Wonderings of Hobbits

Merodoc

Awhile ago--following a surprising and unwarranted game cancelation--a poll was created asking what MMO would be canned first. Lord of the Rings Online (at that point, Middle-earth Online) was immediatly cited as an option and subsequently led the poll by a large margin.

With appearing faboyish, putting my loyalty to Turbine aside, why has this game been so ill-received in the general market? What has contributed to its lack of popularity (while its forum boasts over 100,000 signups dating from last year) in the community?

This is intended to be a discussion of Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar and what the community believes it will accomplish and what standards it will push.

www.lotro.turbine.com

Any and all baseless flames will be reported immediatly.

Elnator

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Originally posted by Merodoc
Awhile ago--following a surprising and unwarranted game cancelation--a poll was created asking what MMO would be canned first. Lord of the Rings Online (at that point, Middle-earth Online) was immediatly cited as an option and subsequently led the poll by a large margin.
With appearing faboyish, putting my loyalty to Turbine aside, why has this game been so ill-received in the general market? What has contributed to its lack of popularity (while its forum boasts over 100,000 signups dating from last year) in the community?
This is intended to be a discussion of Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar and what the community believes it will accomplish and what standards it will push.
www.lotro.turbine.com
Any and all baseless flames will be reported immediatly.

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Not a flame, an honest answer:
Because Turbine is trying to produce it and D&D online when neither of their previous titles did particularly well. Seems like now they are going to try to survive on Name Recognition alone.

Something to remember is that Tolkien fans are some of the hardest to please out there. The rough thing about doing Tolkien is if you don't remain VERY true to the stories and spirit of Middle Earth you are going to wind up alienating some of the most rabid fans on the planet. To be honest I'm surprised the Tolkien Foundation authorized Turbine to do the work.

Another reason is that MEO/LOTRO is now on it's 3rd different development team. The first team got about halfway through development and got canned. The 2nd was just getting underweigh and now Turbine has taken over with yet a 3rd Dev team. And the first thing they've announced was to remove PVP and Alignment from the game. Which does not bode well, imo.

I hope I'm wrong. But unless Turbine pulls off a Miracle I don't see this game doing much.