Ashmaele
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What could LOTRO do to become an MMO contender once again?
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Seems like that IP is going to waste big time. What could they do to make it suck less and people play more? I leveled a dorf to 5 and then quit and never bothered with it again, just waaaaay to boring.
Would meaningful PVP save it or does not need to be scrapped and redone from scratch a la the Star Wars franchise?
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Elocism
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What could LOTRO do to become an MMO contender once again?
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i submit that there are no MMO contenders if you are trying to compare everything to WoW
there is WoW, and then there are successful niche games. LotRO is a successful niche game
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Vydor
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What could LOTRO do to become an MMO contender once again?
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I love the music system, that's what keeps me playing. I think if they did have some kind of PvP other than monster, it would be my game of choice hands down. I really like how the game is put together.
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Ashmaele
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What could LOTRO do to become an MMO contender once again?
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Elocism posted:
i submit that there are no MMO contenders if you are trying to compare everything to WoW
there is WoW, and then there are successful niche games. LotRO is a successful niche game
Yeah good points.
I honestly thought it was going to be the next great thing. My entire guild left DAOC for it at launch and I know a few other guilds that did the same.
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Eager_Igraine
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What could LOTRO do to become an MMO contender once again?
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LotRO is a fun mmo that I still play. There are only a handful of mmos that I've found worthwhile over the years and it is definitely one of them. I believe WoW will continue to define the fantasy genre and dominate the mmo world until someone revolutionizes either the tech (graphics, etc.) or the mechanics.
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Groucho48
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What could LOTRO do to become an MMO contender once again?
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As far as I can tell LOTRO is doing just fine. SWTOR is currently my main game but I still log into LOTRO on occasion. Always a fair number of players on.
The game has been around long enough and has had enough expansions that there is plenty of content. I think that's a big issue for a lot of new games...keeping your starter players around long enough that you can afford to do lots of content updates. That's the situation SWTOR is currently facing. Lots of max level characters, not a whole lot for max level characters to do. And, except for the class story lines, not much variety in leveling up alts. They all have to do the exact same quests.
They've also done a decent job of listening to the players and of balancing the conflicting demands of solo players, casual groups, raiders, crafters, RP players, PvP players and lore fanatics and such.
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Yukishiro1
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What could LOTRO do to become an MMO contender once again?
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LOTRO has two problems (as well as a lot of good parts).
1. It has a weak starting experience, at least if you arn't a big LOTRO fan. It wasn't bad when it came out but over the years other MMOs have retrofitted their starting experiences and LOTRO hasn't so it feels out of date. The first time I started the game I quite within an hour and didn't come back for years, only to really enjoy it when I did.
2. The game is much, much better where it connects up with the books heavily, and much, much more boring when it doesn't. In practical terms, the game takes a turn for the worse around leve 25-30, and doesn't really get better again until level 50 when you get to moria.
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Ashmaele
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What could LOTRO do to become an MMO contender once again?
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Yukishiro1 posted:
2. The game is much, much better where it connects up with the books heavily, and much, much more boring when it doesn't.
I agree with this. I rolled a dorf and played in that area of the Blue Mountains or wherever and I found myself disinterested in the environment, though I didn't really know why. You posting this made it dawn on me: Nothing in the books really took place here.
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-Ducky-
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What could LOTRO do to become an MMO contender once again?
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Elocism posted:
i submit that there are no MMO contenders if you are trying to compare everything to WoW
there is WoW, and then there are successful niche games. LotRO is a successful niche game
I like LOTRO for all the things it has that WoW doesn't. I haven't played it in ages because I have been busy. I resubbed to Wow this weekend because I got a scroll of resurrection and a free level 80. I might play for a bit. The thing that keeps me interested in WoW is my friends, the PvP, and the graphics (I like cartoony stuff). I have like one friend in LOTRO, there is essentially no PvP, and the graphics aren't really cartoony in the same WoW sense.
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Z-Elder
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What could LOTRO do to become an MMO contender once again?
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I think a game really has only one chance and if they blow it they can't just add on and regain their subs. Starting a game when people are 50, 60, or 80 levels above you just doesn't work. Playing with their alts and buzzing through content by being run through or power leveled destroys a game, unless of course their is great PvP at the end of it.
As was said LOTRO died at about level 32. No matter what they do if you return at level 30-40 you are playing in deserted lands.
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Eager_Igraine
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What could LOTRO do to become an MMO contender once again?
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I'm not sure I completely agree Z, but I certainly agree that it is hard for a game to recover from initial failures.
One of the things I think LotRO has done fairly well is not over-expand in the lower levels. One of the mistakes I think DAoC (and EQ as well) made was creating lots of new noob content that turned the lower level areas into ghost towns of boring and turning off late arrivals. LotRO seems to have only added mid and high end content, and at the same time they seem to have revamped a lot of the quest setups so it is easier to find stuff to do.
The example I noticed recently was they seem to have added a central figure to the various areas who then tells you to go help all these other folks who have quest lines that you might not find easily. And doing those quests gets you added rewards from the new guy. Much friendlier than before for folks unfamiliar with the game / zones.
I have heard people complain about the 30-40 content and getting stuck, etc., but I haven't had that problem myself so I dunno. otoh, I haven't explored grouping too much, so it is possible those become harder to find osemthin.
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Yukishiro1
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What could LOTRO do to become an MMO contender once again?
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It's not so much you get stuck as the game takes a sharp turn away from the LOTRO story in those levels. You end up in a bunch of locations that are maybe only mentioned once in the books in passing if at all. They are good enough for what they are but they lack the excitement of playing in areas you recognize from the books and movies and the repetition of the underlying gameplay becomes more apparent. I have two or three characters in the 30s and I always seem to lose interest around there. I think my highest is about 40 but it really burnt me out just to get to 40.
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ZigmundZag
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What could LOTRO do to become an MMO contender once again?
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They milked the crap out of the expansions and people lost interest. FFS, is the main storyline quest even into The Two Towers yet? I think I remembers seeing something about an Orthanc expansion awhile back.
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Yukishiro1
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What could LOTRO do to become an MMO contender once again?
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Moria was fantastic according to everyone I've heard talk about it. Mirkwood was bad apparently. Mainly because again it's an area that has little resonance with the main story.
I've heard the new one is not as big as it should have been but ties in interestingly with the two towers storyline.
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