You can explore nearly every inch of middle-earth (that has been relaseed, obviously) without paying a cent.

the NPCs will not offer you any quests beyond the "Epic" story line (that coiincides nicely with the books... for example, you get to work with the Brown Wizard, Radagast, around lvl 20. its pretty sweet!).

a good example of fun explorations is, you can go see Bilbo's Trolls, Bob and Bill and whates his name (Bert?)... but its a bit dangerous for a starting palyer (its a lvl 30-35 area in the Trollshaws) but doable :)


wait, there area a couple areas that you can not explore at low levels, East Agmar. you cant go see the fortress of the Witch King. Moria requires and expansion pack, i think. not sure with all the changes to the game.

I was worried as it went towards F2P. However, I can't say that bothers me. I've seen my share of immersive breaking gamenames, especially in the beginning of the game. An army of elfen hunters called Legosomething or champions calling themself Masterblaster....
There's no way Turbine / WB can break immersion more then players did and still do. And don't forget: somehow they HAVE to make money with it.

I still love the game, maybe even more then in the beginning. Can't say I ever regretted getting a lifetime subscription back then. There are times where I put it aside for months, but whenever I return (and I always do) I'm hooked again.
I play it very casual, with no raid content or groupquests (been there, done that, don't need it anymore), like a singleplayer in an MMO. Yes, with F2P came a few drawbacks, but the game gained also a lot more accessibility. Like most of the epic questline where groupquests acted as a showstopper for me, are now actually doable.
A lot gotten refined (some might even say dumbed down), but without losing the complexity. I know that every time I get back to it after several months, I have to re-learn / re-discover my toons and how they work.

Still love my Warden who replaced the Hunter as my main rather quickly - best and most innovative implementation of a class / combat system I've seen in an MMO ever.
Right now I decided to bring up my low 40 Minstrel a bit, which I dropped frustrated before it went F2P and gosh, she rocks! I think I have to put down more time, as I plan to work with my guardian in the near future, who acts as a crafting tool right now.

I shy away from everything that is F2P as it mostly comes over as pay2win for me, but LOTRO is different.

Well right at the top of my list of Must See places is Moria. Whenever I have played a game that required going down into a dungeon I always think to myself that I'd much rather be going into Moria. After that my adventuring preferences in no particular order are, The Misty Mountains, Fangorn Forest, Mirkwood Forest and the Barrow Downs. I'd also kind like to see Mount Doom, just because it's there. But based on what I have seen these are places intended for higher level players.
That is very helpful indeed. I was going for an Elf Hunter, but now it sound like I should go Dwarf (or maybe Man) Champion. I may have to go back and reread some of those class descriptions.

Thanks again.

Lore-wise the game WAS good until Moria came out. The kids screaming "I WANS BE TEH GANDAF!!" and Turbine listening to them despite this shattering the lore ruined it. The fact that there are five wizards and five only didn't matter in the face of "1337"ism.

I should say that it is a decent game, for exploration and sightseeing I haven't played in the mall that was as enjoyable.

If you're going in looking for rich lord of the rings lore you may be disappointed however.

Heh, maybe because I now almost always use the "fast travel" stable routes! I mean, yeah they are more expensive, but at high level I almost have nothing else to spend my money on (except repairing and sometimes crafting) ! ^_^

What? Because of the Rune-keeper? One might see it so, but then again the Lore-master (one of the first classes) didn't fit it any better. Not to mention the twists with the whole morale thing the devs had to do for the Minstrel, as Tolkien didn't envisioned a healer at all.

Well, I wasn't. You probably may easily come up with certain points that didn't work (be it for only you or not at all), but I haven't seen any lord of the rings adaption, that came closer or felt more fitting.

There was plenty of break lore pre-Moria, though. I'd actually say there was more of it, per capita. For instance, loremasters are actually more of a break in the lore than rune-keepers are, oddly enough, due to how "magic" works in LotR. RKs even get a direct mention in the books, though I'm sure Tolkien envisioned them somewhat differently. Loremasters, though, are just way out of left field. Human scholars who have animal companions and a wide array of wizardly abilities, both magical and technological? Really?
And then there's Helegrod...

Lord of the Rimgs: Exactly 5 overt magic users.

Lord of the Rings Online: Several 1000 overt magic users.

That looks like a pretty objective departure from the lore.

No idea where you're heading with that. Maybe someday someone great comes up with a vision, how to make a game without healing and magic that would fit lore-wise as much, as you seem to demand here.
However, if you do want to continue on that road: that's not a Moria thing, there's plenty of contraries available in the main game as well. Also don't think I could come up with a game that stayed more "true" to the lore or offering a richer lord of the rings lore.

Game first. lore second.



and part of what bevinator means is that there are more than the five wizards. for example, sauron and the balrogs are the SAME thing as the wizards. they just look different when they are in ME. And Elrond and Glorfindel both "cast spells" in the books, IIRC


still, you are absolutly right, there should only be real five magic users (only three are actually around) but this si a GAME. if i want the books, ill read the books.


game first. lore second.

Since everyone has been so helpful here I though I might ask one more LOTRO question. I've got the game downloading and installing right now, though it looks like it might take a while, so I'm now looking for any sort of info on choosing a server. I have found a few online guides but most of them are a few years old (mentioning F2P as being in the future or having just happened) or not very helpful. Is there a server that perhaps has the reputation of being full of grumpy old guys who don't really want to chat or play with anyone else? Because that would be the place for me, grumpy old man that I am.

Others can help you better, but I'll give my quick 2 cents.

I'm on Brandywine. Its known as one of the most populated servers. You can solo to your hearts content, but you will run into lots of folks at different times along the way.

Landroval is known as an RP server. I've found some of the RPers in LOTRO are a little territorial... i.e. they aren't excited when new people come around and give it a try, it has to be their way or get out (this isn't 100% by any means, but I've seen it enough I just avoid it).

I know a few folks that just started on Dwarrodelf. Their experience is that its a ghost-town.

Being an extreme introvert myself, I still like Brandywine. I close up and stick to myself (most of the time), but when I want to group or chat, the people are there.

Whoa now! Dom't change the topic of debate. We are talking about adherance to lore, not to Everquest/WOW conventions.

If you can't do a LOTR MMO without mages, you don't do one. People like you mislead prospective players by espousing the veracity of the setting in one breath, while arguing for "gameplay" (IE, archaic genre troupes) in the next.

Pick a positiom amd stick with it.