Thread: The Invasion of WoW Players

They are all over! With my server being default and lotro being on steam its insane. I guess they are all bored and waiting for their pandas, but I find it funny how all the regional chats are people talking about WoW. Anyone else notice this?

PS: I don't have anything against them, I just find it funny, it seems all 10 million of them are trying out lotro :P

Haven't noticed anything on my server.

I haven't noticed anything on my server either. But that's probably because I still have all the chat channels off from when mine was the recommended server...

XD

yes, even before the steam the starter areas seem to be full of them which is great! some of the best players here played wow at some point!

there are a few exceptions however that have found their way to my ignore list. the ones that announce that lotro is not as good as wow, they go on and on with why lotro is inferior, and the only reason they are playing is its free, it kinda makes me wish wow was f2p (besides the first 20 levels) so that type of player will go back to wow

Well, I'll admit it - I'm a WoW-refugee myself. However, one thing you'll NEVER hear me say is that WoW is better, because it's not. It's taken the game away from those of us who liked to base ourselves on skill and given it to children that base the greatness of a game on gear. My husband posted what I consider my best piece of writing about that topic when we first arrived on the LotRO boards almost a year ago. With your indulgences, I'd like to repost it here.


((As a full-time roleplayer, the shift in policies put forward in World of Warcraft has finally gotten the best of me. The following is my personal feeling at having to finally say goodbye to the game I have loved since the day it was released.))

A Farewell to Azeroth

Nearly seven years ago, the Titans unveiled a new realm for those of us from Earth to visit. I happened to be lucky enough to be one of those people who took steps into Azeroth when it was brand new and no one knew what to expect from it. What I found completely captured my attention.

From Teldrassil to Winterspring, every step I took was exciting and strange. I remember visiting Ironforge, Orgrimmar, Stormwind, and Thunder Bluff, eagerly looking for hidden places and new people to meet. And the others exploring the world felt much the same. I met many others who had come to Azeroth looking for an escape, even if only for a few hours at a time, from the everyday, looking for a new experience and a few people with whom to share it with.

Then, when the Dark Portal reopened, and we were able to visit the Orcs’ homeworld, I remember spending hours just flying over Outland, enjoying every moment of it. The sky no longer limited me, and I had the ability to go anywhere, find those rarest secret places and most difficult to reach herbs and ores.

However, I began to notice a shift in mood when Northrend became reachable. The people of Azeroth, those whom I’d begun this journey with, had started to split into two very separate groups. There were a few, like me, who still enjoyed the everyday life of the Horde or the Alliance. But more and more, people began focusing solely on the treasure they could gain or the fame they could gather by killing the most difficult creatures, whether alone or with large groups, and they began to actively exclude those like me, who were just looking for a place to call our home away from home.

I remember my excitement the first time I was able to see Icecrown Citidel for myself. I was entirely unprepared, my gear wasn’t nearly as good as that of my companions, and my weapons were woefully lacking. However, my friends gave me a chance, and we were all surprised to see that my skills were enough to keep me alive and fighting beside them.

The Cataclysm truly did change everything.

Suddenly, my skill was no longer enough. Without the right armour and weapons, I was excluded from even trying to visit new places and figure out how to fight the hardest monsters. Not only that, but there were fewer and fewer of us who had previously enjoyed simple interactions with the other dwellers of Azeroth. More and more, the Titans seemed to be granting gifts and special favours to those who focused solely on combat or on treasure seeking, leaving those of us who simply wished to live a life there behind in every way.

As more of us became disconnected from our neighbors, I found that trying to make new friendships was simply too hard, as no one seems interested in the local communities of Azeroth anymore. Unless I joined a large guild, I was destined to be left behind, lonely and unable to see any more of the world than I already had.

Not only this, but even our commanders seemed to think that we needed direction every step of the way. No more were we able to simply explore the world, taking jobs as we found them, or ignoring jobs we didn’t have much interest in. Instead, we were given rigid orders that must be fulfilled before being allowed to see the rest of the territory we were in.

All of these things broke what little spirit I still had to remain in Azeroth. It wasn’t all bad, I met my husband in Orgrimmar, and I had quite a bit of fun along the way. However, it just isn’t in me to return.

Azeroth is just not the same for me. Where once I could rely on my own skill and the friendships and good will of the people in my own community, now, the realms are so broadly connected and focused on the state of my armour that I just cannot bring myself to return.

I spent nearly seven years in Azeroth, and for the most part they were good ones. However, unless a Cataclysm within the people occurs, one in which they come back together in local communities, willing to enjoy a mug of ale with an Elf in the local tavern or let me try my hand against beasts that most fear to fight, I very much doubt I’ll be able to go back. The changes within the people and places have just been too great for me to overcome. After all, I’m only one Elf rogue… and like all good rogues, we are never missed until we are truly needed.

Silverskye

<Direhunt>

I am quite happy in my new home of Middle Earth, and so long as other WoW-refugees are finding their way here, I can only hope they are of the same caliber as the wonderful people I have already met on my new home server, Laurelin, and the active members of the forums.

I have noticed the past month there has been a increase in population on servers which is great seeing.

I am always checking this site to see how things are going.
http://lux-hdro.de/hdro-live.php

I haven't noticed much WoW talk on my server although tbh I don't pay much attention to general chat. I am a former WoW player (actually I am still subscribed as I signed up for the annual pass when I was still having some fun) and I have played LOTRO off and on since before it went F2P. I really like the community here, while there are some trolls and such it is no where near as bad as WoW or other MMOs out there, the community seems to be a lot more mature than other MMOs. I like the slow pace (at least for me) and atmosphere in game. I have recently come back to LOTRO again and am seriously thinking of making it my MMO of choice.

I have seen an influx of WOW lately also. Had to have a discussion with a new member of my kinship for refusing to allow someone into a kin grouping because they were learning and would just die anyway. I am glad to see the influx of new people. I don't want them to try to turn LOTRO into WOW II. My ignore list hasn't grown yet but I am afraid it will soon. I love LOTRO and the community, hopefully we can continue to be what we all love.

I noticed an increase of new players around Bree and Shire. Haven't noticed much WoW talk...just the occasional "can I has flying mounts?" or something to that extent. (Never played WoW; do they have flying mounts?) My ignore list is getting pretty full because it seems like they all want to start their own kinships and feel the need to spam it every 2-5 seconds.

I started a new toon out of pure boredom one today, and I must say, trying to find boars these days is a hassle! I can't run around without running into someone or their pet. (Not that I mind, I enjoy seeing new players, just leave my boars alone!)

Originally Posted by Myrric

My husband posted what I consider my best piece of writing about that topic when we first arrived on the LotRO boards almost a year ago. With your indulgences, I'd like to repost it here.

Thank you,#Myrric, for that. One former WoW roleplayer to another, it was a beautiful read and pretty much summed up what I felt when I, too, left Azeroth behind. Thinking of the wasted potential of that place still galls me just as the recent direction of our refuge does.

On the topic, my own thoughts on them are simple enough: I don't mind them so long as they don't come here expecting a WoW 2.0. It's a different house with different rules, and if they can accept that, then hey, welcome aboard. Who knows, some of them might become assets to the community in the near future, and we can never have too many of those with the way public sentiment has been lately.

I haven't seen any influx of WoW discussions, but I keep myself out of OOC.

I play quite a few mmo's and do I think any of them are better than the other? Overall, no. Each has things that work very well for that particular game that wouldn't work well at all in another.

The only thing that annoys me is people who say "ugh, the people coming here from X game are annoying" or "X game is far superior to Y game". It's good to have opinions, but you know what they say....

I too am a WoW refugee.

I started playing WoW way back at the end of vanilla and played until just about 6 months ago. Now my 4 accounts have become 2 and will slowly drop to none I have no doubt.

I did 1-80 on the 5 year plan. Soloing content or duoing it with my sister. Wandering around Azeroth at my own pace and loving it all. I didn't dungeon or do endgame along the way. There was really no way to do it back then for a mostly solo player.

Then came the dungeon finder. The advent of this one thing probably did more to destroy WoW for me than ANYTHING in my long playing history. All the wonderful people I had met along the way turned into foul mouthed, me first, run over your mother with a steamroller for gear disgusting fools.

That was when I made my fatal mistake. I jumped into it and ground out end game gear. Gritting my teeth through the vile people I encountered in Heroic dungeons. Got a raid ready set at the end of Wrath and couldn't get into any raids because I didn't have the achievement for already having done the raid. WOOOPEEE a catch 22.

In comes the Cataclysm. I REALLY loved questing to 85 in the Cata zones but it went too fast. SO I attempted the dungeon scene again to discover that the rude ugly people that I had encountered in wrath had just got worse in my absence.

So I thought level a new character. They had redone all of the old world and it is like freight train rails now. No diversity. Just get on the track and chug along to 85.

I went looking for a new game. The magic of WoW is gone for me.

LotRO is my home now. It is also the home of my 33 extended family members who game with me. None of us logs into WoW more than once or twice a week now and that is only to touch base with a few friends who are still there.

I love it here. I can go out in the world and explore. There is zero pressure to move fast or do endgame. I can just be me and immerse in the fantasy (RP or not).

The single biggest draw to LotRO to me though is the community. Overall we are pretty polite bunch. An influx of WoW players however fills me with fear however.

All this won't matter when Guild Wars II is released. It's just how things are.

I haven't noticed anything myself but the WoW-Seasons come and go. "They" don't stay long, just blitz content and leave for another whatever. Sort of like many LOTROers do too. <G>

As for turning LOTRO into another WOW? I doubt that would happen unless there's something store wise they could bring but I understand we already have most everything now. And as we're not even LOTRO-pure (we're a LOTROfied-store), another change would not be that hard to imagine. Might even be for the good.

I'd guess they might be some of the 400,000 who have abandoned SWTOR.

Welcome to Middle-earth!

Originally Posted by Eltheanor

All this won't matter when Guild Wars II is released. It's just how things are.

Oh, don't be absurd. The idea that everyone will leave this game when another game, ANY other game is released, is ridiculous.

The more the merrier! Turbine can only benefit since a portion of them will grow to love the game and stick around.

Originally Posted by Myrric

With your indulgences, I'd like to repost it here.

On the one hand: nicely written note from him.

On the other: I can't say it sounds accurate. Maybe things were different for his server than mine (Shadow Council), but I can't say I noticed much in the way of community or raid behavior changes from when I joined (just as BC was released) to when I left (a couple months into Cata). I was never that interested in raiding (still holds true today), but on the occasions I raided I tended to do well as long as I was familiar with the content, regardless of the gear I happened to be wearing at the time. Same in heroics.

I am reminded of an occasion on which my rogue - in all quest or sub-heroic dungeon gear - was being insulted by my mostly heroic-geared group for having weak dps early on in a heroic dungeon. This was caused by the fact that the first boss is very anti-sustained melee dps, which I mentioned, but they were unforgiving.

So I proceeded to top the damage meter for the rest of the run. This shut them up until right before the last boss...where they kicked me so that their guildmate druid wouldn't have competition for the +agi drop the boss might have. -.-

"Skill" has always been a pretty lax requirement in WoW, and in most MMORPGs, really. There's a threshold you want to hit for where you're at roughly maximum effectiveness, sure, but it's not like it's a great challenge to hit it. From that point it's all about the numbers, always has been. Cata's inflated numbers just made it more obvious; it didn't create the situation.

From what I've seen, LotRO is no different in that respect. Heck, not so long ago it was WORSE about gear requirements with Hope-gating on raids that were drenched in Dread. Don't have anti-dread gear (radiance, wasn't it?)? Sucks to be you if you want to raid.

Point being, increments change, but the mechanics didn't, not dramatically.

Myself, I left WoW not because of the game getting "too easy" or "too gear-dependent" or whatever else. I just ran out of things I wanted to do in it and most of my friends had already left, so I didn't see a reason to keep paying a subscription fee. *shrugs* Simple.

As for an influx of WoW players into LotRO: meh. It happens. Players are players, and any game has its share of derps. Players who enjoy(ed) WoW are no more or less likely to be bad or obnoxious or whatever negative quality one might want to attribute to them than players trying LotRO from any other game community. Just don't dwell on it and you'll feel better.

Originally Posted by Myrric

All of these things broke what little spirit I still had to remain in Azeroth. It wasn’t all bad, I met my husband in Orgrimmar, and I had quite a bit of fun along the way. However, it just isn’t in me to return.

I agree. I'm also a WoW refugee, played for maybe two years and had a max level mage plus a bunch of other toons, even a goblin and worgen. I LOVED the WORLD. LOVED IT!! Loved the quests (before they nerfed all the really, really good ones with Cataclysm).

But...I knew something was wrong when I was threatened with getting booted from a dungeon for simply not having done the dungeon before hand. How do you know something unless you DO it???And no, I'm not looking up stuff on YouTube. I'm not paying to do homework and know everything up front. I'm paying to PLAY.

I knew it was time to find another game when I actully DID get booted from a dungeon run for 1) not knowing the dungeon 2) having the fights explained incorrectly. I'm not paying money AT ALL for that.

I am enjoying LOTRO. There is so much to do, the festivals so far are awesome, and I am enjoying doing things when I want without worrying about dungeons. (And I love trying to rack up TP for expansion!! Play for free?? CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! lol)

Personally, I think that WoW players are among the more well-equipped to play this style of F2P game.

Mindlessly grinding through the same content over and over and over again to earn TP? It'd be right up their alley.

Sincerely, a (former) Cat-specced Druid from Elune.

Originally Posted by Leira

Oh, don't be absurd. The idea that everyone will leave this game when another game, ANY other game is released, is ridiculous.

Not everyone. Check the game communities,mmo forums,FB,forums just like this. Compare the 2 games and see. people compare SWTOR to posts like mine but the fact is that this time it won't come out as a buggy,broken game. Once,it was WoW. Many mmos followed that. Lotro as well. Most that failed(like SWTOR) did so because of management decisions and the inability to fix what was needed to be fixed in time. However loyal swtor and lotro players will stick to their games mainly because of the lore etc. As long as they can stand failing mmos. Now,GWII is 100% proven a new generation mmo.And it's still in beta,imagine when it's released. Personally I d prefer an earlier buggy release but won't happen.

I know the anticipation for GWII made it all over like swtor again(a lot bigger actually) but a little research can solve it,trust me.
I will admit however that there is always a slight possibility for something to go wrong and dissapoint players,especially with the enormous expectations people have for GWII now. But there is no way. ArenaNet is determined to release a 1000% bug free new gen mmo and they shall

Originally Posted by Eltheanor

All this won't matter when Guild Wars II is released. It's just how things are.

It won't matter when GWII is released, either, for that matter. Every game is going to be the end of every other game, if you believe what the masses say. Somehow, that is never the case. I haven't met anyone outside the forums who's been particularly excited for it (do know a couple D3 players, but they're still active lotro players).

Frankly, I don't really see what the fuss is about...

Anywuzzle.

Now, as for me, I know a few former WoW players who are good, and a few who took too many hammers to the skull. I welcome the former and bid the latter to seek treatment. New faces are always good. Spice things up a bit, and get to answer the "Where can I get a horse?" question every two minutes XD.

There's no such thing as a bug-free MMO.

Doesn't exist. Never will.


Edit: That said, I'm still looking forward to GW2. LotRO's sub structure means I don't feel obligated to play it all the time, so there's room to mess around with plenty of other games and still drop in here when I feel like it.

Originally Posted by Eltheanor

Not everyone. Check the game communities,mmo forums,FB,forums just like this. Compare the 2 games and see. people compare SWTOR to posts like mine but the fact is that this time it won't come out as a buggy,broken game. Once,it was WoW. Many mmos followed that. Lotro as well. Most that failed(like SWTOR) did so because of management decisions and the inability to fix what was needed to be fixed in time. However loyal swtor and lotro players will stick to their games mainly because of the lore etc. As long as they can stand failing mmos. Now,GWII is 100% proven a new generation mmo.And it's still in beta,imagine when it's released. Personally I d prefer an earlier buggy release but won't happen.

I know the anticipation for GWII made it all over like swtor again(a lot bigger actually) but a little research can solve it,trust me.
I will admit however that there is always a slight possibility for something to go wrong and dissapoint players,especially with the enormous expectations people have for GWII now. But there is no way. ArenaNet is determined to release a 1000% bug free new gen mmo and they shall

There is no such thing as a bug free game. They can make all the promises they want.

Originally Posted by Eltheanor

ArenaNet is determined to release a 1000% bug free new gen mmo and they shall

Impossible. And even if they did, I and others that I know wouldn't touch it. I have no interest in Guild Wars 2.

I resumed playing LOTRO right before the 5th Anny event after many months of absence. I was pleasantly surprised that most of the lore-inappropriate, gamer-style character names I had been used to seeing after the game went F2P had disappeared, and that the average player was trying to stay within the cultural guidelines. However, during the Spring Festival, I again started noticing many questionable names on characters in the 10-30 lvl range (variations on "StabbyKill", "LeroyJenkins", etc.)

I can't prove it in court, it's all subjective experience, but I'm left with the impression something in the player base changed in the last couple of weeks to bring in players who are less dedicated to the Tolkien lore. Are they WoW players? Probably...who wasn't at one time?

Originally Posted by CookieArtisan

[snip] I am enjoying LOTRO. There is so much to do, the festivals so far are awesome, and I am enjoying doing things when I want without worrying about dungeons. (And I love trying to rack up TP for expansion!! Play for free?? CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! lol)

Welcome to Middle Earth, and more to the point, welcome to Crickhollow!

They have just as much right to be here as you do... I don't seem to have a problem with any of them.

World of Warcraft used to be a good game ya know A huuuge amount of LOTRO players (even the GOOD respectable ones) used to play WoW.

Originally Posted by Morat

Welcome to Middle Earth, and more to the point, welcome to Crickhollow!

ty ^_^

ten characters. blahblahblah.

I played WoW for years, loved it. Still think of it fondly. But I did get to the point where the wider context (the 'lore', I guess), just lost its appeal, and got me to worrying that I was wasting my time in that virtual space. I'd started playing Lotro by that point, so a contrast with Tolkien's world (with which I was very familiar, having read Lotr tens of times, literally) didn't help its cause. A shame in some ways, as I did like the smoothness of WoW in terms of combat/movement/travel etc (prob my puter's fault that lotro isn't as seamless for me), but the stars over the hills in Eregion gets me every time

Originally Posted by Eltheanor

Now,GWII is 100% proven a new generation mmo

People here in the forums said the same thing about Warhammer Online, Rift, Age of Conan, Aion and Star Wars The Old Republic.

After GW2 comes and goes people will say the same thing about the next new MMO to come after that.

Originally Posted by Eltheanor

I will admit however that there is always a slight possibility for something to go wrong and dissapoint players,especially with the enormous expectations people have for GWII now. But there is no way. ArenaNet is determined to release a 1000% bug free new gen mmo and they shall

Good luck with that.

Im still waiting for someone to create a 2nd generation MMO. Everything on the horizon is nothing more than the same old 1st generation mmo.

From what I have seen GW2 is just a 1st gen mmo with whitewash.
It follows the same train tracks that the first mmos laid down back in the frontier 90s.

I would like to be wrong but as a mmo veteran that is unlikely.

I haven't noticed (guess they're all picking the recommended server). But it was like that when F2P hit.

And then Turbine even changed the UI, at least the character sheet to be more WoW-like. Still haven't gotten used to the changes...

Originally Posted by Leira

Impossible. And even if they did, I and others that I know wouldn't touch it. I have no interest in Guild Wars 2.

This. What some people fail to realise is how much of our community are not gamers, but LotROers.

I will admit to have take a look at a few other MMOs since starting to play LotRO, but none has kept my interest past a very short first look. The essential difference is that I'm not here because it is another MMO, but because it is LoTRO.

Originally Posted by mjk47

The essential difference is that I'm not here because it is another MMO, but because it is LoTRO.

^This, it says it all. Commendations, my good man!

It may just be my imagination or a thought planted into my head by this thread.

But last night I was running a Foundry Tier 2 PUG (As the healer) and we had a tank.. a guardian who had just recentely hit 75.. Now what's a guardians main job? Taking aggro and holding it?... Apparantely not, this Guardian had never been a tank, he had always traited for damage and apparantely his damage output was massive!..

He wasn't geared with Moria or Mirkwood sets.. or Draigoch. Going forward we managed the first two bosses, I had to leave due to my nephew and little brother crying (I was babysitting) Several times during the instance he had the audacity to claim that I wasn't healing him properly because he demanded to be full health at all times, which isn't possible, all the other members of the group hopped to my defence, saying that I was rightfully doing my job (For which I was traited and geared for).

On the very same night we grouped for ANOTHER Tier 2 Foundry PUG (Different group) And in the group was a cappy with some ridiculous name (I can only imagine what MMO he was from) And one of my kinnies was also in the PUG, he had a mic and this Captain hadn't got voice chat enabled and I asked him to turn it on as my kinnie had a mic to lead the raid with. He refused stating some reason or another: "I don't wanna listen to some middle aged woman break my immersion in teh game, i come to middle eath to play as an elf not listen to some stupid fat woman on the mic"

Now call me crazy but either he was extremely immature, or he was a WoW player.. Probably both, two things that go hand in hand. Of course I play WoW sometimes if I'm in the mood for some silly fun, I know some incredibly mature people who play.

-Tails-

Originally Posted by Nymphonic

People here in the forums said the same thing about Warhammer Online, Rift, Age of Conan, Aion and Star Wars The Old Republic.

After GW2 comes and goes people will say the same thing about the next new MMO to come after that.

This time is different, at least for me. Of the people i played with in SOA you can count on one hand how many still play. Those that are still playing are, it seems, more dissatisfied with the game than ever before. Namely with bugs and lag but the RoR pricing and content are certainly being discussed. Yes, other games have been flavour of the month and stolen players only for most of them to drift back but there's going to come a game where a significant number decide they want to set up shop in.

Originally Posted by Troj

This time is different, at least for me. Of the people i played with in SOA you can count on one hand how many still play. Those that are still playing are, it seems, more dissatisfied with the game than ever before. Namely with bugs and lag but the RoR pricing and content are certainly being discussed. Yes, other games have been flavour of the month and stolen players only for most of them to drift back but there's going to come a game where a significant number decide they want to set up shop in.

Yeah, a load of people said this about SWTOR, go and have a look at their forums now, hoards and hoards of screeching players going berserk about dead servers, the server merges started this week - a whole 10 we're started and then boom, game down for emergency maintenance. It's always the same, every new game will kill Lotro - never happens, like many I've tried a few and it's always healthy to do so, merely underlines how good Lotro is compared to some of the dross that's been released since.

As for WoW players, can't say I've seen any on Eldar, our community is generally friendly but if someone started chelping about WoW being superior it wouldn't take long for them to get roundly hammered and ignored.

Originally Posted by Maliara

[...snip] but the stars over the hills in Eregion gets me every time

Wait until you see a night rainbow over Redhorn Pass.

Originally Posted by Nymphonic

People here in the forums said the same thing about Warhammer Online, Rift, Age of Conan, Aion and Star Wars The Old Republic.

After GW2 comes and goes people will say the same thing about the next new MMO to come after that.

My sentiments exactly, heard it all before.

/mode Nymphonic rep+1

Originally Posted by Nymphonic

People here in the forums said the same thing about Warhammer Online, Rift, Age of Conan, Aion and Star Wars The Old Republic.

After GW2 comes and goes people will say the same thing about the next new MMO to come after that.

...and don't forget, The Secret World launches in three weeks (but don't tell anyone, it's a secret).