Lotro

I imagine that the people who like MMOs and who aren't playing SWG are playing WoW, right?
Well not me - I'm playing Lord Of The Rings Online.

Anyone else?

I beta tested it, but I got bored of it. Some of my friends play it, so I've considered purchasing a subscription.

I thought it was pretty good, I had some issues navigating the menus, but other than that, it was a pretty good looking game.

I've had bad luck with subscription games in the past I bought a copy of SWG and the key never worked and I couldn't play it so I've been reluctant to buy another.

hey, you did know that you could have gone onto the customer support area and they could have given you another, right?

I didn't think about it at the time no... I should have that was a waste of perfectly good cash

well, you could have been like me and spend the $30 and get it home and realize that you don't have the modem capabilites to play it

If you're not on cable/DSL, why would you buy it? I think it clearly states that a high-speed internet connection is one of the requirements.

Doesn't anyone read those things anymore?

doesn't sound like it huh LOL

*blushes* Well, I was 12 or 13 at the time, and had had hardly any experience with computers or internet stuff until a year or two ago. So no, I didn't read it, but I could have no more told you the difference between DSL or Dial up

Don't feel bad - everyone has at least one screw up like that.

A long time ago I got all pumped about a game before it came out and when it finally did I found out I needed to do a major upgrade to even play it. Worst part is - the game ended up being so horribly flawed with bugs it was nearly unplayable after 19 patches.

It was Ultima IX.

Oh man, that had to suck!

A quick epilogue on Ultima IX...

I recently reinstalled it, hoping that my newest system - something that put the game's system requirements to shame - would breathe some life into the laggy nightmare. It was worse than when I originally played it. I don't know if it was because back then there was nothing better so I just dealt with it, or because since then I've played so many other games that are better made and I expected it to run better.

Some say the engine is just flawed. Others blame the lack of proper beta testing. Ultima IX was rushed out the door to meet a deadline, and because of that many people like me bought a game that can't be played.

Thankfully Lord of the Rings Online is not messed up like that. Much like my experience with Ultima IX, I'm finding I might need to upgrade soon in order to experience this game at its fullest. The difference here is that Ultima IX couldn't run with the system I had at the time. I needed to upgrade everything to even install it. I can play LOTRO now, with the system I'm using, but I want to be able to play it with everything maxed out.

I can play UT2k4 with all settings maxed - but I don't bother for some effects because they're just a distraction. I can play BF1942, BFV and GW maxed. BF2 I had to upgrade my video card, then deal with everything on low and that's when I started to realize just how out of date my system is... (sigh)

What I want will cost about $2,000. Maybe my November I'll get it

Wow, is it one of those Aliens? I've heard they're really cool

Wow, is it one of those Aliens? I've heard they're really cool



No I'm building it myself. The benefit from doing that as opposed to buying one already assembled is that you can usually get better parts for the same amount. A system pre-assembled might come with an NVIDIA 8800 GTS 320MB card, but by putting together everything myself I could save enough cash in other places to upgrade that to the 640MB version. Granted the price difference is like $100 +/- but that's why it's just an example.

True - Alienware is pretty cool looking, but I feel like you're mostly paying for a name. I don't think their configurations are any better than anyone else's.

True, it's still pretty cool that you're building your own! I bet this time around if you ever have any computer troubles, you won't have any problems figuring it out because you know the machine like the back of your hand

I've been building my own systems for quite a while. This one will end up being my 5th personal one, but number 8 or 9 in the last 10 years.

Anyway, LOTRO is cool - and unlike SWG seems to me like it's worth the monthly fee. I don't feel like I'm stuck with nothing to do, or that I'm stuck in a rut. Seeing all the locations from the books is great, even if you can only go from the Shire to Rivendell for now. They're adding on to the lands slowly (and for free). So far they added one whole new area, but it was a location that is only briefly mentioned in the original story. I haven't been up there but I hear it's great. I'm hoping that next time they concentrate on something a little more familiar like Moria or Rohan.

Aside from the standard questing, there's an "Epic" storyline that somehow weaves its way in and out of the main LOTR story. You help Aragorn, Gandalf and even Tom Bombadil with a few seemingly random quests, but it works out that you're actually helping "clear the way" for Frodo and crew to get to Bree. Then you're working on distracting the forces of evil so the soon-to-be Fellowship can all get to Rivendell safely.

The economy is having a bit of a crisis because people buying from "gold sellers" are starting to flood/topple the market. Money is pretty tight in the game, and amassing great wealth takes a lot of time and sacrifice. You start off with copper pieces. 100 copper pieces is 1 silver piece. 1,000 silver is 1 gold piece. After 2 months of playing (though not 'non-stop') I have just about 1.5 gold. These "gold sellers" are selling 5-50 gold for $20-200. People in-game are selling items for 3-5 gold each and these are items that aren't even worth 1/4 of that. Basically the people buying from "gold sellers" are walking around buying and selling with large amounts of cash, levaing your average player (who can barely rub together 2 silver pieces) high and dry when it comes to getting anything - especially crafting stuff.

The crafting aspect is cool but I feel like it's a little busted right from the start. It seems like I can find swords that are far better (stats wise) than I can make. If you need something for crafting, you're better off making a friend and depending on them to supply you. Of course it's always best if you can return the favor by supplying them with something they need. Armsman/Explorer is a good friend combo because an armsman needs treated lumber (but can't collect it themselves) and will almost always come across a ton of animal hides, which an explorer's forester profession can always use.

There are quite a few vocations, and they all break down into three professions. Here's the two I'm working with:

The Armsman vocation involves Weaponsmithing (make metal weapons), Woodworking (make polearms and musical instruments [for minstrels]) and Prospecting.

The Explorer vocation involves Tailoring (make low and medium armor), Forestry (gather and treat lumber with wax, boil hides into leather) and Prospecting (gather ore to make metal ingots).

I got tired of depending on other people for some of my crafting supplies, so I made a second character (Explorer) with the vocational skills to help my primary character (Armsman). The only bad thing is I need supplies from a tier 2 or tier 3 Forester, and it's quite a bit of work to get there on your own. Luckily I could use my first character to farm a ton of hides which allowed my second character to blast through tier 1 Forestry in about 3 hours.

Under "normal" conditions this would probably take a week or possibly two. I tried to do this alone with no outside help, levelling up using FedEx/Search quests (as opposed to combat quests that you're usually too low a level to complete) and it was working out fine for just collecting wood. I managed to shoot up to level 10 in a matter of hours. My first character is level 28, and it feels like it took forever to get there.

Blah blah - I could talk for hours about all that, but I don't want to annoy everyone. More on all that later if you're all interested.

I am glad I'm not the only one that is into building computers, personally I think it's fun