[Ned Stark-like voice=on] SWTOR is coming . . . [/Ned Stark-like voice]
Ever since its announcement in October 2008, Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) has been the 500 pound gorilla in the MMO room. I don’t think it’s going to usurp the title as King of the MMO Hill away from The Game Which Shall Not Be Named, but I personally think that it has kept game developers and marketers up late at night for the last three years. After all, Star Wars has the kind of following that is legion. It spans generations and its fans are proven to be willing to shell out a gazillion bucks on the property.1
After two weekends of beta testing for the general public and its impending release, what does the coming of SWTOR mean for the rest of the MMOs out there?
Before we get started, let me say that I’m not going to get into the merits of SWTOR as a game, nor am I going to do a comparison between it and LOTRO. I participated in the two weekend beta tests and found the game to be enjoyable. There are things I like about it, and there are ways in which I find it inferior to the mechanics of LOTRO. Instead, I’d like to approach this subject as someone who is a fan of both properties, and as a player who is genuinely torn about what to do going forward.
Fandom
Of all the science-fiction/fantasy intellectual properties out there, it seems to me that two of them are the most prevalent, time-tested and well-known: Star Wars and Star Trek. Both generate billions of dollars in merchandising, and cottage industries have sprung up to cater to the whims and needs of their fans.
There are also a host of other properties which have equally rabid fans, but they are not generally as widely recognized by the average (read: non-nerd) person, and in many cases, these fans like it that way. After all, they want to be able to say they were fans of _________ “when it wasn’t cool”. These niche properties include Babylon 5, Aliens, Battlestar Galactica, Space: Above and Beyond, Firefly, Farscape, Andromeda and so on.
Then somewhere in the middle is where I think Lord of the Rings comes in (along with other popular and more mainstream titles like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the X-Men). The Hobbit and LOTR have been around longer than either Star Trek or Star Wars, and its fans are no less dedicated. What makes LOTR that much more remarkable is that Star Trek and Star Wars were conceived as visual media first, one on television and the other in movies, and Tolkein was a writer only; his fans are inspired by words alone, needing no special effects, CGI or stop-motion animation. It was not until a decade ago that LOTR found its way to the big screen to court a new generation of fans.2
Before the movies came out, I think many people would recognize the title of “The Hobbit” or “Lord of the Rings”, even if they hadn’t read them. The same cannot be said for some of the other franchises out there; for the most part, if you ask a random stranger about Robotech, they’re probably going to give you a big blank stare.
What other works can boast a similar following? Harry Potter is the most obvious candidate, but I’d like to wait to see if there is a second generation of Harry Potter fans that is still dressing up in about fifteen years. Twilight also has its share of fans, but we all know that those kids will come to their senses once they hit puberty.3
But everyone knows Star Wars. And that kind of brand recognition must be horrifying to the owners of competing products, including other MMOs.
For me, personally, here’s how much I love Star Wars:
- I won a “What Star Wars Means to Me” essay contest.4
- There are more action figures in my collection than dollars in my mortgage payment.
- I once played Star Wars Trivial Pursuit and won in two turns.
- My lovely bride and I used to babysit a little girl who belonged to a friend of my stepdaughter. Because of me, Kyra could say “Boba Fett” before she could say “Spongebob”.
- For Christmas last year, my mother (of all people) bought me a Darth Maul lightsaber laser pointer.
- When I say things like, “These aren’t the droids you’re looking for” or “I find your lack of faith disturbing” at work, no one bats any eye (any more).
So it goes without saying that when I first heard that SWTOR was pulling up a chair to the MMO table, I was very excited.5
Multiple MMOs
There are some people who can play multiple games at the same time. Me? I’m a serial monogamist when it comes to computer games. Right now, my boss has an active subscription to WoW, and he is also playing Skyrim and MW3. I just don’t have the energy to play more than one game at a time; I feel like I’d rather excel at one than have to split time between two or more.
There’s also the matter of paying two subscription fees at one time. I already have a psychological aversion to paying a monthly fee to play a video game. I can’t imagine paying two. Of course, some people have no such compunctions and might pay for multiple games, but I just can bring myself to do it.6
A few months back when Rift launched, I knew a bunch of LOTRO players who went to try it out. I also know some folks who left other games to give it a run. When DC Universe Online launched, it also dipped into the subscriber base of the other MMOs. I think this is a natural cycle.
After a while, playing a game can get boring and tedious. Especially when the experience is basically the same one every time. Sure there are different starter areas, and every now and then they revamp a zone or add new quests, but for the most part, once you’ve played through an area once, you pretty much know what to expect the next time or five that you go through. Now think about all the alts that you’ve run through the Shire, Bree, the North Downs, Evendim, Angmar, Eregion, Moria, Lothlorien, Mirkwood and Dunland, and you’re probably pretty familiar with all of those quests7
It stands to reason that when new game comes out, a certain population of players will leave their old games to see what the fuss is about. Some will like it so much that they stay. Others will inevitably be back to their original game(s). Maybe, they’re used to one certain game or system. Like your first girlfriend/boyfriend, I don’t think you ever forget your first MMO. Maybe things didn’t work out, but at least on a subconscious level, you will always compare every other game you play to that first one.8
Of my friends who left to play Rift or DCUO, about half stayed gone and the other half came back to LOTRO. Are all of the LOTRO players going to try out SWTOR? Probably not. But how many subscribers can LOTRO lose and remain viable? Some will try it out and not like SWTOR. Maybe it’s the mechanics. Maybe it’s the community. Maybe they simply don’t like the fact that it’s very much like WoW.
I think many of the moves Turbine has made with LOTRO have been specifically designed to countering the release of SWTOR. I think the free-to-play/micro-transaction pricing model is specifically designed to get MMO players who don’t want to be locked into a regular subscription fee.9 The 12 months for $99 seemed like Turbine’s attempt to lock player into LOTRO for a year, so even if they left for SWTOR, they were still generating revenue. Even WoW went “free-to-play”, although it was really more like an extended trial period, and not truly F2P, and they have introduced their own set of micro-transactions, even if there isn’t the all-pervasive store that is found in LOTRO and DDO.
I haven’t talked to anyone at Turbine, and I don’t have any inside information, but I’ve got to believe that there is a plan to keep LOTRO subscribers and players once SWTOR comes out and they have an idea of how many of those players are coming back and how many might be gone for a substantial amount of time.
What does SWTOR offer that other games don’t?
The most obvious asset SWTOR has is the brand recognition as mentioned above. Some people will try it out simply because it’s got Star Wars on the box. That and the force choke, force lightning and double-bladed lightsabers.
After talking to a small and unscientific sampling of MMO players that I know in real life, there are only a finite number of things an MMO can do differently to distinguish itself from the rest of the field. I think one of LOTRO’s strengths is its adherence to the lore, and the virtue/trait system that I have not seen before.10
Having played the weekend betas, now that the NDA has been lifted, I can say that the quest system is pretty much the same as LOTRO and WoW’s. You go to an area, pick up quests from quest-givers, complete a task or two, then go back and turn in the quest for rewards. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
If you listen to the SWTOR developer diaries/videos, you’d think that they’d invented the “story driven MMO”. This is, of course, pure crap. There is lore in every MMO, from WoW on down. LOTRO has the epic quests, which had a whole new element to the game and make it more than just one big sandbox to run around in.
What SWTOR has going for it is the association with Bioware, which has turned out some of the finest story-driven games I’ve ever played. I think this is the ace in the hole for the hardcore Star Wars fans, and is what will keep them playing the game over and over.
Let’s face it: There are a ton of crappy Star Wars games out there. For every TIE Fighter, Dark Forces, and X-Wing: Alliance, there are a dozen Force Commanders or Episode I: Racers. But how many of those were Bioware games?
Beginning with the Baldur’s Gate games, to the Knights of the Old Republic and KOTOR2, to Dragon Age and the Mass Effect, Bioware consistently puts out a high-quality product that is engaging, well-developed and makes you want to play the game again and again.11 The fact that they’re treating the story elements of SWTOR as if it were Knights of the Old Republic 3 makes me think the MMO side of the game was an afterthought to the single-player campaigns.12
The Force is strong with this one
All of this begs the question: What can LOTRO do to remain a profitable property?
I think there is a core group of LOTRO players who will never leave. They will be dragged kicking and screaming away from the game only when someone at Turbine shuts off the lights.13
Anecdotally, I know of some players who are leaving for SWTOR the minute they open the servers. Other people I know are giving it the wait-and-see treatment until the game is a couple of weeks old. Others have no interest in the game.
What percentage of LOTRO players will leave (even temporarily) for SWTOR is anyone’s guess, but I’ve got to believe that it’s going to be a larger number than the folks who went to try out Rift or DCUO. Presumably the folks at Turbine have a good idea or at least projections about their post-SWTOR launch player population. There are enough people who don’t give a hoot one way or another about a Star Wars game, and they will continue to play LOTRO. Surely, some people will decide that SWTOR isn’t for them, or the community has too many fanboys/girls, or that the chat channels are overrun with trolls, and they’ll return.
Yet there are some people who will leave for good. Will they be replaced? How many new subscribers are coming in to LOTRO? How many F2P players are coming (or coming back) to LOTRO and are paying real money for game content and Turbine points? What percentage of subscribers (including lifetimes) are paying extra for game content and Turbine points?
These are better questions for the folks at Turbine, but they are things that should at least be in the back of the minds of the LOTRO player community.
No doubt, SWTOR will see an initial surge in subscriptions. I have already reserved my “Collector’s Edition” of the game. I will probably pay for the three month bundle right off the bat while I decide whether it’s the game for me or not. WoW will probably see the largest number of defections, although this is due mostly to the fact that it’s the largest MMO out there. SWTOR will also attract people who have never played an MMO, but these folks shouldn’t have any effect on the make-up of the LOTRO community.
Impossible to see, the future is
For my part, I am at a loss as to how to approach the impending release of SWTOR.
Despite the fact that I was suckered into LOTRO by some friends, and then abandoned by these same “friends”, I genuinely love the game. Not for the mere mechanics or the gameplay or the story, what makes LOTRO such a wonderful experience is the community that inhabits the game. My own experience is on the Elendilmir server, but for the most part, I think the people who play on any server are some of the nicest, most helpful MMO denziens that can be found.
The internet brings out the best and the worst in us. It enables us to help complete strangers and trigger revolutions, and it allows us to hide behind veils of anonymity to flame and harass strangers and those we know alike. MMO communities are no different.
Sure there is the odd troll surfing the OOC or GLFF channels, or that one person who reminds you of crazy Uncle Eddie,14 but I’ve found that the community is the strength of the game.15 Will SWTOR have a comparable community? I doubt it. Maybe on a RP server, but in my limited time in the SWTOR betas, I found the chat channels to be populated by a mixture of genuinely helpful folks and people who just wanted to get a rise out of other players by saying stupid things.
Although I am mostly a solo player, the main reason I’ve stuck around with LOTRO are the friendships I’ve built with my virtual companions, adventuring buddies and kinmates. If not for them, I’d probably be playing Dragon Age, Mass Effect or the Elder Scrolls games.16
But then, in the back of my mind, I hear the siren call of Star Wars. The source of about 90% of my childhood daydreams. Images of metal bikinis and X-wings and force lightning overpower me. My heart tells me I can only find succor in at least attempting to seek out Revan and his legacy.
Is there a way to balance two MMOs? I know that the $15 a month subscription fee isn’t a lot in the grand scheme of things. Heck, even $30 a month isn’t a showstopper.17 That is the equivalent of about 5 McDonald’s value meals, six cups of coffee at Starbucks or an Outback Special plus a Bloomin’ Onion per month. Beyond the financial cost, what about the time commitment?
I know there are people who have left other games for LOTRO. Why did you leave? What makes you stay in Middle-Earth? Are you planning on trying out SWTOR? Am I the only one having a mid-MMO identity crisis?
- Exhibit A: Last year, Mrs. Vraeden bought me a ticket to Star Wars Celebration in Orlando next August, and I bought myself a Jedi costume and a small fortune in Force FX lightsabers. She, of course, wouldn’t be caught dead anywhere near the place. Exhibit B: Over the years, I have spent literally thousands of dollars on my action figure collection. I’m an opener and they sit on shelves behind a plexiglass front to shield them from dust. My wife thinks she could sell my collection on eBay and go on a cruise with the kids. She tolerates me because I don’t really have any other expensive vices; I don’t drink, I don’t do drugs and I don’t play golf. Action figures and LOTRO are inexpensive compared to some of the other things I could be in to. Stop judging my nerddom. ↩
- I’m discounting the mere existence of the 1978 animated LOTR film. ↩
- Go ahead, Twihards, channel your hate and your anger to me now! Feel the power of the Dark Side flowing through you! There is a quote which is attributed to Stephen King which says, “Harry Potter is about confronting fears, finding inner strength and doing what is right in the face of adversity. Twilight is about how important it is to have a boyfriend.” At Mrs. Vraeden’s insistence, I read part of the first book and saw a little bit of the movie, and I can say without reservation that Bella is the most whiney, co-dependent and least likeable protagonist I’ve ever read in a book. At no point did I ever find myself feeling sympathetic for her. I think she is a horrible role-model for the exact young women who are the target audience for the Twilight books. I’m on Team Whoever-It-Was-That-Almost-Ran-Her-Over. I will, however, give props to Twilight because it gets kids reading, and that is always good . . . . even if you want to punch the “heroine” in the face every time she opens her mouth. ↩
- This officially makes me a “prize-winning author”, even if all I got was a TRU exclusive action figure. Who said dreams don’t come true? ↩
- I never played Star Wars: Galaxies. Some friends of mine did from launch, but when they told me that you couldn’t be a Jedi, I thought to myself, “Self, that’s the dumbest thing ever. Why the hell would I want to play a Star Wars game if I can’t have a lightsaber?” That would be like turning on Baywatch and not seeing Yasmine Bleeth running in slow motion. Yes, I know they got Jedi later, but the damage was already done. ↩
- This is the part where I beg Turbine to bring back the lifetime subscription option. I know it sounds strange, and it really makes no sense, but I am willing to pay $200-300 for a lifetime LOTRO subscription today (as in right now!) just so I’m not paying two monthly subscription fees once SWTOR launches. That works out to be 30 months of LOTRO since I pay for 3 months at a time. Unless SWTOR absolutely sucks, I can’t see myself paying for another 30 months of LOTRO unless there is a lot of new content that is released. ↩
- That doesn’t include stops in Erid Luin, the Lone Lands, Misty Mountains, Forochel and Enedwaith. ↩
- My boss didn’t like LOTRO because he is used to WoW. Similarly, I found some of the mechanics and gameplay of WoW not to my liking because I thought LOTRO does it better. I know it boils down to personal preference, but if you were like me and started out playing MMOs with LOTRO, chances are good that you’ won’t like some of the other games out there simply because they’re different. ↩
- Having said that, I think F2P is a fabulous model and is generating more revenue than subscriptions ever would have for LOTRO. I don’t think WoW or SWTOR will go F2P in the near future, but the fact that other games are trying it out shows that it is a revenue generator.
Let me also get on my soapbox for a second and address all of the people who think F2P is “pay to win”. MMOs do not exist because game developers want to find a way to get you the latest raid armour or to give you titles and legendary weapons. MMOs exist to make money. If a company is not making money, the game will go away. Yes, some of the revenue is used to line the pockets of Turbine/Warner Brothers. But that revenue also goes to game developers who are bringing you new content and supporting their product. So the next time you think to complain about Turbine doing something “just to make a buck”, think of what would happen if LOTRO were not profitable. Hint: You’ll be signing up to play SWTOR or WoW. ↩
- I do not have a great deal of experience playing different MMOs, so others of you may have some insight into other ways LOTRO is unique. ↩
- I could play Baldur’s Gate 2 over and over, even today. It may have a crappy 2-D game engine, but the story is so good, it’s almost worth installing again just to run through it one more time. ↩
- And having played through several of the starter areas in the SWTOR beta, I can say that the story is handled as the primary focus of the game, not as a token concession to the folks looking for some connection to the previous Revan/Exile storyline. ↩
- Make no mistake, LOTRO will end one day. It may be replaced by another Tolkein-inspired product, but there will come a time when LOTRO boards a ship and heads across the seas and into the West. ↩
- Maybe it actually is your crazy Uncle Eddie. ↩
- That’s not to say that other games don’t have fine players, but you don’t hear of events like the Fellowship Walk in WoW, or when the people do something nice, there are always some jerks who come along to eff things up. ↩
- Or I’d finally get around to that list Mrs. Vraeden has for me. ↩
- Yeah, I know that sounds kind of arrogant and 1-percentish, but the fact of the matter is that $15 a month works out to be 50¢ a day, and two $15 subscriptions is a dollar a day. ↩
December 9, 2011 at 9:17 am
I, too, played the two Beta weekends, and in many ways I loved what I saw. I really liked the voice acting by the quest givers, it really pulls you in. Yet, I also know I won’t quit playing LOTRO, it may be on the back burner for a while though. I have a life-time subscription on Star Trek Online (Star Trek has been my first love where these sort of things are concerned), and I am very glad I have that… I hardly play it anymore. LOTRO captured me in a way STO never did.
December 9, 2011 at 9:18 am
A lot of people are excited about SW:TOR. I’m afraid I’m not one of those people.
The game I’m waiting for is Guild Wars 2. I’ve really enjoyed my time with Guild Wars. I still play it on occasion and I’m currently waiting for the third part of Winds of Change to be released. But expect me to become rather scarce when I finally lay hands on a copy of GW2.
December 9, 2011 at 9:26 am
I’m with you Bryandt, I can’t wait for GW2. And the best part is I don’t have to justify paying two subs, cause GW2 doesn’t have one!
That said, a friend pre-ordered TOR for me as a birthday/Christmas present (he’s playing the game and wanted company), so I’ll at least try it out for the first 30 days.
December 9, 2011 at 9:28 am
i will never left Lotro except for Diablo 3, won’t try swtor or guild wars, it’s gonna be full of childs with inmature gameplay styles.
December 9, 2011 at 9:29 am
LOTRO was always a temporary game for me until TOR. I was just surprised at how good it was. I’ve stopped my subscription, and am no longer a VIP. However I still have access to all the high level content and can play in Dunland with all my toons to my heart’s delight.
If the tier 7 crafting system didn’t feel like they had just mailed it in or created it as an afterthought, I’d be far more tempted to stay and do a lot more.
December 9, 2011 at 9:34 am
I’m among the ones thats super excited about SWTOR, and admittedly I’ve not been able to get myself to log into LOTRO since the two beta weekends. What worries me though is the idea of a community of sub-LOTRO standards… :/ If anything, that to me is LOTROs biggest strength, and I’m sure I’ll be back eventually too
December 9, 2011 at 9:37 am
PS. Forgot to mention: excellent article! having frequented the swtor forums quite a bit, its nice to read a game-comparison with depth to it!
December 9, 2011 at 9:41 am
I only have time for one game and LOTRO still ticks the boxes, for me it is a simple question of am I having fun still? SWTOR may be a great game but unless I get a free sub or it has F2P option one day I can not see me even trying it out.
I AM however a Star Wars fan and it has a certain attraction but I also love LOTR and whilst it holds me still, there I am happy to stay!.
ReD
KOFACME
December 9, 2011 at 10:04 am
I agree with you, you should play a game if it is fun. Unfortunately, the fun has been going down recently. With constant bugs in the one instance with RoI (and yes, I know we a getting more, but I’m tired of the bugs), grinds that feel oppressively heavy, PvP that is basically ignored by the Devs with rewards needing PvE still (despite constant pleas not to have that), and the simple fact that I’m just burned out, I think it is time to take a break, try SWTOR (been waiting for three years for this game), and come back later with a fresh look on things.
December 9, 2011 at 10:14 am
I agree with this, every word. I played two beta weekends for SWTOR and really enjoyed it, and since I love Star Wars and Bioware I’m sure I would like the game. But I’ve already invested time and money into LOTRO, I’m still having a blast there, and at this point I have earned access to most of the content I want without having to pay regular subscriptions. I also love Tolkien’s world and that has a strong draw for me. I’m not going to give that up to pour money into another game.
I am, however, a little concerned about what’s going to happen to my kin. I know of several core members who will be leaving for SWTOR, at least initially.
December 9, 2011 at 11:56 am
The question of what will happen to kinships would make an interesting study.
I think as a whole LOTRO will survive SWTOR and lose a smaller percentage of players than a game like WoW. I know of too many WoW players who have a love/hate relationship with that game. They continue to play, but leave whenever a new game comes out just to see if there’s anything different/better out there.
Since SWTOR is built to be very much like WoW (hey, if you’re going to design a new product, you may as well try to imitate whatever is shown to be the most successful or lucrative), I think a lot of WoW players will stay, at least until they hit the cap and max out.
Of the one large kin and one medium-sized kin that I belong to, I know that each has a fair number of core officers and members who will be leaving for SWTOR; some temporarily and others will not come back. The large kins should be okay; I think enough people will stay so that they can keep operating as they do now. But the small and medium-sized kins could disintegrate, depending on what thier membership decides to do.
December 9, 2011 at 9:42 am
For me, I’m sticking around, but not as a VIP. I’ll definitely play through the new instances, but I’m logging in just once or twice a week instead of 4-5 days a week. The less I log in, the less I feel like I need to log in. I guess this is me finally kicking my gaming addiction.
I’m hoping that The Secret World turns out well, and I may pay for a sub to that game.
December 9, 2011 at 9:43 am
Your not alone Vraeden. I too am leaving for SWTOR for a time. I was never the hard-core star-wars fan, as I landed in that in-between time where OT was old in my youth and NT was released after I was working full time to support going to school (I actually never saw Episode III until several years after release).
However, I feel like Bilbo when I play LOTRO these days, “stretched…like butter scraped over too much bread”. Ive been in game on and off since 2008, and the thrill of accomplishment is really lost these days.
Plus, I am a sucker for Bioware games and the stories they weave. In my opinion no game company out there currently can compete with them. In my beta weekend I found myself actually stopping and listening to the dialogue. The stories…even the short side quest ones, are so much more compelling when you hear someone talking to you instead of reading a wall of text.
I pre-ordered too late to get a CE, but I will be there on launch day. My forum handle over there is JayneKobb (some jerk took the proper spelling and NEVER bothered to log in and post. ). Perhaps I will bump into you in my travels over there.
December 9, 2011 at 9:46 am
My plan is really just to play both. Lord of the Rings is awesome and all, but my experience is that Star Wars just appeals to a larger group of people. Then you toss in Bioware and suddenly I have friends who never ever played MMOs actually beta testing this thing and pre-ordering it. I’ve been surprised by some of the friends I have talking to me about this, it’s not the usual suspects.
I’m sure it’ll impact every MMO to a fairly decent degree, but with LOTRO’s new model they’re going to consistently get new players. Not everyone has $60 for a game and then $15 a month for a subscription.
We’re going to see the same cycles with SWTOR as any other MMO, though. Once people hit the cap they’ll start talking about how there aren’t infinite amounts of things to do and they’ll start splitting their time up with their old MMOs again. Unless Bioware knows some magic trick to fix that? lol
December 9, 2011 at 9:49 am
I’m also hoping SWTOR beta isn’t a great example of how the final game community will be. I know it’s a beta, everyone makes temporary characters they know will be deleted… but people really acted selfishly, many in the chats were quite rude or even bigoted. I obviously only have limited experience to my own little server, but I wasn’t excited about that. I didn’t seem to be the only one either, people were constantly comparing it to Barrens Chat when I played lol
December 9, 2011 at 10:15 am
Overall my experience during the last 2 Beta weekends was not really that terrible on Leviathon server. I would not even compare it to “Barrens chat”, not in the least. I think also once the non-paying members of the forums get silenced that the SWTOR forums will probably clean up quite a bit.
December 9, 2011 at 11:30 am
Cool, like I said it was a limited experience I’m coming from — specific days, specific times on a specific server. It’s good to hear the opposite experience from someone.
December 9, 2011 at 3:44 pm
Besides, we all know Goldshire’s chat was worse than Barrens chat… just sayin’
December 9, 2011 at 9:51 am
In the beta, I played the Jedi Counselor, Sith Inquisitor, Bounty Hunter and Sith Warrior all to at least level 10.
One of the most interesting things about the game is that unlike most other games, each class as a completely different chain of class quests. They’re not like the LOTRO class quests where there may be a set of two or three quests at certain intervals, the basic story for each class is different.
Yes, you do some of the same zone quests, but they have constructed a game with 8 different story lines. I will be interested to see how they weave the different stories together, but that level of replayability is lacking in other MMOs and CRPGs.
December 9, 2011 at 10:53 am
As someone with Alt-itis who had 4 65s before ROI, this is a huge bonus to this game. Yes…I will be collecting the Bantha Poo dozens of times, but each time I will also be completing a different story.
December 9, 2011 at 9:55 am
I’ve little to no interest in SW:TOR. I didn’t particularly enjoy the three prequel movies, though Episodes IV-VI are among my favorites. Also, I have no interest in playing a Jedi; personal preferences.
I’ll be sticking with LotRO, at least for now. When I feel like I need a break, there’s always non-MMO games which I really enjoy.
December 16, 2011 at 1:44 pm
SW:TOR I think is near the timeframe of the Knights of the Old Republic rpgs not the prequel movies.
If you like Star Wars at all, and especially if you enjoyed the Knights of the Old Republic games, it might be something worth trying.
December 9, 2011 at 10:09 am
Beta’d the last two weekends of SWTOR myself. While I would not say it is a completely fresh approach to MMOs, I think the one thing that really stands out is the extensive interaction with NPCs via the voice acting and the developement of one’s personal story. It really makes you feel much more a part of the quests than any other MMO/RPG that I’ve played.
Personally, I will be moving on to SWTOR. It’s not that I don’t enjoy LOTRO as I still do. For me it’s more about some of the decisions being made by LOTRO’s management. There seems to be, to me at least, a definative change in Turbine’s approach or attitude to their customers. I will leave further comment on that for another time and place though.
As for LOTRO, I will say that after having played on several servers extensively over the last almost four years, the Landroval community stands far and above probably the best community I’ve participated in. I would even say that praise stretches back many years to the beggining of my online gaming back in the 90s. So if anyone contemplates moving to a server, I give Landroval my highest recommendation.
The future: I will still be logging into LOTRO from time to time but my main focus will definately be in SWTOR for the foreseeable future. I still have a love for TOlkien’s works and all that has come from it. To be honest, SWTOR at it’s core is not really that much different from LOTRO afterall, being that it is the story and the struggle within that story that draws us in. Good vs Evil. Good luck to all that stay with LOTRO.
ps. Am curious if any of the CSTM staff are contemplating SWTOR?
December 9, 2011 at 11:33 am
Completely agree about Landroval. I don’t RP, but that server just has so many nice people and so many interesting things going on. Even if I don’t want to interact with an event, the fact that it’s happening around me (you literally just stumble on 30+ doing something together sometimes) makes the place just feel “alive”. I really enjoy it. It’s actually made me consider a RP server for SWTOR.
For a long time LOTRO has been a really great example of you mattering to the story — I really felt like the epic quest lines were just more involving. SWTOR’s approach to this is obviously the next level of that concept and I agree it’s a huge selling point.
I’m not sure I care about voice acting for EVERY quest ever, but at least I can hit space and skip a bit of it if I’m super impatient lol
December 9, 2011 at 10:26 am
Fantastic read! thanks for the Yoda video was a great soundtrack to read this by.
December 9, 2011 at 10:58 am
Nice article! So I consider myself still fairly new to MMOs, and (aside from some DDO) LOTRO is the only game I play — plus my playtime is very constrained since I try to have a life, etc.
However, growing up I was a *huge* Star Wars fan and, although I’ve never played any of the other SW games, the idea of trying out a Star Wars MMO is very intriguing to me, now that I have the LOTRO experience under my belt. The cost isn’t really an issue — the issue is mostly the time and dedication it takes to really get into and enjoy another game — especially since I’m still enjoying LOTRO. Even so, the siren call of Star Wars is pretty strong…….. so as you can tell, I’m torn.
December 9, 2011 at 11:02 am
*sigh*
Is there really no place on the internet where I *don’t* have to read about swtor and how it’s gonna affect everything there is and ever will be?
Every 30 min a new thread on the forum.
every 10 min a new discussion ingame (pick any chat)
I still remember Aions release back when I use to play another mmorpg and doomsayers where trolling the game/forum.
And guess what happend? Nothing.
Swtor? Feel free to try it, but don’t get carried away and stop with all the hype.
And if you feel like you wanna quit playing Lotro, do us a favour and just go … Turbine won’t have a big company discussion about a Lvl 75 Hunter, wo said he’s off playing swtor now.
December 9, 2011 at 11:10 am
It seems to me you may not have read the entire article and jumped to conclusions based on what you are seeing elsewhere.
The article was about a player being torn between two things he loves. He actually says that some will leave, some will stay, some will return, etc.
December 9, 2011 at 11:22 am
I did read (and quite enjoyed) it, since Vraeden has made some good points there.
Perhaps just suffered some damage during the trollfest ingame (and in serious need of christmas vacation)
December 9, 2011 at 11:04 am
Very thoughtful observations, Merric! I, for one, could care less and won’t be touching TOR.
http://freebooterkommand.blogspot.com/2011/06/why-im-not-very-excited-about-old.html
December 9, 2011 at 11:07 am
Pssst this article is by Vraeden. Merric and I currently do not have plans to play SWTOR.
December 10, 2011 at 6:27 am
At least not until ewoks become a playable race?
December 9, 2011 at 11:19 am
KOTOR was ground-breaking, and although I won’t say the same for SWTOR yet, it’s clearly a good game with lots of potential. I found the Jedi Consular and Knight to be interesting, and the Bioware treatment of choices and voiceovers gave quests a little more emotional umph than LOTRO or DDO or STO.
And then I played the Sith Inquisitor–brilliant, gleefully evil writing shows in the sometimes-quirky NPCs and excellent dialog. KOTOR2 was a hot mess released before it’s time and in tatters, but the time on Korriban was excellent. SWTOR takes that and runs with it. I was cackling with evil delight with each new force lightning skill, somehow being more satisfying than the old zap-zap on my RK. That class alone will probably get me onto a SWTOR server. Eventually.
The problem is, new games–even as polished and ready for primetime as SWTOR appears–have bugs and design flaws that only come out after months of playing. I pre-ordered the less-polished-at-launch Star Trek Online (STO) and regret it terribly because Star Trek is *THE* Intellectual Property I most love and want to game in. The game itself was released too soon, is still buggy, changed radically with each update (not always for the better), and perhaps could never live up to my original expectations of life in the 25th century. It’s regretful.
SWTOR wouldn’t disappoint me in as big a way like STO did, but it is going change and likely going to improve with time. Since I feel compelled to reroll a LOTRO character when the class changes significantly, I’m going to wait for SWTOR’s game mechanics and quests to settle down. I also agree that the population it draws might be less civil than LOTRO’s given how much hate people spewed in the forums over the same-sex relationship storylines being added sometime in the near future. Although SWTOR is likely going to be the most soloable MMO yet, it can still be ruined by enough bad actors in the system.
December 9, 2011 at 11:31 am
I too am torn, however, I believe my decision has luckily been made for me by my better half
Apparently my all day dedication to swtor beta weekends did not go over well along with the freakishly massive chest size of nearly all female characters. LOTRO has been the only MMO I have played and I still enjoy it so I will be staying.
December 9, 2011 at 12:39 pm
For me, being a star wars fan all my life the testing of the SWTOR Beta was quite interesting but somehow feeling strange. Who ever tried the SWTOR Beta will surely admit, that the scene where you recieve your own first and beloved lightsaber is making grown men hop on their chairs like little boys. But after that i was somehow loosing the feeling for the game. Somehow i felt empty in a strange way maybe because i knew that the story told in SWTOR is somehow not starwars in the closest sense but for me somehow an MMO with Lightsabers and Jedi knights and so on but not what I expected to see. This does not mean, that SWTOR is a bad game or else, it is technicaly cool and a nice thing to play, for most the story system and the audiostuff where cool.
But in a way i think it will not drag me away from LOTRO because it (LOTRO) feels more “at home” in a special kind. For instance, the music system is a thing that has no real purpose in the game except bringing people together to listen or play music in an MMO, I mean how cool is that idea?
An other issue is the fact that we all know that the story behind LOTRO is not finished for us yet. There are many miles to mordor left and there are still many storys to be told. It feels to me like putting a book aside while beeing stuck in the middle of it, wanting to read more.
I think that many will try SWTOR, but as well a huge amount will return as soon as the story moves on with LOTRO because there are still things unsolved. I don´t fear the dawning of SWTOR. Maybe i will even give it another try
December 9, 2011 at 12:43 pm
I played WoW for over a year. Got to end game, got bored with the grind, quit. A year or so later, found LotRO. Fell in love. I have no interest in playing any other MMO, and that includes SWTOR. I enjoyed the first Star Wars movies – the REAL first movies, not the prequels that came out later, which I never watched and in which I have no interest – but I thought the first was the best.
This is TOLKIEN. This is a moderately faithful representation of Middle Earth. If it gets fan-fictiony, I will probably quit, but I haven’t yet seen any reason for that. Tolkien read the original source materials. Everyone else read Tolkien. That’s why Tolkien’s work and this game have resonance for me, and the rest don’t. If I weren’t playing LotRO, I would be painting, or cleaning the garage, or working in my garden – not playing another MMO.
December 9, 2011 at 12:54 pm
If and when my kinship (Lonely Mountain Band) every decides to make a LMB guild on SW I might be interested. A few of my kinmates and I have started a LMB kin (Lonely Mountain Soil) on DDO where we meet one night a week just for a diversion.
The downside is that SW doesn’t offer FTP accounts. If they did, I’d be more apt to check it out. As it is, I will only pay for one game account at a time. LOTRO is it for me.
If I do deviate from LOTRO for a time it will be to play LOTR – War of the North. My husband and I have really been looking forward to that game.
December 9, 2011 at 2:36 pm
Agree. F2P/hybrid is the way of the future. That’s what enticed me to try LOTRO last year, and its quality has guaranteed a long relationship. I’ve since sunk more real money into it than I paid to subscribe to EQ (my last MMO) for two years. I’m going to give DCUO and STO a look, too, while they’re still around. But SWTOR can wait until they offer at least a free trial.
Great article, as usual, Vraeden!
December 9, 2011 at 1:24 pm
I’ll be one of those dragged screaming out of Middle-earth when Turbine turns out the lights. I’ll try SWTOR, just because I love MMOs with all my heart, and like seeing what other companies do with the medium. I’ve tried to play two MMOs at once before, and ended up feeling unsatisfied with both experiences, instead of really happy with one. So my kinmates might not see me as much for a week or two while I kick SWTOR’s tires, but I know full well that I’ll be back.
December 9, 2011 at 1:36 pm
I admit, I’m one of those who dabbles in new games as they’re released — I like the exploration and the discovery of something new. I usually end up back at LOTRO eventually just because I like the community and I’m a lifetime, so I have the ability to pop back in again at will.
I am, however, totally Bioware’s shameless lackey. I adore BioWare games. I play them repeatedly – and even though Star Wars isn’t really my thing in terms of obsession, I’m definitely all-in on TOR. KOTOR was actually one of the first video games I ever completely finished without getting bored, and that’s held true of most BW games since.
That said, I’m sure I’m not departing for the West completely yet.
Once we actually get into Rohan proper instead of just dancing around the edges I’m sure I’ll be back to /follow Eomer around. I’ve been waiting to do that for YEARS. 
December 9, 2011 at 2:51 pm
A friend hooked me up with a beta key and I played TOR one weekend. Deleted the game on Monday.
Fantasy MMOs with laser blasters.. the mechanics felt very weird. The voice conversations were great! Meh.. if I want to shoot someone I’ll fire up BF3 or something.
Now a Firefly MMO.. oo that would get the old juices pumping.. Don’t much care for the Alliance or them gorram Reavers. No ruttin’ way.
December 10, 2011 at 12:11 am
I hear ya on Firefly! That would be shiny!
December 11, 2011 at 2:47 pm
god, I would love to play a reaver…..
December 9, 2011 at 3:39 pm
I am still having a blast playing LOTRO after three and a half years. I will make the switch to SWTOR, but will do it likely after the game has been out for a few months to work out the kinks and class chances, etc… I will still play LOTRO on and off as a premium account (currently vip).
I am another one who would have been less willing to jump ship if LOTRO had continued to develop the PVMP side of things. As a part time quester, part time PvPer and not one who likes PvE raids, I will run out of things to do, and I begin to grow weary of the same old Moors. I am one of those in the small minority who would have liked to see the creep side fleshed out more with zones to level and gear up and then meet the freeps in a few contested areas kind of like COH/V…
December 9, 2011 at 4:21 pm
I’ve stopped my LOTRO sub, but not because of Star Wars. I’m playing Skyrim at the moment. I have also been very tempted to move over to the dark side, but I want to wait. The big draw card for me is that it’s done by Bioware. Seriously, they have not made a game I don’t love. I do plan on playing Star Wars next year some time. I also plan on popping my head in now and then into LOTRO. It’s only the fact that I’ll be F2P that will keep me around.
LOTRO was also my first MMO and it’s been a wonderful experience. I probably won’t ever leave completely. Honestly I never thought that it would keep me occupied for as long as it did, a full straight year. There are so many other awesome games out there, no way could I confine myself to just one for ever!
December 9, 2011 at 4:24 pm
I’ll be splitting my time between LotRO and SWTOR, as my best friend wants to play it and we tend to try new things together. But my Beta time has shown me that it’s the kind of game that we’ll have a lot of fun with for a month or two, and then that’s about it. SWTOR will do well and continue over time, but they won’t retain much more of a playerbase than LotRO does.
SWTOR won’t hurt LotRO any more than Rift did. Or than Star Trek Online, Final Fantasy XIV, DC Universe, Age of Conan, or Mortal Online did. Or than Guild Wars 2 or Secret World will.
The nature of the MMO business is that something new is always popping up, people will always leave to try it out, and then people will always come back. It’s cyclical.
December 9, 2011 at 7:01 pm
I plan to give SWTOR a try but I fully expect to return to LOTRO at some point (I’m a lifetime subscriber).
December 10, 2011 at 1:10 am
Used to have this game pre-ordered, but the beta and new security settings have convinced me this game isn’t worth buying yet. At least not for $60. Especially when I have plenty of games to play for free.
December 10, 2011 at 3:32 am
I’m a BIG Star Wars fan but I don’t feel a pull to play this
I guess i am to worried that George Lucas will change/remaster it a dozen times before I hit level cap :p
December 10, 2011 at 7:02 am
As far as scifi based stuff goes I’ve always preferred trek over wars and avidly watched the other series mentioned. Bit surprised you didnt mention SG-1 or Space: above and beyond. Funny how scifi has entertained a certain status while other fantasy genres ebb and flow a bit more.
In a lot of ways tor can be described as world of lightsabres but they put more emphasis into a personal storyline based around your character. From what I played of the beta each of those storylines are quite different. Lightsabre combat has the noises that got the small child in me grinning with fond memories of the cinema trip to see empire, one of the first movies I can recall going to see as cinema trips were a big thing for us.
Lightsabre combats been quite well done with the fancier moves put in as channeled casts so it’s nice eyecandy. Ranged combat for agents and smugglers feels better to me as you need to be mobile whereas troopers just stand there shooting their big gun.
Space combat has been criticised by folk for being lacking but it’s never been sold as a space game with ground bits. And they way it’s done they have the potential for some nice combat setpieces, flight into torpedoing the first deathstar was more or less a rails shooter anyway.
As far as leaving lotro for it, I may take a sabbatical for a while but with lotro being a free to play title I dont forsee me uninstalling it. Still to reach 75 with anyone having hit a stage of irritation with the hunter that caused a swap of mains.
STO is swapping to free to play on 17th jan next year, date chosen for the numbers 1701 no doubt. But I doubt it will have a big impact on subs or player base for other established games. Certainly if PW run the cash shop the same way as they do for other titles it could well suffer as recent changes have meant you have to pay real moeny for certain tiers of starship unless you’re savvy enough to play the exchange market. Got a lifetime sub for it back near release so have never felt as tied to it as games that require a monthly sub, can stop for a few months and come back for a bit of a phaser fix.
I’d love to see an mmo based in and around Megacity one, home to Judge Dredd of 2000AD comics. In someways it might be possible as I believe that rage software bought the comic a while back and they certainly have a lot of good material to work from, the whole apocalypse war series would make a good set of group fights/open quests.
December 10, 2011 at 7:24 am
Hello all!
I think we know close to nothing for SWTOR now. This includes what is endgame like, how much grinding will be needed, are the class roles nicely separated and balanced, are the instances chalenging but not gear-dependent, etc.
I know however that Lotro in general is OK bar the minor bugs. Bugs which to be honnest are resolved once the devs decide that they are really bugs but not wishes or player moanings.
I know as well that LOTRO community is outstanding. Nothing makes me feel that SWTOR players will of be that quality as a whole. The overpopulation of female chars however indicates the contrary. I suppose that SWTOR will resemble WOW in that aspect.
I am tempted to be a Jedi because I do love Star Wars trilogy and the Jedi philosophy. I do not look forward to play with players who choose the dark force, by the way.
Will I try SWTOR? Probably in year or two after enough about the game mechanics and end-game life is revealed, bugs are fixed, community is stable, servers cultures are known, etc.
The most importnat thing for me is whether SWTOR will be grinding and gear oriented game with OP classes and “elite” players (i.e. generic grinders with good gear) like WOW, EVE Online or Runes of Magic to name a few. Or it will be skill/decision oriented game with accessible end-game content and only a reasonable need for grind. The latter will create intelligent community, the former not at all.
The future unknown is. I opt to wait.
December 10, 2011 at 8:04 am
I played in the SWTOR beta and it seems like a kinda-sorta-KOTOR MMO. Really though the part that made KOTOR sooooo cool was the getting of light-side/dark-side points and how it *completely* changed your character. In SWTOR, you still get light/dark points, but all it is is a faction grind, nothing more. It doesn’t actually mean anything aside from being able to wear certain gear later on. That realization saddened me in the beta.
While I’m sure I’d have a ton of fun playing through a couple of class storylines for the first month or two, I already know what will happen. I will get bored and leave to come back to Lotro, thus making my $65/$80 total spent on it(game plus one or two months sub), and the time spent, totally a waste. I did the same thing when Rift and DCUO came out. Initially excited, I jumped over to play them and left to come back to lotro within a month. I think this time I will be smart and spend that money and time/effort on the game I know I will be playing in the long-term, Lotro. Keeping an eye open for another double-point TP sale will net me an absurd amount of TP for the same $$ I would have wasted on SWTOR.
If I hadn’t gotten into the SWTOR beta though, I probably would have just made the same mistake I made with Rift/DCUO. But I’m going to be strong and resist the dark side this time.
December 10, 2011 at 12:10 pm
I disagree about LS/DS not meaning anything. They sometimes, but not always, have impacts on your story. You may finish a quest a different way or spare someone who helps you out later in the story. Flashpoints (instances) have LS/DS choices that change the way you actually complete the flashpoint. You may choose to kill or spare a captain… killing causes you to take a different path than sparing him.
December 11, 2011 at 3:02 am
So your counterpoint is that the LS/DS choices on occasion have a small cosmetic/RP change to certain quests and individual instances that has no long-term effect whatsoever. That didn’t counter anything at all. I was making the point that what made KOTOR 1&2 so cool was that you could go full LS/DS from an initial neutral standpoint, triggering big changes in both storylines and endings, how your character physically looked, and have appropriate changes in the strength and efficiency of the various force powers. To top that all off, you could have your character have a “change of heart”, for good or evil, and flip completely over to the other side. All that wrapped up together was freaking cool, and what made KOTOR live in infamy in my game collection.
SWTOR LS/DS choices have nothing more than changes to storyline in certain quests and extremely brief changes to repeatable instances. That is just sad by comparison.
They may be suckering in a bunch of fans that have been wishing for KOTOR3 for years, but not me, because it simply isn’t. It’s a KOTOR-skinned MMO world, just like any other.
December 11, 2011 at 9:23 am
Actually, didn’t want to spoil much but it looks like I have to, the end of your story chapters (there are 3 of them at launch), have the most critical decisions. The problem with a MMO world is that you can’t make a decision that will influence everything around you. It just doesn’t make sense.
Character appearance does change with dark side alignment. It was a feature added in on the later builds.
December 10, 2011 at 12:03 pm
Let me start with saying I will be playing SWTOR. I’ve been in game testing since August and have enjoyed almost every minute of it. The beta weekends were the most chaotic with so many people logging in, but after a while, it stabilized to a point where I could play normally. I’m a Premium (F2P with very few purchases) LOTRO player currently. LOTRO is great, but I am definitely slowing down at level cap. I’ll now address each section in this article, which I think is well-written.
-Fandom:
I am first and foremost a Star Wars fan. I watched the originals in elementary school for the first time, loved them, and then went on to watch the prequels when they came out. I went to the Episode III midnight showing the week of my high school graduation, quite fun for a mediocre movie! I almost exclusively play Star Wars games, with a few exceptions here and there. I have read around 40 or more of the Star Wars Expanded Universe novels and also lots of the comics. On the other hand, I am also a LOTR fan, but to a lesser degree. I have of course read the books (trilogy, Hobbit, and some additional Middle Earth literature) and watched the movies. The LOTR movies are up in my favorites along with the original Star Wars trilogy. I obviously play LOTRO.
-Multiple MMOs:
I also like to focus on one game. Especially with a job, I just don’t find the free time necessary to devote to multiple games. MMOs in particular require a good amount of dedication, and it is hard to balance playing two at the same time. The good thing about LOTRO, as you mentioned, is the F2P nature of it now. I don’t believe Turbine switched to this microtransaction model just because of other big MMOs coming out, like SWTOR. The model itself is designed, in my opinion, to help bring fresh new players into an older game. It certainly brought me and the majority of my kin into LOTRO! The one thing about this model is that you really need to decide which path you’ll take. If you’re going to subscribe, then you’ll be a VIP and not have to worry about most of the content gates, except for expansions. However, if a VIP drops his sub, then he’ll have access to very little content. On the other hand, a F2P / Premium player actually owns quest packs, skirmishes, etc. that they buy from the store. They are the crowd that can really go back and forth between other MMOs and LOTRO without severe limitations. This feature of the microtransaction model actually helps me out, since I intend to subscribe to SWTOR. I can return to LOTRO from time to time, maybe once or twice a week, to help out with the weekly raid runs. If a new quest pack comes out, I can probably buy it with my remaining Turbine points.
-What does SWTOR offer that other games don’t?
Regarding lore, SWTOR has quite a rich background. KOTOR I mainly and KOTOR II to a smaller extent set the stage for a few major arcs in SWTOR. The Star Wars lore before KOTOR I also plays a vital role in the game, and the events during that time period (the Great Hyperspace War – see Wookieepedia) have direct impacts on current state of the galaxy in SWTOR. I do admire the extent of lore that Tolkien developed for Middle Earth, but SWTOR does indeed have a good lore background too.
I know you were specifically going to refrain from posting details, but I find that they are necessary when you talk about the unique features SWTOR has.
SWTOR is of course Star Wars and a Bioware MMORPG. Bioware is known for making great stories and SWTOR is no exception. EACH class in SWTOR (total of 8) have their own unique stories. You could equate this to each class in LOTRO having its own epic, instead of sharing the same exact epic as it is currently. These stories are fully voiced, have cinematic scenes, and require the player to make a choice to steer the story in the direction they want to take it. The amount of choice, usually a Light Side (good) or Dark Side (bad), can have some impacts later on in your story, but your main story will not be severely affected by these choices. It is a limitation I admit, but something I’m not too worried about. SWTOR also has a mini-game like LOTRO, called space combat. It’s a nice break from questing and gives you in-game rewards (credits/money and exp). One thing that most MMOs don’t do well is awarding players for actively exploring the world. SWTOR takes exploration to a whole new level by adding mysterious datacron items that are scattered about each planet/moon in the game. These datacron items are generally off your normal questing path and/or take some skill (platform puzzle, downing a tough mob, acquiring a rare object) to reach. These datacrons give you exp, a small permanent stat boost, and a lore entry to read through. Datacrons are one aspect of how SWTOR makes exploring worth while.
Regarding LOTRO, I do agree with the virtue/trait system is unique, but at the core of system, it is simply a huge grind. You have to kill x number of mobs multiple times, complete x number of quests in a region, or find x number of locations in order to max out a virtue. I know quite a few people who are very much against the grind it takes to max out virtues; however, they are quite essential for raiding, so it becomes a mandatory grind. It is a unique system, but not one everyone loves. I find it hard to compare LOTRO with a brand new MMO like SWTOR since LOTRO has established itself over a few years. LOTRO has been around a while and has a few systems that appeared after launch and extensive testing. The legendary system is one of those, and it very much reflects what is seen in Middle Earth lore with our heroes wielding weapons that become legendary (Sting for example). Yet again, the legendary system requires grinding to max out your items and to enhance them. This grind falls alongside your daily questing and instance running, so I’m not turned off by it. A few superfluous systems like the music system are quite impressive in LOTRO. I do find the conjunction system to be rather unique and requires some basic fellowship coordination.
Your last paragraph in this section is incorrect. First, a minor detail but glaring to me, is that KOTOR 2 was NOT developed by Bioware, instead by Obsidian. It uses the same game engine, but not made by Bioware. Second, the MMO aspect is most definitely not a second-thought in SWTOR. SWTOR can be played on your own, just as LOTRO can be via questing. SWTOR still contains multiplayer content that you’d find in any MMO, such as flashpoints (4-mans) and operations (8+ players / raids). Third, the game has been advertised to have enough content to be equivalent to KOTOR 3 – KOTOR 10 due to the 8 unique class stories in it. Besides the class quest lines, the other content is mainly shared by each faction, but a full play-through will feel like a full RPG game.
-The Force is strong with this one
Despite how successful SWTOR is, LOTRO will still move on. The microtransaction model has really helped out Turbine and will continue to do so. Turbine just needs to be a little careful on what they charge for. There appears to be a new trend where instances tied to regions require their own unlocks.
-Impossible to see, the future is
I do agree, out of all the MMOs I’ve played up until this point, LOTRO has the best community. However, I don’t agree on your assumption that the beta community you saw during SWTOR will be representative of the community at launch. Practically anyone who wanted to, got into SWTOR beta. There were certainly rotten apples out of the thousands of players that tested those weekends. If you weren’t aware, the SWTOR forums will be restricted to only those that have current subscriptions in the game at launch. This restriction, while some may not like it, will stop the majority of trolling you currently see. If someone’s paying to play the game, you expect them to like the game to some degree.
Regarding the nature of the pre-launch SWTOR community, SWTOR has a ton of amazing communities built around it already! There are dozens of active podcasts out there just for SWTOR, and it hasn’t even launched. It seems your only interaction with the SWTOR community was in beta. I highly encourage you to visit fan sites, and interact with players on there too. A few sites I would mention to visit would be Mos Eisley Radio, TORWars, TOROCast, SWTOR-Life, Corellian Run Radio, AskaJedi, Darth Hater (sort of lost their fan site status now that they are bought by Curse) etc. Bioware has gone out of their way to accommodate and help these fan sites. Bioware Austin has invited several fan sites, a couple of times now, to their studio to get insider looks at the game and get feedback. I have not seen a game developer cater to their MMO crowd like Bioware has currently.
As I mentioned, I will be playing SWTOR. I also pre-ordered the CE. I will be devoting more time to SWTOR than I will to LOTRO. I’ve hit level cap in LOTRO, and I don’t really find much to do in the game currently except for weekly kin raid runs and events. Thanks for reading this long reply!
December 10, 2011 at 12:06 pm
Weird, the “cool” smiley popped in there… wrote eight
I also noticed I forgot about companion characters, who aren’t merely pets, but that have their own stories and even quests in SWTOR!
December 10, 2011 at 2:24 pm
Well put, and thank you for the list of fan sites, I have been looking for more, knew about a few of them.
I agree completely with you. I love LOTR and Star Wars, it isn’t like I am giving up LOTRO, just putting it on hold and taking a break. I will be back to try the new instances after a bit, and I will definitely come back frequently for a continuation of the story. I will not, however, be doing as much with my alts as I do now, and my PvP will basically be over. SWTOR has enough unique things to make it worth it, and so does LOTRO.
December 11, 2011 at 3:13 am
Don’t kid yourself about the grind. SWTOR will have it in spades, just like every other MMO does. Just wait till a month after launch when everyone blazes to level cap and realizes its the same exact grindy thing as every other MMO out there. Then you will see a dramatic subscriber drop after the first 3 months where people get to cap, grind a little and get bored and leave to go back to their “main” long-term MMO. (not saying the game will fail, just that you will see the same surge of growth and then quick ebbing of subs like every other game, once the “new and shiny” rubs off.) Since we’re talking about Star Wars branding, it will all be more dramatic because of all the fandom that goes with it.
That is where LOTRO really shines. Since it is F2P it takes literally no effort or commitment at all to come back and play around, even if you were previously a VIP.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the Star Wars saga dearly, I’m just not buying into all the hype.
December 11, 2011 at 9:16 am
I disagree, mainly due to the fact that you can play 8 different classes and get 8 different stories (and different companions). Some individuals will be able to blow through that content rather quickly. I have, at most, 4-5 hours of game time, ideally, on weekdays. My progression will be slower I imagine. As for the end-game grind, I really don’t have much experience with that in SWTOR. My highest level character, in the mid 30s, got wiped for a new build. Ever since then, I decided to dabble in various classes.
December 11, 2011 at 2:50 pm
Not interested in the SW saga at all, but I did take a look into the game to see if it would be fun to play. I didnt really like the graphics or the environments that I could see in the promo’s. Not even remotely interested in it.
however, I am looking for another mmrpg to jump to. till then, I will keep my sub with LoTR
December 12, 2011 at 12:23 am
I love Eyecandy! LOTRO has plenty and I still think it is the most beautiful MMORPG made. Recently I have been playing Skyrim and I await the next “pretty” game. From my experience with SWTOR beta…it’s probably not the next one to keep me longer than a few months. I will try SWTOR, however I hope GW2 or Secret World will be the one. It seems we are all looking for the “one”?
As most MMO players I have a long story with different games. My first MMORPG was EQ2, after that, 5 years of trying other games, LOTRO, DDO, Vanguard, EVE, AOC, Rift, WOW. Only three games have kept my attention and wallet longer than 2 months EQ2, EVE and LOTRO. I have maxed characters in these games and have again lost interest in playing them free or not. Sadly, I cancelled my LOTRO VIP last week, EQ2 f2p is a joke and I refuse pay Sony for that one. EVE is ….boring to me anymore. Bring on SWTOR, I got my $60 ready…just don’t expect me to stay.
Ohh and as a footnote. LOTRO is one of the few games that does not pit Good vs Evil players or faction vs faction players, I think this helps with the friendliness I have found in LOTRO over the years. I dislike taking group of people and dividing them against each other.
December 14, 2011 at 10:16 am
Great article. I know its an issue on the minds of many as 12.20 approaches.
My lotro sub expired last week, and over the last year I have accumulated enough tp to buy all the quest packs, instances and skirms, even a few monster classes, wardrobe etc. So, Im torn too. I will likely wait till January to play star wars, to avoid the crowded starting zones and the mad rush of people that will flood the game.
What has always brought me back to lotro is the community firstly, and player housing (despite the fact it needs a LOT of work), cosmetics, and the epic quests. Ive never found a game with a community thats as welcoming, helpful and friendly as lotros. I will cotinue to play lotro, alongside swtor and other games. What will primarily keep me coming back to lotro post swtor release, is the community.
My only concern with swtor is that many wow players will switch to swtor. This would be very bad in my opinion as wow has the worst community, in my own personal experience. There are friendly guilds with nice people, but they are really outvoiced by the trolls. It would be tragic for the swtor community to become what the wow community currently is. We saw evidence of this at the release of lotro F2p, a bunch of wowheads came in for a few weeks and you could really tell. A month or three later the worst of them left thankfully and things have balanced out.
I have received kinwide ingame mails from players giving their “2 week notice” stating they are leaving for swtor. Same thing happened with Rift too, but as you mentioned many of them returned when it didnt live up to their standards. Lotro has done a lot of things right, things that combine to create this unique chemistry that Ive yet to see duplicated succesfully in any other game. I think this is what brings most people back. That and the community.