I'm very casually playing LOTRO (Lord of the Rings online). There's a deal currently where you can download/buy the game + expansion + 30 days of play for USD 9.99. Until end of mth, 3 mth sub at 9.99 each. I guess they're desperate for gamers.
The interface feels very much like old vanilla WOW. There are no mods. You can move the default UI frames around (kinda like X-Perl), but that's about it. There are no threatmeters, no auctioneer, no gatherer, no mods to tell you that you failed to get out of the freakin fire. The downside is that
some of the default interface sux. On the other hand, it means you don't need to spend your time patching your mods when there's an update.
You can only send one item in a mail each time, and when opening a mail (but not deleting it), it will last 2 days from original 2 weeks. Old WOW players would remember this system. Buttons, for some reason, are slim and small. Inventory bags are small, and icons are rather dull looking, making it difficult to find the item(s) you want.
On the other hand, auction house by default has some detailed search/sort/groupings. It's not great as auctioneer, but better than the default AH interface in WOW, in some ways.
There is no macro except for a very basic chat related one. This, I sorely miss in WOW.
Graphics are very beautiful... especially scenary. Textures are very fine and you could even see blades of grass. For example, there's a big log across a steep chasm to cross to Rivendell... with the river running below and the distant mountain forming a nice postcard moment.
You can customize your toon's look and feel, somewhat like WOW, but not to the extent of Aion's nice asian girl toons.... ;> in the starting area for elves, it seemed to me that most of the elf guys look like Orlando Blooms
.
At certain level, you can setup how your clothing looks like and save it... so you can even look that way while you're wearing some other armor, for example. There's barber shop, just like WOW. There are even professions where you can make dyes to change the color of your armor... in this aspect, its a bit more superior compared to WOW in terms of customizing the looks.
There are very few dramatic stuffs in LOTRO... Magic is scarce in LOTRO as evident in the novel, and usually very subtle. LOTRO does not give a dramatic "DING" when you get to the next level. The closest to a magic user is probably Runekeeper, is probably one of the more dramatic classes with some kind of lightning bolt from the sky effect... The rest of the classes doesn't show alot of colorful effects when using their abilities. Some classes like Minstrel will shout or strum the guitar when casting a spell... that's abt it.
As with WOW, each character will have a sort of life bar and mana bar. Different toons may have additional resources they need to watch for. Most spells have some cooldown, so at least for my class (Runekeeper), I find I have alot more buttons to press compared to WOW. This may be a good or bad thing.
Crafting is alot more complex compared to WOW... you usually need 3-4 components to make one item. Sometimes you need to make a subitem in order to make an item (kinda like old WOW engineering). AND you can be a farmer.... as in, really buy the seeds, fertilizers, water, and go to a field and plant the seeds etc. It's fun when you first see it, but after a while it becomes a tedious time sink. If you love detailed crafting and grumble abt the simplifications Blizzard has made for WOW, you will love LOTRO crafting. It's extremely complex.
All in all, it's not too bad. It's not a WOW killer but it's casual enough for me. AND there is no weekly maintenance unlike WOW...
