LotRO vs Guild Wars vs WoW

[ThrasherFan22]

I have been playing WoW since November off and on. I want to play something other than WoW and a freind of mine bought Guild Wars and told me to try it out. I bought it and played it but wasnt satisfied.

The first thing I didnt like was the player models. Something about them didnt appeal to me. Another was the games questing just felt boring.

Im looking into buying LotRO and stop playing WoW. From what I have heard, the graphics arnt the best of MMOs, but Ive heard alot of pros though. Ones I can name are the storyline. The game dosent precisly follow the Lord of The Rings, because if it did, it wouldnt be an MMO. Another is the featurs that makes the game a more "casual" game and not like WoW that is filled with jerks and hardcore players.

I am not a major FANBOY of the Lord of The Rings but Ido love the books and movies. That is something that makes me want to get this game.

PLEASE discuss the topic and not other games.:wave: :approve:

 

[Bruff]

Hiya. I've been a casual gamer for a while and been playing WoW a lil over a year. My highest toon is a 56 hunter if that tells you how casual. I was in the open beta of LotRO and it impressed me enough to buy the game and get the cheap founder sub at $9.99 per month. I have taken a break from games for a bit though so I haven't been on in a couple of months. What I can say about LotRo though is:

The graphics are good. Not blow you away good but they look stylish, fit very well with the theme and make you feel like you are in Middle Earth. It is not the overstyled look of WoW and it is not what anyone would call glitzy. But the overall look is solid. Some of the animations are a tad goofy bit that happens. I was satisfied there.

The game is very, very quest driven. If you try to level by killing alone it will take forever. Quests do help you level pretty quick though my highest toon is still under 20 and it certainly slows as you get higher. Most of the quests are standard kill 20 XXX or find me 10 XXX but there are enough unique ones to keep it interesting.

It is more group driven than WoW (though what isn't). If you prefer to solo most of the time it could be much more work.

The story and lore is excellent and you get to interact with the characters from the books. As a dwarf I started right away with a minor adventure that involved Gandalf and Gimli. It was a fun way to begin the game.

Repair costs suck (if they haven't fixed that in the last cpl months) especially if you are a tank class like my gaurdian.

Crafting is interesting and you have to interact with others since you pretty much need something to make a peice and you can't often make the part you need yourself. Decide if this is good or bad on your own.

The interface is pretty much the same as WoW (it's simple and it works so no sense reinventing the wheel I guess)

You do not have the chance to be evil char other than the Monster play thing which I haven't tried. All toons are essentially the good guys, Elves, Hobbits, Man, Dwarf.

I did find it entertaining but I tend to drop play time substantially in the summer so, as I said, I haven't logged on in a while. I found it to be a positive experience in the time i have played. Not as easy as WoW so the hope is for less idjits but not so much work it becomes no fun. I may be wrong but I thought there was a trial thing if you wanted to give it a shot before paying though that may have been just at the beginning. I'd recomend giving it a shot.

 

[Diomedes1]

Hi there.

I've just bought LOTRO myself recently. I'd not long got into playing WoW before that; for some reason, after having WoW since about the end of 05, I started getting into it properly at around easter 07. Anyway, I think LOTRO appeals to me more. Whilst I don’t think any MMO beats Guild Wars for team play (which I enjoy), LOTRO, as the above poster said, is more friendly to questing in groups over soloing in, which I like, though it can still be difficult to get a good group to stick with. That was the main thing I didn’t like in WoW - 95% of guilds were unhelpful and you spend most of your time soloing (that's how I found it anyway.)

I think the graphics are good. They're not cutting edge or mind blowing, and you do need a pretty good system to play at the highest settings, but the graphics are solid. Good reflections and things like bloom, secular lighting ect; there are enough frills to make it look nice and stylish. The landscapes remind me a bit of Oblivion in their sweep and detail, even if their technical graphical details isn’t as good. The character models themselves are well detailed and formed in my opinion, not like the cartoony WoW ones. It certainly feels like a proper 3D game rather than a cartoon, which is the sort of way I experienced WoW. Just because nobody describes LOTRO graphics as awesome shouldn’t make you think the graphics are a drawback, they’re not. The graphics are great for an MMO in my opinion, and would be great in any other game too.

The quests are just standard MMO quests, though I think one of the foremost positives of the game has been the questing system. The research has clearly been done in regard to Tolkien’s legendarium and everything feels legitimately 'Tolkienesque'. The mixture of quests you pick up in towns and a central storyline quest is also a nice mix and ties you into Tolkien’s lore well. The story itself is also pretty good, which is quite surprising given MMO's don’t tend to have anything more than vague overarching storylines.

I personally never found being able to play an evil dude fulltime that much of a drawback. I haven’t done much monsterplay, which is a character alter ego you can make from level 10 onwards to use in a designated PvP area. This alter ego is also maxed out at level 50 so you can take on other top level human PvPers from the start. The PvP obviously isn’t as good as Guild Wars nor as pervasive as WoW, but I’ve heard its pretty fun. Just being able to go man, elf, hobbit and dwarf and quest does me fine though.

In all, I think it’s a great game. The graphics are great despite not being cutting edge (its pretty hard to get e.g. Crysis graphics on an MMO anyway), the storyline is good and the overall feel of the game is Tolkienesque enough to both appeal to people who enjoy the books and to put it a peg above e.g. the lore of e.g. WoW. Nothing quite compares with Tolkien in terms of his lore and the world he has created, and I think this is LOTRO's biggest selling point: you basically get to play a WoW game only with far better Tolkien lore instead of quickly manufactured WoW or guild wars lore. Everything feels like it has more depth and is part of Middle Earth more.

Hope this analysis helps your decision making,

Diomedes1

 

[ThrasherFan22]

Do you know where I can get the Trial? I looked on lotro.com and couldn't find it.

 

[Diomedes1]

Try gamespot: type in LOTRO and look on the downloads tab. I dont know if you can get a demo/trail though.

 

[ThrasherFan22]

Yea. I looked and all they had was a ton of patches. O well. I'm getting it tommarow. Thanks for all of the replies. I also did some research on my own and found some cool stuff out too. I can't wait for the features. I'm going to post a bunch of videos of smoking pipeweed and playing my Lute. Yay

 

[MetalX]

For a while I liked Guild Wars more than WoW, as can be seen in an old thread somewhere in this forum which is now closed due to flaming. But I have changed sides, and find myself spending 5+ hours per day playing WoW. I really think it's fun. I haven't tried LOTRO however. Please, do tell me how it is when you get it... I want to know as much about it before I buy it.

 

[boyd117]

I bought it a couple days ago all i can say it BUY IT!!!!

I can try and get you a 10 day trial MetalX

 

[ThrasherFan22]

Yea I bought it a few days ago too, but, my friend moved back from Virginia 2 days after I bought it and got me hooked on a game called Maplestory.