Originally posted by trancejeremy
Yup, that was a completely different game from another company that never materialized.

Wrong.

I don't understand why people keep making this mistake.

Middle Earth Online was in development by Sierra in 1999. It got shut down.

Vivendi and Turbine began developing a game called Middle Earth Online in about 2003 , and continued to develop it until it launched as Lord of the Rings Online.

In Alpha, LotRO was a sandbox game being made by veteran Turbine devs. It's tag line was "live in Middle Earth". The game was very community based, sandbox and book accuracy focus. The devs hosted events once a year called Turbine Nation where people came together and got to see the game as it came along, play in various events and raffles, essentially a big party.

Well, about a year before LotRO's launch, Vivendi lost the rights to Lord of the Rings, and Turbine gained entire control over the MMO. Turbine changed Middle Earth Online's name to LotRO, shuffled most of the veteran staff to other projects, and put new developers at the helm of LotRO. They quickly scrapped most of the old work and restructured the game to be a quest based WoW clone. There were no more yearly Turbine Nation gathering, the community disintegrated. The game tag line was changed to "Fight through Middle Earth!".

It was essentially the NGE, but because it happened in beta, people don't talk about it nearly as much. But for those that were there, we felt betrayed. It splintered the community, kinships fell apart. Then they announced there wouldn't be any international servers, after promising the opposite, and the remaining kinships fractured again.

Don't believe that Turbine was working on it? Here's the pre alpha trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fk0ogD_HMn0

Also, in before "hurp derp that looks like crap, glad they changed it".

Here is an early article on it before they decided to get rid of PvP.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2003/12/18/middle-earth-online

Also note that the instancing was going to actually attempt to be immersive, rather than just instancing everything with a giant "YOU DON'T HAVE THE QUEST TO ENTER HERE, TOO BAD." message you have in current LotRO.

LOTR would be difficult to turn into a sandbox IMHO. There's too many rules/races/history/classes that fans would demand the developers adhere to to really offer any sort of freedom.

I think sandoxes are best when they are NOT based on existing IP.

Originally posted by DavisFlight

Here is an early article on it before they decided to get rid of PvP.

 

http://www.ign.com/articles/2003/12/18/middle-earth-online

 

Also note that the instancing was going to actually attempt to be immersive, rather than just instancing everything with a giant "YOU DON'T HAVE THE QUEST TO ENTER HERE, TOO BAD." message you have in current LotRO.

Just read that ign article and, wow! (no pun intended), what a game MEO would have been! Such a pity the managers took over and decided to go for the big bucks. As always, great ideas sacrificed for the sake of quick money (still that didn't prevent them from going f2p).

Originally posted by ZigZags

LOTR would be difficult to turn into a sandbox IMHO. There's too many rules/races/history/classes that fans would demand the developers adhere to to really offer any sort of freedom.

 

I think sandoxes are best when they are NOT based on existing IP.

But some of the best sandboxes in MMO history were based on existing IPs, Star Wars Galaxies. 

That's just the thing, people loved the fact that they could LIVE in the Star Wars Universe, and they weren't shoe horned into linear adventures that were almost like the movies but not really.

Originally posted by Galadourn

Originally posted by DavisFlight

Here is an early article on it before they decided to get rid of PvP.

 

http://www.ign.com/articles/2003/12/18/middle-earth-online

 

Also note that the instancing was going to actually attempt to be immersive, rather than just instancing everything with a giant "YOU DON'T HAVE THE QUEST TO ENTER HERE, TOO BAD." message you have in current LotRO.

Just read that ign article and, wow! (no pun intended), what a game MEO would have been! Such a pity the managers took over and decided to go for the big bucks. As always, great ideas sacrificed for the sake of quick money (still that didn't prevent them from going f2p).

 

Yeah there were so many articles on the old Turbine MEO website detailing the more interesting aspects of the game. They did an entire 3 page article dev diary about how climbing mountains/exploration would work, with shifting snow, and hidden paths.

But then they went full WoW clone route. And I'm glad it didn't go well for them. They sacrificed a great game and an even better community for a quick buck and it did not pay off. They sit on the worlds biggest IP and they STILL were forced to go FTP.

Originally posted by DavisFlight

Originally posted by Galadourn

Originally posted by DavisFlight

Here is an early article on it before they decided to get rid of PvP.

 

http://www.ign.com/articles/2003/12/18/middle-earth-online

 

Also note that the instancing was going to actually attempt to be immersive, rather than just instancing everything with a giant "YOU DON'T HAVE THE QUEST TO ENTER HERE, TOO BAD." message you have in current LotRO.

Just read that ign article and, wow! (no pun intended), what a game MEO would have been! Such a pity the managers took over and decided to go for the big bucks. As always, great ideas sacrificed for the sake of quick money (still that didn't prevent them from going f2p).

 

Yeah there were so many articles on the old Turbine MEO website detailing the more interesting aspects of the game. They did an entire 3 page article dev diary about how climbing mountains/exploration would work, with shifting snow, and hidden paths.

But then they went full WoW clone route. And I'm glad it didn't go well for them. They sacrificed a great game and an even better community for a quick buck and it did not pay off. They sit on the worlds biggest IP and they STILL were forced to go FTP.

Didn't go well for them? I've been playing for five years since launch and it's a brilliant game with plenty of exploration. It's not a sandbox but it's less linear than SWToR or TSW. It's head and shoulders above the crap that's been released in the past year that i've also played and binned within a month in boredom and then gone back to lotro.

Originally posted by DavisFlight

Here is an early article on it before they decided to get rid of PvP.

 

http://www.ign.com/articles/2003/12/18/middle-earth-online

 

Also note that the instancing was going to actually attempt to be immersive, rather than just instancing everything with a giant "YOU DON'T HAVE THE QUEST TO ENTER HERE, TOO BAD." message you have in current LotRO.

This is just complete rubbish, everything isn't instanced in LOTRO and if you don't have the quest chain then go away and do the quest to get in! How hard is that? If an instance is generated specifically for the quest then of course you need the quest, so what?

It makes me wonder if anyone on here actually even plays the games they slag off, or at least beyond level 10.

Originally posted by Thenextbigthing

Didn't go well for them? I've been playing for five years since launch and it's a brilliant game with plenty of exploration. It's not a sandbox but it's less linear than SWToR or TSW. It's head and shoulders above the crap that's been released in the past year that i've also played and binned within a month in boredom and then gone back to lotro.

Before Mirkwood I would have agreed with you. However, in its current state, it's good as far as other F2P games go, but it's pretty far down the list when compared to the genre as a whole right now.

Originally posted by Thenextbigthing

Originally posted by DavisFlight

Here is an early article on it before they decided to get rid of PvP.

 

http://www.ign.com/articles/2003/12/18/middle-earth-online

 

Also note that the instancing was going to actually attempt to be immersive, rather than just instancing everything with a giant "YOU DON'T HAVE THE QUEST TO ENTER HERE, TOO BAD." message you have in current LotRO.

 

This is just complete rubbish, everything isn't instanced in LOTRO and if you don't have the quest chain then go away and do the quest to get in! How hard is that? If an instance is generated specifically for the quest then of course you need the quest, so what?

 

It makes me wonder if anyone on here actually even plays the games they slag off, or at least beyond level 10.

The point is that it's a cop-out to avoid fleshing out the world more fully. Try the cities in EQ2 sometime - most of the buildings in the game you can enter, and it does amazing things for immersion.

Originally posted by DavisFlight

Originally posted by trancejeremy
Yup, that was a completely different game from another company that never materialized.

Wrong.

 

I don't understand why people keep making this mistake.

 

 

Middle Earth Online was in development by Sierra in 1999. It got shut down.

 

Vivendi and Turbine began developing a game called Middle Earth Online in about 2003 , and continued to develop it until it launched as Lord of the Rings Online.

In Alpha, LotRO was a sandbox game being made by veteran Turbine devs. It's tag line was "live in Middle Earth". The game was very community based, sandbox and book accuracy focus. The devs hosted events once a year called Turbine Nation where people came together and got to see the game as it came along, play in various events and raffles, essentially a big party.

 

Well, about a year before LotRO's launch, Vivendi lost the rights to Lord of the Rings, and Turbine gained entire control over the MMO. Turbine changed Middle Earth Online's name to LotRO, shuffled most of the veteran staff to other projects, and put new developers at the helm of LotRO. They quickly scrapped most of the old work and restructured the game to be a quest based WoW clone. There were no more yearly Turbine Nation gathering, the community disintegrated. The game tag line was changed to "Fight through Middle Earth!".

 

It was essentially the NGE, but because it happened in beta, people don't talk about it nearly as much. But for those that were there, we felt betrayed. It splintered the community, kinships fell apart. Then they announced there wouldn't be any international servers, after promising the opposite, and the remaining kinships fractured again.

 

Don't believe that Turbine was working on it? Here's the pre alpha trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fk0ogD_HMn0

 

Also, in before "hurp derp that looks like crap, glad they changed it".

 

OMG. herp derp.  y u no realize that Turbine work on Middle Earth Online with Sierra?

Overreact much? geesh.

Originally posted by Thenextbigthing

Originally posted by DavisFlight

Originally posted by Galadourn

Originally posted by DavisFlight

Here is an early article on it before they decided to get rid of PvP.

 

http://www.ign.com/articles/2003/12/18/middle-earth-online

 

Also note that the instancing was going to actually attempt to be immersive, rather than just instancing everything with a giant "YOU DON'T HAVE THE QUEST TO ENTER HERE, TOO BAD." message you have in current LotRO.

Just read that ign article and, wow! (no pun intended), what a game MEO would have been! Such a pity the managers took over and decided to go for the big bucks. As always, great ideas sacrificed for the sake of quick money (still that didn't prevent them from going f2p).

 

Yeah there were so many articles on the old Turbine MEO website detailing the more interesting aspects of the game. They did an entire 3 page article dev diary about how climbing mountains/exploration would work, with shifting snow, and hidden paths.

But then they went full WoW clone route. And I'm glad it didn't go well for them. They sacrificed a great game and an even better community for a quick buck and it did not pay off. They sit on the worlds biggest IP and they STILL were forced to go FTP.

 

Didn't go well for them? I've been playing for five years since launch and it's a brilliant game haha, no with plenty of exploration. The exploration is awful. The zones are funnels with invisible walls and mountains all around (since when were their impassable mountains in The Shire?) There are dozens of doors and caves that say "STOP YOU CANNOT ENTER HERE WITHOUT X GENERIC QUEST" and if you try to explore certain zones the game insta kills you without warning. No mob agro just, lightning from the sky. I haven't seen a more exploration unfriendly MMO in all my years.  It's not a sandbox but it's less linear than SWToR or TSW. That's like saying rotted card board tastes better than vomit.  It's head and shoulders above the crap that's been released in the past year That says nothing. that i've also played and binned within a month in boredom and then gone back to lotro.

 

Well, I guess that's good for you that you're entertained by simple fetch quests enough to keep doing them for 5 years. The very few good features that LotRO has going for it are relics from the Middle Earth Online days. Too bad they only make up about 4% of the game. It's a shallow, bland, lifeless WoW clone. And it was so much more in alpha.

Originally posted by Thenextbigthing

Originally posted by DavisFlight

Here is an early article on it before they decided to get rid of PvP.

 

http://www.ign.com/articles/2003/12/18/middle-earth-online

 

Also note that the instancing was going to actually attempt to be immersive, rather than just instancing everything with a giant "YOU DON'T HAVE THE QUEST TO ENTER HERE, TOO BAD." message you have in current LotRO.

 

This is just complete rubbish, everything isn't instanced in LOTRO and if you don't have the quest chain then go away and do the quest to get in! How hard is that? If an instance is generated specifically for the quest then of course you need the quest, so what?

Haha so what? Not being able to walk into a cave because I "don't have the quest" is a good system? (hint, its not).

How would I know which quest I need to walk into the random cave I found while attempting to explore a very gated linear game world?

Originally posted by FrodoFragins

Originally posted by DavisFlight

Originally posted by trancejeremy
Yup, that was a completely different game from another company that never materialized.

Wrong.

 

I don't understand why people keep making this mistake.

 

 

Middle Earth Online was in development by Sierra in 1999. It got shut down.

 

Vivendi and Turbine began developing a game called Middle Earth Online in about 2003 , and continued to develop it until it launched as Lord of the Rings Online.

In Alpha, LotRO was a sandbox game being made by veteran Turbine devs. It's tag line was "live in Middle Earth". The game was very community based, sandbox and book accuracy focus. The devs hosted events once a year called Turbine Nation where people came together and got to see the game as it came along, play in various events and raffles, essentially a big party.

 

Well, about a year before LotRO's launch, Vivendi lost the rights to Lord of the Rings, and Turbine gained entire control over the MMO. Turbine changed Middle Earth Online's name to LotRO, shuffled most of the veteran staff to other projects, and put new developers at the helm of LotRO. They quickly scrapped most of the old work and restructured the game to be a quest based WoW clone. There were no more yearly Turbine Nation gathering, the community disintegrated. The game tag line was changed to "Fight through Middle Earth!".

 

It was essentially the NGE, but because it happened in beta, people don't talk about it nearly as much. But for those that were there, we felt betrayed. It splintered the community, kinships fell apart. Then they announced there wouldn't be any international servers, after promising the opposite, and the remaining kinships fractured again.

 

Don't believe that Turbine was working on it? Here's the pre alpha trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fk0ogD_HMn0

 

Also, in before "hurp derp that looks like crap, glad they changed it".

 

OMG. herp derp.  y u no realize that Turbine work on Middle Earth Online with Sierra?

 

Overreact much? geesh.

<FACEPALM>

No. They didn't. Turbine worked with VIVENDI on Middle Earth Online.

The Sierra MEO was an entirely different project that never saw the light of day.

Originally posted by DavisFlight

Here is an early article on it before they decided to get rid of PvP.

 

http://www.ign.com/articles/2003/12/18/middle-earth-online

 

Also note that the instancing was going to actually attempt to be immersive, rather than just instancing everything with a giant "YOU DON'T HAVE THE QUEST TO ENTER HERE, TOO BAD." message you have in current LotRO.

Wow... I remember the first time I played LotrO and was so hugely dissapointed as Tolkiens Lord of the Rings is easiest one of the most immersive fantasy books ever written and the MMORPG was some WoW clone drivel. Good to hear that it atleast started well but as usual you get the bean-counters and other trash, ruining IPs for the promise of profits profits profits.

Does anyone think profit was first in Tolkiens mind when he created that amazing world? NO!