Hard work...

Ok... so LotRO technical support didn't get off to a great start when their first reply said, in so many words, "You're wrong and you've been able to play the game since the day you registered". Not one to take the blame lightly, a quick reply back to say that, actually, they were wrong (again, in so many words) was met with a slightly better response in which they agreed to refund me one of my 'free' days. One thing that did impress me about their technical support was that the same person, 'Rob', replied to all of my emails, rather than it being a whole string of different people (which tends to happen with a lot of faceless online technical support departments).

So, all in all, a good result for my first experience with them and I am now happily playing the game and really enjoying it. It hasn't got the same level of involvement that EQ2 has, but then I never intended for it to be a replacement to EQ2 (so don't worry guildies, EQ2 is my first love... I just like to play the field) but it's a great game. The graphics and sound are top notch (though the 'ye old pipe and string music' in the background can get a little grating after a while). The quests are all pretty much MMO standard apart from the 'Carry item X to village Y' quests which are ok to start with, but do get a little tedious. Mind you, being the quester I am, I still managed to finish all the mail delivery quests and I'm just about to finish the pie delivery quests as well... lol

I've yet to find any real problems... but the game seems to lack a certain amount of... well... soul (for want of a better work). Obviously, it's still early days. I'll give it a couple of months of casual play and see how it goes.