I let my account expire with LOTR 3 days ago to give AoC a shot. I figured no sense in paying another $15 in case AoC was actually decent.

Anyway, before I left I wanted to gauge potential interest in Conan from players in LOTR. I chatted with folks in Bree, Angmar, and that new area (i cant spell it).

The conversations got pretty detailed and heated in some cases. I was surprised to learn that AoC has mirrored instancing for all zones (100 player cap). Others of course claimed that AoC was the next great MMO. Overall, I found it 50/50 on positive opinions of AoC.

I get the feeling that most of the AoC players are going to come from WoW. AoC and WoW are much more similiar than LOTR is (except the graphics). If you've followed forums for AoC both here and at their official forums, well lets just say its not been pretty. Boobs + Blood + FFA servers = immature players.

LOTR Ive found seems to have more adult gamers than most MMO's. Certainly more than WoW. So Im guessing AoC will have very little impact on LOTR's numbers.

As for me, Im still waiting to get into AoC but I suspect I will be back in a few months. No MMO can keep my interest for longer than 3 months, not since Star Wars Galaxies anyway

nope. none. One ring to rule them all...  There is no AOC instansing morpg... blood doesnt mean mature either..

well, I tried the open beta for AoC and preordered a copy. However, LOTRO is more my type of game. I really don't think there will be a huge loss to LOTRO to AoC as they really are just different types of games. And for those who play LOTRO (like myself) they will probably play AoC to enhance their gameplay options, not to replace them.

I think Lotro could loose some players to AoC, but not many. Personally I'm a Lotro lifetimer because I'm a Tolkien freak, but I hate the graphical style and also to some extent the cookiecutter gameplay. On the other side I LOVE the graphical style of AoC and I've always wanted to build my own city, so when I get my new computer in house and try AoC, well, I'm not sure if I can manage to go back to teletubbie land and autoattack.

I might add that I have a bit different view of Lotr than the Christian 40 year old woman who plays Lotro, Middle-earth isn't a teletubbie land without blood. Like AoC Lotr is a different story of our world around 10000 years ago, and while Lotr certainly is high fantasy it isn't as prudish as some Lotr players make it out to be. In my opinion a graphical style inspired by AoC (with more Pvp options..) would have been perfect for Lotro. Alas, it didn't work out that way.

I think it will have an effect on all games. Populations won't be getting any bigger in LoTRO until Moria comes out.

The latest news out form the AoC website, the game will not be shipped on launch with DX10.

DX10 version is being worked on, for release "later" this year.

I migrated from playing EQ2 for 3 years to LOTRO. I just cannot fault the graphics........beautiful game.

DX10 makes hell of a difference.

i was in the the beta and open beta of lotro..i hoped it was the next best thing since wow, but sadly i was mistaken and i played it for a year just to kill time until AoC came out. the game is appealing to older mmo players and its a slow dull game, i lvl'd 3 chars to 50 and each time i was bored the whole way through.

just a rant i know. but if im any indicator of your average long term lotro player (and there are alot of them) i fell...and hope they find somthing new like i did in AoC

hardcore since pong

Since the free pass event, the past few days, there was a good boom in population, if those players after that free period continue to play and subscribe is yet to be seen.

I've haven't even read any chatter in LotRO ooc channel about aoc and that is a great sign for this game, cause people are content with the contant inside LotRO and they all seem eager to continue the great adventure along side Frodo, Sam and many others 

I have a Lotro account and while i like the game, Ive never been a tolkein fan and cant get into the rp there feel so limited.  But lotro was the best polished game out there and was alot easier on my system. While conan looks great and I love the conan stories I do wish there was less instancing think they could have given up just a tiny bit on the graphics and helped with instancing and other people to play that cant afford new setups especially with the way the economy is now. Anyways went a little off topic think Lotro will lose some players to aoc but not too many most people on Lotro are diehard tolkein fans and would be hard to get anything to seperate  them from that

Been logged in for about 8 hrs today. The chat channels were as busy as ever, lots of people running around. Still seeing competition for quest mobs in Forochel.

I think that the players who always game hop when something new comes out will flock to AoC. But, LOTRO is a year old, so those players probably left LOTRO a long time ago. So I don't expect it will make much of a dent in the player numbers.

Im in a LotRO Clan on XFire. The last few days their have been more people playing AoC than LotRO (when its up).

Originally posted by discipline

i was in the the beta and open beta of lotro..i hoped it was the next best thing since wow, but sadly i was mistaken and i played it for a year just to kill time until AoC came out. the game is appealing to older mmo players and its a slow dull game, i lvl'd 3 chars to 50 and each time i was bored the whole way through.

 

just a rant i know. but if im any indicator of your average long term lotro player (and there are alot of them) i fell...and hope they find somthing new like i did in AoC

 

hardcore since pong

There are surely more rewarding activities than  playing a boring and dull game. (?!) And you are one in the statistic making LOTRO the "success" that it is and causing other game dev teams to copy this "boring and dull" game design.

Not only have you wasted a year of free time but also sent the signal out that its fine as it is.

Very strange.

I think short term its going to have a negative effect on LotrOs population. Alot of people want to try something new and get a change of scenery.  Bok 13 didnt bring much new for lvl 50 players so they have no new content to play with.

But Im thinking that long term maybe AoC and also WAR will have a postitive effect! These new hyped games will create population movement in the MMO market. Some of theese people leaving for example WoW that is looking for a solid PvE or RP experience will perhaps move to Middle-earth :)

and who doesnt whant to explore Moria?? (retorical question btw)

I think it'll be like any other game release.

There might be a dip in population for a bit while people go to check AoC out. Some will like it and stay... they'll say so on forums or elsewhere, people will read it and say "OMG everyone's leaving LoTRO for AoC!"

In reality... people will try it, if they like it they'll stay. Some will find it's simply not to their liking and give it up before their first billing.

I think you have to wait 'til at l