Massively Voting Contest STO vs LotRO

torskaldr

Massively is having a voting contest between STO and LotRO.

http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/01/21/leaderboard-lord-of-the-rings-online-vs-star-trek-online/#continued

I'm not sure what it's about really, but I couldn't just stand by and let LotRO out Twitter us. They're ahead 4152 to 1597. They're all smug on their forum, don't let them get away with it!

jkstocbr

Damn they really overtook us. Oh well, I am playing the game I like to play. LOTR is just another fantasy MMO that puts me to ... zzzzzzz .... snorrrr

idrona

STO

1603 (27.8%) now.

Gogogo!

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torskaldr

Thanks for voting or considering it. I've played LotRO since before launch. There is nothing wrong with that game, but I think STO is a much better game and offers a lot more value. Plus Turbine always mobilizes through social media so I thought it good to get the word out.

betawatcher

Let me be clear: I enjoy STO more. But when it comes to capturing the IP, its not even close. STO is like taking all the Trek shows and putting them in a blender. Which I like, because it lets you make STO whatever kind of Trek you want. But LOTRO is as accurate a depiction of what being in Middle Earth would be like as an MMO can be. The same is not true of STO and the Trek universe.

artanisen

no need to vote, Star trek online is better, no matter what the out come is.

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centersolace

Feh. LotRO has nothing really special about it. STO in spite of all it's failings and flaws has much more potential, and is much more fun. :P

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dracounguis

STO is being skunked 72/28 but this falls under the 'any press is good press' category. If STO was not doing reasonably well, no one would bother comparing it to anything.

centersolace

sirsitsalot wrote: »

I just wish that Cryptic would put more of a concerted effort into putting the IP at the heart of their forward-going development process the way Turbine has. As you say, STO has potential. I just am not seeing an effort on Cryptic's part to really reach for that potential. Personally, I think that has more to do with PWE's influence than anything else. PWE was not the savior of the game that we were led to believe they would be. Since they took over, it feels LESS like a Star Trek universe experience than it did under Atari.

If it was not Free to Play, I would not be here at all... I see its potential as well. But they will never reach it so long as the only thing they prioritize in development is what makes them money... Or more accurately, so long as they continue to avoid charging for what people want them to produce: PLAYABLE CONTENT. Until content makes them money (after almost three years, there has been no announcement of any retail expansions) they won't make content a priority.

Oh I absolutely agree. I didn't start playing this game until it went free to play myself. But this is the only MMO I have stuck with for longer than a couple of months. So that's an achievement by itself, but I don't see myself going anywhere anytime soon.

I know PWE hasn't been a saint by any means, but we could have far harsher masters. :P STO already has all the ingredients to make the perfect Star Trek MMO already, Cryptic just needs to mix them in the right ways. Particularly now with the new reputation system. It has it's flaws to be sure, but I kind of rather like it. It's a huge roadblock, but now Cryptic has a way to make money off of actual content without making it P2W, and without having to make paid content expansions.

Sure STO has a long way to go. But I willing to ride with it there.

oriklein

torskaldr wrote: »

Massively is having a voting contest between STO and LotRO.

http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/01/21/leaderboard-lord-of-the-rings-online-vs-star-trek-online/#continued

I'm not sure what it's about really, but I couldn't just stand by and let LotRO out Twitter us. They're ahead 4152 to 1597. They're all smug on their forum, don't let them get away with it!

I suggest a new strategy R2. Let the wookie win.

hippiejon

I would honestly wish that Cryptic takes a look at the results of that poll and realizes a couple important things.

But if wishes were horses, beggars would ride.

They will likely ignore the fact that to achieve such a skew in favor of the other game, means that some , actually many players of this game voted for the other guy.

I honestly don't think the results of this will make a difference to them, and nothing we see upcoming will lead the game as a whole back toward the IP.

shrug

zarathos1978

The only thing STO has common with Star Trek are names and some design. There is literally no Star Trek feel (unless Galaxy shooting phasers is ST feel) in the game, no ST-like plot for the PvE (ok, no plot at all). It's not Star Trek game. It's just your generic, no-plot pew pew space based MMO that looks like Star Trek.

No wonder LotR got more voices. I'm actually surprised that STO got any. But I think it got them because voters have not read what the poll is about and just voted for their favourite game.

xthesilent1x

sirsitsalot wrote: »

Well, Turbine's efforts are geared towards delivering a Middle-earth experience in LotRO. By that token, I don't want to compare to LotRO so much as I would like to see Cryptic's efforts become geared towards delivering a Star Trek universe experience.

I just don't feel like Cryptic takes the IP seriously enough.

I am an MMO fan on one hand. I am also a fan of Lord of the Rings, AND of Star Trek. So when I came to STO and to LotRO, I came as a fan of those IPs respectively. The biggest fundamental difference between STO and LotRO is that while LotRO was designed in such a way that the game's mechanics were wrapped around the IP, STO was designed in such a way that the IP was stretched around the game's mechanics.

Look at Risa... We have a beach, some hammocks and some trails to explore. We don't have the risa resort that was shown in the shows.

In Lord of the Rings Online, if I climb to the top of Weathertop, I find scorched earth, and the G-rune with the three marks that Gandalf left there. Someone who doesn't really care about Lord of the Rings likely wouldn't notice it. But anyone who calls themself a Tolkien Reader would automatically find themselvs looking for it, and smiling with pleasure at finding it.

To me it's not about which game is "better" so much as it is about which game puts forth a better effort to be true to its source material. I really wish I could say that it is STO. But as one who loves both Star Trek and Lord of the Rings, I would be lying if I did.

This is about as perfect as anyone could say it. They followed the Tolkien lore as close as they could possibly do it in a MMO environment, and to that i applaud them. STO is only star trek in its graphical looks, it is not in any way lore dependent. Sure they have the basic story line in the missions, but no depth to them at all. It just feels as someone else said...a space flight pew pew game set in a star trek theme, not like star trek itself.


On a side note, the first thing i did when i got to Lone-Lands for the first time was to scale weathertop and the first thing i did when i got there was find the cairn with the Runestone. And was pleasantly surprised to find it.

captainrevo1

The question is 'Which do you think does a better job of translating its source material into a fun MMO?' and quite frankly LOTR does a better job, but its helped by its genre.

im not actually that big of a fan of the game and prefer STO, but STO is very MMO heavy rather than IP heavy. Im ok with that, as i honestly think if they tried to make the game 100% IP focused and tried to make a gamed version of the show, it would be pretty boring to play, especially for the MMO crowd, but Ip gets sacrificed. STO would work much better as a single player game.

Fantasy games get an easier time being converted than something like Trek, which has to wear many hats, and can go combat and grind heavy and not be criticised.

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bladeriel

Lotro respected the IP fairly well until Moria. Then they introduced runekeepers riding on goats killing mobs with lightning strikes. On the other hand you can see Galors, D'Koras, bugships, tholian and breen ships and alike in STO. At this point neither games respect their IP as much as purists whish, so voting is irrelevant and is about "which game I like more of these two'.

diogene0

sirsitsalot wrote: »

Well, Turbine's efforts are geared towards delivering a Middle-earth experience in LotRO. By that token, I don't want to compare to LotRO so much as I would like to see Cryptic's efforts become geared towards delivering a Star Trek universe experience.

I just don't feel like Cryptic takes the IP seriously enough.

I am an MMO fan on one hand. I am also a fan of Lord of the Rings, AND of Star Trek. So when I came to STO and to LotRO, I came as a fan of those IPs respectively. The biggest fundamental difference between STO and LotRO is that while LotRO was designed in such a way that the game's mechanics were wrapped around the IP, STO was designed in such a way that the IP was stretched around the game's mechanics.

Look at Risa... We have a beach, some hammocks and some trails to explore. We don't have the risa resort that was shown in the shows.

In Lord of the Rings Online, if I climb to the top of Weathertop, I find scorched earth, and the G-rune with the three marks that Gandalf left there. Someone who doesn't really care about Lord of the Rings likely wouldn't notice it. But anyone who calls themself a Tolkien Reader would automatically find themselvs looking for it, and smiling with pleasure at finding it.

To me it's not about which game is "better" so much as it is about which game puts forth a better effort to be true to its source material. I really wish I could say that it is STO. But as one who loves both Star Trek and Lord of the Rings, I would be lying if I did.

You're also ignoring two major aspects in this debate. STO's team is still rather small. It's hard to make a lot of story content and places to go when you struggle to fix bugs and to create one new social/adventure zone every year. I think the "Trek feel" you're talking about is existing on new romulus though. It's not a perfect place but it makes sense.

The other issue is that most of the Star Trek IP is based around philosophy, ethics, and scientific munbo-jumbo (TNG), finding a way to punch aliens in the face after 25 minutes of weird and slow character interactions (TOS), or around character interactions (DS9), and these elements aren't easy to bring into a game. It's really easier to make something looking like an IP if half of the said IP is counting your kills with a dward, sending fireballs in your enemy's face, or finding new ways to behead your opponent.

Middle Earth is at war, Star trek's galaxy isn't, and it's easier to build a MMO around epic battles rather than ethics.

I may agree with you as a TNG fan but i'm also aware of the fact that it's a game and popular games are those where you kill stuff.

darkenzedd

I voted LOTRO. In light of the recent lockbox fail, it was the only choice....

claransa

The results of this vote were no suprprise to me.

LOTRO has about two dozen books and 4 movies defining its IP.

STO has half a dozen TV series most of which went 7 seasons, 9 movies and a few hundred books defiining its IP that span a few hundred years of development. (no not all of it canon) but still...

This was never a fair comparison.

Love both games, ditched LOTRO to become a lifer on STO.

solomace

diogene0 wrote: »

You're also ignoring two major aspects in this debate. STO's team is still rather small. It's hard to make a lot of story content and places to go when you struggle to fix bugs and to create one new social/adventure zone every year..

Really? Your gonna bring this out again as a defense.

I think this is the only tool left in the locker for those still trying to defend this game and it gets tiresome.

So basically, Cryptic weren't big enough to take on such a large and famous IP and what you see is what you get? Maybe they shouldn't have had it in the first place only having a small team and not able to do the IP justice.

I blame Atari, CBS, Perpetual, but mostly Cryptic for this IP in name only single player mmo...

I may not be a big fan of Lotr, but at least it feels alive and feels like Middle Earth. This, well you know how I feel.

I notice Bran didn't put this "poll" in federation news.;)

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theanothername

From the contest page:

Which do you think does a better job of translating its source material into a fun MMO?

I really like STO. I prefer to play that rather than Lotro (I did played it for a while). But if I would vote (I don't) I would vote for Lotro; much more consitent and true to its IP.

darkenzedd

solomace wrote: »

Really? Your gonna bring this out again as a defense.

I think this is the only tool left in the locker for those still trying to defend this game and it gets tiresome.

So basically, Cryptic weren't big enough to take on such a large and famous IP and what you see is what you get? Maybe they shouldn't have had it in the first place only having a small team and not able to do the IP justice.

I blame Atari, CBS, Perpetual, but mostly Cryptic for this IP in name only single player mmo...

I may not be a big fan of Lotr, but at least it feels alive and feels like Middle Earth. This, well you know how I feel.

I notice Bran didn't put this "poll" in federation news.;)

Give them their due, they are at least consistent, which is something Cryptic only dreams of unless you include lockboxes.......

baudl

the better game surely is LotR, but it is not really a fair comparison in my opinion. The 2 games have literally nothing incommon other than being f2p. The setting couldn't be more different.

a fair comparison would have been star wars galaxys...which also had space combat and ground combat and was a scifi game, but is now gone and never was f2p.

i rather liked a comparison of f2p games some time ago, where they compared different aspects of games, instead of the games as a whole.

solomace

baudl wrote: »

the better game surely is LotR, but it is not really a fair comparison in my opinion. The 2 games have literally nothing incommon other than being f2p. The setting couldn't be more different.

a fair comparison would have been star wars galaxys...which also had space combat and ground combat and was a scifi game, but is now gone and never was f2p.

i rather liked a comparison of f2p games some time ago, where they compared different aspects of games, instead of the games as a whole.

Pre NGE, SWG beats STO. After NGE, SWG beats STO (and I hated the game after NGE).

Still it wasn't F2P, so it's not a fair comparison and it had a bigger team as some will rush to say too...:P

diogene0

solomace wrote: »

Really? Your gonna bring this out again as a defense.

I think this is the only tool left in the locker for those still trying to defend this game and it gets tiresome.

So basically, Cryptic weren't big enough to take on such a large and famous IP and what you see is what you get? Maybe they shouldn't have had it in the first place only having a small team and not able to do the IP justice.

I blame Atari, CBS, Perpetual, but mostly Cryptic for this IP in name only single player mmo...

I may not be a big fan of Lotr, but at least it feels alive and feels like Middle Earth. This, well you know how I feel.

I like the fact that you quoted the most unimportant argument i gave, while you "forget" to answer to what really makes the difference between those games, which is the nature of the IPs themselves. One is about heroically slaughtering evil guys between two unending and boring descriptions (in the books), which makes a very easy and obvious MMO translation, the other one is much more complex. :rolleyes:

dalnar83

Although I'm no longer playing LOTRO, I like which way the game was heading with its F2P. I cannot the same about STO. My vote is clear.