LOTRO

[whorton5]

Lord of the Rings Online has been keeping me addicted for the last week and a half (when it opened the pre-order beta). With a pre-order from Gamestop or elsewhere, you can bring characters from beta into the "retail" game when it releases on 26 April or thereabouts. Plus you get a special "Founders" rate of $9.99 a month or $195 lifetime. Level cap is 15 right until beta done, but it takes a while to hit that anyways.

Excellent soloing capabilities, but also good grouping. As a veteran of many MMORPGs, it's my wife's and my latest obsession. We are on the Silverlode server as Fafa and Sumo amongst others...look us up!

[RottynDawg]

How would you compare it to the other MMOs you've played and which MMOs are those :)

[whorton5]

I would compare it to WoW, but with more depth in the tradeskill, harvesting, and entertainment area. I have played many MMORPGs going back to EQ in 1999. Lets see if I can remember a few. Earth and Beyond, SWG, City of Heroes, Final Fantasy XI, EQ2, WoW. I know there are others, but they were even more forgetable than some of the ones above. The only ones I really played for any length were EQ1 and EQ2.

I think I like the fact that at least for now...you don't need to be a power gamer to enjoy.

[RottynDawg]

That helps; I'm curious to see what you think of it as the beta continues.

I have played quite a few myself but the two I stuck with were EQ1 from the day it released and EQ2 from the day it released. My brother just talked me into giving WoW a serious try so I've been playing that this week...I'm enjoying the more casual approach myself. I think I'm about done with raiding four time a week...I'd rather do other things but still be able to make progress :) Gonna have to load up the LOTRO beta this weekend...I'll be sure to hit the server yall are on :)

[XBarbarian]

Thanks for the info, whorton!

I DL'd it back in Jan when I got the beta invite, but had just started back giving WoW another try, and Im not the type to have multi alts, or games current. I tend to focus on one toon, one game, so I haven't eveen installed it yet.

like you RD, I got into mmorpg just a few years later than you. First toon was EQ 1, Feb 01, on FV server, played that til end game, raidied ahrdcore, then got ripped off by GL, so I then in turn ebayed my toon, for $1k RL. Left eq, went to SWG, but never got the bug, like EQ, then FPS for a while... SoF, UT, etc, ( that and at that time I was discovering Bit torrent :P )

finally went back to EQ 7/04, riolled a beastlord, and played that until 1/07 - Got it to #10 serverwide on magelo rankings! $$

but finally got tired of the wretched support from SOE when my guild, Fire and Fury on FV was tersting beta for TBS, and Zajeer admitted that the content was meant to be impossible! i was soo like wtf? Like GoD was post pop.. That, and the culture of end game guilds, just gets old, rude peeps, etc.

never even tried eq 2. but now, i have over 10 assosciates at work that were on wow, so, I decided to try again. On a pvp server no less. The ganking gets old, but its also fun at times too. have a few alts this time, but my main is allliance priest currently levl 40, just dinged that last night! got mount and stuff :P

The tradeskills and stuff, never were my cup o tea..Im the type that logs in and just likes to kill ****. :P

I went priest with the exspressed idea of trying raiding in wow eventually tho, as healers are usually an easy app =)

[whorton5]

Well after testing the open beta with a pre-order "Founders" edition for over a month free, we walked our beta characters into the retail version. All our characters got to be carried through to the retail....and now the level cap is lifted.

Visited the Old Forest, Barrow Mounds, Bree, Tom Bombadil's cabin, and many other landmarks straight from Tolkein. Lots of fun. My wife and I are on the Silverlode server.

PC Gamer has a cover story on this months edition about LOTRO. We had to wrestle with our twelve year old (who just finished "The Hobbit") to read the article.

[RottynDawg]

I made my elf on Silverlode by the name of Lonnlarcan and will be buying the game shortly so that I can transfer my beta crit and partake of the $9.99 monthly price. I'll shoot yall a tell once I'm in game :)

[whorton5]

Sent you a PM with all 5 of my character names. I am finding that after level 13 or so..it's best to base out of Bree since it seems pretty centrally located and there are several close areas that have lvl 15 and above mobs.