You win this round, Sauron!

GandalfIt was an uphill battle for too long, I’m afraid. Today I canceled my Lord of the Rings Online account with the decision to give up the fight against Sauron and his forces of evil. I guess I can rest easy knowing that, unless Turbine takes too many more liberties with the lore, Frodo will eventually destroy the ring; without me. This decision to stop playing LOTRO was not necessarily difficult or easy. It was more of a circumstance of boredom and a lack of direction or things to do. For the third time since I began playing most all my friends have quit the game. I’m certain that if I kept playing I would make more friends and they would eventually quit but to be honest I’m tired of the repetition.

I still think that LOTRO is a good game – just no longer for me. I’m not easily entertained by fluff or gear grinds like others. I’ve aged in the MMO genre beyond the need to feel uber or be ‘leet’. Gear-centric games just don’t do it for me and that is, sadly, what LOTRO has become. I can understand that some players find enjoyment in LOTRO for reasons other than gear grinds but I’ve tried and it’s just not working for me. Book 11 is just a week or two away and I can say with conviction that it would make things slightly less boring but yet still more the same. Housing would be fun for a little bit, but how long can you decorate a house before realizing there’s not much else to do with it? I’m going with the ‘get out while you still feel like you can’ approach. I’m at peace with it.

LOTRO and I had a good run together. I had nearly 3 level 50’s fully geared out and I have experienced absolutely 100% of the content, beaten every single boss, and even seen Book 11 already on Roheryn(test server). I’m adding LOTRO to my list of MMOs that were fun – That’s a compliment. I can remember back to the days of Beta Testing and then during the early-start. One of the best parts of a MMO is that excitement of a brand new world waiting to be explored… it’s like that new car smell.

Now the wait for the next MMO begins, again. The circle of life never fails. What’s on the horizon for me? Pirates of the Burning Sea (which is looking like it will be a very different approach), Warhammer Online (need I say more about my excitement?), Metaplace (I want to play around with it!), and possibly an adventure back into MMO’s of old.

So to LOTRO I say, “Le hannon, mára mesta“.

  • Hey Keen!

    I lasted a month in LOTRO- it looked great, followed the lore well, but I was solo there and it was a very quest-centric game and unless one played with a consistent group people all had different quest lists to do. Couldn’t find a simple hunting group since quests were the big thing.

    Part of it is Jaded MMORPG Syndrome I’m sure, it takes less and less time for me to get that familiar feeling, unfortunately.

  • Hey, Keen. Hopefully you’ll find a nice temporary home in London. 🙂 It’s not exactly an MMORPG, but a ton of fun. Let me know when you get up and running. Perhaps we could make a couple of characters to run with.

  • Been back to the Tabula Rasa beta, myself…. giving it an honost shot before end of beta event (very soon).

    I got past the level 10 hump, and into the Divide, and am pretty impressed with the fights there. The last patch introduced some wierd lag/latency issues, but I’m sure they’ll fix it again before live.

    Yes, there’s some bugs in the game (I passed on LOTRO at release because of ’em /blush), but I’m finding the fights pretty enjoyable, and mostly soloable (albeit, sometimes it takes 2-3 attempts to get the right pull order / weapon combo’s, but that’s 1/2 the fun, right?!).

  • Also said bye-bye…after 3 months of play…I also was in Closed Beta and a Founder (but could not do lifer based on what I saw in Closed Beta)

    And it showed…bad tech support, shoddy UI, boring gameplay at the 30’s to 40’s…performance issues…for myself anyways…

    You made the right choice…and yes, your suggestion of EQ2 is an excellent idea…but treat it casually…no need to rush…just log in for a bit, and play other stuff…it works for me, and I am still having a blast…
    Cheers!