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Chris Taylor on Middle Earth Online

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the hobbits-and-orcs dept.

Recently, GameSpy's Andrew Bub caught up with Vivendi Univeral's Chris Taylor (of Fallout and Starfleet Command) at GenCon to talk about their Middle Earth Online MMORPG which is in the works. A lot of ground is covered, from which parts of middle earth will be in the game, to how they manage to keep track of all of Tolkien's lore, to Tom Bombadil's poetry.

34 comments

  1. Tolken's rolling in his grave.... by Creepy+Crawler · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Mass media's doing to Tolken's fine works as they do to everything else that's "popular". They're Over-saturizing his books.

    I wouldnt be surprised in 2 years, most people will hate the "Lord Of the Rings" series of books. In a way, It's kind of sad.

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    1. Re:Tolken's rolling in his grave.... by IIRCAFAIKIANAL · · Score: 3, Interesting

      You're probably right, though Tolkien was rolling (his eyes) when he saw people dressing up as elves in the 60's, IIRC, so I doubt this would surprise him.

      It will be kinda sad when leet games are all bragging about the phat lewt they got camping the Shelob spawn...

      In any case, at least with the media saturation, many new people are exposed to Tolkiens work - hell, some of em may make it through the Silmarillion :)

      --
      Robots are everywhere, and they eat old people's medicine for fuel.
    2. Re:Tolken's rolling in his grave.... by Kethinov · · Score: 1
      Mass media's doing to Tolken's fine works as they do to everything else that's "popular". They're Over-saturizing his books. I wouldnt be surprised in 2 years, most people will hate the "Lord Of the Rings" series of books. In a way, It's kind of sad.
      Yeah. And imagine how repulsive it is for people like me who hated it before it was popular? Nothing worse than a bad trend.
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      You're right, I wouldn't steal a car. But if it were possible, I sure as hell would download one!
    3. Re:Tolken's rolling in his grave.... by grommeh · · Score: 1

      Reminds me of the story of Tolkien reading one of his latest drafts of The Lord of the Rings to the Inklings at Oxford.

      Beginning the chapter he was interrupted with the mutter from the back of the room "Oh God, not another fucking elf!"

    4. Re:Tolken's rolling in his grave.... by syrinx · · Score: 1

      So, um, why are you reading this article if you despise LOTR so much? Are you a masochist?

      --
      Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.
    5. Re:Tolken's rolling in his grave.... by Kethinov · · Score: 1

      Hah. Guilty as chargned. ;)

      --
      You're right, I wouldn't steal a car. But if it were possible, I sure as hell would download one!
  2. Two of them! by Recoil_42 · · Score: 0, Redundant

    LOL.... there's two Chris Taylors in the gaming biz...

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    Newsie, Moderator, www.tauniverse.com
  3. Be glad you weren't named after a character.... by quinkin · · Score: 3, Interesting
    As someone who was named after a character of the LOTR (blame my whacked out parents not me) I can tell you I have had more than enough...

    I'm glad it is a pretty obscure character. Any Aragorn's or Bilbo's out there?

    Q.

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    1. Re:Be glad you weren't named after a character.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have the misfortune of being named Gollum Gandalf Montgomery.

    2. Re:Be glad you weren't named after a character.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ain't that just prrreciousss!

    3. Re:Be glad you weren't named after a character.... by ghmh · · Score: 1

      Don't know any Aragorns or Bilbo's, but I went to school with Arwen. I think both her parents were librarians (and no, they weren't orangutan's).

    4. Re:Be glad you weren't named after a character.... by Zardoz44 · · Score: 1

      I have two semi-distant cousins, one male and one female, named Strider and Arwen respectively. It's not Aragorn, but close enough.

    5. Re:Be glad you weren't named after a character.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm glad it is a pretty obscure character. Any Aragorn's or Bilbo's out there?

      Hi there. As someone named after a character created by an obsessed linguaphile, you might want to learn how to use apostrophes properly.

      Thanks.

  4. It should be good by PaleZer0 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I, one who hasn't ever played a true mmorpg, can't wait for this title. When I first heard about these persistant world games, Middle Earth jumped out at me. I'm surprised it took THIS long for someone to make one. It takes and incredible wealth of details to make a good world, and Tolkien is one of the few who has seemingly thought about each and every one.

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    PaleHour
    1. Re:It should be good by PainKilleR-CE · · Score: 1

      I'm surprised it took THIS long for someone to make one.

      I think they cancelled the title a long time ago, and then revived it after the LotR movie(s) did so well. I know they were originally working on it around the same time Half-Life was released...

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      -PainKilleR-[CE]
    2. Re:It should be good by Kirby · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yes, Sierra was working on the title - one of my gaming buddies was a developer on this game. It got cancelled several months after they moved all the programmers from Northern California to Seattle.

      As it turns out, a former gaming buddy of mine now works at Turbine in Boston, and is working on this project (in a sysadmin capacity.) Small world! Though, these two friends of mine have never met.

      There's no connection whatsoever between the two projects. The only thing that changed hands was the license, no code or design work.

      (The former Middle Earth developer is now working on Pirates of the Burning Sea, a pirate MMORPG. Which looks cool, in this early stage of development, and I won't say more.)

      --
      -- Kate
  5. there goes another 15 bucks a month by Lucia_Inverse · · Score: 2, Funny

    but hey atleast its not evercrack ;-).... wait... i have a lev 52 wizzard on the karana server... doh....

  6. There's some (bad) name recognition by 0x0d0a · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Yeah, Vivendi. Not exactly a name I'd want to be associated with if I was billing myself as a good game developer...

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    May we never see th
    1. Re:There's some (bad) name recognition by LordYUK · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I wouldnt want to be associated with Vivendi either... its not like they own the best gaming company ever conceived. *Kof*Blizzard*Kof*...

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      This is my sig. Its pathetic.
    2. Re:There's some (bad) name recognition by 0x0d0a · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Vivendi folks are assholes.

      And let's take a look at Blizzard (which does do a damn good job marketing...even if I'm not a fan of their work, I'd want someone like them marketing anything I developed).

      Blackthorne -- boring, stiff movement, repetitive.

      Diablo -- I never saw the point in this game, though *damn* it sold well. You find a monster, click click click, it dies, repeat. Of course, I'd played nethack and zangband before, so I saw it as sort of a pale copy of what's out there -- a lot of folks haven't.

      Diablo II -- Watched, but didn't play. Looked too much like Diablo I.

      Warcraft -- Okay, this is probably one of the more interesting games in their lineup. I didn't ever play Dune 2, so I may be biased, but I enjoyed this, despite the not-so-great unit balance.

      Starcraft -- I'll never understand why so many people like this. It was marketed to *death* ("True 3D environments", blah, blah, blah), and wasn't anywhere *near* as much fun as Total Annihilation. It stuck with Blizzard's micromanagement-based approach to RTSes. Most folks early on did the same thing because Warcraft sold so well and they were cloning it, but the market's finally realized that micromanagement isn't so much fun, and is pretty much shifting away from it. Most modern RTSes let you select as many units as you want, build up queues a long way, preset some orders (and in TA's case, preset general behavior). Take a look at, say, Rise of Nations.

      Warcraft II -- pretty much same problems as Starcraft.

      Warcraft III -- haven't played it -- looks too much like WC II.

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      May we never see th
  7. An unfortunate built in limit by MBraynard · · Score: 5, Insightful
    MMORPG's require constant updates to add new quests/content. Given how limited the liscence is for this game - "We're only allowed to use the Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, and parts of the appendices, which are not in the Silmarillion" - how are they going to grow beyong the licence of the game in those books?

    This compares to the Star Wars games, where Lucas has approved an entire expanded lore, as has Paramount with Star Trek.

    Ultimatly, this game will force the creation of non-Tolkien, expanded lore or it will fail.

    1. Re:An unfortunate built in limit by gl4ss · · Score: 3, Insightful

      they don't really have to. if they just slap up a world with all the cities described in lotr&hobbit, it's really enough.

      basically, if it's set around the war of the ring or near those times, there's no need to poke into silmarillion described parts of the world.

      besides, it's an mmorpg, my belief is that most of the game is going to end up killing the rats in some big woods with most of the other players doing the same, so it doesn't really matter if you can't 'go west' so to speak. now, if it had same aspects of freedom as morrowind it might be fun.

      -

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      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    2. Re:An unfortunate built in limit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, considering most of the stuff in the silmarillion is now at the bottom of the ocean...

  8. Sorry but i've got to ask by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Did i change something in my user preferences or are their suddenly tons of game related stories ?

  9. My first reaction by General+Wesc · · Score: 1

    "They misspelt Middle-earth; I won't play."

    But looking in the article, they get it right: "Middle-earth". They also get it wrong: "Middle Earth". They also get it wrong another way: "Middle-Earth". Three ways of spelling the same thing in a single article. Does anyone know which one the actual game uses?

    1. Re:My first reaction by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think the game spells it "pedantic nerd".

  10. Ooh, the Cracks of Doom quest! by SnowDog_2112 · · Score: 2, Funny

    I personally can't wait to see Tolkien's world totally trashed by hordes of power-leveling script kiddies, talking about pwning the Balrog and camping Orthanc.

    I found this somewhat amusing, speaking of MMORPG + LOTR.

    Funnier than this similar parody, at least.

    Another one ....

    (There's another one out there which is funnier, but I can't find it. My leet Google skills have failed me....)

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    Not representing or approved by my company or anybody else.
  11. What about Total Annihilation 2? by Sparky9292 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Chris Taylor should create a new RTS that similar to Total Annihilation. Dungeon Siege flopped, and we don't need yet another pay-per-play MMORPG.

    Total Annihilation was a revolutionary RTS game which even today still surpases todays RTS with waypoints, build queues, air/naval/army/tank units, fantastic mod capability, and cool weaponry.

    1. Re:What about Total Annihilation 2? by *NewDis* · · Score: 1

      If Dungeon Siege flopped why are they making a DS 2? There will never be enough LOTR stuff, excluding games the games need to be better! I think DS is a good game and is a better moder than any other RPG, i mean they are taking the engine and the chars and making it into an RTS mod already.

    2. Re:What about Total Annihilation 2? by mayns · · Score: 3, Informative

      Um, wrong Chris Taylor. This is the one that worked on Fallout, not the one that did Dungeon Siege.

  12. The sadness of it all... by sindarin2001 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I'm a Tolkien fanboy...no question about it. I can't help but wonder if this game will damage his creation (Middle-Earth). I don't know how they are going to effectivelly make a MMORPG out of this...there are only a few main characters (maybe around 25 at the most). How can they have a million and a half Aragorns running around in a Middle-Earth. If they start making up their own characters, it will throw the whole basis of the storyline off...especially if they can't touch the Silmarillion. At least the Silmarillion left enough open stories to make a better game...LOTR is such a closed and set in stone story to make a MMORPG of it. I could see an RPG, but a MMORPG won't work. I for one, won't buy it...regardless of my high regards for the original author. I may play a little of it at a friends house or something, but I have no desire to support the tainting.

  13. I want to see by zephc · · Score: 1

    a Never Ending Story MMORPG. There's all the stuff from the first book/movie (I consider all the later movies as non-canon content, because they sucked), all the creatures and species, like the Plains People Who Hunt the Purple Buffalo, the Rock Biters, etc., and the game could revolve around people doing things to help stem any incursion of The Nothing, though I'm not exactly sure how right now.

    --
    "I would say that 99 per cent of what my father has written about his own life is false." - L. Ron Hubbard Jr.
    1. Re:I want to see by HunterCat · · Score: 1

      There are several canidates out there for Never Ending MMORPGs, but I would think the time and dedication needed for such a project would not be there in today's "quick buck" world. Sad. Right now I am doing the month-to-month games at Everwars. At least the guys incharge actually listen to suggestions as they ahve made changes to each version based on fan input. To check it out (it is free), you can click here: Everwars

  14. No Linux client? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ouch, there goes half of their potential customer base.