Been there since Beta and I take breaks but I always come back. Love this game. Now playing with my son so it's crossed a generation. Very special. 💕

This is one of the MMORPG games that is aging like a fine wine.

This concept of the journey beeing the game instead of just endgame and raid content is what made Vanilla WoW so amazing. Even as someone who was a very active raider until WoW Cataclysm i always missed that concept in WoW after it all changed when Burning Crusade came around and started to focus almost completely on endgame . Before that raiding in Vanilla WoW especially in the very early days with Onyxia and Molten Core felt more like a fun mass event. When it got more serious with time it at least for me felt like a weekly chore. I couldnt wait when the raid id was clear and i could go back lvling my alts for the journey. I still do it today sometimes... Maybe i should take a look at LotRO it looks like the entry is pretty easy for a WoW veteran in regards to interface and all.

Hi. VIP and Founder here, playing since closed beta. I have played and still do play other MMORPG games, and I agree with everything our KZfaq friend Snow Fluff has supplied as opinion. I have not seen another that matches the love of the base lore, or the grandeur of LotRO. This game has come with me through 4 OS updates. So far. There will be more. LotRO forever, friends. There is another positive about this game: By and large, the player base is in the friendly/helpful range. All love. Barukh Khazad!

Ok i will re download the game after 10 years. You've twisted my arm

from the clip youre showing the game visuals looks pretty good for something that came out in 2007

The gameplay isn't my favorite but no other MMORPG has the Role Play like LOTRO does. Great community of players.

When you finally exit Moria for the first time, and see the starry night sky above. ❤

The game does indeed cater to a different type of player. While it is rather sad that the much-needed graphic overhaul won't happen, and the lore exposition through text-based questing is admittedly quite archaic now, the feature that drew me the most and prompted me to play again is the landscape difficulty mode. So, i grabbed a few buddies from my Dungeons and Dragons campaign who are also invested in Tolkien lore and we started levelling together at a higher difficulty. We don't feel like a party only in dungeons, we are a party all the time and it has given us the chance to play the roles we want in a fellowship from the get-go! MMO devs, take the hint please, not all of us want to just rush to the endgame and grind the same dungeons ad infinitum. Now the whole world is a dungeon crawl, in a sense. We are creating our own little story in Middle Earth, and this is just priceless, even if it only becomes true for a few hours a week. Haven't had so much fun in an MMO in a very long while.

what's amazing about it, is that it still exists.

As a rabid Tolkien fan, I agree. LOTRO is about the most important thing in the Tolkien universe: LORE. Amazon clearly does not respect the lore, at all, and one has to look no further than "Rings of Power" to see that.

Longer form is fantastic for your channel; important to have that tension/relief ratio just right throughout the content and you obviously killed it with that here lol, keep on keepin' on, bright future for ya!👍

Never ended up playing it but it is nice to see some games not only stayed alive but kept delivering experiences long after the MMO rush of the late 2000s where so many would be pronounced DOA before even releasing. Side note: I know in the video you explain some of this lower level focused content might not work for WoW or FFXIV but being honest as someone who put thousands of hours into and now have moved on from both it would have been nice so see them try, after a while the whole idea of the game being about the destination gets old, no matter how good the destination is. That's why I still think vanilla WoW was a better experience than anything since, it wasn't treated the same way they treat the mainstream games now.

I will have to give this game a try! Thank You for the video :)

Came back to lotro after 9 years. Never seem the game so populated. Feels like 2013

I started day 1 and I’ve still never been past the base game. I’ll play, stop for months, then start over haha. I need to buckle down and actually progress.

It needs an UI overhaul

Hi There! I am a Tolkien & LOTRO KZfaqr myself. Your video popped up and I must say I really enjoyed it! I love that you pointed out the Goods in the game instead of the negative stuff, Since the good WAY outweighs it. LOTRO is in Fact the Biggest "scale" game in the world besides infinite games like Minecraft or no mans sky. Loved you pointed that out. Now personally, The "graphics art style" I love in lotro, I know some don't like older, But I mean, Lotro dose looks better then WoW. BUT, I don't think comparing there "graphics works" since they are both "art styles" more then anything else. I also am a WoW player in the past great game too. I agreed with Most your video! A few, small things, I won't go into all of them, But... I may be that guy that wants flying mounts since I started the game the first week it was out. lol. Now, hear me out... the other side of me is like NO, it will break things in the game, lore and feeling Like you said. I am torn on that, Also, when it comes to UI I think a lot of people just don't know how set it up, Being older. I think the UI has aged really well (besides a few skill icons). I have a guide video on how I setup my UI to look so good etc. Now, to finish up. Almost everything else you said I agree on! They are fixing the "lag issues" I almost never get them anymore myself, but others still do at times. You did a really good job putting this video together. I wanted to thank you and encourage you on how good this video was. It was balanced and fair points both the goods and bad. It was very refreshing to me to watch a video I was not cringing at knowing they did not do there research (happens way to much). But you DID do the research! I was impressed you even knew the stuff about amazon game and the worry that standing stones put to rest. Well done! Keep it up man! Maybe I will see you in game sometime! I play on the server CrickHollow mostly, but also on others too. Cheers! BARKH KHAZAD! P.S. They are planning on doing a scaling system to let you lower your personally level to help out a lower level ally with out needed to get on a different toon. This is new info and should be a welcome addition! :D

I just started playing as a free to play mmo gamer. LOTRO's shop system is like Helldivers 2 - play the game to earn credits which can be used to buy expansions. Its like WoW Classic but completely free and with a focus on storylines.

Lotro is my favourite game, I have played since the early 2010’s and still it’s like being your own person in the world of Tolkien during a epic age of adventure 😊.

This game holds a very special place in my heart. I’ve been playing for eight years now and appreciate this game more than any other game.

The great thing about being able to set landscape difficulty is that you can really learn how to use your skills effectively. This way when you go to do the more difficult group content you're really well versed in how to use your class's skills.

Nice video. The scale of the world in particular is something I loved about LotRO as well. One thing worth noting about WoW, they scaled down all the levelling areas, presumably to streamline the levelling process even further (cause Blizzard). No idea when they did this, but it can be observed easily by going to an spot in WotLK Classic and going to the same spot in retail. Your character is much bigger in comparison to the environment in retail, perhaps 25% or so. I thought my memory had failed me when levelling a new alt, but no Blizzard really did make the world smaller.

Recently got back into LOTRO. This game is my go-to when I’m feeling nostalgic as I’ve played this game since alpha testing.

i played ddo (ssg's other game) for a decade since its release in 2006 and recently got back into it, but never touched lotro its really quite interesting how much they have in common but also where they differ

what resolution are you playing on, would 2k resolution make UI too small? that's the thing I heard that ui doesn't scale

Been playing since 2008. Have 12 characters at level cap (one of each class). You are correct about the reasons people still play and love this game. One of my nightmares is that being an online game, eventually, one day it will close down, and all my characters will be gone. I am likely to try the Amazon game if/when it is released, but it is unlikely to become a substitute for LOTRO, just another game to also play, maybe.

This and star wars the old republic both epic even to this day

Lotro feels like a vast world to be in and explore. With a really well written epic quest line.

Great script, narration and summary of what Lotro brings to the table Snow Fluff. Extremely well done! :)

Lotro will be amazing for ever! Why? Have played every single MMO out there but only Lotro speaks to my soul... can't describe it!

Colors seem more vibrant in your video then in-game for me. Did you do something to either your video or in LOTRO itself to make that the case?

The one game I always come back to and play to relax

I have had long pause from the game. Might check the new areas out as I do have some alts around! :)

Very nice in depth analysis 👍If they would have remade LOTRO to be up 2 date like other MMOS which did it, like WOW, i would have played LOTRO soo much more. I played it for 5 years.

I just reinstalled for the first time in a couple of years. Been playing for a bit over 14 years, off and on, and it always draws me back.

A great video! I think this accurately captures why a lot of us continue to play.

I would love to see this get a graphical overhaul and modernization

I played that game ages ago - has to be 13-14 years in guess. No im considering to give it a try again. Is there a way to customize UI? Like addons for bars or anything close to it?

I liked this game back in the day. This, regnum, runescape with membership and the wow demo from cataclysm were my teenage yrs. Miss those days, miss the friend i had who introduced me to regnum and lotro. Have no means of contacting him any more.

LOTRO is the most underrated mmo ever. I love it. Beautiful game. 17 years now!

The only thing that I would love to see right now is a complete UI overhaul, which I think is not that hard to do.

Unfortunately, I lost my lifetime account when the publisher changed. All the characters are gone and unfortunately I didn't feel like getting back in.

I think, despite a lot of warts, LotRO still is engaging because the term "lovingly crafted world" shows in basically every part of the game. It's like that person you hang out with that's not really good looking in a conventional sense but so goddamned charming they grow on you. We all know pretty people that are stupid; that would be WoW. LotRO engages you at a deeper level.

I played LOTRO a little about 12 years ago, but my hardware was really bad at that time. Really considering to play it today. It's definitely aged a bit, but still looks great.

Really enjoyed watching this. This makes me want to give LOTRO a try. As I've previously played WoW (Vanilla and BC mainly) and FFXIV as either a caster DPS/Healer or more two handed Ret Pally. I was curious what you might recommend for a first playthrough to experience LOTRO?

I've been playing since open Beta and will keep playing till the day it shuts down.

interesting video - but you were standing ontop of another mountain in kun-lai instead of in the valley...while comparing it to a mountain in lotro from the perspective of standing in the valley...not really fair no?

I will totally give this game a try. Being a longtime fan of MMORPGs and LOTR, let's go! I will update here to tell you how it went.

There is no other MMO with as much detail or charm.

2:10 I can't be the only one who got scared by the popping lmao

I'm actually playing lotro right now, I just returned to the game recently I'm like you where I revisit quite often I have been playing wow since 2007 and started first playing Lord of the rings online in 2010. Like you said in the video yes a little bit of it is outdated but there's something that keeps bringing me back to the game, I cannot see the Community just abandoning the Game and moving over to Amazon's Game it's gonna take amazon a long time to develop their game it won't be out for probably another 6 to 8 years at the earliest

Great video mate, very professional and engaging. Hopefully the algorithm discovers you channel soon 🙏 keep it up (you earned a sub)

Can you change UI size and font size now? last time I tried the game, it was unplayable bc on my 2k monitor, text and ui were way too small

Okay if i already have a daybreak all access do i get anything in lotro like unlocked content etc

Hey I have never played, do you have a referal link i want to try it out

If I had the free time I'd have a max lvl of all classes, but I play very infrequently. I really put in a lot of hours back in Moria and Mirkwood. I missed out on launch but did get to raid The Rift with my kin.

I tried to logon and get "No subscription found for LORTO". Tried starting a new account just to play but can't because my email is already used. What a mess...

I played during launch of LOTRO. I remember how many group quests there were and how hard content was. I did try the game again and was disappointed they dumbed down all those hard group quests to be soloable. But that is the fate of a game that has serious population drops over the years.

LoTRO will always have a place in my heart, but yeah, the lag is a serious problem.

Do you still need to buy every expansion ever released individually?

I tired to play a few years back but I just couldn't with all the cosmetic items content etc. My inventory was just spammed with immersion breaking content.

Its the my #1 cozy game. And the music slaps.

I love lotro universe, big fan of the books and movies - I started playing lotro when it released but didn't play it for very long (around 2 months). Since then i've been coming back to lotro many times but briefly and each time I quit feeling its a single player grindy chore that hides behind of facade of being a safe haven for people loving Tolkien work. I respect all the people that praise this game and love it for one reason or the other but personally I think this universe deserve a better, much, much better mmo. The only thing I like about this game is its landscape and scale, there is a certain charm to this Lineage 2 era graphics. Each time I came back to the game I got bored really quickly and just spent couple days just traveling and seeing places. Its very alluring but a niche entertainment that can last for a day or two. Even tho there is a lot of content for low, med, high level characters I have not experienced anything in the world that would incentivize me to play with other people. Nobody is whispering anybody "Hey you wanna do this or that? We potentially could use your class for this or this". Games, especially MMOs need to have gameplay loop that pushes people together across all levels - this is what wow classic nailed for example. Even today when you play this new wow season of discovery you get people that actively seek to play with each other.

ive been playing on and off for 12 years, since i was a young teenager, and honestly ive tried a LOT of mmos.basically i tried doenloading all the fantasy mmos that were free to play at some point and tried them out! but i never really got into any one of them. a big part of that was and is, that i have a short attention span and i dont want to have to read lore about a world i dont care about with characters i dont know and dont care about. thats the first bonus for lotro for me: i love the films, never read the books but i very much like the characters. i feel like i know them a little bit, and when i get to see and experience, for example, how balin got stuck and died in moria when the goblins attacked? that made me really fucking sad. or when you start as the race of men, and you immediately run into a "mysterious" ranger named "strider" its like. aaah. i see what yore doing. hi aragorn :)) its so fun, even for casual fans like me who are more invested into the characters than in the lore. but if you really love the lore....hooo boy theres lots and lots and lots of lore for you to read lmao. i myself am usually a filthy quest-text-skipper, however sometimes theyre written so well that even i am like "oh damn what happened then??" also, since lotro is so old, it is accessible to people like me who have a pc from like a trillion years ago. i cant even run lotro on ultra, which is sad because i personally think lotros art-style is super pretty and the environments look so beautiful and charming on max settings! but i think its important that people with older setups even have the possibilities to play the game. i cant play all the new, shiny games. baldurs gate 3?? lol my pc would probably explode if i tried opening that. and also, i personally think the landscape difficulty thing was genius. im a very very chilled out gamer, i dont want to be stressed, and lotro is perfect for that. however, i always seem to land being a smidge overlevelled most of the time, and so putting the difficulty on like, 3 or something, just makes fighting mobs that little bit more satisfying. also i could /actually/ die now if i dont pay attention lmao, thats new! anyway as you can tell, i really love this game and i hope it can keep going for lots and lots of more years, and im always trying to recruit my friends to play with me hehe

I loved this game so much but the last couple times I’ve checked it out I couldn’t find anyone. Is it worth getting into?

I remember when moria dlc first dropped, I actually bought a hard copy from GameStop back in the day, didn’t wanna be a Wow nerd so I became a Tolkien fan boy

Wish LOTRO would get a graphical overhaul, that would make me play it.

I thought it was gone. I only played it once and used my trial mount to tour middle Earth and sight see. I need to get a pc again…

Difficulty option is wonderful. On normal difficulty it's a chore (bore?) to go through a new character from start. So very easy and aimed at a new player. I hadn't played a warden for years and when to try this more complex class again. I definitely don't recommend going heroic level 7 at level 2 but that's what I did and it was not Dark Souls but it was tough! I had to plan ahead and really makes my moves right instead of just running around pew pew willy nilly tagging every enemy. Amount of content the game has is its strong suit. If you don't like certain area, there's another one with similar level. However the grind is real. I have to remind myself that I can't do every quest and every deed in every area. Trying to do 100% in an area ends up with low to no experience points and grinding gets tedious to get that last 100 orc kills. Monetization is not the worst but you can really sink cash into really nothing so amazing. Waiting for a sale is common advice for new players. As one of the lucky who have a Lifetime VIP the quality of life being subscriber is a real thing that makes me think the game is better than our might be as a free to play. But the lore and stories and world and wholesome people and places and hardship and tragedy... It's a love letter to Tolkien. Even if he might have a few words about adaptation.

What plug-in are you using for the Beorning cooldowns/wrath bar? Is it Gibberish?

Ive been playing ff14 and i love it. Saying that, LOTRO will always be my fave mmo, ive always loved the world and the grand scale of the game. I dont play it anymore as i enjoyed it most when playing with friends. Its a very relaxing game to play solo and this video has made me want to play it later. Thanks ☺️

I probably have more hours in WoW than I do in any other MMO, but I realized that I don't care for the endgame content in WoW at all. I've leveled so many alts because I just live questing through the different zones/expansions. Once I hit max level I end up creating a new character. I've finally gotten bored of it and started branching out to other MMOs. I really enjoy LOTRO so far, for many reasons, but mainly because the game feels so expansive. And it feels like the journey to max level has a great focus, unlike in WoW where it feels like they should just do away with levelling entirely at this point Lol

As a Tolkien fan, I loved being able to travel and see canonic places in the game. It also gave me my all time most favorate MMORPG gaming experiences in Monster Play, until it got too unbalanced as a result of level expansions and low server pop. Monster Play never got the attention it needed from the developers but had great end game potential IMO.

I’m a huge SWTOR fan. Been playing it since 2013. Love that I can make my own story in Star Wars. Like any MMO it can get very old, but its stories always brings me back. I did try WoW once and I must be blunt, it was probably the most boring video game I’ve ever played. It makes me nervous to play this, but I love the LOTR franchise. Just finished watching the extended editions for the first time. Think it’s worth the shot at least?

Need to get a voice ai quest addon for this game, id sink a few thousand hours for sure.

Thanks ❤

This game only opens up in windowed mode for me lol I remember playing it close to when it first came out. DIdn't play much but it was fun.

I want to play it again but the constant hitching and outdated game engine feels really rough in 2024.

Amazon lord of the ring is gonna be like the drama series goes down hill

Best MMORPG ever to get hooked on enjoying the story and levelling along with parts of the story from the movie Crickhollow server is always alive in chat

LOTRO is beautiful but shows it's age. What killed it for me was when I started realizing how building interiors did not match their exterior designs. In old games this was just how it was but for a modern gaming experience it is very immersion breaking. Sometimes, however, when riding through the Lands Between or relaxing in Whiterun I am reminded of what a magical experience this game was for me in it's time.

How do you play this today say, on a WQHD laptop or 1440p monitor ? You need borderless fullscreen for convenient alt tabbing to wikis and whatnot, so exclusive fullscreen is not really an option. How have they not improved the ux yet?

What drove me away from lotro to be honest was the UI, and very slow gameplay (tho once I leveled that was not an issue anymore) and the fact that there quest are too much spread out. Usually in WoW, you get to a town, and all the quest are in the same area, then you turn them in and get sent to the next area. In LOTRO, you get to a town, which give you quest spread out in several area, and you have to turn each one in several other area. I felt lost

I want to come back, but won't until they rework the interface proper for high resolution monitors. Currently its a blurry mess with anything above 1080p. But... I heard they reworked the store. *rolls eyes*

Lifetime VIP here. 😅

can the UI scale yet?

tom Bombadil is my love

Can you climb to the top of those mountains?

LotRO is the goat when it comes to games for me. that said, they really need to do something about the lag. That is its biggest threat by far.

I've always thought the lvl scaling should have been more extensive as to make all content and gear viable old and new. it wouldn't really be that hard to scale all old content and gear up to player lvl and make it at least some what or in some way useful.

What is the intro tune? Is it from the game?

1:34 yea may i point out if a game is that old you end up with hard code. good example is WoW heared once a dev found a .PNG of a random coconut. it was put in the files early in the game devlopment the dev deleted the immage compiled the game and after that they went on a month of panic testing. just by deleting a image that wasnt linked to annything made the game crash. why? it was there for so long it became part of the hard code of the game. im not sure if i recall correct but its basicly the game engine refering back to a line of code as a waypoint to find its way. runescape also had this problem with rs2 lumbridge cobble bridge. they could not delete it. and changing objec file worked but never showed the object change in game XD. yes OSRS likley still cant change that bridge. wierd and intresting stuff i know a littlebit about. (i had a fall in techer at basic school dude was in his 60s had all caracters maxed out and knew GMs. thats how i got the WoW storie. i dit not play wow much but he also played cod mw2 he was a beast.) (and the one from RS i know because back in the day there were 3 dutch jagex moderators 1 for comunity and other 2 were devs. i knew them cause i hanged out in the same world as they did. yea.. the old times devs were loged into a mmo to chill with players while making the game. we need that back....

OSRS, LOTRO, we need a re-release of the OG Guild Wars and a holy trinity will be complete

Wish they would release it on console. Could breath some new life and audiences

What a beautiful video. Thank you. :)

I wish they did another TLP

In 2024 new year's resolution forbifes me from computer games 😢 but LOTRO will be first game that i will choose when i come back in 2025 😇

Yeah alright i'll join up

I tried to play this a couple months ago but I’m a social person and want to time a community and the vibe was lovely I couldn’t time anytime to play with so I stopped