LOTRO – Worth a Second Look?
I had purchased the game when first released and played up to level 10ish but was immediately sucked back into WoW with the Burning Crusade expansion (I was a GM of a progression guild at the time. No time for two games!). Going through some old emails I found an old buddy key I had – that was never used, so thinking of firing it up for the 10 day trial and seeing how things are. Intersting thought there, Wow:BC coincided with LOTRO, WoW:WOTLK with WAR, so I am going to suppose that the next WoW expansion will be released some time around the Bioware KOTOR MMO launch. Anyway – getting off topic.
I have been bouncing around blogs not in my regular reading rotation and have read a lot of positive reports about how the game is carrying along. Curious if anyone out there (who reads this) is currently playing, and can recommend a server and some LOTRO tips to improve the (no doubt) 10 day solo experience while the rest of you run around the Mines of Moira. If you don’t mind giving me your in game name, so I can bother you with noobish questions along the way (and have someone to chat with in general, you know, MMO and all that) it would be greatly appreciated.
Most bloggers seem to be on Landroval, which I hear is the unofficial RP server. Casualties of WAR, the blogger guild, has a presence there as well. I don’t play it myself right now though. It does appear to be becoming the blogosphere’s favorite ‘other MMO’ (besides WoW), dethroning EverQuest II from the penultimate spot as the blogospheres favorite MMO.
My problem with LoTRO has always been that, past the level 1 through 15 starting areas, the game gets very bland in the 20’s. This is true to the lore, as the Lone Lands and the areas between Bree and Rivendale are pretty well, bland…but in terms of game play, it’s very difficult to push through the 20’s and make it out the other side. I never did.
Despite constant encouragement and promises of “better things” in the Troll Shaws, I could just never make it. The quality of content in WoW had put a major wall between “me” and “accepting mediocre content”.
While I loved the character mechanic I trialed (for 3 days) it didn’t stick with me past level 10 either. Movement didn’t feel smooth and while I enjoyed the graphics, story elements, and basic premise the mechanics felt “off” in execution.
Maybe 10 levels isn’t a fair judgement of the game, but I wasn’t captured in that time frame. I suppose being spoiled with an active guild of great people in WoW (always laughs and someone to talk to) didn’t help the experiment much either.
Anyway, there is a new post from it forthcoming soon =)
I’ve definitely been recommending the game more to people who haven’t played it, rather than ones who did and are returning, because as a whole there seems to be a ton of content– but of course if you’ve already done some of it before.
From lvl 10 though, it doesn’t sound like you exhausted your enjoyment the first time through. =)
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