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RETURN OF THE KING, Part Two
Lord of the Rings Online the One MMO to Rule Them All
LQGaming Services:: Please describe the instancing system in detail: What will my play experience be like as an individual vs. player who's a part of a group?
Jeffrey Steefel: Hmmm. Well, the instancing system is our best answer to delivering a story that the player can interact with firsthand. However, we made the decision early in the process that people play these games to play with their friends. As a result, playing with a group vs. playing by yourself should be fairly similar, though whomever triggers the instance will control the chapter that the Fellowship is participating in. We can pretty much instance anything, so you can expect instances on landscape, and in the more tried and traditional dungeon model.
We've taken pains to keep instancing from removing the impact of that second "M" in MMO. Instances can help us tell stories, but the large, open world is the best way to provide a social experience. You'll get a careful mix of both in LOTRO.
LQGaming Services:: How true to the books is Lord of the Rings Online? What liberties have you taken for sake of entertainment? And just how anal is Tolkien's estate about what you can and can't do with his characters/creations (we take it Gollum dancing around in a G-string is out)?
Jeffrey Steefel: OK, the Gollum imagery sent me looking for anti-nausea meds. Now that I'm back, what I'd say is that you're right, it's a tough balance. We want to ensure our Middle-earth is as faithful to Tolkien's vision as possible. Not just to keep the Tolkien folks happy, but also to create a real, consistent world, as rich as Tolkien described in his books.
That said, this is a game, and Tolkien Enterprises has been very supportive of this reality. The Lore-master ("magic" user), new monsters, fully-armored hobbits, elves who tolerate currency. There are many areas in which playability trumps scholarly Tolkien, and many more where clever presentation allows us to have our Lore-lembas and eat it too. We believe the balance we're striking is working well.
LQGaming Services:: Guild play's a major element of most MMOs. What reasons - besides the chance to hit on some fat chick eight states away - will you be giving us to join one?
Jeffrey Steefel: Those are pretty compelling reasons. What more would you need? Seriously, once we feel we have nailed the essential ingredients of Fellowship play, then we'll get fancier with Kinships. Stay tuned for more details on Kinship gameplay.
LQGaming Services:: Of all the monsters we'll face, which would be the most pissed off to hear the game got a bad review?
Jeffrey Steefel: That's actually a pretty tough one. Probably one of the Drakes (big, mean, winged creatures of dragon-kind). They're pretty irritable, and they tend to monitor newsgroups a lot. [Obligatory "flame-war" joke removed here due to popular demand. -Ed]
LQGaming Services:: As a parting gift, we have to ask: How much action do you get at bars when you tell women you're not only a game developer, but working on The Lord of the Rings? They must just, like, take their panties off and throw them at you...
Jeffrey Steefel: The only bars we see these days are progress bars on our dev boxes and build machines. We're plenty busy around here (though 'round lunchtime, we're more likely to get struck by a stray Magic: The Gathering card than someone's underthings). Assuming you're asking how cool it is to be working on The Lord of the Rings Online, though? It's the job of a lifetime.
- Scott Steinberg
Read Part 1 of LQGaming Services:'s special interview with Turbine's LotRO Executive Producer Jeffrey Steefel.
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