Ask Turbine's Jeff Anderson About LOTRO

Last month, Turbine's Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar went live in what was arguably the most well-received launch for a Massively Multiplayer game since World of Warcraft. The game soared to the top of the retail charts, and has been a breath of fresh air for gamers looking to get a taste of something just a little bit different and a little bit hobbity. Today, you have the chance to ask Turbine's CEO Jeff Anderson questions about the process of creating the game, the Tolkien license, and new content we'll see in Middle Earth in the coming weeks and months. One question per comment, please. We'll take the best of the lot and put them to Mr. Anderson in a phone interview later this week. We'll post his responses as soon as we can, so make sure to get your question in today if you want it to show up in his response.

Polish

[Tridus]

I own the game, and played it for a while. But the other day I cancelled, and went back to WoW. The main issue was simply a lack of polish in the UI. Things like the UI itself being too small on my display (a UI scaling option is sorely missed), having to change tools constantly (Explorers have two gathering professions, basically forcing me to leave a bag open all the time to swap between a mining pick and an axe), the chat text box losing focus constantly, and so on.

None of these individually are game breaking issues, but them and a host of other UI annoyances all pile up to make it a much less enjoyable experience then playing with WoW's incredibly smooth UI (which is even more so once you start using mods).

I'm curious if the developers are going to take some time to go back and improve the UI?

Mod UP

[LDoggg_]

Doh, just when I ran out of mod points...

Get this question up to +5 and watch Zonk ignore it like he's does every time there's a game dev interview.

We understand the size of the target market. We understand that it may not be economically viable. But does it hurt to ask for a port? I'd drop wine/WoW for a native LOTR online port.

Re:WoW influence

[EvilMagnus]

Dude, have you played LOTRO online? "Inspired by WoW" would be a polite way of putting the similarities. :-)

It's clear that Turbine learned much from both the failure of AC2 and from the success of WoW ... in that they've copied wholesale many of the 'good bits' of WoW. It seems the game might be described as 'WoW 2.0' or 'WoW: Tolkien Total Conversion Mod'. I mean that in a good way, of course: LOTRO's great fun. But it's clearly standing on the shoulders of WoW.

Paying Multiple Times & Continuously-cheapskat

[Anonymous Coward]

What's ridiculous about it? You buy appliances and then have to pay a monthly fee to the electric company. Infrastructure isn't free, and it's upkeep is an ongoing expense. Deal with it, or move to a different genre.

Re:What would the professor think?

[Chris Burke]

Um, while I do have great respect for Tolkein, I have to say: Who cares what he thought?

Tolkein's legacy was a fantastic series of fantasy novels that created a mythology unto their own. If I recall that was his goal in the first place, to create an English mythology. His legacy does not include a set of rules for ways in which we can enjoy this legacy. Any more than the ancient Greeks can object to us using their mythology to make God of War.

This being aside from any legal and copyright issues. But if his estate signed off on it, I say who cares if he would have minded? Would Shakespeare have minded the authoring of Rosecrantz and Guildenstern are Dead? I'm guessing he wouldn't have minded, but my point is who cares if he did.

Re:Paying Multiple Times & Continuously-cheaps

[Blahbooboo3]

I believe your analogy of a "washing machine" while on the surface seems accurate, with further thought it is not really a great analogy for software subscription models. The washing machine company does not provide both the machine and the means to use the washing machine (in your example, electricity). The power company provides the electricity -- thus not a monopoly on the ability to use the machine.

Going one step further with your example, you would imply that I would think detergent should be included with the machine. However, you forget something. I have a choice of what detergent I want to purchase available from multiple suppliers. I can choose detergents that are cheap, expensive, low quality, high quality, or none at all -- no matter, my washing machine still works. However, without the online component, I believe this game would not work.

To me it seems the software should be free if you pay a monthly fee to use the software -- as it is for most software by subscription. Or if you pay for the software, the subscription should be included. Anything else is just trying to double-dip IMHO. It is a slippery slope, before long all vendors will require monthly fees for any type of multi-player game no matter where it is "hosted."

Will you be selling an experience, or a game?

[Jason Mark]

Can you talk a little about the website, and how important you perceive that as being to a new game?

* Is that a key component or just a "nice to have"?
* In most industries, the idea of "closing" a sale on a website would be laughable, but could a website make a difference in video games?
* Do you see your web community as important to you?
* Do you purposely not invest in resources (art, programming and copy) until knowing if the game is taking off?

I joined WOW about a year after it came out, so I never saw it's website in it's infancy, but I was a little surprised when looking at your site at the retro feel in terms of graphics, and the content errors I found while trying to answer easy questions. I would have thought that if you were setting your sites on pulling WOW users, you'd have a more polished website, and I'd like to know more about the business drivers that sent you in the direction you went in.

Thanks,

Jason Mark
http://www.gravityswitch.com/ [gravityswitch.com]

Re:WoW influence

[fragmentate]

In fewer words...

WoW is kinda like the "Dummy's Guide to MMORPG" -- it doesn't cover very much; and, like a "Dummy's Guide", it's far from being the definitive source.

Now, for the rest of the story...

Lord of the Rings Online is only similar to WoW from the stand-point of not reinventing the wheel. The keypresses are very similar. The general layout is familiar. Combat is as similar to WoW as it is to any other MMORPG. It stops there. LotRO is vastly different.

EverQuest is still more of a definitive source since there are some classes in the game that require actual skill. I remember long conversations about who the best enchanter, or bard was. And, of course, the ever popular monks. To play a "puller" (usually a monk) in EverQuest required quite a bit of skill, and timing. But what really made EverQuest great was the amount of coordination necessary. The warriors had to be doing their thing. The rogues had to be conscientious about potential mishaps and plan for recovery. Priests had to heal, and still be able to resurrect players while in combat. Shaman had to slow at the right times and keep track of what was slowed. Rangers and Druids had to snare... and so on. Just one person not doing their job could cost the raid.

In WoW, every class (and variation of that class) was basically a simplified, and trivialized version of their EverQuest counterpart. Coordination among 3 or 4 attentive players was usually all that was needed prior to Burning Crusade. I never raided in Burning Crusade because Blizzard took the same path that Sony did... the reason I quit EverQuest, and the reason I quit WoW: reputation based advancement with NO character development. (At least EverQuest had the Alternate Abilities system.)

Now, we've come full circle to something that more resembles the original EverQuest than WoW. Absent, however, are the costly deaths, and the enormous grind times. In LotRO they have replaced the grind with quests. Embedded in some of those quests are some grinds, however. The classes, being so few, are well defined, and do make sense in the context of Tolkien's world. What stands out is that they reward you for the grind. Each of those classes can develop traits that suit them. The burglar is going to want to hone his ability to take advantage of an enemy's weaknesses. The guardian is going to want to improve his ability to tank and taunt; and so on. So, Turbine took into account that the highend grind was inevitable, but provided a reward system (much like EverQuest's AA system). So, it seems well planned from end-to-end.

Only time will tell if this is true. If not, I'm sure some other MMO publisher will have something new for me to try soon.

How will you avoid the traps?

[ajs]

I played EverQuest for 4 years, and have played WoW for just under a year. They've both had their problems, but in both I see a pattern: as the game progresses, and they transition from release to long-term expansion cycles, content progression becomes so deep and so complex that new or casual players must spend 4-6 months to join their friends who have been playing for months or years. Worse, the new or casual player represents a drag on the resources of any player that wants to help them level. There's no effective way to (relatively) quickly make a new player useful (say, in the period of time it would take to learn to use their abilities).

I worry about this, and wonder: do you have a way of solving this problem in the longer term for LOTRO, or are you (like EQ and WoW before you) pushing off those choices until you're already in the expansion release cycle?