World of Warcraft & The Lord of the Rings Online

[SwizzleTweets]

The Lord of the Rings Online released 2007.
World of Warcraft released 2005.

TLotRO newest addition:


World of Warcraft newest addition (to come):


Question I have is, why do you think the quality is so different from each other?
You have World of Warcraft being 1-2 year older game with better quality in artwork and reshaping world, models, water graphics, lightning, shadow effects, so on.

What have TLotRO done to their engine and game in terms of such things?

[Venziir]

The main difference is the fact that WoW is a succes and has a much higher budget, where as LotR is a niché game at best with a much smaller budget - also Turbine...

[Zhira]

Personally I find LotRO's world graphics much much better that WoW's. The toon animations on the other hand... Ugh .

Z.

[SwizzleTweets]

The main difference is the fact that WoW is a succes and has a much higher budget, where as LotR is a niché game at best with a much smaller budget - also Turbine...

Great that Blizzard earn as much money as they do then, if it's the only reason, I will give them more money.

[MyndZero]

that game looks worse than WoW in terms of graphics.

[Venziir]

Great that Blizzard earn as much money as they do then, if it's the only reason, I will give them more money.

It's clearly not the only reason. LotR appealed to a different audience than WoW did, and just never managed to get the same foothold. Now, I played LotR til about level 20, and while the game was decent, it felt "older" than it was, compared to say WoW. The game was quite grindy and the world was *too* big honestly, I'm actually not entirely sure why it was never a huge succes as I didn't really play it when it came out, but I do know that Turbine tends to try and create big games out of big franchices and fail miserably, ending up with decent f2p niché games.

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that game looks worse than WoW in terms of graphics.

It's a classic example of how "realistic" graphics tends to look horrid after a few years.

[SwizzleTweets]

It's clearly not the only reason. LotR appealed to a different audience than WoW did, and just never managed to get the same foothold. Now, I played LotR til about level 20, and while the game was decent, it felt "older" than it was, compared to say WoW. The game was quite grindy and the world was *too* big honestly, I'm actually not entirely sure why it was never a huge succes as I didn't really play it when it came out, but I do know that Turbine tends to try and create big games out of big franchices and fail miserably, ending up with decent f2p niché games.

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It's a classic example of how "realistic" graphics tends to look horrid after a few years.

Ah Yes, the whole idea of having realistic graphics are dull to me.
Fantasy is art in my mind, and therefore having a game with some unique art makes the fantasy even better than having a realistic graphics (that 100x chinese mmo's uses as well). Hehe.

Perhaps Lord of the Rings Online would been better if the game came from a company that had the original idea, created it, kinda hard tho it's creator is not with us anymore and not a gamer?

I always thought Blizzard did well because they created their lore, their stories and developed that, instead of creating a game from someone's else work, like Conan or something.

[OmniSkribe]

Because Blizzard have better animator, modelers and people with actual sense of style? That's why it's better.

Also because maintaining Cartoonish style is much easier than Realistic style. Realistic style games will look good only if they have "photo realistic" graphics quality (Heavy Rain, Beyond Two Soul, Crysis 3 etc).

[Ratyrel]

Because Blizzard have better animator, modelers and people with actual sense of style? That's why it's better.

Also maintaining Cartoonish style is much easier than Realistic style. Realistic style games will look good only if graphics quality is "photo realistic" (Heavy Rain, Beyond Two Soul, Crysis 3 etc)

Blizzard's animators and riggers definitely don't get enough credit, as well as the coders behind the movement and jumping coding. Timeless aesthetics always beat aesthetics that seem to rest largely on gritty "realism".

[Deleted]

Because Blizzard have better animator, modelers and people with actual sense of style? That's why it's better.

Also maintaining Cartoonish style is much easier than Realistic style. Realistic style games will look good only if graphics quality is "photo realistic" (Heavy Rain, Beyond Two Soul, Crysis 3 etc)

"Nothing sells better then sex, and if it does, it's made by Blizzard." - D2D™

[Venziir]

"Nothing sells better then sex, and if it does, it's made by Blizzard." - D2D™

Heh, I like that, I like it a lot.

[jbombard]

Because Blizzard have better animator, modelers and people with actual sense of style? That's why it's better.

Also because maintaining Cartoonish style is much easier than Realistic style. Realistic style games will look good only if they have "photo realistic" graphics quality (Heavy Rain, Beyond Two Soul, Crysis 3 etc).

Pretty much this. But really at the end of the day it isn't the graphics it is the gameplay. The problem with LotRO is, was and probably always will be the combat and the pacing of the game in general. Things don't need to be as quick and easy as WoW has become, but their is definitely a good middle ground between the two.

[corebit]

Careful with the Game vs. Game Threads. If there is any sort of game bashing the mods will come down on it and close this thread.

Personally I think it's a bit unfair to compare the behemoth Blizzard with small Turbine, which has suffered a series of layoffs lately. I also applaud LOTRO's loyal fanbase to have stuck with the game for so long.

[Venziir]

Careful with the Game vs. Game Threads. If there is any sort of game bashing the mods will come down on it and close this thread.

Personally I think it's a bit unfair to compare the behemoth Blizzard with small Turbine, which has suffered a series of layoffs lately. I also applaud LOTRO's loyal fanbase to have stuck with the game for so long.

Oh indeed, LotR and DDO are doing, quite well, these days as f2p niché games. The fact that they are still around, have a loyal fanbase and still creates new content is commendable, unlike say Warhammer which basically just stopped creating content years ago, despite having a rather large fanbase and playerbase.

[SwizzleTweets]

Careful with the Game vs. Game Threads. If there is any sort of game bashing the mods will come down on it and close this thread.

Personally I think it's a bit unfair to compare the behemoth Blizzard with small Turbine, which has suffered a series of layoffs lately. I also applaud LOTRO's loyal fanbase to have stuck with the game for so long.

It's not a .vs thread
It's about discussing how and why they shaped the way they did overtime, as they was released about the same time.
I'm sure people can enjoy both games, and people should be allowed to express themself, right, it's a forum.

[corebit]

It's not a .vs thread
It's about discussing how and why they shaped the way they did overtime, as they was released about the same time.
I'm sure people can enjoy both games, and people should be allowed to express themself, right, it's a forum.

Not saying you are bashing, but some people around here just can't control themselves.

[Deleted]

uhm have you seen the ingame world of lotro? its one of the prettiest worlds i have seen in a game. (personal taste)

Also to those 2 trailers:

WoW = Cinematic
Lotro = made with ingame graphics

[SwizzleTweets]

uhm have you seen the ingame world of lotro? its one of the prettiest worlds i have seen in a game. (personal taste)

Also to those 2 trailers:

WoW = Cinematic
Lotro = made with ingame graphics

What? The WoW one is this topic actually made with in-game graphics.

[Venziir]

uhm have you seen the ingame world of lotro? its one of the prettiest worlds i have seen in a game. (personal taste)

Also to those 2 trailers:

WoW = Cinematic
Lotro = made with ingame graphics

Uhm, the WoD trailer isn't a cinematic, it's slightly altered in-game graphics.

[Sooba]

Oh indeed, LotR and DDO are doing, quite well, these days as f2p niché games. The fact that they are still around, have a loyal fanbase and still creates new content is commendable, unlike say Warhammer which basically just stopped creating content years ago, despite having a rather large fanbase and playerbase.

Feel free to flame me, but I thought I'd just let you know that it's "niche". In French, the "é" has an "ay" sound. The word itself is pronounced "neesh", not "neeshay". Thought I'd save you a few keystrokes hitting the ascii. :P