Turbine Inviting Over 1,000,000 Players to Play Lord of The Rings Online.
Lord of the Rings Online will never hit one million subscribers. It will never even get to the 500,000 mark. The game is not that great, and it definitely offers nothing new or exciting. These are all bold statements, but if Turbine can spew some, then so can I.
I have no idea where Turbine has gotten the idea that Lord of the Rings Online will be joining the Million Player club. Before beta even started, they were trumpeting the idea that they were going to hit the one million player mark. This misleading headline is just another notch on the pole of misleading quotes from Turbine. There is no evidence, either provided by Turbine or from any other source, that says there are a million interested players in the market looking for a new game. To hand out a million beta invites is nothing more than a spam rush on our already spam ridden e-mail accounts. Shame on Turbine.
The most popular MMORPG of all time, World of Warcraft, didn't even break the one million mark in beta. It was amazing that they hit 500,000 without the servers melting in a fiery cataclysmic event. WoW surprised most of us and went on to become a smashing success beyond anything we could have imagined. However, it was a Blizzard product, so a million+ copies being sold was not unrealistic. Can anyone name the last Turbine game that shipped a million copies?
Turbine is quickly transforming itself into a spin machine, drudging up emotions reserved for the likes of SOE. Turbine, get your collective head out of your collective ass.
hehehe...I lol'ed
ReplyDeleteI bet Turbine hired some ex-politico spin doctor to think up that email.
ReplyDeleteMy first thought upon seeing this email was "I played in pre-beta beta (?!?) and was not all that impressed."
Pretty and stable gives it a decent head start compared to other recent releases (cough)Sigil(cough), but to attract 1 million?
Maybe in a few more years the MMO sector will see the 1 million purchase levels and that being a result of hi-speed connection and pc/console becoming more of an everyday item in more households.
It's probably important to note that they said they were inviting one million people to beta. Not that all would be attending.
ReplyDeleteAnd since when was it a horrible thing to talk up your game? How often has the bliz crew tried to spin horrible decisions into something positive. It's all part of the corporate mentality.
Turbine is selling LotRO as though it already has a million players. It does not, and it will not. Grossly inflating the number of invites for a mere ten seconds of "talk" is just a dumb move.
ReplyDeleteBlizzard rarely spins anything. You may not like some of their changes, but there are millions of satisfied customers. Blizzard is pretty much the only company out there willing to tell players how their game is going to be changed rather than "this is what player feedback has told us". That is how you run a successful business... and MMORPG elitists hate it.
ROFL great post. On a side note, I like your blog, but would it kill ya to post about the things you like in the gaming industry once in awhile? A wise man once said "It is easy for a man to destroy an idea, but ask that same man to rebuild his destruction, and all is lost".
ReplyDeletePersonally, I will give LOTRO a shot just like I did Vanguard. Vanguard had things I liked, but if I can't play a game I pay for, I quit paying. Will LOTRO hit 1 million in open beta? Hell no, I'm with you in saying that is nothing more than marketing bullshit.
I agree. I'd rather not eat my words later, but chances of huge success for this game are slim and slimmer.
ReplyDeleteAs for Turbine's PR team: They are following a classic ploy I like to call "Acting as if" also known as "Fake it until you make it" and I can't really blame for that.
I recently heard a story about a real estate agent where I live who was new to the business. He bought some billboard space in a prominent location that said "Number 1 Agent in town." This was based on zero facts. 3 months later he WAS the number one agent in town. This is precisely what Turbine is doing.
Actually the "world tour of middle earth" is a little flash game on their website - nothing to do with the beta. Just a million people to check out the flash and say "cool maybe i'll play"
ReplyDeleteSorry the whole basis of your post is mistaken :)
But, it is easy to see how you thought that's what they meant.
I don't know how you can get so worked up over these games. They are meant to help people relax, and you always have the option of playing a game you enjoy.
Yunk, you are wrong. Heartless is referring to the Open Beta, that Turbine has dubbed, The LoTRO World Tour.
ReplyDeleteYeah I figured out I'm wrong when I finally looked at that demo, they sent a million DVDs out in gamer magazines!? Tonight is going to be major lag...
ReplyDeleteI can't believe I was wrong about something, me! :)