Pharone
Twitch Streamer
What Is This?
This is my thoughts and feedback on how the game plays for brand new players to the game as of the past two years.
Why Me?
I tried Lotro some 14 years ago, and at the time, I was heavily addicted to EverQuest. I ended up not staying with Lotro because of my EQ addiction. Fast forward to October of 2022, I installed Lotro again, created a new character on the Gladden server (never played on Gladden before), and started over from scratch. In essence, I was a "new player" to Lotro in 2022.
Summary of advantages to starting out brand new in 2024
For new players to the game, they have many years of content to enjoy before they ever catch up to the current content. They also have the benefit of getting to play through all of the old content AFTER it has gone through many years of renovations and quality-of-life additions. It's actually a really, really great experience for someone coming in to the game brand new right now.
Downsides of starting new in 2024
I would say that the only downside for people like myself right this very minute is server lag. My assumption is that SSG is doing everything they can to alleviate and/or completely remove server lag. Their efforts with the new 64 bit servers coming out soon is testament to that. Regardless what people think, they are making progress, and I appreciate it.
Suggestions for helping new players become long term players
For a brand new player of Lord of the Rings Online who picked up the game TODAY, I would say that their are a few things they could do to make that initial experience the best it could possibly be:
Lord of the Rings Online is an absolutely AMAZING experience in 2024. I am absolutely floored that this game is not as well known and popular in the MMO industry after spending the past year and a half playing it. I run in to people all the time that are shocked to find out there is a MMO for Lord of the Rings. Seriously. People don't know it exists. I'm doing everything I can to promote it through my streams. I hope it helps because I truly love this game and what SSG has done for it. I look forward to many more years in Lotro.!
This is my thoughts and feedback on how the game plays for brand new players to the game as of the past two years.
Why Me?
I tried Lotro some 14 years ago, and at the time, I was heavily addicted to EverQuest. I ended up not staying with Lotro because of my EQ addiction. Fast forward to October of 2022, I installed Lotro again, created a new character on the Gladden server (never played on Gladden before), and started over from scratch. In essence, I was a "new player" to Lotro in 2022.
Summary of advantages to starting out brand new in 2024
For new players to the game, they have many years of content to enjoy before they ever catch up to the current content. They also have the benefit of getting to play through all of the old content AFTER it has gone through many years of renovations and quality-of-life additions. It's actually a really, really great experience for someone coming in to the game brand new right now.
Downsides of starting new in 2024
I would say that the only downside for people like myself right this very minute is server lag. My assumption is that SSG is doing everything they can to alleviate and/or completely remove server lag. Their efforts with the new 64 bit servers coming out soon is testament to that. Regardless what people think, they are making progress, and I appreciate it.
Suggestions for helping new players become long term players
For a brand new player of Lord of the Rings Online who picked up the game TODAY, I would say that their are a few things they could do to make that initial experience the best it could possibly be:
- Replace the visuals of all starting gear from level 1 to 20 in the old world starting areas. While the game is beautiful and you can come up with some truly amazing outfits over time as you collect different pieces, the starting area gear looks absolutely horrendous. This is likely the biggest turn off for new players to the game. They hear about how awesome the game is, watch some videos online and see how fun it looks, and then they get in game for the first time and literally look like a clown in a sideshow circus walking around. I know it has to be confusing for the average newbie to the game. They see such awesome outfits on the streamer's characters, and it is a stark difference between those looks and what you actually get when you start out in the game. It's shockingly bad looking at level 1 lol. Sorry designers. It's just the truth.
- Make Before the Shadow free and include it with the initial game download. The Before the Shadow new player experience is hands down 100% better than all other new character experiences. It's beautiful, the story is amazing, and the gear you get as a new player is actually really good. Before the Shadow should be the default experience for new players to the game. This is a new player experience that makes your new players turn in to long term customers.
- Add a Storage/Shared Storage NPC, Wardrobe NPC (don't know if that's what it is called.. I always use my VIP item to get to wardrobe), and VIP NPC to the starting areas. You shouldn't have to wait until around level 5 or higher to get to a main city to access these NPCs/services. Allow the new player to get in and start experiencing the storage and wardrobe system as soon as possible. It's one of the best features of the game, and should be highlighted for new players immediately.
- Give the new player a quest at level 1, after they come out of the initial instance, that takes them to a VIP NPC in their starting town and teaches them about the subscription system and how they can benefit from it. Give them a 1 week VIP inventory item as a reward for the quest. This is the item that allows them to open a store, storage, shared storage, and wardrobe system. Once someone experiences the massive benefits of the VIP system, you are way more likely to have those individuals actually sign up for the monthly subscription.
- Add crafting NPCs to the starting town (talking about Mossward here). The fact that you have harvest nodes all around Mossward that you can not pick up because you have to go to the next town over (around level 10ish) to learn crafting is aggravating to say the least. Let them pick up a crafting profession at level 2 in their starting town, so they can start collecting from the harvest nodes that are all around their starting town.
- Create a What Do I Own window they can pull up in-game that shows them exactly what expansions, quest packs, etc that their current logged in account owns. Have two lists.... 1 for what you already own and 1 for what you do not already own. Make it so that when you click on any one of them, it brings up a full description and list of what you actually get access to if you own that expansion/pack. It shouldn't be so confusing for new players to have some sort of idea of what they own and don't own in the game as well as what those purchases actually give them. Make it super easy to tell that the first 95 levels are free and show them which expansions/packs are FREE and already part of their account. Nobody should be wondering if they should purchase an expansion or pack that they already have because it was made free by default years ago.
Lord of the Rings Online is an absolutely AMAZING experience in 2024. I am absolutely floored that this game is not as well known and popular in the MMO industry after spending the past year and a half playing it. I run in to people all the time that are shocked to find out there is a MMO for Lord of the Rings. Seriously. People don't know it exists. I'm doing everything I can to promote it through my streams. I hope it helps because I truly love this game and what SSG has done for it. I look forward to many more years in Lotro.!