Lord of the Rings Online MMORPG

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by Kuruharan

Lord of the Rings Online has been sold from Turbine to a new developer called Standing Stone Games.

See here.

This came out of nowhere and has taken the player base completely by surprise.

However, while there is a general sense of worry and hand-wringing since things like this rarely mean good things for the future of a game, there is also a seemingly widespread sense of optimism since Warner Brothers and Turbine were running the game into the ground.

Standing Stone Games, a newly-independent studio staffed by people who have been working on DDO and LOTRO for many years.

I'm going to check with my moles to find out who exactly these staffers are. It would be nice (however unrealistic) if they moved back toward the old Middle-earth Online (MEO) model that Turbine abandoned so they could emulate WoW. Not sure how many of you were pre-Beta, but there was a whole different game being planned previously.

[Kuruharan]

Originally Posted by Morthoron

I'm going to check with my moles to find out who exactly these staffers are. It would be nice (however unrealistic) if they moved back toward the old Middle-earth Online (MEO) model that Turbine abandoned so they could emulate WoW. Not sure how many of you were pre-Beta, but there was a whole different game being planned previously.

We shall see.

After the Standing Stones split off, Turbine/WB have announced the impending closure of Asheron's Call and Asheron's Call 2.

Given the demise of the Asheron's Calls, a potential plausible scenario to my mind is that, as many players had feared for quite some time, WB/Turbine had decided to pull the plug on all of their MMOs including LOTRO. The LOTRO devs didn't want to see the game shut down and found an investor (or perhaps pulled together the money) to save the game via setting up their own company. It would be interesting if this theory could be confirmed.

My sympathies are with the long time players of Asheron's Call. I never played the game myself, but it had been around since 1999 (one of the longest running MMOs in history) and I am sorry to see it go.

[Eönwë]

So I've finally logged back on after a long absence. Anyone up for an in-game meetup?

[Kuruharan]

This weekend is looking awfully busy for me.

Maybe next weekend?

[Snowdog]

Originally Posted by Morthoron

I'm going to check with my moles to find out who exactly these staffers are. It would be nice (however unrealistic) if they moved back toward the old Middle-earth Online (MEO) model that Turbine abandoned so they could emulate WoW. Not sure how many of you were pre-Beta, but there was a whole different game being planned previously.

Yes, I remember those days. The group I was in pretty much abandoned-in-place the great little website they set up for their kinship when the found the released game was nothing like they had anticipated during development.

Originally Posted by Kuruharan

We shall see.

After the Standing Stones split off, Turbine/WB have announced the impending closure of Asheron's Call and Asheron's Call 2.

Given the demise of the Asheron's Calls, a potential plausible scenario to my mind is that, as many players had feared for quite some time, WB/Turbine had decided to pull the plug on all of their MMOs including LOTRO. The LOTRO devs didn't want to see the game shut down and found an investor (or perhaps pulled together the money) to save the game via setting up their own company. It would be interesting if this theory could be confirmed.

My sympathies are with the long time players of Asheron's Call. I never played the game myself, but it had been around since 1999 (one of the longest running MMOs in history) and I am sorry to see it go.

That is sad to see somethin that started last century meet its demise. How has the LOTRO change in ownership work out so far?

[Kuruharan]

Originally Posted by Snowdog

That is sad to see somethin that started last century meet its demise. How has the LOTRO change in ownership work out so far?

In many respects it is still too early to tell.

My impression (and this is just an impression) is that the player base has stabilized somewhat. However, I am on one of the more populated servers so that may distort my experience. I've heard that Brandywine has taken a big hit in population and it was the king of server pop by an exponential amount ever since the start of the game.

I'd describe there being a sense of resignation on the part of the player base regarding expectations of Standing Stones. There is a sense that Turbine broke the game so badly that Standing Stones, all being late-comers to LOTRO development, don't have the historical know-how of the code to perform substantial changes without breaking the functioning of the entire game.

What happened to the Guardian class is continually held up as an example of this. It is a particularly glaring example where Turbine almost right before the end completely broke the class and SSG hasn't really done anything to fix the situation except for a few faltering and poorly received steps.

People are on the whole excited for the coming Mordor expansion, if for no other reason than this will provide the climax of the story. SSG claims to have a couple of years more of development and content sketched out after this. It probably depends on how well Mordor sells if this comes to fruition.

I think we will probably end the sort of honeymoon phase with SSG with the deployment of Mordor.

For all its problems, LOTRO has one major thing going for it. It is the only Tolkien themed MMO out there. People who what to play an MMO in Middle earth have no other place to go. Most of the players who are left are there for that reason or keep coming back for that reason. If this game had not been set in Middle earth I believe it would have died some time ago. But us Tolkien folk are stubborn.

[TheGreatElvenWarrior]

So, I am going to bite the bullet and play this. I'll let you know how annoyed I am with it in like one day.

[Kuruharan]

Originally Posted by TheGreatElvenWarrior

So, I am going to bite the bullet and play this. I'll let you know how annoyed I am with it in like one day.

The opening stages of the game are pretty good.

Its later on that all the annoying problems become apparent...

[TheGreatElvenWarrior]

Originally Posted by Kuruharan

The opening stages of the game are pretty good.

Its later on that all the annoying problems become apparent...

I'll let you know what I think once I get the game running. I should be able to pay here in about twenty minutes or so. I've always liked MMORPGs, so I think I'll have a good time. At least it keeps me from playing the Sims, right?