I had pretty low expectations when checking out the open beta of Lord of the Rings Online.  D&D Online was a pretty not-fun experience sadly, and I've never been a huge Tolkien geek.  And, to be honest, it's got plenty of flaws.  It is very unpolished UI wise compared to World of Warcraft, and I've encountered a number of broken quests, and it will feel very derivative of World of Warcraft for many people.  Certainly a bunch of my friends have logged in, played a few levels, and dismissed it to return to Azeroth.

But, I've logged probably 30 hours in the beta and it has gamelocked me in a way no MMO has since WoW.  I've leveled a bunch of characters into the low teens and now focusing on getting a Guardian to 15, parked and waiting for the actual live release.  

Something about the crafting, the quest structure, the prevalence of story, as well as them getting many things right that no pre-WoW MMO did (being fairly generous to the player, actually explaining game mechanics, having lots of structured gameplay options).  I'm just really enjoying bumping around Bree and Staddle and Combe and feeling like there are some actual little storylines there.  Sure, there are still a number of "collect 10 rat tails" type missions, but they are generally much more structured around storylines and the more detailed world plays them out a bit better.  The actual "epic storyline" missions are fun too, and while they don't occupy most of my time, the fact that they are there gives me a little more purpose than most MMOs.

Part of it is novelty -- I like the low level experience in WoW a lot but I've done it probably 20 times and literally there isn't a quest there I haven't done.  It's fun to be doing that again and actually exploring.  Also there is just a tremendous amount of quest content.  In WoW you can hit level 15 and you've probably done 90% of the quests available to you (maybe higher) and if you don't leave your racial starting area you are likely to have to grind.  In LotRO, I could literally hit level 10 doing nothing but delivering mail in the Shire.  There are certainly way more quests than needed to level up, once you exit the highly structured 1-6 areas.

It certainly isn't going to unseat World of Warcraft.  But despite my very low expectations for this game I'm finding it quite compelling, at least to 15.  I think it has a good shot at unseating EQ2 as "#2" in the Western MMO market.

Anyways, a reasonable crew of people from QT3 seem to be playing on Nimrodel, so I am too.  Who knows how many of those will pre-order, but anecdotally it's sold a number of copies from people who checked out the open beta and decided to purchase.  Anyone playing there, drop me a line, my main on Nimrodel is "Hawksdottir".