Lord of the Rings Online Vs AQ Worlds - MMORPG Showdown 5 Finals

Ladies and Gentlemen we are proud to bring you the third semi-final of MMORPG Showdown 5.

Results will be posted soon so get your votes in now! Although the match will be officially be decided in the Review Directory, this forum battle will be for extra comments and will serve as a tie breaker if one is needed for the match.

Here's a rundown of each combatant:

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Lord of the Rings Online : Lord of the Rings Oneline: Shadows of Angmar is a free to play MMORPG that also includes a subscription and micro transaction options available for players willing to pay for them. Subscribers get special rewards every month for their fee, including money to spend in the in-game store. In January of 2009 MMORPG.Com award the game’s studio Turbine MMORPG Studio of the year, and LOTR’s Mines of Moria MMO Expansion of the year.

Currently there is a ridicuious amount of content available for play, with 15 “Books” worth of new quests, weapons, and instances on top of two full volumes of expansion packs released so far. Players have the option of picking a profession that will allow them to work with other players to build new weapons and items as well as helping them along their quest. Professions are either crafting or gathering based, and one needs the other to be successful.

A cook needs ingredients and a blacksmith needs minerals. The profession system encourages players to work together to make it in the world. I can’t imagine anything more Tolken than encouraging team work among players.
Players can choose from four races in the game: man, elf, dwarf, and hobbit.

There are also seven classes to be picked from: Burglar, Captain, Champion, Guardian, Hunter, Lore-master, and Minstrel. For minstrels who truly love music players over level 5 can actually learn to play instruments which can be played in real time using macros within the game. Players can also earn titles for bragging rights by completing good deeds within the game. Like live music these titled have little effect on your in game experience, but they add flavor to the role playing experience.

The attention to detail that goes into these character building, but not game play effecting, traits is a wonderful addition to the Lord of the Rings universe.

VS.



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AQ Worlds: AQ Worlds, aka, AdventureQuest Worlds is a free to play browser based Flash MMORPG that also includes a subscription and micro transaction options available for players willing to pay for them. Subscribers get access to exclusive classes and weapons, which are an attractive bonus feature when you consider characters can switch between classes by completing quests. Pre-paid game cards are also available for players who want to subscribe but don’t have a credit card.

Combat is handled in real time, with combating between monsters and players taking place simultaneously. Weapon damage is based mostly on your character’s attributes rather than its own specified stats, making level grinding more important that treasure hunting in the long run.

The game finds the player choosing to be either Good or Evil, and depending on that choice hunting down or protecting the evil Drakath and his 13 Lords of Evil. The story is regularly updated, which new content being added every Friday. However, this game features a greater focus towards action hungry causal gamers than the hardcore. The online community around AdventureQuest is strong though and the inclusion of special events and holidays for the game is a draw for many players.

Still the graphics are beautiful and the combat is reminiscent of classics like the Secret of Mana. As far as casual, mostly free, browser based MMORPGs go AdventureQuest World is a mighty contender indeed.

Final Scores

Lord of the Rings Online: 8.92

AQ Worlds: 5.63

Who Won And Why

With this battle the 5th MMORPG Showdown comes to a close, and a winner has been chosen. One game to rule them all, if you will. Appropriately the last challenger standing is the deep and, most importantly, free Lord of the Rings Online. While AQ Worlds is still incredibly popular ultimately it was unable to top the combination of a flood of content, beautiful graphics, and epic setting put forth by Lord of the Rings. And it doesn't hurt that the game is moderated down to character names to keep players in the game. This round wasn't even close, with LOTR's 8.92 towering over AQ Worlds' 5.63 like the Eye of Sauron. When it comes down to MMORPG's our readers love free games. You just like them deep, full featured, and able to rival their for pay peers.

Reader Reviews:

Lord of the Rings
Post Date: 22:25 31-01-2011
Rating: 10
Author: Adrian
Comment: I've been playing this game for close to 6 months now...and I am impressed with it. The graphics for this game are amazing, not to mention the sound which is stunning. Plenty to do in this, you will not get bored.

Post Date: 16:02 30-01-2011
Rating: 10
Author: Elementer
Comment: An honest great game. I love AQW more than this, but it's no denying it's the better game, at least yet.

Beware of AQW in a few years everybody.

If AQW is 2 years old and went to the finals, then guess what happens in 5?

Post Date: 19:02 26-01-2011
Rating: 10
Author: condor2199
Comment: This is simply a better game. As a lengthily player of both, I can strongly say LotRO is, by far, a much better game than AQ Worlds. Let's evaluate LotRO's elements.

Story - One of the biggest things for me personally, LotRO has an amazing story. It's undoubtedly cool to talk to Gandalf, and Strider, etc.(and yes, they're all there) but the true story of LotRO is an epic one, told across currently 2 volumes of amazing (and free) storyline, 15 books in each volume (30 books), and 15 chapters (quests) in each book (450!) with the third volume's release imminent (bringing it up to 675 chapters). Now THAT'S a story.

Gameplay (PvE) - This is the majority of LotRO, although you'll find this isn't a bad thing. There are 2 types. Solos (basically normal) and Fellowship (groups, more difficult, but more fun). Fellowship quests are where LotRO's PvE really shines, as everything from Fellowship maneuvers to Threat (aggro) is tactical and teamwork-oriented. Each individual excels in their own way, and in Fellowships, the whole becomes grater than its parts.

Gameplay (PVP) - Lotro's PvP is a cool feature. Either be a Freep (good) or Creep (bad, become one of the monster's that has been corrupting Middle-Earth and Wreak havoc onto the Free Peoples) and battle over certain locations to take control. The coolest part about this I think is the battle have actual impact on the entire world. Are your freeps winning? All of Middle-Earth on that Server gets a bonus to their HP and EXP gain.

Environment - Lotro is good for a number of reasons, but MAN is this one of them. Literally, you can gallop into the sunset as you travel, and with varying skyscapes (night, with a canopy of stars, clear blue sky in the day, a cloudy sky, etc, way more) as well as animal effects like the random flock of birds flying in the calm areas. The Dev's didn't need to do that, but they did. Hence is LotRO.

Music - I can't even begin to explain this. LotRO received awards for the soundtrack, and only by experiencing the game will you see why. Truly movie quality.

Community - Best. Ever. Where will you see people telling stories inside inns, or gathering for a band, other than in LotRO. Taking into account the vast amount of lore-inspired names that characters have more often than not (names like icanhazcheezburger are shunned. Who really can say that's a bad thing).

These are the few elements upon many that show's my point.

Summary - Look at AQ worlds. Is this game good in its own right? Yes. Will this ever immerse you in a world that is better than your own? No. Lotro far exceeds AQW in just about every way, and I personally will be stunned if LotRO isn't a landslide winner.

Post Date: 13:27 26-01-2011
Rating: 10
Author: Catica
Comment: AQW doesn’t hold up to LOTRO. LOTRO is a FREE game with better graphics, more involved storylines, that also receives regular mods and has a great community. It really beats AQ Worlds in every category

AQ Worlds

Post Date: 22:27 31-01-2011
Rating: 1
Author: Adrian
Comment: AQ Worlds...well....it just sucks, the graphics are horrible, you will get bored very fast playing this, LOTRO beats it...hands down.

Post Date: 02:35 31-01-2011
Rating: 5
Author: Jeebus
Comment: It's a kiddies game. It's advertised as a kiddies game. How does this compare to LOTRO. PvP consists of chasing one player from one room to room, worse still; they can just log out if their losing. They lose no EXP, absolutely nothing. All armors/weapons are pre-set. And to the postee that said Artix Entertainment wasn't "Money" hungry, you definitely haven't played this game.


For years we have been telling Artix Entertainment to lower there prices, especially when they merged with LameO Epic duel team, the over inflated the prices there.

Most of us left because of the pricing. Good free to play game. Good for the kiddies.

Post Date: 19:15 26-01-2011
Rating: 5
Author: condor2199
Comment: Please, can anybody at all who has played both of these games honestly say this is a game with more depth? That this is a game with better groups and PvE? With Better PvP? Why are people giving LotRO 0's? because "They don't like download games". Why are people giving AQW higher scores? Because the other ratings are lower and they feel bad for the game. I'll still give AQ a 5, it is after all a decent browser based game, but you can't call a cake I made that tastes terrible delicious just because I made it with my feet. Both games are free. The differences: AQW is no DL. LotRO is like 1% of you MEMORY (yes, that 250g memory storage that you have, the same one that you probably will never entirely use up) and if you don't like it, uninstall. Simple. Same accessibility, but LotRO ultimately is better. Period.

Post Date: 15:25 24-01-2011
Rating: 10
Author: Julein
Comment: Great Browser game always getting new updates has the best mmo pvp. I like the PvE too. Certainly the best browser game.
Deserves a 8 but because of the reviews under are unfair in my opinion i will give it ten

Post Date: 02:59 24-01-2011
Rating: 0
Author: DefiantKON12332
Comment: AQ has very dull quests(they don’t have a consistent storyline), very limited space to walk around, I feel like I’m in a 2d rectangle all the time and you have to pay loads of cash to get a decent amount of good items.