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Where do you feel LotRO will be in one year?
Sornin
Member Posts: 1,133
I purchased LotRO about two weeks after launch and played for roughly one month, levelling several characters to the 20s, but not past that. The game, while polished, was simply not for me, for reasons not worth going into, and since I did not play it much, I am not an expert on any of it.
Anyway, I have read a number of blogs and forum posts recently that typically claim two things:
1.) LotRO is not doing as well as Turbine had hoped/expected
2.) LotRO, while not dying, is slowly losing paying subscribers
Now, (1) is perhaps a silly claim, as of course every company wants their game to do better than it is, but if in fact LotRO is falling short of Turbine's estimations, that is a bit disconcerting.
(2) is the one I am more interested in, as if the game is starting to fade after only six months, that is a problem, depending on how quickly that is occurring. It is of course natural for a game to lose subscriptions, but a mini-exodus this soon is not.
Two highly anticipated MMORPGs that are also fantasy, albeit more concerned with PvP, are slated to be released by the end of Q1 2008: Warhammer Online and Age of Conan. Two fairly direct competitors coming at roughly the same time could be disastrous if the game is already not doing too well.
So, does anyone have an opinion on where LotRO will be in a year? Will it be the same as it is now? Stronger? Will it bleed many players to the new releases without replacing them, or will people stick with it?
I am curious to hear the opinions of people who actually play since, like I said, I do not and thus can only go by what I have read, which is difficult to validate. For all I know what I have read is posted by frustrated ex-subscribers who just want to slander the game because it did not work out for them.
Comments
there is a free trial. Anyone who wants to know anything can find out for themselves. Niether of those points can be debated. Turbine has stated its the number 2 subscription based MMORPG built in north america is all the information there is. Turbine has also said there goal was to be the number 2 mmorpg. As to the other point of a "mini-exodus"..all we know is what I just stated. From my view while playing the game, most of the younger crowd left early on due to grouping and difficulty. They are being replaced more rapidly now. After each update, the population grows. All my opinion based on what I personally see and hear in game. My server is too crowded sometimes, sometimes its about normal. Comparing lotr to other games than WOW..its above average population wise. Again, all my personal opinion. Take the trial is your safest bet at the truth.
See you in the dream..
The Fires from heaven, now as cold as ice. A rapid ascension tolls a heavy price.
It'll be doing better than CoH, Planetside, MXO, Vanguard, SWG.
So... don't hold your breath waiting for it to DIE. lol
"Don't corpse-camp that idea. Its never gonna rez"
Bladezz (The Guild)
I will tell you this. As a leader of a kinship i have noticed a growth in my kinship. Alot of new people who just startted playing the game. I hear about the lvl 50's who are bored and leaving the game. That is natural. But i wouldn't believe the game is bleeding subs faster than a ship sinks theory that is going around.
In a year i see this game being even better than it is now. With the first expansion out by then and several free updates also. It is just going to get better.
Cool, thanks for the info.
I am glad to hear that the doomsayers seem to be exaggerating because it would be a shame if it were true. When I played LotRO, though it was not my thing, I did see that it had a lot of potential for a lot of people since it was very polished and had a pretty good story driving you through the content. That is why I was surprised to hear people claiming it was "failing" and "slowly dying" (common things all over forums I read).
I may even give it another spin soon, since I am in between games and feel it might deserve another shake. I it can keep me occupied for even 3 months I'll be happy.
The next update at he end of october will be introducing kinship houseing, double the size of the misty mountains and add a instance in that area called goblin town. It will also add area to the trollshaws. In the southern part of the trollshaws. They are also adding ettendeep to the ettenmoors. It is a underground area that will be instanced i believe but i could be wrong. They will also be adding to two of the classes like the did in the last two updates. I believe loremaster is one of them for this month. Last month was hunter and captain.
Boy, you almost make me want to rersubscribe. I played a couple months to level 38 or so and have some good memories of the
game. And I was a hunter so thats another reason to maybe revisit it this weekend...
in 1 year?
probably alot better than now
LOTRO atm is like WoW with out the tallent trees, that pretty much sums it up.
Well, where will LOTRO be in a year.
I think it will still be up and running.
I am playing the 7day Trial right now and can hardly wait till i get my comunity points to rate it here at MMORPG.com.
Why i can hardly wait?
Because it is absolutely overrated.
To sum it up for now.
There will sure be fans playing LOTRO in a year or two. But i bet they will be playing it because they love the story. If Turbine is keeping up the (i must say) excellent Story-Work by adding books and content, they may hold the "freaks".
If i get my community points i will do a review about how i feel about this game.
For now, i don`t want to fill this thread with my personal dispointment.
Even Horizons kept a hand full of fans and thats why it is still up on servers.
Same will happen to LOTRO.
It may be overrated to you but it isn't to alot of people. The growth of my kinship i run seems to bare out that the game is doing good. Along with the growth of alot of other kinships. I will admit the hardcore players are leaving this game out of boredom but that happens to every game.
I honestly bid my appologies.
I didn*t mean to offend anybody.
i am german and here we say someones a freak in connection to what he plays or his profession is. If i say LOTRO-freaks, it is ment to discribe an hardcor fan of the game, or the story.
I am sorry that this german phrase caused to offend someone.
I ment the real fans of the game and appologise for themisled word to word translation. I`ll keep this mistake in mind. Won`t happen again.
I would like to vote to get a "waving a white flag smily"
I honestly bid my appologies.
I didn*t mean to offend anybody.
i am german and here we say someones a freak in connection to what he plays or his profession is. If i say LOTRO-freaks, it is ment to discribe an hardcor fan of the game, or the story.
I am sorry that this german phrase caused to offend someone.
I ment the real fans of the game and appologise for themisled word to word translation. I`ll keep this mistake in mind. Won`t happen again.
I would like to vote to get a "waving a white flag smily"
I understand. Thanks for being a good minded person and explaining your side of the story with this comment. Being the differances in our cultures i can see were things can be misunderstood.
Again i am sorry the game was not to your liking. It may be worth you looking into after the game has been out for a year the the first expansion is out.
Apology accepted.
It'll still be around in a year, since as you can see, there are hard-core fans of this game like every other that will defend it till the lights are off.
My guess is by now despite all the claims by the ultra-fans here and elsewhere, the subscription numbers have leveled off. Everyone and their dog who wanted to try it has had a chance, and the game will keep its base level fans until Turbine end it. Hell, Matrix Online will still have people claiming the numbers are great to this day. So the people who have tried and liked it or disliked it have had their chance.
TBH Grindalyx, you come off as the troll in this discussion jumping down someone's throat for a minor percieved insult. Grow up, not everyone is a hard-core fan of the game. Just as many think its nothing but a warmed over WoW clone, get used to it.
In a year? mmm..... bought by SoE and on the station pass.
Just Kidding!!!.....maybe not....never know
I played the game in June for about 2 weeks, but i found it to be very slow to react to the commands i was trying to issue my character compared to another mmo i was trapped in for many years. which was the main reason i quit lotro at that time.
one thing i REALY REALY liked about that game, and i know this is not what you should base much of your opinion as a gamer on, but the graphics were absolutely gorgeous . i distinctly remember getting my roomates over to my computer just to show them some of the scenery . im lucky to be able to run the game on all maximum settings with zero slow down.
but my point being is that im pretty sure im about to resub again prolly tonight or this weekend. i have no mmo's to play while i wait for AOC , and the reason is that i found this game to be very casual friendly . i think when i first played it, i played it like i play wow(just ended sub) which was all buisness , just go go go go, level as fast as possible and thats all that matters. this time im going to do what i felt i should have done with this game.. "play casual" , "slow down" , and enjoy it for what it is.
and im thinking that i am not the only gamer out there with this attitude toward the game. so just as fast as people leave the game, others are coming back to try it out again. i dont see this game being dead by any means at this point next year. remember, there is no garuntee that WaR or AoC are going to be blockbuster hits after the initial frenzy of their respective releases wears off.
In a year...
I suspect we will be fooling around in Mirkwood and the Loanly Mountains. Perhaps we will be riding horses around the Riddermark. Highly possible we will be launching boats out of Lothlorien on quests gotten from tree cities. Moria will have had a good several months of raiding in it.
Just read the book and you will see whats coming up next.
I'll put money on any bet that it will dead in a year short of the world exploding.
I think it has potential ...i think most mmo playerz look down at it because only one faction.
After lvl 10 u may play as a monster....lol
I suspect it will still be doing well but that it will have a static subscription and player base. Those who wanted to reach "end game" in a game that isn't geared toward that will have long left. Those who want a slower progression and who are more interested in the storyline, regardless of whether they even know who Tolkien is, will be the active players.
I have to laugh when people say "zomg every1 is leavin!!!!11" or "Everyone who wanted to try the game has already done so." Neither statement could be further from the truth. There are still a lot of active players on the server I'm on, and it's still to the point where others get to nodes before I do, or claim mobs I am preparing to attack. Finding an area where one can kill mobs without being impacted by other players is often impossible, at least from my experience. That sure doesn't sound like "everyone is leaving."
There will also be new people joining. I have been playing MMORPGs for 4 years and there are still games out that I have never heard of. Likewise I am sure many folks have not heard of LOTRO, or are at least not familiar with its laid back nature. I would expect the current subscription base to fall as the "hard core uber gamers" leave, but after that I expect it to rise as Turbine finds its static player base.
And yes the game could use some changes. I'm not a fanboi. I do realize it has its weaknesses, but it's also an excellent game for casual gamers, especially adults.
I think people look down at it because it is very simple game
i tried out the game didnt like it
mindless quests and gather this and gather that
1 year is far off , by then Age of Conan ,War hammer ,Darkfall might come so
Couldn't agree more...
There is sooooo much potential for all the unexplored areas. I personally think the game is rather big in land area now but with the things Turbine can add...
I never said other didn't like or think the game was anymore than a wow clone. I understand that and i accept that . I know this game is not for everyone. I don't need to get used to anything cause i am not disillusioned about the game and about how alot of people look at it and what they think about it. I may not agree with them but i do not think they are wrong for their opinion of the game. Just like i don't think i am wrong for my opinion. Cause that is my opinion and that is all the matters to me. As their opinion is all that matters to them.
Just because i like and support the game doesn't classify me as a hardcore fan. I am a fan of the game but i am not the hardcore type fan who ignores the shortcommings of the game or it's faults. And yes LOTRO has them just like any other game. There is plenty about LOTRO that i wish was differant. I am willing to be patient and give the devs time to make changes to the game.
How did anyone that likes LoTRO become an "ultra fan?"
In any case, folks that say the game seems to be growing aren't making stuff up. LoTRO will likely never hit a million subs, but based on what I'm seeing on my server it is growing steadily. Maybe all the other servers are dieing, but my honest opinion is that there are a lot more players on my server than there were two months ago. Do I have hard stats to back this up? No, but neither does anyone else that hangs out on this board. At least I'm actually playing the game, so I have a slightly informed opinion.
I don't want to write this, and you don't want to read it. But now it's too late for both of us.
I'm not even much of a Lord of the Rings fan, and I love this game cause of the solid game play and balance. I thank my friend who got my into it. This game is going to be one of the top contenders for a while to come, and yeah .. I can say most certainly on my server Arkenstone theres been a big population boom recently.
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
Final Fantasy 7
Gee the rate I'm going in my personal life I hope I'll even have time to play this game in a year
But yeah, like other people here, I'm seeing frequent server draws whenever I play. Think they may need to add some new servers for the game.
In 1 year subs will be down by 50%, this game got no longlivity in it tbh. Allot of competition comming up aswell and people wont play with a semi fun/good game next year. Landscape graphic is amazing, starting areas is so nice. But at lvl50 this gam SUCKS so MUCH. There is absolutly nothing to keep me playing it at lvl 50. Lvl 1-45 this game is fine, past 45 it goes down.. fast.