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Lord of the Rings Online: E3 2006 Preview
Dana
Member Posts: 2,415
Danielle Vanderlip looked into the Turbine booth to see what was up with their epic, trilogy-based MMORPG.
;) Let me start this article with a brief albeit respectful statement. I am not a Tolkien fan in any rabid sense. This does not mean that I dont like his works at all, but I wanted to be honest so that people had a better understanding of where I came upon the following opinions and so that what I say is taken at face value as neither a fangirl or as a Tolkien hater.
We got the chance to sit down and take a good look at Lord of the Rings Online:Shadows of Angmar on Thursday May 11th at E3. Despite my lack of rabidity for all things Tolkien I have found myself very intrigued by what it will offer and how they would pull off creating an interactive experience based on a very linear storyline without interrupting the core storyline itself. What I spent time learning both from reading the site as well as our little sit down with Executive Producer Jeffrey Steefel made me very happy and even more interested in seeing what the folks at Turbine had up their sleeves. |
Click to read more.
Dana Massey
Formerly of MMORPG.com
Currently Lead Designer for Bit Trap Studios
Comments
Without some PVP aspect, I don't see this game holding my attention very long. Sure it will be fun to go around with your guild of friends doing quests blah blah blah. But, PVP makes your heart race, keeps you on the edge of your seat when your playing. If its open PVP then its even more fun, the sense of friend or foe. Those that played UO before Trammel was introduced will understand what i'm talking about. Though I bet this game will be enjoyable and a nice RPG to play online, its just that we have games like this alreayd, just different settings. After you have done most of the quests and developed your character there really isnt much left to do. Thats where some PVP can further enhance the game experience. I'm not saying I want PVP in LOTR so I can grief etc etc. I'm just saying its nice to also have that as an option from time to time. Crafting , questing, PVP, Housing , the more things you can do in an Online game the better. If you get frustrated in one aspect you can try another.
I'm at the point in online gaming where I need that online head to head competition. Now I know not everyone feels this way, i'm just giving you my opinion of where I stand. Yes its LOTR ! We all love that, but will it have the staying power for me personally? I'm not sure.
One more note, I'll probably pick this title up and give it a whirl. I passed on DDO and WOW but this does look like a well thoughtout game.
The CEO of Turbine also said in an interview two months ago that there would be playable mobs or "monster play". The community relations director Calandryll said this was not reliable anymore and PvP is still being worked out. I'm thinking the monster play will be the final choice though.
If they had allowed the player to take the role of an evil character in this game, and maybe focused less on intertwining with the Fellowship's path... I would have bought this game almost blindly. But since everybody has to be an elf/dwarf/Light Side Man/hobbit. With the only PvP maybe being a system to duel other players, I see little reason to buy/payfor/follow this game. It's going to be a giant care-bear fest.
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DAOC - Jerek 50 rr5 Igraine Inf *retired*
DAOC- Guide 50 rr5 Igraine Cler *retired*
Guild Wars 20 W/Mo Jerek *retired*
RF Online- Scyros 36 Accretia Ranger *retired*
R.Y.L Prodigy 89 Assasin *retired/banned*
this article has confirmed for me what i thought. i wont care about this game at all. it is nothing but a single player rpg, but with lots of players. it is world of warcraft on the middle earth.
nothing for the player to interact. only quests, and quests and quests. but the storyline is given, no player based economy or politics, no way to play on the bad side, no way to influence on the game world at all.
this is not a world were you live and feel free to do what you want. just a place to do some missions. they even show you some places of the world where you can not yet go. you have to wait for the proper mission
oh my!!!! why did i start to play EVE? now everything seems a wathered down childish game compared to it
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DAOC - Jerek 50 rr5 Igraine Inf *retired*
DAOC- Guide 50 rr5 Igraine Cler *retired*
Guild Wars 20 W/Mo Jerek *retired*
RF Online- Scyros 36 Accretia Ranger *retired*
R.Y.L Prodigy 89 Assasin *retired/banned*
After reading the article my first reaction was "What a complete and utter BS! How would anyone want to play this crap?"
Now, though my feelings towards this game haven't changed a bit, I may put my thoughts in a more civil form:
1. Why should i want to play a story thats already finished?
2. Why did they call this obvious adventure game MMORPG? It seems to be a SP in a multiplayer pelt like DDO.
3. Isnt the witch King of Angmar at the time busy being the chief Nazgûl?
4: Anyone else who wants to hit the very first Hobbit they meet hard? Repeatedly?
5. Instances.
6. They are cowards! They didnt dare antagonize die-hard Tolkien Fans as they didnt dare be more creative with their D&D Licence. Thus, i foresee, it will be close to the ip but a boring boring playing experience.
7. There is a long and rich "history" in Middle-earth. They could have picked any era to have game in. See MERS. They chose to do a spin-off of the movies. In doing so they severely limited their possibilities. I dont like being railroaded through a game and I extremely dont like being railroaded through a MMOG.
8. Meeting the Fellowship characters? WTF?
These are the main reasons why i wouldnt want to play this even if they gave me gratis time. I don't see a point to this game. Other reasons are: Turbine and I saw an IG trailer. Looked like DAoC pre Shrouded Isles.
Thought I'd share my thoughts.
Skeltem
Most of the posts above me are being dumb. So the game doesn't fit into your idea of a fun MMO, so what.
I'm looking forward to WAR a lot but I'll keep an eye on this as well just because it's not like WAR and I don't want every game I play to the be same.
I agree PvP shouldn't be part of Tolkiens world all the characters are heroes, larger than life trying courageously to overcome adversity it is purely a story of good defeating evil, period. Frankly I am really happy that PvP will not be included - the PvPers will stay away from this one and I'm pleased.
Perhaps finally there will be a good fantasy MMO on the market where I can role play a character without feeling like the only RPer in the world, big up for Turbine!
And great article, gratz.
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The angel of death has been abroad throughout the land; you may almost hear the beating of his wings.
House of Commons, 23 Feb. 1855
Because, while I'm not a Tolkien Fan, I have in fact read all the books several times. I have seen all the movies, several times and I understand what I'm looking at when I sit in front of a game.
From their dev journals (if you read them) they say they thought about people being able to play the evil side but they would have had to factionalize and it wouldn't have gone well with the actual storyline.
I also asked them about the seemingly closed-ended game since the storyline was set and they assured me they had tons and tons of content and a very large world for people to explore and enjoy.
From their own admissions (On their site) they'd like to include PvP of some sort but it won't be open PvP. Yes, anything they do will be consensual. I'm a PvP nut myself but I can understand their logic.
The layered instancing I found to actually be a very cool feature. I like that you can affect a change you can experience later on as you progress in the story so that the same can become different.
For those looking for a more traditional RPG experience with crafting available, I think it will be a hit. For those that want a more interactive experience with PvP as a core foundation, this isn't it.
Because, while I'm not a Tolkien Fan, I have in fact read all the books several times. I have seen all the movies, several times and I understand what I'm looking at when I sit in front of a game.
[...]From their own admissions (On their site) they'd like to include PvP of some sort but it won't be open PvP. Yes, anything they do will be consensual. I'm a PvP nut myself but I can understand their logic.
The layered instancing I found to actually be a very cool feature. I like that you can affect a change you can experience later on as you progress in the story so that the same can become different.
For those looking for a more traditional RPG experience with crafting available, I think it will be a hit. For those that want a more interactive experience with PvP as a core foundation, this isn't it.
Yeah, I can understand the logic behind NOT implementing some sort of PvP between races / factions, but it would have been, for lack of a better word, cool.
Also, the layered instancing.... if I understand correctly this was done in Guild Wars as well? (Pre/Post Searing Ascalon)
Its too bad that there will be such a hard core crafting system in this game to not support any kind of non PvE content. Ultimately i'm just whining because I wanted to play an Uruk Hai and squash some little hobbit meat sacks. Sigh, maybe in an expansion.
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DAOC - Jerek 50 rr5 Igraine Inf *retired*
DAOC- Guide 50 rr5 Igraine Cler *retired*
Guild Wars 20 W/Mo Jerek *retired*
RF Online- Scyros 36 Accretia Ranger *retired*
R.Y.L Prodigy 89 Assasin *retired/banned*
I don't have a lot of experience with Guild Wars to comment. Guild Wars didn't capture me in a way an RPG or MMORPG does and so I didn't play very much.
What little I played was all instancing of course and from what I gather of Lord of the Rings Online, not everything will be instanced the same way.
I'd like to also say that while LotR doesn't excite me in the PvP sense, I feel the same as many others that the RP aspect of MMORPG has been lacking and would love to see if it meets a resurgance with an IP like LotR even without the PvP. I also am somewhat dissapointed at the non-orc play since I've always tended to play on the 'evil' side myself and hobbits make me want to squish them.
Like I tend to tell people however, everyone needs to make their own choices about the game that fits them best. No one game can fit every type of gamer and that is a good thing. It means that the market can keep expanding to fit new demographics and perhaps entice more new players into the world of MMOs. At least I'd like to hope so.
Take World of Warcraft for instance. While there are many people that like to hate on the game, it did in fact bring in a lot of RTS players and brand new players into the genre. Whether you love or hate the game it has been instrumental in expanding the market. Adding more players into the market is good because it allows the market to keep growing and learning and becoming better for everyone.
I hope that makes some sense. I try my best to stay as neutral as I can be when I'm reporting on things and that's also why I felt I'd point out my feelings on Tolkien in general. I didn't want anyone to think I was sold from the start or to think that I hated it from the start. I started off neutral but intrigued. I am now leaning much more toward intrigued if only to see how Turbine ultimately handles the product and to see how RP fairs within it. I think it could become a very rich place indeed even if it doesn't become my ultimate game of choice. In fact I don't think I could point to any one game and say it's 'the' one when I am always trying so many of them though of course there are some that I put more time into than others.
I'm just going to keep that information to myself however.
I have a serious question about this game.
In your article you describe a detailed quest arc that is designed to coincde with the fellowships quest but not suplant it. However you never asked what people are supposed to do after they are done with this arc?
Seriously there is no way in hell a single quest arc is going to keep people going in a persistent world. If you just wanted one arc why pay the monthly fee and do a second rate quest and be some schmo when you can be Gandalf in the console version of LotR?
This game has the original issue with SWG but to the 10th degree. It has no END GAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! At least SWG had some sort of fall back plan with Jedi and the GCW back in the development stages of that game and by not developing the GCW it seriously hurt the game. WIth a one sided war and only one arc to go on this game seems to SERIOUSLY lack any sort of content.
You prefaced your article very well showing Turbine had an uphill fight on this one but then never actualy brought that subject up with Turbine. They got one friggin story arc that you know you cant succeed at completely (you aint killin the witch king of Agmar).
Same question I have had since this game was annouced years ago? What the heck are people gonna do day after day after day? What is gonna make people pay a monthly subsciption every month for 2+ years?
Even the Star Wars fans learned that its not that fun to be the third nobody from the left with nothing to do. Now the Tolkien fans have to learn it the hard way to I guess. In the end you can only be amazed by a hobbit hut so many times. If this game is depending on its scenery to be its content the devs might as well pick up there pick slips now.
Actually I did ask seeing how it seemed like it was a pretty closed ended sort of storyline. I was informed that they had loads of content that they would keep adding in, that the storyline would stretch out through years and that the world itself is incredibly large to explore. They say they are very ready to make sure there is plenty to see and do within the game.
I completely understand your fears and they are well-founded. I have much the same trepidations. "How long can it last?"
In one of the podcasts with MMORPG.com they ask Jeffrey Steefel about the storyline and how long it could possibly last and he says in that interview too that they are looking at easily 3 years worth of time to cover with additional content easily added at any time.
I am quite sure that like many other games there are side quests and things that act as filler. They also will have their crafting end of things and I don't doubt a sort of meta-game attached to the idea of 'taking over' the 'evil' side characters is probably in mind. I can't say for sure however.
Our time was limited with them and it's sometimes hard to get in all those questions you might have but I think they covered at least the main parts of things that people would want to know.
Yes, I definetly asked about the seemingly short-lived storyline they were going with though. That one was very much on my mind. I just had limited space in the article to fit everything in. I could have covered quite a few other things like traits. People will be able to earn traits based in some part on their class and race and in some part on meeting specific goals. These traits can be placed on your character to give you different combinations of abilities or specials that make your character different than other characters. While there will be more 'common' traits to get there will also be the ultra-rare ones at the high end of the game. Also, traits can be swapped out and reorganized so that you can only have so many up/on at a time. This ensures that people have a variety of combinations they can try and work with hopefully killing off the 'cookie cutter' nature of race/class combos we all know and love to this date.
Been a long time since I read LotR seen the movies much more recently. However they are going to have a quest arc that will last for 3 years (give or take) of real world time where you are going to fight the witch king of agmar. You do this in order to help Frodo and Co complete their mission which took what 6 months from beginning to end?
Seems a little screwy to me. I think Turbine is going to toast another one. I also think the industry is going to start seeing the liear closed story line franchises as something other than a golden goose. Great for a stand alone RPG but horrible for an mmorpg.
1
And this game, the way it's currently being developed - won't live up to my expectations.
It will probably sell well though.
However, it does need to add that PvP element.
That is the whole point of the story. All out battles between good and evil.
Raids, Sieges, and Open Warfare should be part of its development if they want to stay true
to the LoTR feel.
Undoubtedly, part of the LoTR trilogy was the fellowship, and it is great that they are developing that
end of it as PvE. It totally makes sense to do that.
But this game has such potential to be an incredible mix of PvE and PvP. It screams for both elements of the MMORPG industry to be developed fully. And i would consider it a failure if the PvP isn't developed as it should be.
"I have live my life by these nine simple words: It sounded like a good idea at the time."
--Livingston Taylor