WoW vs. LotRO: The future of MMOs

Lotro is terrible.

I know they love saying how similar it is to WoW, but it would be nice to say how similar it is to Asheron's Call 2, another Turbine game. The game was released 2 years before WoW (almost to the day), has very very similar classes, the same graphical engine, the same combat, the same quest system, but different IP and a different way to manage skills.

I really find it annoying that people overlook this. I know all this article wants is comments and drama, to pull in traffic, but at least have a little bit research in your article.

So yes, Turbine isn't doing anything new with LOTRO, they're doing what they did 2 years before WoW came out.

Bam! has a great point. People have a mistaken thought that MMOs were born with WoW, even people that should know better.

If I were to explain Lord of the Rings to someone it wouldn't be by comparing it to WoW, I would say it's Asherons Call in Middle Earth

I wasn't very impressed with the article. He basically points out that LOTRO and WOW have a lot of similarities. Duh. You could have gotten that from reading a review of LOTRO at launch. The important thing, which the article completely ignores, is that the games have important differences in the types of content the developers focus on. WOW is about rushing to the "end game" for PVP and Raids. LOTRO has a more diverse content focus and does more to give the sense of being in a virtual world with things like housing, the unique music system, story, interesting characters, and live events. The anchor of the game is the very accessible epic quest series which goes across all level ranges.

If you want a great rpg GAME with tons of end game raid & pvp content, WOW is the game for you.

If you like Middle Earth and are interested in a virtual world experience with a great accessible story wrapped in a decent rpg game, then LOTRO will satisfy you.

Umm, WoW has not been out for 4.5 years.

Another stellar attempt at "journalism" from our friends at Massively!

Exactly as Adam said. Even if it was a carbon verbatim copy of WoW, LOTRO's game focus is completely different, their devs are completely different, and the total overall idea of the game is completely different.

WoW is about getting to the end, and grinding one place over and over until you're ready to go to the next place to grind over and over. 1-59 hardly means jack and if anything its just to extend your subsription.

LOTRO on the other hand, has the overall arching story told through its books. Every 2 or so months you get a extension of that story along with a new game feature. LOTRO is truly about the journey and anyone racing to the end thinking there's going to be an endgame like WoW is going to miss the fun that is in LOTRO.

LOTRO's multiple armor sets are all VERY comparable to each other. Its nitpicking to say one is better than the other. You simply choose which way you want to play, and you get your armor set. One armor set isn't meant to be a starting point to get another armor set.

Crafting, 12 man, 24 man, 6 man zonewide, 6 man instance, PVP.... choose one of those, whichever you like best, and get your armor set. Done. Now do the other content because you want to experience everything the game has to offer, do it for the journey not the lewtz.

not to mention that article is just about the most unfair comparison of 2 games I've ever read. Geez, worship WoW much guy?

Skypp's comment on this is pretty much dead on. I'm someone who loves LotRO and while it does have a few raids (and more to come) and a decent amount of high level content, it certainly doesn't yet compare to WoW there. Will it in another couple of years? Maybe, who knows. For me --- and I think many LotRO players --- raiding is just one of the many things to do, it's not the end-all-be-all of the game. It's a big distinction in MMORPGs.

As for the general argument, you'd honestly be amazed by how many people try to compare things to LotRO or tell you how it works that clearly haven't played more than 10 levels of it... if even that much. Or bitching about something that was fixed or added 9 months ago (not everything is the same as when it launched, sorry lol). Or even saying the game hasn't been updated or added to at all, if you can believe that one.

I'm not saying that's true of the Warcry staff, but I notice it so often than it's kind of frustrating. I suppose I would see that a lot for any MMORPG, though. I don't play any others enough to be able to pick out obvious issues in anything written about them.

The article was ok, but other than the one little discailmer at the beginning, it doesn't give LOTRO much credit.

For example, two things that are vastly different in both games are the lore/story-driven epic quests and PvP systems. Also LOTRO has housing and outfits...WoW does not. The list goes on, but for some reason the author didn't mention any of them. Not too impressed.

LOTRO and WOW are very different, IMHO. Yes some mechanics are simillar, but they are in pretty much any MMO. There are many important differences though that make me prefer LOTRO over WOW any day.
That begins with the much much better graphics that still run smoothly on a laptop with 64 MB graphics card (so the "we make it look ugly so it works for everyone" argument is totally debunked). The crafting is better, there is less grind in quests and the grind is much less annoying. The achievements are great and reward players for exploration or for killing lots of enemies, etc. Thats something that WOW was missing completely (though they will have that with WOTLK, which makes you wonder who copies who).
One feels and sees the overall story everywhere and in every detail.
The game is fun, a lot more fun than WOW, IMHO.
The only thing that WOW does better than LOTRO is PvP. LOTROs PvP, while very different from WOWs is still rather rudimentary. Not that WOWs system is in any way extraordinary though. I think that WAR is probably going to be the next benchmark for that though...

This article was a major waste of time. He doesn't mention the complex developing story that the LOTRO book system provides. There is no mention of the many ways (housing, monster play) that LOTRO has differentiated from WOW.

LOTRO has much more similarity with AC2, which came out years before WOW, and might have done much better if not for tragic chat server and stability issues. The game play of AC2 was superior to WOW in many ways.

The only argument this guy makes is that WOW is better because more people are playing it. Following this logic, he should stop writing and go play the Sims...