JRR Tolkien
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Amazon is making a 'Lord of the Rings' MMO
Amazon is prepping an online RPG set in the 'Lord of the Rings' stories.
'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power' trailer hints at Sauron's return
Amazon's full 'The Rings of Power' trailer warns that Sauron is coming back.
Amazon's Lord of the Rings series arrives on September 2, 2022
You can venture to Middle-Earth once again in 13 months.
Amazon's 'Lord of the Rings' team includes 'Breaking Bad' and HBO alumni
Amazon hasn't officially revealed the cast of its much-hyped Lord of the Rings series, but it's more than willing to talk about the creative team. The internet pioneer has unveiled the producers and writers behind the Tolkien-based show, and many of them are responsible for beloved shows -- even if you're not particularly familiar with the names involved. Showrunners JD Payne and Patrick McKay are just part of the picture.
Amazon teases when its 'Lord of the Rings' series will take place
Amazon has offered precious little information about its forthcoming Lord of the Rings series, but some Twitter and Instagram teases that started last month are finally bearing fruit. Previous posts showed the map of Middle-earth slowly being filled in with more info, and today's reveal gives a good idea of where the show will focus. The island of Númenor was added to the map, something you won't usually find on most Middle-earth maps. That's because the island was destroyed at the end of the Second Age, thousands of years before the events of The Lord of the Rings.
Professor to hold open course in Lord of the Rings Online, asks for bodyguards
Dr. Corey Olsen, better known as Washington College's Tolkien Professor, will be holding an open course in Lord of the Rings Online for any and all who would like to understand the lore of the books by exploring the game. The course will take place on the Landroval server. Here, Olsen (who has a mid-level Guardian) will go through the epic storyline, explore the areas, and compare those to passages from Tolkien's writings. He asked for players to help fight off mobs during his explorations so that he will be free to examine and lecture without distraction. Olsen's teachings will initially be livestreamed on LotRO's official Twitch channel, although the course will be recorded for viewing later on as well. No dates for the course have been set as of yet. [Thanks to Braxwolf for the tip!]
You shall use this season pass for Shadow of Mordor add-ons
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is getting the season pass treatment, giving players bonus content when the game launches on September 30. Season pass holders will receive the exclusive Guardians of the Flaming Eye Orc Warband mission, early access to the Trials of War series of challenges and two story missions: Lord of the Hunt and The Bright Lord. Additionally, those that opt-in to the season pass program will be guaranteed access to future add-on content like runes and skins. Monolith's adventure based in the Tolkien-o-verse was previously expected to launch on October 7 before Warner Bros. moved the game's launch up last month to late September (October 3 in the UK). The publisher did not offer a price for the season pass, though it's not the only method of obtaining extra goodies for Shadow of Mordor; PS4 owners that pre-order the game will receive exclusive "PlayStation Legion Missions." Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is in development for PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC. [Image: WBIE]
Overheard@Gamescom: Fly, you fool!
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor isn't canon, but developer Monolith intends to respect JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings series as the game borrows the books' characters, settings and lore – and some of their famous lines. In a demo at Gamescom, Designer Michael De Plater showed off a scene where Talion, a ranger who exists between the living and spirit worlds, finds himself facing a giant, angry Graug in a dark cave. Powerful as he is, Talion can't face the beast alone yet, so his only recourse is to run. Talion's ghostly guide, the elven ringsmith Celebrimbor, offers the following piece of advice: "Fly, you fool!" This mirrors the last thing that Gandalf the Grey says to Frodo and his companions in the Mines of Moria near the end of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. The line was brought to more public fame in the 2001 film, and it plays an important role in speculation concerning the eagle plot hole in the series. Also concerning hobbits. [Image: Warner Bros]
Gollum debuts in Shadow of Mordor behind the scenes clip
While Red Dead Redemption writer Christian Cantamessa and BioShock Infinite voice actor Troy Baker discuss how Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor is both an original tale and faithful to J.R.R. Tolkien's immense canon, a familiar, gangly, wide-eyed figure peers into the camera like a paranoid bushbaby. [Image: WBIE]
Barely Related: Doctor Who airs in August, Wright exits Ant-Man
Deep breaths, everyone. The week is almost done. Welcome to Barely Related, a conversational Friday column that presents the non-gaming news stories that we, the Joystiq staff, have been talking about over the past week. And no, we're not stopping our focus on industry and gaming news. Think of this as your casual weekly recap of interesting (and mostly geeky) news, presented just in time to fill your brain with things to discuss at all of those weekend shindigs. Grab a fresh drink, lean back in your armchair, and get ready to talk nerdy with us.
Lord of the Rings Online renews license through 2017
Turbine has secured the license for Lord of the Rings Online -- for a few more years, at least. Community Manager Rick Heaton confirmed the license renewal on the official forums today: "I just wanted to drop in and address the concerns surrounding the license, again. We have said as far back as July of 2013, we plan to support LotRO for many years to come. I really want to be as clear as possible on this subject to avoid any further confusion or misunderstanding. The license was renewed." For more on the issue of LotRO and the license to Tolkien's works, you can check out last year's Road to Mordor column on the subject.
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor takes the Tolkien universe to next-gen systems
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is a new third-person action game in development by Monolith Productions, publisher Warner Bros. announced today. As the title indicates, the game is placed in J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings universe, and has players assuming the guise of the "valiant ranger" Talion. Both Talion and his family are killed by series baddie Sauron, leading to Talion's resurrection by a rather vengeful spirit that grants him Wraith-like supernatural abilities. Warner Bros. boasted a "dynamic world" in the game that is expected to remember and adapt to players' choices as well as "craft their own battles, enemies and rewards." While no release date was given for Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, the game will arrive on Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS4, PS3 and PC.
The Hobbit makes Unexpected Journey to browsers, mobile in Armies of the Third Age
Kabam has launched a new free-to-play browser tie-in, called The Hobbit: Armies of the Third Age, in which players build strongholds and wage war.Three factions – Orcs, Elves and Dwarves – are in the game, which is playable on a PC web browser or through a free app on both iOS and Android. Popular figures from the Tolkien universe like Legolas and Thorin can be seen taking the field, though we suggest maybe fighting far away from them. If you've seen either dude throw down in their respective movies, then you just know their prowess is only gonna make you look bad on the battlefield.
The Daily Grind: Do you like weapon glow effects?
Blame J.R.R. Tolkien for coming up with a weapon that included a handy glow app so that a blue light around it would appear if Orcs or Amway representatives were nearby. While it may have not been the first glowy weapon in fiction, it certainly helped to propel the notion that really cool daggers, swords, spears, and whatnot all included nightlights. MMOs are replete with glowy weapons, are they not? These weapons usually include such an effect to signify them as elite or high-level. We've seen everything from a rainbow of glows to flames to crackling electricity emanate from an unsheathed weapon. But the question for today is whether or not you like it. Are glowy weapons a visual treat or an annoying distraction for you? Will you go out of your way to obtain one or are you ambivalent toward them? And if you do like them, what's your all-time favorite weapon visual effect? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
The Road to Mordor: LotRO's next four expansions
With under a month to go until Riders of Rohan hits the digital starting gate and gallops past the horse metaphor, expansions are weighing heavily upon my mind. I'm excited about horse combat and a break from traditional questing (to a point), but I'm also hoping that Lord of the Rings Online's fourth expansion will prove far more compelling than its previous one turned out to be. LotRO may be coasting into its middle-age years (in MMOs, every year in real life is like nine for the game), but it still has quite a bit of life -- and journey -- ahead of it. Unlike every other MMO out there, this title has a specific story it's following from beginning to end. Maybe we get off the beaten path of Tolkien's works now and then, but our fate as players is intertwined with the fates of Frodo and the One Ring. It gives us the advantage of knowing more about our future in the game than we would have otherwise. So today I'm putting on my prognostication cap and giving you all the skinny on Lord of the Rings Online's next four expansions past Riders of Rohan. I have no insider knowledge, just a gut feeling and a time-traveling buddy named Soren from the year 2020.
The Soapbox: This fantasy is far from fantastic
Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. "More innovation!" is the common rallying cry of the disgruntled MMO player. Push forward the genre, build awe-inspiring giant statues instead of sixth grade art projects, do that one magic thing that nobody can agree on to make this genre as fresh and great and interesting as it was. You know, as it was when you first got into these games, that is. For all of the "more innovation!" speeches that I've seen, I never see the one that touches on the most irksome areas of stagnation in the industry, and that is how incredibly lame most MMO fantasy worlds are. Cut 'n' paste, mix and match elements between any two fantasy MMOs, and I guarantee you that nobody would really notice. The truth is that for all their desire to be seen as unique and special, most of these games feature a world carbon copied from each other with minor Mad Lib deviations. Case in point: Have you ever realized just how many of these MMO worlds share almost the same name? Start with T, usually end with A, there you go. Telara. Telon. Tyria. Atreia. Taborea. It doesn't stop there, but it really should. MMO designers need to realize that fantasy is more than just D&D and Tolkien derivations and explore the unlimited scope of what the genre could be.
The Road to Mordor: Is LotRO's questing system over the hill?
There's a good chance you're not reading this column right now but instead are fully immersed in the weekend beta for Guild Wars 2: Guild Harder. That's OK. I won't hold it against you -- I may even be playing it as well. Oh, those ArenaNet folks. They make such lofty promises, don't they? They're going to rewrite MMOs as we know them and show us once and for all that we've been playing with Tinker Toys when we could have fully functional jetpacks and whatnot. I don't harbor any ill will against Guild Wars 2; in fact, I'm quite looking forward to it. But as everyone's focused on the game's excising of traditional questing as popularized by World of Warcraft, I thought it would be worth examining just how dated Lord of the Rings Online's questing system has become, if at all. In an era of dynamic events, public quests, full voice-over, and other techniques designed to get us away from the text box questing model, will LotRO hold its ground against these fads or is it truly becoming a relic of the past? Let's dig in!
The Road to Mordor: Double dragons
Last week Turbine released the concept art for one of its major bosses from the upcoming Rise of Isengard expansion: Draigoch. With it came a number of appropriate "oohs" and "ahhs," and no doubt raiders began thinking up uses for a giant dragon skull in their homes. But there was also a crowd that popped out to cry foul about lore molestation -- that this was a blatant example of Turbine pandering to MMO players by including the expected dragons even when the lore shouldn't support it. A couple examples of quotes, first. "Yet whatever way you cut this idea, how can you integrate another dragon into the story? Smaug was the last one of his kind," Contains Moderate Peril complains. A commenter on our article sniped, "So Turbine's decided to entirely drop the pretense of sticking to the lore, then?" Ouch. As much as I am totally not attached to MMO lore in general, I feel like this might be a good time to both address this particular argument and also the larger one of Turbine's approach to Tolkien's world. Are giant dragons lore-breaking? Does Turbine simply not care about remaining faithful to source material? Do you have my decaf light mocha with cinnamon sprinkles?
LotRO's Rise of Isengard beta begins July 27th
Feel like the road trip to Mordor isn't getting there as fast as you'd like? Good news, everyone -- Turbine's about ready to pull out of the gas station and truck toward Isengard! Today the studio announced that the beta program for Lord of the Rings Online's Rise of Isengard expansion will begin next Wednesday, July 27th. Invites will be going out to select players across North America and Europe, although the NDA forbids participants from even mentioning that they're part of the program. Those who have pre-ordered the digital expansion will have "preferred access" to the beta, so that seems like your best bet if you're interested. Rise of Isengard will release on September 27th, and contains a level cap increase to 75, three new zones and a 24-person raid against the dragon Draigoch. The expansion heads deep into the territory mentioned in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Two Towers.
The Road to Mordor: A talk with the crew of The Fellows Hip: Rise of the Gamers
Buzz has been increasing about an intriguing independent film that looks to blend Tolkien love, geek pride, and Lord of the Rings Online fandom into one epic adventure. Called The Fellows Hip: Rise of the Gamers, this movie is about a group of friends who undertake a journey to a convention in order to participate in a LotRO gaming competition (and stick it to some bullies while they're at it). Many blogs, such as LOTRO Reporter and A Casual Stroll to Mordor, have promoted this up-and-coming film, and after seeing the trailer, we too became fascinated with what could be a fun movie that puts MMO gaming front and center. One may not simply walk into Mordor, but with the right connections, one could phone the folks up there. We got on the line with three crew members for The Fellows Hip -- Ron Newcomb (producer, director and writer), Scott Mathais (producer and writer), and Shane McClung (producer) -- to see just what type of lovable insanity would cause a group of people to throw together such a movie.
