Age of Conan having any effect on LOTR population ?

admriker4

I let my account expire with LOTR 3 days ago to give AoC a shot. I figured no sense in paying another $15 in case AoC was actually decent.

Anyway, before I left I wanted to gauge potential interest in Conan from players in LOTR. I chatted with folks in Bree, Angmar, and that new area (i cant spell it).

The conversations got pretty detailed and heated in some cases. I was surprised to learn that AoC has mirrored instancing for all zones (100 player cap). Others of course claimed that AoC was the next great MMO. Overall, I found it 50/50 on positive opinions of AoC.

I get the feeling that most of the AoC players are going to come from WoW. AoC and WoW are much more similiar than LOTR is (except the graphics). If you've followed forums for AoC both here and at their official forums, well lets just say its not been pretty. Boobs + Blood + FFA servers = immature players.

LOTR Ive found seems to have more adult gamers than most MMO's. Certainly more than WoW. So Im guessing AoC will have very little impact on LOTR's numbers.

As for me, Im still waiting to get into AoC but I suspect I will be back in a few months. No MMO can keep my interest for longer than 3 months, not since Star Wars Galaxies anyway

odysseous

nope. none. One ring to rule them all...  There is no AOC instansing morpg... blood doesnt mean mature either..

Sovrath

well, I tried the open beta for AoC and preordered a copy. However, LOTRO is more my type of game. I really don't think there will be a huge loss to LOTRO to AoC as they really are just different types of games. And for those who play LOTRO (like myself) they will probably play AoC to enhance their gameplay options, not to replace them.

Shangala

I think Lotro could loose some players to AoC, but not many. Personally I'm a Lotro lifetimer because I'm a Tolkien freak, but I hate the graphical style and also to some extent the cookiecutter gameplay. On the other side I LOVE the graphical style of AoC and I've always wanted to build my own city, so when I get my new computer in house and try AoC, well, I'm not sure if I can manage to go back to teletubbie land and autoattack.

I might add that I have a bit different view of Lotr than the Christian 40 year old woman who plays Lotro, Middle-earth isn't a teletubbie land without blood. Like AoC Lotr is a different story of our world around 10000 years ago, and while Lotr certainly is high fantasy it isn't as prudish as some Lotr players make it out to be. In my opinion a graphical style inspired by AoC (with more Pvp options..) would have been perfect for Lotro. Alas, it didn't work out that way.

Cartography

I think it will have an effect on all games. Populations won't be getting any bigger in LoTRO until Moria comes out.

Timeferret

The latest news out form the AoC website, the game will not be shipped on launch with DX10.

DX10 version is being worked on, for release "later" this year.

I migrated from playing EQ2 for 3 years to LOTRO. I just cannot fault the graphics........beautiful game.

DX10 makes hell of a difference.

discipline

i was in the the beta and open beta of lotro..i hoped it was the next best thing since wow, but sadly i was mistaken and i played it for a year just to kill time until AoC came out. the game is appealing to older mmo players and its a slow dull game, i lvl'd 3 chars to 50 and each time i was bored the whole way through.

 

just a rant i know. but if im any indicator of your average long term lotro player (and there are alot of them) i fell...and hope they find somthing new like i did in AoC

 

hardcore since pong

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

Gayia

I have a Lotro account and while i like the game, Ive never been a tolkein fan and cant get into the rp there feel so limited.  But lotro was the best polished game out there and was alot easier on my system. While conan looks great and I love the conan stories I do wish there was less instancing think they could have given up just a tiny bit on the graphics and helped with instancing and other people to play that cant afford new setups especially with the way the economy is now. Anyways went a little off topic think Lotro will lose some players to aoc but not too many most people on Lotro are diehard tolkein fans and would be hard to get anything to seperate  them from that

Gaylen

Been logged in for about 8 hrs today. The chat channels were as busy as ever, lots of people running around. Still seeing competition for quest mobs in Forochel.

I think that the players who always game hop when something new comes out will flock to AoC. But, LOTRO is a year old, so those players probably left LOTRO a long time ago. So I don't expect it will make much of a dent in the player numbers.

bartoni33

Im in a LotRO Clan on XFire. The last few days their have been more people playing AoC than LotRO (when its up).

Analyser

Originally posted by discipline


i was in the the beta and open beta of lotro..i hoped it was the next best thing since wow, but sadly i was mistaken and i played it for a year just to kill time until AoC came out. the game is appealing to older mmo players and its a slow dull game, i lvl'd 3 chars to 50 and each time i was bored the whole way through.
 
just a rant i know. but if im any indicator of your average long term lotro player (and there are alot of them) i fell...and hope they find somthing new like i did in AoC
 
hardcore since pong

Very strange attitude. Why would you play and support with your money, what you think is boring and dull?

There are surely more rewarding activities than  playing a boring and dull game. (?!) And you are one in the statistic making LOTRO the "success" that it is and causing other game dev teams to copy this "boring and dull" game design.

Not only have you wasted a year of free time but also sent the signal out that its fine as it is.

Very strange.

 

Papadam

I think short term its going to have a negative effect on LotrOs population. Alot of people want to try something new and get a change of scenery.  Bok 13 didnt bring much new for lvl 50 players so they have no new content to play with.

 

But Im thinking that long term maybe AoC and also WAR will have a postitive effect! These new hyped games will create population movement in the MMO market. Some of theese people leaving for example WoW that is looking for a solid PvE or RP experience will perhaps move to Middle-earth

 

and who doesnt whant to explore Moria?? (retorical question btw)

WSIMike

I think it'll be like any other game release.

There might be a dip in population for a bit while people go to check AoC out. Some will like it and stay... they'll say so on forums or elsewhere, people will read it and say "OMG everyone's leaving LoTRO for AoC!"

In reality... people will try it, if they like it they'll stay. Some will find it's simply not to their liking and give it up before their first billing.

I think you have to wait 'til at least beyond the first 30 days before any real indication can be given of where the numbers will fall.

Personally.. I'll give the trial a spin when they make one available, out of curiosity if nothing else.... and to see how it looks on my new PC that supports DX10 (omg, LoTRO has never looked so amazing... nor has UT3 or Bioshock ). Overall, I gave up on "blind faith" purchases. Even though I'm a fan of Funcom's other games... eh... would rather "check it out" first.

 

 

 

JonMichael

I agree with Mike.  You probably won't see real indication until after the first month of AoC.

I haven't noticed any drop at all.  In fact, in my small guild, there were a handful of people who were in the AoC CB and some in the OB... so far, none of them liked the game enough to purchase except for one.. and he'll probably be back too.

I beta'd AoC myself and didn't like it.  While it has beautiful graphics, it just seemed to be more of the same with nothing revolutionary enough to continue playing it... and I much prefer Middle Earth to the world of Conan.

 

Iijs

LOTRO has a healthy population, and some hardcore fans. I don't think it will drop noticeably. WoW will probably take a short-term hit, but anyone still playing almost four years later is likely in it for the long haul.

This year's combination of AoC/WAR, however, could be significant to lesser games that are in the sub-50k range. It wouldn't surprise me at all to see a handful of small MMOs fade away this year.

towani

AoC doesn't at all excite me. 

When I first heard of the game, I thought it would be the next big thing.  But from story board to retail shelves, I wasn't impressed and I think a lot of people are going to find it's not what they thought it was or hoped it was.

As for me, I just life time subbed to LotRO.  They keep adding more with great books, and I'm really excited about MoM.  Turbine has impressed me!

admriker4

Originally posted by JonMichael


I agree with Mike.  You probably won't see real indication until after the first month of AoC.
I haven't noticed any drop at all.  In fact, in my small guild, there were a handful of people who were in the AoC CB and some in the OB... so far, none of them liked the game enough to purchase except for one.. and he'll probably be back too.
I beta'd AoC myself and didn't like it.  While it has beautiful graphics, it just seemed to be more of the same with nothing revolutionary enough to continue playing it... and I much prefer Middle Earth to the world of Conan.
 

As a player who has beta tested many MMO's, I've learned you cant judge a game until launch. LOTR is a classic example. I thought LOTR sucked bad when beta testing it but right before launch they tweaked the graphics, added in features, and fixed that awkward waddle that the avatars had when they walked.

Beta AoC and launch Aoc are completely different to be honest (launch AoC being much improved). Personally I cancelled and went back to EVE because I prefer the sandbox style over the linear theme park ride. But its a decent game

admriker4

Originally posted by Iijs


LOTRO has a healthy population, and some hardcore fans. I don't think it will drop noticeably. WoW will probably take a short-term hit, but anyone still playing almost four years later is likely in it for the long haul.
This year's combination of AoC/WAR, however, could be significant to lesser games that are in the sub-50k range. It wouldn't surprise me at all to see a handful of small MMOs fade away this year.

I agree

Its the little guys that are going to get hurt this year. I think SWG for one will be closed down after Warhammer launches. If its still running after the lost subscribers to Age of Conan

Jackdog

no one that I know of from our guild has switched. I may pick up AoC just for the initial 30 but doubt I will pursue it farther than that. Some forum friends that are playing AoC are reporting that after a initial favorable impression that by mid thirties the warts start to show.

Sharkypal

I sacrificed my usual LotRo gaming tonight to try out AoC.

First off, it looks very nice and runs very well on my rig, saying that my rig is pretty hefty so its not really surprising.

The actual graphical style is a little bit different than LotRo's. I wouldnt say either is better or worse. I still lean towards LotRo personally, but that is due to my affinity for Tolkien and the way Turbine have done such a good job bringing the pages of those books to life.

The gameply is smooth and the combat system is interesting enough. I feel the use of blood during combat is a little gratuitous but I guess it is Conan so Ill live with it. I must admit that the quests I am doing (1-16 so far) have had me pretty engrossed. The story is interesting and it does make you want to keep playing to see what happens next.

The use of lighting at night is very nice as is the sound design but again I can say the same for LotRo. I don't see myself leaving LotRo for this as I still believe that LotRo is the premiere PvE MMO on the market. Im not sure why some people are proclaiming that AoC had "The smoothest launch ever" as it certainly doesnt seem to have been very smooth at all judging by all the complaints I have seen. Saying that, I had 0 problems, purchased a key because I already had the EA client on my machine and loaded up, a couple of patches later I was in game.

Just a few of my thoughts on AoC. Im not going to go into any great detail but if you are in the market for something new for whatever reason, it is definitely worth a look.

S

jblah

Well I played AOC and I just could not get into it. I thought maybe it was the class I was playing so I tried a few different classes and by the third class I tried the tutorial was getting very irritating to go through for each new character i wanted to try.

At first i thought the character selection screen seemed to have alot of options but by my 4th character i tried i then realized im not really gonna be able to see my face or any of the other options really since my armor would cover them up anyway. Also in most of the MMO's i have played i tend to not choose a human character since its a phantasy game and since you really only get 3 different human skin colors that kinda turned me off also.

I started LOTRO back in open beta and i really couldnt get into it at first either, not sure why but i think it was because burning crusade had only been out a few months so it was still fresh content. Now that the content became old for me i came back to LOTRO about a month ago and have really enjoyed myself.

As far as the AOC subs go i personally think most of the AOC people are coming from WOW due to the old content and just desperatly looking for anything new to play. i know a few people that didnt want to switch to LOTRO with me and held out for AOC and they seem to like AOC so far.

The people i have been playing lotro with didnt really feel blown away by AOC either. i guess if you are coming from a lower graphics type game like WOW that would make AOC give a much better first impression. i personally like the graphics in LOTRO better so the graphics in AOC didnt become a "hook" factor for me. Also after about 20 min of killing the blood splatter became kind of annoying to me so i turned it off and no direct X 10 either kinda mad me sad.

The game it self has some good ideas but i would rather play a "finished" game like i feel LOTRO curently is and my friends also agree so i will probably check it out in 6 months or so.

 

Sharkypal

Agreed I hated LotRo at first, but it has steadily grown on me to the point where there is seldom a day that I don't log in. AoC is not a bad game, but as I stated in my previous post, it won't be pulling me away from LotRo.

On a related note, I really dont like the blood in AoC either, it's kind of tacky. No doubt AoC will do very well and more power to those who like it. I still maintain that LotRo is the best PvE experience to be had at present. I'm still not sure why an IP like Lord of the Rings doesn't have more subs, but saying that, I find the server population on my server adequate and I never have problems grouping.

Regards

S

Xasapis

There are quite different games, in the sense of people looking for different fun elements when playing them. In that sense, I don't think that the LOTRO population will be affected overall. Perhaps only for a month, assuming that people stop their active subscription to test new MMOs, which generally is not true.

I believe that LOTRO at this point in time has a lot more to offer to PvErs than the LOTRO at release. It seems that has also a lot more to offer than AoC in terms of PvE, as long as both games keep on uniformly expanding.

In general terms, those two games target two slightly different audiences, with the only common denominator the mature theme (I won't tap into maturity inside the game, it will take a bit more for some novelties to wear off in AoC). AoC's direct competitor (WAR's too) is WoW expansion. In this context, I don't think that the LOTRO crowd is really interested in WoW expansion, thus the differentiation.

Sharkypal

Indeed, LotRo offers an unsurpassed PvE experience. Granted it draws on the lore of Tolkien, which is very hard to beat, but it does it so well. Again, I offer "props" to Turbine on doing justice to J.R.R Tollkien's literary works. I think he would have been proud of the online incarnation that is his original work.

S

admriker4

Originally posted by Sharkypal


Agreed I hated LotRo at first, but it has steadily grown on me to the point where there is seldom a day that I don't log in. AoC is not a bad game, but as I stated in my previous post, it won't be pulling me away from LotRo.
On a related note, I really dont like the blood in AoC either, it's kind of tacky. No doubt AoC will do very well and more power to those who like it. I still maintain that LotRo is the best PvE experience to be had at present. I'm still not sure why an IP like Lord of the Rings doesn't have more subs, but saying that, I find the server population on my server adequate and I never have problems grouping.
Regards
S

 funny...i was the same way. I hated LOTR in beta and at launch. Today it along with EVE are the two MMO's I play. LOTR grows on you for sure.

Aoc is a great rpg game but it got old real fast for me outside the starter area