Hi all!!!! Long time, no see....

[ganesh]

Its been a long while. Gotta say, didnt think i would go and pay for another game every month. At the moment im messin with WoW. Got friends from work that i get online with and play. But I do miss my old guildmates of UO past.

Right now im kinda maxed out on the computer im playin on. But once replaced, I could probably split my game time to two different online games. Lookin to replace it in the next few months.

So tell a man whos slow to the "modern" gaming world...what Lord of The Rings Online is like? I gotta say, at the moment, im lovin WoW. I see that the graphics seem much more smooth and silky. But whats the content like? Is it the kind of game that you cant wait to get online to play..not only to fight monsters...but to just get on and go hang out with the guys and kick back a few pints of good lager and speakin of good memories of the past?

How many subscribers are there? Part of my worries of ever gettin on another game was....will it last?, will it be popular enough that the makers actually keep it runnin forward and fairly smooth at that. I know WoW has plenty playin it...but i couldnt find anywhere that LoTRO said X-amount of people subscribe.

Clue me in....get me wantin to seriously think of playin two games at once... I cant give up on WoW...I do like playin it. But would love to hang with my ol' friends even if it takes payin for another game every month.

Thanks in advance for any info you can help me with...

[ganesh]

No info huh? Well, i figured i'd try and download it, see if this computer will do ok with it for the time being. tryin the 10 trial out, im at 58% of the full download. Figured id do it right...the fast download from what it said would be less graphics and such. If im gonna see if it like it, might as well do it right....right?

Its gotta be pretty good if Jim is spendin his extra time at it, hehe.

[Terina/Sinaroc]

Well honestly, I was waiting for someone else to say something first cause I am tired of being the only one to ever contribute or post . That seems to be a lost cause though.

Graphics wise the game blows away WoW in that it less cartoony looking this is the main thing for a lot of people. It is much more natural looking.

The population is healthy, I believe they are probably 2nd or 3rd in NA right now. Being as Turbine is a private non traded company they never release their numbers.

The game is going nowhere they have a license from Tolkien Enterprises to continue the game until at least 2017 which can be extended (it has already been extended once so far). Basically they have to get many changes approved through them to fit in with the lore of the world. They are still allowed a ton of leeway though .

There are regular content updates every 3 months or so. The entire world of Middle-earth is not available right now though for expansion and money purposes heh. Currently we are as far as Lothlorien and Moria. Moria is beyond massive and is a Level 50+ area.

The game is extremely casual/solo friendly in that you can do what you want but that grind feeling is starting to overwhelm in many areas that is hard to explain here, just certain aspects of the game. You can level fast and there's tons of content, things are heavily quest based and that is the best way to level. Some insist on blindly grinding mobs but that is insane heh.

DoJ doesn't roleplay but there are plenty of role play groups just gotta know where to look for them. Also some servers are more RP friendly then others. All servers have the same set of standard rules no special ones.

There's pvp and it is called PvM(player vs monster). At level 10 you unlock the ability to create a monster character (on your character creation screen) which can only be played in one zone(ettinmoors) and you become a level 60 monster(or 50 without the expansion). At level 40 on the regular player side is the first time you can enter the pvm area but it isn't recommended until like 55+ otherwise you just become warg food. PvP is a tiny portion of this game and an attraction in that it doesn't completely influence the rest of the game world.

There is raiding but no where the depth and domination that it is in WoW but it seems to be growing. DoJ doesn't raid we just don't have the players or ability heh.

As far as our guild or 'kinship' as they are called in this game, it is rather small with people coming and going. Someone is always playing an alt but is usually willing to help in some way. You will for the most part be playing solo or in small 2 or 3 person fellowship(group) if some high level wants to help you as we have like no low levels heh. Any serious grouping gotta find on your own with non kinship people. Some of the best content is group instances and epic books(main storyline) and worth doing if you can get people in on it.

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By the way someone in game can send you a founders referral(Jim *cough* I have no referrals left) and you would be able to get a few extra days on the trial and if you subscribe be eligible for 9.95/month pricing instead of the standard 14.95. Has to be a new account though can't apply it to a current one.

[Terina/Sinaroc]

Who plays here that you probably remember

Current members
Jim(and his friend Al that played UO), Apollo, Allurapre and her kids. Cimba comes and goes as does his son but I don't think you know Trug. We have several new friendly players to a couple of them play quite often. Marna plays to but as you probably seen is in a far off part of the world right now . There's me to ofcourse, you probably don't remember the original non-Belt Grimblade Terina character though from early UO .

Lost members heh
Jaxs(drops by like few times a year), Lothor, Shadowjack, Illusive and SirLanka and his wife have played but all not in quite some time just to give you an example of who has been here heh. We couldn't pry Niamb away from her endless WoW raiding unfortunately .


(okay I am done editing now heh)

[Allura Prime]

I purposely waited for Terina to post first . Comapre lotro with wow, hmmmmm, way better storylines IMHO. Graphics you have to see for yourself, about as realistic as "toony" can be. The game will also automatically detect your best video setting so no worries there.

Come give it a try, its free atm I think?