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"The target is WoW"
Gameloading
Member UncommonPosts: 14,182
Important before reading:
This is not a Lotro bash thread. If your looking for an excuse to bash the game, please create a new thread.
Imo, Lotro is a good game. its solid, its fun to play, and its polished. It certainly does deserve the praise it gets.
Except one.
Lord of the Rings Online is VERY similar to World of Warcraft, and it really annoys me when I see a hardcore Lotro fan tell people that Lord of the rings online is very different from WoW.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=16272
Its an old press release, I know, but let me show you one important part.
As you can see, the european publishers are clearly telling us that WoW is the target, and that Lotro is going to compete directly with WoW, obviously for the same audience. You can't have a diffrent game when your going to the same target.
Give Lotro praises, it deserves it. But please, don't say Lotro is very diferent from WoW. They are very similar, and some extra emotes and social aspects are not enough to declare Lotro as different and unique. it simply isn't imo.
This is not a Lotro bash thread. If your looking for an excuse to bash the game, please create a new thread.
Imo, Lotro is a good game. its solid, its fun to play, and its polished. It certainly does deserve the praise it gets.
Except one.
Lord of the Rings Online is VERY similar to World of Warcraft, and it really annoys me when I see a hardcore Lotro fan tell people that Lord of the rings online is very different from WoW.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=16272
Its an old press release, I know, but let me show you one important part.
"The target is WoW, says general manager of publisher's online gaming division.
Vice president and general manager of Codemasters Online Gaming (COG), David Solari, has revealed a target of over a million players for the division's upcoming Lord of the Ring Online (LOTRO) title and admitted intentions to compete directly with Blizzard's genre-leading World of Warcraft."
As you can see, the european publishers are clearly telling us that WoW is the target, and that Lotro is going to compete directly with WoW, obviously for the same audience. You can't have a diffrent game when your going to the same target.
Give Lotro praises, it deserves it. But please, don't say Lotro is very diferent from WoW. They are very similar, and some extra emotes and social aspects are not enough to declare Lotro as different and unique. it simply isn't imo.
Comments
I think this is unfair to those intrested in the game. It gives false hope to people looking for something new from WoW, and it only leads to dissapointment when they find out Lord of the rings is indeed a lot like WoW.
So its like WoW, so what?
WoW is like a lot of older games, so what?
Now playing: VG (after a long break from MMORPGS)
Played for more than a month: Darkfall online, Vanguard SOH, Everquest, Horizons, WoW, SWG, Everquest II, Eve
Things that are different than WoW would be the graphical quality, the lore, player controlled music, a more indepth economy, less dependence on item stats, different endgame goals and MvP etc etc.
things they have in common would be a quest centric design, they run smoothly on older machines and they are solo/ small group friendly games. One thing I am sure of though is that Turbine would love to emulate WoWs subscription numbers
I miss DAoC
Not to me, reminds me of AC2 more than anything. Which I enjoyed very much. UI, gameplay, animations (walk, run, combat), graphics. But oh well my opinion.
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Promote what you love instead of bashing what you hate.
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Currently playing:wow/war
Retired:,runescape,swg,
everquest2,lotro
If you've played WoW, LotRO is fairly easy to transition into. There are similarities in form and function. There are also core similarities that almost all MMORPGs share and guess what? These elements were around before WoW.
I can see the superficial similarites that are evident espescially for the first six or eight levels. However, having now played LotRO Open Beta for what must be over 60 hours played time, I can say the play experience is NOT WoW. Not any more WoW than EQ2 is WoW, or Vanguard is WoW, or Lineage 2 is WoW, or any other MMORPG is WoW.
Like WoW, it doesn't suck. Like WoW it's an MMORPG. Like WoW it has an in game mail system, an auction house, quests and creatures to kill.
LotRO feels more to me like an MMOized Oblivion than WoW.
Turbine wants to directly compete with WoW? Well, it must be a clone then, right?
In reality it will offer some competition to WoW because it's the first MMORPG since WoW that is as good as WoW, not because it is WoW.
Unlike WoW, this game has "realistic" terrain, landscapes that seem like they could really exist, rather than something laid out and slapped down to be convient places to quest in. Unlike WoW, this game doesn't just give you higher ranked versions of the same skills as you advance, but actually different skills, the combinations of which can change the way you play your class as you level.
I acknowledge everyone has different tastes and different perceptions, but I find it hard to believe that anyone could play LotRO for any length of time and feel like it's WoW in a LotR wrapper.
Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
Pretty much most mainstream MMOs these days have alot of similarities. Just like RTS games back in the day became similar. Each MMO will have its own twist and story to tell. The important factors for me are the classes, story, polish, the world, and minimal tedious activities such as faction grinding and picking flowers 2 hours a days just so I can play.
I am just waiting for the breakthrough Sci Fi MMO.
Triston Master Carbine/Master Swords (SWG Eclipse)
Triston 29 Warden (EQ2 Permafrost)
Weland 70 Hunter (WoW Hellscream)
Suidan 36 Cleric (Vanguard Flamehammer)
Suidan 50 Champion (LOTR Gladden)
The original point here beeing annoyed when lotr players says lotr is really different from wow?
It's really simple, there wrong. Lotr is aimed at taking a bite of the mainstream mmo market share and they prolly will do just that.
To be honest im suprised games like Vanguard even get's developed right now (don't get me wrong i love Vanguard as a game, beside it's performance issues and premature release it has just missed some vital points needed to get a modern mmo player intrested enough to stay).
wow has opend up the market for everyone and developing mainstream mmo's for release this and next year with a easier content and gameplay should almost garantee you a fair enough bite of the market to make a honest buck. wow is getting old fast and there's enough room for a coupple of games picking up players looking for some fresh content.
It's a great age for us old mmo gamers though, never before has there been so many nice games to choose from and the future looks so bright I gotta wear shades.
For the record; i loved wow, but it's old now. I loved the idea of Vanguard, but the forced grouping and constant time sinks is just to oldschool. I love Lotr and i will play it as i do any other game to the end and then move on to fresh content. It's the players market and the developer out there who can't see that wont be around in the next 5 years.
To summorize the few post that actually dealt the original question:
1. The thread-starter stated that lotr had so much in common with wow that you could not say it was "very different". To back up the claim he shoed a comment from the European Vice President that stated they wanted to take customers away from WOW
I actually don't se that as any kind of proff. Actually the opposite. You usually try to make a product that is better to take customers from someone. You might argue that the key point here is "very different" as apposed to "slightly different" but you can't conclude that it is the case. A Motocycle company might try to take customers away from fancy 2 person cars.
2. Most comment concerning the thread then stated that to be a MMORPG you would naturally have a lot of thing in common with other MMORPG. Class (ok, you got go skill based), quest, mobs and so forth. Every fantasy mmorpg have even more in common, due to swords, magic and so forth.
I would go out on a limp here and say that lotr are very atypically in that there a no dedicated nuker, healer, animal morpher or the like, which both wow and many other fantasy mmorpg relies heavely on.
The things wow and lotr seems to have in common a a lot of support mechanincs and features such as class, open landscape, mail boxes and so forth. But it is a far strech to make wow and lotr equal or almost equal without the same comparioson being true for most other fantasy mmorpg.
The OP asks for 'hardcore LotRO fans' not to mislead potential players by claiming that it is 'very different' from WoW, because it isn't.
It's then backed up by the statement saying that they were aiming for WoW players to play LotRO. Thus reinforcing the fact that it's similar to WoW and not to try to convince other people otherwise.
Essentially, don't say that LotRO is something that it certainly is not.
Or is my reading comprehension so far off the wall that everyone else here discussing something completely different read it right and I'm wrong?
That is how I took the thread.
The OP emphasising on 'hardcore fans' labeling the game as 'very different'.
I really fail to see how this is true, I havn't seen many people on these forums claim the game is very different. I have seen alot of people defend the clone remarks, which is completely fair.
Currently Playing: Everything but MMORPGs
Cancelled: L2, FFXI, VSoH, LotRO, WAR, WoW
Looking Forward To: SW:TOR
That is how I took the thread.
The OP emphasising on 'hardcore fans' labeling the game as 'very different'.
I really fail to see how this is true, I havn't seen many people on these forums claim the game is very different. I have seen alot of people defend the clone remarks, which is completely fair.
Everybody knows LOTRO is similar to WoW in many aspects, I have yet to see anybody claiming the opposite. We also know that it's not a WOW clone
What's the point in these threads anyway? Everybody loves games for different aspects, but one is common: they want to have fun (or mostly common)
LOTRO provides this (not for everyone, but for most people.) This is the only thing that matters.
DB
Denial makes one look a lot dumber than he/she actually is.
I like pie !
However, as is the case when comparing WoW and EQ2, WoW and LOTRO also have some key differences in game mechanics, such as:
*economic balancing completely different in both games (WoW is balanced around people saving up for big ticket items, while LOTRO is balanced around constant drain of operating expenses) and money is much tighter in LOTRO than it ever was in WoW
*Much less focus on gear and stats in LOTRO, whereas in WoW, stats are everything, and so acquiring stat-buffing gear is everything -- in LOTRO you can do almost as well with bog standard gear as you can with great gear, which is not the case at all in WoW. This is a substantial design difference, and it has a tremendous impact on the player experience of the game as compared with WoW.
*Different class schemes: LOTRO in general has fewer class options, and ones that are different from WoW (Loremaster is not a "mage lite", but a mezzer,/buffer, which doesn't really exist in WoW; Minstrel isn't really a priest but a bard buffer and healer; burglar isn't close range DPS class; hunter is long range DPS but not a pet class, etc.). Classes therefore feel very different from WoW's classes. LOTRO also has far fewer racial options than WoW does.
*Lack of character v. character PvP in LOTRO. PvMP can be fun, but it isn't "core PvP", and that's pretty different from WoW, where character v. character PvP is a core feature of the game.
*Somewhat harder curve than WoW. Beginning around level 10, many things become harder, and much, much harder than virtually anything in WoW is at that level. Aggro ranges are smaller than in WoW (imo LOTRO's need to be fixed, they are too small atm), but there are many more elites around beginning around level 10 than is the case in WoW.
*Death penalty is more substantial in LOTRO than in WoW because while the mechanic is similar (something akin to rez sickness and rep costs) the rep costs element is much more expensive than in WoW and stings a lot more, particularly in light of the tighter economy.
So while I agree that the game has some similarities to WoW in the basic "chassis", the numerous details that are rather different from WoW make the gameplay feel very different to me from what I experienced playing WoW.