Players Mobbing Farms in LOTRO

You might be surprised to discover how many of the hardcore gamers that left their previous MMORPG to play the soon to be released, Lord of the Rings Online, are spending their time.  No, they’re not slaying Orcs.  No, they’re not battling the dark forces of Sauron.  No, they’re not racing off to aide in the quest of the One Ring – well, some of them are.  So just what is it that many of the LOTRO Tour participants are doing?  Farming, and I don’t mean grind mob style farming.  I'm talking about actual sling them seeds and bail them crops type farming. 

Farming is one of the professions available to players and from what I’m seeing, it's very popular.  I wanted to try farming from the minute I read about it on the forums but was hesitant to take something that would be high in production time but low in return on investment.  Like cooking in WOW, or the more elaborate cooking in EQ2, I enjoyed the professions but they weren’t money-makers.

I still remember the first time I read someone say in chat that they were farming, I thought, “Cool!  We can farm on this game?”  Yeah, I was fresh off the boat and still had visions of Mineral Town in my head.  In my early days of WOW, I spent plenty of time farming mobs and herbs, and always wished that I could actually just farm a plot of land.  Well low and behold; Turbine has implemented just that into their game.

The few people that I’ve spoken to about farming say that it requires funds, is a lot of work and doesn’t pay off until you hit Tier 3.  Given that my last two characters did Tailor/Enchanter in WOW, I’m not up for the long haul with slow payback profession at the moment.  I’m doing Explorer on my main which is harvesting wood, ore and tailoring.  On my Alt I’ll do Yeoman which is cooking, farming and tailoring. 

I can’t wait to hit max pre-release level on my main so I can quickly spin up a few level on my alt and join the crowds chucking seeds in LOTRO.  Everytime I pass through the countryside and run across farms crowded with players it makes me chuckle to think that some of these people where in Naxx a few weeks ago, raiding in EQ2 or dinging 70 in Outlands, and are now bent over tending their fields.  I can't wait to join them and it makes me pick up my step a little so I can get on my alt!

Comments

Really interesting. I loved harvest moon games, so if its as detailed as it sounds maybe i WILL give lotro a try.

[Asher]

It sounds like they are nerfing the heck out of farming at the moment. Pity...it sounded interesting.

LotRO is actually not a bad game. I'm considering getting a copy, even if I still need to get my Priest up to 70.

[yunk]

Farming is still fun. I did it on my 2nd character, the first one I tried out and got to 15 and made some money just "farming" as in killing monsters and mining and selling ore. Then I wanted to try some other stuff, so I used the silver from the 1st character to fund the 2nd.

It only took me a couple halves of game sessions to get farming to the point where I'm making money. It doesn't make a lot though, if there were no level cap it would be pointless to sit there making money with it, since higher level characters could easily make more money just killing monsters.

But it is fun to sit there farming, but from what I've read in the long term you won't make money at it or cooking either - basically both are used to provide buff foods? And they are not in demand that much? They need to add agility buff food - hunters always spend money in every game :)

[Asher]

Thanks for the insight.

The only other negative I've heard is that repair costs are completely out of wack. Is this the case?

[Saylah]

It's a shame that the cooking profession is never a money-maker. Some game needs to devise a way that it's competative with potions without ruining alchemy typed professions. I always find it something fun to do. But I also have to make money to advance in the game and can't afford to have a main with an unprofitable profession. :-(

Funny that you mention repairs bills. The last time I repaired I was a bit surprised by how much it cost relative to other in game expenses. But I just blew the thought off and kept going.