Exactly. I kinda miss EQ where you entered a zone either with your regular gaming group or waited in the entrance area until you had a group. No matter what zone you were in. Later in the game you could solo but why play an mmo solo?
It's a decent article (meant to stir the pot a little). Everyone dismisses the population disparity but cmon let's face it. LoTRO launched well after WoW and had plenty of opportunity to steal players from WoW. It never happened. Now why do you think that is? I think LoTRO is a decent game, but to me there wasn't enough there to make it stand out above WoW. To me, content and where my friends are playing are the most important aspects in a game, and in these comparisons it's not even a contest. At the end of the day, if you don't care that much about Tolkein, LoTRO just becomes another generic fantasy MMO.
Next article should be WAR vs. DAoC for laughs. Or perhaps after LoTRO goes FtP, you can do LoTRO vs. Runes of Magic.
Almost daily over the summer, I heard people in /advice and /ooc saying they left WoW and are on the trial for LotRO. Most of those also said they were going to sub.
As for myself, I prefer LotRO over WoW for a couple reasons. Graphics in WoW are too cartoonish for my tastes. Yes, I know that's their style. I don't like it, so I don't play it. The other main reason is community. Asking for advice and getting "L2play noob!" or a spate of Chuck Norris jokes is not very helpful. I don't think I've ever seen anyone in LotRO say "L2play" ever.
Anyway, I do think the author really needs to sit down and play both games again. As someone else mentioned, it seems like he's drawing info off of old reviews.
Hold on! no one told me it was going F2P i am WoW personally but now I'm WOW!! as in blimey if this does happen i think i will go to LotRO as Wow is overpriced
But i personally think its not a fair fight because they have not got Warhammer in it which i also think is fairly good
man, im tired of all these people who say "They copied WoW!" or "WoW is better by a longshot!"
i mean, how can anything copy an mmo? oh, u can pick a race and a class, they copied wow, or it's fantasy, they copied wow.
and i bet everyone who says WoW is better hasnteven tried the other game. my friend didnt even try this game called Champions Online, and kept saying it's gay, or WoW is better. then he tries it, and says: "I only like WoW better because I have a lvl 80 on it."
man, im tired of all these people who say "They copied WoW!" or "WoW is better by a longshot!"
i mean, how can anything copy an mmo? oh, u can pick a race and a class, they copied wow, or it's fantasy, they copied wow.
and i bet everyone who says WoW is better hasnteven tried the other game. my friend didnt even try this game called Champions Online, and kept saying it's gay, or WoW is better. then he tries it, and says: "I only like WoW better because I have a lvl 80 on it."
I once heard someone ((in this forum)) say a game copied wow because thy have the same colours..true story lol.
Lotta comments haha. In all honesty both games are fun, the WoW trolls will be on here and I see alot of their comments saying "Omg WoW wins cuz we have numbers" but in truth that is one of the reasons your game sucks for hardcore MMO players. No good MMO player wants to have levels spoon fed to them and there are so many people on busy servers it is ridiculous to even say you have a community. With so many players its hard to make friends and with 1/3 being casual players 1/3 being little kids and a majority of whats left being assholes it is hard to find any sort of community in that world. I say LOTRO wins, I played WoW alot more than I did LOTRO and I am not subscribed to either at the moment but from what I played of LOTRO it seems the community is great and the grouping aspect is lightyears ahead of WoW's
I dunno about you people but soloing in an online game doesnt sound fun, if you dont want to play online go play a single player game that is much more fun, but I play online games to play with others.
I love the Warcraft lore and the MMORPG can be fun for a while, but as a player who started playing MMORPGs with DAoC, old school MMORPGs have lost their appeal compared to real life social activities. LOTRO definitely was more fun to explore due to the higher graphical quality and visuals, but the game overall lacked the excitement to keep me playing more than two to three weeks, even though I've subscribed for 3 months a couple of times. Other than that, I think this article was entertaining and would love to see more of them.
Never like many fantasy settings. I never like WOW, DDO or Everquest 1 or 2, but I do like LotRO and only because I like the books and the movies. I'm big on IPs, I normally only try the MMOs that are based on IPs.
When we get back from where we are going, we will return to where we were. I know people there!
Later in the game you could solo but why play an mmo solo?
Why solo? Because not everyone can be committed to a group in games, being more of a casual gamer (having less time to play and/or not according to a set schedule). So why not play a sinle player RPG insetad? Because for example LOTRO has lots ot offer for a solo player, and most importantly, an MMO has a lot bigger content than any other single player game. It is extended all the time and new story elements appear. Not for 3-5 DLCs but for years...
LOTRO for me is espacially solo-friendly. Not in a sense that I can advance as fast as people who actively play together with kinnies (I am a slow player anyway, story is more important than getting to max level the fastest way), but for the fact that if you like playing alone, you are not forced to to otherwise.
For those who are not aware of it: LOTRO started to make previously fellowship-only epic quests available for solo players, too. For me it is a huge relief, as I can see even nore of the story. Is then the community aspect of the game lost then? Absolutely not. I tend to roleplay sometimes and get into conversaton with strangers. Also, when I hit max level, my kinnies can surely count on me for some raids. Not every week, but they can.
I agree with the conclusion that the games are very similar. Personally I prefer WoW over LOTRO.
I do feel that some aspects were incorrectly characterized.
For the starting area's I found equal diversity and difference in story line. WoW does have a starting area that is currently shared by two races in both factions. If the reviewer just did the two races that share a starting area I can see where they drew the wrong conclusion.
While I agree with how he characterized the two communities I disagree with him blaming Blizzard for their community and Turbine for their. I completely disagree with his blasting the cross game, cross server, and facebood extensions to the Blizzard friends list. Like the reviewer I have no use for the feature. But those features did not add to the community problems that he described and were requested by a large number of players so I will not fault Blizzard for implementing things that players requested.
WOW may win with this guys reviews..which though insightful..do betray a slight bias. Having been a long time LOTRO player..I may too have a bias..however...after trying WOW..I was mostly disappointed by a number of things. The cartoony avatars and the world...the general lack of maturity of the community..and the difficulty in trying to locate people in game.
LOTRO's world is truly remarkable (Ofcourse that is because the world is full of a large number of die-hard Tolkein fans,..and if Turbine screws anything up in Middle Earth..there would be such a tide of woe that they would suffer greatly...something they are no doubt aware of) The community if LOTRO shows a remarkable level of Maturity for an MMO. The few annoyances face not only getting quickly put on everyone;s ignore list..but truly offensive types will face banning. Locating someone in game can prove difficult however. With LOTRO's server set up isolating each server from the others..it can be very hard to hunt up someone without knowing which server they may be on. After 6 years of CIty Of Heroes/Villains..I am somewhat spoiled by their global channels..and hoping that Turbine may yet offer something similar...it is not a major priority.
One point I wanted to make about his comparrisons of endgame and PVP is that one...Endgame is not a HUGE part of LOTRO's Endgame...and thus not a required part of every players experience. With the huge ammount of quests and story lines...there is alot to do. Hell..even hitting 65..alot of people find they have lots to finish yet..myself included.
Two..PVP...while WOW has this set up from the beginning...LOTRO did not focus on that. Middle Earth is about heroes fighting the great evils...and thus PVP is not a major focus of the genre. The PVP in LOTRO is restricted..for the moment..to one zone...but is still available for any player who wants to do so..but again..is not required to play the game.
Taking these points into consideration...I think one could consider the two games drawn..with a slight edge to LOTRO...but again the bias is by what the player prefers. I prefer a game that is worthy of my time..and not so much about the grind as it is for the esperience.
my point is.... I have trouble staying awake playing wow or LOTRO... Neither is all that exciting to me. Unfortunately... not too much is on the horizon industry wise and like many others I'm ready for something fresh, innovative, and challenging.
wow's endgame = good? LOL nice one, have fun re-grinding the same dungeon for over a year straight 2x a week with no endgame content released since that year started
you have to buy the new 40$ expansion to get the next content update,
meanwhile lotro gives content updates regularly, and the content is GOOD
oh yeah what was the population census for WOW again? 99% hybrid classes, 1% pure? over 60-70% population entirely paladins?
wow's endgame = good? LOL nice one, have fun re-grinding the same dungeon for over a year straight 2x a week with no endgame content released since that year started
you have to buy the new 40$ expansion to get the next content update,
meanwhile lotro gives content updates regularly, and the content is GOOD
oh yeah what was the population census for WOW again? 99% hybrid classes, 1% pure? over 60-70% population entirely paladins?
good luck with that kid,
Nice dude! You managed to get absolutely everything wrong about WoW except for the price of the next expansion. And even that is wrong if you're implying that you need to pay that to get new content. All of Azeroth will be effected by the Cataclysm whether you have the expansion or not giving a changed world (with new maps and terrain) even for people who don't have the expansion.
I hear LoTRO is a really good game. No reason to make things up to make it sound better, lol.
wow's endgame = good? LOL nice one, have fun re-grinding the same dungeon for over a year straight 2x a week with no endgame content released since that year started
you have to buy the new 40$ expansion to get the next content update,
meanwhile lotro gives content updates regularly, and the content is GOOD
oh yeah what was the population census for WOW again? 99% hybrid classes, 1% pure? over 60-70% population entirely paladins?
good luck with that kid,
Nice dude! You managed to get absolutely everything wrong about WoW except for the price of the next expansion. And even that is wrong if you're implying that you need to pay that to get new content. All of Azeroth will be effected by the Cataclysm whether you have the expansion or not giving a changed world (with new maps and terrain) even for people who don't have the expansion.
I hear LoTRO is a really good game. No reason to make things up to make it sound better, lol.
Of course they are giving everyone the graphical update..Would be retarded to run the game on two different clients.
Firstly to the OP subject. We all know Blizzard makes games that run near to flawlessly. This is a huge part of why people like their games and rightly so. But come on, we all also should know why WoW appeals to the short attention span generation.
Frankly almost all MMo's do. But they really really do! I really want MMo's to challenge us more then they do. Star Wars Galaxies in many ways had some awesome ideas there but alas, it also was mismanaged.
So I would take LoTR's over WoW simply based on content. The fact that it is not as well put together is less of an issue then the fact that WoW has nothing to offer that makes anyone anywhere at anytime really give a damn about it's story or world.It is a fun game for a while but if you play it for more then a year, you likely are in too much need to fill something missing in your life. It has so little substance even though it is brilliant in many ways.
BUT! to the subject of "it makes more money and has more people so it is better"!!
9 out of 10 people I have ever met seem to me, in my opinion to be stupid. Therefore I am not surprised that the most popular things 9 out of 10 times are stupid. Like say American Idol. WoW is actually not stupid but about 10.5 million of it's players surely are.
Community does matter to alot of people. As to the guy who said guilds are all that matters so community does not...I say if you do not have a happy family and friends situation in real life I get that. Most people who do though do not want to deal with fake friends every time we log in. I would guess at least 50% of people in guilds would rather not be. I mean in game guilds that is.
They should make guilds play on separate servers IMO. People talk about imbalance all the time but do not see how guilds make MMO's imbalanced for the average player every single time. you actually need them to play through some content and they skew PvP and crafting as well. Give them their own servers and everyones happy. Many would not see how much happier they would be til that change I think.
Tried lotr and it honostly looks like a wow wannebee which just plays less smoothly.
That line physically hurt me; the same could be said in reverse from another point of view. Then again, I guess they all can.
I play LOTRO because I played WoW to level 80 with max'd out . . . everything, and I can't say that there was anything about the game that sent my RPG senses to tingling. The story was okay, most were just good enough to pass WoW off as an RPG, but to a massive amount of people it's more than adequate.
LOTRO has a more realistic design, all-around. From armor to animals to trees and mountains I don't encounter anything that looks ridiculously impossible or insultingly preposterous. The only reason I didn't play LOTRO sooner is because I've already heard, read and watched the stories and I already know the ending; however, I dramatically overlooked the value of "living" in that world during the whole campaign (whether a part of or completely separate from the main storyline the world was originally designed for).
If you're level of interest in classic, genre-developing lore is low and your desire for fun (often silly) graphics and game-play/animations outweighs your desire for "realistic" and more-serious graphics and lore, then World of Warcraft is for you. If that is NOT the case and you love realistic colors, structures, designs and the wonderful world of Tolkien, then Lord of the Rings Online is the better option. All else (other than WoW's truly superior PvP system and level of participation) is really a non-point.
Happy gaming, but I would say to try them both and see which you like best!
The main problems with these kinds of comparisons is that people consider different things important.
For instance, I cannot play WOW anymore because the graphics hurt my eyes. But I enjoyed the game for quite a while some years ago.
In the article, role playing has been just a factor in "community", but the way LotRO facilitates it is way superior to WoW (which is reflected in the amount of RP going on in those games' RP servers).
Comments
Exactly. I kinda miss EQ where you entered a zone either with your regular gaming group or waited in the entrance area until you had a group. No matter what zone you were in. Later in the game you could solo but why play an mmo solo?
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
Final Fantasy 7
Almost daily over the summer, I heard people in /advice and /ooc saying they left WoW and are on the trial for LotRO. Most of those also said they were going to sub.
As for myself, I prefer LotRO over WoW for a couple reasons. Graphics in WoW are too cartoonish for my tastes. Yes, I know that's their style. I don't like it, so I don't play it. The other main reason is community. Asking for advice and getting "L2play noob!" or a spate of Chuck Norris jokes is not very helpful. I don't think I've ever seen anyone in LotRO say "L2play" ever.
Anyway, I do think the author really needs to sit down and play both games again. As someone else mentioned, it seems like he's drawing info off of old reviews.
Aurora, 4x Gaming
Hold on! no one told me it was going F2P i am WoW personally but now I'm WOW!! as in blimey if this does happen i think i will go to LotRO as Wow is overpriced
But i personally think its not a fair fight because they have not got Warhammer in it which i also think is fairly good
A much more sensible article than I thought it would be. Of course whether one agrees with the comparison is basically down to personal preferance.
man, im tired of all these people who say "They copied WoW!" or "WoW is better by a longshot!"
i mean, how can anything copy an mmo? oh, u can pick a race and a class, they copied wow, or it's fantasy, they copied wow.
and i bet everyone who says WoW is better hasnteven tried the other game. my friend didnt even try this game called Champions Online, and kept saying it's gay, or WoW is better. then he tries it, and says: "I only like WoW better because I have a lvl 80 on it."
I once heard someone ((in this forum)) say a game copied wow because thy have the same colours..true story lol.
March on! - Lets Invade Pekopon
Lotta comments haha. In all honesty both games are fun, the WoW trolls will be on here and I see alot of their comments saying "Omg WoW wins cuz we have numbers" but in truth that is one of the reasons your game sucks for hardcore MMO players. No good MMO player wants to have levels spoon fed to them and there are so many people on busy servers it is ridiculous to even say you have a community. With so many players its hard to make friends and with 1/3 being casual players 1/3 being little kids and a majority of whats left being assholes it is hard to find any sort of community in that world. I say LOTRO wins, I played WoW alot more than I did LOTRO and I am not subscribed to either at the moment but from what I played of LOTRO it seems the community is great and the grouping aspect is lightyears ahead of WoW's
I dunno about you people but soloing in an online game doesnt sound fun, if you dont want to play online go play a single player game that is much more fun, but I play online games to play with others.
Mystery Bounty
I love the Warcraft lore and the MMORPG can be fun for a while, but as a player who started playing MMORPGs with DAoC, old school MMORPGs have lost their appeal compared to real life social activities. LOTRO definitely was more fun to explore due to the higher graphical quality and visuals, but the game overall lacked the excitement to keep me playing more than two to three weeks, even though I've subscribed for 3 months a couple of times. Other than that, I think this article was entertaining and would love to see more of them.
A fine article over all, but I think that when it comes to PvP, arena PvP shouldn't go unnoticed. Competitive PvP is a big part of World of Warcraft.
Never like many fantasy settings. I never like WOW, DDO or Everquest 1 or 2, but I do like LotRO and only because I like the books and the movies. I'm big on IPs, I normally only try the MMOs that are based on IPs.
When we get back from where we are going, we will return to where we were. I know people there!
Why solo? Because not everyone can be committed to a group in games, being more of a casual gamer (having less time to play and/or not according to a set schedule). So why not play a sinle player RPG insetad? Because for example LOTRO has lots ot offer for a solo player, and most importantly, an MMO has a lot bigger content than any other single player game. It is extended all the time and new story elements appear. Not for 3-5 DLCs but for years...
LOTRO for me is espacially solo-friendly. Not in a sense that I can advance as fast as people who actively play together with kinnies (I am a slow player anyway, story is more important than getting to max level the fastest way), but for the fact that if you like playing alone, you are not forced to to otherwise.
For those who are not aware of it: LOTRO started to make previously fellowship-only epic quests available for solo players, too. For me it is a huge relief, as I can see even nore of the story. Is then the community aspect of the game lost then? Absolutely not. I tend to roleplay sometimes and get into conversaton with strangers. Also, when I hit max level, my kinnies can surely count on me for some raids. Not every week, but they can.
I agree with the conclusion that the games are very similar. Personally I prefer WoW over LOTRO.
I do feel that some aspects were incorrectly characterized.
For the starting area's I found equal diversity and difference in story line. WoW does have a starting area that is currently shared by two races in both factions. If the reviewer just did the two races that share a starting area I can see where they drew the wrong conclusion.
While I agree with how he characterized the two communities I disagree with him blaming Blizzard for their community and Turbine for their. I completely disagree with his blasting the cross game, cross server, and facebood extensions to the Blizzard friends list. Like the reviewer I have no use for the feature. But those features did not add to the community problems that he described and were requested by a large number of players so I will not fault Blizzard for implementing things that players requested.
WOW may win with this guys reviews..which though insightful..do betray a slight bias. Having been a long time LOTRO player..I may too have a bias..however...after trying WOW..I was mostly disappointed by a number of things. The cartoony avatars and the world...the general lack of maturity of the community..and the difficulty in trying to locate people in game.
LOTRO's world is truly remarkable (Ofcourse that is because the world is full of a large number of die-hard Tolkein fans,..and if Turbine screws anything up in Middle Earth..there would be such a tide of woe that they would suffer greatly...something they are no doubt aware of) The community if LOTRO shows a remarkable level of Maturity for an MMO. The few annoyances face not only getting quickly put on everyone;s ignore list..but truly offensive types will face banning. Locating someone in game can prove difficult however. With LOTRO's server set up isolating each server from the others..it can be very hard to hunt up someone without knowing which server they may be on. After 6 years of CIty Of Heroes/Villains..I am somewhat spoiled by their global channels..and hoping that Turbine may yet offer something similar...it is not a major priority.
One point I wanted to make about his comparrisons of endgame and PVP is that one...Endgame is not a HUGE part of LOTRO's Endgame...and thus not a required part of every players experience. With the huge ammount of quests and story lines...there is alot to do. Hell..even hitting 65..alot of people find they have lots to finish yet..myself included.
Two..PVP...while WOW has this set up from the beginning...LOTRO did not focus on that. Middle Earth is about heroes fighting the great evils...and thus PVP is not a major focus of the genre. The PVP in LOTRO is restricted..for the moment..to one zone...but is still available for any player who wants to do so..but again..is not required to play the game.
Taking these points into consideration...I think one could consider the two games drawn..with a slight edge to LOTRO...but again the bias is by what the player prefers. I prefer a game that is worthy of my time..and not so much about the grind as it is for the esperience.
[Mod Edit]
my point is.... I have trouble staying awake playing wow or LOTRO... Neither is all that exciting to me. Unfortunately... not too much is on the horizon industry wise and like many others I'm ready for something fresh, innovative, and challenging.
wow's endgame = good? LOL nice one, have fun re-grinding the same dungeon for over a year straight 2x a week with no endgame content released since that year started
you have to buy the new 40$ expansion to get the next content update,
meanwhile lotro gives content updates regularly, and the content is GOOD
oh yeah what was the population census for WOW again? 99% hybrid classes, 1% pure? over 60-70% population entirely paladins?
good luck with that kid,
Nice dude! You managed to get absolutely everything wrong about WoW except for the price of the next expansion. And even that is wrong if you're implying that you need to pay that to get new content. All of Azeroth will be effected by the Cataclysm whether you have the expansion or not giving a changed world (with new maps and terrain) even for people who don't have the expansion.
I hear LoTRO is a really good game. No reason to make things up to make it sound better, lol.
Of course they are giving everyone the graphical update..Would be retarded to run the game on two different clients.
March on! - Lets Invade Pekopon
WoW's PvP 9/10? Then GW's PvP must be 12/10.
WoW's really good but not 9/10. I think it's 7 or 8/10 points.
Innovative article. More like these please.
Firstly to the OP subject. We all know Blizzard makes games that run near to flawlessly. This is a huge part of why people like their games and rightly so. But come on, we all also should know why WoW appeals to the short attention span generation.
Frankly almost all MMo's do. But they really really do! I really want MMo's to challenge us more then they do. Star Wars Galaxies in many ways had some awesome ideas there but alas, it also was mismanaged.
So I would take LoTR's over WoW simply based on content. The fact that it is not as well put together is less of an issue then the fact that WoW has nothing to offer that makes anyone anywhere at anytime really give a damn about it's story or world.It is a fun game for a while but if you play it for more then a year, you likely are in too much need to fill something missing in your life. It has so little substance even though it is brilliant in many ways.
BUT! to the subject of "it makes more money and has more people so it is better"!!
9 out of 10 people I have ever met seem to me, in my opinion to be stupid. Therefore I am not surprised that the most popular things 9 out of 10 times are stupid. Like say American Idol. WoW is actually not stupid but about 10.5 million of it's players surely are.
Community does matter to alot of people. As to the guy who said guilds are all that matters so community does not...I say if you do not have a happy family and friends situation in real life I get that. Most people who do though do not want to deal with fake friends every time we log in. I would guess at least 50% of people in guilds would rather not be. I mean in game guilds that is.
They should make guilds play on separate servers IMO. People talk about imbalance all the time but do not see how guilds make MMO's imbalanced for the average player every single time. you actually need them to play through some content and they skew PvP and crafting as well. Give them their own servers and everyones happy. Many would not see how much happier they would be til that change I think.
Tried lotr and it honostly looks like a wow wannebee which just plays less smoothly.
That line physically hurt me; the same could be said in reverse from another point of view. Then again, I guess they all can.
I play LOTRO because I played WoW to level 80 with max'd out . . . everything, and I can't say that there was anything about the game that sent my RPG senses to tingling. The story was okay, most were just good enough to pass WoW off as an RPG, but to a massive amount of people it's more than adequate.
LOTRO has a more realistic design, all-around. From armor to animals to trees and mountains I don't encounter anything that looks ridiculously impossible or insultingly preposterous. The only reason I didn't play LOTRO sooner is because I've already heard, read and watched the stories and I already know the ending; however, I dramatically overlooked the value of "living" in that world during the whole campaign (whether a part of or completely separate from the main storyline the world was originally designed for).
If you're level of interest in classic, genre-developing lore is low and your desire for fun (often silly) graphics and game-play/animations outweighs your desire for "realistic" and more-serious graphics and lore, then World of Warcraft is for you. If that is NOT the case and you love realistic colors, structures, designs and the wonderful world of Tolkien, then Lord of the Rings Online is the better option. All else (other than WoW's truly superior PvP system and level of participation) is really a non-point.
Happy gaming, but I would say to try them both and see which you like best!
wow i did not know you can't criticize an articles opinion, omg i was warned for calling his conclusions idiotic.
I almost stopped reading when I saw WoW get a 9 on 'Game World" and LoTRO a 8 ! Dude!! Let me buy you some visine
But I kept reading and agree with many of your points except this is how I would vote:
Lotro Game world : 10/10
WoW: 5/10
Character : WoW : 10/10 ( Those models fit that neon world perfectly)
Character LoTRO: 6/10 ( The models are average compared to the beauty of that game world)
Here are some categories that I wish you would add in the future and how I would rate these two:
Classes-
LoTRO: 10/10 - no duds in any of their classes. Makes playing alts a joy.
WoW: 6/10
Game Engine:
LoTRO: 8/10
WoW: 10/10
Content Updates
LoTRO: 10/10
WoW: 3/10
The main problems with these kinds of comparisons is that people consider different things important.
For instance, I cannot play WOW anymore because the graphics hurt my eyes. But I enjoyed the game for quite a while some years ago.
In the article, role playing has been just a factor in "community", but the way LotRO facilitates it is way superior to WoW (which is reflected in the amount of RP going on in those games' RP servers).