I've just finished downloading the hi-def (damn yanks....what's with all this hi-def shiznits anyway?) Lord of the Rings Online trailer and it looks like it's filled with more crap than a baby's nappy.

Check it out here.

I used to run MEOSource before I lost interest in the game / went back to working on Gaming Source and the game was shaping up then, in it's early days, to be a good looking, well thought out game. The community was productive and things seemed to be heading in the right direction. What I see now is a World of Warcraft / Guild Wars spin-off with the LotR name slapped on it to try and sell it. I really do think this crap is going to flop, miserably.

What used to look like Everquest 2 crisp and beauty is now World of Warcraft cartoon balls, something that I don't think Middle-Earth warrants, or looks good in. I mean, check out The Shire in the trailer...What the hell happened? Those horses lare bigger than the hobbit holes.. Good job, ASS HATS. It's embarrassing and damn annoying.

What WOULD sell, for me atleast, is the MEMod Online. A world where you can explore Middle-Earth without being bound to locations like you are in Guild Wars.

Opinions?

Gotta agree on the graphics, looks shite now.
Seems like they scrapped their engine or something and are using the Dungeons and Dragons online engine now? (not really been looking up Middle Earth Online).
But one of the things that would draw me most to such a game would be to see Middle Earth in high detail graphic not some lowered down Cartoon'ish look.

MEO is going to have to pull out some really good content if they even want to try compete with EQ2 and WoW atm.

This is true. The game doesn't look enticing at all.

Now D&D Online....

I will download the trailer when I get home, but to be honest, I look at MMORPGs for a laugh. They always start off great, but sooner or later the monotony sets in.

Besides that, it always seems those who want to actually roleplay are in the minority...bogged down with idiotic metagamers with names like: "124_Cyb3r_Z@x_124"

Wow erm... the only way to describe it is unimpressive. What happened to the beautiful graphics engine they were using? The new one is not even as good as WoW IMO. That doesn't even count as cartoony, just poorly rendered. Come on. Even the animations look weak and unexciting. Are those supposed to be special moves? Nowadays those kinds of graphics are very outdated, and are hardly going to last against other titles in 2006 onwards. You only have to look at EQ2 and Oblivion to see what graphics are becoming.

That was the best they could do for their trailer? It was boring by modern standards. Not a very good start. And why name it Lord of the Rings Online? Because they're plugging the name of the film, it would seem. Why not call it Middle Earth Online still? That sounds so much better, and would probably make it sound more attractive. You know, exploring Middle Earth, rather than taking part in the events of the end of the Third Age. Again.

I'm not sure what they were thinking here...

Additionally, the subtitle "Shadows of Angmar" is so non-sensical in connection to the actual title "Lord of the Rings Online" that the developers should be already slapped thoroughly for that (maybe with a large trout, but preferably with something harder).

The graphics are a joke, I mean, why the hell did they change looks so massively, anyway? The quality of the graphics had been the last thing that I had found slightly enjoyable about this game.

Of course it's impossible to draw any conclusions on gameplay from that trailer, but if the overall game design has also "improved" as much as the graphics ... then this is not only going to be an at best mediocre adaption of Middle-earth into an online RPG, but it's bound to become a complete farce.

Apart from all that, it isn't as though the studio had created Asheron's Call 1 & 2 already O.o

Simply embarassing.