Is this game..

[RetroTekGuy]

Worth it for a new player at this point and time of the games age? Do many people play it? Is it enjoyable? And is it worth the 30 dollars for the 3 month VIP?

[Ebyl]

It's one of my favorite MMO's of all time, so I'd say it's at least worth trying. That goes doubly if you're a Tolkien fan.

Plenty of people still play, though server merges are coming. But these aren't your typical server merges. LoTRO has had way too many worlds for a very long time, so this will create much larger world populations and more lively communities. As they merge worlds, they are upgrading their hardware to top end servers and network backbones. They're still adding plenty of content to the game.

As for the VIP, that's hard for me to comment on since I'm a lifetime subscriber. I do see many people recommend getting at least a month's worth of VIP at some point, since some of the unlocks from it carry over.

[RetroTekGuy]

Thanks for the detailed reply. One thing that caught my attention was "housing" does this work in say a....Ultima Online fashion? Or rather the house exists in a players own instance?

[Ebyl]

There are housing neighborhood designs based on the architecture of Men, Elves, Dwarves, and Hobbits (in the appropriate low level areas). An account can own a single personal house in one of the areas, as well as a kinship house (if you're in a kinship and it doesn't already have one). The kinship house is obviously linked to the kinship, though, not a specific account.

Housing is done using identical instances. So when I enter my housing area (Dwarves), I get a choice of which instance to go to (they're named). I choose mine and enter, then walk/ride through the neighborhood to my house's location. You have a yard you can decorate as well as the internior of the house, which you can also upgrade with storage. You can set permissions on who can enter the house, who can pay upkeep, change decorations, etc.

You also get a port skill to your house so you can just teleport there when you need to (on a cooldown timer, of course). But I thought describing how to manually enter the correct housing instance might be more enlightening on how they have setup housing.

Does that make sense?

[RetroTekGuy]

Perfect sense, Thanks very much. I think I'll give this game a go.

[Ebyl]

To be honest, the housing system isn't great and it's something players often want upgraded. Maybe they will do it someday, but the way it was setup, it would take a lot of work. The current team working on the game (who are showing a lot of promise, imo) will have to decide if the cost/reward ratio will be worth it.

As it stands right now, it's functional and there are tons and tons of decorations you can find, craft, or buy. It's pretty basic, though.

[RetroTekGuy]

Any game that decides they want a housing system should always take notes from Ultima Online, That game had the best housing system to date.

[76561198077869228]

Turbine's housing system did copy Ultima on-line way back in 2005 when it was designed.
To make a long story short, sadly it was a contracted out module and nobody now knows how to modify it.

[RetroTekGuy]

Well that's a damn shame.

[woj]

Uh, I'm a Tolkien fan, but this game is crap. I couldn't force myself to keep playing. Almost all quests are "go there, killl all, go back". So when you don't grind you must also grind. Story was not worth memorizing. I managed to get to like 15 level and then quit. When I look back it was a waste of time. Maybe much later game becomes fun, maybe, just maybe.
Not to mention locations I played in are damned awful and irritating. Remember these mountains in old games which only point were to limit space and movement? Eh... Maybe I would like this game near 2000, but definitely not after 2010.

[Kenomica]

I've been playing since 2007 - I absolutely recommend it.

It's not perfect, it uses an older engine and combat system (similar to WoW's hotkey combat)

but if you like Tolkien, you'll love LOTRO. it tells a very interesting story that's interwoven with the books, as well as taking liberties and allowing for an original story for your character to progress through.

My views on the game are essential the same as Ebyl's