LotRO player's guide to WoW: Similarities and Conclusion

So here we are listing every difference between the two games, but you're probably scratching your head because you've been peppered with rumors that the two games are basically the same thing, right? While most of this article was spent discrediting that rumor, there are certainly a few aspects that are similar. Here are but a few:

Quests
The classic kill-ten-rats system of questing is certainly in both games. There's your fed-ex quests, your help-Grandma-cross-the-road escort quests and of course, the bring-me-5-boar-intestines quests where you need to kill 30 boar to get 1 freaking intestine. Seriously, don't they each have at least one?

Crafting
Each game has crafting professions, and each game has gathering professions. In LotRO, the crafting professions are distributed in sets of three according to vocation. For example, if you're an Explorer vocation, you would have the Prospector and Forester gathering professions, and the Tailor crafting profession. Although most professions overlap in other vocations, you can't mix and match professions within a vocation.

In WoW however, you can choose your gathering and crafting professions separately. Other than that, the roles are relatively similar. You have your ore gatherers, your hide gatherers, your leatherworkers, your metalworkers, etc. Also, each crafting system has a fairly extensive method of leveling the professions with recipes, components and ingredients that can gain more or less points, depending on its complexity and your level in that profession.

Item Binding
Both games have the dreaded Bind-on-Acquire and Bind-on-Equip items that limit the types of weapons, armor or off-hands that can be traded between characters, even on the same account. Many newer games have tried to get away from this system, but it's mostly put into place to help stabilize the economy.

Mounts and map travel
Both games have mounts that can be gained after a certain level (35 for LotRO, 30 for WoW). Both games also have mounts that can be rented only for the duration of travel between cities. In LotRO, this is done only with horses or Redhorn Goat, but in WoW it's done through some sort of flying animal, a zeppelin, boat or even a tram. WoW also has a much wider selection of player mounts that are racial-, class-, PvP- and level-based.

There are also ways to set a home rally point and travel to that point via an item in your inventory. In LotRO it's called your map home, in WoW it's your hearthstone.

Conclusion
LotRO is sometimes called WoW with Hobbits, or is in some other way labeled as a WoW clone. As we can see from even the basic comparisons in this article, that simply isn't true. Each game has its own attractions to players who may prefer one style over the other. If you're into conjuring the wildest magical abilities you can imagine, WoW would be right up your alley. However, if you're a serious fan of Tolkien and you like a little more reality in your fantasy, then give LotRO a shot. Either way, it's safe to say that there is a minority of players who can handle playing both games simultaneously, since each one has its own depth that needs a special kind of dedication to appreciate.