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Lord of the Rings Online - Book 12 Reaction and More
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.
Update Reaction
After the release of each new Book, Turbine pays very close attention to the way that players are reacting to the new additions to the game. In Book 12, the devs added an outfit system into the mix that allows players to keep their old mis-matched armor for the stat bonuses that it provides while choosing their own outward appearance. It’s called the outfit system and according to Steefel, “The outfit system is very successful and what we hoped it would be.”
;)
From there, we went on to talk about the way that Turbine continues to add new and interesting features to the game that don’t necessarily effect the 1-50 level grind. As examples, the game launched with a pretty in-depth music system, allowing players to actually play the instruments that their characters carried. Later, the team added housing to the mix, giving characters a virtual place to live. Now, players can not only wear those custom outfits, carry around objects in their hands that aren’t weapons or visit a barber shop to change their hair and other features.
All of the above features contribute to adding depth to the game, and are reflections of things that make an MMO into a more vibrant place to not only complete quests and PvP, but for characters to live. What we, as players, often don’t take into consideration is the fact that each of these features is a new “mouth to feed”. By this, I mean that the developers can’t just design and implement a new feature. That new feature needs to be tended and cared for, adjusted and added to, and it all takes time and man power to complete.
As a result of having a limited number of staff and a growing number of mouths to feed, the updates that come for the various features always come in increments. While the team would like to be able to do everything for every feature all at once, it just isn’t possible.
When I asked Steefel what the reaction had been to the latest update’s release, he told me that, all in all, the feedback had been fairly positive, but that “everyone wants more stuff”. A good example of the incremental additions to these features comes in the form of the latest housing features. Now, players can decorate their homes in new ways, having the ability to turn the objects for placement. The team has also added new trophies to the mix, allowing players to collect some items from defeated foes to display proudly on their property. In the future, we are told, “it’s easy to imagine that rare drops will become trophies”.
;)
While the focus of this update was on customization, that doesn’t mean that Book 12 didn’t introduce some other interesting game play elements. In our Book 12 preview, we talked about The Delving of Frór, a new underground dungeon-like area under the Ettenmoors that can only be accessed by the side (Monsters or Free Peoples) that controls the area. If the other side takes the area while you’re in the dungeon, they can follow you down.
As it turns out, this has been a very successful addition to the game and Steefel tells us that “it’s a good indication” that this is a good way for them to go in terms of Monster Play. It’s what he called “diverse, repeatable content”.
Seemingly Random Facts
At the end of the conversation, Steefel and I started talking about what else is going on in the world of Lord of the Rings Online. As mentioned earlier, he couldn’t tell me much, but we did talk about a couple of different things. While this may seem like an odd way to end an article, it sure beats some kind of awkward conclusion paragraph:
- The first anniversary of LotRO is coming up in April. We shouldn’t expect the developers to let the anniversary slide without some kind of celebration.
- Speaking of celebrations, the Spring Festival is nearly upon us. The devs have a number of events planned, but this year we are told that players will actually be able to get their hands on fireworks… Should be interesting.
- 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.
- Turbine is looking for the right time to add in some kind of activities that members of housing neighborhoods can participate in. No details as of yet, but it’s another feature to keep an eye out for.
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...
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.
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.
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.
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
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!
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
I agree with you, Vormir, the game is really much fun. The "ding" for levels is quite exciting too. But I too think Turbine is wasting their time with revisiting the already great content and adding features like housing and barbershops and outfits (which are great but not that important imho) rather than adding new areas and quests and raids.
The developers shouldn't forget that their player base have already reached the cap and need something new to "do" - it doesn't matter how cool something is when you've done it 20 times over and over - it gets boring and the hunger for new stuff grows as well as the disappointment.
I really hope book13 will come with a new 24 raid instance or at least a new and interesting zone.
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.
Jaix, I am just curious, please tell me have you reached the cap in the game? Do you already have all the class items? Was it fun getting them?
I have almost everything I wanted and all that is left doing is grinding. And no, for me it wasn't fun doing the Rift over and over again, after the n-th time it was just grind. The only battles that are fun and challenging are the Balrog and Thrang.
I like Helegrod more simply because it is more fun raiding with more people - first because you can vary more with the classes and second - because the more people the merrier it is. But they are not adding something similar, no more raid instances. I have gone through the content more than once and as good as the story is and as immersive the world is, it's getting boring at some point. Repetition is the mother of boredom.
I agree Turbine is prolly the only company around that does listen to there player base (except for AC2) anyway look at when they nerfed classes early in game release players spoke up and Turbine delivered, i actually sent in a suggestion to add Barber shops and houses to give the game a lil Sandbox kinda feel which again they have delivered (not saying that they listened to my suggestion in particular) but they are listening to what we want and are delivering, Tell me if they delivered everything that we all asked for what would be next? Nothing there would be nothing to look forward to because we would already have it. I think that the stuff that they have been doing is just putting the icing on the cake , watch when Book 13 and the First Expansion comes ( BIG ANNOUNCEMENT any 1 ??) the game will open up and we will also have all these little bits and pieces to make it that much better. Turbine as much as people hate them are doing a bloody ggod job with this game and no1 I SAY NO 1 can take that away from them.
Maybe I'm just being a butt-in-ski seeing as i don't play LOTRO, but regarding why so many people choose humans, usually the biggest benefit to the most popular class determines which race is the most popular. Actual appearance is second. Also in most games hybridized characters are very popular and humans tend to have middle of the road stats to start with making developing a few of them evenly easier.
charlizd , by your logic they should listen to the people who asks for decent PVP and they dont.
Btw your suggestion or whoever asked for barber shops and houses was complete waste of time. And now when its done nobody use it and its empty all the time. Same thing with system that was intended to help us make fellowship or join one and from my experience its rarely used and this tell us a lot about community in LOTRO.
Its hard to make some bonds with other ppl cos there is actually no need for that.
Not a relevant point.
They're not going to listen to people who want them to change the fundamental design of the game. Nor should they. LoTRO is not a PvP game. It's a PvE game. Creep/Freep play is a limited, restricted side activity; not the main focus.
Amazing that people are still trying to argue that point against Turbine/LoTRO after all this time.
Can i please have a link to this statement where Turbine said It's strictly PvE game.