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The Road to Mordor: Lord of the Ring Online's roadmap for 2014
It's time for our final Lord of the Rings Online column of the year, so it's quite fitting that we use this space to discuss Executive Producer Kate Paiz's letter outlining what the LotRO community should expect come next year. Before we begin, I want to mention that I have a mixed reaction to these letters from Turbine. On one hand, I love knowing what's coming and appreciate the attempt made to inform. On the other, these letters can be maddeningly vague on specifics (Turbine likes its "broad strokes" when releasing future info to fans), giving a "trust us, everything's going to be OK, but we're not going to say exactly how right now" vibe. I've grown weary of that. This letter in particular should have been as specific as possible. There's been a huge swirl of discussion surrounding the letter, moreso than in previous years, due to the "bombshell" that there will be no expansion in 2014. I've been talking with friends about it and listening to what folks are saying, and I could make a case for this being the worst thing for the game and the best. But you don't come here for other people's opinions; you come for mine. Bring it on, 2014. I'm nothing but opinionated about this game.
Lord of the Rings Online forgoes expansions in 2014
Hey LotRO -- no expansion for you! In a letter to players today, Lord of the Rings Online's Executive Producer Kate Paiz announced that the game would not have any expansions in 2014. That doesn't mean that the game won't have any additional content, however; instead of one big avalanche of content at once, the goal is to "focus on a steady flow of content throughout the year." The content that rolls in over the coming months will be free for VIP subscribers. Paiz continues on to ask for suggestions about inventory and festivals as well as touches on housing, noting that that particular conversation will be continued throughout the year.
The Road to Mordor: Still waiting for (better) housing in LotRO
In all of the excitement of Helm's Deep and the changes that it brought, it was pretty easy to forget that we are running out the clock on 2013 and the devs have yet to do anything about housing other than evict a lot of bums and fiddle with the chests. Remember that promise? One of Executive Producer Kate Paiz's four big initiatives for the year? Let me refresh your memory, as Paiz said in January 2013: "I am extremely pleased to say that this year we will be tackling a major revision to the Housing system." Well, bad news folks: It's not coming this year. I pinged Turbine for a comment about this, and Producer Hannah Foell responded by saying, "After some excellent feedback from the Player's Council we elected to spend more time on it and push the housing update back to next year." This is disappointing though not surprising. I've had the feeling that Turbine's been "behind" with Lord of the Rings Online this year, especially considering the expansion testing and release, and the studio's been visibly reluctant to get moving on a housing revamp, going so far as to downplay expectations by the community. So if we're not getting any improvements to housing in 2013, then I have time to ponder what this system needs. And since I'm not on this super-secretive and super-mysterious player council, you can hear what my thoughts are right now.
The Road to Mordor: The coming LotRO class apocalypse and how you can survive it
Out of the four primary goals that the Lord of the Rings Online team has stated for 2013, the promise of class revamps has proven to be the most nerve-wracking -- and intriguing -- among the populace. After all, when you say that "significant changes" are coming to classes and don't follow up with any sort of significant details, speculation and worry is going to run amok. Last September I argued that classes did need a shakeup. While the whole structure isn't without its redeeming (ahem) virtues, I believed that it wasn't intuitive for new players, that there wasn't really any growth in the abilities or builds of characters post-Moria, and that much of the deed system was simply too grindy. That's why I'm cautiously optimistic about the "coming class apocalypse" in 2013 -- I'm tired of the status quo. LotRO has an opportunity to cut the dead weight and make leveling interesting all over again. Let's take a look at a few statements by the dev team to deduce what we'll be looking at when it happens.
LotRO commits to housing revamp, player council, and more Rohan in 2013
Turbine's Kate Paiz might be brief in her Lord of the Rings Online producer's letter, but this economy of words holds a treasure trove of ideas for the year. In the letter, she outlines the primary goals for the game in 2013, including a much-requested housing revamp and further expansion into the Rohan region. Paiz outlines four initiatives for the year. The first is forming a player's council to facilitate discussion and feedback between players and the dev team. The second is adding Western Rohan to the game, initially through a region called Wildermore in the spring and later through a bigger addition in the fall. The third is the aforementioned housing revamp, which will take place later in the year. The fourth initiative is an effort by the team to make "significant changes" to classes. "We will be making some significant changes to the skills and traits of the Free Peoples classes," Paiz writes. "We'll be pruning out skills that just feel disappointing in play and increasing the potency of others. The end result will be fewer skills, but a more profound impact on moment-to-moment play."
Lord of the Rings Online gets a Mac client
Lord of the Rings Online is a massively multiplayer game run by Turbine Entertainment based on JRR Tolkien's popular fantasy fiction series. The game first went live back in 2007, but a few years ago transitioned over to a free-to-play model, aiming to bring in a large audience of free players supported by a smaller group of people paying for microtransaction items. Now, after "planning and discussing and working on this for quite some time," Turbine's VP of Product Development Craig Alexander told TUAW in an exclusive interview that Turbine is releasing a Mac client for Lord of the Rings Online this week, bringing the free-to-play game to Apple's platform and the Mac audience. The client is now live, and can be downloaded directly from this link. The Mac platform has been making leaps and bounds forward in options for gamers lately. Steam famously brought its platform over to Apple's personal computers recently, as have several other developers. Turbine first considered bringing Lord of the Rings Online to Mac back when the game went free-to-play, said Alexander, but the reason it took so long was because the company decided to build a native port for the game rather than depend on emulation or other similar methods. "Trying to outsource the task just didn't make sense," said Alexander. Kate Paiz is the executive producer of the game, and she said that because the Mac client is native, it'll be the exact same game on the Mac as it is on the PC. "It'll all just work natively," she told TUAW. "The Mac stuff will work through the same patcher." The Mac game itself won't have any extra features or experiences exclusive to the Mac, but Paiz said the team always tries to figure out how to best welcome new players, and was thinking about the Mac client even while developing the game's latest expansion, Riders of Rohan, released a few weeks ago. The current launch of the game will be as a beta client, downloadable directly from Turbine that will simply sign into the game's live servers. A closed beta has been active for a few months, so this is essentially an open beta period starting now. Turbine expects to maintain and update that client over time, fixing any problems that users have. Alexander said that as the client moves out of beta, the company will consider making it available on Steam or other downloadable platforms. The Mac App Store probably isn't a possibility just yet, because Turbine depends on the game's microtransactions for profit, and running those through Apple's marketplace would just cost too much at this point. But Turbine is expecting both to see current players excited to run the game natively on their favorite computers, and new players interested in a free-to-play experience on OS X. "There haven't been a lot of MMOs or free-to-play games on the Mac yet, which we think is an opportunity, " said Alexander. "We're hopeful we're going to get lots of new players." And Paiz said that Turbine is happy to have Mac users on board. "We're very excited to welcome the Mac community firsthand ... We'd like to see what this IP and this game means to them personally."
Lord of the Rings: Riders of Rohan delayed until October 15th
For those on their mounts, eagerly awaiting the charge into the lands of Rohan, Turbine has one word for you: Whoa. The studio announced that it is delaying the launch of Lord of the Rings: Riders of Rohan from September 5th until October 15th. Executive Producer Kate Paiz sent out the following letter to fans explaining the delay: We've had a very successful Beta program with some of the largest and most active beta player populations we've seen since Moria. The amount and quality of feedback on our largest expansion ever has been fantastic. Thanks to some great efforts from beta players, we've identified issues that we think need to be addressed before we can launch. In order to address those issues and meet our expectations for quality we're going to need more time. As a result, we've elected to delay our launch to October 15th. Paiz thanked players for their patience and promised a gift for all those who have pre-purchased the expansion. This gift will arrive around September 5th in the form of 500 Turbine Points and a bag of consumables.
Latest Lord of the Rings Online dev diary explores creating the characters of Rohan
Adding to the stampede of developer diaries focusing on Lord of the Ring Online's upcoming expansion Riders of Rohan, Turbine has released the fourth episode of Bringing Rohan to Life titled Creating the Character. In this video, Executive producer Kate Paiz talks about how working with the live action teaser gave a deeper insight into feelings and the moment-to-moment lives of the characters in Rohan. Utilizing these insights, Director Mitch Cohen states, "We're creating a three-dimensional world through their performances." But Tolkien purists need not worry that the expansion is based heavily on that short clip made just for the game. Todd Demelle, Online Art Director, notes that the team relied heavily on Tolkien's text to get the feel of Rohan. He highlighted the importance of authenticity, stating that the team was "focusing a lot on authenticity, making sure that the materials and the construction and the various things that make up the Rohan culture are as true as authentic as [it] can make them." The video also treats viewers to some of the vistas in-game. Check it out after the break. [Source: Turbine press release]
Riding into Rohan: LotRO maps out 2012
In the words of Frank Sinatra, 2011 "was a very good year" for Lord of the Rings Online. Executive Producer Kate Paiz and Director of Communications Adam Mersky sat down with us to talk about the future of the game, but before they got to the juicy details, they wanted to give a quick recap of the previous year for the game and the studio. The big emphasis for LotRO in 2011 was the unifying of the global community and the release of the game's third (and best-selling) expansion, Rise of Isengard. While the aforementioned unification of the NA and EU sides of the game presented many challenges for the team including localization, it paid off in spades. Turbine plans to continue to add more payment options for those used to methods other than the ones currently available. The team was most proud of unveiling Saruman "in all of his glory" and the inclusion of free players into the sphere of Monster Play. "The game definitely grew last year," Mersky said in response to a question about the current number of players. He noted that the playerbase has changed somewhat in the past two years, becoming more casual in some respects. But it's time to move forward! Turbine is prepared to take LotRO players on a dizzying chase around the wilds of Middle-earth with a few significant changes and additions to the game -- and the release of the brand-new expansion later this year, Riders of Rohan. Mounted combat, ho!
The Road to Mordor: Not all who wander are lost
These are exciting times for Lord of the Rings Online, for sure. The Fellowship -- and hundreds of thousands of groupies following in its wake -- has moved south, and we are growing ever closer to Mordor and Mt. Doom. In a month, Middle-earth will grow significantly with the addition of Rise of Isengard, and level-capped players will suddenly have a whole new buffet of content to devour. It's also a good era for exposure for the game, as plenty of people will get to see the expansion at Gamescom and PAX, not to mention those already in the beta proper. While we haven't heard anything about the game's finances or player numbers lately, there's no reason to believe that it's not still going strong. That said, I want to take a step back today, as I sometimes do, and look at the larger picture. How is LotRO positioned against the current competition and the heavy-hitters yet to come? What does Turbine need to be working on over the next year or two? Are we just wandering aimlessly, or is the path laid out for journey for a long time to come?
LotRO March Producer's letter offers glimpse of fun to come
It's been a busy month for Lord of the Rings Online, with Update 2: Echoes of the Dead going live, tons of players checking out all the improvements and new content available to them, and the popular Spring Festival already underway. However, Turbine isn't resting on its laurels. According to the March Producer's letter by Kate Paiz, Executive Producer for Lord of the Rings Online, there are even more cool things planned for the not-too-distant future. Not only does Paiz touch on all the great content just introduced to the game in Update 2, but she notes that LotRO's fourth anniversary is coming up in April, that will see the addition of a new in-game Anniversary Festival celebration. Along with that, players can look forward to an unnamed treasure-hunting event, which will "likely be open for play periodically over the year." There are also some more tasty tidbits on Update 3, with a note that we'll hear more details about Isengard a little later down the road. In all, if you call Middle-earth your MMO home, you'll want to pop by the Lord of the Rings Online site and check out all the details the newest Producer's Letter has to offer.
PAX East 2011: Delving LotRO dungeons deeply
Right now, Lord of the Rings Online is in a brief respite between the insanity of PAX East and the upcoming March 21st release date for its next big update, Echoes of the Dead. To say that there's a lot coming with this update is a vast understatement, so it was great to get a sneak peek at the five new instances before they went live. Earlier this year, players started to get rumblings about a major upcoming event as five mysterious relics popped up all over Middle-earth in Evendim, Forochel, Enedwaith, North Downs and the Trollshaws. By finding all five, players completed a special deed and got the title "Calm Before the Storm," foreshadowing dire events to follow. All anyone could do after that was prepare for an uncertain future. It turns out that LotRO's players had good reason to prepare, because as of next week, five new dungeons will open their doors for business -- the business of eating adventurers alive and spitting out their bones, that is. Spurned Gaunt-lords have returned to make life for the Free Peoples of Middle-earth harder by transforming the very landscape into their hellish domain, and it's up to you to thwart their schemes. Hit the jump as we traveled to these new instances at PAX East with LotRO Executive Producer Kate Paiz!
Turbine: LotRO revenue tripled since going F2P
Lord of the Rings Online's future is so bright, it's wearing shades these days. At least, according to a new interview at TTH, where LotRO's Kate Paiz and Adam Mersky opened up about the success of the free-to-play conversion. Turbine has seen LotRO's profits triple since F2P along with a huge influx of new players, and that spells good news for the future of the game. The duo turned its attention to the upcoming year for LotRO, which includes the Rise of Isengard expansion. While Paiz and Mersky didn't indicate whether there would be any new zones between now and then, they did confirm that the epic story would be continued, leading up to the confrontation between the rangers and Saruman's growing forces. Rise of Isengard will feature a push to the south with the Dunland and Gap of Isengard zones, whereas Isengard proper will pit players against the foul forces of the Tower of Orthanc. Isengard isn't the only thing players have to look forward to in the next year -- a big cosmetic system revamp is planned along with non-combat pets. Hardcore players also have a new raid cluster to look forward to before Isengard's release. Other possibilities for the future? Cosmetic weapons, a Rohan expansion and the Battle of Helm's Deep are all on the table. [Thanks A Casual Stroll to Mordor!]
The Road to Mordor: A year in Middle-earth
What a difference a year makes, eh? One year ago, and you didn't have to put up with me yammering at you every Friday like a hyperactive badger with a personality disorder. One year ago, and we weren't free-to-play-anything, Turbine was its own company, the festivals were nowhere near as cool as they are today, and shrews freely roamed the land without fear of reprisal. So in my last Road to Mordor (of the year, stop rejoicing over there!), I thought it'd be great to look back at the wild rollercoaster that was 2010 in Lord of the Rings Online. I also thought I'd get an easy column out of all this, but that was before I had to read through 1,337 posts and my eyeballs began to lose pressure. January Stuff happened. Let's move on.
The Perfect Ten: The movers and shakers of 2010
Even though MMOs are the products of great teams of talented workers -- from sound artists to writers -- it's inevitable that a few of the people behind the curtain step out into the limelight. It's a smart move, really; it provides a personal face for people to associate with the game, it keeps messages consistent, and it draws any potential hate onto one person instead of the team at large. It stands to reason that these public figures end up being some of the major movers and shakers in the industry because of their high-profile positions. From CEOs to community managers, these are the people with power to make decisions, the voice to change opinions, and the personalities to inspire millions. Oh, that last sentence is pure poetry. Let's re-read it again, shall we? So in our last Perfect Ten of the year, I've asked the Massively team to compile a list of the 10 biggest MMO movers and shakers of this year. All of these people now owe us cupcakes of gratitude. (Legal Disclaimer: This does not signify a binding cupcake-blogger contract.)
Kate Paiz answers the "Whys" of LotRO's changes
When a parent tells a kid to do something, the immediate follow-up question is invariably, "Why?" Likewise, Lord of the Rings Online's Kate Paiz knows that players are constantly asking "Why?" when Turbine makes any additions or changes to the game, which is why she spends a bulk of her December Producer's Letter explaining the company's actions and decisions. Paiz says that the team saw that not enough F2P players were heading into the Lone-lands, which is why they made the zone's quest pack free for everyone. Other deep LotRO secrets she reveals are the reasons behind removal of radiance, dual upgrades to the legendary item system, the addition of cosmetic pets for all (which may provide buffs when used!), and the expansion of Monster Play so that all tiers of players can participate. She also shares an encouraging word about the financial state of the game: "Revenues for the game have continued to increase. While we are getting some great feedback on what the LotRO Store can do better and what other items you'd like to find there, Store usage continues to be much higher than industry averages!" You can read the full Producer's Letter over at LotRO's website.
LotRO producer's letter hints at new "Task" system and more for the future
Since the launch of Lord of the Ring Online's F2P version, there's been an air of both optimism and uncertainty as to the game's future. How will Turbine handle updates from here on out? Will the epic storyline continue or go stagnant? And when oh when will we see giant flying eagle mounts? While she doesn't handle the eagle mount issue, LotRO's Kate Paiz tackles many of these questions and more besides in her first producer's letter following the recent update. Paiz says that the team has shifted the way they're approaching updates: In an effort to get more frequent content to players, not every future update will contain an additional book of the epic storyline -- but the storyline will continue. Paiz then laid out several upcoming features for the November update, including a new "Task" system for low-level players, another revision to the player vault and a fine-tuning of the Lore-master and Rune-keeper classes. Turbine will also be unlocking the two expansions (Mines of Moria and Siege of Mirkwood) for all players to travel through and experience the epic storyline, although the free-to-play crowd will still need to purchase the expansions to unlock quests and deeds in those zones. The future is looking up for LotRO, so head on over to the official site to read the full producer's letter!
Lord of the Rings Online doubles revenue since going free-to-play
Lord of the Rings Online Executive Producer Kate Paiz announced during a panel at GDC Online 2010 today that Turbine has done it again: Lord of the Rings Online has doubled its revenue and created over a million new accounts since going free-to-play early last month. That's the second MMO Turbine has taken from a paid subscription to a hybrid microtransactions-based business model, with Dungeons and Dragons Online doing the same thing last year (important to note: Paiz was in charge of both transitions, switching to LotRO in July). Paiz told us after the panel that LotRO wasn't in trouble, but rather that Turbine did the math and decided the switch would work. "We knew there was more out there for us," she said. Paiz also shared that 20% of LotRO's former players have returned to the game since the switchover, and that the game has seen a 300% increase in peak concurrency, with three times the number of players online simultaneously, and a 400% increase in active players total. 53% of players have used the in-game microtransaction store (which sells everything from mounts and outfits to XP boosts and character slots), and as you can see above, extra storage slots are extremely popular in the store. And even paid subscriptions have increased. Turbine's lesson seems to be that, as Paiz said during the panel, "when you tell people you no longer have to pay for it, they come in droves."
[Updated] Lord of the Rings Online F2P launch date announced
The Turbine crew has been preparing for The Lord of the Rings Online to go free-to-play since the announcement in June, and players have been very interested in a launch date. "This fall" has been the only answer for a while, as developers said they wanted to make sure the game was completely ready before committing to a date. They seem to be pretty certain now, as the announcement of a September 10th launch date came from Turbine early this morning. Executive Producer Kate Paiz gives plenty of credit to the beta testers: "Our LOTRO beta program has been a huge success and we want to thank all of our players who worked with us to get the game ready for launch." [Update: Current and former subscribers can access the game two days early, on September 8th.]
LotRO's Kate Paiz praises community, addresses F2P switch
Over at Mordor or Bust, Lord of the Rings Online's new executive producer Kate Paiz sat down to talk about what's on every hobbit's mind: the transition to LotRO's free-to-play version this fall. Paiz took the reins of LotRO just as the F2P change was announced and is bringing her experience from DDO Unlimited's transition over to LotRO's team. In the interview, Paiz spends a considerable amount of time both praising the community and reassuring it that these changes will benefit the game as a whole. One of the issues she addressed was the lack of Player versus Monster Player (PvMP) combat for non-subscribers, saying that it was necessary for now, but that may change in the future: "While we plan to introduce [PvMP] at some point in the future to the rest of the playerbase, we wanted to first focus on delivering the quality PvE game that we have to players in a way that continued to drive great interest and fun in the game." While she declined to comment on whether Turbine would be giving refunds for lifetime subscribers who purchased that option shortly before the announcement of the F2P change, Paiz did say they'd like to offer lifetime VIP subscriptions again at some point. Paiz also said Turbine has "a lot of ideas" for additional classes, and it is working with the CDC to get LotRO launched in China. You can read the full interview over at Mordor or Bust!
