PVP:Yes | Distribution:Download,Retail | Retail Price:$09.99 | Pay Type:Free | Monthly Fee:$14.99
Desktop Client | System Req:
| ESRB:T
Lord of the Rings Online Interviews: Status Update Interview
At LOGIN in Seattle, we caught up to VP of Development Craig Alexander and Community Manager Meghan Rodberg to get an update on LotRO.
By Carolyn Koh on May 28, 2009
I was curious to know what challenges Turbine had faced in transforming Tolkien’s famous work into an MMORPG and what else players had to expect in future expansions and had the ability to speak to Craig Alexander, Turbine’s VP of Product Development and Meghan Rodberg, Senior Manager of Online Community Relations at the recent LOGIN Conference in Seattle.
Currently, the Mines of Moria are open for players. The storyline is set in Moria itself, and at this point in time, the narration has changed from Gandalf to Galadriel as the Fellowship has already passed through Moria and Gandalf is presumed lost. The chronology however, is not the same for all players as the game makes use of instances to advance the epic storyline.
“The nice thing about MMOs is that we can go back and change things as the story moves forward,” said Meghan, referring to how for players that have advanced through the storyline no longer see members of the Fellowship wandering around in the public landscape. They still can be found by new players playing through the beginning story, but the quest now takes them into an instanced area.
;)
The game also employs what they call session play. Players can actually see events that lead up to the current storyline, sometimes briefly seeing events unfold through the eyes of one of the lead characters and playing the story through in their shoes.
“Tolkien described some characters and areas in great depth and detail,” said Meghan, “and yet left others such as the nameless ones untouched. Which allowed us free reign to make them what we wished, within the context of the Middle-Earth.”
“Gameplay is paramount,” said Craig, “and really, it was actually easier in a way, than having to craft an original IP. Our storyline is laid out for us.”
“Mines of Moria is the natural second step for us in the storyline,” said Meghan, “a continuation of where Shadows of Angmar left off, and the next chapters will bring this storyline right up to and prepare us for Tolkien’s second book, The Two Towers.”
“How did the players and Tolkien purists accept magic users?” I asked, referring to one of the new classes introduced in Mines of Moria, the Runekeepers.
“Our magic users aren’t just mage or wizard lookalikes. Their magic hearkens back to ancient magic. The use of runes and the magic of the earth, and that’s very much in keeping to the Medieval European setting that Tolkien based Lord of the Rings on,” said Meghan.
Craig was more than pleased to talk about what was to come.
“Now that the Misty Mountains has been penetrated, we have the entire East area to play with and you can expect to see new lands open up for exploration regularly as we move the storyline forward.”
;)
Essentially, players wanting to know what are to come simply have to read or re-read Tolkien. Yes, Gollum gets into the game. Yes, along the way, Boromir dies. Yes, Gandalf returns as Gandalf the White (He dinged! Yes, he did!) No, players will not be able to have flying mounts. The eagles helped Gandalf. No one else. Period. Yes, the goats in Moria were a way to have mounts within the mines.
Game experience and feature wise, Turbine has moved the entire game to DX10, utilizing and taking advantage of the advanced graphic features. The game has also moved to be more solo-friendly and more small fellowship quests have been introduced. The Reflecting Pools or Shrine System allows players to replay Epic story line instances that have been complete. The newbie experience was revamped in Book Seven and Book Eight, to be released in June will bring 12 man raids deep in the Mines of Moria.
“There’s also the Summer Festival and more dance emotes for players to discover,” said Craig.
“Dance emotes?” I asked.
“Oh yes! There’s more than just one or two dance emotes. The most expensive item I found in the Auction House recently was a dance move! You can do more than just slash dance.
Players, it seems, have been cagey about the new moves they’ve learned and not sharing freely. I wanted to know if humor and pop culture references were planned. “Well, some of them are,” said Meghan, “but we are careful not to over do it. Some players love playing the Moore Cowbell, you know? From Saturday Night Life? Some players absolutely hate that animation.”
“Easter eggs are often snuck in by a programmer and some of them are marvelous, but then again there are those that we or players find and we go OMG! And remove with extreme prejudice.” Laughed Craig, “But we did put in Orcs in Moria that call out Fellowship maneuvers and screw them all up.”
Two new classes were introduced in Mines of Moria and I asked if more were planned.
“New classes are a good thing.” Craig said solemnly.
“So, there are more to come?” I asked.
;)
“Well, you know, we have the rights out to 2017 right now, and the second book comes next, not to mention that rights can be extended. As new areas, new lands, new cities are discovered by the players in game, what’s to say that the next city won’t have a specialist class as yet to be encountered? There’s Rohan… Helms Deep… and countless other places East of the Misty Mountains,” said Craig.
“We have areas described and areas mentioned but not fleshed out by Tolkien to play with and you may expect that we will do everything we can to keep it fun and yet in keeping with the consistent with Tolkien’s original work.”
Craig spoke of game design in LotRO as a marathon and not a sprint. LotRO’s strengths are its conformation to Tolkien’s storyline and the keeping of game play to its lore, as evidenced by many glowing reviews of the same. The game play that is criticized is its PvP which is currently created in instanced areas allowing players to do “Creep” or Monster play, which is playing what are essentially the evil creatures, such as spiders, Wargs and Orcs.
“Some players simply love playing as a Creep.” Said Meghan, “Once they got to level then and started Monster play, they never went back.”
Will Turbine be expanding Monster Play then? Perhaps the battle for Helms Deep will allow for legions of Uruk-Hai and Human Dunlending players? Both Craig and Meghan were mum about that, but in the Marathon of game design that is Lord of the Rings Online, perhaps we shall see that in expansion three or four? RvR fans can hope.
“The nice thing about MMOs is that we can go back and change things as the story moves forward..."
"The game has also moved to be more solo-friendly ....."
I hope they can put these two points together and go back and make the old stuff more solo-friendly, rather then simply adding NEW solo-friendly content. They have lots of quest chains that begin with several solo quests in a row and end with a group quest. And the Book quests do this too. Personally, I think quest chains are all about the story that unfolds and should always be solo (unless they START as a group quest); and things like dungeons and world bosses are for groups.
Cheers!
PVP at Helms Deep would be amazing!
Well what really sucks is that these interviewers only throw softball questions to these mmo developers. Let's tell it like it is and start peppering these developers with some real challenging questions so the public that is considering purchasing Lotro can know right off the bat what they're getting themsleves into.
For example, there is a huge disconnect for new players coming into the game since the release of Moria and now that Lothlorien has expanded the disconnect for newer players is even worse.
Here's what I mean pre-Moria release you could get groups to go into Carn Dum or Urugarth fairly easily. Carn Dum and Urugarth are vital for character legendary skill development. The skills gained from acquiring these drops for each different class is like comparing a Jetta to a Ferarri. You need to complete these quests in these areas to get to uber status as far as Legendary Skills go. Characters without these skills are often overlooked during high end game raiding content due to these defeciencies. Another option? Pay 15 Gold for a Rune of Wing Dominance or 20 Gold for a Slime of Helchgam.
The problem is when Moria came out and now the Lothlorien expansion these areas mentioned above are now predominantly abandoned and this is on a server with one of the largest active populations.
It gets worse, this phenomena has now trickeld down into Moria when the Lothlorien expansion came out. Same type situation but for radiance armor which comes into play for high end game raiding.
Prior to Lothlorien expansion you could get groups all the time to finish these areas and get your radiance armor. Now everyone is in the Lothlorien areas and the same disconnect will continue to occur here as occurred in Carn Dum and Urugarth. This will put new players continually at a disadvantage and stunt their overall character development.
So while the prospects of new things to come are exciting let's ensure that we are informing the new players of the bad as well as the good. Nothing is perfect and the public has a right to know before they spend hard earned money in a global economy that is still in the tank.
Overall review great game but don't expect to do any high end game raiding if you are new to Lotro. The best you can hope for is Turbine addresses these bottlenecks in character development.
Let me just agree wholeheartedly with what Hinkhouse said.
Turbine tried to patch this up a bit by changing the XP chart to make advancement 1-50 faster. But that didn't really help much in practice.
You're correct this patch did help the XP chart but did nothing to address the character development bottleneck issues that any new players face when they want to finish their Legendary skills in CD or URU.
You're correct this patch did help the XP chart but did nothing to address the character development bottleneck issues that any new players face when they want to finish their Legendary skills in CD or URU.
Actually they have made it ALOT easier to get the quest drops from Uru/CD sveral times.
Reduced spawns in the CD area, summoning horns /campfires outide the instances. Added bridge in CD so you can skip alot of the bosses if yo dont need them. Before it took you 5-6 hours to get Rune of winged dominance. Now you can do it in less than an hour. If you cant find a group for thoose instances I recommend to join a Kinship, most people likes to help people get their class quests. Its also possible to bu them from AH if you really can get them.
And about Quest chains in the early game. I agree that the way group quests are organized in the old content can be frustrating. Turibne have started to revamp the lower level zones to make them work better using what they have learned since launch. Bree-land is getting a revamp with book 8 coming next month and they are planning to do the other zones aswell.
Actually they have made it ALOT easier to get the quest drops from Uru/CD sveral times.
Reduced spawns in the CD area, summoning horns /campfires outide the instances. Added bridge in CD so you can skip alot of the bosses if yo dont need them. Before it took you 5-6 hours to get Rune of winged dominance. Now you can do it in less than an hour. If you cant find a group for thoose instances I recommend to join a Kinship, most people likes to help people get their class quests. Its also possible to bu them from AH if you really can get them.
And about Quest chains in the early game. I agree that the way group quests are organized in the old content can be frustrating. Turibne have started to revamp the lower level zones to make them work better using what they have learned since launch. Bree-land is getting a revamp with book 8 coming next month and they are planning to do the other zones aswell.
My point isn't regarding difficulty it never was. It's regarding that those areas population are abandoned now and no matter how you slice it that's just how it is. This glaringly comes into play because CD and Uru are areas where you need a full fellowship to acquire these Legendary Skill drops.
You're correct this patch did help the XP chart but did nothing to address the character development bottleneck issues that any new players face when they want to finish their Legendary skills in CD or URU.
Instead of coming whining to the this board, maybe you need to get in a guild that helps you with these issues. The entire idea of a MMO is to play together with others.
There is nothing worse than someone whining about a problem they could easily remedy themselves.
Actually they have made it ALOT easier to get the quest drops from Uru/CD sveral times.
Reduced spawns in the CD area, summoning horns /campfires outide the instances. Added bridge in CD so you can skip alot of the bosses if yo dont need them. Before it took you 5-6 hours to get Rune of winged dominance. Now you can do it in less than an hour. If you cant find a group for thoose instances I recommend to join a Kinship, most people likes to help people get their class quests. Its also possible to bu them from AH if you really can get them.
And about Quest chains in the early game. I agree that the way group quests are organized in the old content can be frustrating. Turibne have started to revamp the lower level zones to make them work better using what they have learned since launch. Bree-land is getting a revamp with book 8 coming next month and they are planning to do the other zones aswell.
My point isn't regarding difficulty it never was. It's regarding that those areas population are abandoned now and no matter how you slice it that's just how it is. This glaringly comes into play because CD and Uru are areas where you need a full fellowship to acquire these Legendary Skill drops.
My kin stocks those items in the kinhall for anyone to grab.
The area is not dead, if only save for the fact it was one of "the old endgame" areas. What you are seeing happens in every mmo when an expansion comes out.
Lets be clear though, legendary skill drops do not ONLY come from those areas, what you are talking about, are level 50 class quests that the final stages of those (after gathering all the mob drop items) come from there.
The books, that grant legendary skills, drop from all over the place. Half in one zone, half in the other. CD is just one area where they ALSO drop.
It is not required to go there to complete legendary traits. Its an option.
My point isn't regarding difficulty it never was. It's regarding that those areas population are abandoned now and no matter how you slice it that's just how it is. This glaringly comes into play because CD and Uru are areas where you need a full fellowship to acquire these Legendary Skill drops.
My kin stocks those items in the kinhall for anyone to grab.
The area is not dead, if only save for the fact it was one of "the old endgame" areas. What you are seeing happens in every mmo when an expansion comes out.
Lets be clear though, legendary skill drops do not ONLY come from those areas, what you are talking about, are level 50 class quests that the final stages of those (after gathering all the mob drop items) come from there.
The books, that grant legendary skills, drop from all over the place. Half in one zone, half in the other. CD is just one area where they ALSO drop.
It is not required to go there to complete legendary traits. Its an option.
Here's the bottom line, you will always have in a forum someone coming along and stating no not me that's not what happens for me. Their personal experiences do not change the existing facts. Unfortunately I have to repeat this several times because it's true.
The people are going to believe what they want. I'm not going to go line item by line item with every tom, dick or harry that disagrees with me. In fact sadly, most people that realize these issues simply walk away from the game.
Now I want to ensure everyone in the general public knows these issues for what they are. Some players experiences are obviously going to be different but for the general populace that plays this game and doesn't post on this website they experience these issues.
These areas unfortunately are pretty much abandoned these days and as mentioned above they are passe. If you want to play the game go for it I think it's a great game but be forewarned if you want to have the necessary skills to do high end game raiding look somewhere else because you will encounter these issues in this particular game.
Now if the gentleman that disagrees with me and feels otherwise wants to put together a stable and consistent network to distribute these legendary skill drops to all of the players in the game in every server then the issue will be put to bed. But somehow despite all their rhetoric, I don't see that happening. See how quickly the fanboi's scurry when the onus is on them to address a real life issue and do some work.
You say your kinhall stocks these items? Is that for everyone in the game to just drop by and pick up with no strings attached? What server are you from? Because I for one would love to stop by and stock up for my characters and alts. Your specific kin on your specific server may offer this I don't doubt this. By your boasting statement we are led to believe that everyone in the game on your server can stop by to pick these up for free?
If not then new people that decide to play this game will face these obstacles. It is very concerning that I am getting so much interference when I am trying to address an issue and people refute it. It is what it is...denying it in some attempt at feign loyalty to the game won't change the facts.
I don't care if anyone loves the game or doesn't. I just want people to know what they are getting themselves into before they invest and when people like yourself make light of my point of view with comments like "they made it easier" or "my kinhall stocks these items". That doesn't speak to the issue it only speaks to your specific experience in the game. Some people have the benefit of kinhalls with these items but not everyone.
And I have to disagree with the gentleman that stated these legendary skills are an option not necessary skills. For example a Minstrel being able to rez in combat is a necesary skill when you get to the higher levels. That's just one for one class folks.
Do not be disillusioned by the haves. There are more have-nots in the game than haves. I have played the game since beta and I can and will speak for myself.
You, are confused.
IF you are in a good kinship, they will help you get your class quest items. I am helping with that run fairly often and it doesn't take long to get the rune of domaniance or slime. the only thing that slows us down is the time lock for redoing it for another player.