Lord of the Rings Open Beta

I've been in the beta for a while now (though can't play again until 4/6 now due to the pre-order thing). Here's my general feelings:

It has the typical gorgeous graphics you'd expect from Turbine.

However, I can't say that I appreciate the game much. Don't get me wrong it's about 70% of a WoW clone and all the proper flavor that a Lord of the Rings fan would want/expect out of it. Perfect example, roam around the Old Forest enough and you'll encounter Tom Bombadil's house and Tom himself.

I found fellowshipping to basically suck, and be almost pointless in the game. Don't misunderstand, I've fellow'd a number of times, but the problem is the game supports fellowships poorly, which is odd for an MMO type game. In fact, my experience is that playing with people is fine, but fellowing with them to accomplish the same goal nets less XP for everyone. You're better off getting together a group to accomplish a task, but not to fellow, just to accomplish. Even if you need to wait for a boss mob respawn, it still makes more sense to wait for it and let each person get their turn, then to fellow and go for multi-completion.

The chat system blows btw. Don't expect much conversation even if you're in a fellowship. The chat system in AC1 is currently worlds beyond the one in Lotro. I've tried to chat with people both IC and OOC and both to ask for help/questions, and both to offer help, and 90% of the time I get nothing.

The GUI customization is practically nil. You can unlock the pieces and move them around, but it's very limited.

The classes are very unbalanced. Exceedingly so, in fact. I've played a Guardian, a Hunter, a Lore-Master, and a Minstrel (most experience is on the Minstrel, as it's a very Tanky class if you know what you're doing - though Guardian is the true Tank). Health is all over the chart for these classes, whereas your "energy" (think "mana", but they've changed the name so many times I've lost track) is about the same. It's sort of silly and pointless really. I mean Minstrels get low health, but they can self-heal, and my experience is that this allows them to get more health per-capita than a Guardian who is supposed to be of the highest health.

Pets are cool, but the advancement of the pet itself blows - WoW and CoV both handle pets better.

Quests are basic, rote, and my biggest problem: not interesting enough to bother to repeat. So replay value is very low in Lotro. I've done the Human/Hobbit start, and I've done the Elf/Dwarf start (much prefer the latter btw), and I don't have great desire to redo either.

It is a nice game for sight-seeing.

You can solo anything - even "fellowship quests" you just need to wait about 5-6 levels past one to do so (you judge by the monster levels on the quest).

If you're playing WoW, and liking it, but want Middle Earth, switch. Otherwise, don't bother. WoW still has a better overall feel to it.

You can play as monsters, but you need to make level 10, and get to a town that has a shrine where you can access your monster character.
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Circeus, Friendly/Neighborhood/Site/Admin
Starmaster, Mutant/Blaster/Energy/Fire
Mighty Quinn, Magic/Tanker/Ice/Stone