Everyone keeps recommending DDO. Is it really that good?

And sorry OP for derailing this thread a bit...

I'm a lifetime subscriber to LOTRO and have been playing since closed beta.

I feel that the game is quite good, but since Turbine was bought by Warner Bros and they started this obnoxious free-to-play thing with an in-game store, pay for stats and advantage, and advertisements on every other panel, I've lost interest. I guess the OP doesn't mind that since he was suckered in by 'free' to play, but that's my opinion.

The game world is beautiful though and quite fun to explore.

Np, I'm actually starting to get interested in DDO myself. I've read a few reviews on Metacritic and I've watched a few gameplay videos on Youtube, it seems pretty cool but I would like to hear the opinion of a player.
It does have a ton of advertising but yeah that doesn't get me too much since its free. I'm worried that if I become a subscriber I will still need Turbine Points, aside from having to put up with worthless advertising.

Aside from expansions and the like, you shouldn't need Turbine Points if you subscribe. That's really the main benefit of subscribing. Plus you get 500 Turbine Points a month as a subscriber too, so you can apply that to x-pacs down the road or buy whatever cosmetics or crafting stuff you want.

Yes.
In DDO you use Turbine points to get convenience if you're a subscriber (as said you get some for free every month). There's a few items that cannot be found in game (if you want to True Reincarnate you must buy the item from the store), really rare stat tomes are the same, you can find them but it's 1000 times easier to buy them. With that said, +2 to your main stat isn't going to make much a difference for anyone but the extreme hardcore.

I do recommend you buy something once, just to get Premium status (extra 2 character slots and AH restrictions lifted, may be some mail and chat bonuses too, not sure). Turbine has pretty decent event sales, their Christmas sale is really quite good so far as bonus points go. Their Christmas in game event hands out a crap ton of free "cookies" and treats that do the same as many consumables you'd have to drop gold on (in game people call it plat, as in platinum coins), so start soon.

I'm going to be perfectly honest; Runescape has ruined many MMOs for me, including LOTRO. Why? Quests. Runescape has the best quest system I've seen in any MMO, mainly due to the fact they are all unique. LOTRO by no definition is a bad game, in fact I had fun playing it. WoW, not so much. LOTRO just doesn't keep me...focused on the game world. If the game could immerse me more in the lore and scenery I'd play it every day, but sadly it doesn't. Neither does Runescape by any means, I'm just saying any MMO you play will be a swing and hit or a swing and a miss. Your call.

I just realized I rambled a lot...don't care. :)

To me the biggest issue with LOTRO is that none of the new game mechanics that have been introduced after release have worked properly. Legendary Items are perhaps the biggest example of this, in that the way they function is almost completely counter-intuitive. While they're supposed to be "cool items that level with you," they ultimately end up being exactly the same as items in every other MMO, except that they require MORE grinding than usual to get. Also, because of the large amount of randomness involved, there's a very real chance that you'll spend days (or weeks) worth of effort on acquiring a new item, only to discover that its properties are utter crap.

Another example is Radiance, which was a gating mechanism for raids introduced with the first expansion that ended up breaking half of the "scary" zones in the game due to how it was implemented. So they changed it and then it didn't even work properly as a gating mechanism. Now they've removed it entirely.

It's a much better MMO than most of the ones out there, but the juxtaposition of truly awesome stuff and mindblowingly retarded stuff is just irritating at times. Still, it's fun to go play around in the Shire regardless.

Hmm, I don't totally agree with that. Legendary items literally drop a lot in high-level areas. The first I ever dropped was in Angmar... And sometimes I've been really cluttered with legendary items, both for my character class or for other classes!

I do agree that very often the properties are not good at all, but still it's interesting : in high-level areas, you can make them go to level 10 or 20 in no time at all, then recycle them, earning fragments you can use to craft better runes or accessories.

Hmm actually you don't have to buy True heart of woods to TR, you can exchange 20 epic tokens for one.
Of course you still need to have bought a pack with epic quests and to be willing to do epics, not everyone wants to.

I'd recommend DDO as a good game as well, it has the best character customization in any MMO imo (ported from D&D 3.5 with some changes and additions to adapt it to an MMO) and the combat is fun.

There are no fetch quests either, all of them are a mix of combat, puzzles, traps and jumping parts (with various degrees of importance on each depending on the quest; some are just hack&slash, some are very puzzle or jumping heavy) that take place in separate instances.

There is a lot free content up to lvl 8 or so (out of 20), then it starts to dry up and you need to buy packs. OTOH, you earn Turbine Points from doing quests in the game, so by the time you get to lvl 8 you might have enough TP to buy a pack, especially if you play several character.

Like Orcish, I'd advise you to pay 6$ at least once so you become premium, it removes a lot of account restrictions. It's not strictly necessary if you're willing to farm favor, but it helps a lot.

Also, DDO is a pretty complex game, I'd advise you to research it a bit before playing, messing up your first character and finding out he's too weak to contribute at high levels is not much fun. The DDO wiki is your best source of information along with the forums.

P.S.: What server do you play on Orcish? I mostly play on Ghallanda and Sarlona, but I have characters on all servers.

Seconded. Since f2p, I have lost all interest. Used to be an amazing, immersive world. Now everything has a price tag with adverts splashed over every window you open. I'm trying to level to 75, but I am struggling to get the motivation.

If the adverts don't bother you, it is a nice game. You can get pretty far without spending a penny. But if you want to get lost in middle earth, you might find it like going on holiday to an exotic country and have your experience ruined by street vendors trying to sell you knock off Rolexs every 10 minutes.