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Lord of the Rings Media Movies Role Playing (Games) Entertainment Games

Turbine Starts The Spin For Middle-Earth Online 215

Posted by Hemos from the There-is-always-smoke-rising-from-Isengard-these-days. dept.
JC writes "It looks like Tolkien fans will get one of their biggest dreams with Turbine's Middle-Earth Online. Originally expected about November, we're now looking at a Northern Hemisphere Autumn release date. The New Zealand Herald has a good article."
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Turbine Starts The Spin For Middle-Earth Online More

Turbine Starts The Spin For Middle-Earth Online

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  • Not to be technical (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 23, 2004 @11:10AM (#10045830)
    But (most of) November is in the Autumn.

  • Make that NEXT autumn (Score:5, Funny)

    by TopShelf ( 92521 ) on Monday August 23, 2004 @11:12AM (#10045854) Homepage Journal
    To be precise, that's autumn of 2005, or just a couple months after the release of Duke Nukem Forever...

    • Thats what the article says - 2005! (Score:4, Insightful)

      by reality-bytes ( 119275 ) on Monday August 23, 2004 @11:44AM (#10046276) Homepage
      Its going to confuse everyone that the parent post was modded 'funny' but the New Zealand Herald article *does* actually say its been moved to Autumn 2005!

      The Slashdot story makes little sense as they forgot to mention 2005.

    • Re:Make that NEXT autumn (Score:5, Informative)

      by ronaldb64 ( 633924 ) on Monday August 23, 2004 @12:50PM (#10047096) Homepage Journal
      As quoted from the Turbine MEO forum:
      Important Update from the Team - MEO Release Date

      The Middle-Earth Online team at Vivendi Universal Games and Turbine Entertainment recently evaluated the development progress of the game and made the tough but correct decision to delay its release. The extra time in development will be used to add more content, more lore and more nuanced touches to the world, as well as enable us to extend the beta-testing period. At this time, the expected release date for the game is 2005.

      We also decided recently to focus on getting content into the game rather than spend time creating a specialized version for this year's E3, so Middle-Earth Online will not be demonstrated on the show floor.

      If you have any questions, please post them here and we will answer what we can.

      Thank you for being a part of the development process and giving us your opinions and feedback.

      This was posted August 21st. Sorry, no Middel-Earth Online this year....

  • Whoppeee!! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Recovery1 ( 217499 ) on Monday August 23, 2004 @11:13AM (#10045867) Homepage
    Just the thing to fill that vacant part of my day ensuring that I never see any sunlight ever again. Aaachh!!~~~ natural horrible sunlight..

  • sunlight, anyone? (Score:5, Funny)

    by mrn121 ( 673604 ) on Monday August 23, 2004 @11:14AM (#10045882) Homepage
    Just when a bunch of nerds thought they had any chance of seeing any sunlight next fall, this news is released.

  • I want to be a Men class. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Tibor the Hun ( 143056 ) on Monday August 23, 2004 @11:15AM (#10045895)
    I don't mean to troll, but why is the class called Men, and not Human?
    I'm not up on my Tolkien Lore, so as an outsider a Men class looks mighty odd to me.

    • Re:I want to be a Men class. (Score:4, Informative)

      by Salden ( 571264 ) on Monday August 23, 2004 @11:19AM (#10045964)
      Right, you are not up on your lore. In the books, it is the race of men, not the human race.

      • Re:I want to be a Men class. (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Pxtl ( 151020 ) on Monday August 23, 2004 @11:26AM (#10046070) Homepage
        Now, I didn't RTFA, but I really hope that they don't make it like MERP (the Rolemaster based pnp rpg), where any player can just be a high-elf, or a half-elf, or a wizard, or an ent, or something else that's supposed to be rare as diamonds. Its a stupid world where the rare peoples outnumber the normal, common humans. Same thing for magical artifacts - and notice that Gandalf primarily fights with a sword and staff, not "lightningbolt!" and "I'm gonna cast magic missile."

        But I doubt it. It'll be EverCrack with all the stuff renamed after Tolkien stuff.

        • Re:I want to be a Men class. (Score:5, Informative)

          by david.given ( 6740 ) <dg@cowlark.com> on Monday August 23, 2004 @12:28PM (#10046807) Homepage Journal
          Now, I didn't RTFA, but I really hope that they don't make it like MERP (the Rolemaster based pnp rpg), where any player can just be a high-elf, or a half-elf, or a wizard, or an ent, or something else that's supposed to be rare as diamonds. Its a stupid world where the rare peoples outnumber the normal, common humans. Same thing for magical artifacts - and notice that Gandalf primarily fights with a sword and staff, not "lightningbolt!" and "I'm gonna cast magic missile."

          Tolkien wrote primarily about spiritual magic.

          Gandalf was the master of fire. Partly, this manifested itself through his skill with fireworks and magical fire, but that wasn't the important bit. What Tolkien felt was far more important, and was stressed over and over again, was the fact the Gandalf could 'kindle the fire in men's souls'. Look at the way he can muster enthusiasm in practically everyone. The classic example is the way he brought Théoden back from the brink in _RotK_ (ignore the lousy movie effects --- this is one of the few bits that Peter Jackson got totally wrong). Even more impressive, to my mind --- he managed to talk Bilbo into going dragon-hunting in The Hobbit.

          (Saruman's power was his will and his voice. He could talk practically anyone into doing anything. He had very little power of his own; once the Ents destroyed Isengard, he was shafted. Again, another bit the film got completely wrong was his fight with Gandalf. In the books, it's a battle of wills, and pre-Moria Gandalf is definitely Saruman's inferior.)

          The rest of Tolkien's world is similar. The difference between Elves, Dwarves, Men and the other races? They're races, not species. Tolkien wasn't interested in their outward appearance, or whether they could interbreed, or the shape of their ears. The fundamental, crucial difference, intrinsic to Middle-Earth's entire philosophy, the thing that is hammered home over and over again, is the shape of their souls.

          When Elves die, they're reincarnated. When Dwarves die --- actually, I forget. I believe they end up in some classical afterlife. When Men die, however, the souls leave the universe entirely. Nobody knows what happens to them. By Tolkien's view, Men are specially favoured. They get to move on to whatever Eru has planned for them next, and are unique in that aspect. All the other races are bound to Arda until the end of time.

          (This is the reason why Arwen had to become human. She was a descendent of a Man-Elf cross. All such people had to choose between following the Elven path or the mortal path, because you have to pick what kind of soul you have. All the rest follows from there.)

          (If you're interested in such things, read The Silmarillion. It's tough going, but rewarding.)

          Tolkien just doesn't go in for material magic very much. He didn't find it interesting. While this makes his universe incredibly rich and rewarding to study, it doesn't really fit a modern game where the player wants to trigger some flashy effect and kill loads of orcs... I await the MMORPG with some trepidation.

          • It's a tough read.

            Man that is the understatement of the year.

            I would add that a Wizard was not a human, but an imortal like the elves.
          • (Saruman's power was his will and his voice. He could talk practically anyone into doing anything. He had very little power of his own; once the Ents destroyed Isengard, he was shafted. Again, another bit the film got completely wrong was his fight with Gandalf. In the books, it's a battle of wills, and pre-Moria Gandalf is definitely Saruman's inferior.) (emphasis added)

            I don't want this to be viewed as a troll but you are correct in that it is a battle of wills between Saruman and Gandalf, but who the h

          • Again, another bit the film got completely wrong was his fight with Gandalf. In the books, it's a battle of wills, and pre-Moria Gandalf is definitely Saruman's inferior.

            I always thought it was the fact that Saruman had an army of 10 000 orcs at his command and Gandalf was alone that convinced him to obey, rather than any weakness of will :).

          • Gandalf was the master of fire. Partly, this manifested itself through his skill with fireworks and magical fire, but that wasn't the important bit.

            I always thought that was because Gandalf wore the elvish ring of fire (one of the four elivish rings that the One controls). Similarly, Elrond wears the one for Water [from which he creates the river flood that brings down the Nazgrul that are chasing Frodo and company] and Galadriel(sp?) wears the one for Air.

            That was why Gandalf (and Frodo and Bilbo,
        • any player can just be a high-elf, or a half-elf, or a wizard, or an ent, or something else that's supposed to be rare as diamonds

          Umm, first - diamonds aren't that rare. Most other gemstones (emeralds come to mind) are much rarer. The high cost of diamonds has to do more with the monopoly that controls distribution.

          Second, if you're gonna bitch about rareness, why not bitch about the fact that 'anybody' can be an adventurer? Why are there more players who are adventurers than bakers/millwrighs/peasant
          • say it with me: Game. There i knew you could. Its not there to be real. If being a millwright was fun people would do it in real life. Games are used as a way to escape from the day to day drudge that some peoples lifes have become. Whats the point of escaping into a world where your virtual 'job' is just as shitty as your real one.

          • Re:I want to be a Men class. (Score:4, Funny)

            by haystor ( 102186 ) on Monday August 23, 2004 @01:08PM (#10047329)
            I was applying to be a Baker, but my guidance counseler had me take some aptitude tests and my strength lies in melee combat. I've been assigned to row 1 of keep storming division. Will I be able to see the fight from there? I don't want to miss it.
          • Most other gemstones (emeralds come to mind) are much rarer

            I've read about the true scarcity of Diamonds and how DeBeers controls the world market.

            I do doubt, however, that Emeralds are more rare. Just take a look at their price on ebay. Additionally I am right now looking at a jar of 20 of them(from tiny to ~3 carats) that my wife, son, father and myself found just yesterday in the North Carolina mountains in a little over 2 hours.

        • Now, I didn't RTFA, but I really hope that they don't make it like MERP (the Rolemaster based pnp rpg), where any player can just be a high-elf, or a half-elf, or a wizard, or an ent, or something else that's supposed to be rare as diamonds. Its a stupid world where the rare peoples outnumber the normal, common humans.

          If you ran MERP correctly, you were supposed to use the random table to generate your race (it was based off of Roll-master, after all), which ensured that almost everyone *did* end up being

    • Re:I want to be a Men class. (Score:5, Informative)

      by Nos. ( 179609 ) <`ac.srrekeht' `ta' `werdna'> on Monday August 23, 2004 @11:19AM (#10045967) Homepage
      That's just the way Tolkien wrote. The books were writtin in the 50's I believe, and at that time there wasn't as much an issue referring to humans as men. In the Tolkien world, we had dwarves, elves, and men as the main 3 races. I don't think it was meant to exclude or even discount females, it was just used as a generic term at the time.

      • Re:I want to be a Men class. (Score:4, Insightful)

        by tarunthegreat2 ( 761545 ) on Monday August 23, 2004 @11:59AM (#10046476)
        Well I think the actual work for this book began before WWII, and he continued to work on it throughout the war (The Foreword to LOTR mentions how he sent parts of the book to his son Christopher in a serialized form). But that is neither here nor there. I think the truth is Tolkien was all English and longing for the good 'ol days - he was a bit of a luddite. So I think it's only natural that he thought according to his era, when political correctness wasn't as rampant...(i.e. that a "good" story requires a strong female lead, and black people cannot be the enemy). Everytime somebody mentions that there are no strong women roles or that Tolkien was a racist, it makes my skin crawl. It ruins what is a brilliantly told story. (I'm a "coloured-person" by the way)
      • Actually, the issue isn't that he was writting in the 50's, but that he was writting in the mythic style of the Sagas. In the modern mind there is only one world, the human world. In the mythical mind the world is many Worlds, each distinct from the other. the World of the Gods, The World of the Elves, et al, and The World of Men.

        To refer to "humans" in LOTR would have been an anachronism and "man" did not even come to mean specifically the male of the species until the Middle English period, long after th
      • man and mankind still are the generic terms for "humans". Check out the definitation of man [reference.com]. The first definition refers striclty to male human, after that, the next 8 or so mean "man" as in mankind, or human. I'm not up enough on my etymology to know specifically where "woman" and "human" came from, although both go quite far back.

      • ...in which Dernhelm yanks off his helmet to revreal that "he" is actually Eowyn, who then delivers her not-a-man line and ruins the Witch-King's whole day with a sharp pointy thing.

        The setup is even more prominent in the books. The race is referred to as "Men" (capital M) as an all-inclusive term. When the Witch-King laid the smack down on Arnor and rode off, an Elf prophesied that "far off yet is his doom, and not by the hand of man shall he fall."

        I believe it's even printed with a small 'm'. Coul

  • I can just see the eBay ads ... (Score:5, Funny)

    by newandyh-r ( 724533 ) on Monday August 23, 2004 @11:16AM (#10045908)
    One Ring for sale. Starting at only ...

  • Another MMORPG?? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Savet Hegar ( 791567 ) on Monday August 23, 2004 @11:16AM (#10045921)
    These games are fun, but they are addicting time wasters. To enjoy these games, you literally have to devote huge blocks of time to completing quests, leveling up, and running around a digital world. While I love the Lord of the Rings saga, I don't see much need for yet another MMORPG. Are there not enough time wasters already?

    • Re:Another MMORPG?? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by the unbeliever ( 201915 ) <chris+slashdot@a ... m ['k.c' in gap]> on Monday August 23, 2004 @11:22AM (#10045999) Homepage
      City of Heroes does not require a huge timesink in order to have fun. Things scale very well, and almost every class can solo when they're well played. (although some are easier than others)

      You can log on to COH for twenty minutes and feel like you've accomplished something.

    • Re:Another MMORPG?? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Cromac ( 610264 ) on Monday August 23, 2004 @11:48AM (#10046339)
      Don't worry, if it sucks anywhere near as much as Turbines last release, AC2, it won't be fun and won't be addictive at all.

      After their last fiasco I'm not holding my breath for future Turbine products.

      Aside from that, there's always room for yet another MMORPG. More competition means the existing companies have to constantly improve to keep their customers or sooner or later a significantly better game will come out and they'll lose their marketshare.

      • Re:Another MMORPG?? (Score:3, Interesting)

        by will_die ( 586523 )
        If you read the original stuff that Turbine wrote when AC2 was in development it is a totally different creature then what was released.
        Also during the time before original comments and release Microsoft became more interested in making comments and changes. Unfortunatly it looks like microsoft decided to make a clone of daoc/eq and then forced it out before even that was done.
        Since Turbine has purchased the franchise from microsoft, AC2 has turned into a rather nice game. The problem is the bad word wh
    • Time wasters... yup ! :-) But don't waste your money !! Take a look at the open source ToME: Troubles of Middle-Earth [t-o-m-e.net]. It's based on Angband [wikipedia.org]. It also has a Multiplayer Online version [t-o-m-e.net], but not as mature as the single player mode.

  • Model Citizens (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Doc Ruby ( 173196 ) on Monday August 23, 2004 @11:16AM (#10045925) Homepage Journal
    By the time these movies make it to game format, their cutting-edge digital techniques are several years old, while computers have raced along the rails of Moore's law. Why don't they just release the models and engines for PCs? They can spend the intervening time optimizing for the actual cheap hardware and OS, and coming up with new plotmaps.

    • Re:Model Citizens (Score:4, Interesting)

      by orasio ( 188021 ) on Monday August 23, 2004 @11:40AM (#10046227) Homepage
      I don't make movies for a living, but I believe 3d cinema has similarities to actual cinema.
      They don't need to build the full middle Earth to any acceptable detail, they need just some specific sets, and some landscape.
      The needs of the movie might not fulfill those of the game.

      Anyway, the models used for renderman and such differ a great deal from the models you would need for a game. For example, in a recursive renderer, a good specfication of the material would be the only thing you need for an good render, in a game, you would need more specific procedural shaders, that don't need to be easily translated.

      I mean that maybe the work of adapting the movie sets to game sets might end up to be a comparable effort to building the sets again, and even give sub-par results.

    • The models take days to render in an animation. Regardless of how good Doom3 looks, the LOTR models will not fit.

      Engines? The engine is Maya.
      • Sure, but the LoTR movie is rendered for 70mm film, which is at least 8Kx6K dots, requiring at least 16Kx12K pixels. The game could be as little as 1024x768 pixels, which is 1.6% the size. There are many other optimizations available for rendering to UGA, which doesn't require the detail or accuracy required by film on a 40' screen. Many scenarios that consume time in their first rendering, like most of the behavior of armies and natural particles, can be replayed with coarser parameters, once they've been

  • books or movies (Score:4, Insightful)

    by dueydotnet ( 805472 ) on Monday August 23, 2004 @11:17AM (#10045943)
    Anybody know if this game has the license from the books or movies? Hmmm. Probably doesn't really matter, though, but I would think the book license would have more content and more original visuals while the movie license would probably have to include the main characters some how. Too bad this has been pushed off, but since Turbine is already a veteran at this, I'm sure they'll be able to release a good, polished game. I'm just glad VI (eVIl) isn't doing it.
    • I'm guessing from the books - IIRC a friend (who is a HUGE fan of the LOTR books and hated the movies because they weren't faithful enough to the books) told me once that the developers are producing the game with the blessing/cooperation of Tolkien's family.

    • Re:books or movies (Score:2, Informative)

      by Taulin ( 569009 )
      In the article they stated they are basing models off of the books, and also stated about the plots in the books that were never fully developed they will try and flesh out more. So I would say it is based off of the books.

      I personally think those unfinished plots they claim are in the books are more like references to other Tolkien lore they are not familiar with since there is so much of it. This will just anger another faction of die hard fans.

    • Unfortunately, the game is supposed to draw from the books - but exactly how much? Take a look at the art - the Hobbits look like short humans, the elves look like Uber Fantasy crud, the Dwarf women are NOTHING like the Dwarf women in Tolkien.

      Also, the worlds look nothing like the movies.

      This company is said to be making an adaptation of the books, but what they have never considered is how much more they could appeal to the full range of fans by making the world look as close to the movie as possible. Wo

  • I hate to say it (Score:5, Interesting)

    by DevilsEngine ( 581977 ) on Monday August 23, 2004 @11:18AM (#10045951)
    But won't this game seem a little... tired?

    The standard props of the Tolkien universe served for gaming fodder even before D&D (minus the A). In online play, the races and creatures here are used, in dozens of permutations. Haven't we all had a chance to be an elf or halfing? Haven't we all taken a shot at more orcs, trolls, and dragons that we could eat?

    Lively story-telling and a deep sense of history set Tolkein appart from other fantasies. Unless Turbine is able to bring this world something other than the appearance of Middle Earth, it's hard to see what will make it more exciting than the possibilities offered by a City of Heroes, or even a solid middle-ages + fantasy setting universe such as Dark Age of Camelot. I certainly want something more than name recognition to make me pick up a sword again.

  • Huzzah! (Score:3, Funny)

    by darth_MALL ( 657218 ) on Monday August 23, 2004 @11:19AM (#10045966)
    Dibs on Legolas. :-P

  • problem #1 (Score:5, Interesting)

    by kippy ( 416183 ) on Monday August 23, 2004 @11:20AM (#10045971)
    Everyone's going to want to be a wizard. There were only five wizards in RJRT's world and three are already spoken for. There are two blue wizards who drifted out east but nothing is really said about them.

    Those sound like pretty coveted characters to me.

  • Turbine (Score:3, Interesting)

    by mfh ( 56 ) on Monday August 23, 2004 @11:22AM (#10046000) Homepage Journal
    I'm not really looking for yet another mmorpg from Turbine. To be blunt, mmorpgs don't interest me because designers create games that have too many players visible, unoptimized city maps, and ugly looking player models. There hasn't been much revolutionary in mmorpg titles since inception and I don't see this changing any time soon. They need to rework the model before I will ever become interested. The very best games are representations of something better, to inspire player imagination and create interesting environs in which stories take place. Now because MMORPGs have so many players running around in them, it's next to impossible to create a cohesive story with actual characters in it. Game designers need to figure out how to include players as part of the story without having generic stories that everyone runs through to get quest items. Game designers need to figure out how to tell a massive story that only includes players as part of the premise and the problem with that is one of control. How can you control such a massive story without involving Tolkien himself? You can't.

  • Encyclopedia of Arda (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 23, 2004 @11:23AM (#10046018)
    I'd rather spend my time on *this* `middle earth online': Encyclopedia of Arda [glyphweb.com]

  • Yikes (Score:3, Funny)

    by JasdonLe ( 680479 ) on Monday August 23, 2004 @11:24AM (#10046028) Homepage
    From the article (emphasis mine):

    They'll be able to explore, fight, make alliances and perhaps even look for treasure.

    What?! PERHAPS???

  • MEO Officical Site (Score:5, Informative)

    by JasdonLe ( 680479 ) on Monday August 23, 2004 @11:26AM (#10046068) Homepage

    For all who were looking for this link:

    middle-earthonline.com [middle-earthonline.com]

  • ME better for MMORPG than SW? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by cvd6262 ( 180823 ) on Monday August 23, 2004 @11:37AM (#10046204)
    When Start Wars Galaxies came out, many people worried that everyone would want to be a Jedi, because, by far, they are the coolest, most powerful individuals in that universe.

    I think Middle Earth offers a better balance of civilizations. If I were a gamer, I'd wouldn't even mind being an orc.

    • " When Start Wars Galaxies came out, many people worried that everyone would want to be a Jedi, because, by far, they are the coolest, most powerful individuals in that universe."

      And in Middle Earth, perhaps the most powerful and coolest individuals are wizards, of which I believe there are supposed to only be a handful of (if that) in the Tolkien "universe". Good luck to enforcing that rule.

      Personally I think calling this a Tolkien fan's "dream" is a joke. More like nightmare. It will without a doubt throw the whole Middle Earth lore right down the shitter, as we all know enforcing roleplay is impossible in these games. Try forcing a Hobbit player-character to want to stay close to home, sit around his hole and eat all day -- in Tolkien's world, Bilbo and Frodo are rare in their desire for adventure. Most hobbits want to sit at home. Or how about being an elf who fights only when absolutely necessary, or a dwarf who looks out for himself and wouldn't be caught dead grouping with an elf. And female dwarves -- I think they're unheard of in any Middle Earth lore.

      Enforcing those things is impossible, and is a true Tolkien fan's nightmare, IMHO.

      • And female dwarves -- I think they're unheard of in any Middle Earth lore.

        So Galadriel never appeared in the books???

        • "So Galadriel never appeared in the books???"

          Huh...that's funny. I could've sworn that GALADRIEL IS AN ELF!

          *SMACK!*

          • GGP: And female dwarves -- I think they're unheard of in any Middle Earth lore.

            GP: "So Galadriel never appeared in the books???"

            P: Huh...that's funny. I could've sworn that GALADRIEL IS AN ELF!

            Geek: In the appendices (not looking up which one), it is made clear that there are female dwarfs, just not many, and they look almost indistinguishable from the male, and also that dwarfs, not dwarves, is the correct pluralisation.
      • It will without a doubt throw the whole Middle Earth lore right down the shitter

        It has about as much chance of doing that as the new Star Wars movies doing that to the lore of the original ones, or as the new Dune books doing it to the lore of the original six, or as the new Foundation books doing it to the lore of Asimov's series.

        That is, none.
        • By "throwing it down the shitter" I meant that they will say, "to hell with the past lore of Middle Earth," and let whatever they want happen.
        • It has about as much chance of doing that as the new Star Wars movies doing that to the lore of the original ones

          Midichlorians, anyone? Elected princesses?

          And truthfully, I don't find the new Dune or Foundation books very good either. I have 0 hope that this game will remain true to Tolkien's roots, instead it will become yet another Everquest.

      • Re:ME better for MMORPG than SW? (Score:4, Funny)

        by Cruciform ( 42896 ) on Monday August 23, 2004 @12:24PM (#10046743) Homepage
        The first time this is said, Tolkien will spin in his grave so fast we can use him for a gyroscope:

        "STFU Frodo. Giv3 m3 teh r1ng n00b!"
      • And in Middle Earth, perhaps the most powerful and coolest individuals are wizards, of which I believe there are supposed to only be a handful of (if that) in the Tolkien "universe". Good luck to enforcing that rule.

        Uhm.

        What's so hard about just not having wizards be playable characters at all?

        (which is exactly what they're doing, btw.)

  • Ah! (Score:5, Funny)

    by iamdrscience ( 541136 ) on Monday August 23, 2004 @11:44AM (#10046287) Homepage
    Turbine Starts The Spin...
    Oooh... somebody should get fired for a pun like that.
    • Oooh... somebody should get fired for a pun like that.
      We apologise for the fault in the bylines. Those responsible have been sacked.

  • How long (Score:4, Interesting)

    by nizo ( 81281 ) on Monday August 23, 2004 @11:50AM (#10046362) Homepage Journal
    How long will it be before you can basically live your entire life "inside" a game? And yeah before you guys start saying "I already do" I mean how long before you don't even leave the game at all, even to work? Picture being a wizard in middle earth, where you take several hours a day to go "cast some spells" (i.e. program so you can keep th electricity going so you can play). Or maybe you put on your "middle earth" glasses, and your every-day life looks like middle earth (instead of everyday boring people you see elves/dwarves/etc, instead of buses you see large lumbering Oliphants, etc).
    • If technology gets to the point where you can't tell the difference between games and real life (in the obvious sense, ie touch, pain, total immersiveness) how many people will elect to stay in the virtual world?

      In all honesty I was addicted to Asherson's Call and even to this day, over 2 years since I quit I still get the urge to play. By sure willpower I force myself not to resubscribe. (Actually uninstalling the software and getting rid of it helped control that urge..) Since then I won't even buy a

      • This is a valid concern that will be faced by our children's children's children, possibly.

        Visual and aural nerve stimulators are already being used today. Primitively, of course, as the technology and understanding of direct neural stimulation is still in its infancy.

        In the future, when direct neural stimulation provides sight, sound, smell, taste, and feeling that is identical to the Real Thing, many people will elect to spend as much of their time in "VR" as they can. Games today have nothing on the

  • Middle-Earth or generic fantasy land? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by tehanu ( 682528 ) on Monday August 23, 2004 @12:02PM (#10046502)
    One thing I want to know is if they are going to make the game world true to Middle-Earth or as a more generic D&D based game? The problems with transferring a popular franchise to MMG can be seen in Star Wars where everyone wants to be a Jedi. Hence even though the MMG is set in the time where Jedi should be rare there are tons of Jedi running around. In this case faithfulness to the original storyline is sacrificed because everyone wants to be a hero. For example one of the difficulties I can see with Middle-Earth is that lots of people will want to be a wizard (like Gandalf). However in Middle-Earth wizards are extremely rare. There are only 8 (?) of them and they are not human either but servants sent from Valor clothed in human form. And will magic spells familiar from D&D like fireball be common, because there is actually very little magic actually cast as fireball type spells in LoTR.

    When will it be set (the article doesn't say this). I imagine it will be set immediately after the events of the book. But according to the novel magic is dying out in the land during this time. Lothlorien for example is in the process of being abandoned. However lots of people will want to go visit Lothlorien. Will people be able to go to Moria? If they can clean out Moria it would go against canon as Tolkien says Moria was never able to be reclaimed by the dwarves. I think this is a fundamental problem with franchise based MMGs. People will want to go to clear out Moria, they will want to be a wizard and cast fireballs, they will want to go and visit Lothlorien no matter how out-of-character or against canon it is. Will it accurately model the various tensions amongst the different groups of elves? They mention an elvin ship but how do they balance this with the fact that being invited to an elvin ship (if you are not an elf) is extremely rare. How do they balance the fact that in LoTR canon, elves are massively more powerful than humans - being created as perfect beings and thousands of years old? In a single-player game it is easy to control the actions people can take, but in a MMG where the only real aim is to explore how do you balance faithfulness to canon and fun gameplay? Star Wars Galaxies as far as I can tell decided to go "screw canon" - will this Tolkien MMG do the same? Will it really be Middle-earth or will it be Dungeons and Dragons?
  • for writing the multi-threaded server based software for these role playing games? They seem fairly biased towards having a game kiddie background and I wonder if that bias works against them.
    • They've done 2 MMORPGs before. 1 of which has lasted 5 years without any real presence in a store, another one which is still better looking than any MMORPG out today.

      I don't think anyone can seriously question if they have the experience to make a good MMORPG.
  • Tubine made one hell of a fun and indepth game. If i was back in HS, id definatly get this game and loose my GF all over again. XP was more important to me than AHP ;)

  • Look at the Classes (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Did anyone look at the classes available within each PC race at http://www.middle-earthonline.com/ [middle-earthonline.com]? If you want any variety in PC classes, you have to play the Men race. Why are there no Elven sorcerers or Dwarven burglars? If a PC class can follow a dark path and work for the goals of the Eye, then why can't you play as a Goblin? I hope it works out, but I'm skeptical about the balance of races. Heck, to play a Hobbit, you basically end up being a thief!

  • I'm a Tolkien fan (Score:4, Insightful)

    by ikekrull ( 59661 ) on Monday August 23, 2004 @03:24PM (#10049213) Homepage
    But this is no dream of mine.

    I'm not going to get excited about another rubbish game made to cash-in on the success of the LOTR movies.

    There have been at least 4 already, whats so special about number 5?

  • What's Middle Earth with no Ring Saga? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by popo ( 107611 ) on Monday August 23, 2004 @05:55PM (#10050930) Homepage
    Here's the problem with MMORPG's based on fiction properties (Galaxies, MEOL, etc.)

    Since MMORPG's must be socialist in their play-balancing, and must be open ended (for revenue reasons) there can be no over-arching saga, no heroes, no theatrical climax and no resolution.

    Would LOTR have been at all interesting if Frodo had been one of 1000 ring bearers? And what if they had all just wandered Middle-Earth endlessly, never reaching the end of their quest (but instead, constantly increasing in ability)?

    MMORPG's can only ever be generic universes because all they offer is generic experiences. There is a necessary "sameness" to the characters for reasons of playability and that "sameness" destroys any possibility of compelling story-telling.

    Middle Earth online will be, at best, Dark Age of Camelot with different 3D models, and a more familiar (albeit less extesible) map.

    Yawn. Seen it.

    ________________________________
    Judge a man by his wallet [jfold.com].

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