great at medium. Star Wars drained CPU resources so much at times it was hard to play becasue of lag and I had to turn the graphics down so much. The way the character handles and animation, great, again kicks SW ###. Things to do? Well I say it beats Wow in the respect that all the extras are worthwhile persuing.
Star Wars is a great game in terms of overall story and the choice mechanics, and I love Bioware games. But, Planets felt like a grind, long loading times and poor graphics (on my part) marred the game but it is still in its infancy. Wow is great purely from development, and the sheer size and scope, but its either full of kids or its elitist. Lotro just does it for me, sure it isn't perfect, what game is, but the way it ties in with the books, the beauty of the landscape, the way its captured the feel and architecture of both the film and the book. Its awesome. Plus the community are the best I've encountered/read, so much so that in other games I've been afraid to take on a tank class for fear of getting boll**ed if I messed up but in this game I feel I can give it a shot.
I have just one question, how do I zoom in on the mini map?
xD that 112113213431 thing still happens to me constantly. When I stil had my guard I kinda sorta caused a few wipes because I forgot to press enter :P Oh and welcome back to the game Glad you enjoy it this time around. I suggest playing creepside, it's fun, and extremely challenging since we're not as strong, but it's still super awesome .
I'm glad you're enjoying it so much! I really love how we're able to play in such a good representation of Middle Earth. And I'm also glad they included Tom Bombadil haha