The Lord of the Rings Online has quickly established itself as the emerging leader and was named the PC MMO Game of the Year 2007 by the editorial staff of GameSpy and PC Game of the Year 2007 at the 25th Annual Golden Joystick awards. The New York Times proclaimed The Lord of the Rings Online "a major achievement of interactive storytelling, the first game truly worthy of the 'Lord of the Rings' franchise and a must-play for just about anyone with an interest in Tolkien or the future of online entertainment."
Lord Of The Rings Voted #1 In MMORPG.com 2008 Reader's Choice Awards!
More than 26,000 total votes were cast in the 2008 Reader's Choice Awards!
The choice of the fans is noted in our blog as well as a little bit of "editor's choice" commentary.
In the voting for Best Overall Game, 5212 votes were cast. In the interest of fairness, the editorial nominees consisted of each and every released game on our current Game List.
The voting turned out another win for the Lord of the Rings Online team over at Turbine, even if it did turn out to be a little bit closer than their previous two wins. With 13% of the vote,Turbine once again edged out Blizzard’s World of Warcraft for the right to call themselves MMORPG.com Reader’s Choice Award winners.
Normally, we would show you the specific results of all of the nominees. In the case of this, our final category of the year, every released game on our list was available for voting, and we have decided to show results for only nominees who garnered at least 1% of the vote.
•Lord of the Rings Online 13%
•World of Warcraft - 11%
•EVE Online - 9%
•Warhammer Online - 8%
•Atlantica Online - 7%
•Age of Conan - 3%
•EverQuest II - 3%
•Ragnarok Online 3%
•Vanguard: Saga of Heoes - 3%
•Regnum - 3%
•EverQuest - 2%
•Guild Wars - 2%
•Requiem: Bloody mare - 1%
•ROSE Online - 1%
•City of Heroes - 1%
•Ryzom - 1%
•Dark Age of Camelot - 1%
•Final Fantasy XI - 1%
•Ultima Online - 1%
•Lineage 2 - 1%
This win marks the third award being taken home by Turbine in this year’s Reader’s Choice Awards, adding Best Overall game to the Best Expansion and Favorite MMO studio awards handed out previously.
This award caps an impressive year for the Massachusetts-based MMO company and its Lord of the Rings Online team, with the release of the game’s award-winning first expansion, numerous free updates, the opening of a new studio and more, the future seems bright for both the game and the company that created it.
Editorial Commentary
I can honestly say that when we selected our list of nominees for the awards this year, I had no idea that Turbine would come out the big winner, taking home three of the seven awards. That isn’t to say that they weren’t well deserved, but I thought that with the hubbub, both positive and negative, surrounding the launches of last year’s two most anticipated games, along with the launch of another Blizzard WoW expansion, Turbine and its game based on the rich world of J.R.R. Tolkien might have left the spotlight. I’m pleased to see that I was wrong.
Originally, I thought that World of Warcraft would take home the award as it has in years past, especially given the strength of its own expansion, and ever-growing fan base. I’ll admit that I underestimated the strength and voice of LotRO’s loyal fan base which has been quietly building since the game’s launch back in April of 2007.
Congratulations again go out to Turbine and all of this year’s MMORPG.com Reader’s Choice Awards. I want to take this opportunity to once again thank everyone who participated in the voting process. Sure, we could have picked our own list of winners and given out Editorial Awards, but in the end, it’s always the players that know best.
Article By: Jon Wood
Created On: January 14, 2009
