I'd like to hear your opinion about LOTRO against books and movie.

I think that they have a lot in common.
However LOTRO refers to books more, which is very good.

I was glad to meet Tom Bombadil or Radagst the Brown.
Very interesting and important persons who P.Jackson didn't show in his movie.

Having read the books more time than i care to count, it makes me very happy that this game is based on the books and not the movies (which has been done alot)

Well I agree. The game has a lot of great details from the book. The best part for me tho' is when I find myself in a situation where I have to ask myself "Was this in the book? I remember something like that". And that's when I start looking in my memory where did I read about this.

You gotta love this little details that are so often unnoticed.

LOTRO refers even to The Hobbit.
You saw these Trolls turned into stone in Trollwshaws?

I´ve read the book about 10 times or so in my native language, 2 times in english and tried to read it once in german aswell.
Read the Hobbit 5 times, Silmarillion 2 times and Unifinished tales of Numenor and Middle-Earth 3 times (some of the chapters even 10 times).

Have read a loads of different kind of background literature about Tolkien´s world and played quite a lot of those role-playing games happening in the middle-earth (merp, rolemaster) when i was younger.

Seen all of those Jackson´s movies about half a dozen times and the Ralph Bakshi´s movie from the late 70´s (it´s better than the general opinnion about it appears to be imo) about as many times aswell.

I don´t mean to brag (cause Mick´s gonna come and tell that he´s done all the same x 2 ), but i´d like to believe that I have some sort of perspective over the matter
May I add though that I´m definately not one those fanatics out there, judging things constantly and saying that "this is how it should be" and "that´s not how it was according to the books". Mostly these fanatics aren´t even right with their "facts". That really makes me laugh at times tbh.
I don´t really care if there are people who don´t nowt about the world of tolkien´s or have just seen the movies.

I must admit that Turbine have done a terrific job with this game, so far. They´ve managed to reach the athmosphere of Middle-Earth right on the nail. At least for my liking that is. The geographical, cultural and historical things have been thought over very, very well. And they have been created accordingly.
Naturally there are some minor details here and there that I find a bit disturbing (like the usage of finnish names with some npc´s, mobs and places), but nothing too big.

Compared to the movies this game is definately more loyal to the books. (as it was meant to be in the first place) Which I find refreshing, they haven´t copied any images from the movies (some maybe) and stayed very loyal to the books. And what really suprised me the most, is the fact that they´ve done some serious research concerning the things i´ve already mentioned (history, geography, culture etc). I mean this game has a lot of things that you can´t find straightly from the books themselves, but from the appendixes of the books or even from the background literature written by some other authors about Tolkien´s world.
And just think about the possibilites for this game to grow and develop!
Tolkien created one hell of a world and so far Turbine have done a hell of a job turning it to a computer game. I hope they don´t screw it up in the future. Because there is a big possibility in doing that. But i´m confident that if they keep doing their research so thoroughly and staying loyal to Tolkien´s ideas that won´t be happening.

I'm better than Marlon.

And little off-topic: big thumbs-up to Turbine for creating the moods and atmospheres to different places, they really stand out. And my backround with Tolkien actually pretty damn similar as Governor Marley's there. x2.

-edit- And yes, Turbine doesn't even have the rights to the movies so they haven't copied anything. Directly that is. Some images seem similar, because they base on the same material. Lawsuits avoided.

i have actualy been helped alot in some of the areas by the book like the old forest once i found old man willow i found toms house

To my knowledge - that is, from reading alot about the base concepts of the LotrO game - the basis for our world isn't only the well-known books "Lord of the Rings" but also any other writings of Tolkien, which also includes notes, story fragments etc. that weren't published ever. It is especially these extra writings that fill holes where the well-known books are not fully descriptive.

The movie, on the other hand, at max is a nice-to-watch summary which partially even contradicts the book for the better of enjoyment (from a cinematic view, that is). Nothing wrong with that, and the flair is pretty good, but it's not the world we play in.

The movie's were just run again on English TV, and I have teh DVDs anway (who reading doesnt) and I thought them hugely enjoyable.
PJ has to be allowed to take some lisence with the storyline and generally he didnt deviate too much.
I, too would have liked to see Tom Bombadil and the Barrow downs in the film. I wonder who they might have cast as Goldberry...mmmmmmm.
PJ really managed to convey so much of Tolkeins imagery on to the screen and he put real emotion into some of those scenes (Frodo at the council of Elrond nearly brought a tear to me eye)

I love the feel of LOTRO, and it is very easy to immerse yourself in it and 'play the role'. Interacting with so many of the characters (Barkeep Barliman, Sackvilles-Baggins etc, and I just met Strider) is such a trip for me. I am really looking forward to following the epic storyline and watch it all unfold, again

Clavain

I find the movies very entertaining and they exceeded my expectations almost in every way. There was a couple of things I would have wanted to see, mostly more of Saruman and especially the dialog between Saruman and Gandalf.

What I would have not wanted to see was those damn elves in Helm's Deep. This was men defending themselves! Yes there was battles in Lorien too and the elves fought indeed, but the men didn't know it. That's the key to me.

Differences in the character of Faramir were disturbing at first, but after thinking about it, it needed to that way for the emotional plot of the movies. The scenes in the extended version of Boromir, Faramir and Denethor are strong stuff.

Clearly the biggest fault of the films is that they're too short! Plain and simple.

Too short.... I like that!

Elves in Helms deep....suspect, especially when he had Haldir go down in such a poignant way. How many people would have got the signicance of an elf dying at all. Apart form that Helm's Deep was amazing.
Arwen and her rescue of Frodo... I'll give him that one as any chance to more of Liv Tyler is fine by me and the raging river was spectacular. I wonder what spell that is...?
I liked his portrayal of Faramir but not really the little interlude in Osgilliath. When Faramir resisted the lure of the ring, that was a big thing for me and PJ got it right on that.
I didnt really like the way he did the army of the dead. Thye way they swarmed like an oozing disease didnt work for me but I'm not sure how else he might have done it.
The way Legolas was some sort of God in combat as too much especially when he took down the Oiliphant singled handed but maybe worth it for Gimli's comeback.." That still only counts as one"... Priceless

I am only picking out isolated moments that were a touch less than perfect for me but I would still say it was brilliantly done.
I cant claim to have read the books as many times as Marlon let alone Mick but it filed my heart with the entire range of emotions as I made the journey with each of the Fellowship.

Well done PJ.

Now I wish New Line would pay up and let him get on with making the hobbit!!!!!!!


Clavian