returning player here. For me the biggest issue is the lag, its damn near unbearable at times and i cant convince friends to even try the game out because of it.

I return to LOTRO from time to time as I enjoy the slower pace and graphics of an older MMO but the UI is the main frustration that drives me away each time. It clearly was never designed for modern screen resolutions as the text is often way too small for me to read on certain elements. LOTRO is a great game for fans of Middle Earth who want to explore the world and interact with the characters though, much like how WoW was particularly exciting for fans of Warcraft lore. Just being in the locations from the stories is still immersive to me and I think that's one of the reasons I keep returning.

3 majors problems: 1 - subscription is to expensive for others countries, In dollar conversion WOW is $39,00 and Lotro is $74,00; 2 - Grapichs are Ok but the combat melee animation is bad, need a visual remake for that. 3 - Lag, the fps drop and server lag is awfull. they should stop doing expansions and try to fix the lag.

This game deserves a remake

I‘ve played over 5k Hours during my time as a Student stoped playing after helms deep…. I miss this time a little bit❤

Lag for me. Everything else was fun but unplayable for me in the UK due to lag, really needs addressing for me to return

i like the game a lot but.. the lag and rubber-banding is frustrating. I recently started playing City of Heroes again, it runs so smooth and joining a group happens real quick. Since moving over i’m basically having more fun.

Map comment is on point.

To be honest I’m just playing it now for the first time and treating it as a single player lotr rpg. This mindset helps me enjoy the game a lot more. I’m f2p and just hit level 20 on my beoring on difficulty level 4.

I know your video is about retaining players. However, I wouldn't have any issue with most of the things you've mentioned. I'm just hesitant to even try the game in the first place because I'm afraid there won't be enough players around at all levels to make the game feel alive and to do group content with.

for me it's mostly just the combat. The unique class mechanics are boring, the combat is stilted, the combat itself is bland and static, and the animations/effects are dated. The one exception was the Warden, which is quite unique and interesting from a mechanics perspective, but then I ran into a day where server lag made it's mechanics insufferable and I stopped playing that class too. On the bright side I think the difficulty slider is brilliant. One of the things that made me actually want to try LOTRO was that I could actually make the overland questing content challenging. That's a feature that nearly all MMOs are sorely in need of. If I'm going to spend 95% of my time running around the world questing, I don't want it to be brain numbingly boring because there is no inherent risk or challenge.

When I 1st started we didn't even have a full map until you explored the area and now there's even a quest tracker 😂 everything is so much easier now. I started as a completionist char and to this day, there're still things I haven't done etc etc(it's a massive game) and all you say is great but this game evolved so much over the years and the f2p you mention started during covid when most of ppl were home so they tried the extreme f2p model (they gifted most of the,then, content that you had to buy for free) and after that (now) it's mostly stayed but you have to buy new expansions. Didn't really mean to defend them but from someone who's been with the game since Turbine, they need high 5 (and don't tell them 😂)

I know a lot of people say the graphics are outdated and I play and have played a lot of other modern games I played wow for 17 years, guild wars 2, elder scrolls online and to me Lotro is just Beautiful and different than everything else. I don't need it to be flashy I don't need it to be polished and perfect I need to feel like I'm part of the world I'm playing in and that's what happens in Lotro, The only modern game that I can think of that would do Lord of the rings online justice in the graphics department would be the survival game Return to Moria

Poor combat / crap animations & character models / WAAAY too much Fed ex and kill quest 'busy work'. Player vs monster is crap. The world still looks nice tho. I have attempted to play it multiple times and just cannot stick with it long term.

at the yule tide festival there are so many people playing then they seem to disappear. i feel like im playing alone

Language i know most people don't even consider this factor but let me give you an example, we recently left wow with my wife and a couple of friends and started searching another mmo to enjoy, we checked out lotr online as most of them are fans of the saga, but they instantly turned it down because its not in Spanish, and i don't mean voices, just text, but its not the first time i have seen people reject games because they are only in English or just a couple of languages.

The world is amazing but the grinding is tedious. It would work better as an surviving rpg or even as a walking simulator

Lower the prices for VIP and the expansions. Me and my friends don't care even if it's an old game with old graphics, we will still play it for fun. But, the prices are just ridiculous. It's an old game. I guarantee people will play it again if they lower the prices. That way, they'll still make money, more money.

Been playing for 12 years. Your conclusions are all spot on.

I cant play this game on my 4k screen. the UI is horrendously outdated and I can't read the information on the screen or inventory screen at all. I am not even able to get immersed into the game because of the UI issue

The lag and ui need to be addressed. As soon as my character starts rubberbanding or theres a huge lag spike i uninstall and wait until i forget about it and try again in hopes theyve changed...

I actually got stuck on some quests due to my stupid brain not comprehending it - also switched to wow. I love lotr, and this game was awesome, but i felt alone, and that's not what you should feel in an MMO

Greetings. LOTRO was my first MMO and will be my last. Dabble a bit in GW2 which is fine in it´s own way. LOTRO has a really some problems, but if you want to stroll around in Middle Earth, it´s the best, ableit the only one out there. One problem that I read over and over again is that people are having problems with the UI. It´s customizable as hell , you can move around everything right where you want it to be. And for the love of god, you do not have to play a game that is 16 years old in 4K! Turn down the resolution!

As someone who has a LotRO account but has never actually played it...I certainly won't be "retained" as a new player if/when I do try it, because I would play through as though it's Middle Earth's version of Skyrim, and then be done with it. I've played WoW off and on for 17 years, and what really brought me back to that recently was being able to level new characters through any expansion starting at level 10, rather than having to level through all the expansions in order. If I do try LotRO, I may be able to level two characters (to see as much leveling content as possible, while trying a different class) before the journey begins feeling fully redundant. The massive amount of questing in LotRO doesn't seem as daunting to a veteran WoW player, but I can see how either of those games might look incredibly overwhelming to someone who's entirely new to MMOs.

Been playing lotro since 2007 curretoy became a free to play since with the latest expansion i bought it and it felt like there was nothing to do at 150 or even a rush to get 150

For me, 1. the character models and animations absolutely suck. 2. The UI is so horrendous that it doesn't scale well I fight with it to even be able to see what's going on. 3. I don't know what is even going on. Ive tried many times and I want to play it and love it but for these reasons, I can't.

Issue for me are: 1- Server lag 2- UI (impossible to move abd rearrange bars to i.e. mimic mmo-mouse button layout)

I think you missed the biggest 2 issues imo. The UI which you kind of touched on in the graphics and map but they don't scale well. And then the lag which is worse for some or dependant on server and time of day. Which I guess was kind of touched on in combat.

I love this game true to the lore. Needs advertisement. Then after bringing in new players invest in a remake/remaster. Add modern day conviences. Doesnt need new graphics but maybe a polish. If better than graphics i wont argue

Other MMO Expansions / Chapters being released is warranting MMORPGS players to transition. I think LOTRO needs more in late game.

Things that doesn't help for retaining new/returning players from my POV. 1.) Lack of players for instances/dungeons to switch up from questing all the time. 2.) Leveling, first time I speedrun from 1 to 100, it took me 2 weeks as a new player & got burnt out. 3.) lag/fps issues. Slightly improved over time but still can be an eye sore at times. 4.) Same as No.1, wanting to do "elite?" quests were mobs are tougher and require fellowships but no one does them or around can make the world/playerbase feel small. (I'm a bit of a completionist.) Most mind sets nowadays in MMO's is create character > Endgame. Leveling is most mmos, a grind, hindering. I've read the story questlog from 1-70 on LOTRO but as said, lack of players to change activity to keep it fresh can make it boring and loose interest in the game altogether. Would loved to of played LOTRO in it's prime time as I would of might be playing it to this day but the amount of levels needed and lack of players for different activities to keep it fresh while leveling, is disappointing. Tried many times to play but always got bored of questing and no actual "random instance queue" to change things. (I love my dungeons/group content)

I stopped playing when the cap was 85, so....maybe a decade ago? When they switched to talent trees and forced people to make builds instead of having everything unlocked. Tried playing again a couple years back but the lag was brutal and also i found the progression path for expansions was super confusing and i gave up after a couple hours of messing around.

Dude I switch in between Lord of the rings online and Warhammer dark-tide constantly. I feel the struggle.

The leveling is so damn slow is the problem. 60 was the level cap 100 year ago and I just hit it lol Contents locked behind a paywall even though I subbed forever and bought expansions and cant finish books. There is some issues for sure I havent tried rolling a new character but i guarantee its pay walled and the leveling is so slow. That being said, its still my second favorite MMO ever only second to WOW

no asian servers playing in australia i feel like im playing wow in the 90's lag and rubberbanding is nasty but i love the story, grew up with it, and as an older bloke happy with the slower combat system just wish the seriously bad lag would be improved its shit.

Lag is the no.1 reason. It is just unplayable

One reason that nobody plays is that the USER INTERFACE does not scale. It's outdated.It's very hard to read.

Does combat still feel like slow motion?

Im saving to buy 2nd hand laptop 💪💪

The UI isn't fully scalable for 4k resolution. I refuse to play the game while I'm limited to essentially size 10 font on my screen while in 4k.

Constant disconnections are whats doing me in. Literally pushed me back into playing BDO........

I started playing LOTRO back in October, already clocking over 1k hours, and I can't count how many times the map, or rather the lack of it, has almost made me uninstall. As I understand it, they can't really do much with it because of the legacy spaghetti code.

didnt like that you had to pay for some basic features and also didnt like when it teleport you to Rivendel after some like tutorial mission then all becomes tedious and a mess,also beoring i got unlocked and the quest line was bad too and used an instant 80 level thing i got free and became worse

main reason: old outdated engine , just hovering on a skill takes 4-5s for the tooltip to show, jumping feels old, gameplay feels old, they never cared to upgrade their game

I played it at launch, and quite liked it, though I didn't make it very far before losing interest for some reason. I tried it again last year, and quit during the tutorial because the combat was so slow.

I have played since the beginning, but i get bored with it. I have not played for some time.

The game should do a TLP server

the lag and the graphics make me quit every time I try

This game deserves not to have such a complicated monetization system… It should be buy to play + last expansion

They just need to make a TLE server. Let people start fresh and experience each part again. I played when the cap was 65 a lot… and every time I try to get into it now. I do for a bit then get bored knowing I have 140 lvls and so much shit to do that it’s confusing. I love the lvling experience, I love the music the crafting. But it’s very boring and lonesome when you see no one lol

Best graphics ever other than osrs imo games r suposed to look like games

Im finishing the download tonight, but boy its so hard ot get it to work properly on windows 10 or 11, took me 3 days

IMHO main reason: Their publishers sucks. Turbine, WB and Daybreak have one common thing: they don't want invest into Lotro, they don't want to advertise Lotro. Yes, SSG have outdated game, but they trying as best as they can with limited amount of resources what they have. How many Lotro players want to donate money into Lotro, but can't do it because of "technical problems"? Their support sucks. They can't protect our accounts, you need wait for ticket for MONTHS. Servers have obivous trolls who needs to be punished, but we don't have GMs. PvP flooded with rank farming and exploit using. Developers done great job with quests, locations, mechanic and music, but they can't handle dead weight with outdated content without money investement. It's still great game, but Lotro can't expand, because they can't fix any problems.

I never did mind the graphics and thought they had a certain charm to it. What drove me away though is the developer's complete disregard for the community in regards to lag and the ingame store and the very vocal minority in support of the developer. Not a single MMO out there has suffered from lag and other technical issues the way LotRO has. Sure, they all suffer from lag from time to time, but LotRO has been suffering for literally years now and there is not a single fix in sight other than a mere "we're aware and working on a possible fiex" or an "we identified an issue but have not yet figured out how to address it". Just be honest about it and confess you have no intention whatsoever to invest the resources into fixing it. Another issue is the store, obviously. Everyone is buying Valars af if they're candy, everyone is buying deed accelerators, pots and potions on seperate CD from actual crafted items, attack and defense buffs, ... and this community considers this practice to be normal, mandatory even if you wish to raid. That is not a community I wish to be a part of. They are sheep and while precious few 'real' players still exist in the game, they are vastly outnumbered. No, this game is not worth it anymore, or rather, the game at it's core is most deserving, but the developer and it's current community... not at all.

I would play lotro if there was better pvp system.

i just started the game and i like the feeling of being in the world of tolkin but the UI is so utterly dogshit that i can't play more then like 30min and then i have to stop and play something else i'm playing on a 1440p Monitor and the upscaling of the UI is bad, like really bad text in quests is too small UI is blurry because of the upscaling it's just not enjoyable

Hey my dood I’m a 17 year wow vet player I played eq1 b4 that,…. I am well read esp in the fantasy / high fantasy genre of books. I was looking for a new immersive MMORPG to get into and I downloaded lord of the rings online. I heard many great things about it, and I couldn’t imagine anything better than running around in Tolkens world. When I got there, there was nobody around nobody to explain anything. I was advised not to take the experience boost because I would be overwhelmed, but I just couldn’t find anybody to play with, and I know this game is meant to be played solo kind of, but it would be better to play with the community. I went to Facebook to look for community and there’s not even one there. Any suggestions?

This game back on the early days was incredible. I was addicted. It needs to be remade which they were gonna do but decided not to. I guess because Amazon is making a LOTR game

for me its the UI

There is no solid and streamlined starting experience. You create a new character and are immediately flooded with f2p items. Item progression is also incoherent and overwhelming, instead of streamlined like Classic WoW

Totally agree with the New World comments. Love the environment, hate the game. Problem for me is the combat. Most people are playing action style ESO GW2 New World BDO and once you are accustomed to playing this style it’s hard to go back to a Tab Target style combat. Second is I played this game when it was a sub game not free to play and it was packed with people. The Prancing Pony was full of RPers even on regular servers. Now the game is a ghost town and it stinks not seeing anyone else running around when you are. I do attempt to get back into it but it’s hard.

My background experience with MMOs is perhaps the opposite of yours, as in I'm a long-time lotro player that also picked up ff14 a couple years ago. The levelling experience and the large world are perhaps the best features of lotro. Any and all group content, sadly, occurs almost entirely at lvl cap. It's also at endgame that one starts to encounter some of lotro's biggest problems, namely being the legendary item and virtue grinds which both are very tedious and the former can even be a little RNG dependant at times. As opposed to ff14 where you can be geared for endgame in a matter of hours, it could take you weeks and possibly even a couple of months to get geared for difficult endgame content in lotro. With Umbar there's also the current issue that there no dungeons or raids available atm besides old scaling content (which doesn't reward you with much tbh), since the dungeons and raid are supposed to be coming in the next month or so (Feb and Mar). If you consider that Umbar launched in November, that means players have gone 3-4 months with almost nothing to do at endgame. Despite its issues, I really do love the game and still play lotro even today. I do wish that some of these endgame grind systems could be made less tedious though to help newer players get into endgame group content.

I've tried playing it like 3 times over years, but the combat I just don't like at all. Which is funny cause their other game, DDO, I quite like.

Great video! Why do you despise New World? The LOTRO combat is better than ESO.

The Interface of this game is so ugly that I uninstalled after 10 minutes.

the lag

palworld siphon

hey if you like being at endgame the same day you created a character its fine but dont cry when a game actually asks you to play it.....i swear crying about irrelevent stuff is an olympic sport now

Leveling from 1-150 is painfully slow for casual players. How many beginners would start Wow if they had 150 levels? Blizzard was smart enough to level squish. Enjoy the base game but we need to get you to end game where your friends are mentality.

1. Seems impossible to reach endgame as a new player. While endgame activities are not necessarily what it is all about, it is a problem that you have to aim for lvl 150 now. So many zones, so difficult to travel. So grindy in the way of achieving virtue points; so reliant on mithril points to travel. 2. Bloat, relates to the above: too many systems, too many pre-requisites for leveling up crafting. Too many out-of-date details not quite consolidated or cleaned up. Why does mounted combat not work, if it doesn't work, why is it still there... etc... Legendary Items the same: we used to make our own, now we have a bizarre multi-layered system, essences. Too much, not enough agency. 3. Not enough organization of the Epic quest line: should be tighter and much much shorter. Should be emphasized. After all, it is the content of the original story, which is important to the identity of the game. 4. Recent expansion is a problem: no way to enjoy it if you are not at endgame level. This is not good. Even if you get to endgame via a boost (they have them --- especially when buying the expansion) you probably won't have crafting at endgame levels. Which means you have to spend many hours catching up on previous tiers, which as mentioned above is now bloat length (12 levels by now?) Yes, old game, probably too many systems and too much bloat. Too much content can actually be a problem if it isn't coherent or satisfying. P.S. and 5: lag is an issue at times. Crippling lag. Doesn't occur for hours at a time, but does show up most gaming sessions for a few seconds here and there. Very annoying and suggests that the developers just haven't bothered to keep the game up to date even minimally. Not a confidence builder.

...cause other games do it better.

Being a player from the beginning of the game, having over 7000 hours or so I stopped playing for the most part cuz of "modern messaging". This was always my main game and felt like home. I have always loved this game but when they start putting pronouns for orcs being they/them then I'm pretty much done.... I am fine with it being in BG3 because all that stuff is done correctly and I don't have to deal with it if I don't want to as far as pronouns are concerned. I am not against gays or whatever anyone wants to do with their own life, I am very much a live and let live person. I just don't think that modern woke social/politics should be injected into middle earth. It really gets rid of any immersion for me now when I come across it in LOTRO. Anything for that ESG score and a good rapport with GLAAD . Oh well, just one player gone I suppose. 🤷‍♂

i mean , the game is horrible

I play MMORPGs for housing. The graphics are really bad in LoTR. I play Black Desert Online and Elder Scrolls Online. LoTR looks ancient and outdated. I would play a LoTR game if it had decent graphics.

Why LOTRO online cant retain players: The game is crusty and was out of date when it released. wanna be wow clone saved everyone 10 minutes