I’m not trying to make direct comparisons between games, books and movies only that based on these factors it is fair to assume that Turbine had high expectations for their game.

You come at me with the idea that LotRO did meet expectations in your fist comment addressed to me and I attempted to point out that it didn’t meet expectations based on the license.

The issues you raise of quality, content, being #2, etc are all irrelevant to this discussion.

Your car example (GT 500 – aaaahhhh, nice) is also missing the point. LotRO didn’t set out to build a Pinto (if they did then they would not be relevant to this discussion), they set out to build a car to take on the GT500 and failed. Just like EQ2 did, just like WAR did, just like AoC did, hell just like Vanguard did. All of these were big budget AAA titles.

I’m not sure what the issue is in many of these comments (not just yours) that don’t seem to get what MZ was saying (MZ – feel free to jump in here if I’m way off) that the AAA fantasy MMORPG space is covered (for now), stop making them for a while because WOW seems to be all people (based on player numbers and the disappointments of other attempts) need/want in that space (for now).

For the record, LotRO is a fine game, I’m not bashing it.

While your assessment of games to movies is accurate, movies to games have always sold extremely well. For example, according to vgchartz the PS2 Two Towers game sold 4.28 million units world wide.

You cannot compare a movie to a MMO. Doesn’t work. It’s an applies to oranges comparison. The LOTR franchise did make 3 billion worldwide, but for a good reason: Movies are only US $5-10 worldwide for a ticket, depending on currency. That’s a far cry different from dropping $50.00 US to get the box and then potentially another $14.99/mo, along with having the machine to run it.

That’s like saying “The WoW movie will be guaranteed to make umpteen billion dollars because there are 11+ million people who play WoW”… One doesn’t necessarily involve the other. I’m sure there are plenty of people who will avoid the WoW movie even if they are current WoW players… maybe they’ll be too busy with raids to take time out for a movie. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if the WoW movie tanked, simply because there aren’t ENOUGH WoW fans out there to cover the cost.

Assume for example it costs them $100 million to make the WoW movie. (quite possible given animation costs, etc etc). If you got all 11 million people to shell out 8 bucks to see it once, that’s $88 million. Your movie that is based on the most successful MMO in history has lost $12 million. I understand that people will see it multiple times… but in the end it boils down to the same thing… you can’t assume A + B = C, when you’re crossing media types (film to online entertainment).

That being said… if everyone out there who loved Tolkien did go and play LOTRO, it would DESTROY WoW as the top MMO.

In the end though… comparing your game to WoW is like comparing a Pinto to a Mustang GT 500…. Pointless.
Yes, everyone does it because it’s the biggest, but there really is no point; it’s an ineffective benchmark, unless you’re a sadist who enjoys saying “god, our numbers SUCK compared to WoW!”.

I can say with pretty good certainty that Turbine has paid off their initial investment/VC funds used to develop LOTRO, and are probably riding on pure profit at this point. Does any company want more subscribers? of course. Does any company want to be more profitable? of course. Unfortuately for Turbine, the vast majority of LOTRO players are “older”, more seasoned MMO players who want less twitch and a good paced, but not hyper-fast MMO. That tends to turn off younger MMO players, who are so used to everything being done in 5 nanoseconds that WoW is just a more “natural” speed for them. Usually the same argument is used for FPS games as well… they tend to favor younger players for the instant gratification.

If there’s anything that history has taught us it is that:
(1) you never invade Russia during winter; and
(2) you never take a run at World of Warcraft.