WOW certainly has nothing to fear with regards to Lord of the Rings Online taking any of its market share. Personally, I think Turbine game producers started smoking crack and doing acid trips many months ago. Do they never learn? I get that they want to preserve the lore of LOTR. But we've already seen that if you want to grab gamers, in addition to those that love the license that you are turning into a game, you have to make some compromises. And you will make them when the numbers don't pan-out. Sony and its constant re-invention of Star Wars Galaxy is a prime example. Isn't it better to do that from the onset so you don't have to disrupt players with sweeping redesigns? Or worse yet, having to just tack things on as an after thought like solo play in DDO? Come on, do some homework. You mean to tell me they didn't realize that many players in MMOs sometimes want/need to solo? Duh!
Anyway, all I can do is laugh about the idea of how they've decided to implement a player's ability to be an evil character and PVP. Introducing PvMP - Player versus Monster-Player, where you can temporarily play a monster in the game and earn Monster Points. Earn Monster Points. My mind immediately flashed to an image of Barney - you know that purple dinosaur. ROTFLLMAO.
PvMP will only be allowed in certain areas, and of course, it's consensual. The fact that it's both, is so Care Bear, I don't know why they are bothering. If they really feel that PVP will be that offensive to their players, then have the balls to make it unavailable. Have the nuts to take a stand and say, "no PVP," and let the chips fall where they may.
I can't even take these people seriously anymore - AT ALL. As long as they're not expecting anyone other than die hard LOTR fans to play this game, I suppose all will be well. Perhaps they're going for a niche crowd that is small but pays the bills. World of Warcraft has nothing to fear with the release of this game. I LOVE Lord of the Rings. I've read the series 2x, have them on audio and have listened to them 3x each, and watched the movies at least 10x each. I'm no WOW fanboi although I'm still hanging in there. I AM a LOTR fanboi. However, I won't be playing this lame version of a MMORPG.
Hi mate,
Just wanted to say thank you for the fab blog. It is extremely helpful and I couldn't live without it! :)
Thanks again and I have placed you blog on my wow blog in the blogs section.
Its at http://worldofwarcraftguru.blogspot.com/
Thanks again,
Sam Hyams
Posted by: Sam Hyams | October 04, 2006 at 01:04 PM
Yep, I'm not a big Warcraft guru either; infact, I really never played any of the RTS versions of warcraft or starcraft; I just enjoyed WOW as a user friendly MMO. I do really enjoy the Lord of the Rings trilogy-both the movies and the books- but this game had me excited for about 1 month, and then I read the first interview with the creator in PC Gamer. When I heard that players were not going to be able to pick one side or the other that was the end for me. I had visions of riding around on a ring wrath waiting for unsuspecting hobbits to come "on to the road". I play alliance on WOW just because I enjoy the over all scenery of their zones-and because I just don't really care about the lore that much in WOW- but if I rolled a character in LOTRO then it would have to be one of the "evil" characters.
PVP sounds like it will just suck like no other in LOTR which is another reason I won't be subscribing to this game. If there is an option to try it for 2 weeks free, like EVE online, then I may try it, but if not, then oh well at least burning crusade will keep my attention until I can try Warhammer or Age of Conan.
Posted by: Wolfgangdoom | October 05, 2006 at 10:28 AM
Hi Wolfgangdoom, I too am keeping a closer eye to Warhammer. I'm pretty sure I'm also going to take a turn to the dark side in my next MMO adventure. I too enjoy the landscapes and scenary of the alliance territories, but after like 45 or so, we're pretty much all in the same zones anyway - and very dark instances.
Posted by: Saylah | October 05, 2006 at 07:07 PM
You both might visit Mulgore as new Taurens.
Green grassy plains, brilliant blue skies, you just know it's a beautiful 74F there. The pond outside Bloodhoof Village makes for a great swimming hole.
Everything is earthy and devoted to the Earth Mother. No skull decorations or voodoo like the trolls, none of the dripping poisons and ghastly experimentations of the Forsaken, or the demonic corruption of the Orcs going on. Some may find it boring, but I always picture the Tauren as good-guys reluctantly tied to the Horde. They're Druids after all!
Posted by: Kinless | October 06, 2006 at 07:04 AM
Hey Kinless. When I first started playing WOW, I was Horde. At the time, I was playing with some online friends from AC2, who would only play evil characters. I hated being undead or troll, so I left them and went my own way as a human. Before leaving them and that server, I did roll a Tauren which was the only thing I found even viable. I don't think I deleted that Shaman but I'll have to look. I did like the scenary, but as a new users to WOW, I found the shaman - totems in particular, difficult to understand and use. I'm sure that I would find it rather easy now so I might give it a spin.
If I dont feel any better about the priest and BC, I will be rolling a Horde toon for some change of scenary.
Posted by: Saylah | October 06, 2006 at 10:05 AM
One of my alts for when my usual server is down, is a Tauren. I agree with Kinless that the Tauren do seem like the "good guys" of the horde; even their quests suggest it. Mulgore is great by the way! :D
Posted by: Wolfgangdoom | October 06, 2006 at 11:08 AM
Oh give me a break the game hasn't even been released and they aren't tacking things on in LOTR, this game has been under development way longer than DDO was and the game looks spectacular. It like saying oh the Wii sucks because it doesn't have the processing power of the PS3. When LOTR comes out and you try then you really say that, but until then you are making a closed minded judgment.
As for the PVP aspect of LOTR I find it refreshing that someone isn't trying to rehash the same old models over and over again.
The solo content in DDO was expanded (not tacked on) due to the cries of customers. The game is still really geared towards groups as it should be. DDO is a great game and if you took the time to check out the expansions you would discover that each one is huge. These aren't just little bug fixes like some MMO companies these are huge patch updates. I am currently a subscriber and I have found the game has improved dramatically every month.
As for the mentions of WoW it sounds like you are sick of the game and waiting for something to replace it. I gotta say Blizzard takes way too long to release expansions. I suggest you start looking at Vanguard. That is the game that is going to really take a large part of the WoW community away. As for the MMO that will kill WoW, lets get real. You aren't going to kill a game that has 7 million users. No new MMO that is coming out is going to do that.
Chris Brainard
Posted by: Chris Brainard | October 10, 2006 at 11:39 AM
Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, I'm an idiot. Fool me three times, not gonna happen. Yes, I have some emotional baggage when it comes to Turbine and their MMORPGs.
I know how long LOTR has been in development. I was an active part of the forums - posts and fan fiction, back when it was being developed under the name, Middle Earth Online. While waiting for its immenent release, I purchased and played Asheron's Call 2. I liked AC2 and brought along pals to play too. AC2 got a little stale but I still played, and even ponyed up for the expansion when it released. A couple of months after the Xpac, they announced their plans to end the game.
The decision to shut down a game isn't made over night. I think anyone who believes that decision wasn't in the works when they rleased that Xpac, I would call niave. As a customer, I felt somewhat abused, as our family was subscribing to 3 accounts at the time. I understand it's a business, but that's not going to leave any warm and fuzzy feelings in my heart for Turbine.
Back to LOTR. The MEO site/community was up one day, then gone the next. Blah-blah about wanting the official license. You've just shut down one game, if you have what you think is a great game, you release it. Now what is it, three years later? And did you miss that game-play video they released? Zzzz. Oh sorry, just thinking about it put me to sleep.
As for DDO, it's alive but not with rave reviews. And if they didn't realize that players would scream foul without solo play, again I say, their eyes aren't on the ball. Solo play and MMORPGs has been a running conversation for quite some time now, as is the war of Casuals vs. Hardcores. Someone over there needs to look up from their computer every once in a while.
So - am I going to trust Turbine with my gaming dollars or playing time? I respond emphatically, NO! Reviews will have to say that the game walks-on-water, before I'd even do a free trial. As for WOW being stale, yeppers it is. Yet there's just enough that I'm still playing. Note that I no longer play EQ2, TSO, GW or EO. I do exercise some discretion when I'm totally done with a game.
Posted by: Saylah | October 10, 2006 at 09:17 PM
I can understand where you are coming from. I played AC2 as well. The game was great but as you said it did get stale. I think there wasn't enough content in the game and too much of the world was supposed to developed by the players. It was sad that they shut it down but I can understand why. Besides the fact that there wasn't that many people playing the game, the MMO market was actually struggling at the time and a number of MMO that were going to be released were just canceled. Remember that game that was supposed to come out by Microsoft where you played being a god? At least 10 games were canceled and EA shut two MMOs Earth and Beyond and Motor City Online.
I believe Turbine had to make a hard choice so that they could stay in business. Their big mistake was not selling their engine to other developers who wanted to make MMOs. So they burned up a ton of cash on AC2 and didn't get the return they expected. It is just lucky that they signed deals for DDO and LOTR otherwise they might be bankrupt. It is also one reason that DDO was rush out the door.
But if you look at what Turbine produces idea wise you can see they have an amazing creative team. AC had the best magic system I have seen even today in an MMO. AC2 had incredible music playing ability where a group of people could actually play a song together and I saw people do just that. DDO has the most exciting combat and questing of any MMO and they tried to get rid of grind by rewarding based on quests. So that is why I feel that LOTR will have new ideas that will be quite impressive.
Posted by: Chris Brainard | October 11, 2006 at 12:13 PM
My fondest memories of an MMORPG was, and still is AC2. That's probably why I'm so bitter. LOL In reference to magic classes, best caster support classes with crowd control that I've seen. Inspiring music, lore and real adventuring for the RP players. I won't QQ anymore over AC2, done that lots already. They should have released engine. Still better than a lot of other games I've seen since.
Son played and loved, AC2. Still asks why it closed down when AC1 is still live, and wants to play it. He has played DDO and didn't like it, so came back, as I have repeatedly to WOW. He didn't last a week in EQ2.
If you're a Turbine fan, I won't break your chops. :-) We all like what we like. But it will take a hellofa lot to get me on LOTR.
Posted by: Saylah | October 11, 2006 at 05:55 PM