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Lord of the Rings Online (Was Middle Earth Online)

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Post subject: Lord of the Rings Online (Was Middle Earth Online)
Posted: Wed 23 Mar , 2005 2:42 pm
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I can't figure out where to put this. I put the World of Warcraft thread in the RP forum although it's supposed to be the home of Creative writing.

Can we have a forum for Gaming please? Whether it be D&D, Boardgaming, Computer Gaming, Console Gaming, whatever...

Anyway, here's the latest on MEO
Quote:
Middle Earth Online Interview
Written by John Callaham

Tuesday, 22 March 2005

Computer Games Magazine got a chance to chat briefly on the phone today with Turbine's Vijay Lakshman to get a few more tidbits on their plans for the MMO title Middle Earth Online now that they are developing and publishing the long awaited game.

It’s a game that’s been in development, in one form or another, almost since massively multiplayer games started but now Turbine Games has announced that they are taking over the full reigns to Middle Earth Online, the J.R.R. Tolkien based MMO title. The company announced a deal that in addition to developing the game would also put them in the drivers seat of publishing as well, taking over from Vivendi Universal Games. Computer Games Magazine got a chance to chat on the phone this afternoon with Turbine’s Vice President of Production Vijay Lakshman to find out more about their plans for Middle Earth Online.

Unfortunately Lakshman would not comment much to us on the actual game itself, as Turbine is keeping details about new gameplay features silent for now. He did tell us that the game, which now has a 2006 release date, will be shown and talked about in much more detail at May’s E3 event. However, he did talk about how the new publishing deal came about. While specific financial terms were not revealed, Lakshman said it came down to VUGames, Turbine and the right owner Tolkien Enterprises “trying to do the best they could for the license,”.He added, “They (Tolkien Enterprises) had a lot of faith in what we could do.” Lakshman admitted that taking on all the responsibilities for making, marketing and publishing such a high profile product has risks involved. “It’s a little scarier for us because of the added responsibility but the rewards are greater as well.”

It terms of Middle Earth Online’s overall design, Lakshman said that the development team is changing some things in the game, putting things higher up in priority while making other things less of a priority since the departure of VUGames as a publisher. He said that sometimes publishers that are public companies tend to be “middle of the road” in terms of games and Turbine wants to try to be more innovative in design. The team also plans to listen to both the Tolkien fans and gamers for their input.

One interesting tidbit in the Turbine press release today was that the company not only has the rights to make MMO titles based on Tolkien’s Lord Of The Rings book trilogy but also Tolkien’s prequel book The Hobbit. When pressed for details, Lakshman admitted that while a few Turbine’s designers have some ideas for incorporating The Hobbit in Middle Earth Online, there are no current plans to do so in the game. He did say, “We did not buy the rights for nothing.” Perhaps a Hobbit themed expansion pack after the release of the main game? “That would be a reasonable assumption.”

The MMO genre has changed by leaps and bounds in the past few years since the official announcement of Turbine’s involvement for Middle Earth Online. Most notably a number of new popular games in the genre have been released, including the current massive hit World of Warcraft. Lakshman admits to being a fan of Blizzard’s title (“It probably takes up 30 percent of my time”) but he is very confident that the MMO market will embrace their efforts for Middle Earth Online. In fact he made a rather bold statement that says everything about Turbine’s confidence. “I will go on the record as saying that Middle Earth Online will be one of the best MMOs ever made.”

Last edited by Alatar on Mon 29 Aug , 2005 4:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Posted: Thu 24 Mar , 2005 5:54 pm
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A little more info:
Quote:
VU Sells Rings MMORPG License to Turbine

The much anticipated Lord of the Rings MMORPG may be finally on track after the VU/Turbine deal...

The US based developer/publisher Turbine has announced that it has purchased the licence from Vivendi-Universal to produce Massively Multiplayer Online titles including the highly anticipated MMORPG based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s literary masterpieces, The Lord of the Rings and its ‘prequel’ The Hobbit.

VU previously held the licence to produce titles based on the literary works and has gone on to publish adventure titles based on The Hobbit and the first part of the Rings story, Fellowship of the Ring; it had also up until this announcement been the publisher of the MMORPG too.

Announcing the deal, Jeffrey Anderson, president and CEO, Turbine, Inc commented that, "As the exclusive publisher, Turbine looks forward to bringing J.R.R. Tolkien's vibrant worlds to online gamers around the globe…Turbine has been instrumental in the direction and production of Middle-Earth Online, its service and the community since day one. Together with Tolkien Enterprises, we intend to produce the best possible representation of these outstanding literary works and ensure a long and exciting future for Middle-Earth Online."

"We are pleased to be working with Turbine," said Albert M. Bendich, Executive Vice President of The Saul Zaentz Company, which does business as Tolkien Enterprises. "We are confident that, under Turbine's development, Middle-Earth Online will faithfully bring-to-life the realms of Middle-earth for Tolkien fans everywhere to explore and enjoy."

This is the latest deal for online titles completed by Turbine following the 2004 deal that saw the company acquire the Asheron’s Call from Microsoft, and the MMORPG version of the daddy of fantasy games, Dungeons & Dragon’s, which Turbine is self-funding.

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halplm
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Posted: Thu 24 Mar , 2005 6:03 pm
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I am soooo going to have to play this game, and I am sooo going to be disappointed... ;)

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Maeglin
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Posted: Thu 24 Mar , 2005 6:12 pm
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Is this a game like WoW, or like the text based online games. ?

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Posted: Thu 24 Mar , 2005 9:14 pm
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I imagine it will be much like World of Warcraft with a MiddleEarth setting.

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Themedes
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Posted: Thu 24 Mar , 2005 11:23 pm
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It looks nice and all, but I won't even consider trying it out. WoW has its undead claws deep in my guts and she ain't letting go anytime soon...

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Posted: Thu 24 Mar , 2005 11:38 pm
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If you have requests for new forums, please post in the thread Restructuring the Boards in the Business forum.

http://www.phpbber.com/phpbb/viewtopic. ... um=board77

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Posted: Fri 25 Mar , 2005 10:07 am
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Sorry estel. I had already started a thread in Business and Eru pointed me to the Restructuring thread.

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Posted: Thu 12 May , 2005 1:36 pm
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Latest news on MEO Name change and new website.
Quote:
The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar

11/05/2005
By: Chris Leyton

Lord of the Rings Online Name Change

Turbine Entertainment divulges the first details and title change for the first and only Lord of the Rings MMORPG...

Having recently acquired the license from Vivendi-Universal, Turbine Entertainment today delivered the first specific details on The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar, the first and only MMORPG based on the literary works of J.R.R. Tolkien.

Presenting players with the chance to “forge historic legacies” in the war for Middle-Earth, Shadows of Angmar presents an ever-evolving, persistent recreation of Tolkien’s work, where players can establish unique reputations, discover and wield legendary weapons, while adventuring solo or in fellowships.

To celebrate the announcement Turbine has unveiled an official website, providing the opportunity for fans to interact with the developers, get detailed information and gain access to exclusive content. Additionally Turbine will also be demonstrating the game in action at E3’05, where we’ll have further information and a closer look.
New website is here:

http://lotro.turbine.com/

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Post subject: First Preview
Posted: Thu 12 May , 2005 1:59 pm
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Preview by Gamespy

http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/middle-earth-o ... 312p1.html
Quote:
The world is rife with properties ideal for the MMO treatment, but few are as suited to this style of game as Middle-earth. With enough built in lore to often rival humanity's own storied history, any MMO developer working on a Tolkien-inspired game should consider itself lucky. Popular wisdom would dictate that, anyway.

But if you talk to the developers of Turbine -- who are currently busy cobbling away at Lord of the Rings Online -- you'll hear a different story. They'll quickly tell you that working with the Tolkien license is a bit like a double-edged sword. Dipped in poison. With an Icy Crusader enchantment thrown on it. Such is the fury of Tolkien's fanbase, if properly stoked, and, they assured us, woe to anyone who they perceive as doing it wrong.

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*Alandriel*
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Posted: Fri 20 May , 2005 8:15 pm
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That last bit is oh so true. I'll check that new weblink out over the weekend. Thanks Alatar for keeping this going (not that I really need another potential addiction :Q )

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Posted: Mon 23 May , 2005 1:47 pm
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From TORN

BlueJeans07 writes: After seeing reports on TORn, I HAD to try to track down the new Lord of the Rings MMOG (Massively Multiplayer Online Game) at E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) and give it a whirl to see if it's something I'll eventually invest in. However, since I didn't know what company was creating the game, I had an interesting time finding, only to discover it on pure chance when I was walking to join the three hour line for the new Legend of Zelda game. After three hours had passed and I had the Zelda experience, I hurried back to the Turbine booth to try out a demo of the MMOG.

The booth was sectioned off like a cubical and a large poster advertising the game was stuck on a clear window. There were sections of the booth divided for information or for a demonstration of the different games including LOTR, and the new Dungeons and Dragons MMOG. Turbine is company that is completely devoted to producing MMOGs and that's how they got the recognition to create the LOTR MMOG based on the movies.

When I asked if there was a playable trial, a worker of the booth informed me there wasn't but he could show me a demo. He created a new character and named him after myself, choosing to play as a human although the player could choose to play as an elf, a dwarf, or as a hobbit. Humans are supposed to be the 'noob' characters who someone chooses if they had never played an MMOG before.

The first thing to begin is a trial mission where player learns how to use the controls before setting off into the rest of the world. The trial mission for the human begins when he wakes up inside a cell but is soon set free by a ranger named Andlum. Andlum asks you to find Celadine Brandybuck who was captured by brigands but is supposed to be in the general area. After the human finds Celadine, he had to escape with her with her creating a distraction by lighting a building on fire. After they discover the death of Andlum, Celadine returns the Buckland and the human goes into a town.

The human had overheard the brigands' plans to sack the town so he immediately tells the captain of the soldiers and is given a mission to help protect it from the brigands' attack. The player is given a full suit of chain mail, sword, shield and a few other things that will prove useful. The scene changes and it becomes sunset as the human discovers he is too late to save the town. Giant spiders are killing the soldiers, the town is on fire, the brigands are running around rampant and the player must try to restore peace. At that point, the player is supposed to team up with other players to form a plan and put the different fires out. A few players are supposed to try to grab buckets and drag it to the fire to put it out but it's an incredibly vulnerable position since they can't defend themselves.

The demo unfortunately had to end there since the Expo was being closed down and the floor was being cleared but I got some great information on the game. At first, the entire game is set in Eriador which includes the Shire, Rivendell, Bree, Fornost and more. Gondor, Arnor, Rohan and other parts of Middle Earth will be available to play later in expansion packs. The entire game takes place during the quest and the player will occasionally see the members of the Fellowship during the quest but will not be allowed to join in or create any kind of difference. The player will also be allowed to take part in the battles such as Helms' Deep and Pelennor Fields, but basically the player has to form a fellowship with other players and search for missions such as saving a hobbit village or purifying an Elven settlement. The game is also mostly based on the movies, but other characters from the books will be wandering around such as Tom Bombadill.

The interface and the graphics looked great as well. It is a very beautiful game to watch especially in terms of environment. The sunset animation was very well done in rich colors that don't overwhelm the screen. Interface design was very well thought out, mostly taking up the bottom left hand corner and expanding across the bottom of the screen when the player chooses different options.

The only argument I would really have against this game is that it's only available for PC! Being a Mac user prevents me from being able to actually play the game when it comes out in 2006. But I would definitely recommend trying out the game especially for Tolkien fans because Turbine is working directly with Tolkien Enterprises to make the game accurate and expand Middle Earth to make the world more interactive and more available to explore.

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Posted: Wed 15 Jun , 2005 1:08 am
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Looks very cool. I like this quote from a preview: "They know the fans are watching, and if there's anything scarier than a disgruntled Tolkien fan, then I don't want to see it."

They ain't kiddin'. :LMAO:

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Posted: Wed 15 Jun , 2005 6:15 pm
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They really should have me on their staff :D

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You really should write an application :D :D
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Posted: Sat 18 Jun , 2005 5:48 pm
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Are they expanding on territory or is it still only the western half that's playable? Cause that would mean the lack of the most interesting areas of ME...


Also, like Themedes I'm currently way to addicted on WoW to even consider other MMO's. But I'll try to get into the beta, if there will be one (for Europeans...).

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Posted: Mon 29 Aug , 2005 4:25 pm
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Quote:
What with the movie trilogy and all (heard of it, have you?), the Lord of the Rings is one of the hot licenses in the video games industry. Turbine has recently acquired the right to develop and publish all online titles based on the Lord of the Rings book trilogy, and their first title to be developed under this license is The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar. The game was previously known as Middle-Earth Online, and is currently slated for release in 2006.

Turbine is looking to release several titles in this series, with the first being set during the period of The Fellowship of the Ring, within the geographical boundaries of Eriador (roughly, the area between the Hobbit's Shire and the Misty Mountains). At E3, I watched a demo of the game, and spoke to Turbine's Harry Teasley, a Senior Artist on the project.

Firstly, players will be able to create characters from any of the four Free Peoples of Middle-Earth - Elves, Men, Hobbits and Dwarfs. It will not be possible to play any of the evil races, so PC Orcs and Trolls are out of the question, for this first game at least. Wizards are also out of bounds: there were very few wizards in Middle-earth, and the development team intends to stay faithful to this. For the E3 demo, we were shown parts of the new player experience from the point of view of a Human character. In actual play, each race will have its own newcomer's quest, but Turbine wasn't showing the other races just yet.

New Human characters enter the game in the village of Archet, on the outskirts of Bree. Unfortunately, this town has been besieged by a group of bandits, who don't take too kindly to uninvited visitors: our demo character entered the game in the middle of a jailbreak, attempting to rescue a captured Hobbit from the bandits. This quest kick-starts the Human newcomer quest arc, designed to introduce a new player to the game and the controls.

Our character quickly discovered the captured Hobbit, Celadine Brandybuck. She suggested that our best hope of escape was to cause a diversion and then make a break for it.

Conversations with non-player characters are handled in a branching, conversation-tree type format, allowing you to select between one or more options for each of your character's replies. At this stage, of course, there's much in the way of choice - it's a tutorial mission, after all. As it happens, this particular NPC was a bit of a pyromaniac - her idea of a diversion was to ignite a nearby cluster of wooden buildings, which obliged by impressively bursting into flame.

It's worth mentioning at this point that the game environment is very, very pretty indeed. The scenery is detailed, whilst the player models are both well textured and well animated. The particle effects for the flames are also very impressive. The engine is capable of scaling in both directions - downward, to support lower-spec machines, and upward, with higher-resolution textures and more effects for the high-end machines of a year or two past release.

With the bandits distracted, we made it out to the main part of the bandits' camp. Here, we faced (and killed) the leader of bandits. Once this unpleasant task was completed, we were allowed access to the village of Archet itself, and I parted ways from my Hobbit companion.

A hot topic in the MMO community right now is instanced content: content duplicated for each PC or group of PCs, allowing each PC or group to complete a quest or dungeon independently, without interference or aid from others. Up until this point in the newbie quest, I was inside a personalised instance, created for my character and my character only. This was done to avoid dropping new players into the potentially overwhelming experience of a bustling town. Instead, new players are guided by the scripted behaviour of the NPCs, and the controlled environment of the newcomer's quest. It also prevents interference from other players, and makes sure that there are no overpopulation problems at the entry points.

The downside of instanced combat, of course, is that it destroys the "massive" part of a "massively multiplayer game." Turbine is very mindful of this, and plan to use instanced combat only where it is required to allow a part of the story to unfold. The newbie quest is a prime example of this approach: players progressing along the quest remain in an instance only as long as necessary for the story, and that instance becomes more public as time goes on.

Once I entered Archet, and with it the next stage of the newbie quest arc, I was placed in a public instance: other newcomers would appear as well, but no higher-level PCs. There's a gameplay reason for this, but it also serves to help new players connect with other newcomers, without interference from older players.

From Archet, a newbie will be sent on a variety of quests, completing the newcomer quest arc. In total, these will take two to three hours to conclude. For the E3 demo, we skipped past most of those, but did take the time to visit some of the area outside of Archet.

As noted above, the graphics are very pretty indeed, and this extends to the landscape areas. Water, in particular, is particularly well done, but all the landscape I saw was impressive.

The mission we were on had us facing various types of spider, along with a few brigands and bandits for good measure. All were nicely textured and well animated, and the spiders also had a special attack worth mentioning: a web effect, which slows your attacks. When effects are active on you, a visual indication of this appears on your character and is visible to those around you. In the case of this particular effect, a spider's web appears, binding your weapon arm to your body. This isn't a temporary particle effect - it remains on you for the duration of the effect, and changes appearance as you move.

Combat is skills-based, with different skills allowing access to different attack and defence styles. Advancement is based on experience points, awarded for defeating enemies in combat. One of the more interesting aspects of the combat system is the conjunction feature, allowing two or more characters to attack in tandem. When one character uses a skill which opens a conjunction, nearby PCs will see additional buttons appear on their UI, allowing them to join the conjunction. When the conjunction is complete, the characters involved will attack in combination, producing a more powerful attack than their combined individual attacks. The demonstration of the conjunction system we were shown involved only two characters, but more complex conjunctions with larger groups will be possible.

In Middle-earth, the healer's art is subtle indeed, and mastered by few. Player characters will not be able to repair lacerations and broken bones in seconds, leaving their patients completely recovered and ready to face the next battle. Instead, wounds are a serious matter, and treatment will usually require a visit to town.

In terms of gameplay, this is modelled by splitting the traditional health bar into two sections - a smaller health bar, and a much larger endurance bar. Endurance is required to perform actions during combat - special moves, conjunctions, and more mundane actions such as blocking a blow. Once a character's endurance is exhausted, he will have no choice but to allow blows to impact his health directly - which will probably lead to a swift defeat, unless the character has another plan or a means of escape up his sleeve.

Death in Middle-earth is also serious business, as there is no precedent for mortal resurrection in the trilogy. Whilst the details of the system are not yet final, player characters will not be killed in combat - instead, they will be defeated. The implication is that defeated characters will then be rescued and brought back to town to recover, and will perhaps awake in a House of Healing.

Upon returning to Archet, we found the village burning, under attack from another group of brigands. Alas, despite our best efforts with bucket and well, it was too late for the village, which became a blackened shell of its former glory. This point marks the transition from the public instance to the main, shared game world, where new players are able to interact with the entire playerbase. From this point onwards, only the shared-world version of Archet - the destroyed version - will be visible.

This use of instances allows players to experience and participate in key story events for themselves, regardless of the state of the world and the other characters within it. Every Human character will experience the destruction of Archet, and once the village has been destroyed, it isn't possible to accidentally stumble across a pristine version of the village. Transitions between instances weren't quite seamless - they involved a short loading screen, equivalent to most other zone transitions - but they were certainly quick enough not to be a major inconvenience. On the other hand, the non-instanced landscape, which should comprise at least 70% of the game area, is completely seamless.

Although few details were given, the game will feature player associations in the form of Kinships, as well as short-term groups, known as Fellowships. A Kinship is a semi-permanent association of players into a group, and is one of the major social systems for the game. Kinships will also provide an avenue of support for new players, as well as forming a cornerstone of player communities. There will also be benefits to players for remaining associated with their Kinship for a long period of time, but we weren't given the details on what these benefits would be.

Turbine is not intending to make group play a requirement for an enjoyable game session - it should be perfectly possible to adventure alone, without waiting for a pick-up group. But, groups will be required for certain quests and areas, and group play does has its advantages, such as the ability to make use of the conjunction system.

Turbine is planning on expanding the game with regular updates, providing both new content and extending the game's storyline. Player characters will also be able to take part in 'career' quest arcs, which you will be able progress along throughout the lifetime of your character. Again, no details were available, but the concept is certainly an interesting one.

Although the E3 demo only covered the newbie experience, it also showed Turbine's level of attention to detail. Archet is mentioned in the trilogy as a town having trouble with bandits, for example, and the refusal to allow the world to be dominated with Gandalf clones is a vital part of keeping to the feel of Middle-earth as described by Tolkien. Hopefully, this philosophy will continue to apply when the game is released.

Satisfying Tolkien fans will always be a very tall order. No visual medium can match the mind's eye - especially for those of us who read the books well before the release of the films - but it's looking like Turbine will get close enough to do Tolkien's works justice. How well the development team will succeed remains to be seen, of course, but I'll be watching their progress with great interest and anticipation.

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Posted: Wed 31 Aug , 2005 3:52 pm
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I'm starting to get excited about this:

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm?setv ... 0831114732
Quote:
Players often worry about how the team will handle major characters from the books in such a sacred franchise. We were told that the characters would be around and part of various quests players undertake. A previous design was that players would always have “just missed” the fellowship as they traveled. This is gone in favor of a system where you will find people, like say Strider, in a position he was in the book, such as waiting for the hobbits at an inn. There he will send you unto a quest or help you through one, and you will move on.
Quote:
One point that was emphasized is that Tolkien made it very clear that there were only a select few wizards. Lord of the Rings Online will not let everyone be Gandalf. What limited magical tricks can be learned will be very small in nature. There will be no Wizard class and no ability to chuck fireballs at your enemies on a whim. This absence of magic really takes the game in a different direction than other MMOs and could change the dynamics of group and class relationships quite a bit. These dynamics have been given a great deal of thought by the development team. They want to make a game where everyone can contribute to a party and there is no need to turn down someone for your group because you need a “tank” or some other preferably combination. At the same time, they also want the entire game to be open to the solo player. After all, what is more fitting than the solo ranger?

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Posted: Fri 07 Oct , 2005 2:44 pm
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I'm not sure anyone else is reading this but still...
Quote:
Developer Diary: Floon Beetle
RP vs. G

Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game, that's what Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar is. Massively Multiplayer, which distinguishes it from games that support mere dozens of players. Online, demanded by the Department of Redundancy Department, since Massively Multiplayer pretty much implies being online. Role-Playing Game: ah, finally we're at what kind of game it actually is. In RPGs, players take on the role of a character in a different world, and play within that world according to defined game rules.

For some, "RP" means a great deal: they take the roles seriously, and want the escapism of truly acting out another persona. For others, "RPG" may as well be Ruthless Power-Gamer: they drive their avatar around accomplishing the goals in the game in a mechanical fashion, speaking in their "real" voice and associating with other players as players, not as characters. There is a strong tension between these two factions, as each has different motives and goals within the game. What is a developer to do?

What is Role-Playing? And what should the game do about it?

It's odd how "role-playing games" will have "normal" and "role-playing" servers: it's an admission that there is a fundamental tension between the "RP" and the "G" in the genre. Being a game means that there are a priori rules that govern success and failure within the game environment. Conversely, there are no rules governing what makes for good role-playing: role-playing takes place entirely between players, who determine for themselves the quality of the role-playing experience. Without formal rules, role-playing is essentially not a game: it is performance, and the world and systems we design need to recognize that distinction.

Should a game attempt to cater to role-players via dedicated game rules or systems? I am of the opinion that games should not. For one thing, any game distinction between "role-players" and "typical players" is often a magnet for griefers. RP chat channels, visual indicators of RP or Non-RP players, RP "ranking" systems, and RP banning policies all introduce more problems than they solve for RPers, for they are all accessible to people who like to disrupt them. Even RP servers generally fulfill their roles with mixed success: many players join them solely to interfere with the serious role-players, or often simply for network latency or server population reasons.

It is of minor consequence to provide a role-playing chat channel or a role-playing server if the players ask for one, but as a practical matter, it has been my experience that these things generally hurt more than they help. They're relatively easy to provide, but represent a "be careful what you wish for" choice, under even the best of circumstances. They cannot be effectively policed by customer service, because as I said previously, there are no clear-cut rules by which role-play can be efficiently and effectively governed.

Another reason is that any code-governed system dedicated towards encouraging role-play as its goal can itself usually be gamed in a non-role-play fashion. If there are tangible benefits to being rated as a "good role-player," then gamers will find a way to achieve that rating without putting in the time and effort of actually role-playing. If there are no tangible benefits ("You get a gold star!"), then the system seems cheap and irrelevant and will generally be ignored.

But those are practical rationales: the more fundamental reason is that role-play is entirely a function of players, not code. Role-play is about people connecting with each other, not with bytes of code or icons. It is about turning what might otherwise be isolated imagination into a shared experience. There are no rules or systems that truly make that more meaningful: it is the personal interaction that makes it significant.

So what can the game do to help role-players?

Give players a world worth role-playing in. Make a Middle-earth that is attractive and interesting to role-players. We are working to make the world rich, weaving the lore of Middle-earth throughout the game, so that players are willing to invest themselves more fully into the game experience. An accurate Middle-earth is a big step in that direction, and accuracy in depicting the world is our priority in building the environment of the game. The Ivy Bush pub will be on the Bywater Road; Athelas plants will have long leaves; the hobbit holes of Bree are higher up the hill, above the houses of the men below: every detail will be as accurate as we can make them, and things that are unmentioned in the books will be made to fit the feel of Middle-earth as best we can.

Graphics cannot make a bad game into a good game, but they can help create an immersive environment, and we're striving for a deep, convincing representation of Middle-earth: from the farms of the Shire to the underground cities of the Dwarves, everything is being built and polished and detailed all with the ultimate goal of creating a Middle-earth to meet the scrutiny of fans of the books for years to come.

Taken further, the story woven into the game is intended to not only provide good direction for adventuring gamers, it is meant to be narratively fulfilling, providing fertile ground in which the seeds of role-play can be planted. "Sandbox" games, where the world and systems are just plunked down and players are supposed to construct their own drama, have been shown to be difficult scenes for players to construct compelling stories in. Our hope with the epic story of LotRO is that there is context to all of the player interactions with the world, such that players have more to latch onto in playing out their own characters.

The best a designer can (and should) do for the dedicated role-player is to provide them with a world that meets their needs and expectations, and then get out of their way.

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Posted: Fri 07 Oct , 2005 2:57 pm
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Hi. My name's Chris, which is confusing, since it seems like there are about a billion designers named Chris at Turbine. But I was the first – in a couple of weeks, I'll be nine years with the company. I'm old. But still not as old as NobOrBob (who was Design Chris #2). Or Floon Beetle, who, according to NobOrBob, is the Eldest of us all.

Speaking of which, I put Tom Bombadil's house in the world a few hours ago. More about that later.

I've done a lot of things at Turbine – writing game specs, making quests, proofreading press releases, helping plan our holiday parties, even defending our use of Sindarin. Those of you who read the boards may remember the kafuffle over the Rogmul's name. I'm the pedant who wrote the defense of that name. Yes, I know Elvish, which for those of you keeping track at home, adds an automatic 500 points to my Raging Geek Score.

Anyway, over the past few years I've discovered that one of my favorite things to do at work (besides the party-planning thing) is world-building. It started by accident, when a few of us were given hobbit villages to build. I made Brockenborings, and was surprised to find that (a) I liked the work, and (b) other people liked what I'd done. Next thing I knew, I was building Thorin's Hall.

These days, I'm a little more firmly entrenched in stuff Tolkien wrote more than a handful of words about. For a couple of months, I'm fleshing out the "skipped in the movies" parts of Eriador: from Buckland to the Barrow-downs. I got this part of the world because I'm known as one of the LOTRO team's "lore monkeys," being way too familiar with the books for my own good, and it's a seriously book-intensive area: Tolkien wrote a lot of description of these bits of Middle-earth. I mean, a lot. It's the part he wrote when he was pootling around, still trying to work out in his head what The Lord of the Rings was about, and a lot of it reads like fantastic travelogue of the countryside around Oxford. Which, in a way, it is.

As an example of what goes into world-building, let's take an area I'm working in right now, and which I'm growing very proud of: the Old Forest. Building a forest isn't an easy thing. You can't just scatter trees around and expect it to work, particularly in an MMO. There are many things you have to consider – performance, game flow, navigability, and aesthetics. All that while not forgetting that Bombadil's home is on an outcropping by the Withywindle River, not far from where the forest gives way to Tyrn Gorthad. Go, lore monkey.

The biggest challenge with the Old Forest is that it has to feel big, but it can't actually be big, because no player actually wants to have to walk for days to get from Bucklebury to Bree. (Yes, you in the back, I know you do, but trust me, you're an exception to the rule.) Plus, of course, there's the challenge of giving the players some semblance of the feeling Frodo and that lot had when they were wandering around in it – feeling lost, and constantly being diverted away from where they're trying to go. We thought for a bit about how to do that: do we make the trees actually shift around? No, too hard on performance, and you could never really capture that "trees moving when you're not looking" feeling the hobbits had. Do we make a bunch of pockets of woodland, and teleport people between them in strange and unpredictable ways? That's kind of a game-play nightmare, and it's hard on the servers to have people bipping around that much. How about something simpler, like a maze? Well, that would... wait.

How about a maze?

As it happened, we had some "tree-walls" already made, to help make the forest look like it's full of trees without each one being a separate object (a performance issue again). So I played around with them a bit, came up with a scale for the "passages" in the labyrinth, and actually laid out a little one in the game, for testing purposes. It worked much better than any of us (myself included) expected it to. Link the wall pieces together so they're twisty, rather than arrow-straight, lay them out over hills and valleys rather than perfectly flat ground, add some clearings so it's not all labyrinth, all the time, and sprinkle some extra non-wall trees and roots and rocks and whatnot, and hey! It feels like a dense forest. And, of course, once you get in, it takes a while to figure out how to get out, so the book-feeling is there, too.

A few of us had a look at the proto-maze, and decided to go with it for the Old Forest at large. At that point, it became a matter of plotting out the area in Photoshop, first by noting the important locations (the tunnel under the High Hay, the Bonfire Glade, and so forth), as well as some non-book POIs, then overlaying the maze. I also added some extra surprises, which I'm not going to tell you about, because I want you to curse my name like everyone else when the game comes out.

After the planning stage, I fired up our world-building tool, and started the topography: the Withywindle; the tall, treeless hill where the hobbits stop to get their bearings; the land rising up to the Downs; and so on. Then I laid out the maze, block by block, and ran around it a bit to find spots that didn't feel right, or where players could get stuck (say, by jumping off a cliff and getting lodged between it and a tree-wall). Once those were fixed, it was on to the finer points of the terrain: adding bogs in parts of the forest, rocky bluffs in others, and marshy land near the riverbank, because the Old Forest isn't just trees and more trees. I've also made special fog settings, to make the woods feel spookier.

I spent particular care on the Withywindle, hand-placing willows and programming a special "scene file" so that thousands of leaves would float on top of the water, with reeds growing along the banks. hen that was done, I really felt like I'd captured the river just the way Tolkien described it. For a Raging Geek, that's a good feeling.

As I write this diary, I'm in the middle of Point of Interest (POI) placement. Old Man Willow's in there now, and Bombadil's house, with its gardens, lawn of short grass, and the stable where he kept Fatty Lumpkin and his other ponies. I give Tom a lot of grief – I can't say the words "hey dol, merry dol" without growling – but seeing his house perched there, under the hill-brow, made me understand better why Tolkien was so fond of him. Now I've moved on to making monster camps, where players will have to deal with the Old Forest's less friendly inhabitants. When they're done, I'll lay in the critters – both the ones that go in the camps, and wandering creatures too: wolves, murderous tree roots, and other nasties in places Frodo and the gang never went.

After that, it's done, right? Well, no. The quest guys still have to place their content. There'll be polish based on art reviews and playtesting, bugs to be bashed, more decoration, maybe even a few additions to make the area cleave more closely to the book. But the bulk of the grunt-work will be done. In a few days, we'll have a playable version of the Old Forest, as true to Tolkien as I can manage.

Then it's on to the Barrow-downs ....

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