LoTRO

I have WAY too many things to do when I log into that game and I love that feeling:)

And the visuals and audio in that game are EXCELLENT!! I am instantly soothed and calmed down when I log into that game and that didn't happen to me in AC or WoW.

And the funny thing is I never wanted to play the game! I am the most UN-Tolkien fan there is! I saw a screenshot on this forum when they were taking Beta apps. The SS was so dang pretty! I applied so I could see the Hobbit houses and been playing in it ever since LOL!

Battle Mage in Asheron's Call

I could jump into a group of 12 Olthoi from above and drop them all with about 4 Ring spells:) Melee Defense on a Mage is a beautiful thing :):):)

Originally posted by Shol

Edit:

Just reading that the updater deletes part of the client. Now self destructing mmorpgs are kinda unique I have to admit.

LMAO- you said that so funny!!

1. Gorgeous graphics

2.Overabundance of Solo quests

3. Lotsa time sinks- crafting, deeds, daily's, rep. etc...

4. Mature community

5. PvE based
 

1. Gorgeous graphics

2.Overabundance of Solo quests

3. Lotsa time sinks- crafting, deeds, daily's, rep. etc...

4. Mature community

Originally posted by Nomax5

Last time a read some stats 62% of mmorpg games are playing World of  Warcraft.

For the vast majority of those players WOW is their First mmorpg and you're first mmo like your first Girl / boyfriend. they always have a special place in your heart.

So what if anything is going to knock wow of the top spot?

** Edit

Also I just thought what ever game does take over from WOW will have to be like WOW in order to attract the current players !

 

Nothing will knock WoW off it's throne. It will pull in new Gamers year after year after year. Their sub numbers will continue to grow every year.

Blizzard followed the K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid) theory and became the success they are.  They made a simple game with simple PC requirements and made payments simple to pay without a credit card. They made a game that plays simply marvelous- even on a 5 year old PC( off the shelf with no upgrades).

Look at all the games released since WoW- the good, the bad and the ugly-  all the new games did NOT follow the K.I.S.S. theory.  They raised the bar in the graphics dept. and then the game had higher PC requirements. Some games even had insanely high req as opposed to moderately high.

How many thousands or millions of WoW players do you think tried the Free Trial or Buddy offers from AoC, War, VG and LoTRO and lagged so bad that they went running back to WoW in relief? I know several ppl off the top of my head.

Low PC requirements= Mass Market game

High PC requirements = Niche Market game

Simple as that. 

No game that has stiff PC requirements will ever have 'millions" of players- in my opinion!! Cus there's not "millions" of us gamers with pimped out rigs, of course:)

  It's ALL good!   I'm glad there's a wide variety of MMO's because I neeeeeeed graphics that take my breath away!! Low polygon count ruins my immersion, ya know:)

Originally posted by Evasia

A  MMO thats around time when neanderthals and homosapiens where still roaming the world.

With mammut sabertigers and that kind of animals strugle in a world with nature kind of survial mmo in prehestoric world.

Agree! That's the kind of game I would love to play.

I'm older but I remember a TV show called" Land of the Lost" and that's the kind of game I would LOVE to see get developed. Dinosaurs and tree houses and flaming torches!!!

Prehistoric weapons and Tyranosaures Rex's.....oh my!!!!! Could be a VERY heart pounding experience:)

And OMG- what if flying taradactel (sp) could pick you up with their claws and fly away with you!!!

Originally posted by ghettobooste

I think Turbine did a fantastic job on Lotro and besides Blizzard they would be the #1 company to host another MMO.

I agree with you there. I would buy any future game that those 2 companies put out.

Different kinds of companies but I respect them both for very different reasons. I love Blizzard's game engine and the fluid game play and I love Turbine's high quality in their games and the insanely HUGE free updates.

IF Turbine did launch another MMO- would that be a MMO company record? To have 4 live MMO's online at one time?

Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

Originally posted by Jefferson81

They can't live on LotRO forever and honestly it hasn't done that well.

 

This is incorrect.

Agree with the incorrect statement. It was the #2 MMO in the US in 2007and is either 2 or 3 right now- with Warhammer coming in 2 or 3.

The #2 and # 3 games do not have 12 million subs but that doesn't mean they "haven't done well". They are successes and profitable still.

And LoTRO is critically acclaimed. It might not have 12 million subs but it took so many PC GOTY and MMO GOTY awards that the game is considered a huge success. That's why Warner Brother/Times Warner chose Turbine to develop a game for them. They gave Turbine 40 million last year for development costs. I don't know if it's a MMO or a console game though. I'm hoping it's a console game because the profits are astronomical compared to a MMO. All we know for sure is it's a title that WB has the franchise rights to.

And if it is Harry Potter- it better be for the console because a Harry Potter MMO would be just silly.

I know Turbine doesn't release sub numbers but their European distibutor Codemasters let a number slip in an article. It was an interview with the CEO of Codemaster. He said that LoTRO had 300k in box sales in EU and double that in the US.  So, back in 2007 when this game launched, if they sold 900k boxes- they minimally made 45 million in cash. I say minimally because the guy stated box sales- and I don't know if he was including digital downloads?

So, if Turbine made 45 mill from box sales- wouldn't that cover developmental costs? How many millions would you estimate it took to create LoTRO? Then the sub fees would be their profit and payroll money. Even at 250k-300k subs- that's still 2.5 -3 million dollars in sub fees per month they are pulling in.  That's gotta be profitable.

Originally posted by Lustmord

Originally posted by Ihmotepp

succinctly.

 

I don't know what that word means...

 

So I'm gonna take it as an insult.

LMAO! Thanks for the chuckle!!

Lori:)

I'm still loving LoTRO. I'm a PvE'er and Soloer and it's just the perfect game for me. Plus, I'm an adult and like the ppl that play LoTRO- very mature and kind crowd.

I been playing it since Jan of 07 and only hit a speed bump once. I maxed out 1 HUnter within a few months and got disgruntled. So, I rerolled and made 5 new toons and decided to craft all my own gear and be self sufficient.

That did the trick- a year and a half later and I happily log in every night and have TOO MANY frigging things to do LOL! 

I'm so glad I thought to reroll with a full 5 girl crew. It made me go outside my comfort zone of "only playing Hunters" and I fell in love with the other Classes I tried. I never have been an Altoholic in any game I have played till this one. But they made their Classes very well and it just behooves the players to try them. They are all potent in their own way and that's rare in a MMO to have such strong Classes all across the board.

Safe travels,

Lori

Originally posted by VishiAnand

 

I started playing MMOs back in 2004 when MU online was a great game. I spent about 2 years playing MU in different private servers, about 8-12 hours a day. Our guild became the best in MU Fantastic but when hacks and cheats started to flow in, we decided to quit playing. After that I wondered off with playing WoW for6 months or so but never did actually liked it since its hack-and-slash with auto-attack that I think is to repetitive and dull. Currently though, I've been playing this new F2P MMORPG called Atlantica Online and it's very promising MMO since it's turn-based in battle, political aspect of the game allows you to govern towns and eventually form a country, and the in-game economy stimulates in-game supply and demand type with focus on crafting economy. I would usualy play about the same I did with MU online years ago, about 8-12 hours a day. So you can consider me addicted again to MMOs particularly Atlantica Online.

I have to ask...who pays for the food that you eat and the roof over your head- if you play games 8-12 hours a day?

I suppose there is enough time in a day to work 8 hours, sleep  8 hours and still get in 8 hours of gaming.

OP,

Back in 2003, it took me a WEEK to download Ragnarok Online for my daughter.

Ya

A week

On dial-up AOL.

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!

I'm a mature gamer myself and I would recommend you try LoTRO. It has excellent graphics, great quests and new content every 2-3 months. And yearly expansions are a gamer's dream:)

I played AC for 5 yrs, WoW for 3 months, AoC and War for one month and LoTRO for 2 years. 

 The communities of WoW/AoC and LoTRO are very different. I couldn't leave the chat on in WoW or AoC because of all the racial slurs and pr0n talk. It's like there is no ToS / CoC in those games at all. I don't want to play a game where I have to turn off the chat as soon as I log in.

The community in LoTRO is like  the icing on the cake. The game is a A+ game that is made even better by it's players. I've only had to turn off chat once in 2 years but it was during one of those Open-Beta weekends and the F words were a flying LOL!

And this is the funniest thing! Recant said:

"SOE and Turbine are not established game developers, they're companies with enough resources to build these games... but only Blizzard among the many game developers are actually *true* games developers. "

Turbine and SOE are 2 ( of the 3)  Founding Fathers of the MMO genre LOL! The online games they invented and developed in 1997-2004 are the games that Blizzard blatantly COPIED  when they developed WoW!  It's so ironic that you think Blizzard is a great developer but the two companies that Blizzard steals material from are not "true" developers.

Originally posted by Razephon

Wow. 300k is quite bad. I was expecting this game to maintain 500k.

So if im reading correctly, FFXI is the no. 2 MMO now? Then again they have azn subs as well. Would be interesting to find out their NA/EU pop.

AoC is probably below 150k subs now I would say.

Its quite shameful how both of these games have declined so badly. (WAR/AoC)

I don't see how FF could be #2. Judging by Xfire numbers for the last 24 hours:

WoW- 95 k users

LoTRO- 5 k users

Eve- 4 k users

War- 3 k users

FF X1- 1/2 k or 500 users

 The MMO data charts do have FF at 500 k in 2007 - but that was pre-War, Aoc and LoTRO. I know Xfire isn't total MMO players  but it's the only tool we have to guage what games are being played by Gamers currently- albeit just a small sampling of Gamers that have Xfire installed.

So, WoW and Eve and LoTRO and War would be the top 4. There's no surprises there. WoW will always be number one with Eve and War and Lotro battling it out for the next 3 positions.

It's an excellent game. Just do the $19.99 and try it for the free month. Then , next month do the VG card for a month. Then, go back to WoW with a 30 day card the next month.

Then you won't be bored because watching TV every night just....sux.

OP,

I asked thiat very question on the LOTRO game forums. I was SHOCKED that 8 different Developers took the time to answer my questions about what degree is needed to get HIRED as a Game developer.

It's Software Engineering. All the "Game Developer" colleges are a pipe dream. They want true Engineers for the Developing positions.

It's a 4 yr degree witha  5th year needed for your Master's. My daughter is going for it in Sept/2009. She just got accepted by RIT into their SE program. She will do a minor in Game Deveoping during her 3rd and 4th yr.

Good luck!!

With the stimulus package as it is now- the projected Annual National Deficit for 2009 will be DOUBLE what it was in 2008. IT will add another 1.3 Trillion to the 10.5 trillion we already are in debt :(

I read there is 60 million $ in the Stimulus package for new vehicles for Govt. workers. You've got to be kidding me!!

They are adding SO much pork to this package- that it just shows they haven't learned from their mistakes. Our economy is doing so badly and we are so in debt to China and they keep spending more and more:(

Is there anywhere on the web that people can view the Stimulus package particulars? So, we can see the breakdown of how the money is being spend and what for?

Originally posted by Jackcolt

LMAO!! That was unexpected and funny!!

C'mon now.....let's treat President Obama better than the Dems treated President Bush. Please don't act mean and tacky like they did the last 8 years.

Let's be respectful to our new Commander in Chief. It's the RIGHT thing to do.