The Ultimate LoTRO Newbie Guide - Part 1: MMO Boot Camp
by Cameron "Aelryn" Sorden
Table of Contents
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Introduction
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There are any number of guides out there that discuss LoTRO's many systems: crafting, music, classes, kinships, etc etc. However, all too often these guides require you to have a basic understanding of MMO mechanics and conventions carried over from some other title. While many of us have been playing these games for years, it's important to remember that some people's first MMO might very well be Lord of the Rings Online, especially given the unique appeal of the Middle Earth license. I'm writing this guide to help those people (or any other newbie, really) have a fun and engaging experience and not get frustrated by the complexity of an online game right off the bat.
This guide will consist of multiple parts, and I'll be explaining how to interact with each of the major important aspects of the game in a way that anyone can understand, and not just uber-geeks. So if you're just starting out with online games, congratulations! Reading this guide is a great start, and kudos to you for doing your homework. The people you play with will appreciate it, and your experience in the lands of Middle Earth should be much less confusing and daunting after reading this. One other thing to keep in mind while start your journey: always try to be respectful of your fellow players. Everyone is just trying to play the game and have a good time. If you're polite and approachable, people will be very happy to answer your questions and help you out. But being rude or obnoxious is a good way to quickly make a name for yourself and get ignored. With that in mind, lets get started!
Getting Started: Check your gear!
Not your cape and shortsword; we're not quite there, yet. Nope, I'm talking about the out-of-game gear. Before delving into the exciting world of Tolkien's masterpiece, there are two things that will help you immensely: Your manual and your quick key reference. First, and I can't stress this enough, please read your manual. I know it's thick, wordy, boring, and you might not understand a lot of it. That's okay. Just do yourself a favor and at least perform a cursory browse through it. You'll probably suffer a little data-overload, but the key here is that you'll get introduced to how to play the game. We'll go over most of it again much more slowly in this guide, so don't worry if it's a bit daunting right now.
Next, there should have been a funny looking card that came in your LoTRO box with a keyboard and lots of words all over it. This is your quick key reference, and it's a life-saver when you can't remember how to do something. The card shows you which keys on your keyboard serve as shortcut keys to do stuff in the game. While you probably could control everything with the mouse, you really don't want to. Mastering these quick-keys is vital to playing quickly and efficiently and can often be the difference between dying or not in harder areas. Take your card out and keep it somewhere handy that you can reach while playing-- mine sits on my desk.
Servers? What is this, a restaurant?
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Now you should be ready to start. I'm assuming that you've successfully managed to set your account up and you've got LoTRO installed on your computer. There are explicit instructions for how to do this in the manual and it's very straight-forward. If so, go ahead and click on that little ring icon on the desktop. The game launcher will pop up and download any patches you might need (make sure that you're connected to the internet-- there is no offline component to LoTRO). Enter the username and password you chose at the registration website, and you're presented with a list of servers.
"Servers" is the term used to describe how the game breaks up the players. There are a lot of people playing LoTRO, and if they all shared the same game space things would get pretty crowded. So instead, Turbine assigns players to specific groups by having them pick servers. If it helps, think of each server as one playground. All the playgrounds look the same and have the same stuff: a slide, monkey bars, swings. But there will be different people playing in each playground.
Choosing the right server is very important if you're buying this game to play with your friends. If they're already playing, ask them what server they chose and pick the same one. If you pick different servers, you won't be able to play together! While it's easy to switch to another server later, you don't get to take your characters, equipment, or money with you, and you won't see anyone you might have made friends with on your original server.
One other thing about servers-- they all have exisiting communities of players, many of whom know each other. These are social games, after all. You may want to read the forums at the official website to get a feel for what each server is like. Many kinships (I'll explain these later) advertise for new players in the server forums, and joining one can be a good way to get advice and built-in people to adventure with. Also, if you're the type of person who wants to role-play your character (for example, speaking as your character instead of as the person at the computer), there are a few servers where these types of players tend to congregate.
Once you've chosen a server, you're ready to make your first character!
(Continue to Part 2: Your First Character)
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