by Nicole163 on Feb 28, 2012
Identify this story: a naive young countryboy meets a wise old man, who sets him on the road to a great adventure. He must face a great, distant evil, and he is thrown in with an assortment of strangers who aid him in this journey. Through the ties that are formed by great hardship, the countryboy becomes great friends with these unlikely allies, and through great adversity and much personal revelation, and against overwhelming odds, he succeeds in vanquishing the evil that threatens everything.
Sound familiar? It should. You've seen it loads of times. Joseph Campbell would tell you that it's the basic underlying story for all great heroic epics - the "Hero's Journey" or the "monomyth." Only the details change. But in this particular case, it could refer to either the Lord of the Rings or the original Star Wars trilogy. Since they both draw from the same "monomyth" archetypes, a comparison between the two stories is only natural. And since they both have MMOs attached to their respective franchises, a comparison of those titles seems appropriate.
Read more at LotRO vs SWTOR: A Tale of Two Sagas.