How did I miss out on this for so long?
This world is so lovingly created in such amazing detail I could spend hours just riding through it. The quests are interesting and tie into the movie and are saturated with great characters known and new.
I'm certainly glad I gave it a second chance. I'm not able to play as much as I used to, but it's great to log on for an hour or so and feel like I've actually accomplished something and had fun doing it. The free-play model is working for me right now, and I have purchased some points for minor things, but if it stays interesting I may even subscribe to get the higher level content as so far it's been very impressive.
Hats off to Turbine to bringing the LOTR world alive and doing such a fantastic job at it.