Server merges in LotRO? Heck no!

Windfola (possibly spelled incorrectly) is dead, dead as dreams, a couple others are barren as well. Being a niche game LOTR probably doesnt want to send the wrong signal, which would kill the potential free trials they also count as usbs for number purposes. I was one of the foolish way back when that purchased a lifetime sub so i can pop in from time to time, though loading and removing the game is a pain.

**i do not like the game enough to leave it on the HD** (grin)

The lore in LOTR has always been the weak point, the devs in LOTR run wildly away from the true lore of conflict and strife and create their own, antiseptic version of this world and events. There should be monsters making forays into the settled lands of men, elves and hobbits, and their should be forays of men into the darker areas of middle earth, sadly the devs have no balls to implement the true lore which is that of conflict.

One server, brandywine has any constant MP play to speak of, the rest of the servers are empty ettenmoors with occasional blurbs of players turned MP for some extra DP points, then its dead again, a couple are always dead. MP progression is a joke with obscene goals and requirements, unlike the free peoples characters you can create, level and outfit in legendary everything in a weeks time.

Getting a MP toon to max level will take 7 real time years of decent playing, hardcore padders and those MP players that pad for points will achieve this sooner but that is the only way, the math doesnt lie when it come to the requirement of a 365 day a year for 7 years to hit that top rank, it will be even more time for those casual monster player, so they need not apply. 75k a day, 365 days a years, total crap. Pad away, only way you will get anywhere, and thats what most skirmishes in the ettenmoors are with many friends on vent or TS to coordinate these padding events, after all they need to look believable if the devs are watching, as ignorantly unawares as they are.

Broken lore, carebear devs and a niche mentality, make for one boring game. Though it is fantastic every year or so to go back and check out the lanscapes, which are great, (grin) maybe they need to make a purely garden/park MMO, might do well for them.

It's not digital btw and it costs 9.99+ Shipping which in my country adds up to 21$

I've always gotten the impression that LOTRO has particularly good subscriber retention. Or maybe it's just that when people stop playing it, they're not ANGRY at the game when they stop. Anyway, I've never seen much population of bitter ex-players on forums, which is more than you can say for most MMOs.

I enjoyed my time in LotRO, leveling a minstrel, lore-master, captain, and champion up to the Moria level (though I did not get far into Moria, I admit), However, I think this MMO is way past due for some serious adjustments to its pre-Moria group content and instances.

In my opinion, Turbine needs to retool the the level 1 to 50 game experience (basically everything before players hit Moria) to make it TOTALLY single-player accessible, either by introducing NPCs ("Hero-style" henchmen, as in Guild Wars, or by scaling the epic quests and instanced dungeons so a sole player can manage them). Blizzard did something like this for its 1 to 60 WoW content ("old WoW"); Turbine desperately needs to do something similar.

While I liked LotRO (I played on Brandywine, one of the more populous servers), I found finding groups to be too much of a chore, and this really sucked the fun out of the whole game for me. I want to play content, not waste precious time "LFG-ing" for half an hour or more.

Until Turbine fixes this problem -- and it *is* a problem, in my opinion -- I will not return to LotRO. This new content patch is just not going to cut it.

Simply put, LOTRO is a great game. It may not be for everyone, but it's far, far from a niche game. The best lore hands down, the most released free content hands down and an overall extremely polished product.

LOTRO is the only MMORPG out of about 10 that has kept me a dedicated player. It's basically the sleeper hit of the MMORPG world: a constant, steady product on a slow but consistent growth pattern, unlike the jagged spikes and drops of roller coaster products that are WAR/AoC.