I'm in the middle of the subscribed month in EQ2 and already my MMO eyes are wandering. It's not the title itself; EQ2 is a polished, accomplished MMO with more features and options than you can shake a stick at. It just doesn't grab me viscerally. I had planned on grabbing the discounted price of the Mines of Moria package for Lord of the Rings Online before the offer was up this month but it turned out I couldn't even wait that long. When my EQ2 Paladin dinged 30, I said enough and started the long process of downloading, installing, and upgrading the LoTRO digital purchase.
First off, I'd just like to say that even with my nom de internet being what it is, I've never seriously given thought to buying and playing LoTRO before now. Sure I checked it out during its Open Beta and there was even a trial sometime last year, but only recently has the "buy" word crossed my mind. It first started when they slashed their subscription price from $15 to $10 a month. Then there was this offer which found its way to my email and lodged itself into my subconsciousness offering the latest expansion and complete game for $10. That it also included a free month's subscription was just too much value to ignore and even if I ended up completely hating it, heck, it was only $10 spent.
Tried rolling a Champion named Warrender on Landroval which is where the Casualties are playing but it came back with a name already taken error. Since this almost never happens for some reason, I can only assume this is my Beta character which I dimly remember creating with that name. A quick check on the forums revealed Brandywine as the most populous so I went with plan B and rolled my Champion on that server.
Damn, this is a beautiful game. I had that reaction with the trial last year and it was the same one after I got my Champion up and rolling this time around. Having the game auto-detect the graphics settings, I was quite pleased when it came back and recommended Very High with DX10. There's a little bit of hitching sometimes since I chose my native monitor resolution of 1680x1050 but not enough to make me want to downgrade any of the options just yet. Really enjoying the eye candy and playing in Tolkien's world so far.
