My Only Concern

GuinnessAle

I am a big fan of the game, I am happy with everything about it.  My only concern is the End Game.....We all know how it ends.  Unlike EQ, WoW, DAoC, and virutlally every other MMO, this game has an end.   The other MMO's can keep adding monsters, new lands, and expansion after expansion.   Is there goiong to be a shelf life on LotRO?  

 

Someone please put my mind at ease and shed some light in my dark corrner.

Thanks!

 

Krogg

We were discussing this ingame last night.  Cuurently after 50 or so levels of play, if I am right, the heroes have just arrived at Rivendell.  It is almost like as you level you make your journey in parallel to theirs.

They are just forming or are soon to form the fellowship, from what I saw in Rivendell.  This is barely halfway, if even, into the first movie.  But they aren't limited to following that story in particular.. we have the Hobbit and they have the ability to expand the world, umm.. sideways, for lack of a better word.   Meaning conent can be added to expand on the current situation without pushing the story too far too fast. 

For instance Minas Morgul, or other areas of even the briefest encounter in the books/movies, when made real ingame become much more then 5 seconds of film, they can become whole new adventure areas with quest lines of their own.  Even with the video-game sized version of the world, I would imagine places like Moria to be vast.

So with this in consideration, the game could potentially run 5 to 10 full expansions before we start into the final chapter.  Possibly more if we look at the other areas they can add to, such as PvMP additions, starting zones, player housing, etc.

And then the last chapter of the known story would be something else all together.

What kind of liscencing they have for post-ROTK, I do not know, but if they have the ability to move forward there's even more.

I can't see the game having a definite end myself, at least not before my interest wanes.  But we'll see.

 

GuinnessAle

Thank you Krogg, I do feel a bit more at ease.    Your explanations and thoughts make sense. 

 

Cheers!

airhead

ok. I had a crazy idea... and I'm almost 100% sure Turbine wouldn't do this... but man it would be cool!  hehe



Take the game as is... let peeps make 50s, some monster play in battleground etc. Then release expansion where peeps can make orcs, trolls, etc in Mordor. 1-50 worth of stuff. Another xpack could take good guys up to lvl 80ish either in smaug's lonely mountain or down into rohan. Some other area xpack get's bad guys up to 80ish as well. Then have gondor (or maybe when everyone is 50) where it's a huge all-out-war area.... don't know if the engine could handle it, but it would be sort of like the stories... hehe

Torquemada40

They even mentioned time-traveling to Second Age etc. in dev chat. Even cooler, they could implement it into PvMP so you can fight great battles of that time!



Besides, they implemented Eriador only which is now roughly 1/3-1/2 WoW original content, and I mean, Eriador is only a tiny portion of Middle Earth. So I guess, no worries there, I think if launch goes well there will be a lot of content updates.

airhead

Agree with you all... there is really TONS of xpack possibilities.... and there is going to be lots of xpacks, as long as the game has a following.



But that brings up MY only concern (hehe). What about the pace of expansions? I mean, the room in the storyline to do them is huge, but how fast can they do it? I have never seen a game where the devs could produce at a pace as fast as content is consumed. I've never seen it done. So precedance is against Turbine for being able to pull that off. And money / revenue doesn't seem to have much to do with it either. Just look at blizzard and wow. TONS of revenue... still took them 2 years to get out something for 1/6 more levels of character growth? Same gameplay? Two new races that aren't that new, just old models with new coloring?? 



Personally, I don't think it's possible. I would love to be wrong about it, but I don't think Turbine or any company for that matter can deliver content fast enough to feed the people. (that's why many over the 'developers corner' keep coming back to user-created content, or world-pvp sandbox types of games).... but here's hoping. (and of course what they have so far at release is kicking-A... hehe)

Kyleran

People need to learn to take their time and not rush through the game so quickly......

See...easy solution....

Cabe2323

Originally posted by airhead

Agree with you all... there is really TONS of xpack possibilities.... and there is going to be lots of xpacks, as long as the game has a following.



But that brings up MY only concern (hehe). What about the pace of expansions? I mean, the room in the storyline to do them is huge, but how fast can they do it? I have never seen a game where the devs could produce at a pace as fast as content is consumed. I've never seen it done. So precedance is against Turbine for being able to pull that off. And money / revenue doesn't seem to have much to do with it either. Just look at blizzard and wow. TONS of revenue... still took them 2 years to get out something for 1/6 more levels of character growth? Same gameplay? Two new races that aren't that new, just old models with new coloring?? 



Personally, I don't think it's possible. I would love to be wrong about it, but I don't think Turbine or any company for that matter can deliver content fast enough to feed the people. (that's why many over the 'developers corner' keep coming back to user-created content, or world-pvp sandbox types of games).... but here's hoping. (and of course what they have so far at release is kicking-A... hehe)

They did about as good a job as can be done with AC 1.  Some people will level at a super fast pace and then run out of content.  There is no helping that.

airhead

Originally posted by Kyleran


People need to learn to take their time and not rush through the game so quickly......
See...easy solution....

uh... and that's even more impossible than having the devs try to keep up... hehe



The consumer is king. The person writing the check is the boss. If supply isn't meeting demand, you don't call for less demand, you just crank it up better than your competition (the only people you need to beat), and maximize your supply. If Turbine supplies more at a faster pace than their competition, then they will win. If anything, a supplier WANTS the world's demand to not only stay as high as is, but increase. That's where growth comes in, and suppliers definately want part of that.



And remember, competition includes new games as well.



Let me bring down to speculated possibilties here.... lotro comes out in april. People play it thru summer. Suppose AoC comes out in oct-2007 and is good. Then consumer X has a choice: continue playing lotro or cancel, play some aoc, maybe come back to lotro later. However, if lotro is keeping that person busy (meeting consumer demand) then AoC is gonna have a hard time pulling people away.



But I was in AC2 when Turbine was cranking with the monthly updates. Considering the low subscription, and what they put into it, they really did a good job i thought. This game could have really high subscriptions, and if they can crank enough new content to satisfy most of the consumer demand, then they will win, and stave off any intrusion from AoC and WAR (assuming they are even worth a damn... they may not be)

Ake_Gamer

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Originally posted by Cabe2323
Originally posted by airhead
Agree with you all... there is really TONS of xpack possibilities.... and there is going to be lots of xpacks, as long as the game has a following. But that brings up MY only concern (hehe). What about the pace of expansions? I mean, the room in the storyline to do them is huge, but how fast can they do it? I have never seen a game where the devs could produce at a pace as fast as content is consumed. I've never seen it done. So precedance is against Turbine for being able to pull that off. And money / revenue doesn't seem to have much to do with it either. Just look at blizzard and wow. TONS of revenue... still took them 2 years to get out something for 1/6 more levels of character growth? Same gameplay? Two new races that aren't that new, just old models with new coloring?? Personally, I don't think it's possible. I would love to be wrong about it, but I don't think Turbine or any company for that matter can deliver content fast enough to feed the people. (that's why many over the 'developers corner' keep coming back to user-created content, or world-pvp sandbox types of games).... but here's hoping. (and of course what they have so far at release is kicking-A... hehe)

They did about as good a job as can be done with AC 1. Some people will level at a super fast pace and then run out of content. There is no helping that.

---

With AC1 and the monthly episodic content patches, the first two weeks were a mad dash scramble by the min-maxers to power their way through the quests. Then they just hung out or PvPd the rest of the month. Maybe they played a second game.

For many of us, however, we just kept falling farther and farther behind, eventually only touching the surface of the monthly content. Can't please everyone or anyone, for that matter.

virtuella

Players concered about the current endgame should maybe wait a year or so until the first major expansions has been released.

I too can see myself burn out within the first 6 month because the world right now is pretty small.

After you reach level 50 there is very few zones that is attrctive for you.

I'm confident that Turbine have a totally kickass game on their hands but it might take a while before it has what is concidered enough endgame.



I'm still buying a lifetime account because in time the game will grow bigger and better.

It just takes some time.



Hardcore players that play 40 hours a week will burn out quick i'm afraid in the current version.

I'm forcing myself to play very very little in the beta because i don't want to burn out within the first 2 months after release.

RK-Mara

If LotRO is a huge success Turbine might buy the rights for Silmarillion. LotRO won't run out of content.

almalexius

I am really not so concerned with endgame as long the main game is of good quality. Good endgame is nice but i certainly don't need endgame ala WoW to prolong the lifespan of the game. I'd rather move on to something else.

Rattrap

Originally posted by almalexius

I am really not so concerned with endgame as long the main game is of good quality. Good endgame is nice but i certainly don't need endgame ala WoW to prolong the lifespan of the game. I'd rather move on to something else.

 

Amen to that

Irish003

Originally posted by RK-Mara

If LotRO is a huge success Turbine might buy the rights for Silmarillion. LotRO won't run out of content.

That's why I hope this game is a huge success, it'll will be alot easier for them to get the rights to The Silmarillion. That's the game I'm waiting on.