When I am not working, cooking, or playing around with code, I’m usually gaming.

Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO)

I helped with both closed and open beta testing of this game and so I don’t have to pay for monthly subscriptions, just for the actual cost of the expansions when they come out.  This isn’t the only reason I keep coming back to this game though.  Out of all the MMORPGs (fantasy based) that I have played I really believe LOTRO has gotten it right.

Tolkien’s world is kept pretty much as you’d expect.  Age of Conan does a great job as well of keeping true to the vision of the original IP, as does Warhammer.  World of Warcraft has strayed very far from their original lore — one of the biggest turns offs for me now with WoW.  In LOTRO you will not find a lot of flashy magic, but beautifully rendered landscapes, rivers, forests, etc.  Tolkien loved trees and the LOTRO team has given considerable attention to the render of trees in the game. This game simply is a joy to play.

LOTRO has one of the best communities and the content is the best of any MMO.  I found AION to be lacking in that there really are only two races, quests are virtually the same, things become repetitive fast.  (AION is a Korean MMORPG that NCSoft is trying to sell on the US market, they added some additional features to make the game less of a “Korean grinder”, but in my estimation really haven’t succeeded; there just isn’t any depth to the game.)

Lastly LOTRO is fully featured:  rich crafting system, auction house, guild system, personal and guild achievements, housing, it’s got it all.

Characters:

Faenglir – Male elf warden
Ozmox – Male dwarf rune-keeper

Aion Online
Age of Conan
Warhammer Online
Dungeons and Dragons Online
World of Warcraft
City of Heroes/Villians
EverQuestII