Lord of the Rings/Civ IV - HELP

Wh1te Out

Wh1te Out

New Member
Okay, wacky topic title I know, but here's the scoop. I need something to play while my wife is watching her shows. I've cut back on the console gaming significantly since it takes up our only major television, which means nothing cool and long like Fallout 3 anymore (*sniff*). As a change, I'm investing more family time in the Wii. That's turned out great. But I still need something a little older that my pathetic non-gaming Dell Inspiron 1526 can run to keep me from dying of feminine tv show overload.

I've whittled the contenders down to LotRO and Civ IV.

Does anyone have a code that will allow me to demo or test out LotRO? I'd hate to go into it blindly. I have a level 40-something in WoW and love it there, but I just don't have a community and am tired of always and forever being way behind. LotRo has the lore that is already near and dear to my heart AND I hear solo'ing is pretty easy, as well.

Civ IV is just Civ IV. I'm an addict. And I love it.

Thoughts? Opinions? Suggestions?
 
I am fairly invested in GW (which is great for soloing BTW) but I have been thinking for sometime of giving LOTRO a go cause, same as you, I love the lore and have a great affinity for the world. All this to say, if you do give it a go let me know what it is like.
 
LotRO is an excellent game and the new expansion looks amazing. I would get the expansion if I were to play it again just because the 2 new classes are super cool and very powerful.

I took a Minstrel to max level in it with about 80% soloing and had a blast the entire way.

If you happen to roll on Arkenstone I have friends still playing there regularly, I can have them hook you up a little if you like.
 
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ewoksrule said:
LotRO is an excellent game and the new expansion looks amazing. I would get the expansion if I were to play it again just because the 2 new classes are super cool and very powerful.

I took a Minstrel to max level in it with about 80% soloing and had a blast the entire way.

If you happen to roll on Arkenstone I have friends still playing there regularly, I can have them hook you up a little if you like.
Click to expand...

Quick straw pole. What were your reasons for no longer playing. I am tempted to get it but want to know if it is worth it.
 
I played it when it was first released. I got to max level in about 2 months and found myself with not a lot to do. Since that time they have just about doubled their content just from free updates. Never has a company given soooo much through free updates, these guys go above and beyond with each book/chapter.

What was a small PvP zone when I left is now a massive area that my friend says he can spend hours and hours in every day and never get bored. There are many more raid areas and tons of story line quests added.

The lore quests are the best. They usually end with some scripted instance where you get to actually walk and talk with the main characters. I will never forget the first time I met Bilbo and Gandalf and all the others.

So the reason I quit was I finished most the content at the time and also that I only had 2 friends playing with me. I moved on to a few more MMOs looking for massive new content. EQ2 was shortly after and I took a Brigand Sarnak to 80...now that was a long grind! I loved it as well, EQ2 is probably my favorite so far with the new Warhammer right behind it. LotRO is a close third and had I seen the book where they added player housing I bet it might have moved up!


ps. the Lions of Judah http://www.lojkinship.com/ have a guild on Brandywine-server if you want a Christian community.
 
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I left LotRO for WAR. It's kind of hard to explain why I left. I enjoyed the lore in LotRO far more than in WoW. I had a great guild, but the gameplay wasn't quite there. There was a ton of free updates, but the guild I was in really wasn't big enough (nor did we have an alliance) so end-game runs were difficult to find. And I hate PUGs for difficult dungeon runs. More than you can ever imagine, I hate PUGs.

Then we got beta keys for Warhammer... and it was everything I've been looking for in a game. I enjoy the PvP (or RvR) aspect of games, but generally the implementation has been a little off for my play style. Also hard to explain, but WoW's battleground system was off, DAoC was awesome (except they had no maps... I HATED that). WAR seems to have pulled in similar aspects of other games and really improved on them. There is lore there, if you bother to read it... better implementation of "group/elite quests" (through public quests...awesome system). The biggest "flaw" is the performance. You have to have a high-end computer to play.

Anyway, that's why I left LotRO. It wasn't a bad game, it just wasn't quite the perfect game to hold my attention. The classes are fun, the lore is good, the quests are interesting, the dungeons are cool, the book quests are awesome... It's definitely worth a shot, but make sure you find a decent-sized guild of people you'll enjoy playing with.... or be willing to PUG...a lot. The player-base is a little smaller, but generally much friendlier than WoW. People generally understand the Need/Greed system and are very good about not ninja'ing gear.

The crafting system is complex because of the interdependencies, but it's not completely overbearing. It's different than WoW, similar to WAR. It seemed like a lot of people just did gathering skills as they leveled up, sold the materials, then went back later and did the crafting skills. They're a huge gold-sink and generally not worth having while you level up (except cooking...because food stats are always good)
 
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