Airk

Always been impressed with this game; I still subscribe and play, off and on, but WoW takes up most of my gaming time.

I must admit, this game makes a great substituted for WoW, at least as far as levelling/questing/storyline goes, but once you hit that top level... well, there's not much to do except to do it all over again. At least WoW offers multiple interesting raids and some sort of PvP variety, at the top.

It appears that you fail to grasp any ideas beyond the extremely superficial. Let me try this in very basic dialogue.

I was not speaking of exploring; not once did I even use the word. Taking two full days to transit between two KNOWN points of existence is NOT exploring - it's a grind - a *travel* grind. Instead of whacking mobs for two days straight, you're just running for two days straight. That is entertainment?

If it is, it is only for a very select few who certainly do not comprise the majority of game players.

Perhaps actually read my post next time, instead of lashing out with a baseless one-liner.

I don't understand why some people equate "extreme, borderline-masochistic challenge" with 'fun'. Honestly, for every gamer that says "back in my day", I just cringe. I'm in my mid/late-20's myself, so I certainly recall a lot of the "old" games, and I know very well how people can be exceptionally nostalgic over something for no reason bar sentimentality. If, as one poster seemed to indicate, spending TWO DAYS merely running from one place to another excites you, then I would contend that it's not the game content so much as its "grinding" that entertains you... at least when a "modern" MMO player grinds, he's doing something other than holding down a single arrow key.

Most people these days are busy; work, school, a combination of both - hell, evne family, as the average gamer these days is over 30! This much responsibility means that the average player cannot afford to sit down for hours on end (or indeed DAYS on end) merely to move from one location to another. This sort of extremely-long "alternate" grinding mechanic (after all, what is a journey, usually, if not simply a means to an end) has little place when many people's free time can be measure in spurts a couple of hours - not a couple of days.

Now, before anyone goes postal on me, I do agree with some general sentiments, here. A lot of older games WERE more challenging; things took longer, you didn't get shiny exclamation marks, or a path on the ground... however, older games lacked other dynamics. Combat systems were more basic. Graphics (by modern standards) were often obviously poor. Quests involved massive travel time, instead of massive "action". Penalties for innocent mistakes were frequently patently unfair, and likely just a way to keep a player playing the game longer.

The way MMO's like WoW are is the future. Old-style games will not be replicated, not with any degree of real success, at least. They died out for a reason, because for as many features as some of you miss, many others were poor, broken, or excessive. It is time to either accept the new, or to at least stop ranting about it, and to instead try to find something to enjoy within the rich tapestry of games that do currently exist.

Blizzard didn't do too much to old content; all the dungeons still require groups, and a good deal of quests do as well. Some elite quests were nerfed, granted, but nothing particularly important.

"Old World" WoW is fairly dead. Very few brand new people pick the game up these days, relatively speaking, and outside of Northrend (even on large servers), it's very hard to get a group for anything at all - even for some of the best dungeons.

Old content being out-moded is not an LotRo-specific problem, it's an MMO-genre problem, at least for the usual level-based ones. Any game that gets to a certain stage of advancement inevitably ends up bypassing old content.

Well... that's about as biased and one-sided an argument as I have ever heard about any game - ever.

The sort of things you want the devs to do (NPC's making forays, etc.) are either impractical, or are relatively minor. If these are the things that would turn your opinion from "not worth it", to "wow, I love this!", then you're very easily pleased.

I'm not saying that you don't have a right to criticize the game, but do so for things that are at least slightly realistic - as in REAL problems that exist.

P.S. - Complaining about poor/lacking PvP in a game that is unashamedly PvE-centric is a bit silly. LotRo was never meant to be about PvP - go try Conan, or Warhammer.

It should be noted that even the vaunted World of Warcraft has servers that can be VERY dead - as in hardly anyone online, ever.

As with any game, people tend to congregate on the oldest and highest populated servers. Frankly, if you didn't do at least a LITTLE research in advance, to discover which servers had a decent population, the fault is your own, not the game's.

I've picked up LotRo on two different occasions; the first time was last summer, and the second time was about four months ago. Both times I have been highly impressed by the game, and only cancelled because my guild-mates and real-life friends all play World of Warcraft... which despite what many people will say, is a very good game, and has 11+ million subscribers for a good reason.

It's good to hear that LotRo is still successful and growing. I personally would recommend it to anyone who wants a "deeper" RP/PvE experience than WoW, but who isn't concerned about the near total lack of PvP combat. LotRo is just as polished as WoW, but emphasizes loot and raiding far less - if anything, I'd argue the game is even more "casual friendly" than WoW is. I will probably return to LotRo myself, at least for the summer months when I (as a teacher) have a good amount of time off!

Props to Turbine for making a great game.

Hey, an ice hockey analogy! With my team (Vancouver Canucks) in the picture!

... but... Americans don't understand anything that doesn't involve a football. This might be lost on a lot of people.

Just kidding. I hope.