New to LOTRO, Harrassed on Day 2.

[JM]

Edit: The only reason why I'm posting this is because the LOTRO community prides itself in being one of the friendliest online gaming communities. I didn't experience that much.

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I was really excited to play LOTRO because a friend of mine wanted to play with me. Both of us are new to the game. I chose to be in Landroval RP server because I heard it was a popular server and had less trolls than Brandywine. After putting some time into my character there I reached level 12 or so and was finally able to talk in World Chat.

In World Chat, I said "Good afternoon!" Then a moment later someone said "that's quite the name you have there." Then another said "...a quick ignore." Then another "indeed."

I replied "What I'm being ignored because of my name?" I didn't get an appropriate answer. Instead, I was also called names, told I was immature for making that name, and I was called a troll. They told me to reroll with a different name. They also said "Quit whining, you made that name."

The thing was I wasn't trolling or whining. I never once said anything rude in chat. All I said was Good Afternoon and asked why I am being harrassed over a name. My name was funny to me, but according to the community it was

1) Too long
2) Not a Real name; joke names not allowed
3) Wasn't following LOTRO lore and
4) Shouldn't be used on a RP server.

I get that now, but does it really deserve harrassment? I heard that LOTRO has one of the best communities around. I would've thought they'd use more tact. I didn't know I was breaking an unsaid rule. It wasn't just one person. It was a lot of people on World Chat bashing my name.

I did have a positive moment though. Two random players whispered me who had a lot more tact and were a lot friendlier.

So after hitting level 16 I decided to delete my character and start over. My friend is starting over too, although he never spoke in chat so he probably could have slid by without a hint of harrassment.

I'd tell you guys the name I chose but I'd rather not get any more harrassment, thanks. It wasn't sexist, homophobic, racist, etc. It just wasn't funny I guess.

[Natty La Ridge]

LOTRO RP players take it really seriously. It sounds like you went and created a character on a RP server with an inappropriate name, and got called out for it.

Your standards for community interaction seem a bit weird. You chose Landroval over Brandywine (one of the most popular, and populous servers) because you'd heard it "had less trolls," but then consider an afternoon of negative feedback over your (admittedly inappropriate) name to be "harrassment"? I'm just saying, what did you expect?

If you want to play on a server where there's tacit acknowledgement that we're all people playing a game, and meta-humor is allowed and appreciated, DON'T roll your first toon on an RP server. Try Brandywine, or Gladden. Trolls are part of life, and part of the game. And trust me, LOTRO trolls are still a far better quality of troll than you'll meet in most MMOs.

Don't give up. Just find a server that's a better fit for you.

[JM]

Originally posted by santaDog78:

LOTRO RP players take it really seriously. It sounds like you went and created a character on a RP server with an inappropriate name, and got called out for it.

Your standards for community interaction seem a bit weird. You chose Landroval over Brandywine (one of the most popular, and populous servers) because you'd heard it "had less trolls," but then consider an afternoon of negative feedback over your (admittedly inappropriate) name to be "harrassment"? I'm just saying, what did you expect?

If you want to play on a server where there's tacit acknowledgement that we're all people playing a game, and meta-humor is allowed and appreciated, DON'T roll your first toon on an RP server. Try Brandywine, or Gladden. Trolls are part of life, and part of the game. And trust me, LOTRO trolls are still a far better quality of troll than you'll meet in most MMOs.

Don't give up. Just find a server that's a better fit for you.

I still want to play on Landy. My name I used was the only "Inappropriate" thing the community did not like. I just wasn't expecting people to get all on my case for having a name that wasn't tied to lore or close to it, especially when I was being friendly and not trying to cause any mischief.

I just went with one of the randomly generated names that the client gives you for my second character.

And I wouldn't call it just "negative feedback." They were being really rude about it; most likely because they've had to deal with it before many other times.

[JM]

Originally posted by #Shadow of the Day <3:

There's trolls everywhere :3 either kill yourself or put up with it.

Please don't tell someone to kill theirself.

Yes trolls are everywhere, yet LOTRO prides themselves on an awesome community and this wasn't a great example of it.

[Sam]

Originally posted by santaDog78:

LOTRO RP players take it really seriously. It sounds like you went and created a character on a RP server with an inappropriate name, and got called out for it.

This is true, the RP players take it really seriously. You follow the RP rules or you get harrassed basically. There are rules listed here[www.lotro.com] on naming on an RP server and when you play on the RP servers you have to follow those rules. I saw you mentioned something also about there being a lot of trolls on Brandywine. I've played on Brandywine for almost 5 years and I've hardly had any problems with trolls. Also, it is not an RP server so they don't care what your name is so if you have problems with the RP servers I'd suggest you play on Brandywine.

[Natty La Ridge]

Originally posted by Liitj:

I still want to play on Landy. My name I used was the only "Inappropriate" thing the community did not like. I just wasn't expecting people to get all on my case for having a name that wasn't tied to lore or close to it, especially when I was being friendly and not trying to cause any mischief.

I just went with one of the randomly generated names that the client gives you for my second character.

And I wouldn't call it just "negative feedback." They were being really rude about it; most likely because they've had to deal with it before many other times.

Good for you for sticking with it, and I hope you have a better experience with the second character. FFR, choosing an appropriate name is usually one of the first ironclad rules of playing on an RP server. The reason is that everyone you see in the game world sees your name, as a floating label over your character, next to your comments in chat, as a member of their party, etc.

Try to imagine that you're "Tauriel" or "Luthien," versed in lore and making a serious effort to stay in character, when all of a sudden some dude named HomerzHere4TehLulz pops up next to you waving his broadsword. You don't have any choice about whether or not you read his name, and your efforts to suspend disbelief and immerse yourself in the game are right out the window.

I'm sorry people were rude to you, that does suck. Please consider creating an alt on one of the non-RP servers, just to check out the difference in culture. I find LOTRO players by and large to be a friendly, fun-loving bunch. There are more servers that not that would welcome HomerzHere4TehLulz with open arms.

[MMOGamer71]

You didn't mention the non RP name you picked for the RP server.

[JM]

Originally posted by MMOGamer71:

You didn't mention the non RP name you picked for the RP server.

You are correct, sir. I also said why I didn't in the post at the very bottom if you read the entire thing. :)

[Natty La Ridge]

Originally posted by Liitj:

Originally posted by MMOGamer71:

You didn't mention the non RP name you picked for the RP server.

You are correct, sir. I also said why I didn't in the post at the very bottom if you read the entire thing. :)

You won't be harassed here. This is a third-party forum where we discuss games that run under a specific platform. You might consider sharing details of your experience to caution other Steam users who might be tempted to try LOTRO, and who might not know the differences between RP and non-RP servers.

[Ghostbear]

Generally the worse of people can be found on World Chat and just because it says 'less trolls' doesn't mean they are not there, every server has them. Your best bet is to observe the channel for a few days and decide from chat which ones to ignore before chatting in there.

If the harrasment does get really bad, remember it is an official channel, you can report them if they are going too far...

Also as a rule of thumb (for me anyways) If you want really RP, don't go for a RP Encouraged server, go for the RP Enforced servers

As for names it really depends on what it was, on an Enforced server a GM will change your name if its is too extreme, on an Encouraged server this does not apply hence the player base hate of your name, they can't ask a GM to change it.

Look at the naming guidelines before looking at a name or read some Tolkien and make a list as too what could be used (and not variation of gandalf or legolas for example).

[Lightfoot]

Were you something like Bobssleptwithurmom? Or something like that? I'm on Landroval, and this sounds very familiar to something I saw in world chat.

Seriously, look at the lore-appropriate names of over 90% of the folks on Landroval, and take a quick guess why you got grief.

If that was you, no sympathy here. You picked the wrong server to run with a name that ridiculous.

[JM]

Originally posted by dhanson:

Were you something like Bobssleptwithurmom? Or something like that? I'm on Landroval, and this sounds very familiar to something I saw in world chat.

Seriously, look at the lore-appropriate names of over 90% of the folks on Landroval, and take a quick guess why you got grief.

If that was you, no sympathy here. You picked the wrong server to run with a name that ridiculous.

Lol no. It was nothing sexual at all. If I could close this thread I would. Thanks for the replies everyone.

[76561198077869228]

My advice to any new player on any server is quite simple -- TURN OFF World Chat and OOC! And whatever you do DO NOT POST IN THEM!
It's simply throwing red meat to the inmature and sadistic folks who are more interested in "sounding important and arrogant" than in helping others.

You can turn them back on later if you really want, but they provide absolutely no benefit to new players trying to lern the game. The amount of positifve answers you will get to any legitimiate question are few and far-between.

Read the LOTRO Fourms ( at {LINK REMOVED}llotro.com) for your server and look for Kins that are recruting new players -- you will quickly discover that the REAL PLAYERS, and especially the tryly helpful ones are in Kin-chat, not in World Chat.

And for the record -- Landroval is NOT a Role Playing Server -- it is Role Playing Encouraged. On the actual RP servers, GMs do monitor and chastise new players -- but it is not done by the rift-raft that hangs out in the World Chat; they can get temselves bounced for that kind of activity. Landy is just like the rest of the US servers -- World Chat is a very nasty place to be.

[Sir Edward Berry]

I'm on a french RP server and never seen problems about names... I'll recomand you for your next characters to have a look on a Sindar dictionnary (if its an elf or a Gondorian human), it could help you ;)

[Stinky_Ogre]

Originally posted by Valamar:

My advice to any new player on any server is quite simple -- TURN OFF World Chat and OOC! And whatever you do DO NOT POST IN THEM!
It's simply throwing red meat to the inmature and sadistic folks who are more interested in "sounding important and arrogant" than in helping others.

You can turn them back on later if you really want, but they provide absolutely no benefit to new players trying to lern the game. The amount of positifve answers you will get to any legitimiate question are few and far-between.

Read the LOTRO Fourms ( at llotro.com) for your server and look for Kins that are recruting new players -- you will quickly discover that the REAL PLAYERS, and especially the tryly helpful ones are in Kin-chat, not in World Chat.

And for the record -- Landroval is NOT a Role Playing Server -- it is Role Playing Encouraged. On the actual RP servers, GMs do monitor and chastise new players -- but it is not done by the rift-raft that hangs out in the World Chat; they can get temselves bounced for that kind of activity. Landy is just like the rest of the US servers -- World Chat is a very nasty place to be.

i disagree with the turning off world chat, though it all comes down to what server you choose really so you could have had a really bad world chat experience when you first started. i got alot of help in worldchat on Arkenstone a very friendly group of people with a couple trolls but overall its redeemed my faith in online gaming isnt all trolls.

[Natty La Ridge]

I agree. I could say the same about Gladden.