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Where are LOTRO haters ???
Rattrap
Member, Newbie CommonPosts: 1,599
Man!
When Vanguard was in open Beta , this forums turned into pits of burning hell ! Flaming , war , cursing and bans.
Fanbois against haters deluxe!
But now LOTRO is in open beta (well open stress test)
And yet , almost no haters showed their ugly heads ? ( And not much of zelous fanbois either ?)
Nobody really praises Lotro , and nobody really bashes it !
Anyway. The point is this ...
It was my long time theory that you cen recognise that game is not good, buy heated discusions
and totally opposite oppinions on the same game.
And other way around...
When Vanguard was in open Beta , this forums turned into pits of burning hell ! Flaming , war , cursing and bans.
Fanbois against haters deluxe!
But now LOTRO is in open beta (well open stress test)
And yet , almost no haters showed their ugly heads ? ( And not much of zelous fanbois either ?)
Nobody really praises Lotro , and nobody really bashes it !
Anyway. The point is this ...
It was my long time theory that you cen recognise that game is not good, buy heated discusions
and totally opposite oppinions on the same game.
And other way around...
"Before this battle is over all the world will know that few...stood against many." - King Leonidas
Comments
What deserves to be done, deserves to be "well" done...
i earned a weeklong ban when i was under NDA saying i wasnt gonna buy the game.
Now that no NDA...game is pretty good, but its all eye candy. Combat is boring as well as the game itself for a long run mmo. I been playing it for over 2 months, and i find it dull, but very pretty. So if you like a game with good graphics, this one is for you, but dont be looking for anything in depth. Its got solid gameplay, but without factions or a story line/quest system to keep you hooked after the initial LOTR experience, its gonna ride fast and quick and taper off, I would recommend for people wanting to try it out and who love LOTR, but i dunno if even the diehard LOTR and Tolkien fans should bother with the lifetime membership.
And i try not to go around flaming anyone elses games cause everyonehas their own opinions. So your no better than an avid hate dear op.
Well I was so let down with DDO (i'm a long time pen and paper rpger) I really didn't expect much. And got what I expected. So no big deal. Plus I like the fellowship books but I'm not a super-fan by any stretch.
perfect example of what i mean. you catches you early on...but it dies off quick. It doesnt really hold any long term attraction or intrigue. Its another turbine game, sad to say. very pretty and runs great, but its just skin deep.
too bad...oh well back to waiting for another good mmo. But to those who like it, by all means please enjoy it
. I will be the last person who says you should not buy this game it sucks ass, cause i liked SWG CU :P Everyone has their own tastes 
Only flamers complaining about LOTRO are the WoW haters. Mainly because LOTRO from what I've heard seems to be a real lot like WoW. A real real lot, but it has its own differences at the same time from what I've heard also. Lets say the PvP, is very different and many other things are also different. But in conclusion you could call it a WoW clone, except all the classes are very well balanced.
No reason to really flame the game, its a well made, and polished game, which can run on most systems with graphics set to high and looking great. Few people complained about the look of middle-earth, but they were ignorant enough to compare it to the film not the books. The MMO is based off the books and has nothing really to do with the films.
Mainly there really isn't anything to complain about LOTRO for....it was well made, polished and in time for release. Its also got some very unique and intreresting game features and classes aside from its core game concepts which are very similar to WoW's. Its probably the best MMO comming out since the last 2 years have passed. IGN has also called it a possible WoW beater...not sure if its that good, but anyway it doesn't have to be that good to beat WoW....but good news is its probably is the best game releasing since WoW.
Edit: I would have to agree with those saying its boring....since its a WoW clone....there really isn't anything to say wow about, but the PvMP (Monster Play) and the events being hosted by the GMs sounds like fun extra content aside from the extra content that will continue comming like new instances, dungeons and quests. I'm a huge LOTR fan and Tolkien fan aswell. The silmarilion, The Hobbit, I love all the books and especially the setting. So I believe I will be able to play it for quite a good long time.
Aside from that its the best game that is releasing since WoW's release, though I don't know if it can compete with that or Everquest 2. I don't think there can be a game mentioned which had a better release after WoW.
Vanguard was just bad, not only was it not innovative, but it has several horrible weaknesses, hence the constant flaming.
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
Hemingway
I think it comes to the fact that whether you like the game or not, it's a decent, fairly finished product that is exactly what turbine advertised it to be. That's alot less BS to put up with then the "Vision by Brad McQuaid" PR crap that was released for Vanguard.
There's alot of honesty in the game, if that even makes sense. There's a clarity to how it's made, run and what it's about. You just know that no turbine deb is going to release a statement that says:
"Well the game sucks right now because it's not finished but that's ok because it's an MMO and MMO's aren't supposed to be finished, ever..."
Sound familiar anyone?
In the end, It's just easier to say that it's a good game overall.
Important Information regarding Posting and You
LOTRO is what it is. A fun, polished game with exceptional graphics playable on many systems. There is a lot to do using successful forumla's from past MMORPGs. LOTRO promises little, but delivers a lot. That being said, I haven't played in over two weeks. The game might not be for me, or I may just be waiting to be able to play with friends.
Vanguard on the other hand is a nicely wrapped box of Godiva chocolates, with dog shit inside.
Regal
The game isn't story immersed despite fanboy claims. The game's story is just involving as world of warcraft, which means you would have to read all of the text-based storyline to understand what's going on. So you aren't obligated to follow the story. The game's lore sucks and doesn't really follow LotR. It's just another person's version of what Tolkein would have imagined. If this game truly followed the lore as the fanboy claim then females would not participating in the War of the Ring. No hobbits except Bilbo, Frodo, Merry, Pippin and Sam would be present outside the shire. The same goes with elves and dwarves because a handful of elves participated in the War of the Ring. Like LotR 3rd Age, no other adventures went on during War of the Ring. This game simply features characters and places from the book.
The gameplay is even more boring than WoW and has the same quests. You can also chain quest like WoW. The game does nothing to make you unique because everyone who picks the class as you will have all the same attacks and proficiencies as me. In order to gain a title or trait, you have to manage to not get defeat for 5 levels or kill a bunch of orcs or spiders.
The graphics for character models are good, but the scenario and the supporting cast are piss poor. The backgrounds and the people look like they were animated into the game. In fact, they look just like the characters from DDO. I mean you have to be freaking kidding, Turbine still can't afford 3D artist and a 3D engine. By the way, I played this game on ULTRA HIGH and the graphics are still not good. The only thing that looks 3D in this game is your character.
The music was bad (keyboard music) and sounds are not even on key. I'll strike someone with my weapon and sound won't be hurt until I've hit them instead of during the time. And if I use a move that has more multiple animation strikes, you'll just hear the weapons swing, but you won't hear your weapon impact.
I could go on and on about what's wrong with the game, but the fact that not people are talking about this game enough says a lot.
I don't think there will ever be much bad to read about LOTR:O. Reason being, it is a pretty decent game, but not anything so great that people feel compelled to bring it down in defense of their own MMO.
I personally played it for a few hours and found it pretty entertaining if nothing super special. Though my computer is super old and was having horrible issue trying to play it. I am still waiting for my new computer to arrive at my house so I will play it again in open beta and make my decision about the game at that time.
Lastera, I really must say that I do not agree with one bit of your assessment.
Before I go into the reasons, I will start by saying this - if by "fanboy" you mean "have you read the books and watched the movies" then yes I am a fanboy. Beyond that, I'm just a gamer.
Now then, I'll start off with the discussion about games "offering anything new". On the one hand, I will definitely agree that LOTRO really doesn't offer anything new that I haven't seen done somewhere else in another MMO other than (naturally) the fact that its based upon the Tolkien genre and has that IP/license. The game mechanics themselves aren't any different. Now that we've agreed on that, I'd like to pose the question - does that really matter for most consumers? I think what Turbine did was recognize various pieces of various MMOs that worked well and then attempted to combined all of the best features, with a Tolkien story. Is a lot of the game play like WoW? Sure it is... and guess what?... WoW is the most succesful MMO on the planet. So what Turbine (the corporation) decided to do was ensure good money on their investment by taking a proven model and re-applying most of the same ideas. Is a new Ford all that different from last year's Chevy? No... but it doesn't stop people from buying them nonetheless. I'm not sure why everybody seems to think that game developers absolutely must be revolutionary in everything that they do. It's a business. They need to make money or they go out of business. If they can make money and not go out of business by combining proven features from existing products with a new twist (the genre) then that's probably a pretty good business decision, eh?
So... give credit to the innovators... there are lots of WoW elements in the game which Blizzard should be "credited" with. There are lots of EQ2 elements in the game which Sony should be "credited" with. I'm sure there are others from other companies as well. Give credit where credit is due, but also recognize that the combination of those excellent features makes LOTRO a nicely packaged overall game. If you're looking for something revolutionary, don't look here. If you're looking for a game with good mechanics that happens to be set in a different (Tolkien) setting (because by the way, some of us play games for the story/settings more than for the "new features") then I think you'll be happy.
I also took part in the stress test this past weekend to gauge my interest in the game (free preview!) I must say that my gaming experience wasn't anything like what you've represented. I thought (based upon my own tastes) that the graphics were absolutely beautiful - the landscapes and vistas were gorgeous, the player models done well and realistic looking (although admittedly I would prefer more customization of appearance - there are very few facial models and abilities to tweak your appearance), and overall the artistic direction struck me as "great" (on the other hand, I never really got used to the blocky/cartoony look of WoW). That's all based upon "taste" though, so the best bet anybody can do is go look at some screenshots - they're a very fair representation of the game. As for the audio, I felt that the music was perfectly understated - a nice background and not repetitive/annoying (at least not after 3 days of playing) - it also seemed to match the area (ominous when surrounded by Orcs, light-hearted when surrounded by Hobbits, etc.). In comparison, I can say that I've turned the music off in EQ2, which I think is annoying. EVE and WoW have their music direction done similarly well to LOTRO.
As for gameplay, I had no problems with the attack visuals/sounds/etc. Did I think the animations looked gorgeous? No. I think that EQ2 has the best looking "special animations" of any MMO that I've played thus far. But was this a major let down for me? No. Also, keep in mind that the game is still in closed beta, so expect some buggy behavior! Hopefully when the game is released in 2 months, there will be fewer issues than, say, a Vanguard type of product.
Anyway... that's more than I intended on typing up, but just thought those of you who were reading this thread who didn't have the opportunity to take part in the stress test weekend might like another opinion and some food for thought.
(Edit - for those who were curious about system performance:)
I played the game on "High" settings (2 steps down, below Ultra and Very High) with no performance issues whatsoever, on the following system:
P4 3.4 Ghz (Hyperthreaded, but not dual-core), 2 GB RAM, ATI Radeon x850 XT PE, Windows XP SP2.
I have to agree with you on LotR not offering anything new. I hate when fanboy says, "Turbine isn't inventing the wheel, nor are they trying to." You know how stupid that makes fanboys look when they say that. It's what one poster had noted about AC1 and how EQ did better because they offered free trials in the beginning and they advertise. Because LotR isn't reinventing the wheel so to speak, the game isn't going to do so well. Other games will continue doing new and innovative stuff while Turbine will continue making below-average games for diehard Turbine fans. And in reality that's all their games appeal to because their game rarely appeal to an outside crowd on a large scale. I can't believe fanboys haven't notice this. Whenever we talk about games Turbine makes, past or present, we always talk negative about them because know what to expect from the games...nothing new.
Actually not reinventing the wheel is exactly why this game will be successful. They will be able to pull plenty of people who are fed up with WoW. They will get the same audience of casual gamers who can run the system on their older machines. People will love the fact that the game is set in a world that they know and that a lot of people love.
The game isn't story immersed despite fanboy claims. The game's story is just involving as world of warcraft, which means you would have to read all of the text-based storyline to understand what's going on. So you aren't obligated to follow the story. The game's lore sucks and doesn't really follow LotR. It's just another person's version of what Tolkein would have imagined. If this game truly followed the lore as the fanboy claim then females would not participating in the War of the Ring. No hobbits except Bilbo, Frodo, Merry, Pippin and Sam would be present outside the shire. The same goes with elves and dwarves because a handful of elves participated in the War of the Ring. Like LotR 3rd Age, no other adventures went on during War of the Ring. This game simply features characters and places from the book.
The game is all about Story. It has a much better story then World of Warcraft and they are sticking extremely well to the Lore. They are staying to the lore so well that it has the approval of Christopher Tolkien. They are required to stick to the lore because they are using the Books as their source. Now of course some changes need to be made to make a successful MMO. Such as allowing more hobbits to adventure. Also, females did participate in the War of the Ring. As my wife always likes to say Tolkien was a feminist.
The gameplay is even more boring than WoW and has the same quests. You can also chain quest like WoW. The game does nothing to make you unique because everyone who picks the class as you will have all the same attacks and proficiencies as me. In order to gain a title or trait, you have to manage to not get defeat for 5 levels or kill a bunch of orcs or spiders.
You must not of played the game for very long. Most of your complaints seem to be about the low levels of the game. The same could be said of any MMO. All of them are fairly boring at low levels when you don't have much in the way of choices in your skills and equipment.
The graphics for character models are good, but the scenario and the supporting cast are piss poor. The backgrounds and the people look like they were animated into the game. In fact, they look just like the characters from DDO. I mean you have to be freaking kidding, Turbine still can't afford 3D artist and a 3D engine. By the way, I played this game on ULTRA HIGH and the graphics are still not good. The only thing that looks 3D in this game is your character.
Wow you are pretty much saying the opposite of almost everyone else who has been talking about the game. Most of the complaints are that the character models are just average and that the scenerary(sp?) and environment is extremely beautiful and well done. I haven't heard a single person say that the world looks bad.
The music was bad (keyboard music) and sounds are not even on key. I'll strike someone with my weapon and sound won't be hurt until I've hit them instead of during the time. And if I use a move that has more multiple animation strikes, you'll just hear the weapons swing, but you won't hear your weapon impact.
I personally don't care much about music and sound effects. I usually play with Itunes running and my ingame sound off. But from what I have heard in game its pretty decent. Also, the fact that you can make your own music with your instruments is pretty neat.
I could go on and on about what's wrong with the game, but the fact that not people are talking about this game enough says a lot.
Could you be more wrong? The are a ton of people talking about this game. It's highly rated on the hype meter. The forums seem to have positive reviews posted all the time. EBGames/Gamestop have it high on their selling list. So does Bestbuy, Amazon etc. I know its one of the most talked about games on Gamespot. Etc Etc. If nothing else LOTRO has a ton of positive press going around about it.
Also, Asheron's Call would of been a lot better critical success if Micro$oft would of spent some cash on advertising. The game was extremely innovative. It is the most innovative MMO on the market still to this day. Turbine is a great MMO company when it comes to giving content. It the 2 years Blizzard has had WoW out of the market how much content have they added to the game? Before TBC they had added what 1 non raid dungeon and 3 raid dungeons? That is just pathetic with the amount of cash they are pulling in. Turbine has a sterling track record for adding content to their games. AC1 had so much content added in free monthly updates its not even funny. Not to mention all of the live events with Dev controlled mobs etc. I have a lot of faith in Turbine getting this one right. They have an extremely well made game in a great world with one of if not the best Fantasy IP to use. I could easily see this game eclipsing EQ1's NA subsciber numbers and it could even get into WoW like terrority with around 1-2Million NA/EU subscribers. Which would make it a huge success.
Currently playing:
LOTRO & WoW (not much WoW though because Mines of Moria rocks!!!!)
Looking Foward too:
Bioware games (Dragon Age & Star Wars The Old Republic)
That is some weird logic. Since when does making a game RP-friendly mean that other people cant play and enjoy the game?
LotRO does have the potential to be very RP-friendly, but a lot depends on how they design and enforce their behavior policies.
LotRO is the most casual and solo-friendly game I have seen since WoW. Not even close really. It is just silly to say it 'doesnt offer the casual player much to do'; it offers an incredible amount for a casual player and for a solo player.
I have to laugh when people say 'there is nothing new in LotRO', because that is just so very wrong. There is a LOT that is new... it just isnt in the areas that some players want. The harder core players focus on things like mechanics and character templates, and thats fine. But whats new about LotRO isnt in those areas.
The key difference in LotRO is the storyline, the story-driven quests, and the way the entire world pulls you into the story, and makes you feel a part of the world and the story. That is what sets LotRO apart from the rest of the pack. It amazes me how some players are simply blind to that. I guess some players are so busy trying to gain XP and get 1337 items and level as fast as they can, that they dont really take a look around them and enjoy the world and interact with the other players. People like that simply wont enjoy LotRO as much as people who take their time, read the quests, and enjoy the immersive world. Especially people who enjoyed the books and the movies and want to experience middle-earth as a game world. This game is ideal for them (well at least most of them).
And BTW, while the mechanics of LotRO is reminiscent of WoW, the world is NOTHING like WoW. LotRO has a realistic feel to it, and not cartoony at all. The Shire feels like the Shire should. One town is burning because the orcs recently raided it. Rivendell is spectacular. I am not just talking about graphics, I am talking about a realistic feel to the world. It couldnt be any more different than WoW or Warhammer in terms of cartoony vs realistic.
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
Because what you call haters... were just people voicing their concern against a wall of abuse from the Vanguard fan bois. In LotR, peopple are also voicing thier concern, but.. the LotR fans are willing to talk about it, discuss it like normal people without tons upon tons of insults and juvenile junk like the Vanguard fans so... Less hate, more constructive discussion.
So yeah... There is a reason Vanguard fans get no respect.
"This is not a game to be tossed aside lightly.
It should be thrown with great force"
The lack of haters is simple. There's really not much to hate about the game. it is a good well built, fun MMORPG. It is one of the most stable and polished games that we have seen in a long time. and it has alot of depth of lore and a nice feel to the world. A thousand times better than what Vanguard presented at late beta and launch. The game has that same fun stable and finished feel that DAoC had at lt's launch. A few years back it would have been a competition killer and possibly the best game we had ever seen.
But the lack of raving glowing comments is because while good and fun, it is really nothing we have not seen before. the best way to describe it is as a "Middle Earth" expansion pack for WoW. if you like WoW you will like LoTRO. But if you like WoW you probably don't have a reason to switch to LoTRO.
Here are a couple of Screenshots of LOTRO and now we can compare to a Screenshot of WoW: I don't know how anyone could say the world doesn't look 3d and can't laugh at themselves. You are obviously just a huge troll and hater if you honestly think the graphics in LOTRO are garbage.
Currently playing:
LOTRO & WoW (not much WoW though because Mines of Moria rocks!!!!)
Looking Foward too:
Bioware games (Dragon Age & Star Wars The Old Republic)
The funny thing is the same could be said for WoW. It didn't do anything new and people had no honest reason to change from the current MMOs that were out. Of course that is what MMO players do they want to play the new game. It is very few and far between that you find players who are loyal to an MMO. I would bet a lot of people will jump ship from WoW over the next year. Some will leave to play LOTRO, some will leave to play Warhammer online, some will leave to play Age of Conan, and some will leave to play what ever new Asian game is out. But all in all people are going to leave. Blizzard knows this they had no reason otherwise to change their raids from 40 man to 25 man for max size. They know that people are getting tired of the game. It is inevitable that people will leave their 2 plus year built up character for a new game in a new world.
And on another note DAoC had a nice launch but it was very very fair from finished
Maybe if you played albion you felt that way, but I know as a hibbie our dungeons over level 30 weren't itemized. So all we got was coin drop. We had to RVR for a month or two with lower equipment or store/crafted stuff because we didn't have any high end dungeons dropping loot. 
Of course we were the last realm worked on so they probably figured they could get it done once the game was released. 
Currently playing:
LOTRO & WoW (not much WoW though because Mines of Moria rocks!!!!)
Looking Foward too:
Bioware games (Dragon Age & Star Wars The Old Republic)
I was posting my opinions so that the readers of this thread could get a different view, and as such, am not trying to convince you, Lastera... therefore I don't care that you don't care if I like the graphics. Indeed as you'll note, I advised the readers to check out the screenshots themselves and draw their own opinions. I'm not sure where you get the idea that this game has graphics of a similar technology/quality to DOOM (I've never seen DOOM screenshots which looked like those from LOTRO), but again - it's all about taste.
Also, I'm not really sure of the purpose for your continued suggestions about historical Turbine game quality? So what? I advise the form readers to base your opinion of this game upon this game, not upon the company's past (I'll admit I don't know if I've played many Turbine games or not... I don't bother remembering that type of thing really). In any case, I'd be willing to bet that the developers who worked on LOTRO had little or nothing to do with whatever ever games you might have had issue with.
And lastly, I didn't "make a counter post as if they make everything you say untrue". Again, if you'll kindly read what I posted, it said that I disagreed (that's a quesiton of opinion, not fact) and urged others to form their own opinions. In fact I agree with you in one key area - its not a revolutionary game. In that regard, what I asked the readers to do was consider 1) why and 2) if that mattered to them. For some it will, for some it won't.
FYI, I'm not so sure that I will play the game as you suggest in your reply. I'm looking even more forward to Age of Conan, so my current MMO's may just be enough to hold me over until that one is released in October.
So now that all of you (the other forum readers) have heard my opinions about the game, I'll bow out of this thread - nothing more that I'd add at this point would be constructive.
who me ?
Neither Turbine nor its fans have been waging that kind of campiagn or making much in the way of claims. The only PR mark against LoTRO right now is that some Tolkein fans might think its unauthectic or doing an injustice to the IP. Good game, Bad game people will wait and see, but they haven't been goaded into having a vested interest in its failure.