The Lord of the Rings Online

[Kathryn Lacey]

Do any of you play this game? It recently became free, and my lover and I have had a lot of fun playing it.

Free users can have up to two characters, and there are ways to earn things called Turbine Points which can be used to buy things from tLotRO Store rather than paying real money for it.

It's a lot of fun. I have two characters on the server Gladden:

Sailahina
Level 30 Elf Hunter
Historian ((Farmer, Scholar, Weaponsmith))

Hayal
Level 31 Elf Guardian
Tinker ((Cook, Jeweler, Prospector))

Don't tell, but I've done a fandom crossover with Hayal. She's Vulcan. I blame the creators of the game for having Vulcan eyebrows for elves. =3

I created Saila first, and she's fun, but she's a lot squishier than Hayal. This makes it harder for me to play with Saila alone when going on quests that are around her level. That's why I play as Hayal more, but I'm going for this thing where each time I level one character, I'll switch to the next. It'll ensure that I play them both. =3

Both of my characters are a part of the kin called Servants of the Secret Fire. Points if you understand the reference!


The game is a lot of fun. If you don't already play it, you should start and join Gladden so we can play together!



Last night, my lover showed me this funny glitch in the game. With my alt, Saila, and his minstrel alt, Vates, we were able to climb atop the Prancing Pony where he serenaded me on his harp. Click the picture below to see the larger version!

[Kalon Ordona II]

Wielders of the Flame of Anor?? xDDD
"YOOOUWR.... SHALL NOT... PAWSS!!" *pTHshkww!*

This is it! LOTRO, the thing MEO turned into when Turbine took over (and ruined it). I'm glad it's free, though! Now, as soon as I get a good computer, it's MINE! xD

Is it fun?

[Silvan Arrow]

I joined LOTRO back when you still had to pay for it, and I'm still on the Windfola server. I haven't played since before it became free, so I would have to spend a ridiculous amount of time waiting for the game to update. But hey, I have lots of time on my hands with Christmas break, so I'll see if I can get back into it.

Does anyone know if it's possible to change servers?

[Kathryn Lacey]

Kalon, heheh POINTS! If you look [u]here[/url] and skip to 2:10, you hear him speak of it. ^^_^^

I never played Middle Earth Online. I only started tLotRO when it became free. I don't know what MEO was like before Turbine took over, buuuuut I do believe that tLotRO is a lot of fun, and there are a lot of things that one can do with it.

There are quests and skirmishes, and a person can choose a vocation. One can also have a house to decorate and such. It's neat, but I don't have a house. I just use my kinship's house.


Silvan, you can switch servers, but you have to create a new character on the server. You can't pull your character from one server into another one.

Sadly, I won't be on tLotRO very much during Christmas break because I'm going to visit my lover from December 20th, 2010 to January 5th, 2011.

[Kalon Ordona II]

MEO was what it was called while it was still in development, with the people who were making it before Turbine took over and finished making it. So it never got released as Middle-earth Online. But the plans--O the glorious plans--were there, and a lot of people were excited. Many are quite disappointed. Still, it's cool that a game was made in the first place. ^^ At the very least, it must be awesome to go around and see everything in Middle-earth come to life!

[Kathryn Lacey]

The game is incredibly detailed. It's really beautiful, and it is very cool to see the things from the book come to life.

What were some of the plans that didn't make it into the finished product?

[Kalon Ordona II]

It's been so long that I don't really remember. Except one major thing was "kinships." A lot of forums were dedicated to that idea, in preparation. Spawned a lot of role-playing. Other details I don't recall, but there was a lot that got completely changed. The entire project switched hands.

Best not to get hung up on the what-might-have-beens. The general consensus seemed to have been that, where MEO would have been a history-making game on par with the books and movies, LOTRO ended up as just another MMORPG. Whether that's true or not can't really be known, since MEO was never made. ^^ It doesn't really bother me either way, since I was in it more for the role-playing than the gaming (since my computer can't handle games of that caliber... really anything more than flash games ). Just making a character and walking around would be enough for me. ^^

[Blackrock]

Ahhh LOTRO...the game that introduced me to MMO's AND Roleplaying as a whole. I have many fond memories of it. I started playing back in 2007 when it was released (I can't believe so much time has passed since then!) and spent a good two or so years with it. I played on the European servers, ran by Codemasters who were kind enough to offer us a "dedicated" (take it with a grain of salt) roleplay server. Even though I was still in the dark on the whole RP subject, it sounded like my kind of place. And what a name it had: Laurelin! It seemed like a dream come true, I had always been a great fan of the books. And having a chance to actually set foot in Middle-Earth was amazing, the first month I spent in total awe.

As luck would have it, I then found an amazing group of folks and joined a kinship (which is the equivalent of guilds in other MMO's, no difference apart from the name). I said luck, because, in retrospect the server was full with some of the worse roleplayers I have ever. The guys in the kinship, however, were of a much different breed, true "heavy" RP'ers - I can pretty much say I learned most of what I know from them. Heck, I'm still running with the same people (albeit in a different game, with new faces of course) to this day.

I played a Man Guardian, hailing from Rohan, who had made his way up North to search for some long lost relatives. (I admit, the backstory I had crafted for him was crude and uninteresting) Time went on, the game was perfect, I enjoyed questing and leveling up. Crafting and gaining new traits, completing the deeds in the various locations and of course - meeting all the famous people from the books! Not to mention the landmarks...damn, I still remember how my jaw dropped the first time I saw Amon Sul.

I even went as far buying a lifetime subscription, so that pretty much meant I could hop in at any time I wanted. I can still do that and enjoy all the privileges of a paid account, but sadly - the magic's just gone.

I dunno what the cause was, but things took a turn for the worse. I took breaks and came back, only to take another break and so on and so on. RP on the server was appalling, filled with prime examples that could be put in a "Things you should NOT do when trying to roleplay" thread. The community was starting to fall apart, not to mention there was a huge influx of people who had no interest in roleplaying whatsoever. My own guild started losing interest in the game, each person drifting off to do their own thing in other games and other formats (until most of us came back for our current project). By the end, only a few of us were left.

Now, the game itself I think deteriorated. Instead of playing on the strengths of their, I should say, unique IP, Turbine decided to turn it into your generic fantasy. Their originally interesting story became a drawn-out, quite pointless, series of quests full of Black Numenorians, Witch-King wannabes and corrupted Elves. In the "epic" raids that game offered you had a chance to down: a Balrog, a Dragon and The Watcher in the Water. Now, this probably means little to people who are not fans of the series, but anyone who's familiar with Tolkien's lore knows how much that screws with the lore.

There were literally hundreds of debates on this very same topic, often regarding this thing or that. For one, adding the Runekeeper class (a clone of every mage character you've seen in other games) and throwing in some shallow lore behind it caused an uproar. Turbine didn't listen and continued making the game more generic with each update. Don't get me wrong, staying a 100% true to the books would make for a boring game, but in the end - I had to objectively look at it and ask: "When measured up to other MMO's, LOTRO is lacking - what it stood out with was its unique atmosphere, but now that it's lost, do I want to stick around?" Add to the fact that my kinship was growing ever less active...and the story is mostly complete.

Bottom line, in my opinion at least, is that Turbine tried to appeal to the masses too much. Gameplay should take precedence over lore, but not to the point where the setting becomes watered down. This is something I think few others will understand - after all, to most folks it still IS Lord of the Rings. But the magic of the books...it's just not there.

Ah what a rant I wrote...I just get fired up when LOTR is involved!

[Kathryn Lacey]

Kalon, well, there are still kinships. I don't know if the idea of them is any different, but they seem all right to me.

Blackrock, I'm not in it for the role playing. I'm in it for the questing and such.

I'm sorry you had such bad experiences with it, but I don't mind the differences, personally. Considering this is my first real MMO, I'm perfectly content with it ((and the fact that it's free)). =3

[LunarScorpio]

My husband and brother are pretty much addicted to LOTRO. I play on and off, but those two are more into it than I am. I swear it took up half their free time for the past few months or so.

[Kathryn Lacey]

That sounds about right where my lover is concerned. He has way more play time on tLotRO than I do. I play when I have time sometimes, but I like to play for hours at a time rather than just an hour or two, so I don't play as often as I would like.

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