MMORPG.com is pleased to announce the winner of the 2008 Reader's Choice Award for Best Overall Game of 2008.

In the voting for Best Overall Game, 5212 votes were cast. In the interest of fairness, the editorial nominees consisted of each and every released game on our current Game List.

The voting turned out another win for the Lord of the Rings Online team over at Turbine, even if it did turn out to be a little bit closer than their previous two wins. With 13% of the vote, Turbine once again edged out Blizzard’s World of Warcraft for the right to call themselves MMORPG.com Reader’s Choice Award winners.

Read the Best Overall Game of 2008 - Winner

Grats turbine, well deserved!!

Grats Lotro, well deserved !!!!

Gratz Turbine.

I like the %s though. It shows a REALLY diverse playerbase, which isn't reflected by posters on most forums. Grats to all the games really.

Originally posted by Jpizzle

Gratz Turbine.

 

I like the %s though. It shows a REALLY diverse playerbase, which isn't reflected by posters on most forums. Grats to all the games really.

Too true.  You look at the top four, and they are pretty close.  It shows that players feel passionate about many games, not just WoW. 

Turbine took a great story, and was able to immerse the player in it.  The way they release the updates and expansion, with new areas and material, just adds to the feeling you are part of a story, not just playing a game.  It shows that if you aim not for competing with WoW, but for making your own game, you can have success.

And let's face it.  There would be no Warhammer, Warcraft, or DnD for that matter, if not for Lord of the Rings. 

There is an error Turbine Inc. is a Massachusetts-based  MMO company not a "Virginia-based MMO company ".

Grats Turbine, well deserved.

its a pity that your game is boring.

Best MMO out there.  Well done Turbine!

Even as an EVE player I must say: well done. If I was still in fantasy MMOs, I'd play LOTR.

Again well deserved.

In fact  when you look all in all there is only 3 MMOs that are worth this award judging from their overall polish and quality : WOW, EVE and LOTRO.

LOTRO stands out by two of its virtues.

1. Its PVE MMO that caters to more mature playerbase , and to core RPG playerbase. (ever since Blizzard decided that cutesy is more important than lore)

2. Turbine is dedicaded to ever expanding the game, like no other company in MMO space.

Every 2 months there is a big patch. That is not like by other MMOs just a tweak of game classes and bug fixes.  In LOTRO you get either a completely new game functionality (like housing) or completely new region of the game. They call it episodic content...

Cheers Turbine :)

I would most definitely disagree with this win. But, MMORPG.com has really been weighted towards this game anyways.

I think the heavier European influence of this site and forums helps Turbine win this match, due to the game being liked more in EU than the US.

Critics and the current player base love the game, but I can also read about so many dislikes and the sales of the game has not been sky high either.

This is not to say the game is not stable and well run, and I guess Turbine wins for that. But, for the game itself, it is not that good to be THE game of the year.

Just felt that differences are felt by many people, and along with the graces and praise of this title, we should also note the downsides...and LOTRO has quite a few in my opinion.

Anyways, Grats Turbine.

Vangaurd Saga of Heoes

Originally posted by ironraptor

There is an error Turbine Inc. is a Massachusetts-based  MMO company not a "Virginia-based MMO company ".

sssshhhhh don't tell anyone we had to get them the southern vote somehow.

openedge you had to bring nationalism into this didn't you.  To be honest i did not think it could be done,  but you did it.  congratz

Originally posted by openedge1

I think the heavier European influence of this site and forums helps Turbine win this match, due to the game being liked more in EU than the US.

There's also more than twice as many people in Europe than in the USA, so this result is actually more valid than all the other "international" sites where Joe Average User thinks Europe - if they've even heard of it at all - is just an 80's glamrock band from USA ;)

Seriously though, it's "Readers Choice", so if this site is heavy on European users, the award is even more accurate and rightly deserved.

Grats to Turbine (and Codemasters) - LotRO is a great game! :)

 Congrats.  Proof that popularity can't mask the truth.  There's actual justice in the mmo world...at least for today. 

congrats turbine but i like how the votes were more spread out and everyone wasnt just voting for two games. kept the games close to each other in votes

Congratulations Turbine!!!

Having just started this game last month I can see why they did so well.

A game incredibly polished, fun to play, lots of content, and a great community of "mature" players!.

Who would have thought that it was so, well simple?

Gratz again,  Turbine!

Pooks

Congratz to Turbine. As a current player I totally agree that LoTRO is truly deserving

Originally posted by openedge1

I would most definitely disagree with this win. But, MMORPG.com has really been weighted towards this game anyways.

I think the heavier European influence of this site and forums helps Turbine win this match, due to the game being liked more in EU than the US.

Critics and the current player base love the game, but I can also read about so many dislikes and the sales of the game has not been sky high either.

This is not to say the game is not stable and well run, and I guess Turbine wins for that. But, for the game itself, it is not that good to be THE game of the year.

Just felt that differences are felt by many people, and along with the graces and praise of this title, we should also note the downsides...and LOTRO has quite a few in my opinion.

Anyways, Grats Turbine.

Anyway... No matter who won I think this vote shows that LotrO, WoW, EvE and WAR are currently the best high quality MMOs on the market. Hopefully we will see some new games on that list in 2009 vote .

Grats Turbine, very well deserved! In the new year I would like to see:

A new 20-30 zone!

Another 55-60 zone

Better kinship and social options!

Some new large instances.

Fix crafting and PvMP

A new expansion maybe? :)

Grats Turbine and LotRO and thank you MMORPG.com readers!

I´m proud of you all!

Well done, Turbine!  And well deserved.

-G

Personally I think WoW is the better overall game because it does everything so well where as Lotro has crap combat, player models and PvP which are main points of an mmorpg.

Originally posted by ironraptor

There is an error Turbine Inc. is a Massachusetts-based  MMO company not a "Virginia-based MMO company ".

*facepalm* you're right. I'm fixing that now. Damn my scattered brain.

Originally posted by Stradden

Originally posted by ironraptor

There is an error Turbine Inc. is a Massachusetts-based  MMO company not a "Virginia-based MMO company ".

 

*facepalm* you're right. I'm fixing that now. Damn my scattered brain.

 

LOL we all have bad days Stradden. Your allowed at least one mistake :)

Grats to Lord of the Rings Online and Turbine. You are in my opinion the best MMO development company out today. May you have continued success through the years.

Congrats to LOTRO + Turbine! I should try LOTRO out or something. The fans seem incredibly docile.