This comparison is so full of fail I passed out thinking about it. Market share and numbers people oh did I forget content? Yes I raided in lotro got a 65 warden did turbine give a flying rat about developing that NOP... door .... > me > wow for life.
+extra people go on about how great the lotro community is yeh if you also like strict closed off communities in irl that bar their region and then create their own laws. Roleplayers got teeth people and if you don't obey their laws they hit you harder than some random kid in wow.
Very nice article here I would love to see more of these in the future some serious and others whimsical in nature just to mix it up a bit . All in all a good read even some of the replies were good reads . I did play both , WOW longer than LOTRO, and I no longer play either and I cant say one is better or worse than the other. They each have thier highs and lows. I could sit here all day and lit the pros and cons of both but that would be fruitless seeing my oppinion on the two games is moot seeing I no longer play either one. So again I enjoyed the article and hope thee are more to come.
OK, Upcoming RIFT Planes of Telara, with not much effort can easly take on World of Warcraft imo. So can some one do WoW vs RIFT score, use what we know about RIFT online like: Class system, Skill system, Talent system, World, Charaters creation menu, lore, story etc. Alot is out there on RIFT and can easy be a vs right now, so let us have
McDonalds sells more burgers worldwide than any other company. Does that make them the best burgers in the world?
No. My mother makes better burgers.
Just because more people play wow, doesnt mean its better. Although, I cant disagree with the article, technically wow is a better game. But Lotro is now much better than you think, it just had a bad start and thats why its player base is so low, at the moment.
And this review is even before the mega update coming!.... I think the REAL Battle starts September 10!
I find that not true from my experience. I think the f2p version of Lotro makes it one of the better MMO's on the market right now. You can buy the content you want, when you want. That means you don't have to fly through the levels and can take your time and experience the content available to you at your own pace. That is far superior to anything else on the market right now in my book. The item shop does not offer game changing items either. So I think your comment is dead wrong.
To me, the raiding in Wow completely ruins the game for me. Having to allocate a period of time at a certain time is very hard for me. So the end game raiding is a major minus in my opinion.
Well you don't have to run thru levels when paying to play neither o.O I'd say you can enjoy a game at your own pace no matter what payment model the game has... And also, the shop contains things like TRAITS which are definitelly game-changing... But otherwise I'd agree
I find that not true from my experience. I think the f2p version of Lotro makes it one of the better MMO's on the market right now. You can buy the content you want, when you want. That means you don't have to fly through the levels and can take your time and experience the content available to you at your own pace. That is far superior to anything else on the market right now in my book. The item shop does not offer game changing items either. So I think your comment is dead wrong.
To me, the raiding in Wow completely ruins the game for me. Having to allocate a period of time at a certain time is very hard for me. So the end game raiding is a major minus in my opinion.
Well you don't have to run thru levels when paying to play neither o.O I'd say you can enjoy a game at your own pace no matter what payment model the game has... And also, the shop contains things like TRAITS which are definitelly game-changing... But otherwise I'd agree
Well if you play 10 hours/ month you maybe dont want to pay the same $15 just like a person who play 100 hours/month. LotrOs model is more flexible and give the player more control of how much he want to spend depending on what he wants from the game.
And how is selling +1 in virtues gamechanging??? Small bonus that you easily can get by playing the game.
If WoW = The Beatles and WAR = Led Zeppelin Then LotrO = Pink Floyd
I find that not true from my experience. I think the f2p version of Lotro makes it one of the better MMO's on the market right now. You can buy the content you want, when you want. That means you don't have to fly through the levels and can take your time and experience the content available to you at your own pace. That is far superior to anything else on the market right now in my book. The item shop does not offer game changing items either. So I think your comment is dead wrong.
To me, the raiding in Wow completely ruins the game for me. Having to allocate a period of time at a certain time is very hard for me. So the end game raiding is a major minus in my opinion.
Well you don't have to run thru levels when paying to play neither o.O I'd say you can enjoy a game at your own pace no matter what payment model the game has... And also, the shop contains things like TRAITS which are definitelly game-changing... But otherwise I'd agree
I agree, DDO went free and before it came out there were lots of kids who cried and said it would fail... they were all completly and most definatly wrong.
I would easily go as far as to say that POST F2p lotro will be the best Fantasy themed MMO ever. Tolkein would be proud
Oh sweet Jesus, well let's deal with the car analogy first shall we.. In your case you mentioned the Elise and the Corolla. Your point being that one is vastly more expensive then the other whilst lotro and wow are the same price, hence a poor comparsion. That's perfectly true except I clearly pointed out the analogy was about accessibility. WoW is perhaps the most accessible game on the market, you don't have to play for hours on end, you can't get jumped and looted by nasty old pvpers, its pick up and play simplicity. That is what the market wants at the moment, casual gaming and accessibility. Accessibility does not though automatically equate to quality, it simply equates to numbers, hence the analogy stands.
I don't see how Lotro is any less accessible than WoW is. You can buy each of them at a typical game store. The boxes sit right next to each other on the shelves. Online retailers will list them right next to each other and even suggest one if the other is put in a customers check out cart "People who liked wow have also enjoyed the following...."
In fact LOTRO typcially costs less than wow in several regards. The box price is often cheaper as retailers have been slashing the price to meet with the lagging demand. The latest expansion comes with the entire game unlike wow that requires at least 2 box purchases. The subscription price is as low as $10 a month compared to wows $15.
All things being equal, lotro is actually more accessible from a marketing standpoint. Cheaper + better is a win for customers, so one would expect it to excel and receive massive success. I know a lot of people get ruffled when they hear "wow sold this or wow sold that", but on the other side of the coin is what other games are not selling. Again cheaper + better should mean massive success.
The same goes for gameplay and accessibility. Neither is exactly difficult to install and play. They are very self explaitory and lotro has a better tutorial. If someone had played either one of these games for a reasonable amount of time, they would understand the other without so much as needing to read a tutorial or look something up on the web. The gameplay mechanics are so similar it would be an easy transitition as the player already experienced the bulk of everything in the other game.
There is no need to talk about cars or food to get these points across. All that does is confuse the real issues about these two games by changing the discussion to something about dissimilar items and then debating the features of those items as if it has an exact representation of two video games.
I was quite suprised by this article as I thought it would provoke a lot of flaming and trolling but thankfully thats been kept to a minimum . I tend to agree with most of it to be honest . A major reason I left WoW was the community became so bad . I did go back a few months ago and someone asked me to help him by signing his or her guild charter which i did thinking it would help him . Once the guild got ten members and started up the guild message was F*CK OFF EVERONE typical of WoW these days . I was also shocked by the amount of racist antisemtic and homophobic comments in the game now . Blizzard really do need to clean up thier community a bit and start banning people . Maybe a three strikes and your out system would work .
When it comes to PVP I think Turbine really desperatly need to look at this side of the game especially now its going f2play . Something along the skirmish system would be ideal and maybe a second pvp area outside the ettenmoors .
Generally speaking I'm happy in Lotro I would'nt go back to WoW now after my last experiance . I started lotro around 4 months after its release thinking it would be my casual mmo i played along side of WoW but along the way it became my main mmo . I think theres a lot of people like me and once it goes free to play there will be a lot more .
I was quite suprised by this article as I thought it would provoke a lot of flaming and trolling but thankfully thats been kept to a minimum . I tend to agree with most of it to be honest . A major reason I left WoW was the community became so bad . I did go back a few months ago and someone asked me to help him by signing his or her guild charter which i did thinking it would help him . Once the guild got ten members and started up the guild message was F*CK OFF EVERONE typical of WoW these days . I was also shocked by the amount of racist antisemtic and homophobic comments in the game now . Blizzard really do need to clean up thier community a bit and start banning people . Maybe a three strikes and your out system would work .
When it comes to PVP I think Turbine really desperatly need to look at this side of the game especially now its going f2play . Something along the skirmish system would be ideal and maybe a second pvp area outside the ettenmoors .
Generally speaking I'm happy in Lotro I would'nt go back to WoW now after my last experiance . I started lotro around 4 months after its release thinking it would be my casual mmo i played along side of WoW but along the way it became my main mmo . I think theres a lot of people like me and once it goes free to play there will be a lot more .
It's a decent article (meant to stir the pot a little). Everyone dismisses the population disparity but cmon let's face it. LoTRO launched well after WoW and had plenty of opportunity to steal players from WoW. It never happened. Now why do you think that is? I think LoTRO is a decent game, but to me there wasn't enough there to make it stand out above WoW. To me, content and where my friends are playing are the most important aspects in a game, and in these comparisons it's not even a contest. At the end of the day, if you don't care that much about Tolkein, LoTRO just becomes another generic fantasy MMO.
Next article should be WAR vs. DAoC for laughs. Or perhaps after LoTRO goes FtP, you can do LoTRO vs. Runes of Magic.
When talking numbers one has to consider the Chinese. I dont think WOW has much competition in China which from my understanding count for over half of its subs.
Lotro WAS launched in China.
It didn't bring them either to the famous Forbes top 20 which simply is based on revenue.
And like I said all restaurants have the same price in this game. (except for the FTP ones but they don't show up on that list either).
I didnt know LOTRO was launced in China.
And Russia...and... about 4 other markets.
---------- "Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me
"Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.
An interesting comparison and I see where you're coming from, but I don't agree with the conclusions made in many of these categories. I've played and enjoyed both LotRO and WoW and am actually subscribed to both.
Game World
I'd give this one to LotRO, because it oozes atmosphere around every turn and lovingly recreates countless locations from the books. It does have an unrealistically compact game world, but this is also an advantage as it results in lower travel times and far less dead space. If you round a corner in WoW then you're liable to run into nothing particularly interesting, but that's rarely the case in LotRO.
New Player Experience
I think LotRO takes this one as well. It immediately places the player in a compelling story-driven narrative and continues for the duration of the game. The early lands in particular also feel more lively and fully realized than most of WoW's starting zones. It does come at the price of fairly indistinct starting zones (after the first few dozen levels), but that's a small price to pay for such an engaging early game experience. And it's not like the different starting zones in WoW have much to offer but more generic and seemingly random quests at this point. Although that's likely to change with Cataclysm.
PvP
This definitely goes to WoW, but I don't think either game really does it well. LotRO deserves it's 4/10 for a decent monster play functionality that barely anyone bothers with, but WoW certainly doesn't warrant a 9/10 for its tacked on and unbalanced PvP functionality. All it has going for it is variety. There are lots of MMORPGs that do PvP much better in their own unique ways. Games like Age of Conan, Dark Age of Camelot and Planetside. Those are games that might deserve an 8/10. WoW certainly comes in well below that.
Group Play
As has been mentioned by others, it's hard to find any groups at all in large portions of LotRO's game world. I'd agree that LotRO wins this for more interesting use of party dynamics, but I don't think a 10/10 is in order when some quests require parties and are located in areas that rarely have sufficient people in them to form a single party. Granted, that problem should be temporarily alleviated with a flood of newcomers when it goes partially free to play next month.
Player Characters
I'd still give this to LotRO for its more compelling character and item designs, but it definitely suffers in the animation department. There are some funky walks and other clunky animations in there that WoW doesn't suffer from.
For me that is no question, it's clearly LOTRO, which is the winner. I have no hate against WOW. It just totally isn't my pair of shoes and I found it too simplistic and childlike. Kinda like a more elaborate version of Free Realms or so. Colorful, fancy but nothing to "speak to me".
LOTRO has definitely one of the most beautiful worlds. The book quests are among the best and most memorable stories even in RPGs altogether. I still recall all the wonderful and tragic moments. The deaths, the betrayals, the happy reuinions, or just classic scenes like the Fellowship leaving Rivendell and saying their farwell to you like some old friend. LOTRO is a really great MMO, and I just saw it too long, since my appetite craves for new places. Otherwise it is surely one of the best MMOs out there. A hardcore time playing guy like me sees it all a bit too much, since it is too casual friendly imo, but other than that, it's really a cool game with places and stories you will remember a long time after playing LOTRO. A real pearl of gaming.
EDIT: What, no poll? Hurm, how we gonna find out who wins now?
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
When talking numbers one has to consider the Chinese. I dont think WOW has much competition in China which from my understanding count for over half of its subs.
Lotro WAS launched in China.
It didn't bring them either to the famous Forbes top 20 which simply is based on revenue.
And like I said all restaurants have the same price in this game. (except for the FTP ones but they don't show up on that list either).
I didnt know LOTRO was launced in China.
And Russia...and... about 4 other markets.
Then the F2P move truly is one of desperation.
WOW isnt great because it has 12 million players. WOW has 12 million players because its great.
When talking numbers one has to consider the Chinese. I dont think WOW has much competition in China which from my understanding count for over half of its subs.
Lotro WAS launched in China.
It didn't bring them either to the famous Forbes top 20 which simply is based on revenue.
And like I said all restaurants have the same price in this game. (except for the FTP ones but they don't show up on that list either).
I didnt know LOTRO was launced in China.
And Russia...and... about 4 other markets.
Then the F2P move truly is one of desperation.
Yea being one of the most succesfull MMOs, turning DDO to the third most played and being bought by one of the biggest media companies must really be making them desperate!
Or maybe its just your trolling that is getting desperate! Must be really hard for you to see LotrO doing so well
If WoW = The Beatles and WAR = Led Zeppelin Then LotrO = Pink Floyd
When talking numbers one has to consider the Chinese. I dont think WOW has much competition in China which from my understanding count for over half of its subs.
Lotro WAS launched in China.
It didn't bring them either to the famous Forbes top 20 which simply is based on revenue.
And like I said all restaurants have the same price in this game. (except for the FTP ones but they don't show up on that list either).
I didnt know LOTRO was launced in China.
And Russia...and... about 4 other markets.
Then the F2P move truly is one of desperation.
Yea being one of the most succesfull MMOs, turning DDO to the third most played and being bought by one of the biggest media companies must really be making them desperate!
Or maybe its just your trolling that is getting desperate! Must be really hard for you to see LotrO doing so well
Well considering my opinion has always been the move was made by greed I think its still valid. Instread of creating content for existing players it now comes to my attention that they not only spent time and money on the F2P model but to also push the game into China and Russia and "four other regions".. So again, if they had spent what money they were bringing in on content instead of epxanding territory and creating a new model perhaps they would have maintained a bigger subscription base. So yes, after introducing the game into 6 new regions? and still gaining nothing it appears the F2P move is a last ditch effort to save a failing game.
WOW isnt great because it has 12 million players. WOW has 12 million players because its great.
Yea being one of the most succesfull MMOs, turning DDO to the third most played and being bought by one of the biggest media companies must really be making them desperate!
Or maybe its just your trolling that is getting desperate! Must be really hard for you to see LotrO doing so well
I'm just speculating that most people would agree that the DDO change was indeed a change of desperation as the game didn't seem to be going anywhere but obscurity.
Lotro wasn't in the same situation and I don't think it is a desperation move, but I think there is enough information to suggest that it had already passed its peak. From the number of win back promotions, the rather rapid decline in box price from retailers to the discounting of the subscription fee. I suspect the f2p change has more to do with trying to turn the direction of the game around than anything else.
When people talk about games that have or are suspect to change over to free to play it is always seems to be about games that are sagging, in trouble or on the edge of closure. Warhammer, Star Trek, Champions, EQ2, Vanguard, SWG, etc.
I've never played LotRO, nor have I wanted to. I played WoW from just after launch until just recently. I left WoW just after the Lich King fight was brought live, and I have no intention of going back to WoW for Cataclysm. WoW has lost its luster in my opinion, but in parting I'd like to share my assessment of the game experience I had.
WoW Tally:
Game World: 7 Why I rate it this way: Having played many other MMO's I have always found the look very cartoony, but that was part of the reason I started playing WoW. The immersion factor wasn't there but the release factor was. I knew right from the start that this wasn't supposed to look real. The world is expansive, and that is both a bane and a boon to the game. Huge zones and many choices for area of play while leveling is great but mounts are almost required to play, to the point that what used to be 40th and 60th leve mounts are now 20th and 40th. The zones are seamless, which I liked, and very creative, but taking a flight path, getting up, taking a bio, getting a coffee and a snack and coming back to see that you are barely at the midpoint of the flight?...not having that at all, pass.
Player Character: Spot on, very good diversity of race and class combinations, minus the druid class of course, but having played DAOC and loving it as much as I still do, I felt that because the lore of WoW didn't support a third primary faction that it hurt the overall experience of the game. I'd love to see more games go for the three faction paradigm, as it creates an environment where you know who your enemies are, but are constantly surprised to find yourself in battle with an opposing faction, on the losing end, only to have that third faction come in, side with one of the other two and then have a classic three way battle where the fog of battle becomes so immersive that you forget that it's just a game for a moment and it becomes a fight for survival.
New Player Experience: Almost spot on, but my rating: 7 Having 7 80th level characters in WoW, it was very easy to come up the ranks and have each new starting area open up something new...or at least I thought so...after the 5th character all the racial starting areas bleed together in a wash, rinse, and repeat quest line that is the same minus the locale in game and the races you are both playing and fighting against.
Solo Play: I agree with the OP on this one as far as WoW goes.
Group Play: WoW's rating in this area needs to be lowered, I'm thinking that a 3 is a more appropriate rating. Not because you can't find a group, because the game has changed to make it easy to find a group. But getting a group you can tolerate, and one that you continue playing with is a different thing entirely. Having played every role available in game, in every instance available in game, I can tell you that the two things that turned me off about WoW were elitist players who talked smack and spit teeth, and immature boys and girls that somehow got hold of their mom or dad's username and password while mommy and daddy were out. Grouping is easy to come by, not not all groups will you be able to tolerate for longer than a single instance queue, two at most. Guild grouping is the only way to ensure you are getting a decent player who is like-minded in terms of ability, goals, and maturity levels...and some times not even then.
End Game: 9/10 ...do you smoke weed and then post? At best WoW deserves a 5 in this category. All endgame content is recycled into 10 and 25 player, normal and heroic mode pieces of trash. And the worst part about this is that all 11 million subscribers continue to be okay enough with this to keep paying their subscriptions. Couple that with all the little "oh poor me, I need all the loot" losers out there who won't announce up front and in the public raid channel that they need loot, but rather go through tells with the loot council, or hold every DKP they get, while coasting through raid after raid contributing only as much as is necessary to keep their raid slot, to beat one specific person out on loot?...Thanks but no thanks.../gkicked many of those fools, now that's someone else's job.
Community: 5/10, really?....REALLY?!?!?! WoW's community is overrun with immature fanbois, jokers who think they are funny but are really mildly retarded young adults, the obviously in need of clinical help megalomaniacs, and then the "Everything Anal"-in public chat channel fecal freaks. 5/10, is that a joke? Try 2/10, maybe 3/10 on a good day, during the school year, either after bedtime or before school gets out.
Let me say this, WoW is a great game. The good parts of WoW are really good, but the bad parts of WoW are REALLY REALLY BAD, to the point of making it not worth wasting my money on subscription to it any more, ever again.
Oh sweet Jesus, well let's deal with the car analogy first shall we.. In your case you mentioned the Elise and the Corolla. Your point being that one is vastly more expensive then the other whilst lotro and wow are the same price, hence a poor comparsion. That's perfectly true except I clearly pointed out the analogy was about accessibility. WoW is perhaps the most accessible game on the market, you don't have to play for hours on end, you can't get jumped and looted by nasty old pvpers, its pick up and play simplicity. That is what the market wants at the moment, casual gaming and accessibility. Accessibility does not though automatically equate to quality, it simply equates to numbers, hence the analogy stands.
I don't see how Lotro is any less accessible than WoW is. You can buy each of them at a typical game store. The boxes sit right next to each other on the shelves. Online retailers will list them right next to each other and even suggest one if the other is put in a customers check out cart "People who liked wow have also enjoyed the following...."
In fact LOTRO typcially costs less than wow in several regards. The box price is often cheaper as retailers have been slashing the price to meet with the lagging demand. The latest expansion comes with the entire game unlike wow that requires at least 2 box purchases. The subscription price is as low as $10 a month compared to wows $15.
All things being equal, lotro is actually more accessible from a marketing standpoint. Cheaper + better is a win for customers, so one would expect it to excel and receive massive success. I know a lot of people get ruffled when they hear "wow sold this or wow sold that", but on the other side of the coin is what other games are not selling. Again cheaper + better should mean massive success.
The same goes for gameplay and accessibility. Neither is exactly difficult to install and play. They are very self explaitory and lotro has a better tutorial. If someone had played either one of these games for a reasonable amount of time, they would understand the other without so much as needing to read a tutorial or look something up on the web. The gameplay mechanics are so similar it would be an easy transitition as the player already experienced the bulk of everything in the other game.
There is no need to talk about cars or food to get these points across. All that does is confuse the real issues about these two games by changing the discussion to something about dissimilar items and then debating the features of those items as if it has an exact representation of two video games.
I am amazed so many people seem to be having issues with this.. In each of the original posts I made a specific statement that I wasn't making a comparison between lotro and wow. I was prompted to post in this thread simply because a poster (two actually) alluded to the fact that quantity = quality, that having 12 million subs meant that the game was mechanically brilliant in every way, shape and form.
The car (and every other analogy) is not a direct comparison setting up wow as a fiesta and lotro as a Lamborghini (or whatever), they where simply used to point out that numbers doesn't always equate to the product being a masterpiece in every respect, it simply points to a product being readily accessible. I'm not saying wow is more accessible then lotro, i'm saying '12 million subs dude' just proves wow is accessible, nothing more, nothing less. It's an incredibly simple analogy to follow, sadly people tend to quote posts without reading them thoroughly and end up missing both the point and the general context of the piece.
As I have said (numerous times now), I have no particular interest in either game and I certainly couldn't care less which one was 'better' then the other. But when someone simply states '12 million subs blah blah' as though that is an entire argument in itself proving that without doubt every aspect of a game is amazing, then frankly i'm going to point out that it's a total bollocks position to take.
Just so I don't have to post in this inane thread again: I don't care about lotro, I dont care about wow, i'm not comparing either of them. But people saying that quantity = quality is a complete argument and that alone is proof of the everlasting glory and brilliance in all aspects of a product... well that is a viewpoint that is so retarded as to beggar belief.
"Come and have a look at what you could have won."
Comments
This comparison is so full of fail I passed out thinking about it. Market share and numbers people oh did I forget content? Yes I raided in lotro got a 65 warden did turbine give a flying rat about developing that NOP... door .... > me > wow for life.
+extra people go on about how great the lotro community is yeh if you also like strict closed off communities in irl that bar their region and then create their own laws. Roleplayers got teeth people and if you don't obey their laws they hit you harder than some random kid in wow.
Very nice article here I would love to see more of these in the future some serious and others whimsical in nature just to mix it up a bit . All in all a good read even some of the replies were good reads . I did play both , WOW longer than LOTRO, and I no longer play either and I cant say one is better or worse than the other. They each have thier highs and lows. I could sit here all day and lit the pros and cons of both but that would be fruitless seeing my oppinion on the two games is moot seeing I no longer play either one. So again I enjoyed the article and hope thee are more to come.
OK, Upcoming RIFT Planes of Telara, with not much effort can easly take on World of Warcraft imo. So can some one do WoW vs RIFT score, use what we know about RIFT online like: Class system, Skill system, Talent system, World, Charaters creation menu, lore, story etc. Alot is out there on RIFT and can easy be a vs right now, so let us have
World of Warcraft vs RIFT: Planes of Telara
McDonalds sells more burgers worldwide than any other company. Does that make them the best burgers in the world?
No. My mother makes better burgers.
Just because more people play wow, doesnt mean its better. Although, I cant disagree with the article, technically wow is a better game. But Lotro is now much better than you think, it just had a bad start
and thats why its player base is so low, at the moment.
And this review is even before the mega update coming!.... I think the REAL Battle starts September 10!
Well you don't have to run thru levels when paying to play neither o.O I'd say you can enjoy a game at your own pace no matter what payment model the game has... And also, the shop contains things like TRAITS which are definitelly game-changing... But otherwise I'd agree
Wow my opinion of LOTRO should not be compared
Well if you play 10 hours/ month you maybe dont want to pay the same $15 just like a person who play 100 hours/month. LotrOs model is more flexible and give the player more control of how much he want to spend depending on what he wants from the game.
And how is selling +1 in virtues gamechanging??? Small bonus that you easily can get by playing the game.
If WoW = The Beatles
and WAR = Led Zeppelin
Then LotrO = Pink Floyd
I agree, DDO went free and before it came out there were lots of kids who cried and said it would fail... they were all completly and most definatly wrong.
I would easily go as far as to say that POST F2p lotro will be the best Fantasy themed MMO ever. Tolkein would be proud
I don't see how Lotro is any less accessible than WoW is. You can buy each of them at a typical game store. The boxes sit right next to each other on the shelves. Online retailers will list them right next to each other and even suggest one if the other is put in a customers check out cart "People who liked wow have also enjoyed the following...."
In fact LOTRO typcially costs less than wow in several regards. The box price is often cheaper as retailers have been slashing the price to meet with the lagging demand. The latest expansion comes with the entire game unlike wow that requires at least 2 box purchases. The subscription price is as low as $10 a month compared to wows $15.
All things being equal, lotro is actually more accessible from a marketing standpoint. Cheaper + better is a win for customers, so one would expect it to excel and receive massive success. I know a lot of people get ruffled when they hear "wow sold this or wow sold that", but on the other side of the coin is what other games are not selling. Again cheaper + better should mean massive success.
The same goes for gameplay and accessibility. Neither is exactly difficult to install and play. They are very self explaitory and lotro has a better tutorial. If someone had played either one of these games for a reasonable amount of time, they would understand the other without so much as needing to read a tutorial or look something up on the web. The gameplay mechanics are so similar it would be an easy transitition as the player already experienced the bulk of everything in the other game.
There is no need to talk about cars or food to get these points across. All that does is confuse the real issues about these two games by changing the discussion to something about dissimilar items and then debating the features of those items as if it has an exact representation of two video games.
I was quite suprised by this article as I thought it would provoke a lot of flaming and trolling but thankfully thats been kept to a minimum . I tend to agree with most of it to be honest . A major reason I left WoW was the community became so bad . I did go back a few months ago and someone asked me to help him by signing his or her guild charter which i did thinking it would help him . Once the guild got ten members and started up the guild message was F*CK OFF EVERONE typical of WoW these days . I was also shocked by the amount of racist antisemtic and homophobic comments in the game now . Blizzard really do need to clean up thier community a bit and start banning people . Maybe a three strikes and your out system would work .
When it comes to PVP I think Turbine really desperatly need to look at this side of the game especially now its going f2play . Something along the skirmish system would be ideal and maybe a second pvp area outside the ettenmoors .
Generally speaking I'm happy in Lotro I would'nt go back to WoW now after my last experiance . I started lotro around 4 months after its release thinking it would be my casual mmo i played along side of WoW but along the way it became my main mmo . I think theres a lot of people like me and once it goes free to play there will be a lot more .
I was quite suprised by this article as I thought it would provoke a lot of flaming and trolling but thankfully thats been kept to a minimum . I tend to agree with most of it to be honest . A major reason I left WoW was the community became so bad . I did go back a few months ago and someone asked me to help him by signing his or her guild charter which i did thinking it would help him . Once the guild got ten members and started up the guild message was F*CK OFF EVERONE typical of WoW these days . I was also shocked by the amount of racist antisemtic and homophobic comments in the game now . Blizzard really do need to clean up thier community a bit and start banning people . Maybe a three strikes and your out system would work .
When it comes to PVP I think Turbine really desperatly need to look at this side of the game especially now its going f2play . Something along the skirmish system would be ideal and maybe a second pvp area outside the ettenmoors .
Generally speaking I'm happy in Lotro I would'nt go back to WoW now after my last experiance . I started lotro around 4 months after its release thinking it would be my casual mmo i played along side of WoW but along the way it became my main mmo . I think theres a lot of people like me and once it goes free to play there will be a lot more .
It's a decent article (meant to stir the pot a little). Everyone dismisses the population disparity but cmon let's face it. LoTRO launched well after WoW and had plenty of opportunity to steal players from WoW. It never happened. Now why do you think that is? I think LoTRO is a decent game, but to me there wasn't enough there to make it stand out above WoW. To me, content and where my friends are playing are the most important aspects in a game, and in these comparisons it's not even a contest. At the end of the day, if you don't care that much about Tolkein, LoTRO just becomes another generic fantasy MMO.
Next article should be WAR vs. DAoC for laughs. Or perhaps after LoTRO goes FtP, you can do LoTRO vs. Runes of Magic.
And Russia...and... about 4 other markets.
----------
"Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me
"No, your wrong.." - Random user #123
"Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.
How are you?" -Me
An interesting comparison and I see where you're coming from, but I don't agree with the conclusions made in many of these categories. I've played and enjoyed both LotRO and WoW and am actually subscribed to both.
Game World
I'd give this one to LotRO, because it oozes atmosphere around every turn and lovingly recreates countless locations from the books. It does have an unrealistically compact game world, but this is also an advantage as it results in lower travel times and far less dead space. If you round a corner in WoW then you're liable to run into nothing particularly interesting, but that's rarely the case in LotRO.
New Player Experience
I think LotRO takes this one as well. It immediately places the player in a compelling story-driven narrative and continues for the duration of the game. The early lands in particular also feel more lively and fully realized than most of WoW's starting zones. It does come at the price of fairly indistinct starting zones (after the first few dozen levels), but that's a small price to pay for such an engaging early game experience. And it's not like the different starting zones in WoW have much to offer but more generic and seemingly random quests at this point. Although that's likely to change with Cataclysm.
PvP
This definitely goes to WoW, but I don't think either game really does it well. LotRO deserves it's 4/10 for a decent monster play functionality that barely anyone bothers with, but WoW certainly doesn't warrant a 9/10 for its tacked on and unbalanced PvP functionality. All it has going for it is variety. There are lots of MMORPGs that do PvP much better in their own unique ways. Games like Age of Conan, Dark Age of Camelot and Planetside. Those are games that might deserve an 8/10. WoW certainly comes in well below that.
Group Play
As has been mentioned by others, it's hard to find any groups at all in large portions of LotRO's game world. I'd agree that LotRO wins this for more interesting use of party dynamics, but I don't think a 10/10 is in order when some quests require parties and are located in areas that rarely have sufficient people in them to form a single party. Granted, that problem should be temporarily alleviated with a flood of newcomers when it goes partially free to play next month.
Player Characters
I'd still give this to LotRO for its more compelling character and item designs, but it definitely suffers in the animation department. There are some funky walks and other clunky animations in there that WoW doesn't suffer from.
For me that is no question, it's clearly LOTRO, which is the winner. I have no hate against WOW. It just totally isn't my pair of shoes and I found it too simplistic and childlike. Kinda like a more elaborate version of Free Realms or so. Colorful, fancy but nothing to "speak to me".
LOTRO has definitely one of the most beautiful worlds. The book quests are among the best and most memorable stories even in RPGs altogether. I still recall all the wonderful and tragic moments. The deaths, the betrayals, the happy reuinions, or just classic scenes like the Fellowship leaving Rivendell and saying their farwell to you like some old friend. LOTRO is a really great MMO, and I just saw it too long, since my appetite craves for new places. Otherwise it is surely one of the best MMOs out there. A hardcore time playing guy like me sees it all a bit too much, since it is too casual friendly imo, but other than that, it's really a cool game with places and stories you will remember a long time after playing LOTRO. A real pearl of gaming.
EDIT: What, no poll? Hurm, how we gonna find out who wins now?
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
Then the F2P move truly is one of desperation.
WOW isnt great because it has 12 million players. WOW has 12 million players because its great.
Yea being one of the most succesfull MMOs, turning DDO to the third most played and being bought by one of the biggest media companies must really be making them desperate!
Or maybe its just your trolling that is getting desperate! Must be really hard for you to see LotrO doing so well
If WoW = The Beatles
and WAR = Led Zeppelin
Then LotrO = Pink Floyd
Well considering my opinion has always been the move was made by greed I think its still valid. Instread of creating content for existing players it now comes to my attention that they not only spent time and money on the F2P model but to also push the game into China and Russia and "four other regions".. So again, if they had spent what money they were bringing in on content instead of epxanding territory and creating a new model perhaps they would have maintained a bigger subscription base. So yes, after introducing the game into 6 new regions? and still gaining nothing it appears the F2P move is a last ditch effort to save a failing game.
WOW isnt great because it has 12 million players. WOW has 12 million players because its great.
"Turbine does a great job of realizing these dreams as the lands Eriador illuminates lustfully around your eyes."
That made me think of The Eye of Argon.
Haha. Do you think the sub number game along with cross server dungeon finder kinda give him away ?
WOW isnt great because it has 12 million players. WOW has 12 million players because its great.
haha I miss Zorndorf!
If WoW = The Beatles
and WAR = Led Zeppelin
Then LotrO = Pink Floyd
I'm just speculating that most people would agree that the DDO change was indeed a change of desperation as the game didn't seem to be going anywhere but obscurity.
Lotro wasn't in the same situation and I don't think it is a desperation move, but I think there is enough information to suggest that it had already passed its peak. From the number of win back promotions, the rather rapid decline in box price from retailers to the discounting of the subscription fee. I suspect the f2p change has more to do with trying to turn the direction of the game around than anything else.
When people talk about games that have or are suspect to change over to free to play it is always seems to be about games that are sagging, in trouble or on the edge of closure. Warhammer, Star Trek, Champions, EQ2, Vanguard, SWG, etc.
I've never played LotRO, nor have I wanted to. I played WoW from just after launch until just recently. I left WoW just after the Lich King fight was brought live, and I have no intention of going back to WoW for Cataclysm. WoW has lost its luster in my opinion, but in parting I'd like to share my assessment of the game experience I had.
WoW Tally:
Game World: 7 Why I rate it this way: Having played many other MMO's I have always found the look very cartoony, but that was part of the reason I started playing WoW. The immersion factor wasn't there but the release factor was. I knew right from the start that this wasn't supposed to look real. The world is expansive, and that is both a bane and a boon to the game. Huge zones and many choices for area of play while leveling is great but mounts are almost required to play, to the point that what used to be 40th and 60th leve mounts are now 20th and 40th. The zones are seamless, which I liked, and very creative, but taking a flight path, getting up, taking a bio, getting a coffee and a snack and coming back to see that you are barely at the midpoint of the flight?...not having that at all, pass.
Player Character: Spot on, very good diversity of race and class combinations, minus the druid class of course, but having played DAOC and loving it as much as I still do, I felt that because the lore of WoW didn't support a third primary faction that it hurt the overall experience of the game. I'd love to see more games go for the three faction paradigm, as it creates an environment where you know who your enemies are, but are constantly surprised to find yourself in battle with an opposing faction, on the losing end, only to have that third faction come in, side with one of the other two and then have a classic three way battle where the fog of battle becomes so immersive that you forget that it's just a game for a moment and it becomes a fight for survival.
New Player Experience: Almost spot on, but my rating: 7 Having 7 80th level characters in WoW, it was very easy to come up the ranks and have each new starting area open up something new...or at least I thought so...after the 5th character all the racial starting areas bleed together in a wash, rinse, and repeat quest line that is the same minus the locale in game and the races you are both playing and fighting against.
Solo Play: I agree with the OP on this one as far as WoW goes.
Group Play: WoW's rating in this area needs to be lowered, I'm thinking that a 3 is a more appropriate rating. Not because you can't find a group, because the game has changed to make it easy to find a group. But getting a group you can tolerate, and one that you continue playing with is a different thing entirely. Having played every role available in game, in every instance available in game, I can tell you that the two things that turned me off about WoW were elitist players who talked smack and spit teeth, and immature boys and girls that somehow got hold of their mom or dad's username and password while mommy and daddy were out. Grouping is easy to come by, not not all groups will you be able to tolerate for longer than a single instance queue, two at most. Guild grouping is the only way to ensure you are getting a decent player who is like-minded in terms of ability, goals, and maturity levels...and some times not even then.
End Game: 9/10 ...do you smoke weed and then post? At best WoW deserves a 5 in this category. All endgame content is recycled into 10 and 25 player, normal and heroic mode pieces of trash. And the worst part about this is that all 11 million subscribers continue to be okay enough with this to keep paying their subscriptions. Couple that with all the little "oh poor me, I need all the loot" losers out there who won't announce up front and in the public raid channel that they need loot, but rather go through tells with the loot council, or hold every DKP they get, while coasting through raid after raid contributing only as much as is necessary to keep their raid slot, to beat one specific person out on loot?...Thanks but no thanks.../gkicked many of those fools, now that's someone else's job.
Community: 5/10, really?....REALLY?!?!?! WoW's community is overrun with immature fanbois, jokers who think they are funny but are really mildly retarded young adults, the obviously in need of clinical help megalomaniacs, and then the "Everything Anal"-in public chat channel fecal freaks. 5/10, is that a joke? Try 2/10, maybe 3/10 on a good day, during the school year, either after bedtime or before school gets out.
Let me say this, WoW is a great game. The good parts of WoW are really good, but the bad parts of WoW are REALLY REALLY BAD, to the point of making it not worth wasting my money on subscription to it any more, ever again.
I am amazed so many people seem to be having issues with this.. In each of the original posts I made a specific statement that I wasn't making a comparison between lotro and wow. I was prompted to post in this thread simply because a poster (two actually) alluded to the fact that quantity = quality, that having 12 million subs meant that the game was mechanically brilliant in every way, shape and form.
The car (and every other analogy) is not a direct comparison setting up wow as a fiesta and lotro as a Lamborghini (or whatever), they where simply used to point out that numbers doesn't always equate to the product being a masterpiece in every respect, it simply points to a product being readily accessible. I'm not saying wow is more accessible then lotro, i'm saying '12 million subs dude' just proves wow is accessible, nothing more, nothing less. It's an incredibly simple analogy to follow, sadly people tend to quote posts without reading them thoroughly and end up missing both the point and the general context of the piece.
As I have said (numerous times now), I have no particular interest in either game and I certainly couldn't care less which one was 'better' then the other. But when someone simply states '12 million subs blah blah' as though that is an entire argument in itself proving that without doubt every aspect of a game is amazing, then frankly i'm going to point out that it's a total bollocks position to take.
Just so I don't have to post in this inane thread again: I don't care about lotro, I dont care about wow, i'm not comparing either of them. But people saying that quantity = quality is a complete argument and that alone is proof of the everlasting glory and brilliance in all aspects of a product... well that is a viewpoint that is so retarded as to beggar belief.
"Come and have a look at what you could have won."