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.

Comments

Virtual Economies

[Raindance]

Can you talk a little bit about the challenges involved in setting up a virtual economy? Did you employ any professional economists to help design in the design or was it all off-the-cuff?

End Game

[MontyApollo]

Do you have a plan to deal with the destruction of the one ring, as in does the game end then? Any consideration of opening up the entire game map at that point for a massive PvP war?

Farming?

[ookabooka]

Many RPG's and MMORPG's to some degree encourage farming (playing the game in a way that isn't entertaining but to increase your virtual wealth). This monotonous activity leads to bots and other forms of automating the game.

Have you done anything to decrease (or possibly eliminate) the need to farm, and if not what is your stance towards automated play?

Re:Virtual Economies (follow up).

[maroberts]

Do you have any plans to deal with Gold Farming?

I would doubt it, after all its a racial characteristic of Dwarves and Dragons.

Linux Port

[EvilRyry]

So, when is the Linux port coming out? (Yes, I've read the FAQ)

What would the professor think?

[Himring]

Tolkien was, to say the least, picky about his work. He specifically expressed it should never be dramatized and also made it clear that no one should dare edit the writings besides his son, Christopher.

As an avid fan who knows this, how can you justify, to me, putting the professor's world into a game genre. Why should I play it knowing Tolkien would most likely disapprove?

Re:WoW influence

[Kleedrac2]

As an avid WoW player I always keep one eye open (no pun intended) to see what the next "big thing" is going to be. Why should I consider switching to your game and what advantages do you claim over WoW?

Lessons Learned

[Mac_Daddy]

In light of the eventual closure of Asheron's Call 2, what were the biggest lessons you and the rest of Turbine have learned?

Leap of faith...

[Last_Available_Usern]

Your team no doubt learned from all of the succeses and failures within World of Warcraft and did their best to retain what aspects had player appeal and shy away from those that illicited public outcry. Stepping away from those choices, what would you say was the most daring leap of faith the team made in the game mechanics, balance, graphics, or any other facet that jumps out at you? Is there anything in the game that really made you say, "Dang, we're hanging our butts out there on this one, but we believe in this feature/mechanic and are gonna run with it."

Re:Polish

[maroberts]

A rational follow on to the previous post is whether LOTR is going to encourage the independently developed add-on/plug-ins that WoW has done.

What is the end-game?

[Vicegrip]

Where World of Warcraft has largely failed in my mind is in the end-game. Here the content is, aside from reputation quests, entirely Raid driven and controlled by harsh unforgiving bosses and large time sinks. Blizzard's PVP system isn't really anything to get excited about as it is totally un-interesting outside of arenas.

Essentially, there is no other story line in World of Warcraft other than to kill Illidan and spend a lot of time farming farming farming for reputation. I so miss the innovations that Ultima Online had with housing or seafaring ten years ago.

What does LOTR bring to the table in the end-game that makes it different from other MMOs?

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.