Currently, I am less than thrilled with the state of Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games. Any MMORPG seems to fall into one of two categories: Intresting game design that is also full of bugs or Bug free but the same old boring level and class system.
For a while, I had been interested in
Vanguard but then they joined up with
The Unethical Ones and I immediately lost interest in that game. So, I pretty much decided that if I was going to play a MMO, I'd play one that was relatively bug free, and that meant World of Warcraft.
However,
one game did come out that I had no real interest in. I had heard that it was actually polished with few bugs. However, I think that Tolkien is the most over-rated fantasy author of all time and therefore I never really looked into the game. It wasn't until out of shear boredom at work that I decided to read a few threads at a forum I frequent. There I discovered that Lord of the Rings Online has a decent crafting system and homes.
The crafting system is very similiar to World of Warcrafts, however it does allow for a chance of a "critical success" when crafting an item. A feature that doesn't appear at all in World of Warcraft.
As for homes: Lord of the Rings Online has homes you can decorate; World of Warcraft doesn't even have homes.
I decided to try out the game and see how it handles. I haven't spent much time in there, but so far I haven't run into a single bug and the game has been pretty smooth. I did just discover something else very neat. You can play musical instruments in the game. And I mean completely play them; pressing keys to make certain sounds. Some people have even taken the time to
create music sheets for some popular (to gamers) songs.
Since I see the Imperial March listed, I'm going to have to give it a try.