Lord of the Rings online

[<ankh>]

It's a good looking game, but most cases the game looks different once you sit down to play it yourself. I would also prefer a game that doesnt require you to buy £1000 of new hardware. (Gameplay > Graphics). The fact that they put lots of chars from the books into the game doesnt really make it attractive imo...it does rather the opposite. I would prefer if they just took the world, classes and creatures/races and made a mmorpg based on it (using the books as background...they could mention the npc's from the books in the story even...but adding the chars might bring the game down)

/Ankh

[Arcsalin]

I think this game will take some of the portion from WoW and Mythic's dominance along with some of the current DDO players as that doesn't offer much ie get level 10 then reroll a new char and start the same adventures over and over again. Although that said, DDO showed how to gain the best utility out of a rogue character i've seen yet on an mmorpg ie adopting what eidos did with Thief (roxx game xD ) and putting it to use in an mmorpg - pity mythic still haven't got the hint on that one and made daoc a better game with this particular base class =/

The pvp will entice a good portion too depending on what it is and how they are going to implement it which as yet they've not said.

I like the way they have handled the class system, it seems fairly logical to me. The only down side that I can see at this moment in time is that you cannot roll an orc or any races from the dark forces of middle earth. That in itself is a pity as it would tend to highlight the pvp aspect in theory at least to a better pinnacle.

[Arcsalin]

[quote="Gandelf"]It's bound to attract a lot of subscribers, just because it's Lord of the Rings. I will certainly give it a go.

I'm a little dissapointed that there are no Mage/Wizard classes, because those are my favourite type, but as they say, Wizards are very few and far between in Middle Earth. If nothing else, it will stop players moaning about overpowered casters! ]


If you read the notes on the site Gandy, they wanted this game to be primaril y melee which in itself suggests that there will be a better all round balance to it which mythic failed and continue (like will forever) to do so. So the balance in the game itself should bring more people to it.

[Ovi]

Mythic is too far down the road with DAoC to re-balance it I think, certainly in terms of changing stealthers significantly. I am hoping that they learn their lessons from DAoC, and seeing what others have done (DDO, WOW, LOTR if it's out first), for Warhammer. That is, imo, the time when we find out just how much Mythic is learning!

Whilst being Melee orientated means it will be easier to balance, (having only 2 sides makes it even easier), it does raise the question of the variety of tactics and therefore the long lasting appeal.

I am always weary of game graphics until I can see them for myself. Often I find that the game doesn't look half as good on my PC as it does in any pre-release publicity, if only because I am not rich enough to replace my graphics card every 6 months with a new £300 one.

The recent release of Oblivion is a classic example of that, it can look absolutely fantastic, but to be playable on my machine, it looks no better than many other games. Not that it really bothers me, I am with Ankh in that gameplay > Graphics.

The characters from the book can be good, as long as they don't have too much involvement in the game. I thought the way swg used the film chars as quest starting NPC worked fine.

Talking of SWG, whatever this game turns out like, at least it's not run by SOE who can manage to kill any game

[Arcsalin]

I always was gameplay before graphics, thus my first home computer was a zx 48k spectrum ;D

But said that though, there does appear to be alot of game play in it, it seems that turbine are trying to create DDO with added extras on lotro and ofc the pvp which got the resoundedly no vote on DDO itself and quite rightly so as the class system is too unbalanced (and should stay that way) for that type of game.

From what I've read also about this game, it wasn't meant to last, the interest itself will lie in the following two series of the book and then the silmarillion. How they quite will implement that one does wonder, however, they don't as yet have the rights to publish the future games, so again this is all hypothetical and should remain so till they do get the rights to sequels.

[Arcsalin]

Whilst being Melee orientated means it will be easier to balance, (having only 2 sides makes it even easier), it does raise the question of the variety of tactics and therefore the long lasting appeal.

Well thought out comment, although indeed this bit intrigues me as they haven't made any commitments to how they are going to define the pvp. It wouldn't surprise me if there were a few jack in the boxes here and perhaps something original also. Keep holding that breath

[Gandelf]

The only down side that I can see at this moment in time is that you cannot roll an orc or any races from the dark forces of middle earth. That in itself is a pity as it would tend to highlight the pvp aspect in theory at least to a better pinnacle.

It would be nice to be able to play a character on the side of Sauron... a wraith... Orc... or whatever. The only problem I see with that is it would make it too much like WoW.

[Arcsalin]

lord of the rings story/content > wow and always will be, WoW is just a second rate story really for those that couldn't have lotoro

and iirc lord of the rings was first anyways, WoW is just a hybrid, i can think of many other games i could make from other great fantasy stories that would outstrip WoW into third or less nothingness

[Gandelf]

I'd choose LotR any day over anything else, but the fact is that WoW has a huge fan base already. It has two opposing factions with Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Orcs and Trolls... all of which feature in Tolkien lore.

So, I think that LotRO would struggle to draw players from other online games if it resembled them too closely. I think, therefore, that by following the story of the Fellowship in the LotR and forcing players to align themselves with the free races of Middle Earth, LotRO will attract players merely because it's different than the rest.

But, it's still early days yet and no-one really knows how things will turn out.

[Shi]

hey,
i watched the trailer from their webbie some time ago and i must say characters models for me look really really ugly
and altho i never played warhammer stuff, im looking forward for the warhammer online.
Imo LoTR lore alone is no guarantee of success at all, look at SW Galaxies , and what a flop it was when released.

and by the way guys, if you're LoTR fans, atm im playing a turn based rpg called LoTR: 3rd Age, great game really, a console game only tho.

S.
ps. WoW pvp sucks big time and i would start worrying if i was blizzard, ppl dont have infinite patience