I've already clearly explained my point of view from the commercial perspective, so I'm not going to comment more about it.
I continue to read in forums and blog posts how LOTRO is a respectable mmorpg worth playing but I still see no trace of actual reasons or explanations about what this game does different or better.
Imho
LOTRO isn't just a game within a genre, borrowing many standardized mechanics. LOTRO is a rip-off, a plagiarism that doesn't offer anything neither new nor improved. And if you play the game and enjoy it don't just tell me I'm wrong. Tell me *why*, describe me what LOTRO does better, where are the fun points, what is different. And maybe you'll even write a blog post that is interesting to read.
The real difference between
LOTRO and
WoW is this one: WoW is a game that fits in a well-defined genre. It is strongly influenced by other mmorpgs, replicates most of their features. But what is relevant is that WoW HUGELY IMPROVED what it borrowed. From the UI, to strict mechanics, accessibility, polish and flow. Every tiniest aspect in WoW was analyzed throughly, improved and refined. WoW took a model and improved it like no one else, set a new standard of quality and opened up a genre that was a market niche mostly inaccessible to the larger public because of consolidated bad habits that plagued it.
Turbine instead took a successful game and shamefully ripped it off in every aspect, hoping that the powerful license they purchased will compensate the complete lack of ideas, competence and ambition.
The difference is that LOTRO doesn't bring any kind of worthwhile contribute to this genre, it just hopes to leech it.
People often talk about first, second, third generations of mmorpgs. I wonder which generation I have to wait to see dialog trees for NPCs or monsters stalking players instead of sitting while waiting to be pulled.