Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) on steam is AWESOME!!! It has been years since I played and lost track of time. The world is MASSIVE!! and the NPCs there has a whole world of their own, they're walking around, tending their gardens, petting an animal, drinking ale, and etc. It's very immersive, specially for a game this old.
I expected to quit after giving it 3 days of gameplay, but man, questing is so much fun and it doesn't feel repetitive, although it is because its the usual slay 10 of these, gather these and etc. The Epic Quests (main story quest) follows the story of what most of us know from the beloved trilogy. And more! (I haven't read the book so I'm not sure how accurate the others are)
Its been almost a month since I started playing (currently at level 33, I have a family IYKYK) and I still can't get enough of it.
Classes have a wide variety. First you choose a race (ie: hobbit, dwarf, elf, high elf, human, beorning(?)), after which you choose a class (warden, captain, champion, rune-keeper, ranger, thief etc.) I'm high elf, champion 😁
There are fellowships (party), kinships (guild) and skirmishes (raids).
There's no gacha system involved. The mounts you have to work for it, which is a good thing. Level progression is just right. There's not much shining-shimmering-splendid effects like most MMORPG have nowadays, which is a huge plus for me. AND the game doesn't poke you with buying stuff (real money). You can play the game until a point (level 160 cap I think, Helm's Deep) for free, after which you have to buy the expansions.
The community is VERY MUCH alive and from what I've read, one of the most active communities on Steam.
See you on Middle-Earth!!!! 🤝