Lord of the Rings Online: Future Competition for WoW?
by Elizabeth Harper 
Apr 24th 2006 at 8:00PM
With usage statistics showing World of Warcraft so far
above any potential competition, you've got to whether any game could challenge the top spot. The last major MMO
release, Dungeons & Dragons Online, saw a slight drop in my guild's raid attendance for a week or so, but then
everyone lost interest, and was playing again. (More recently the single-player game Oblivion seems to have
caused a heavier attendance drop across the realms - though that may eventually play itself out as well.) While a
true test of Warcraft's dominance of the market is bound to come eventually, questions remain - when and from
where? Well, the developers of Lord of the Rings Online are aiming high -
with a target of a million subscribers.
Though this is still significantly less than WoW's six
million subscribers, it's a big jump over the next nearest competition (Final Fantasy XI, with an estimated 650,000
active subscribers). With continued technical problems plaguing Azeroth, how many people are simply waiting for
the next big MMO to hit? And is Lord of the Rings Online going to be the one, or yet another passing fad?Filed under: Analysis / Opinion
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
kelly Apr 24th 2006 10:36PM
i tried d&d online beta... it was horrible. i tried grinding through noobville for like 2 days, and I still wasn't close to hitting anything remotely interesting, was basically in an instanced noob world by myself. thanks, but I'll pass. poor design. came from horizons before WoW, great format, idea, community... bad technical execution or it would have done well.
I'd be interested in what LoTR would offer though.
Nathan G. Apr 25th 2006 1:48AM
I check out all the other MMO's and i cant put myself in a situation to warrent more then 1 MMO. Maybe when i hit 70 on the expansion i might try another MMO but right now when WoW is down or my connection has seemed to be unavailable Oblivion is my backup and a great one at that :).
boneyard Apr 25th 2006 4:08AM
im afraid lotro will be a dissapointment for many people also. they plan on keeping close to the ideas of tolkien so little magic and such. too many people prolly want a more diverse game.
Carl Smith Apr 25th 2006 9:19AM
I admit, my first impression of WoW (my first MMORPG also) was it was totally awesome, but I couldn't help wishing it was set in Middle Earth. Now that I have played it, I have sort of been sucked in to its own mythology. And as far as gameplay, it does so many things right. LOTR looks to be another forgettable game. You can only play the good guys, and they are going to (ugh) rehash the same plot from the book, having you assist the Fellowship and so on. How are they going to be able to drag that out? I think there will not be a substantial threat from LOTR... and to be honest, a lot of hard core WoW players could use a short break from WoW, and when you pick it back up, it seems a little more fresh.
Justin Apr 25th 2006 1:27PM
I think Vanguard is more likely to take the 2nd place spot on the MMO lists. It'll appeal to all the EQ vets out there since its being made by the same guy (I believe EQ had a million concurrent subscribers at its peak).