The Lord of the Rings Online – An introduction to a mmorpg based on the books written by J.R.R Tolkien

Lord of the Rings Online – An introduction to a mmorpg based on the books written by J.R.R Tolkien

This is the introduction part, telling you as a reader what Lord of the Rings Online offers and how it affected me as a player, how it grew in my heart. Upcoming parts will be about zone by zone, with screenshots, some information and personal impressions. Enjoy!

Prologue

There is plenty of online games out there in our world. But is there any game that you feel that you are in a story originally made in a book form? A game that will drag you in with every breath it has? A game that you really feel like you are a big part of a very huge story?

I want to introduce to you: Lord of the Rings Online, released on April 24 , 2007.
A fantasy online game with a huge, living world, just ready to jump in to, explore and live in.

The game is f2p with three different plans. I would say that this game is very kind to its customers and no p2w is seen as far as I think. Everything can be purchased in the ingame store with currency that can be EARNED IN GAME. You don’t need to put in any single coin into this game if you don’t want to. And how does that work you may wonder?

In Lotro there is something called Deeds, basically achievements that have a reward system. Some of those deeds will give you the points, so called Lotro Points, that you can use to purchase stuff like cosmetics, mounts, quest packs, expansion packs etc.

There is plenty of guides on, for example YouTube, how to gather points in certain areas in the shortest and easiest period of time.

The zones

Its zones are relatively big with its own character and feel. No zone look the same and they are all made very well from the books, so you will feel welcome and at home.

The Middle Earth - world map

Its world is split into different parts;

Eriador

Rhovanion

Gondor

Mordor (which is the latest part introduced in the latest expansion).

Overall the majority of the zones doesn’t have any form of loading screens, so the world feels, in my own opinion, very alive and realistic compare to games that have loading screens between zones.

Graphics

The older zones have slightly lower graphic details compare to newer zones added in expansions, but that give the game its own charm and footprints.

But I will say like this; even if this game is from 2007 its graphics are very beautiful with details and reflections and it have better graphics than a lot of newer games out there.
I found myself stopping sometimes just to look at the scenery. Some zones are absolutely breathtaking.

Expansions

There is currently 6 expansions out there;

Mines of Moria, released 2008
Siege of Mirkwood, released 2009
Rise of Isengard, released 2011
Riders of Rohan, released 2012
Helm’s Deep, released 2013
Mordor, released 2017

Classes

There is ten classes in Lotro; Minstrel, Champion, Hunter, Loremaster, Guardian, Burglar and Captain. However 2 of the 10 classes, the Runekeeper and the Warden unlocks with the Mines of Moria expansion. The tenth class, the Beorning is an additional class with needs to be purchased with Lotro Points in the ingame store.

The world of Lotro and its story

This game offers a lot of lore and story. It have a main story line which is split up into books and chapters. There is tons of lore and sidequests to do. And there is also class specific quests, created just for your class.

There is so much to do in this game and players who jump in to the game today will have 11 years of content to go through.
The game also offers crafting, fishing, housing, pvp, dungeons, crafting dungeons, raids, public dungeons and so on.

One small thing that I found very handy is the automated loot system. Instead of looting dead corpses it automatically comes to a loot bag with a cooldown of 60 minutes. Very handy if your inventory is full and you don’t have time to go to a vendor and sell straight away. Very smart addition to the game!

My final thoughts

I can’t express enough how much this game changed me as a player, to the better. There is a lot of additions to this game that I haven’t mentioned here, because of the reason that there is so much stuff to do. You will never find yourself standing in the city and don’t know what to do.

For a complete full Lotro experience, I recommend that you join a Roleplaying guild, which is called Kinship in this game.
Overall the community is very helpful and kind.
Another thing to keep in mind when it comes to The Lord of the Rings Online, is that its the only Lord of The Rings game out there which is closest to the story from the books. Just a small thought!

Hope that you enjoyed the reading!

/Elenya