I've found the trick with lotro is reading the quest dialogue, as was mentioned already. It really immerses you.

Some thoughts after hitting lvl 90 in the new expansion area, as well as fiddling about with a few alts.

One thing about me is I typically don't stay with an mmo for long because I get bored. Most of the time, the quest text and story is just generic. I will say with lotro they try to stay as close to the lore as possible, while still experimenting here and there to keep things fresh.

Today I gained an entire level on my burglar delivering mail in the Shire. There's more to the game than meets the eye, though I know I've complained about it in the past. What did I change or what changed? I started reading quest text again, as I and others have suggested in this thread.

It really brings the game to a new level if you read what you're doing and how it "impacts" the people you're helping.

BUMP!

Just an FYI, Turbine laid off 65 full time devs and 25 temporary workers. Speculation is this is why there's no planned expansion for lotro this year.

It's by no means a death knell for the company, but it's sad that it happened.

Finally played lotro, huge ass download and sadly the game was very boring, the lore is there but the execution was bad.

Sad to hear, but well, not totally unexpected.

I think that maybe Turbine got into a kind of routine, which maybe makes the game a little less appealing to people. I mean, having expansions is good and all, but I think LOTRO would benefit on some things, like:
- expanding the "hobby" part: fishing alone is not rewarding enough
- overhauling the housing system to be more versatile if possible
- trying to diversify the rewards during the celebrations. Most of the time it's the same rewards year after year, so it's not so interesting for long-time players...

I came back and tried HD. I'm not a fan. They still haven't resolved lag issues. Big Battles don't provide any direction, can be easily failed, and are tied to the epic quest line. Solo epic loot continues to downplay group content. The minstrel is extremely OP in combat and also extremely squishy (too extreme in both directions).

Its still the most expensive game on the market for subbed customers and also appears to be the buggiest and least supported.

You get the most out of F2P (compared to other games), and the lore is fantastic. They definitely have some good things going for it, but the sheer volume of bugs pushes me out every-time I give it a chance. (have come back 3 times now). The forum mods are borderline jerks with how they treat customers and it appears that those calling the shots are similar when you realize what it takes to get attention to an issue and then how long it takes them to fix broken content.

The GM's are top notch in my experience, but unfortunately they don't give them the tools or training to fix the plethora of issues I run into when playing.

Having invested 6 years into the game, I try hard to like the new content bumps... but when I'm honest with myself, I stopped having fun after Mirkwood.

I would offer to anyone on the fence... don't let the F2P keep you on the fence. That is the whole point of F2P. You can try it out with no strings and if you don't like it, you can uninstall. Check out the store and what you actually get for yourself. If you have fun, drop a few bucks when it makes sense or keep grinding for free. No harm in trying ;)

That's strange... I never EVER experienced any bug or any lag in LOTRO. And I'm playing on a french server from Japan... Maybe I'm just lucky ?

To be honest, I'm not yet at HD, since I'm a kind of completionist and I find hard to leave a zone when there are still quests to be done ^^ (not counting repeatable quests, of course).

I also hear a lot of people complaining about the automatic horses getting lost in the middle of the trip. I've never experienced such a thing.

As for the forums and moderators, I can't say, I've never used LOTROs forums, not even once. But forums tend to be that kind of place, anyway, and in that sense GOG's boards are nice exception.

Don't get me wrong, I do recognize that LOTRO could be better on certain portions. But that's still the best MMO out there for me. And yes, the F2P is a real F2P: a friend has been able to buy Helm's Deep expansion for free, just because he had accumulated enough Turbine points. Yes, it took a long time and some dedication, but the very fact it's possible is a very positive thing, in my opinion.

The lag is hit and miss. For example, I can be in Bree or Rivendell and be perfectly fine, but if I move to the newest areas, I get stuttering and lag.

LOTRO is a game I've always wanted to try since I'm a huge Tolkien fan and I hear it's a good MMORPG. So maybe I should really give it a shot? How does it differ from WoW?

It IS free to play, I don't think there's all that much research you have to do about it :-P

My only complaint about LOTRo, which for me is my biggest complaint, is the bound equipment/item mechanic.
1st, it does NOT fit the lore, ... cause 'the one ring' wasn't bound to Sauron... Frodo, Bilbo, Smeagol, and EVERYONE can equip it... in LOTRo, only Sauron can.
2nd, it totally manipulates the crafting/trading mechanic. (basically you have to decide: will I use this or sell it).
3rd, I know this mechanic was only implemented to lower the server strain on the databases that it uses. (take away majority of trading, lower database search/edits by 50%)

Other then that, LOTRo is a pretty solid game. (yes the combat is a little simple and the equipment is very generic, but that is only minor faults)

Compared to SW:TOR f2p model, LOTRo is much much better, as you regularrly earn the itemmall/store currency. (which you can use to buy the expansions)

It is similar to WoW in a lot of ways, a lot more now than when it launched in 2007. There are bound items, as has been mentioned, but it's sort of a necessity with the way crafting is set up since there's no deconstruction method for anything other than Legendary Items.

Really, if you're a fan of the lore, check it out. Just don't judge it on its introduction. Wait till you get past the intro and start earning deeds and doing quests to judge.

What I really love in LOTRO is also the fact that most of the equipment looks bland. Yes, I know it can be surprising, but LOTR is set in a "low-magic" fantasy world, so a piece of armour is a piece of armour, its name is coming more from its story than its fancy shiny and totally unrealistic look! ^_^

Cool and I'm not a WoW fanboy or anything so I wasn't trying to say that LOTRO should "beat" WoW but WoW and SWTOR are the only 2 MMO's I have played so I know them. But I will give it a go when time permits it.

Yes, I also love how Lord of the Rings is a low-magic world where they don't throw fireballs every 2 seconds and where things are more "realistic". Looking forward to playing it.

Well, be still warned that there is much more "magic" in LOTRO than in LOTR, for the sake of the game. 3 classes are able to manipulate magic (2 are pure magic, the third one is more "inspirational magic" since it's the Bard). But Turbine has been clever enough to make it not too "visual", if you see what I mean. Yeah, you will still have graphical effects when you cast spells, but it's not overdone, so the "spirit" of Tolkien is respected, I think.