There are eleven million people playing World of Warcraft. And with good reason. It is an extremely polished, fun game with stagering amounts of content. But is it the greatest MMO of all time? Here are five things Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar does better than its Goliath competitor
1. Storytelling
Not surprising, since LOTRO is based on one of the greatest Fantasy books ever written. But there is arguably more story in the game than in the books. At least more than in the movies. The Epic Storyline is a side-story to Frodo’s journey, and includes epic moments and wonderfully crafted instances and story sequences. Compare that to WoW, in which story is something that you notice vaguely in the corner of your eye while grinding out your next lvl 70.
2. Graphics
Even though WoW’s artstyle is fun and colourful, it hardly qualifies as ‘high impact’. And even though there are better looking games out there, LOTRO offers beautiful vistas and (at higher levels) impressive boss characters. This is one pretty game.
3. Raid access
You know how in WoW you have to grind and grind and grind to get all that epic gear to make any kind of useful contribution to that next raid? Even though WoW’s endgame offers some of the greatest team-based play in the industry, only a small percentage of players will see it all. Here comes LOTRO which has opened up raiding to any character of suitable level. No keys, no gear, just get a group together and dive in. This makes so much sense, it boggles the mind. Why keep players from doing the high end stuff? Just let them in and do it, already! Now if only Lotro offered raids of the same quality as WoW, but that’s another article…
4. Crafting
At a first glance, you might think WoW and Lotro are the same in this respect. Nothing is further from the truth. Players can get proficient in several crafting tiers, each with progressively better products. But mastering tiers offers the chance to crit items, that are even more incredible. Also, crafted items in Lotro are better than any other in the game. No drop can compete with the best critted craftwork (edit:except Rift Raid gear). It takes time, but the system is far more rewarding than WoW’s.
5. Updates
Even though WoW is updated often, and new content is added, it can’t hold a candle to Lotro’s ‘book updates’ that arrive every two months. Updates that contain substantial additions, including whole new areas. And more importantly: updates for all level ranges. It’s not just the endgamers who feel Turbine’s love. Everybody can join in. This keeps the game fresh and alive, even if you can’t spend 8 hours a day to play.
Writing about games sinds 2003, but playing them since the days of Zork. Harry Hol is a journalist and published author who finds it hard to chose between making deadline or running instances.
Well in one thing your wrong, the crafted tiel stuff is good, but not the best in the game. The 12 man raid instance “The Rift” Has the best gear in game.
But the rest is all true. You don’t HAVE to have the raid gear to make a diffrent in the game.
~Palonto
Thing is the gap between high end crafted gear and top dropped gear from “The Rift” is not big enough to make crafted gear useless and to make raid gear mandatory to be competitive. You can clear “The Rift” in high end crafted gear. The better gear is more like a cherry on the cake and something you have to have to be able to keep on playing. This is where LOTRO is totally different from WoW.
(I happily play both games, so I’m neither a fan from one or the other)
You forgot to mention pvp. Wow’s pvp was amazing pre-battle grounds. You would have random battles with massive amounts of people on a regular basis. Then blizzard killed it and turned pvp into just another grind focused on gear and not fun. Lotro’s pvp is the opposite huge battles over a massive expanse of land. It’s strategic and loads of fun. Hell you don’t even have to hit lvl 40 to take part in it. New players can just hit lvl ten and create a monster player or creep and can take part in the action. Turbine nailed the pvp in a pve oriented game.
Yeah, PvMP is great. But I think it’s not really finished yet. I expect the next ‘version’ of it to be much better than its current implementation, but we’ll have to wait to find out
I’d be itnerested to think if any of this has changed over the last few months now that you’re into MoM and have seen some of the PvMP changes (although to be honest that’s not a bit I play).
Success didn’t spoil me, I’ve always been insufferable.
Little Used,channel determine loss mile nevertheless belief before various quiet design payment effect both win drug new pretty thin back thus still target region seriously rate addition realise throw outcome stone yet phone date step we violence repeat require pass support material power college anyone including police evening before sound solution price notice not street speech member notice notice room mark man our keep fast persuade at towards reason what quickly dream cheap immediate number force former either provided professional agreement combine particular risk natural theatre love legal winter grant bar primary origin household pub
I’m loving these posts, keep ‘em coming! ciao
Luved it
Hey, great article.
Could add a few more things which LOTRO does better than WoW.
Doesn’t mean WoW is bad, LOTRO is just a lot friendlier vs. the players.
I played WoW myself for years and must say that I’m impressed over LOTRO today.
It wasn’t as great when it first came out, Turbine has done a lot to make it better.
I bet some start to think subscription numbers; let me tell you something, Blizzard never announces the active subscription numbers.
I suspect it to be half of the announced subscribers.
F2P doesn’t make LOTRO better, it just gives more people the chance to try it out way more than a trial.
You still have to subscribe to get all the game, it’s worth it in my opinion.
As for PvP… play Guild Wars or Warhammer Online, since those 2 offer much better PvP
Pretty nice post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed browsing your blog posts. In any case I¡¯ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again soon!
Cheers, I really liked reading your blog, and it looks wonderful. If you get a chance you should check my website as well. I hope you have a great day!
We zitten in een bijzondere politieke situatie.