Lord of the Rings Online or Dungeons and Dragons Online? I want to try out a f2p MMO and these two seem to be the biggest so far, so which one?

I had a lot of fun with LOTR Online but that was like 2 or 3 years ago.

I'd go with LOTRO, I only played a little bit of DDO and didn't really have time to get into it but LOTRO was pretty darn fun from the get-go. That was before it went F2P though so it was a while ago.

EDIT: speaking of LOTRO also gives me a chance to show off this screenshot I took back when i was playing it, it's the single most awesome pic of an MMOG bug I have ever taken, I'll let it speak for itself.

http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/rr17/cormoran/wolfboar4.jpg

Reminds me of one of those Native American dreams you usually see in films.

LotRO I was able to buy almost all of the pre-Isengard stuff with store currency I earned in-game (I did spend $10 on a Moria box to unlock Moria and get a month of time).

'Course, back then they did a 75% off every zone I believe, and I don't think they have since.

LotRO MAY close at some point next year - They currently have the license till 2014, but they've an option to renew till 2017, but they presumably haven't taken it up yet (as they haven't announced doing so), so that's something to consider.

Its also the only one of the two you mention I've played and its a great game - Though more for solo play than groups. So in my opinion, for a single-player MMO I'd say you probably can't do better.

Hey, they're both free-to-play, why not give them both a go? Won't take long to work out which one you prefer...

Also worth looking at Star Wars: The Old Republic and Rift, and probably more besides...

Funnily enough both LOTRO and DDO are from the same company, so they share some things, including their instore currency AFAIK. Which you would prefer really depends on whether you're more familiar with D&D or LoTR imo.

DDO uses heavily modified 3.5 rules, and doesn't do a really great job explaining them, so unless you're already familiar with D&D you might be a bit lost. LOTRO is probably more beginner friendly, but I haven't tried it as I'm not much of a fan of Tolkien's setting.

Other good options for F2P MMOs are The Secret World (which I can highly recommend, if only to finish the story once) and Rift.
I wouldn't recommend TOR as a F2P player though, since their F2P option is really restrictive compared to other games in this list. You pretty much have to pay at least some money to really enjoy the game, what there is of it to enjoy anyway.

My monthly allowance is not enough for most of them, sadly, so I have to either buy a physical copy and install most of it from there or use one that has a progressive installer (so far LOTRO seems to be the only one to have one, though DDO has a smaller download.)
Question: Are either SWTOR or RIFt progressive installs?

Try out Firefall when it hits open BETA on July 8th as well. FPS MMO.

I'm unsure about SWTOR but Rift does.

They are both great games and a lot of fun to play. I'd recommend reading up on them, features, etc. on their web sites and just pick the most appealing of the two for you.

I played some DDO but just a little bit of LOTRO, mostly before it went F2P, but from what I remember they have different style, with DDO being a lot more instance based, where you have a multiplayer hub in the city, but when you do quests you won't encounter players you haven't specifically grouped with, sort of like with Guild Wars.

As a single player RPG fan DDO felt good to me, because of the structured quests: well designed maps, a story, scripted encounters, barrels to smash to find loot, everything I expect from a D&D RPG.

The main problem with DDO is that unlike most FP2 MMO's it's gating content. What you pay for are adventure packs, and you quickly run out of free things to play as you go up in levels. Most other games have other restrictions (which DDO has too) but let you play most of the content for free.

You should forget both and play WOW.

Need to save up for a subscription fee though.