Since when has an MMORPG ever had bad guys? Don't say WoW - the Horde aren't 'evil', they're just against the Alliance.
Taalon
Since Everquest had a Qeynos and a Freeport; since Anarchy Online had Omni-Tek and Clans. And yes, Alliance vs. Horde are roughly equivalent to good vs. evil. That is, after all, the entire point. Games may not brand factions as purely good and purely evil, but they indeed boil down to good vs. evil.
But a good MMO doesn't have to offer a bad and a good in your character choice to be worthwhile. Regarding LOTRO's supposed rip-offs of World of Warcraft, many of these statements are assumptions made by those who have never played an MMO prior to WoW. WoW is a superb game, but many of its basic mechanics were used in multiple MMOs that came before. Blizzard may have honed the formula, but games like Asheron's Call and Everquest helped establish it. It isn't fair to assume that LOTRO borrowed from WoW simply because it has a hotbar, or a minimap, or click-based combat, or multi-layer quests, or instanced dungeons, or crafting, or addictive gameplay, or leveling, or...... or.....
My point is that a game doesn't have to revolutionize the genre, or be a lot different from the games that came before it, to be good. WoW was a natural progression of what came before; it was the right game at the right time. That doesn't mean that Blizzard is fully responsible for the progression of MMOs. After all, Asheron's Call 2 was highly streamlined and accessible, but it was also underpopulated and quite unlike the original Asheron's Call, which alienated a lot of experienced role players.
However you look at it, at this stage of the game, LOTRO is a great addition to the genre. It may occasionally feel like it is missing some depth, but it's a fun game to play, and that counts for a lot in my book. Only time will tell just how good the PvP will be, but at very least, it's a system with potential that allows you to play as an evil character without disrupting the nature of the main hero-oriented gameplay.
For what it's worth, that doesn't mean it isn't slightly disappointing that there aren't more classes and races. Looking outside the license for a moment and looking it purely as an MMO, it's hard for 4 races and 7 classes to compete with games like Everquest 2, which feature large numbers of classes from which to choose. Indeed, the license limits the possibilities, but it's still a consideration for anyone looking into a new online RPG.
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