The best thing since sliced bread on crack.
It wasn't until I was in college that I decided to read The Hobbit. Although it was written for children, it was a great read (even better than the cartoon movie). After reading that, it was only natural that I read The Lord of the Rings. Since that time, I have not only re-read the books, but also picked up The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, and The Atlas of Middle Earth.
Nerd Alert: using the information in all of the books, as well as the appendices, I have constructed family trees, time-lines, and descriptions for every family, group, and era.
Don't even get me started on the movies. I saw those suckers at least three times in the theaters, and own the extended editions (each with about 30 minutes more footage).
Now comes along Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmaar.
After four years of development (and several name changes, from Middle Earth Online, all the way to today). I was lucky enough to be involved in the testing process since the beginning of beta 1, and watched this game shape up over a long period of time.
When I began testing, not all of the features were in place, and as a result, I didn't think it would sell well. Most people knock new MMOs as World of Warcraft clones, and I saw this game as only one that would appeal to other Tolkien fanboys. However, as the game progressed beautifully from beta 1 to beta 2, and all the way to open beta, I saw this game flourish with features and fun, and get polished to a fine sheen.
The kickass features. While not all of these are unique, they do help make this game as fantastic as it is.
Lord of the Rings Storyline - there is an actual storyline that is unravelled while you play this MMORPG. While this helps create greater immersion, I can't figure out what the developers are going to do once the storyline is over. Hell, in one month, the developers are already at the party meets in Rivendell, and Aragon is going to re-forge the blade of Narsil moment.
Monster Play - because PvP wouldn't make sense with all of the players being on the side of Light, one can temporarily become an agent of evil through special scrying pools littered about the land.
Detail - the development team spent years pouring over every novel of Tolkien's, and it's paid off. Locales that were only mentioned in a passing sentence are fleshed out in detail. Elf cities share similar architecture, as do dwarven cities, cities of men, etc.
Exploration - As mentioned above, every square inch of Middle Earth has been well-planned. Exploration of new areas has always been a staple in MMORPG games, but games like Everquest II tend to be very flat. As a result, exploration doesn't involve discovering what's around the next bend so much as it involves seeing a building from 10 miles away, and simply running to it.
"New" ****s - This game doesn't use traditional ****s lifted from Dungeons and Dragons. Some of the ****s are the same (rogue and burgular, bard and mistral), but some (the captain) require deep thinking in order to use properly.
Badges - the game tracks the way you play the game. As you kill more wolves, you earn the title "Wolf Hunter." Again, this is not unique to LOTRO (it's done in EQ2, City of Heroes and Planetside), but I've never seen so many different badges fleshed out from the beginning.
Business Model - the publishers reward those who pre-ordered the game by not only guaranteeing them a place in the open beta, but also promising them a lower subscription price: either $10 a month (as opposed to $15), or $200 for the life of the game. That's one of the smartest things I've ever seen a publisher do for the launch of a MMORPG.
Instanced Dramatic Sequences - whenever a pivotal moment in the storyline occurs, you and/or your party are in an instace. This way, it feels like you're a critical cog in the storytelling wheel.
My guild, Sturmgrenadier has made a home on the Brandywine server.
Overall, this is the best MMORPG that I have ever played. Everquest 2 and City of Heroes/Villains may just get pushed out of the way for awhile.