LOTRO & DDO: A Bright New Future with Standing Stone Games & Daybreak a Interviews at MMORPG.com

Jyiiga

If AC dies on the 31st as planned and then there is silence from WB. I am still going to be holding Penis Stone Games partially responsible for the demise of the franchise. So yeah... I'm not all that optimistic about their ability to hold onto the LOTR franchise indefinitely. Always a bit of fear when it comes to book/movie MMOs. At some point they will pull the license and move onto greener pastures. I'm looking at your SWG...

Sovrath

tom_gore said:

Old MMOs need to die to make room for new ones. These two should have let go years ago. We need a modernized LotRO.

Well, no one is going to do that.

Do I want a "modern" Lord of the Rings mmo? Well, that depends, what does that mean? Other than updated graphics and (to my taste) more realistic art design.

postlarval

tom_gore said:

Old MMOs need to die to make room for new ones. These two should have let go years ago. We need a modernized LotRO.

Well, if it's developed with the same mindset as most other "modern" MMOs, they will re-skin it and take out all the gameplay. That alone should put it in the modern MMO category.

KatzyBaby

After spending 7 years with another MMO, just having completed another transfer/merger I can say that I wish I had started playing DDO 10 years ago (and sending them my money for their Store). I was immediately impressed with DDO's communication, the users are notified about changes and really seem to be listened to. The community is fantastic. Everyone I've met, probably only 150 or so other players, have been helpful, supportive, friendly and mature (no matter what age they are). The above transfer to SSG/DGC was totally seamless to the players. While the notice of the transfer came close to the actual transfer date, I could not tell any difference before or after the transfer. This is in comparison to the MMO I played for 7 years, now on it's 2nd transfer that has been happening (and failing) for the past 4 months. I absolutely love DDO. I realize that not everyone likes a quest and dungeon intensive game, but these are what I love the most. I am hoping for another 10 years (at least) of DDO. Sure, there are issues, as with any game, but I have not had a moments frustration with the entire DDO universe. This game (and devs, distros, management, gamers, community) has ticked all the boxes of what a great game can and should be.

Distopia

Sovrath said:

Do I want a "modern" Lord of the Rings mmo? Well, that depends, what does that mean? 

Not that I see it happening, but that's a loaded question. The original concept (middle earth online), was going to be so much more than LOTRO turned out to be. It was much more in-line with something like SWG or a number of other deep RP experiences (like COE), that have been proposed over the years. It's a big reason I was never able to get into what came to be of LOTRO post SWG. It was the same thing with AOC. The original concept was meant to be more akin to what they're doing with Exiles. Worlds, rather than quest grinders. 

Considering the direction most MMO development vets seem to want to go right now, it would be a perfect time for such a game. 

Again I must say, I don't really see that happening. 

craftseeker

DKLond said:

As far as I'm concerned, LotRO and DDO would be fantastic games if they were properly modernized with a decent engine.

Obviously, that would be expensive and time-consuming - but it should be much, much cheaper than developing a new MMO.

They're still among the most solid games on the market in terms of design paradigms and execution.

No the cost would be much the same as developing a new MMO. New engine, new artwork, recoding all the scripts and quests. The same work really, without the PR benefits of selling a new game.

Crusadecrusher

Athisar said:

It's shame this has all been derailed into arguments about Daybreak, mostly under the assumption that Daybreak owns LOTRO/DDO, which is completely wrong.

It's a really positive move. There's no way this would be happening if the game wasn't showing a profit and potential growth, there's no way we'd be getting an expansion, new models, a new race, and three regular content updates this year.

Hey what do you expect these people have been calling for the death of LOTRO since it launched.  Now they have a new angle to call for the death of LOTRO...it's rather sad but unfortunately it's the truth. 

Hluill

Huh, LotRO and EQ2 are still two of my favorite games. They do stuff, or allow players to do stuff, that more modern MMOs can't touch or duplicate. I am excited to see that DDO and LotRO might be getting some love.

wilcoxon

I doubt there's any licensing issue for DDO as they are based on 3.x so likely would fall under OGL if they were tabletop (I'm not sure if OGL applies to electronic games). Even if DDO doesn't fall under OGL, it very likely is fine provided they don't try changing the underlying mechanics to something that WotC can claim is a different version (1, 2, 4e, 5e).

flizzer

Still love LOTRO and plan on continuing to play it.  I doubt we will see a more modern LOTRO.  Apparently there are stories already planned beyond Mordor. I can't wait.