Back then, as a newly found MMO fanatic, I have fond memories of bouncing from World of Warcraft to Lord of the Rings Online around the 2007-2008 timeframe. It was a breath of fresh air as a big Tolkien fan and gamer alike. Fast forward to 2023 and LOTRO has a new pirate themed expansion and a very friendly, dedicated fanbase all these years later! I was genuinely shocked to see so many active forums, Reddit, and quality content still being released for the game.
Miraculously finding my old account info, I logged in realizing that all my original characters had been wiped. While a bit bummed out as I wanted to jump back in after quitting so many years ago, I realized that 2007 was a very long time ago in gaming. Regardless, I created a Hobbit Loremaster (mage type) and headed off for adventure. The game still holds up incredibly well but it’s the UI that was near unusable on my 4K monitor. All the UI elements were so small, I couldn’t even get through the intro section of the game. I lowered my resolution to 1080p. Bleh, still too small. After going clear down to 720p I could now read most icons but the image is so terrible, I just couldn’t player very long.
In the end, there is a huge, magical world waiting for LOTRO but you need either a lower res/CRT monitor to truly enjoy it. If you can look past all this, an extremely friendly group of players would be happy to welcome you back or for your first time.
