All Posts by Jirel

I see now that JRR sold the rights to United Artists in the 1960s and Zaentz aquired the rights in the 1970s. (http://www.xenite.org/faqs/lotr_movie/news_0000/486.html).  Still, there is no question but that Zaentz has kept a close hand on the way LoTRO is protrayed.  I know that in producing the LoTR card game, Decipher had to send every card to Tolkien Enterprises to get their approval of the cards (I can't link to that, this was information told to the product champions (Riders) in emails.)  When they changed the cards as the result of testing, they often had to send them back TO Tolkien Enterprises to get them improved.  It resulted in some interesting times trying to get everything okayed in time for release.

Originally posted by logicbox9

Originally posted by Jirel

 

Originally posted by Kyleran

 

Originally posted by Adamantine

An a huge title, too.

AFAIK WoW and Vanguard both "only" had 30 Mio for their development.

 

 

Better double check your facts.  By all accounts WOW's initial release cost roughly 75M to develop and far more has gone into it since.  (not that they can't afford it)

Can't see 40M going into just LotRO expansions, but if so maybe Turbine's going to "NGE-it" and give it a major overall haul (such as adding meaningful pvp) to try and increase the player base.

 

 

Your comment about adding meaningful pvp to LoTRO just proves that you don't understand the game or the limitations of their liscense.  As they have said MANY TIMES on thier boards, The Tolkien family who control the liscense will not allow any PVP other than the monster PVP.

Just so you know, you're wrong. The family has no say... they own the rights to the Similarrion and the history of middle earth series or w/e... JRR sold off the rights years ago to a guy named Sal, who operates under the name Tolkien Enterprises.

If JRR himself actually sold the rights then he sold them to someone he KNEW would keep them to his personal standards.  The man had a very strict Christian background and would never have okayed any type of people playing the "bad guys".

What do you think of Stargate Worlds?  They aren't do to come out until 4th quarter this year or 1st quarter next but I'm kind of excited by them.  There are different advancement lines depending on profession, scientist should not even need to kill anyone to advance (others will of course) and the worlds will of course be accessed via a Stargate.

Originally posted by Kyleran

 

Originally posted by Adamantine

An a huge title, too.

AFAIK WoW and Vanguard both "only" had 30 Mio for their development.

 

 

Better double check your facts.  By all accounts WOW's initial release cost roughly 75M to develop and far more has gone into it since.  (not that they can't afford it)

Can't see 40M going into just LotRO expansions, but if so maybe Turbine's going to "NGE-it" and give it a major overall haul (such as adding meaningful pvp) to try and increase the player base.

 

Your comment about adding meaningful pvp to LoTRO just proves that you don't understand the game or the limitations of their liscense.  As they have said MANY TIMES on thier boards, The Tolkien family who control the liscense will not allow any PVP other than the monster PVP.

"and Turbine makes copy of WOW with LOTR skin..."

Your logic on that statement alone is poor enough that I'm not even going to try to pay attention to the rest.  If you can't compare games any better than that, then you do not have good logic.

Nice to know there are (or were) a few players around who are older than I am. :) But I am new to gaming so I'm not yet played out.

I had a friend get me a free trial of Portal recently, I had a LOT more fun than I expected.

Why are we seeing all the Age of Conan threads here.  If all you're going to talk about is AoC, why don't you go to that forum?  I don't come here to talk about LoTRO.

Originally posted by Ephimero

You can't really say what most of people like, cause its a fact that most of the MMORPG community isn't experienced enough to have an open mind and make their choices by themselves, instead of looking for what their old game had.

I still say its lack of maturity, not experience.  A lot of people that don't have tons of life experience still have the maturity to make their own choices and experiement with different things.  People who are young may have tons of game experience, people who are old may have tons of life experience, neither one makes a person have an open mind unless they choose to have one.

Unfortunately the people who don't get the post, just won't get it.  Games are about having fun! Developers put lore into games to try and help increase the fun.  If you aren't having fun, try soing something in a different way.

Fun little side story, enjoyed reading it a lot more than some of the other posts I've seen.

How many people do you know that watch or play films or games intended for older people? I bet everyone on this forum watched an 18 certificate film when they were between 12 - 16.... and I bet most of you would argue that its ok but thats what I'd expect from someone whos has become exploted and honestly believes its the norm.....and comptly missing the point of its an 18 certificate for a reason.

Wrong!  When I was a kid it was PG, R or X.  I saw R rated films when I was around 17 or so - in the company of my mother.  I didn't see what would be termed an X rated film until I was in my 30s, don't have any need for it.  So much for your porn desensitization. Some people sneak in, some don't.  The ones that do happen to show up more online.

If you feel the need for risk and the excitement of not dying - become a firefighter or a policeman or volunteer to fight in real life.  THAT is real excitement when you don't die.

If you can't take the REAL risk in real life, than HOW can you say there was such a relief from not dying in a game where death means that at worst you loose your toon and have to re-roll.  I mean, come on - that's not REAL risk.

Personally, I don't need to risk my life in real life OR in a game.

Well, there will definitely be Scientist and Explorer classes. And as you can see by the recent Developer's chat on the front page, there are ways other than fighting to experience the game.

As a recent outsider, I am going to take a different tact.  The problem is not that people will not group any more, the problem is the constant demand that people in a group be of a certain level of playing skill.  I will use WoW as the example game because I know someone that plays it.  When his guild goes on raids, everyone has an assigned role to fill and woe unto those who do not execute their role well.  At best they become the "second choice" on the raids and have problems getting those rare drops. 

Who wants to group knowing they will be held to a certain standard and berated either to their face or behind their back for not meeting the standard?  Only those that feel they are the best players.  therefore I think it is not at all surprising that there is a call for more solo quests.  Add those that are unwilling to group to those that just like solo gaming but enjoy the MMO experience and you have an ever growing group requesting more solo experiences.

I would rate the subscription to a game more like a cable subscription.  You pay a fee to be hooked up and after that you pay a monthly subscription fee (just like in MMOs) to stay hooked up and enjoy the offerings.

So - do you get more fun out of the MMO than you do your TV (with movies)?  I think that's a closer comparison.  I actually watch more TV than I do gaming, but that may be because my first love is card games not MMOs and I tend not to socialize as much in the games due to my inability to play well.  (So I don't really like grouping.)

Cabal Online had a great launch, unlike the others listed it is a F2P game but I almost couldn't tell that they had gone from Open Beta to Live.

Given the offerings I voted for LoTRO

Due to income restrictions (current and future), I am a fan of F2P games.  I have my one game (LoTRO) which I abolished subscriptions from by paying for a lifetime restriction and when I get tired of that one, I can go out and play the F2P games until I want to come back.  The real problem is the players.  Why do so many people feel they have to tout one type of game as "THE ONE" or "THE ONLY WAY games should be"?  Probably because so many of the players are too imature to accept the concept of more than one type of game on the market or feel the need to convert everyone to their way of thinking (note: I said immature NOT young, I'm not measuring people by age). 

I have already seen many people saying that both types of games are fun in their area. Hopefully as people become more and more experienced with MMOs over the years they will gain the maturity to see that the market can have a place for many different types of MMOs and that its cool that people enjoy different types of MMOs.  Meanwhile, F2P has their place just as P2P do.  As far as I can tell, there appear to be adequate numbers of fans of both types to keep them supported.

Ackbar - do you post on the GenCon forums?  Just curious.  Thanks

I find it amusing that with no visible pictures of action of the game or of people shooting guns that he proclaimes it "exactly like WoW'.  Umm, don't you think you SEE the game first???

Sorry, but your post completely goes over my head.  The games I play do NOT stutter or crash on me.  I haven't even run into any major bugs on them.  What kind of system are you running on?

Besides, I think that in some cases you can trace buggy games back to the player.  Have you ever entered a closed beta with the intention to REALLY test the game and report the bugs rather than get a 'free' look at it?  Closed Beta is an integral part of the testing plan of most every thing.  I remember when Windows had new releases that were 'closed beta' tested.  The people getting the beta version didn't get paid to test it and didn't expect to.

Okay, have you been on a LoTRO server in the last 4 months?  When LoTRO first came out it was innundated with people who played it because it was the 'latest new thing'.  Now that its been out a year and is "old hat", I very seldom see people passed out drunk  (unless its the festival and they are playing the hobbit tavern run or have had a drink of the special keg of brandy which is mainly fun because you wake up in some random, determined by the computer, place.) or seeing how high they can fall before dying.  Its a fairly mature community.  But then I can't claim to have been in ALL areas, so your milage may vary.