I started playing LotRO in oβ, until about 2 years ago. It is a great game, and for fans of LotR, it's just about perfect. I don't like how Turbine has handled the F2P model, especially under WB leadership.
It just rings of money-grubbing to me, and they've dumbed the game down exceptionally (I got a minstrel to level cap before we had that newfangled War-Speech
). When I step in these days, I hardly even recognize it.
But for someone who's new to the game, I expect that it's pretty awesome. Graphics are a bit old maybe, but other than that . . .
Personally, I'm playing Turbine's other game right now, DDO. It's harder to get the Turbine Points, but it's a more solid game IMO. (If any of you play, I'm on Cannith).