The Lord of The Rings Online

Dynamic · 02-23-2007, 08:50 PM

Anyone playing beta 2? i just got accepted in, not sure if its an open sign up or whatnot, but http://lotro.turbine.com/index.php?page_id=94

im only lvl 6 now, i like having another 2 free months of beta access

Drakken · 02-23-2007, 11:26 PM

I just got my closed beta key yesterday. This weekend is the stress test that will last until monday after that it goes back to closed beta. Open beta starts at the end of March I think. I have a lvl 5 elf right now. I picked a pre-order kit from best buy in case I want to do that lifetime deal they have instead of paying monthly.

Dynamic · 02-24-2007, 01:42 AM

idk if i will want to play it all that much yet, it seems very much like a cross between WoW, GW, and SWG? lol .... could be good, ill see what i think

is the 200$ lifetime sub, good only for ppl with the preorder? thats basically paying for 20 months up front, almost 2 years... ive payed for wow since it came out, and i still dont play it that much...lol

Drakken · 02-24-2007, 11:06 AM

When does the Pre-order Program end? A: The Pre-order Program officially ends when the retail product is launched on April 24th, 2007. You may continue to apply your Pre-order Product Key for up to 30 days post-launch so long as you apply it before you enter your Retail Product Key and before your first subscription billing date.

The good thing about the life thing is like you said, you've been paying for WoW since it came out and you don't play it that much. But with the pre-order you can get a reduced monthly rate of 9.99 instead of 14.99.

ChemicalWarrior · 02-24-2007, 11:09 AM

I've heard the world is very small, "average gamer can see all of the world in 3 months" small. That does not sound good at all, I've been playing WoW for about a total of a year and I've still got entire areas I have no seen on my 53 Undead Mage. I've also heard the level limit is 15? That's crazy low, I do not like the way Guild Wars handles levels so if this is similar....... meh.

Dynamic · 02-24-2007, 12:52 PM

ive seen level requirements / leveling up skills to be around 40 i thought?

ChemicalWarrior · 02-24-2007, 01:02 PM

Maybe I was wrong, I have no played. Mostly I've heard this type of comment:

"I'd never actually played WoW until just a few hours ago - and that was because someone commented on how much LOTRO looks like WoW. So I borrowed a copy of WoW and tried it out. And sheesh, this game is like a clone of World of Warcraft. Everything from the UI layout, to the levelling system, to the quest system, and even the way you zoom in/out of the map is exactly the same in both games.

Heck, it'd probably be easier to describe the differences between the two games rather than all the similarities..."

Drakken · 02-24-2007, 05:17 PM

The lvl limit is not 15, i know someone that has a lvl 21 dwarf in the closed beta. Is the UI, leveling system and map zoom close to Wow, of course it is, the UI is on the bottom like WoW, you get XP points and your char lvls up like WoW, and if you hit M and bring up the map you can click to zoom in or out like WoW. What game isn't like that? BF2 has a UI at the bottom of the screen, your guy can lvl up in BF2, and you can zoom in and out of the map too.
Note this is not to bash WoW, but Balder's Gate had a UI at the bottom of the screen, maps that you can open and zoom in on, so I guess you could say that WoW is like Balder's Gate in basic game play aspects. I mean people need to figure that there are only so many ways to do things for stuff like UIs, map zoom and leveling of chars and still make it into an enjoyable game for people to play without having to figure out a totally new interface for each game that comes out.

ChemicalWarrior · 02-24-2007, 06:04 PM

There's a lot more to a UI than location. There's a ton more to leveling then just getting experience from kills. However, I have not played (nor plan on playing) LOTRO so I can't say if they truly are extremely similar, only what I've heard.