LOTRO vs. WOW

[kugoowo]

Well in my opinion, the game will be a competition to World of Warcraft. It has that potential. In all honesty for the concept of Lord of the Rings Online: The Shadow of Angmar, it has most of the features that World of Warcraft carries. For example, mounts, interface, configuration, instances. But this doesn't stop you from trying it out because the game itself is promising. Not only the game but the developers.

One feature that doesn't seem to be in World of Warcraft (not sure) is how people level compare to Lord of the Rings: The Shadow of Angmar... the leveling in this is based on questing. Now quite often, there's a huge percentage of MMORPGs that base their leveling on killing lots and lots of monsters for your level. Well, questing on this online game is important for people to continue further into the game, there are hundreds of quest from each city and in with the quests is a great storyline. It's not just one story... there's many chapters from stories.

In the quests, there's a range to do. There's instances, soloable missions and normal epic missions. Each type are enjoyable and well worth trying for. My favourite is doing instances. :P As it gives the action and tense moments as you run in trying to complete a complex quest with a party that you have to work well together to succeed. No co-ordination and you're basically gone...

From viewing the map when I was playing in Closed Beta, it seemed very huge. It wasn't just one huge map that you would look at normally, instead it was set out from city to land to countries. Honestly, it is the biggest map I've ever seen, I wonder what new features will appear in future to fill up them spaces...

Also, the graphics and looks of the game. It's absolutely amazing, check out the ultra graphics and you will be drooling. However, most people recognise the game as too cartoony for the books and films. They are wanting the full detail and realism without seeing any cartoony effect on it but in my opinion, it's fine. The interface of the game isn't too confusing and hard, it's actually well laid out and you can customise the skill bars etc to fit your standards.

As you can tell the game is heavily concentrated on the original book itself, but thats what makes the game exciting. Experiencing new challenges and chapters.

Well, you may think that this game requires you to be a big fan of LOTR. But to me it isn't. Just from this game, you will practically know the whole story but in a slower and exciting way of achieving it. I will be paying for this game in future just so I can experience the full outcome that it will bring towards the MMORPG society and I know it will be fantastic.

[rottentomato]

you do know your links are to gold sellers right?

[Aerath]

Edited post, banned poster, left thread - think it might still make a nice discussion.

From what I heard, LotRo feels and plays massively like a big big WoW rip-off... without some of the finesse WoW has developed over the last years (excluding the bloody graphics glitches the last patch brought...)

[rottentomato]

very good...i personally liked the write up when i read it...

i saw some screenies of LOTR, and i thougth it was WoW at first, then i looked and said...wait...that doesnt look like a human mage....

i was very confused...

http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2007/129/reviews/914860_20070510_screen011.jpg

[ascendedavatar]

Looks akin to a WOW/GW clone, but not as good as WOW, but looks a bit better than the vids I've seen of GW.

[noodlenugget]

Where can I download this UI? lol

[Underling]

Nowhere nearly as good as WoW. In fact, nowhere nearly half as good as WoW

Not to mention the stupid Codemasters account creation

[Murmuring]

Bought it. Played it. Got irritated by it. Put it away. Not a WOW beater.

My biggest gripe was the lack of perspective. I kept feeling like I wanted to move my view back a bit or increase the visible environment and I couldn't. Very "front row of the cinema" experience.

[Twoflower]

well, i thaught too that it looks alot like WoW. But i realised that WoW was not the first MMORPG either. Everquest, ultima etc also had minimaps, action bars etc...

And the game sure is different. less grinding, more questing, more story gaming. I dont like it, others sure do.

[Qwertius]

well, i thaught too that it looks alot like WoW. But i realised that WoW was not the first MMORPG either. Everquest, ultima etc also had minimaps, action bars etc...

And the game sure is different. less grinding, more questing, more story gaming. I dont like it, others sure do.

more questing less grinding.. and I like the Tolkien word. Sounds like my kind of game. Are there still Trial Versions available?

[Summër]

Either that's a bad screenshot, or those character models are ugly as hell...

[Baboon]

What a shameless ripoff.

[Underling]

more questing less grinding..

What are you talking about? I lvl to 70 exclusively questing

If you mean their quests involve more running from place to place as opposed to killing stuff, then thanks, but no thanks. I hate those running q's in WoW bad enough

[Baboon]

What are you talking about? I lvl to 70 exclusively questing

If you mean their quests involve more running from place to place as opposed to killing stuff, then thanks, but no thanks. I hate those running q's in WoW bad enough

I'm leveling an old char now from 42-53 and once every 3 levels I have to spend a level grinding because I keep running out of quests. Ofcourse if I did instances that wouldn't be necessary, but there aren't many players available for that, being on an older server. It's nothing like the Outlands, where I didn't grind at all.

[malchihi]

I purchased the game and was quite unimpressed. Maybe it is just because the game is so new, but something just didn't feel right. The character models are very sub-par, and the actions seem somewhat choppy(and yes my computer can run the game fine).

That being said, the game has potential, but just seems to be missing something right now.

[Kitano]

I was in the beta and my fiancee has the actual game. She loves it and plays it over WoW. From my time with it I can say that it's very likely going to be a better game than WoW and is probably as good as WoW now. It just didn't grab me personally. I'll stick with WoW at least until Warhammer is released and see if that's a better game but LOTRO just didn't do it for me.

[Twoflower]

I'm leveling an old char now from 42-53 and once every 3 levels I have to spend a level grinding because I keep running out of quests. Ofcourse if I did instances that wouldn't be necessary, but there aren't many players available for that, being on an older server. It's nothing like the Outlands, where I didn't grind at all.

sorry but you do something wrong then ^^ there is enugh leveling contend in WoW to level 2 chars to lvl 60 whibout doing a single quest twice.

[dahquim]

Played the trial for 2 days of the 7 (you get a trial account with the Retail pack, and a friend gave me theres). The game itself is ok, i have played better, WoW and GW.

I have left WoW for a while (about a month), and thought maybe i would try this trial, and apply for the betas of Warhammer and Conan.

Anyway back on subject, the game feels like an unpolished version of WoW, the quest structures are pretty muuch the same, collect 8 boar meat (but then most quests from game to game are the same in some ways), from what i saw the levling seems to have no relevence in the starting area on what you fight, at level 1 I was fighting level 4-5 mobs and winning and then at level 8 i was fighting th same mobs and i didn't feel any more powerful!

I don't think i will pick this game up again for a while (maybe never at all). I will come back to WoW soon, but wanted a break.

Hope this helps people

Dahquim

[Vulcanz]

i had both wow and lotr i quit both of them, but im thinking of playin wow again i miss is but ill have to leave wow again probly for warhammer.

[Xlorep DarkHelm]

My roommate played in the LOTRO beta. His reaction was "somewhat cool, but I think I'll still play WoW". LOTRO seems like "WoW-lite" -- it has a very stron similarity to WoW, but has...less than WoW, if that makes sense. While I'm a huge J.R.R. Tolkien fan, LOTRO just doesn't strike my fancy.

[Gaelan]

I've played WoW since prior to launch.

I've played LotRO now for about a week.

My impressions are as follows:


LotRO is a graphically nicer looking game, however, WoW feels more fluid with movement and animations. LotRO takes more activity in combat with your character than in WoW, especially at low levels. By level 10 you'll have 7-8 abilities on your hotbar you use often, while in WoW by level 10 you'll have 3 or so you'll usually use soloing? I'm not saying one is bad and the other is good, just what I've experienced.

Both games you can quest to level exclusively, while the LotRO quests take on a bit more of a storybook mode during parts, where WoW's does not (something I think would be good in future WoW expansions for questing or instancing). LotRO does not have talents for classes, but instead when you complete "Deeds" or certain accomplishments, you earn traits, which can be activated, but you can only activate so many at a time, based on your level. These traits can augment stats, abilities, cooldowns, etc, I relate them to WoW talents, but the way you earn these Traits I feel is more interactive and feels like more of an accomplishment.

Item quality and drop rate seems very similar between the games. Buying your skills from the trainer is very alike as well. The LotRO world actually feels SMALLER than WoW's. I can run between "zones" or areas, towns, etc very quickly compared to WoW.

One interesting facet of LotRO are "Fellowship Maneuvers", or special bonus abilities you can do in a group (LotRO calls them Fellowships), where a Burglar (think ambush Rogue) can initiate or against a tough enemy will spontaneously initiate your group/fellowship can perform a spectacular move to great result in a large temp buff for the fight, or a large blow to the enemy, based on moves each individual makes during the "Maneuver". Its like the group performs some combination move which produces a bigger result than normal, so tight-nit groups will perform much better than PuGs or crappy groups.

The only reason I'm playing is some friends now play, and I like to play with the friends. =) But both games are alike, yet subtley different. The future will tell just how good LotRO really is. So far its solid, and provides me with a sense of "newness" that I haven't had in quite a while. Overall gameplay I feel in WoW is still better, but there are a few things in LotRO which I think could be used in WoW to enhance the game more.

[Valas Azuviir]

Gaelan makes mention of a lot of things that were also on my mind after going through the LOTRO OB. It's a neat game, and I'm more impressed by it, than I was with EQ2, which I've gone through the trial with.

But it doesn't feel like either WoW does or CoX (CoH and CoV) for that matter. Those three games make me, at least, feel as if I've come home. They fit like a glove so to speak. Not so with either LOTRO or EQ2.

Though I must commend LOTRO for their unique way towards PvP with monster play. Most of the temp buffs didn't see that useful to me, so the Destiny Points you can earn with your regular character, you can use to make your monster even tougher.

[Alexia of Durnham]

It's far too soon to tell if it will succeed but I was and still am impressed with it .
It sure takes getting used to . Lotro is definitely slower paced than WoW and you have to adjust your "speed " to thoroughly enjoy it .

But I like the look and feel of it and some of the stuff implemented ( like deeds and traits ) are a new way of doing things.

[Baal]

I played LoTRO for awhile and quite enjoyed it. However, the more I played - the less I wanted to. I'm not sure what it was, but there was something seriously lacking.

I actually stopped played and went back to WoW, and now I've got a 30 Hunter (3rd highest level I've ever managed behind my 60 priest, and a 36 warrior). Something about the game made me go back to WoW and appreciate it a lot more...