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LOTRO under the radar? Silent Sleeper? Feels like it.
GungaDin
Member UncommonPosts: 514
People know about this game, they talk about it, heck its Lord of the Rings. But to me it seems this game will be a bigger success than most have projected.
I was not excited about the game...............but then............i got into BETA. WOW (no pun intended), I couldnt believe how impressed I was. This is from a guy who only played WOW for 2 weeks and still holds on to Old School Ultima Online. So how could I like this type of game? I really can't explain it, but I really am having a good time. The last time I bought a MMORPG was SWG, since then no games i've been in BETA for have impressed me enough to purchase them. That being said, yesterday I bought the Preorder for LOTRO from Best Buy. I"m hooked.
Why do I think its under the Radar or underhyped? It just feels like it, I think the game will pull alot of people from WOW and because its Lord of Rings, alot players new to MMORPGS will try it out.
I think the subscription numbers, when released, will shock us all. Does anyone else think the same? We all know its gonna be a good game and have a healthy player base, but will it have enough of a player base to challenge WOW, I think so. If i'm buying the game then it must be good. Who am I ? Just a player that selects his games carefully.
Hard to call LOTRO a sleeper , but it may just be that.
Comments
I think it will be a sleeper. Yes. shhhh. Don't tell anybody.
Unless Turbine forced all the WoWsers to play as Orcs we could beat up on our quest for glory.
It's not a sleeper.
It's the game that will receive "the best mmorpg of the year award" on several sites when it's time to vote for that.
Tag this thread and come back in a year and see.
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There's actually quite a bit of press for this game, much of it word-of-mouth. People bash it here because, for better or for worse, many people in this forum are jaded reactionaries. LotRO, while it is a good game, is honestly not for such people. Outside of this site, people's reaction in most major gaming outlets, both commercial and journalistic, is quite positive.
That doesn't necessarily mean anything in itself. It's hard for me to peg a number on LotRO. I'm guessing the first month will see box sales of approximately 500,000, which is not spectacular in today's video game or MMORPG market. I foresee a climb after that, with the game retaining most of its initial purchasers and growing by about about 250k-500k subscriptions per month until it hits a plateau. I don't think the plateau will be very high compared to WoW. 1 million? 2 million? I don't know.
When you have a new market which is growing as explosively as this one, the relative success of products in successive cycle doesn't usually change, in terms of proportions. It's mostly a difference of scale. Here we have a titan in the form of another well-financed mainstream product with a huge subscriber base. An upcoming game with similar production values and a handful of unique features is emerging. I'm thinking the relationship in terms of sales will likely mirror that of EQ and DAoC.
This could all be bullshit, though. We'll have to wait and see.
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The above post is purely my opinion. If you disagree, that's your right. However, don't be an ass about it.
It could be a good game or a horrible one. The devs have to overcome the bad reputation they built with the creation of DDO. Right or wrong, they really lost a lot with that one.
I miss DAoC
Folks may or may not like LOTRO due to personal tastes, but at the very least, they can't say they were fed false promises. I've been informing my friends about this game... I say I can't guarantee you will like the game, this is a shoe, and you might prefer boots, but this is one well made shoe.
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
Final Fantasy 7
I remember the launch of WOW. No one, not even Blizzards people expected so many at launch. Proven by the fact they were adding dozens of servers in the few weeks after launch.
I have pre-ordered this game and know there will be growing pains at launch. But not the type of pains where bugs are all around that shouldn't be there, occasionally yeah, but not many.
Back to beta fun.. as soon as I get off work...
Elladan - ESO (AD)
Camring - SWTOR (Ebon Hawk)
Eol & Justinian - Rift (Faeblight)
Ceol and Duri - LotRO (Landroval)
Kili - WoW
Eol - Lineage 2
Camring - SWG
Justinian (Nimue), Camring - DAoC
There is ONE thing I feel LOTRO does well, the environments, while small, they are impressive and some of the best done work in any MMO. Other than that, LOTRO is a total snooze.
That about sums it up. I finally got into the beta just this morning and everything just feels right. It may not be what some people like, but I think the mainstream crowd will love it because it works as intended and is very aesthetically pleasing.
Uh, the comparison wasnt between LotRO and EQ2. The comparison was to the people who (very wrongly) said that EQ2 would be more successful than WoW. WoW is to easy, WoW is too Carebear, WoW is too simplified, etc etc etc. They turned out to be very very wrong - like, uh, 7.5 million players wrong (or about 1500% wrong).
I think people who say that LotRO will not be successful, will turn out to be wrong also, and for many of the very same reasons. I am not saying that LotRO will be more successful than WoW, far from it. I am simply noting that hardcore players who tend to frequent these boards, tend to judge a game through their own perspective and not from the perspective of a majority of mmorpg players, many of whom are casual players. WoW tapped into a market segment that most mmorpg 'experts' didnt even know existed; they didnt dare to dream there were that many mmorpg players out there.
LotRO likewise has potential to tap into new markets and new players. Lord of the Rings was the best selling fiction book in english in the 20th century, something like 100 million copies sold (only The Bible outsold it). If even a small fraction of those people who have read the books but havent played mmorpgs try the game, LotRO will be a big success. Dont underestimate the appeal of the books and the movies, just like people made the mistake of underestimating the appeal of the Warcraft world to people who hadnt tried mmorpgs before.
Elladan - ESO (AD)
Camring - SWTOR (Ebon Hawk)
Eol & Justinian - Rift (Faeblight)
Ceol and Duri - LotRO (Landroval)
Kili - WoW
Eol - Lineage 2
Camring - SWG
Justinian (Nimue), Camring - DAoC
There is ONE thing I feel LOTRO does well, the environments, while small, they are impressive and some of the best done work in any MMO. Other than that, LOTRO is a total snooze.
Funnyt, thats not what people in beta are saying. Unlike Vanguard's beta, most beta players are still there, and plenty of others are still trying to get in.
Also, check out what mmoprgs are selling best on amazon.com or the other game sales websites. LotRO is outselling everything except Burning Crusade, and some days its outselling BC too. And it still has two months until release. And unlike BC, its not an expansion, its not a proven commodity. Its selling based on word of mouth and initial reviews/pre-views.
If you dont happen to like the game, fine, but dont make the mistake of judging a game's potential for success solely through your own perspective, you need to look around and see what most other people seem to think.
One thing that people will be very happy with, is that LotRO is pretty polished and bug free. Hell, it played better in October in beta 1 (6 months before release) than Vanguard does now. LOL
Elladan - ESO (AD)
Camring - SWTOR (Ebon Hawk)
Eol & Justinian - Rift (Faeblight)
Ceol and Duri - LotRO (Landroval)
Kili - WoW
Eol - Lineage 2
Camring - SWG
Justinian (Nimue), Camring - DAoC
Maybe Turbine has learned something.
I guess we just get used to to all the weak excuses like ' a MMORPG is never finished' which developers use as a get out card for releasing games that are no way ready to see commercial release.
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth
John Lennon
Well, because of Turbines past with AC2 and DDO, I neglected giving any attention to LOTRO. I never ever followed the game, cause I thought Turbine was completely crap and expected LOTRO to follow the same road downhill with Turbine's last two games. I'll admit when Turbine started they had released AC1 which was an incredible game, then something must have happened.
The past few days I've been noticing a real lot of talk about LOTRO and mostly positive. Now I'm reviewing what you guys all had to say and many other people and I'm like wow.....this game might just be a good game. Now I'm realising that its actually similar to many other MMORPGs but its what you can call a polished and finished game on the verge of release. Seems like Turbine's finally got back its attitude which it started with, when it first created AC1.
With all the word of mouth and positive reviews from players I'm itching to get my hands on LOTRO. I may not seem like it but I'm an absolute nut about LOTR and some of Tolkiern's other books but I expected LOTRO to be crap. Now I'm desperate for a way to get into beta cause all keys have been taken. I'll find a way eventually. I'm on the verge of making a pre-order tonight for the game, and am going to continue finding ways to get beta access. Just can't way to get my paws on this game.
Thanks for the reviews and information guys.
Oh and by the way, it doesn't matter if LOTRO actually beats WoW in success or not, if its a better game, thats all that matters. The player community is going to split up into cluster servers and then there is the split of Europe from America. In other words, practically every game world will be filled with enough players. Hopefully not way too many, cause I think many remember the launch of WoW. Servers crashing, but that was unexpected because of the success they had on release. Now LOTRO might just follow down that road, but if it doens't beat WoW, it really doesn't matter. For the customer/player its not about which game has a higher population, its about which game is better in general. Let Turbine worry about subscriptions.
Wish I could, but thats not possible since I am from Europe, not North America. Thanks anyway, but Europe hasn't reached open beta (Stress Test Stage). But there will be 10k of beta keys being released next week for Europeans to take part in the phase 3. Don't think Europe quite yet reached the open beta phase.
Thanks anyway.