I stopped playing WoW when I reached end game and found it was focused exclusively on gear, PvP,  and 1000-man raids.  Some people like this.  Me not so much.  Another big factor was the maturity of the community.  Playing Wow was like hanging out at a noisy elementary school playground.  Not everyone was 10-yrs-old, but most people acted like they were.  Come to think of it, that's what probably pushed me to finally close my account. 

Lotro is about the experience of submersion, exploration and storyline.  The community is very helpful, friendly, and like-minded.  It's just a totally different crowd and style of game.  But I realize it's not for everyone.  Manic PvP'ers and power/gear hounds will likely be bored to tears.    

Originally posted by Xasapis

I suppose MMOs are like cars. The all look similar and the basic principles of driving are pretty much the same. You can also claim that all cars are clones of x model in the past. Thing is, despite their many similarities, what separate them is their differences. I think the analogy works pretty well in MMOs as well.

Thats exactly the problem. Every MMO is a family sedan. We're all playing cars. The differences between MMOs shouldn't be like the slight differences between different cars, but should be like the difference between a car, an SUV, a motor cycle, a pickup truck, a semi. All are very different from each other, all specialize at something, all are wanted by different people. The companies should be trying to fill the niches that are missing a product to call their own, not constantly flooding the market with more and more sedans.

You can call it a clone if you like. It's nonsense and it's besides the point but I'm not going to waste my time explaining why when so many others have done it before so much better. It's #1 because a lot of people voted for it. Any other questions?

Originally posted by Orb90

Originally posted by JGMIII

Alright Mr. one post.

Lotro is as far from a WoW clone as you could get.

Combat system is different, classes are different, endgame is small group focused, Lotro has near no pvp system. Graphics are totally different style.

Crafting in Lotro is more complex, Lotro has a housing system.

Anyone who thinks Lotro is a wow clone is a clueless newb.

 

 

That's incredible. 

 

Let me start out by saying I've only played LOTRO for a few days, and I've played WoW for over a year.

 

1. "combat system is different" Really? The only difference is that the pretty little squares on your toolbar look different. The combat system could not be any more similar.

2. "Classes are different" I'm pretty sure that if LOTRO came out with the same exact classes, Blizzard would have grounds for a lawsuit. You can make a tank, mage, rouge, healer-DPS guy, hunter, it's all the same

3. "Graphics are totally different style" This is true. WoW is slightly cartoon-ish, while LOTRO attempts realism. I don't count this as a significant difference though.

 

As far as housing, pvp and endgame, I have not gotten to those parts of the game yet.

 

Even so, nearly every aspect being identical to WoW definitely makes it a WoW clone. Sorry.

          You arent missing much with loTROs housing, PvP and end game.....most people tend not to like any of those elements in LoTRO anyway......To me LoTRO felt just like I was playing WoW in a different skin......I think the better way instead of calling it a wow clone is to call it easy mode MMO......While the games may look different both are way too easy and not very challenging........You get greater rewards fro taking MRs Hobbitface a pie than yopu do for killing 1000000 trolls.......The game has some nice features but they get old very quickly and it just didnt feel like a long term game to me either......I lasted a little over a month before giving it up out of sheer boredom......

Originally posted by Shorun

The human race is a monkey clone too.

Ever heard of the word evolution? No?

Your analogy is flawed:

Scientific evolution occurred/is occurring very slowly, taking millions of years for any noticable change to take place. The "evolution" of gaming is very fast. Look at Pong, one of the first video games, which came into existence just 37 years ago. We've come a long way in a very short time.

Humans are definitely not monkey clones. They descended from apes (which, though in the same order, are very different from monkeys), but are still completely different.

If evolution happened because species were being cloned, nothing would ever change. Clones are exact replicas, not just descendants.

When I say "WoW clone," by the way, I'm not referring to the strictest definition of the word. I'm saying it's a little too similar to WoW for my liking.

WoW might be a very good game but hasnt invented anything new but took the elements of existing MMOs and became a major success. If anything you may want to call WoW an Everquest clone.

Every MMO available on the market is targeted at a playerbase. LOTRO for one is targeted on the casual player, WoW is targeted at  a more hardcore (through time investment) crowd.

i fail to see the comparison.... LOTRO is WAY more boring to play then WoW :P

and no, im not playing either one of these games, im playing EQ2 to kill time atm, but cmon WoW people, your game didn't invent the genre so stop treating it like everythings a copy of it. 

Originally posted by slntnsnty

Don't you all have some reputation to farm?

Because farming deeds isn't an even more boring version of farming rep, amirite?

I think the lack of an opposing set of player races, and compared to most mainstream mmo's, and especially WoW, no pvp, has removed the more... antagonistic... players from the game that give it a much friendlier, playable feel than WoW. Combine that with the only other mmo (imo) as polished as WoW and you've got a winner.

Short version: WoW without as many assholes.

Originally posted by Katilla

i fail to see the comparison.... LOTRO is WAY more boring to play then WoW :P

 

and no, im not playing either one of these games, im playing EQ2 to kill time atm, but cmon WoW people, your game didn't invent the genre so stop treating it like everythings a copy of it. 

Yes, but its still fair to say, given WoW's domination of the market, that anyone coming after WoW looks to it, not EQ as the standard to be compared to, if your goal is making a mainstream mmo.

Ah I love threads like this! :)

It atracts the haters like moth to the flame! Must feel bitter that 2 years after launch LotrO is still alive and well, and is still considered one of best MMOs out there :)

Originally posted by Papadam

Ah I love threads like this! :)

It atracts the haters like moth to the flame! Must feel bitter that 2 years after launch LotrO is still alive and well, and is still considered one of best MMOs out there :)

Never understood why anyone would feel bitter about a game. If you like it, play it. If you don't like it, don't play it. I enjoyed Lotro for a while but I admit that I got bored as well, it was nothing I could put my finger on, it just didn't grab me if that makes sense?

Anyway, more power to you guys who do love the game, keep on enjoying it!

Originally posted by trancejeremy

It's not a WoW clone, it's both WoW and LOTRO are heavily inspired by Everquest.

Anyway, it's a combination of a few factors. One, it's got a lot of Middle Earth fans who probably have never played anything else. Secondly, it's got a lot of snobs that like to look down on WoW, who are basically willfully ignorant. They want to play WoW, but don't want to be seen as uncool mainstream gamers, so they play LOTRO instead and bash WoW. And thirdly, Turbine encourges people to vote on polls and such (I guess all companies do).

Mr know all, I happened to have 3 lifetime memberships accounts, and yet plays WoW as well.  You have problem seeing that people can enjoy multiple things at the same time?

Originally posted by Variant13

Originally posted by Papadam

Ah I love threads like this! :)

It atracts the haters like moth to the flame! Must feel bitter that 2 years after launch LotrO is still alive and well, and is still considered one of best MMOs out there :)

 

Never understood why anyone would feel bitter about a game. If you like it, play it. If you don't like it, don't play it. I enjoyed Lotro for a while but I admit that I got bored as well, it was nothing I could put my finger on, it just didn't grab me if that makes sense?

Anyway, more power to you guys who do love the game, keep on enjoying it!

That makes perfect sense.  To me.
 

I bought 3 lifetime membership for family.  At the end of the year, we all stopped loggin in.  We still resub CoX on and off, we tried DAoC trials for a few times but population too low, we still play WoW.  Somehow LOTRo failed to keep us loggin on.

LotRO is well put together, casual MMORPG, that just happens to have a great storyline behind it.

Like was mentioned before, it attracts a more mature crowd.

Now, if a person is looking for those things, plus can get into and follow the storyline/Books, then LotRO is THE game to play.

Besides that, Monster play is a fun, different take on PvP.

WoW clone?

LoL, it's just the latest buzz-word.

That's my .02c on it anyways.

Played both for quite a while, currently playing EVE, but I still log into LOTRO when I get the craving to see my char and run arround the world.

LOTRO is not a WoW clone. They are in some ways similar and follow some same principles, but somewhere along the way they branch.

LOTRO has a more involving storyline, especialy if you are the fan of the book and lore behind it. Combat is slower and less fluid, but at the same time more tactical, which suits my taste. Each class has it's approach to combat which is unique ( guardian for example having the branching skills where you use one skill to unlock another and that one to unlock something else etc. Warden having gambits which are in essence skills that you unlock by doing a series of normal moves - takes some thinking in advance and there is a big chance of error the more complicated they get. Captain, being a great support class that can fill holes and do things that nobody really notices, but overall they make the group work so much smoother, plus they can temporarily take different roles etc. Maybe to some people the slower combat is not attractive, but for lots of us it is, especialy once you start picking up the subtleties.

If we forget about poly-count, world of LOTRO is so much more involving. Try putting ambient sounds on max and combat and rest on as high as comfortable (which is how I think the game shines best) ... then go and walk into the marshes and listen to all the sounds arround you while you move arround. Whitness the clouds and storm hanging over shire stretching miles infront of you, and then see the rainbow over the hill as the rain goes away and sun comes out. Birds flying over the sky, deer running away from you as you wander through the woods. Go to the small dock in needlehole and look into the water on a sunny day and see the catfish swimming in the green water beneath. - If you don't love the world of lotro you can never understand it.

Community while smaller, is more relaxed and less powergaming oriented because of the nature of the game, and while there are extremes in all cases, in general I think the game encourages powergaming and purple-hunting a lot less.

They are the same genre, both leveling PVE focused games (one more than the other), and they both use the basic standard MMO control and UI scheme. This is where the similarities pretty much end in my oppinion.

 Any game can be a clone since most mmorpgs share the same basic features. Linear game play the holy trio in a fellowshio setting.

  However lotr for me is more casual type of game play. I did learn a lesson never do the life time subscription again.

   The thing i hated most about lotr more experaince given when completing quests then just finding a area to grind. The deeds added latter helped with that situation. But still would like the exp questing verses grinding looked at.

    Wow does exp much better ( in my opinion)

Originally posted by mnkymn161

Originally posted by trancejeremy

It's not a WoW clone, it's both WoW and LOTRO are heavily inspired by Everquest.

I suppose that may be true, though I never got into Everquest. As I do with all MMO's, I started out with the trial (of Everquest 2), which was very limited and disappointing. I've thought about checking it out again, but haven't gotten around to it....

Back on topic, I've found that I can't even occupy myself with LOTRO for the extent of the 14-day trial. There's nothing specific about it that I don't like, but I just... get bored with it. I've tried it severtal tims, too, hoping that I would stay entertained the whole time, but to no avail. Does this happen to anyone else?

This is why the trial are for: you try the game, you know if you like it or not. As you say, the game is nothing special. Is a good and fun game, but like any other mmorpg in the market, is fun as far as you get fun playing it.

It's a wow-clone?. Well, the game its a wow clone, because any game full of quest and based on clases as of today is called a wow clone. But you need to know something, someone pointed it out already. wow is a everquest clone too. Every mmorpg will share similarities with wow and wow will share similarities with any other mmorpg, is just wow is the one most played today.

Why is number 1? Because a lot of people rated it high, its just a score in a website.

Originally posted by mnkymn161

First off, I'd like to mention that all I've done is the 14-day trial, so I'm in no way an expert on LOTRO. I may not have played enough to be fully immersed in the game, but I felt like sharing my thoughts nonetheless.

 

As the title states, I don't think this game should have such a high rating. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against it (I've been a Tolkien fan ever since I learned to read, and felt that the game perfectly complemented the books and movies); however, I don't think LOTRO is anything special. I could spend all day listing the similarities it has with WoW, but that would get boring, and most of you probably noticed them anyway. Mostly, though, I just thought LOTRO quickly got boring. The graphics are great; they're what drew me in initially. But for anyone who has ever played WoW, or any of its seemingly infinite clones, everything about this game will seem very redundant. In my 14 days of playing, I found absolutely nothing new or innovative. There was definitely nothing worth another $15 a month.

So, does anyone out there agree with me? Feel free to share your thoughts.

world of warcraft was your first mmorpg right ?

Originally posted by Papadam

Ah I love threads like this! :)

It atracts the haters like moth to the flame! Must feel bitter that 2 years after launch LotrO is still alive and well, and is still considered one of best MMOs out there :)

Why would we "haters" feel bitter about that? I feel bitter because both the books and movies are amazing and groundbreaking where as the MMORPG is just another WoW clone targetted towards the casual player (where as the trilogy with its combined 3000 or so pages certainly does not).

LotR does not deserve to have the name Lord of the Rings in it, it is nothing like the books or the movies, except from the looks.

For example, Tolkien created a whole LANGUAGE for the middle earth world that he built up. What the hell has LotR done beside take the basic concept of WoW, tack on a high performance gfx engine and have quests that has some resemblance to the LotR world but nowhere near the depth or atmosphere.

And oh yeah, the conflict between good and evil is between Human vs AI. LOL

Does it deserve the number 1 spot? I dont know ...

But LOTRO is a solid game with a couple of nice innovations, like the deed system and the way they use instancing.

Then they have some features like housing, that WoW does not have and some features that WoW does worse, like crafting.

The story and quests are good, there are sortof epic quests too, which are interesting. The interface works.

The graphics are some of the best you can find in mmo's, especially if you look at quality vs performance. The sound is good.

They also released very polished and with little problems.

The only thing lacking is imho the PvP system, if they had RvR similar to DAoC or WAR, I would probably still play LOTRO.

So imho it deserves a place in the top mmorpg's.

Originally posted by Yamota

Originally posted by Papadam

Ah I love threads like this! :)

It atracts the haters like moth to the flame! Must feel bitter that 2 years after launch LotrO is still alive and well, and is still considered one of best MMOs out there :)

 

Why would we "haters" feel bitter about that? I feel bitter because both the books and movies are amazing and groundbreaking where as the MMORPG is just another WoW clone targetted towards the casual player (where as the trilogy with its combined 3000 or so pages certainly does not).

LotR does not deserve to have the name Lord of the Rings in it, it is nothing like the books or the movies, except from the looks.

For example, Tolkien created a whole LANGUAGE for the middle earth world that he built up. What the hell has LotR done beside take the basic concept of WoW, tack on a high performance gfx engine and have quests that has some resemblance to the LotR world but nowhere near the depth or atmosphere.

And oh yeah, the conflict between good and evil is between Human vs AI. LOL

nice try buddy , but lotro is a good take on what middle earth would be maybe try playing the game and you would see too , no it's not perfect but what mmorpg is ?

Pvp does not make a game good or bad , just because the free peoples are not directly fighting the forces of mordor as different class does not qualify the game as bad this is not Wow .

Been playing since beta and i have not seem a more polished and well made mmorpg to date .

incase you didnt know most fantasy games were inspired by tolkien world :P

Originally posted by Yamota

Originally posted by Papadam

Ah I love threads like this! :)

It atracts the haters like moth to the flame! Must feel bitter that 2 years after launch LotrO is still alive and well, and is still considered one of best MMOs out there :)

 

Why would we "haters" feel bitter about that? I feel bitter because both the books and movies are amazing and groundbreaking where as the MMORPG is just another WoW clone targetted towards the casual player (where as the trilogy with its combined 3000 or so pages certainly does not).

LotR does not deserve to have the name Lord of the Rings in it, it is nothing like the books or the movies, except from the looks.

For example, Tolkien created a whole LANGUAGE for the middle earth world that he built up. What the hell has LotR done beside take the basic concept of WoW, tack on a high performance gfx engine and have quests that has some resemblance to the LotR world but nowhere near the depth or atmosphere.

And oh yeah, the conflict between good and evil is between Human vs AI. LOL

Are you trying to say that the movies were a piece of art not targetted at mass market? I can hardly think of more mass market popcorn director than Peter Jackson. (NO! Michael Bay IS NOT A DIRECTOR).

A clone to me would be taking WoW, putting your own name to it and trying to market it as your own. Which is not what other companies have done in this case, so how you can say a certain game is a clone is beyond me. Secondly "EVERY" game takes aspects of previous games that they like and add it to their game because they think people will like it as well. Good example of this is Runes Of Magic who in an article openly admitted they took aspects of other games and mixed it into their game. Now that don't make it a clone by far, just a game who's company liked certain idea's a game before it had. I've played both games and don't see a flat out clone, somethings maybe similar, but by no means does that make it a clone. Anyone else here notice how whenever a new game comes out or an exsisting game is played by a WoW fan they quicky run to a forum and post "WoW Clone". Anyone who says WoW clone whether they play WoW, use to play WoW or never played WoW is a complete and total idiot and needs to get a life. Personally i can't wait to see the phrase WoW Clone die, heck few people even had the nerve to say Voyage Century Online was a WoW clone and attempted to say why, shows how ignorant "some" of these WoW fans can be. My suggestion, learn your game history first before you think about throwing around such a pointless word.

Originally posted by dhayes68

Originally posted by Katilla

i fail to see the comparison.... LOTRO is WAY more boring to play then WoW :P

 

and no, im not playing either one of these games, im playing EQ2 to kill time atm, but cmon WoW people, your game didn't invent the genre so stop treating it like everythings a copy of it. 

 

Yes, but its still fair to say, given WoW's domination of the market, that anyone coming after WoW looks to it, not EQ as the standard to be compared to, if your goal is making a mainstream mmo.

yeah, too bad EQ1 did it first... i guess we could all say that WoW is an EQ clone!