Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Is LotRO the methadone for WoW addicts?

At first I dismissed it as a personal peculiarity, I'm playing less hours of Lord of the Rings Online per week than I used to play World of Warcraft. But in many comments on this blog, and on many other blogs, I hear the same thing remarked. People seem to generally be "less addicted" to LotRO than to WoW. But as they switch anyway, they end up playing less. Is LotRO a kind of methadone for WoW addicts?

I think part of the reason is that LotRO is a more relaxed game, I feel less of a rush to reach the level cap. The earlier zones are prettier and actually better made than the higher level zones. And there isn't that "my friends are all raiding MC/Karazhan, I have to catch up" feeling (yet). Makes you wonder if there is something fundamentally different in LotRO, or whether it is just a function of game age. Imagine this as a marketing strategy: "Ween your spouse/relative from his WoW addiction, buy him LotRO!"

How about you? If you played WoW before and play LotRO now, did your playing hours per week change? Why do you think that is so?

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