It seems weird to me that in discussion threads on mmorpg.com (or anywhere else that talks about mmorpgs that I've seen) that LOTRO is almost never mentioned when comparing games.  It's always something like:

"I've tried them all, I've played WoW for a year, AOC, DAOC, and WAR."

The common denominator is that all those games have a large PVP aspect, whereas LOTRO does not.  Is it that only PVP-oriented mmorpg players are frequent posters on message boards?

I'm curently subbed to LOTRO and it's a great game up until endgame which gets a little annoying (to me, anyway).  I'm looking for something new, and when I am looking for something new I often end up on mmorpg.com, and I couldn't help but notice this trend.

Maybe because most of the people that play it...are playing it...not staring at a forum?

Originally posted by Eben

Maybe because most of the people that play it...are playing it...not staring at a forum?

you beat me - lol - I was going to say because they are actually PLAYING the game.

 Are you jealous?

Maybe they're busy playing the game like mentioned, and they're not unsatisfied with their current game to go look for other games.

Trust me, it happens when the game is good and keeps you hooked.

That's usually why the majority of the player base doesn't read forums - they don't have time for that.

And for comparisons, people just care about the Big Zerg Behemoth that rules them all, the you-know-what title.

This game on its early days faced a lot of "WoW clone" fanboys that seem to gather and storm up to troll any game on its release.

Originally posted by Eben

Maybe because most of the people that play it...are playing it...not staring at a forum?

Bingo! When I was subbed...I was playing it not posting on here how bad or good it was. Word.

also there is this - if all you are interested in is PvP then Lotro is probaby not the game you are looking for.

Originally posted by Styij

Bingo! When I was subbed...I was playing it not posting on here how bad or good it was. Word.

Yes, there are words on a forum.

While LotRO has fans, it has few fanbois.  It does most everything fairly well, so it doesn't piss a lot of people off.

These forums are about controversy, and LotRO generates little of that.

Just a bunch of happy gamers

I would have to say Lotro does have a big PVP aspect, but it isn't the biggest part of the game. It just goes by a different name: PvMP and it is more fun and balanced than any PVP i have ever done. Aside from that Lotro has tons to offer, the game is just amazing. 

Originally posted by Kyleran

While LotRO has fans, it has few fanbois.  It does most everything fairly well, so it doesn't piss a lot of people off.

These forums are about controversy, and LotRO generates little of that.

Just a bunch of happy gamers

Most Definitely true.

Originally posted by Nicksd

Originally posted by Styij

Bingo! When I was subbed...I was playing it not posting on here how bad or good it was. Word.

 

Yes, there are words on a forum.

Indeed. I was thinking that perhaps numbers should be represented the same way. For example:

12584632038464030213428755869845093236355430823409486853. Number.

People really take the mmorpg.com ratings seriously? Lol Atlantica Online is second. A rating system for mmos is silly, but to each his own :)

LOTRO? Never heard of it.

Originally posted by Eogris

People really take the mmorpg.com ratings seriously? Lol Atlantica Online is second. A rating system for mmos is silly, but to each his own :)

 

 

As for Atlantica, there are tons of people who prefer Asian F2P games.  It's not even because they're cheap, either.  These forums represent the hardcore set.  F2P games make most of their money off of a small number of players spending a ton of cash.  Those players are probably the same ones here.  So the F2P guys here may be spending more than us Western players.  Personally, I've only ever really liked 2 F2P games, and even then, it was only for a few hours per week.  Some dudes are happy playing such games as their primary, though.  All the power to them, if they're happy.

But yeah, the ratings don't mean much.  I will say this about LotRO, though.

Turbine is the biggest privately-held game studio.  They're not shrimps.  Think about that.  They may not have WoWish popularity with any of their games, or even all of their games combined, but they definitely hold their own.  Consider this much: if you compare total NA sub numbers for all games a company holds, Turbine is probably doing in the range of about 25-40% as well as Blizzard.  So they're not even close in terms of total business, but they're still doing very solid business in NA.

As for LotRO, it's a pretty uncontroversial title.  There's no real PvP to it.  MPvP is basically a gimmick.  Its PvE is very nice in terms of story-oriented content, though.  I'd say LotRO is the best storytelling title to date.  TOR will probably blow it away, but that's still a ways away.  I'd say LotRO is also probably the most polished title to date, overall.  It has had 2-3 serious hiccups, but they were resolved quickly.  They were nothing compared to WoW's server issues early on or the far worse issues any other game suffered in its worst days.

So I think it's very easy to like LotRO, and even if you don't like it, it's very hard to hate it.  At its worst, it's merely a good game that isn't for you.  That's how I look at it, myself.  Of course, at its core, it's still basically a very vanilla PvE experience, so the hardcore players here with zillion post counts here won't swoon over it, but it's still a very solid title overall.

Because Lotro players do not care about forums, all they do is play and have fun. The way it should be.

LotR has it’s drawbacks, it was not a game that broke a lot of new ground and the PvP was a add on. But it stands head and shoulders above the rest because what is does offer, it does better than any other MMO.

Originally posted by Kurush

 

I'd say LotRO is the best storytelling title to date. 

Nnnnot.

Not playing it anymore but I loved it. Great scenery, decent gameplay, nice customization, nicely polished and great immersion as well. Just a very good mmo. Too bad of the lack of pvp excitement out in the world. (I would still be playing it otherwise).

One dimensional pure copy cat Wow clone without the PvP elements like Arena, choices in Bg's and the new Lake Wintergrasp massive PvP play.

It played its role within the bracket of (Xn ....Sn) = Wow very well and tx to it Wow grew further.

Lotro is filled with people that want to have another experience, but most don't stay too long (>3 monhts) because of the formula above.

So it still lingers around the 150-200K subs according to Xffire, which in fact is VERY good considering other Fantasy MMO's.

But ... very bad considering the all mighty and powerful LORE it is taken from.

LOTRO has simply the best Lore possible, but ... it didn't live up to its launched  rule "one game to rule them out"

So the 300 people logged in here every day "rate" it more neutral, while WOW gets ridiculous "0"'s from some delusive children who also hate on everything that is the number one (from Microsoft to Coke).

It is like "EVE", a lot of talk in the footnote but only 5% play it.

Cause Turbine fanbois are crazy. Remember when there was that site doing the vote for the best developer and Turbine beat everyone from Bethesda to Valve to Blizzard and Bioware lol........ Lotro is crap with a nasty UI, bad animations, ugly character models, boring combat, boring classes and no PVP worth mentioning.

However thats how the rating system goes, it's not the best mmorpg out there but a list of least hated by the "hardcore" lol. For example Lotro flys under the radar by most haters and yet WoW is uber hated because it's popular.

Originally posted by Zorndorf

One dimensional pure copy cat Wow clone without the PvP elements like Arena, choices in Bg's and the new Lake Wintergrasp massive PvP play.

It played its role within the bracket of (Xn ....Sn) = Wow very well and tx to it Wow grew further.

Lotro is filled with people that want to have another experience, but most don't stay too long (>3 monhts) because of the formula above.

So it still lingers around the 150-200K subs according to Xffire, which in fact is VERY good considering other Fantasy MMO's.

But ... very bad considering the all mighty and powerful LORE it is taken from.

LOTRO has simply the best Lore possible, but ... it didn't live up to its launched  rule "one game to rule them out"

So the 300 people logged in here every day "rate" it more neutral, while WOW gets ridiculous "0"'s from some delusive children who also hate on everything that is the number one (from Microsoft to Coke).

It is like "EVE", a lot of talk in the footnote but only 5% play it.

 

 

I think one of the big reason is that LorO dont have crazy fanboys here like the above poster...

Fanboys feeds haters, thats why WoW, Darkfall and AoC have the most "haters" on this forum.

Lotro is just too cool :)
 

Hmm, well I guess somebody came to prove the posters saying there's no LOTRO fanboys around here wrong!

 The game is rock solid. It know its target audience and caters 100% to their wishes and does it so well and it doesn't try to lure people in that wont find the game interesting.

Its a game for roleplayers, crafters and cosy laid back casual and for that kind of gamer its heaven. For hard core raiders and pvp'ers its boring as hell but that is how its supposed to be.

Its a good example of how games should not try to be too broad in their target audience but instead find a niche and then exploit it 100%.

My theory is because Lotro is a boring game.