After experiencing bug after bug and then basically being locked out of STO for a long time due to my computer, which never changed, not being to play STO (even after many attempts with their technical support)...I have to say that LOTRO never had issues this bad.
Plus, LOTRO is easier to follow and has a better story line, great graphics, less "cookie cutter" builds, etc, and is just much more fun to play.
STO has tons and tons of potential and is fun to play. But, sorry Cryptic, it is just not all there yet. It was a nice try though.
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:
And I notice you didn't respond to what I actually said either.
Your the one who brought up small size dev team as a defence of STO. I just pointed out that this statement has been used by day 1, not only by the supporters, but also by the devs themselves and it's now used as a convenient excuse for a lot of STO's ills, both past and present.
Straight from the mouth of one of the leaders of the CDF - "I tell you what, Haven't spent any money either - I'm a lousy freeloader" - Jonsills 17/12/2014
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.
I agree.
"Star Trek: Online" is a patch work of historical franchise elements, which were stitched together with an artistic license. Cryptic had to invent explanations for why historical franchise elements exited in the 25th century. In order to achieve their overall goals, Cryptic created nonexistent elements to fuse everything together. Some of those nonexistent "Star Trek" elements include: M.A.C.O. Armors, Omega Armors, armors, mini-guns, blast-guns, antiproton weapons, etc...
Second, while "Lord of the Rings" and "Star Wars: The Old Republic" are role-playing games, "Star Trek: Online" fits into the strategy game category. While there are story and role-playing mechanics in place, "Star Trek: Online" does not fuse them together in a "Dragon Age: Origins" and "Star Wars: The Old Republic" manner. Players do not have dialogue choices, which influence the 'overall' flow of a 'main' story. New Romulus is an example. During the cut-scenes on New Romulus, the player does not have the ability to choose between options. Your avatar just bounces her or his head, walks, and allows another npc to ramble. I do not think you can compare two different games, which were built with two different gaming styles. I could be wrong.
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.
I feel your pain.
Bajor should be the stepping stone in which all social zones should follow. If Cryptic dedicated a half a season to revamping social zones, (adding non-grinding contexts, depth, new designs, story elements, and mini-missions), I think many people will shout out with joy. As long as those new environments are geared towards the social experience, many people will find some sort of use for them. Do you know what Cryptic will do? Cryptic will find someway to destroy those environments with grinding reputation marks.
This kind of shows what I was thinking about the 'Best F2P MMO of the Year' award Cryptic got. On a more well known site, against other games, STO really doesn't stand a chance. The other site they had to ask us to vote on, and was one few had heard of, I certainly hadn't.
STO isn't terrible by any means, but neither is it a great game either.
... If it took them the entirety of Season 6's run to develop the material for Season 7, then I really feel that there is a problem. I can see environment design taking that long. But in terms of mission content? It's repetitive grindy TRIBBLE that was designed to be repetitive grindy TRIBBLE, in an age where most MMO players are fed up with repetitive grindy TRIBBLE...
I agree.
While the new content is welcomed, the mechanic used to deliver them stinks.
If you remember back when they boasted about new 'on ship' missions, Cryptic had us thinking they were going to make actual 'tasked missions'. rofl... We ended up getting duty officer click missions, which involves zero mental thinking or strategy. *yawn*
As a result of all the grinding involved with Season Six, the arrival and missteps of Season Seven caused me to abandon fleets. Once you add in all the waiting periods, (20 hour timers for a single project, 24 hour timer for dilithium cap reset, 15 minute tier claims, 1+ days for fleet base upgrades, 24 hour waits for fleet base projects, etc...), the grinding and waiting process makes you consider leaving. I do not see how this system is suppose to be fun.
On a related note, although I was able to gather enough resources, the 8,000 dilithium refinement limitation has hindered my progress. Instead of being able to claim my items within one day, I have to wait two days to cap off a single 9,000 dilithium requirement item. In order for me to claim all three pieces of my armor set, I have to pause my game time for four days. I sign in for five minutes a day, refine what I can in dilithium, fill the requirements to 8,000 dilithium, sign out, and return the next day to repeat and/or finish the process. I currently have two STF pieces of gear in my rep queue, and its going to take me three days to claim them. Even though I put in my time to grind the resources, another time gate has caused me to stop playing. Ironically, I have to wait until 7:00 pm every night, so that the dilithium cap gets reset.
...and, to think I spent over $200 on zen. What was I thinking? rofl...
Even though Cryptic denies what I said a few days ago, I still think "Star Trek: Online" will be closing its doors by the end of the year. I do not see how the fleet base, embassy, and reputation system can add up to fun.
I know people will hate me for saying this, but if I were to vote, my vote will be for Lord of the Rings Online. Turbine is all about content in everything they do in LotRO, even their business model. With cryptic it is like having wisdom teeth broken out of your jawbone with no anesthetic to get them to add a single bit of playable content that is not wrapped in a massive grindfest.
Both LotRO and STO are free to play games with a subscription option. And speaking only for myself, I think that Turbine goes further with LotRO in their attempt to achieve their fullest potential than Cryptic does with STO. I've spent money in LotRO's cash shop since it went free to play. I have not spent a dime in STO's...
LotRO offers stuff I WANT to spend my own money on. STO does not.
Sorry if I'm not a big enough fanboy. But I have to call it like I see it. Free to Play for both LotRO and STO means that I can enjoy both games. If they both still required a subscription, I would be subscribed to LotRO...
Sorry guys.
EDIT:
I just cast my vote as indicated above.
I see it the other way around. LOTRO has one of the most intrusive cash shops in the industry. Regarding classes, content, whatever, Turbine is there at every corner with their hand out. The cash shop is far more necessary in LOTRO to play the game.
Meanwhile, with STO, unless you're looking to buy something from cash shop as a luxury, you can literally play the entire game without needed or even encountering the C-Store.
I see it the other way around. LOTRO has one of the most intrusive cash shops in the industry. Regarding classes, content, whatever, Turbine is there at every corner with their hand out. The cash shop is far more necessary in LOTRO to play the game.
Meanwhile, with STO, unless you're looking to buy something from cash shop as a luxury, you can literally play the entire game without needed or even encountering the C-Store.
That's a major reason why STO gets my vote.
You can play all the content in STO in a few weeks. LOTRO has so much content it would take far, far longer.
Also, like STO, you can earn the currency to buy stuff without using real money -- and it's superior to STO in that it's not tied to some dodgy stock market, just earn achievements and they grant X amount of currency.
Given the choice between the meager offerings on the C-Store and the gamble boxes, and purchasable content, especially after how terrible Season 7 came out -- I'd prefer if Cryptic worked on making content good enough people would readily buy it.
I can't compare the two since I don't play lotro yet. But since I'm tired of all this crappy farming "content", I decided to try lotro. Downloading the game at the moment.
I can't compare the two since I don't play lotro yet. But since I'm tired of all this crappy farming "content", I decided to try lotro. Downloading the game at the moment.
Good luck cryptic with your dirty asia grinder.
I hear alot of good things about LotRo, I think i will download it myself and give it a try. This Season 7 has really upset me, feels like a super grindfest that is taking precious resources away from me for Space sets that I used to get for free, other than the time i put into STF's to get the salvage..not to mention you have to go through said grindfest on all ALT's...I have 7 level 50's and I refuse to grind Tier 5 rep on all of them, so I guess I will miss out on end game gear and have to use elite fleet stuff.
I already tried SWTOR again since the F2P launched, but its still garbage game imo, so Lotro is the only other game I can think of to try, other than Elder Scrolls Online coming out soon.
I see it the other way around. LOTRO has one of the most intrusive cash shops in the industry. Regarding classes, content, whatever, Turbine is there at every corner with their hand out. The cash shop is far more necessary in LOTRO to play the game.
Meanwhile, with STO, unless you're looking to buy something from cash shop as a luxury, you can literally play the entire game without needed or even encountering the C-Store.
That's a major reason why STO gets my vote.
As a LOTRO Founder and Lifetimer, I have never had to buy anything from the LOTRO store. Nor have I had to buy anything from the STO store.
The cash shop is totally unnecessary in either game, but they offer things that are fun to have. All told, I've spent more real money in the STO store than in the LOTRO store.
The LOTRO store is no more intrusive than STO.
That said, I haven't voted in this contest, but I would vote for LOTRO based on overall content and continuing storyline content releases. Recently I've spent more time in STO than LOTRO (my sci-fi itch needs scratching ), but while STO brings some great game systems to the table, the major lack I see is overall episodic/mission content. Foundry helps, but the tool is lacking compared to what devs can do with official content.
As a free player if you never spent any money there, it'd take you weeks just to walk to it all.
However, the game has been out for nearly six years; of COURSE it's got more content than a game that's been out half as long.
Even if you handicap it at 3 years apiece, the amount and quality of content in LOTRO is still superior. As a poster above stated, since Turbine sells content, it's their priority. Since Cryptic focuses on catering to whales and the foolish, they focus on gamble boxes and grinds.
As a free player if you never spent any money there, it'd take you weeks just to walk to it all.
However, the game has been out for nearly six years; of COURSE it's got more content than a game that's been out half as long.
It launched with more quest/story content in the four starter zones than STO has today. Within LOTRO's first year, they released two major free updates with new landmasses (zones) and hundreds of new quests.
That said, I realize I have probably been coming off in recent months as down on STO. I'm not, not even remotely. I have actually spent more time in STO than LOTRO recently because I've been in a sci-fi mood and this is my sci-fi MMO of choice (there really aren't any viable competitors for me).
The game world, combat mechanics (mostly), bridge officer system (I *love* being able to crew my ship and take them on missions with me), etc., are tremendously fun. I enjoy STO or I wouldn't play it.
The only significant issue I have with it is the lack of episodic content updates. The kind of storytelling/playing experience that the STO engine is capable of supporting is amazing. Just look at what some of the Foundry authors are pulling off with lesser tools than the devs have access to. This game has so many underused assets just waiting to be populated with solid stories.
I'm hoping that with the dev teamed being ramped up, it means good immersive storyline content is in the offing for STO. I can only do so many dailies and adventure zones before it becomes monotonous.
When my wife and I went lifetime in STO, the Engineering reports were focusing on upcoming storyline content (via FEs, expanded KDF content, normal episodic content, and so forth). We would still like to see some semblance of that happen.
The only significant issue I have with it is the lack of episodic content updates. The kind of storytelling/playing experience that the STO engine is capable of supporting is amazing. Just look at what some of the Foundry authors are pulling off with lesser tools than the devs have access to. This game has so many underused assets just waiting to be populated with solid stories.
I'm hoping that with the dev teamed being ramped up, it means good immersive storyline content is in the offing for STO. I can only do so many dailies and adventure zones before it becomes monotonous.
I agree.
If Season Six and Seven brought episodic missions and the reputation system, while leaving the embassy and fleet base on the editing room floor, I think the endgame content would have been win-win. I love the episodic missions and storytelling, but I hate all the endless grinding.
Well this has been an interesting discussion and a much better one than the LotRO forum discussion by a mile. Lot's of interesting points and perspectives.
I had originally posted this thread because I'm a long time LotRO player (since a little before launch) and I saw this same thread on their forums. I started playing STO a little while after F2P.
I just thought it would be fun to try and rally the STO fans and forum goers for a little friendly rivalry.
Cryptic does not prioritized the development of anything that isn't making them money. If they do not charge for playable content, then playable content makes them no money and therefore it will not be a priority. Turbine charges money for their playable content. Therefore it makes them money, and therefore they have made it a priority.
This is actually a very interesting point. I agree Turbine focuses more on playable content, while Cryptic seems to focus more on playable systems. However, you can see more emphasis on systems lately from Turbine too in RoR.
What content means is different for everybody, though. Not to mention enjoying said content. Some might debate that hundreds of kill 10 orcs quest for the nth time putting behind a paywall qualifies as enjoyable content, while some might debate that putting 6 repeatable quests, 4 soloable minidungeon quests and a few cutscenes behind a grindwall in New Romulus qualifies as content. The only thing common in both games that no matter how many hundreds of kill 10 orcs quest Turbine puts in LOTRO, no matter how many more systems Cryptic develops for STO with as little playable content as possible without risking torches and pitchforks, players will still devour everything in a very short timeframe in both games. I still remember that my level65 hunter wandered in and out Dol Guldur unharrassed - to reflect back a little to the original IP debate - within the first week of SoM that we had waited for more than a year.
Saving the 4th fleet - my Foundry mission live on Holodeck. Have fun!
Lotro is actually both a better MMO than STO, and it holds better to its source material. Having said that, STO manages to be more fun mechanically. LOTR combat systems are just so boring.
But really, it's not a fair contest with the recent release of the Hobbit.
This is actually a very interesting point. I agree Turbine focuses more on playable content, while Cryptic seems to focus more on playable systems. However, you can see more emphasis on systems lately from Turbine too in RoR.
What content means is different for everybody, though. Not to mention enjoying said content. Some might debate that hundreds of kill 10 orcs quest for the nth time putting behind a paywall qualifies as enjoyable content, while some might debate that putting 6 repeatable quests, 4 soloable minidungeon quests and a few cutscenes behind a grindwall in New Romulus qualifies as content. The only thing common in both games that no matter how many hundreds of kill 10 orcs quest Turbine puts in LOTRO, no matter how many more systems Cryptic develops for STO with as little playable content as possible without risking torches and pitchforks, players will still devour everything in a very short timeframe in both games. I still remember that my level65 hunter wandered in and out Dol Guldur unharrassed - to reflect back a little to the original IP debate - within the first week of SoM that we had waited for more than a year.
LOTRO's content consists of far more than "hundreds of kill 10 orc" quests. They have varying levels of content (deep Epic story, solid regional/local story, middlin' story, and light kill 10 orc story). It's fairly well balanced throughout. The only quests that get old for me are the requisite "kill 10 boars" that seem to appear in every region. LOTRO has a wide variety of quest content, with varying degrees of depth and complexity. That's what I'm looking for in STO as well.
STO's game mechanics support rich, complex storytelling -- they just don't make use of it the way they should. The main problem I have with STO mission content from the last few updates is that instead of going with a balanced story approach (some deep, some middlin', and some light), they seem to have been focused on light story (mostly of the "kill 10 whatever" variety). What little "real" story content was provided in Season 7 was gated behind reputation grind, which means only one of my characters will ever see them, because I can't do the rep grind repeatedly. It becomes monotonous after a while.
STO's potential based on the game systems and mechanics they've developed is huge. But without depth of content, it can't reach that potential. Dan Stahl's comments about content in Season 8 and the ramped up dev team are encouraging.
STO simply can no longer be put into the same category as other recent MMO's.......LOTR wee's all over STO because it simply offers so much more content at launch than STO has to offer 3 years after it launched.......its embarrassing to be honust.
I chose not to vote. That said while I like STO more (space combat is far more fun than YANFMMO gameplay) LOTRO is clearly adhering better to it's IP though both games do a good job. That said the best game at adhering to it's IP (So far) is SW:TOR.
I just wish SW:TOR would get their heads out of their TRIBBLE and properly implement the space game instead of that rail shooter they currently have.
Comments
(Nearly every MMO thinks their developers are the worst, ever)
Wicks and Things: NW-DI4FMZRR4 : The Fenwick merchant family has lost a caravan! Can you help?
Beggar's Hollow: NW-DR6YG4J2L : Someone, or something, has stolen away many of the Fenwicks' children! Can you find out what happened to them?
Into the Fen Wood: NW-DL89DRG7B : Enter the heart of the forest. Can you discover the secret of the Fen Wood?
Plus, LOTRO is easier to follow and has a better story line, great graphics, less "cookie cutter" builds, etc, and is just much more fun to play.
STO has tons and tons of potential and is fun to play. But, sorry Cryptic, it is just not all there yet. It was a nice try though.
And I notice you didn't respond to what I actually said either.
Your the one who brought up small size dev team as a defence of STO. I just pointed out that this statement has been used by day 1, not only by the supporters, but also by the devs themselves and it's now used as a convenient excuse for a lot of STO's ills, both past and present.
"Star Trek: Online" is a patch work of historical franchise elements, which were stitched together with an artistic license. Cryptic had to invent explanations for why historical franchise elements exited in the 25th century. In order to achieve their overall goals, Cryptic created nonexistent elements to fuse everything together. Some of those nonexistent "Star Trek" elements include: M.A.C.O. Armors, Omega Armors, armors, mini-guns, blast-guns, antiproton weapons, etc...
Second, while "Lord of the Rings" and "Star Wars: The Old Republic" are role-playing games, "Star Trek: Online" fits into the strategy game category. While there are story and role-playing mechanics in place, "Star Trek: Online" does not fuse them together in a "Dragon Age: Origins" and "Star Wars: The Old Republic" manner. Players do not have dialogue choices, which influence the 'overall' flow of a 'main' story. New Romulus is an example. During the cut-scenes on New Romulus, the player does not have the ability to choose between options. Your avatar just bounces her or his head, walks, and allows another npc to ramble. I do not think you can compare two different games, which were built with two different gaming styles. I could be wrong.
I feel your pain.
Bajor should be the stepping stone in which all social zones should follow. If Cryptic dedicated a half a season to revamping social zones, (adding non-grinding contexts, depth, new designs, story elements, and mini-missions), I think many people will shout out with joy. As long as those new environments are geared towards the social experience, many people will find some sort of use for them. Do you know what Cryptic will do? Cryptic will find someway to destroy those environments with grinding reputation marks.
STO isn't terrible by any means, but neither is it a great game either.
While the new content is welcomed, the mechanic used to deliver them stinks.
If you remember back when they boasted about new 'on ship' missions, Cryptic had us thinking they were going to make actual 'tasked missions'. rofl... We ended up getting duty officer click missions, which involves zero mental thinking or strategy. *yawn*
As a result of all the grinding involved with Season Six, the arrival and missteps of Season Seven caused me to abandon fleets. Once you add in all the waiting periods, (20 hour timers for a single project, 24 hour timer for dilithium cap reset, 15 minute tier claims, 1+ days for fleet base upgrades, 24 hour waits for fleet base projects, etc...), the grinding and waiting process makes you consider leaving. I do not see how this system is suppose to be fun.
On a related note, although I was able to gather enough resources, the 8,000 dilithium refinement limitation has hindered my progress. Instead of being able to claim my items within one day, I have to wait two days to cap off a single 9,000 dilithium requirement item. In order for me to claim all three pieces of my armor set, I have to pause my game time for four days. I sign in for five minutes a day, refine what I can in dilithium, fill the requirements to 8,000 dilithium, sign out, and return the next day to repeat and/or finish the process. I currently have two STF pieces of gear in my rep queue, and its going to take me three days to claim them. Even though I put in my time to grind the resources, another time gate has caused me to stop playing. Ironically, I have to wait until 7:00 pm every night, so that the dilithium cap gets reset.
...and, to think I spent over $200 on zen. What was I thinking? rofl...
Even though Cryptic denies what I said a few days ago, I still think "Star Trek: Online" will be closing its doors by the end of the year. I do not see how the fleet base, embassy, and reputation system can add up to fun.
I see it the other way around. LOTRO has one of the most intrusive cash shops in the industry. Regarding classes, content, whatever, Turbine is there at every corner with their hand out. The cash shop is far more necessary in LOTRO to play the game.
Meanwhile, with STO, unless you're looking to buy something from cash shop as a luxury, you can literally play the entire game without needed or even encountering the C-Store.
That's a major reason why STO gets my vote.
You can play all the content in STO in a few weeks. LOTRO has so much content it would take far, far longer.
Also, like STO, you can earn the currency to buy stuff without using real money -- and it's superior to STO in that it's not tied to some dodgy stock market, just earn achievements and they grant X amount of currency.
Given the choice between the meager offerings on the C-Store and the gamble boxes, and purchasable content, especially after how terrible Season 7 came out -- I'd prefer if Cryptic worked on making content good enough people would readily buy it.
Good luck cryptic with your dirty asia grinder.
I hear alot of good things about LotRo, I think i will download it myself and give it a try. This Season 7 has really upset me, feels like a super grindfest that is taking precious resources away from me for Space sets that I used to get for free, other than the time i put into STF's to get the salvage..not to mention you have to go through said grindfest on all ALT's...I have 7 level 50's and I refuse to grind Tier 5 rep on all of them, so I guess I will miss out on end game gear and have to use elite fleet stuff.
I already tried SWTOR again since the F2P launched, but its still garbage game imo, so Lotro is the only other game I can think of to try, other than Elder Scrolls Online coming out soon.
As a LOTRO Founder and Lifetimer, I have never had to buy anything from the LOTRO store. Nor have I had to buy anything from the STO store.
The cash shop is totally unnecessary in either game, but they offer things that are fun to have. All told, I've spent more real money in the STO store than in the LOTRO store.
The LOTRO store is no more intrusive than STO.
That said, I haven't voted in this contest, but I would vote for LOTRO based on overall content and continuing storyline content releases. Recently I've spent more time in STO than LOTRO (my sci-fi itch needs scratching
As a free player if you never spent any money there, it'd take you weeks just to walk to it all.
However, the game has been out for nearly six years; of COURSE it's got more content than a game that's been out half as long.
Even if you handicap it at 3 years apiece, the amount and quality of content in LOTRO is still superior. As a poster above stated, since Turbine sells content, it's their priority. Since Cryptic focuses on catering to whales and the foolish, they focus on gamble boxes and grinds.
It launched with more quest/story content in the four starter zones than STO has today. Within LOTRO's first year, they released two major free updates with new landmasses (zones) and hundreds of new quests.
That said, I realize I have probably been coming off in recent months as down on STO. I'm not, not even remotely. I have actually spent more time in STO than LOTRO recently because I've been in a sci-fi mood and this is my sci-fi MMO of choice (there really aren't any viable competitors for me).
The game world, combat mechanics (mostly), bridge officer system (I *love* being able to crew my ship and take them on missions with me), etc., are tremendously fun. I enjoy STO or I wouldn't play it.
The only significant issue I have with it is the lack of episodic content updates. The kind of storytelling/playing experience that the STO engine is capable of supporting is amazing. Just look at what some of the Foundry authors are pulling off with lesser tools than the devs have access to. This game has so many underused assets just waiting to be populated with solid stories.
I'm hoping that with the dev teamed being ramped up, it means good immersive storyline content is in the offing for STO. I can only do so many dailies and adventure zones before it becomes monotonous.
When my wife and I went lifetime in STO, the Engineering reports were focusing on upcoming storyline content (via FEs, expanded KDF content, normal episodic content, and so forth). We would still like to see some semblance of that happen.
If Season Six and Seven brought episodic missions and the reputation system, while leaving the embassy and fleet base on the editing room floor, I think the endgame content would have been win-win. I love the episodic missions and storytelling, but I hate all the endless grinding.
I had originally posted this thread because I'm a long time LotRO player (since a little before launch) and I saw this same thread on their forums. I started playing STO a little while after F2P.
I just thought it would be fun to try and rally the STO fans and forum goers for a little friendly rivalry.
Thanks for posting.
This is actually a very interesting point. I agree Turbine focuses more on playable content, while Cryptic seems to focus more on playable systems. However, you can see more emphasis on systems lately from Turbine too in RoR.
What content means is different for everybody, though. Not to mention enjoying said content. Some might debate that hundreds of kill 10 orcs quest for the nth time putting behind a paywall qualifies as enjoyable content, while some might debate that putting 6 repeatable quests, 4 soloable minidungeon quests and a few cutscenes behind a grindwall in New Romulus qualifies as content. The only thing common in both games that no matter how many hundreds of kill 10 orcs quest Turbine puts in LOTRO, no matter how many more systems Cryptic develops for STO with as little playable content as possible without risking torches and pitchforks, players will still devour everything in a very short timeframe in both games. I still remember that my level65 hunter wandered in and out Dol Guldur unharrassed - to reflect back a little to the original IP debate - within the first week of SoM that we had waited for more than a year.
But some of us still love you STO.
But really, it's not a fair contest with the recent release of the Hobbit.
LOTRO's content consists of far more than "hundreds of kill 10 orc" quests. They have varying levels of content (deep Epic story, solid regional/local story, middlin' story, and light kill 10 orc story). It's fairly well balanced throughout. The only quests that get old for me are the requisite "kill 10 boars" that seem to appear in every region. LOTRO has a wide variety of quest content, with varying degrees of depth and complexity. That's what I'm looking for in STO as well.
STO's game mechanics support rich, complex storytelling -- they just don't make use of it the way they should. The main problem I have with STO mission content from the last few updates is that instead of going with a balanced story approach (some deep, some middlin', and some light), they seem to have been focused on light story (mostly of the "kill 10 whatever" variety). What little "real" story content was provided in Season 7 was gated behind reputation grind, which means only one of my characters will ever see them, because I can't do the rep grind repeatedly. It becomes monotonous after a while.
STO's potential based on the game systems and mechanics they've developed is huge. But without depth of content, it can't reach that potential. Dan Stahl's comments about content in Season 8 and the ramped up dev team are encouraging.
I just wish SW:TOR would get their heads out of their TRIBBLE and properly implement the space game instead of that rail shooter they currently have.
- Damn the torpedos! Full speed ahead!