By Nathan Grayson on July 19th, 2012 at 3:00 pm.
Lord of the Rings Online has sort of gotten trampled by the recent surge in new MMOs recently, but the F2P journey through the One Fantasy Universe To Rule Them All actually hasn’t disappeared off the face of the planet. On September 5, it’s even getting a shiny new expansion in the form of Riders of Rohan – which, sadly, is not about putting a saddle on the Rohan region and charging into battle atop a colossal landmass. The largely free chunk of content will, however, give everyone their own WARSTEED from which to do violence to both people and monsters. Turbine’s even sent along a nice trailer, which actually looks really impressive. Go on an epic quest of self-discovery, friendship, and betrayal culminating in a battle that nearly tears the world asunder and also ewww there’s a giant spider past the break to see the full thing.
Reading through the FAQ, it sounds like Turbine’s really thought this through, too. Each class gets WARSTEED-specific skills, WARSTEEDs can level up, and – most importantly – this: “Q: I’m a Dwarf or a Hobbit. I’m tiny! What do I ride? A: Your [WARSTEED] comes in pony size!” Hooray! WARPONIES! Also, PVE content in the expansion is largely being designed with WARSTEEDs in mind. Turbine explained:
“Many of the opponents you encounter in the plains of Rohan will be mounted and an unmounted combatant will find combat more difficult against mounted opponents. Mounted combat is likely to be incorporated into parts of the epic quest line so in the course of completing that content, you will spend a moderate amount of time fighting from horseback. There may also be some optional quests that can only be completed with the extra speed and agility you will have when riding your [WARSTEED].”
Truth be told, I haven’t played LOTRO in ages (possibly literally, in Middle-Earth time), but this sounds really enticing. Back when I gave it a go, it was a glorified WoW clone, but between things like this and an in-game, player-driven music festival (!), it really seems to have picked up an identity all its own. So, does anyone still play? If I find myself languidly sitting in my idyllic hovel, munching perfectly aged cheeses and waiting for a wizard who swears he’s not running late, should I pass the time by jumping back in?
19/07/2012 at 15:04 MadTinkerer says:
STEEDFACE
Obviously.
EDIT: So if I play a Hobbit, by definition my warsteed is my little pony. Hmmm.
19/07/2012 at 15:30 MommaB says:
PONYWAR
19/07/2012 at 16:31 Garmr says:
Facemount
19/07/2012 at 15:58 povu says:
A meme hasn’t gotten old this fast since arrow in the knee if you ask me.
19/07/2012 at 16:32 Stochastic says:
It’s all Alec’s fault: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/06/05/warface-warface/
And to be fair, this article is tagged with “STEEDFACE,” so really we can blame Nathan, too.
Also, I think “the cake is a lie!” can contest that honor.
19/07/2012 at 17:08 lowprices says:
I assume he was trying to pre-empt the usual rush of WAR/STEED/FACE/PONIES comments by including them in the main article.
Nice try, old chap.
19/07/2012 at 18:56 Kaira- says:
Yeah, the joke got old even before the article was over. I say we bring back some good old memes.
Indeed,
a warface meme?
Not a meme for me,
indeed.
19/07/2012 at 17:10 EPICTHEFAIL says:
I used to be a meme spammer…
19/07/2012 at 17:20 lowprices says:
… But then you took a cake in the FACE?
19/07/2012 at 17:37 chuckles73 says:
<3
19/07/2012 at 20:49 x1501 says:
A meme thread that produced something even remotely chuckle-worthy? You’re a living proof of the infinite monkey theorem.
19/07/2012 at 20:45 Tuggy Tug says:
FACEPONY
19/07/2012 at 15:12 Martel says:
I used to play this back when it first came out, and I have kept this installed and updated ever since they went F2P, but I can’t seem to do more than login and look around, then logout.
19/07/2012 at 15:12 Mungrul says:
Do Hobbits get Shetland Ponies?
19/07/2012 at 15:44 lorddon says:
Poor LotRO. If I didn’t have Guild Wars 2, I would choose you.
19/07/2012 at 15:54 Skeletor68 says:
Is it worth it for a bit of soloing? I’m a pretty big LOTRO fan but have only had a stable net connection for the last few months.
19/07/2012 at 15:57 dawnmane says:
I have been soloing in the game on/off for years, and if you are a Tolkien fan, I think this is the best digital adaptation of his work so far. Give it a go.
19/07/2012 at 18:46 syndicatedragon says:
Agreed! I play (solo) simply for the “tourism” aspect.
19/07/2012 at 15:58 Sparkasaurusmex says:
It is okay to solo. Pretty easy, actually. And plenty of story if you do the main quest. My advice: Be a hobbit… they have the best starter area and side quests.
19/07/2012 at 16:30 Torgen says:
By far the best starter area. The mail delivery quests may seem tiresome, but they not only lead you to all the little hamlets of the Shire, but also many other quests. Just load up on all of them, and you’ll find that you’re completing multiple ones at once. The Shire is beautiful, and the haunted hobbit house of Bag End every Halloween is a marvel.
19/07/2012 at 15:57 Sparkasaurusmex says:
The in game player made music is the best thing about LOTRO. Mostly it is just people playing files, but it’s awesome to get a real, impromptu jam going.
19/07/2012 at 18:43 Torgen says:
I mourn the fact that I’m not good enough to actually play music on my keyboard in those sessions. I have to load up ABC files. :(
19/07/2012 at 16:00 Tayh says:
Played since release and having waited for more than 4 years, I got tired of waiting for the MPVP(i.e. PVP) aspect to get some love – or even some new content.
Well, that never happened.
This update doesn’t really seem interesting enough to return to the game and my lifetime subscription.
As far as I know, they still haven’t fixed the rampant lag that most people suffer, either – instead preferring to sweep it under the rug and ban/silence everyone who complains about it on the official forums.
19/07/2012 at 16:32 Torgen says:
I don’t recall any lag (played original beta and F2P beta,) but I never participated in any huge battles. The largest battles I was in were those daily ones you could do in the warcamp outside Bree.
19/07/2012 at 17:05 Tayh says:
I’m talking about the lag introduced in the relatively-recent Update 6.
There’s always been lag issues in Raid v. Raid fights in Ettenmoors, though.
19/07/2012 at 16:53 Mr-Link says:
Damn that clever and slightly misleading title!
I thought it was a new Mount and Blade :(
19/07/2012 at 20:24 Barnaby says:
Seconded. I thought this was a mod for Mount and Blade. TSK for misleading title that got my hopes up and then let me down.
19/07/2012 at 18:18 SkittleDiddler says:
Rumor has it that mounted combat is only possible within the region of Rohan, and, as the article points out, with a specific steed. Can anyone verify if this “one region only” crap is true?
19/07/2012 at 18:58 Utnac says:
Yes it was confirmed that you can only do mounted combat in Rohan.
19/07/2012 at 21:31 SkittleDiddler says:
A bit of a wasted game mechanic then.
19/07/2012 at 18:18 TsunamiWombat says:
Oh..man…urge to try rising…
And it IS f2p…
19/07/2012 at 19:28 Lokai says:
I understand why Nathan says, “The largely free chunk of content will…” How is it free? I don’t see any mention, on their website that he linked, of anyone getting any of this content if they don’t pay the base price of $40 for the expansion. Am I missing something?
21/07/2012 at 05:53 RvLeshrac says:
Nothing in Rohan is free to anyone. You are correct.
19/07/2012 at 19:34 wodin says:
When I first read LOTR at the age of 12…I loved the Riders of Rohan….Strider and Galadriel..actually ever since I always compare supposedly beautiful women with the image I have of Galadriel I my head women on a kind of Galadriel chart of beauty
19/07/2012 at 20:37 Grey_Ghost says:
WoW clone? I’ve never played WoW, but I am playing SWTOR which is repeatedly called a WoW clone, and it doesn’t remind me of LOTRO at all.
20/07/2012 at 01:25 hench says:
I would download and try LotRO another time if I didn’t have to use the Pando Media bullshit
Edit: It’s also one reason why I haven’t tried DDO yet
20/07/2012 at 06:48 MultiVaC says:
Isn’t it available on Steam now? I think the Steam version circumvents the Pando Media bullshit, since if I remember correctly it was only used in the installer and not the patcher, and with Steam handling the install you shouldn’t the end up with any of the Pando stuff. I just installed LOTRO from Steam recently, and I have no sign of the Pando crap here.
21/07/2012 at 06:12 RvLeshrac says:
Pando is just a bittorrent client. Uninstall it when you’re done downloading.
21/07/2012 at 01:49 ichigo2862 says:
Can you charge with a couched lance? I want to charge with a couched lance.
21/07/2012 at 05:56 RvLeshrac says:
You know what was awesome? LOTRO before Turbine sold the company (WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK DID THEY SELL TO WB FOR AFTER BITCHING FOR YEARS ABOUT EVERY OTHER COMPANY THEY WERE STUCK UNDER) and decided that double the full retail price of every other MMO expansion was a valid price point for an expansion with an incredibly tiny amount of content.
21/07/2012 at 05:57 RvLeshrac says:
Oh, yeah, and having to re-buy every fucking horse in the game that you might want to use for mounted-combat. What in the holy fuck is that bullshit about?