The Lord of the Rings Online™

Like Tolkien’s books, Lord of the Rings Online is classy, elegant, and authentically human, striving to depict wonder and grandeur and hope, even in the face of villainy. So basically the opposite of modern times… And not just in its positivity. Fantasy fandoms have had a rough time lately, with disrespect to the source material now the norm. Wheel of Time, Rings of Power, House of Dragons. Oof. By contrast, LOTRO is DEEPLY reverent of the source material. I’ve been concurrently re-reading the books, and I haven’t noticed a single discrepancy between the book and the game. Literally ZERO. LOTRO expands and fills in the gaps, sure, like, What did Eomer do after meeting Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas? But even then, the devs have taken great care to remain true to Tolkien’s tone and vision. It’s great. What’s more, here’s something I’ve learned recently: old MMOs (SWTOR, WoW Classic, LOTRO, etc) are also awesome RPGs. Multiple systems of progression, huge lived-in worlds, old-school design, etc. I’d go so far as to say that they’re some of the best open-world RPGs ever made, especially if you play them as such, as single-player RPGs with optional multiplayer elements: Don’t rush to end-game, don’t plot out efficient leveling paths, don’t grind, don’t treat every zone like a checklist of tasks. Explore. Exist. Engage only with the systems you care about. And most of all, enjoy the journey, which in LOTRO’s case is one of the best you’ll find in all of gaming. Unfortunately, it's not all peaches and second breakfasts. LOTRO is an MMO, and it’s old. It’s got twenty years’ worth of polish, sure, but also jank and abandoned systems. And since it’s an MMO, don’t expect Dark Souls combat. Quite the opposite, in fact. While some parts are challenging, other parts are functionally brainless, with enemies falling to a single button press over and over. I try to view this through the lens of an action hero, where my character is like Aragorn cinematically slaying orcs with each blow. But it is a problem. DO NOT go into this game expecting dynamic and varied combat. With all its pros and cons, it’s classic MMO tab-targetting combat. And the lag is a constant problem. Especially because the game does not preserve local queueing of button presses. I can press 1, 2, 3, but lag may cause that to be read as 1, 3, 2. Which is insane. Not to mention it’s a constant slap in the face of immersion. “Oh hey, you were immersed? Now watch as Gimli and Legolas rubberband around like action figures manhandled by a vicious toddler.” And then there’s the live-service monetization and dark patterns. These corpos just can’t help themselves, can they? We’ve got the classic multiple currencies (LOTRO points, homestead coins, mithril coins) that can only be bought in pre-defined increments. We’ve got frustration-based purchases like the ability to spend mithril coins to instantly revive or teleport to a quest location or etc. There’s CONSTANT “iron-bound chest” drops that can only be opened with special keys bought with real money. There’s your various FOMO tactics. And so on. It’s nowhere near as bad as some live service games, but it’s still unfortunate. THAT SAID, let’s consider the context. This is not a billion dollar franchise like Fortnite using these dark patterns in order to manipulate (mostly) Western children in order to boost a number on a spreadsheet, so a multimillionaire can become a billionaire by selling a huge stake in his company to a Chinese company. This is developed by Standing Stone Games, a tiny studio in Boston that doesn’t even have a CEO. The dark patterns aren’t funding a billionaire’s yacht so much as just keeping the game alive, as it still gets new expansions and updates. So I’m more forgiving. In short, there are some serious flaws and you absolutely should know them going in. But the surrounding world and lore are superb. Lord of the Rings Online is a great RPG, a true immersive journey in Middle Earth. [hr][/hr] There’s many different and valid ways to approach LOTRO but if you want to play it as I have, as a single-player open-world RPG with optional multiplayer elements, then here are some rapid-fire recommendations: [list] [*]Disable world chat [*]Subscribe to VIP for at least one month to get swift travel [*]Use the Stone of the Tortoise to freeze xp and stay on-level [*]Consider skipping the sidequests in level-locked progression deadzones (e.g. Lothlorien, Great River, etc) [*]Set landscape difficulty to at least +4 (aka Fearless +1). Go +5, +6, or +7 for challenge [*]Play a warden, a ranger, or a mariner. Their instant teleportation abilities will save hours and hours and hours of travel time. Or spend $ to get more bind points (milestones) and the two cooldown reductions on that ability [*]Go first-person sometimes (esp dungeons, mines, and long journeys) to increase immersion and capture a different feel [*]Set an end goal (e.g. finish the War of the Ring) [*]Don’t get caught up on doing every dungeon and raid. It can be difficult to find groups for older content [*]If you start feeling the urge to make an alt, don’t. Instead, take a break from the game [/list]