Character Creation Changes....

[Tarbel]

I'd like to start by saying that I am very grateful to SSG for putting the effort in to update this beautiful game. Not many games last as long as LOTRO has, let alone MMOs, and it says a lot about the current devs that they still work so hard on it. That being said, I (and a few others, I'm sure) have a lot to say about the new character creation changes.

What sets this game beyond so many others is its faithfulness to the world it is depicting: JRR Tolkien's legendarium. When I first started playing, I was blown away by how faithful the game was to the lore; from locations, to individual characters, the cultures of the various races, and even the incredibly specific naming policy. All of the game's flaws, the lag, the graphics, the bugs, *all* of it is dwarfed by the immersion of this wonderful game. That immersion, however, would be destroyed by these new changes, especially for new players.

First, the expanded racial options. If you are going to include these new races, *please* just add a Haradrim or Rhun race. It makes no sense to shove them into the Men of Bree, Rohan, or even Gondor. These are peoples with a distinct racial identity, and these changes would utterly destroy that identity.

Worst of all though is the decision to add beard options for women. I am not talking about the culture war or any real world politics. I am talking about the world this game is based off of. Women in Tolkien's legendarium cannot grow beards. It's even directly stated in the lore, as men often would believe that there were no dwarven women, as they couldn't even conceive of the idea of bearded women. This is the equivalent of adding 6ft tall hobbits, a morally good orc race, or even beardless dwarves. There is zero reason to add this in, it only breaks both the lore and immersion, and would alienate a large portion of your player base.

Please, please, reconsider these changes. I can only speak for myself, but it would break my heart to see this added to a game otherwise so dedicated to staying faithful to such an iconic work. And I don't think I'm alone in this.

[Elmagor]

We respect all efforts from devs to make Lotro better and their hard work. But we don't expect to Lotro looking like this



Some of that changes looks really great, but not all of them

It will be really sad if developers was forced to stop all that changes, but some of them... they need reconsider them

We really want to see Lotro looking great. But also we want to see Lotro looks like Lotro. Not like WoW/Archage/TESO

[TesalionLortus]

You made me chuckle with that photo. I mean, for all that is good in the world, if they're not going to revert or tweak any of this, just disable that randomization button. Because it just looks ridiculous. What people are going to think when they first log in? In LOTRO that randomizer button is placed very prominently, unlike in many other games where I've come across "funnies" like this due to randomization (and even then... lotro has just beaten them all in terms of how often something ridiculous pops up, apparently)

[HerrDave]

I think (hope) that Easterling and Haradrim are coming as their own races, and that for testing purposes all of the customization options were enabled across the board because the new UI isn't ready yet.

If that's not the case-- man, I don't know what the art team is thinking.

Immersion in Middle-earth will be annihilated xD

[YamydeAragon]

We respect all efforts from devs to make Lotro better and their hard work. But we don't expect to Lotro looking like this



Some of that changes looks really great, but not all of them

It will be really sad if developers was forced to stop all that changes, but some of them... they need reconsider them

We really want to see Lotro looking great. But also we want to see Lotro looks like Lotro. Not like WoW/Archage/TESO

Well, that looks like my brother in law In Real Life, /shrugh

[Plidak]

Everyone have right to be ugly...
I see no problem.

[Weilan]

I'm OK with everything except beard for women, because that's messed up.

I'm OK with female dwarves looking indistinguishable from males to other races, because this is in the lore... But where does it say in the lore that human females had beards? What's next? Fat elves? Black elves? Night elves? Void elves? Tauren? Draenei? Pandaren?



So instead of fixing server lag and client performance they try to make the game woke because nobody asked for it?

Is that what I bought the Expansion Trove + Minas Morgul + War of Three Peaks + 2 months of VIP? I really grew to love this game since I began playing in 2021, but this is almost making me want to leave it for good.

[DavidmeetHal]

We respect all efforts from devs to make Lotro better and their hard work. But we don't expect to Lotro looking like this



Some of that changes looks really great, but not all of them

It will be really sad if developers was forced to stop all that changes, but some of them... they need reconsider them

We really want to see Lotro looking great. But also we want to see Lotro looks like Lotro. Not like WoW/Archage/TESO

That looks like something out of one of those Asian micro pay MMOs, or even World of Warcraft. SSG really dropped the ball on this one.