Recently, Managing Editor Jon Wood had the opprotunity to sit down and talk to Jeffrey Steefel, the Executive Producer of Turbine's Lord of the Rings Online. During the interview, the two talked about reaction to the release of Book 12, the addition of new features and even a few random facts.

Right now, a number of the staff over at Turbine are probably on planes and headed over to England for the Connect ‘08 event that is being held by Codemasters, Codemasters being Turbine‘s European publisher. There, they have promised that they will be making a big announcement. What that announcement is, how it will effect the game, and whether or not North American players will be effected are all questions that I would like to have answers to, but we’re going to have to wait until the end of the week to find out. Fortunately, our own Donna Desborough will be attending the event so we shouldn’t have to wait too long to put an end to our curiosity.

Still, late last week I had a interview with Jeffrey Steefel, the Executive Producer of Lord of the Rings Online. While we obviously couldn’t talk about the announcement, there was still plenty to talk about. Our conversation began, as any conversation between manly-men should, on the subject of outfits.

Read it all here.

The clothing addition has great possibilities  the only complaint ive heard is they want more diverse clothing

for me,, for instance the dresses and robes are quite boring and conservative  I know this is LOTR but they can still loosen up some  from the  shue length dresses and buttoned up collars and full length sleeves

I would like to see some knee length skirts/kilts

furry clothing

lots of different hats turbins berrets

gloves and clothing with imbedded jewlery for fancy parties

silk slothing

guild specialty clothing   cloaks  banners tabards

From the article: In terms of the races that people play, the number one race is Human, followed by Elf, with the Hobbit winning out by a slim margin over the sturdy Dwarf.

Why people choose to play the most boring race in a MMO is always far beyond me. Humans?

And don't get me started on Elves...

Originally posted by Leary

From the article: In terms of the races that people play, the number one race is Human, followed by Elf, with the Hobbit winning out by a slim margin over the sturdy Dwarf.

Why people choose to play the most boring race in a MMO is always far beyond me. Humans?

And don't get me started on Elves...

While I agree humans are the most boring race, the LotRo devs (due to canon) decided that Loremasters and Captains can only be humans which accounts for some of it. There's also a racial trait gained later in the game that allows human players a pretty hefty 3000 point in-combat heal. For PvP that's pretty hard to turn down. 

Originally posted by woalCE

 

Originally posted by Leary

From the article: In terms of the races that people play, the number one race is Human, followed by Elf, with the Hobbit winning out by a slim margin over the sturdy Dwarf.

Why people choose to play the most boring race in a MMO is always far beyond me. Humans?

And don't get me started on Elves...

 

While I agree humans are the most boring race, the LotRo devs (due to canon) decided that Loremasters and Captains can only be humans which accounts for some of it. There's also a racial trait gained later in the game that allows human players a pretty hefty 3000 point in-combat heal. For PvP that's pretty hard to turn down. 

For one humans are not the only race that can be lore-masters. Secondly, LOTRO is a PvE game, anyone that picks a class because of monster play in the game should rethink why they are playing LOTRO.

Originally posted by qombi

 

Originally posted by woalCE

 

Originally posted by Leary

From the article: In terms of the races that people play, the number one race is Human, followed by Elf, with the Hobbit winning out by a slim margin over the sturdy Dwarf.

Why people choose to play the most boring race in a MMO is always far beyond me. Humans?

And don't get me started on Elves...

 

While I agree humans are the most boring race, the LotRo devs (due to canon) decided that Loremasters and Captains can only be humans which accounts for some of it. There's also a racial trait gained later in the game that allows human players a pretty hefty 3000 point in-combat heal. For PvP that's pretty hard to turn down. 

 

For one humans are not the only race that can be lore-masters. Secondly, LOTRO is a PvE game, anyone that picks a class because of monster play in the game should rethink why they are playing LOTRO.

 

Ok, so elves can be lrm's too. As far as picking a class for PvP, haven't you ever heard of an Alt? For those of us who've been playing for almost two years (including alpha and beta testing) having a PvE and a PvP character build is a great way to get to see some of the newer content. Heck, they just made everything a heck of a lot easier with book 12 so going back through the game is even easier. Picking a race based on bonuses is far from crazy like you portray it.

They really need to add more styles of clothing/armor to the game.  It's great they added the outfit system but it's too bad they are still ugly as hell.  The only exception is a few of the heavy armor sets.  Everything else looks like a clothes hamper exploded. 

Originally posted by qombi

 

 

For one humans are not the only race that can be lore-masters. Secondly, LOTRO is a PvE game, anyone that picks a class because of monster play in the game should rethink why they are playing LOTRO.

Its a valid point why there are more humans.. so elves can be LM's too, oh look what race is #2.  So somebody should rethink why they're playing LOTRO because you say so?  Yea, good one.

Originally posted by pfloydguy84
humans are almost always the most popular race in any game.Most people are so boring its sad :P

Because too many folks play/outfit characters based on good looks rather than stats or roleplaying reasons.

Should be interesting to find out what the big announcement is this week though

Originally posted by Tyveil

Originally posted by qombi

 

 

For one humans are not the only race that can be lore-masters. Secondly, LOTRO is a PvE game, anyone that picks a class because of monster play in the game should rethink why they are playing LOTRO.

Its a valid point why there are more humans.. so elves can be LM's too, oh look what race is #2.  So somebody should rethink why they're playing LOTRO because you say so?  Yea, good one.

I think it was a fair comment. If someone has picked up LOTRO for pvp then they should probably look around at different games. LOTRO is a PvE game.

I would like to play bad ass human who can harras dwarfs rape elfs and kill and eat hobbits, why cant i be like Borimir, a human rapist who need ring for his own goals. I don't think its boring its fun.
I don't need a new nose or hair job i need blood. This game makes me puke with this ridiculous patches.
Get real ppl who care if you are hobbit, elf or whatever, no body really wants to see your house or some stupid decorations in it. Get real, wake up!
You would really need to be a moron to be impressed by someones robe or title above his head or some stupid item.
This game needs some real content or you ppl gonna kill it with this gay stuff.
Game is almost empty already and trust me future is not bright with games comming in next few months. Hell even Anarchy online will get DX10 engine, LOTRO with his great graphics and goofy toons will really have to do something different but i already see AC2 pattern here.

Why do you think humans are boring? Have you ever met an interesting elf, dwarf or hobbit in real life? Almost all the interesting folks I know in real life are human!

Originally posted by vipjerry

I would like to play bad ass human who can harras dwarfs rape elfs and kill and eat hobbits, why cant i be like Borimir, a human rapist who need ring for his own goals. I don't think its boring its fun.
I don't need a new nose or hair job i need blood. This game makes me puke with this ridiculous patches.
Get real ppl who care if you are hobbit, elf or whatever, no body really wants to see your house or some stupid decorations in it. Get real, wake up!
You would really need to be a moron to be impressed by someones robe or title above his head or some stupid item.
This game needs some real content or you ppl gonna kill it with this gay stuff.
Game is almost empty already and trust me future is not bright with games comming in next few months. Hell even Anarchy online will get DX10 engine, LOTRO with his great graphics and goofy toons will really have to do something different but i already see AC2 pattern here.

First, don't bother invoking AC2 to try and give your own opinion more "weight". There's no comparison, and anyone who played and remembers what AC2 was like this far into its life-cycle, myself included, knows it. LoTRO is nowhere near what AC2 was at this stage of the game. At this point, they were still trying to recover from a horrible launch and still tracking down numerous substantial bugs in the game, all while trying to stem the  loss of players who'd held out as long as they could but decided finally to move on. LoTRO is *far* from that. The game launched very well, has had a mostly positive response (yours notwithstanding), and is doing fine. They're adding new content instead of playing "catch-up" with old, bugged up content.

I realize people are going to invoke AC2 to try and damn any Turbine game they don't like, in very much the same way they'll invoke SWG to damn any SOE game they don't like. In the end, it's very disingenuous point to make.

One more point to make that should be obvious to anyone but somehow isn't to most: Just because you don't like it, doesn't mean it "sucks for everyone else too".

Lastly, if your "high standards" for a MMO are so horribly offended by what they're doing in LoTRO why are you even reading or responding to anything to do with the game? Seems to me you're just looking for an easy target to give your ego a boost.

The sad truth is that Book12 was not that great at all. Outfits and new haircuts? They would be great if they had more variety. Yes, they added cosmetic clothes and new haircuts but from what I've seen, only few are cool enough and everyone looks a clone of the rest. Interactive housing items? Thanks, that's all cool and great, but I'd prefer endgame instead of new haircuts. Besides, I already got used to looking as a clone of everyone else, I didn't really need those outfits so bad.

They didn't add another raid instance, they didn't even bother to tell the players who want endgame, that they'll see to it. I used to like this game once, but once you level 3 or 4 characters to level 50, there's nothing left to do. There wasn't in the beginning and now a year later there's still nothing done about it. That's the way to lose fans, great job Turbine

Hello all,

LotrO is doing very well.

Just a quick reminder, the game is not 1 year old yet and had one of the most "smooth" launhes in the MMOs history.

It's indeed a PvE game with some PvP elements.

And for all of you that want more social clothes, be patient. They will add more content in the future. The system was just introduced into the game :)

Book 13 will be a major update, with new quests, large new zone, head bands, and much more.

This is a very good game for those that can't play 10hrs a day. You can log in and have pure fun.

I'm looking forward the next updates and I'm sure LotrO will be always a very consistent  game to play.

Cheers

Originally posted by Vormir

Hello all,

LotrO is doing very well.

Just a quick reminder, the game is not 1 year old yet and had one of the most "smooth" launhes in the MMOs history.

It's indeed a PvE game with some PvP elements.

And for all of you that want more social clothes, be patient. They will add more content in the future. The system was just introduced into the game :)

Book 13 will be a major update, with new quests, large new zone, head bands, and much more.

This is a very good game for those that can't play 10hrs a day. You can log in and have pure fun.

I'm looking forward the next updates and I'm sure LotrO will be always a very consistent  game to play.

Cheers

Originally posted by mindw0rk
As far as I'm concerned feedback on B12 was far from positive

Not surprising... Most feedback you'll see/hear will be negative for anything. People who are enjoying something are generally too busy doing so to stop and talk about it.

And of course, you have to take into consideration that for many people *nothing* would have been "good enough", especially f it wasn't specifically what they were personally expecting it to be. That goes for games, music, books, movies, etc.

Originally posted by WSIMike

 

Originally posted by mindw0rk
As far as I'm concerned feedback on B12 was far from positive

 

Not surprising... Most feedback you'll see/hear will be negative for anything. People who are enjoying something are generally too busy doing so to stop and talk about it.

And of course, you have to take into consideration that for many people *nothing* would have been "good enough", especially f it wasn't specifically what they were personally expecting it to be. That goes for games, music, books, movies, etc.

Introduction of Evendim and The Rift were met warmly with lots of positive feedback because those made high levels busy with something. Book 12 that took 4 monthes of waiting introduced outfit system which most 50s wont care about and a banch of new "teleport here, teleport there" quests taking like 2 hours to complete.

Turbine should learn from all negatives and realise that people need end game content, since LoTRO has close to none.

ps/ Oh btw, guess what... where wont be any new raid dungeons in Book 13. Enjoy your fishing, guys!

I've noticed  that people seem to get a lot more upset when something they think should be implemented isn't included in this game. I'm beginning to think that it's because the devs actually LISTEN to people as opposed to the typical, "This is our vision and this is where we're going to take it. You don't like it - find another game".  Rather than acknowledging the fact that they're listening to you and being grateful, you demand more and throw a tantrum when the next update doesn't include exactly what you wanted. This isn't a choir, the player-base isn't all singing the same song. They try to cater a bit to the players who play this game for RP and because it's Middle-Earth - the ones who if they didn't play this game probably wouldn't play anything else, and you get bent out of shape. Give them some time. It's not their job to cater to YOUR every whim. They have to make it fun for everyone. If you're really after raids that much, WoW has a ton of them. Just head over there, I'm sure they'll be implementing some cool new features soon. Of course you'll have to buy another expansion just to get them, but hey, you'll get your raids.