My New Player Experience Review after 1.5 Years playing LoTRO

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:
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
Summary
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.!
 

Shotechi

Well-known member
Good points!! It's great to hear so much positive, and that the game can convince even new players.

A better overview of owned/not-owned add-ons in the shop would make things so much more transparent, I fully agree.

A small comment to the starting zone - I think it would be better to update/revise the vanilla starter zones instead of directing everyone towards Swanfleet - that's just not a region most people are familiar with. This game being an explorable Middle Earth is its biggest advantage, and the fact that you get to play in the Shire or Breeland right away is a big big magnet for new players.
And I say that as the biggest BtS fan - I also think it is a magnificent opener, with perfect visuals, music and story.
 

Bacua

Founding Player
Good points! I've always felt, too, that a mentor system would be potentially useful. An opt-in channel or similar where newbies can find experienced players who can assist with guidance, crafting assistance, etc. Potentially a minor level of vetting (eg making sure those players have no reports etc) or training (helping vs hand-holding etc). I know there is /world and /advice, but those can be intimidating for a newbie and are prone to trolling.

Tribalwars has a similar system for newbies and it apparently had a big impact on retention.
 

Pharone

Twitch Streamer
Good points!! It's great to hear so much positive, and that the game can convince even new players.

A better overview of owned/not-owned add-ons in the shop would make things so much more transparent, I fully agree.

A small comment to the starting zone - I think it would be better to update/revise the vanilla starter zones instead of directing everyone towards Swanfleet - that's just not a region most people are familiar with. This game being an explorable Middle Earth is its biggest advantage, and the fact that you get to play in the Shire or Breeland right away is a big big magnet for new players.
And I say that as the biggest BtS fan - I also think it is a magnificent opener, with perfect visuals, music and story.
Updating the older starting areas to be at least as good of a new player experience as BtS would be great. My favorite up until BtS was Combe. I loved that starting area. I've done it sooooooo many times.
 

Pharone

Twitch Streamer
Good points! I've always felt, too, that a mentor system would be potentially useful. An opt-in channel or similar where newbies can find experienced players who can assist with guidance, crafting assistance, etc. Potentially a minor level of vetting (eg making sure those players have no reports etc) or training (helping vs hand-holding etc). I know there is /world and /advice, but those can be intimidating for a newbie and are prone to trolling.

Tribalwars has a similar system for newbies and it apparently had a big impact on retention.
I don't believe new players can actually talk in the /world channel until they hit level 10 which is a good thing because it cuts down on spam by bots.

I agree, though, that there should be a /newplayer channel that is available at level 1 for everyone. That way it isn't in /world and only pertains to those who opt in to joining that channel.
 

egarthur

Well-known member
I don't believe new players can actually talk in the /world channel until they hit level 10 which is a good thing because it cuts down on spam by bots.
It depends on account status. VIPs can talk in global channels as soon as they are out of the tutorial. Premium can talk at level 10. F2P can talk at level 20.

I agree, though, that there should be a /newplayer channel that is available at level 1 for everyone. That way it isn't in /world and only pertains to those who opt in to joining that channel.

I don't know how such a channel can keep out gold sellers, identity thieves, etc. short of some sort of moderation capability.
 

Harvain

Well-known member
It depends on account status. VIPs can talk in global channels as soon as they are out of the tutorial. Premium can talk at level 10. F2P can talk at level 20.

I don't know how such a channel can keep out gold sellers, identity thieves, etc. short of some sort of moderation capability.
Gold Spammers "seemingly" haven't been an issue for a while now. Other types of "Threats" are what they are.

A "trial period" could occur where the SSG LOTRO Team try out the viability of Level 5 for Premium and Level 10 for Free to Play for when Characters can use the Global Chats. If things do well, keep such as is, if there is signs of "increased issues" than roll it back to 10/20 respectively.
  • Make sure it's "easily seen" that one has to get to Level 10.
    • Which unless someone barely giving themselves any Play Time should be fairly quick for anyone.
A common thing that LOTRO has had over the years is New Players thinking that they were "being ignored" when trying to communicate and only realizing at Level 20 they can finally use the Global Chats.
 

Bone

Well-known member
As much as I love this game, 2 days ago I was ready to log off and play some Starfield(a Bethesda single player game) because of the server lag.


I agree totally with the OP on this.
 
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Harvain

Well-known member
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:
  1. 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.
The Original Starting Areas do continue to hinder LOTRO for both First Impressions & Interest. Add on top of that Game Performance better known as Lag by this Community and there is a combo which always turns people away.

One can check Youtube and every year we have several Review Videos for LOTRO that see Tens of Thousands or Hundreds of Thousands of views, plus rare 1+ Million Views, and the most common theme they always discuss is how the Starting Areas look. Then we see people discussing how "LOTRO has outdated graphics", and people such as myself stating that LOTRO has better Visuals, the Visuals for LOTRO just aren't the same across the board.

I doubt it could happen for 2025 but getting Ered Luin, the Shire, and the Bree Lands all being Visually Updated would be a large boost to helping getting people interested by things looking more appealing than what is currently offered.
  • Throw in an Instance Cluster with "Themes" for each Region if that would help justify the work more.
Get Game Performance (Lag) in better shape in the coming years, more frequent Older Content Visual Updates (main goal should be getting up to & into Moria and rolling on through the Main Story up through the Mid-Levels), Quality of Life Updates for Older Content, etc. and we'd have more people trying out LOTRO with a better chance they stay long term.
 
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