Play the Lord of the Rings online for totally free.

[MartinMorrison]

The Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) was released 5 years ago and is still going strong. The server I play on (Brandywine) is more active than my current WoW server. This game boasts simply the best graphics of any MMO out there, an engrossing story and a much more interesting levelling experience than WoW. Any fan of LOTR should enjoy this game as it is the most detailed depiction of Tolkien's world (and more accurate to the books than any other LOTR game/movie).

As a South African, I do not lag and have good ms. This game has recently gone 100% free to play. For some games such as Guild Wars, 'free to play' means you must still purchase the game (for about R300) and then you get to play without having to pay a subscription. In LOTRO this is not the case. If you have the client, you can sign up for an account (without ever entering credit card details, address etc) and log straight in and play the entire game for free. As a free player you don't have access to surprisingly few things, and in the game you earn points through achievements which can then be spent to unlock zones (but you'll only need to do that at around level 50!).

I'm surprised that the game actually is gaining momentum - the next expansion (Riders of Rohan - http://rohan.lotro.com/) has been announced, and free content patches are provided at a faster pace than WoW and every alternate update adds a huge new playable zone to the game + a raid. You can see all the recent updates and map of the world here: http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Lorebook_home The forums are located at: http://forums.lotro.com/forumlist.php

NB: Do not buy any copies of this game at any shops in South Africa. All this stock was meant to be recalled because all those game keys are now invalid as they were sold back when they were European Servers on LOTRO which have since been moved to another company. The game also FREE and you do not need to purchase a box. You will not be able to redeem any game key from a shop in South Africa.

If you live in Durban, I can provide you with a full client. I can also refer you and we both get rewards, similar to WoW. I repeat : No credit card or payment of any kind required - you can play a huge bulk of the game for free which many other games of this kind do not support.

Click here to sign up: http://my.lotro.com/referral/Awoken

[Voicy]

When turbine took over from codemasters the game's quality went for a ball of crap. i had lifetime subs & loved the quality...and then it went freemium.

[MartinMorrison]

When turbine took over from codemasters the game's quality went for a ball of crap. i had lifetime subs & loved the quality...and then it went freemium.

That is not possible. Codemasters never controlled the quality of the game at all and only implemented the different language support. The actual game design has always been controlled and developed by Turbine.

Under Codemasters, EU servers would take 2-3 weeks longer than the US servers to get updates because Codemasters had to translate the content. Now everyone gets updates and expansions at the same time, that is a huge improvement. The Turbine forums were always more active than the Codemaster ones and Turbine devs rarely posted on CM forums. Now we all have access to the Turbine forums and get the same level of feedback on game content.

There were several more things unavailable to LOTRO EU players under Codemasters that are now available under Turbine - these include mylotro, editing the lorebook (though I think CM implemented that in the end) and lotteries. I can't argue about free2play but since the change I think the frequency of game updates and expansions has increased due to more interest in the game and more players.

[Voicy]

The new UI with the turbine store etc. is just ... wrong. I don't like the look or feel of it.

As I said, I was a lifetime subber/VIP freemium player. Now I couldn't be bothered.

[MartinMorrison]

I thought it would be much worse to be honest , but a little button on some UI elements that I've forgotten about already. You are never forced to open the store. I also liked the fact that I was given tons of points and this has made the game more modular (ie a friend can buy the Warden class and play it from level 1 without having to buy the whole Moria expansion) and given more reason to complete deeds (I can actually find groups to finish some of the cooler deeds because more people want the TP from them)

[JumpinJoe]

Stop the LOTRO bashing already. Its a fine game and I have played for years on both US and EU servers.

Play it, its better than most MMOs.

Riders of Rohan expansion winning best expansion of E3 2012.

[Kaine]

sounds interesting... how big is the game, and does someone have a copy in cape town?

[Voicy]

Stop the LOTRO bashing already. Its a fine game and I have played for years on both US and EU servers.

Play it, its better than most MMOs.

Riders of Rohan expansion winning best expansion of E3 2012.

My apologies if it comes across as trolling, I suppose I did bash it a bit too much. Don't take that as an indication that I don't value the game, I do. It's the absolute best setting possible - I'm an avid Tolkien fan, having also read The silmarillion & The children of Hurin.

I dunno, I just found that when the game was still pay-to-play, it felt more refined.

[ghost311]

Ever since I saw the first preview I wanted to play it. Huge LOTR fan. But was unsure of the online following. Haven't been playing PC games much of late.

[Cloudster]

Downloaded and installed about 3 weeks ago........ played for 15 minutes, haven't played since.

I'm not being a dick towards OP, I'm sure there are plenty of people who would really enjoy this game. For me it just felt far less polished than WoW and I hated the control system, just felt so counter-intuitive.

In all honesty I haven't given the game a proper chance but usually with MMO's I can tell within the first 10 minutes whether or not I want to invest time into playing it.

[VillageIdiot]

Tell you what, reading this has got me all excited about giving this game another bash. Specially with the new expansion
ygpm btw, need to get the client from you.

[SphereZA]

Snowbourn server :P