Sometimes major IP hurts you

Amathe

I beta tested LoTR and it is not a bad game. I'm not here to bash it. Still, I won't be playing it, and here's why.

LoTR is one of the greatest stories ever. I have read the books so many times I have lost count. I own all the movies and have watched them a million times lol.  My mind is filled with fantastic images of all the wonderful places and people in this saga.

A video game - not just this one, any one - can't deliver that. Despite good intentions and a yeoman's effort, the game has a dollhouse feel to it that I might have lived with and even enjoyed  had it been anything other than LoTR.

For example, there is a point early in the game where you encounter a Nazgul. This is one of the most feared and dreadful beings in LoTR. It looked like a tiny little horse and rider. It did not fill me with fear and loathing. As soon as I saw that, I quit the beta. My reason was that if they trivilized that, what reason have I to keep going?

I don't blame Turbine. I had the same reaction in SWG when I encountered Luke Skywalker in game. He looked like he belonged on top of a wedding cake.

 It's really tough to simulate major people and places in a video games that already have a place in the player's heart.

Eol-

Originally posted by Amathe


I beta tested LoTR and it is not a bad game. I'm not here to bash it. Still, I won't be playing it, and here's why.
LoTR is one of the greatest stories ever. I have read the books so many times I have lost count. I own all the movies and have watched them a million times lol.  My mind is filled with fantastic images of all the wonderful places and people in this saga.
A video game - not just this one, any one - can't deliver that. Despite good intentions and a yeoman's effort, the game has a dollhouse feel to it that I might have lived with and even enjoyed  had it been anything other than LoTR.
For example, there is a point early in the game where you encounter a Nazgul. This is one of the most feared and dreadful beings in LoTR. It looked like a tiny little horse and rider. It did not fill me with fear and loathing. As soon as I saw that, I quit the beta. My reason was that if they trivilized that, what reason have I to keep going?
I don't blame Turbine. I had the same reaction in SWG when I encountered Luke Skywalker in game. He looked like he belonged on top of a wedding cake.
 It's really tough to simulate major people and places in a video games that already have a place in the player's heart.

Well, short of having the Nazgul jump out of the screen and stab you with a Morgul-knife, I am not sure what else they could do. They even have 'dread' special effects so that when you are encountering a very evil monster or place, your vision is affected and your character traits suffer.

I hear what you are saying about Luke Skywalker, but thats not a fair comparison. The famous NPCs in SWG were totally inert, whereas in LotRO some of the encounters with famous characters in the books are dynamic. You even go into instances with some of them. And the graphics are much better. There's just no comparison. 

Odysses

I hear what the original poster is saying.   Aside from LoTRO being a great game because of the great IP it is also handcuffed by it which explains no evil playable races and pvp.   Monster Play is great but my dream game is a sandbox game that has everything LoTRO has and also has  a Darktide server like AC.   

LoTRO gets a thumbs up from me but wish there were ways around the lore to add more traditional elements from the genre that I have come to love.

Chessack

I got to about level 12 on one character, level 8 on another couple, during the early parts of beta. In November I had to format my hard drive thanks to a nasty bit of malware (I killed it but to be extra safe I formatted), and I never did have the chance to re-DL the client and beta any further. So some of my information is a couple of months out of date, to be fair.



However, based on that (admittedly imperfect) impression from the earlier part of beta, I agree with the basic point of the OP. My opinion on LOTRO is that, as a fantasy MMORPG, it's perfectly fine. It does all the things people have come to expect from the EQs and WOWs of the world... The quests are exactly what you've come to expect from a fantasy MMO, as is the crafting system, as is the combat system, as is the leveling system, etc, etc, etc. It seemed relatively error free even back a few months ago (presumably it's more polished now), and the graphics were pretty standard, etc. In short there is nothing really wrong with the game.



However....



... this is Lord of the Rings. And I said in beta, and continue to feel to this day, that when you have Lord of the Rings on your hands, if your game is doing what is typical of all other fantasy games, you are doing something wrong. Lord of the Rings, as a game, should be different, unique, unusual, in a variety of ways. For example, the world lacked any real "Middle Earth" uniqueness to it (from what I saw, which admittedly was only a small section). I didn't feel like I was in Bree itself, but just some random fantasy village that looked the same as any other fantasy village. How could they make it more unique? Well, take a look at the movies. No, I am not saying they should have copied the exact features of the movies, but the WAY the movies went about it was to think deeply about what each area would look like, and layer untold amounts of microscopic-level detail into every set, every costume, everything they did. THAT is the kind of detail that a game like LOTRO demands, and I am sorry, but I just did not see it in this game. I saw EQ or WOW with an LOTR skin, and a mediocre skin at that. Now there is nothing wrong with WOW or EQ as games, and if you like them, but want an LOTR skin to them, then this game is for you.



However, I was not interested in a re-skin of pre-existing games, so I didn't find much to be interested in, with LOTRO. As I say it is not a bad game, but the IP demands not merely an "OK" game, but something totally unique, original, and unprecedented (just as the movies were totally unique, original, and unprecedented as films). And this game is not that.



C

Ryowulf

Because of LotR some people will be drawn to the game. Because of LotR some people will be disappointed and be harsher towards the game than they might be otherwise.

Gweyr

TBH, I doubt any major non game franchise can really work as a MMO. If you are true to the source material, you end up in a straight jacket where you have to put franchise before game play.  For example LotRO classes, make sense lore wise but they are just so boring.



If you go for game play over lore you get things like 1,000,000 Jedis running around during the Galactic Civil War.

Khalathwyr

Totally appreciate your point Amathe. I came to the conclusion that game companies, more specifically MMO companies, will not be able to recreate my perception of any of the IPs out there now that are book or movie based. The things I would want from such games aren't really mainstream as it applies to what many, or at least the perceived many, gamers want from games today. That said, I only look for well put together games, solid games. I'm not bashing Vanguard, but the many issues with it performance wise is an example of what I do not want. I want to spend more time enjoying the world as opposed to bug reporting it. LOTRO offers that. So I'll be there. That, and Turbine never did anything "bad" to me in the past and offered the best MMO experience I've had to date with AC1.

I sincerely hope that you find what you are looking for in one of the upcoming MMOGs.