I've heard that Free 2 Play option is very limited (more like a trial), this is why I'm asking...

Well there are a few annoyances that you have to spend money on, like purchasing more inventory space for example, but there is quite a bit of content within the game from what I have seen so far. When you spend money in the store you actually are buying Turbine Points and all the store items have their prices set in Turbine Pointss, most stuff seems to be between 500 and 1000 TPs. But you can also earn TP by doing stuff in the game, I have only been playing a few weeks but I already have over 150 TP and I haven't really been trying for them. In theory you could earn enough point through gameplay to buy everything in the store, but spending real money is just faster. If it is a trial then it is one of the best trials I have ever seen, because the full game is "unlockable" just by playing a lot.

Already. Follow the epic quest line. You get teal and gold/orange (whatever color that is) gear that is too close (imho) to the raid gear. If the raid gear has 60 vit, it will have 58. (and most of the other stats will be the same). The only REAL difference is the set bonuses, but some solo sets are getting those as well. Also, some of the crafted jewelry is the best in the game. (or at least, arguably equal pending stat/class/and piece).

Additionally, not long ago a second age was a raid item. Now they are available to everyone. They have also unbound a singificant portion of raid rewards (symobls, scales, relics, clasp) so that soloers have an option to buy.

First age items drop in landscape now. It may be rare, but I have one that I won that way ;)

You can barter 4 peices of the draigoch set with just marks and medallions (which are earnable solo).

I would actually claim that truly unique and powerful gear doesn't really exist in raids. While the whining may not be unique to LOTRO... LOTRO has the smallest line between solo and raid gear... and that makes the whining somewhat unique in my opinion.

I'm a lifetime subscriber so I can't check on some claims. From what I know / checked in 5 minutes, is that you can get to lvl30 (out of 75) with F2P and depending on how you played that (rushed through / took you time for off-path things, exploring) you already accumulated enough Turbine points (ingame currency) to pay for the next questpacks.

Now, if Free 2 Play means for you (or anybody else) that you can get all and everything up to endgame without having to put 1 dime down - while it IS possible, it's not really feasible. And yes, I'd like to know what other games actually fit into that F2P definition......

So lvl30 out of 75 + the option to get enough ingame currency for the next step.... if that is very limited or Pay 2 Win for you - yeah, stay away from it.

When you start a F2P account you immediately have access to the entire physical game world. This means you can go EVERYWHERE, and fight all the landscape mobs... and loot them. However, in areas past the starter area, you will not get quests or deeds unless you pay some money.

Additionally, the epic story line, which is quite significant and runs the course of the entire game, is also free.

The starter lands consists of 4 large zones (lands). And you get access to all quests and deeds in those. You should easily get to level 30 or higher just from those.

Its VERY free... however there is also penty to buy if you so choose. Feel free to ask any qualifying questions we might be able to help with.

Thanks for the info! Maybe I'll take a look at this during summer holidays!

I edited my post to say 4 large zones are free... I forgo they added Lone Lands to F2P content. You get the Shire, Bree, Erid Luin, and Lone Lands.

Also, instances come with the quest packs... so keep that in mind. You likely won't be doing instances much unless you pay for the zones quest pack. Luckily, Bree comes with a few scaling instances... although it may get stale if those are the only ones you can run.

Actually, there are 4 free zones: Ered Luin (starter area of Elves and Dwarves), The Shire (starter area of Hobbits) and Bree-lands (starter area of Men). And then there's the Lone Lands - that wasn't free at the start of F2P, but was unlocked a bit later. [Edit: Ah, I took too much time writing this post, and he's already corrected his statement. My apologies.]

hucklebarry is right, though, because if you are thorough, with all those zones you can get to level 30+ without having to worry about anything else. And then what? Well, as I see it, you have 3 options:

a) You've been playing for about 15-20 hours for free, and don't like what you've seen. You stop playing right there and everybody is happy.

b) You've been playing for about 15-20 hours for free and liked what you've seen. You want to experience more of the game, but want to spend as little money as possible. There are several strategies that you can follow, and as long as you don't mind spending some money in a game you enjoy, you'd get a very good enjoyment/money ratio.

c) You've been playing for about 15-20 hours for free and liked what you've seen. You want to experience more of the game, but you don't want/can't spend any money on it. Ok, no problem, then you are like me: I've been playing the game since it went F2P (September 2010) and spent the ridiculous amount of... zero moneys on it. Content-wise, the only things I'm missing are the last expansion - Rise of Isengard -, some skirmishes (think scalable instances/dungeons) and one of the older areas - the Trollshaws - because it never seemed a good deal to me even during the times it's been on sale.

You need to be very patient, enjoy the game enough to try different classes and different characters to maximize the sources of Turbine Points recollection, and ONLY buy things from the Store when they are on a good sale. Perfectly doable, but not for everyone, especially if your goal is to be "competitive", whatever that means in the context of LOTRO. But if you are like me, a Tolkien fan that just want to experience a Middle-Earth very close to the original source, having a great time with a nice group of like-minded individuals, you should be fine.

Epic quest line. Done that. It may be true for the Angmar / Moria line, I can't really say. But for the current lvl75 Isengard one? You gotta be kidding me.
6 piece set in Galtrev with every single piece offering +122 vitality compared to Epic quest line? Maybe I managed to pick complete chicken manure on my quests, but I'm coming up with about +50 vit on average per piece and no set bonus.

Yes, you can get 4 off those pieces with marks and medallions and yes, you can solo that.
But really.... have you ever checked how many you would need for that?
Once again, I may be wrong but a quick and dirty check revealed the following for me: 3520 medallions needed for 4 pieces. 1 medallion = 50 marks. 1 lvl75 skirmish = about 100 marks in 1/2 hour.
Total time needed to get those 4 pieces: about 880 hours doing nothing but skirmishes. Over. and. over. again.
How long one has to raid on average to get the complete set? How that can be considered casual-friendly or boosting solo-players, is simply beyond me, sry.

Some crafted jewelry is the best in game. Yes. Well, why should that be otherwise? There's already only a handful of crafting recipes that are actually worth it - for ALL crafting professions. You want to throw crafting completely overboard in favor for raiding or what?

Unbound raid rewards. Yes. I don't really see the harm here. Putting into consideration that the top item, a worn symbol of the elder king which you need for a lvl 75 first age weapon, is sold for 900+ gold, I once again can't see that as having a huge impact on the raider / soloer scale.

First age items dropping in landscape - I'd like to quote a fellow GOGer, you may know him:
The following are lvl75 unleveled mainweapons of the same typ (spear) for my Warden:
A legendary drop: 83.6 DPS
A crafted second age: 99.6 DPS
A crafted first age: 128.1 DPS

...... .... to put it bluntly, if the gap to the raid-only first age isn't big enough for you and you'd consider a second age (which you get exactly once from a quest) as "to good for soloers", I'll have to see you among the elitist "yo want loot? go raid!" folks. The Everquest times where you had to group to down a greenish mob, are gone. And thank god for that!

Second ages are crafted. You get as many as you want solo.

And to return the bluntness, see me as you like ;) I've never understood anyone that summarizes someone else so falsely and so aggressively based on game-play opinions/choices. These threads abound in the lotro forums. I'd wager you would have a difficult time running into someone much nicer than most of the folks I run with in game... and they are constantly insulted by people who call them names and essentially virtually bully them all because they have an opinion on what a game should be like.

First article about overpriced RoR expansion :
http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/06...-pre-purchase/

Also you can comment here :
http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.p...-Thread/page22

I am a heavy Turbine and lotro fan, but I didn't realize the pricing of RoR till I read the massively article. Eff that. RoI was a disappointment, no way in heaven or hell am I gonna blow 70 bucks on the top edition, much less the mid-grade when it doesn't even include the 6th bag or any free TP.

Same situation here. However, they seem to slap a half off sale on their Xpacs a few months after release. Remember the cyber monday deal for RoI? It had the top edition for 30 bucks instead of 60, and I nabbed it. Still was a better deal either way, but I wont be buying any RoH expansions until it's at least half of that price. One of the things I liked LOTRO is because the expansions were cheap. But this is insanity.

If you refer five new friends and they sign up to play, not only will you still earn 10% of their in-game TP purchases, but you will also receive a Steed of the Winged Herald

http://cstm.mymiddleearth.com/2012/0...d-get-a-steed/