LordOfTheRingsOnline
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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."
TurpsterVision - Weapon of Choice
TurpsterVision is back with vengeance now with four episodes every month focusing on one MMO at a time. This month, along with the rest of the Massively team, we are venturing deep into Middle Earth and exploring the depths of the Mines of Moria.Hey folks, it's good to be back; MMOs just wouldn't be the same without TurpsterVision! Today we are taking a look at Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria's new Legendary Weapons. I've often wanted to have a sword glow blue and warn me when danger is near. To be honest I'd settle for an iPhone app that would do the same thing. But fortunately for me I don't have to settle for anything less than the real deal, albeit a virtual-real deal.Moria not only granted us two new classes, which I'll be exploring one at a time over the next two weeks, but it also granted players the ability to gain Legendary weapons of old which they can level up alongside their character. But enough reading about it, this is TurpsterVision! Watch on after the break...
Rumor: Turbine to bring Dungeons & Dragons Online to consoles...maybe
It's time to fire up the speculation engine boys and girls, as a pair of developments at Lord of the Rings Online developer Turbine indicate that MMO studio may have aspirations to bring Dungeons & Dragons Online to the living room. The Westwood-based company has posted a job opening for a senior console engineer with a MMO background as well as experience developing on both the Xbox 360 and PS3. Additionally, Turbine made public on its DDO community forum that the game's developers are "working full-tilt on several things that are still under tight wraps," and that "DDO will be getting more and more focus from Turbine's marketing and PR teams over the coming months." While far from conclusive, together this information makes a convincing argument for Turbine prepping its pen-and-paper inspired MMO for the console market. It makes sense, particularly given the company's recent financial investments, part of which Turbine CEO Jim Crowley admitted will go towards expanding the dev's supported platforms. For now, however, we continue to wait for any official word while making saving throws vs. patience and taking all of this with 1D6 grains of salt.
Turbine secures $40 million investment
MMO developer Turbine found its purse a bit heavier this week after securing a $40 million round of financing from a group of investors led by Granite Global Ventures, filling the Lord of the Rings Online creator's total venture capital money bin to around $90 million mark. According to a report by Private Equity Hub, the investment also saw Granite Global's managing partner Hani Nada take a seat on Turbine's board, presumably in order to make sure the money was put to good use and not slipped into the underwear of Elvish hookers after a night on the town. While we remain in the dark as to what exactly the studio will do with its newfound wealth, Turbine is expected to make an announcement regarding its future plans in the next two weeks. [Via GI.biz]
More on Moria: Massively interviews Turbine's Jeffrey Steefel
After last Friday's exciting announcement from Turbine -- the Mines of Moria LotRO expansion -- we were hungry for more. Fortunately, we got it: we managed to sit down with executive producer Jeffrey Steefel, the man behind the news, to quiz him on MoM and all things LotRO. Read on for more on Volume II, nerfbats and an insight into Turbine's development process. For more LotRO coverage don't miss our player Q&A report, teasers and rundown of the teaser site -- and keep your eyes glued to Massively, as we'll bring you all the MoM news we can over the coming months!%Gallery-18340%
Turbine, Tolkien to stay in bed together until 2014 (and beyond)
You know what it's like when it's early morning and so toasty under the covers snuggled up against that someone special that you just don't see any reason to get out bed. We imagine that's a lot like the relationship between The Lord of the Rings Online developer Turbine and Tolkien Enterprises, as the pair have agreed to extend their relationship until 2014 -- with an option to work together for three more years after that -- ensuring that players will be able to continue to frolic and grind their way through Middle Earth.We're very interested to see where Turbine takes the franchise going forward, especially after comments made by executive producer Jeffrey Steefel in January regarding the developer's console-based aspirations for the license. In addition, while no new game announcements have been made, the recent confirmation of a new 2-part Hobbit film finally getting underway would seem to make excellent fodder for the MMO developer, and we expect that the pair will continue to play footsie beneath the sheets for years to come.
Turbine gets new CEO, but what happened to the old one?
Turbine Studios, developer of Lord of the Rings Online and D&D Online, announced a new CEO yesterday to replace long-time CEO Jeff Anderson (pictured). New CEO Jeff Crowley, who came from outside the industry, was brought on board a couple months ago as "one of many [hires] that Turbine has recently made to invest in new talent that will drive the next wave of the company's growth." Translation: The Turbine board wasn't happy with the management or money the company was making and decided to make changes.There's no mention of Anderson's fate in the press release, but word is that he's been pushed out of the company. It'll be interesting to see how Crowley handles the company, Anderson was always the public face of Turbine and its games. It'll also be interesting to see if Crowley survives the behind-the-scenes issues which caused the shakeup in the first place.
The "punctuated equilibrium" of WoW content
Relmstein has posted a quick analysis of what he calls the "punctuated equilibrium" of WoW content patches. In evolutionary biology, there's a theory that species change not gradually over time, but in quick bursts of dynamic change. And Relmstein applies this idea to WoW's own population changes-- the playerbase seems to grow in quick leaps when brand new content is introduced, but slows down and even falls off when standard bugs are being fixed, or not much content is being patched.What's really interesting, however, is that Relmstein then compares WoW's changes to the effects that content schedule has on other MMO releases. Lord of the Rings Online and Guild Wars (which are WoW's two worthy opponents) both released during downtime (after Burning Crusade and after the vanilla release, respectively). And on the other side of the spectrum, both Vanguard and Everquest 2 tried to go directly up against new WoW content, and, as Relmstein says, got steamrolled.So looking towards the future, it's not hard to see what might happen. Wrath of the Lich King will make a big splash for sure, both bringing lots of players back, and maybe even bringing new players (who played Warcraft III and want to see Arthas) into the fold. Games like Age of Conan and Warhammer Online may try to go up against it, but it wouldn't be a good idea-- they'd be better off waiting until about a month after the expansion, when many players have reached 80, seen what they can see in Northrend, and Blizzard is confined to bugfixes and small content updates. Of course, a WoW content break isn't all these games need-- they still need to be good games by themselves. But placing themselves in this downtime between new content will give them a much better chance to woo more players away from Azeroth.
WoW's "worthy competitors"
The Houston Chronicle has a short piece up about what they call WoW's two competitors: Lord of the Rings Online and Guild Wars. Interesting choices -- LotRO is, obviously, an MMO based on Tolkien's famous books, and Guild Wars is actually not an MMO in the traditional sense at all -- there's no monthly fee, and the whole thing works a lot more like Battle.net does, where you can play a hero both in a solo game and in an online environment (not surprising, considering the developers used to work for Blizzard).While both games are reviewed well, neither of them quite matches up to our favorite game. But as I'm sure lots of you know (I'm guessing that most of you have played either one or both-- I've only played Guild Wars), each game does have some elements that could give WoW a run for its money. Most interesting, LotRO is planning to put player housing in a future patch, and Guild Wars, on its latest product page, advertises "no loot stealing, spawn camping, and endless travel."So while these aren't really "competitors" in the grander sense of player numbers (I'd say WoW's biggest competitor this holiday season might actually be Halo 3), they are definitely biting at WoW's heels in terms of features, and specifically targeting WoW's players with promises of what we've wanted for a long time. Other game companies are clearly getting better at figuring out how to attract the audience that World of Warcraft did, so it seems Blizzard's biggest challenge, from patch 2.2 to Wrath of the Lich King, will be to try and stay ahead of the curve of newer games and their new features.[ via WorldofWar.net ]
Lord of the Rings Online free 7-day trial
Turbine announced today that they're offering a free 7-day trial for their successful Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar. The offer is available for North America, Australia and New Zealand. The press release finally gives us some numbers for LoTRO and says there are "4 million characters calling Middle-earth their home." That's a pretty slick way of avoiding how many actual accounts there are, but we'll totally believe them that it's the "second largest MMORPG" behind the unfathomably successful World of Warcraft. In that race, second place is a perfectly respectable place to be.LoTRO recently had their second content update which continues to drive the MMO in a good direction. The game seems to be doing well enough that it's been mentioned as being part of Midway's increasing fiscal fortitude. The first full expansion for LoTRO, which will cover the events in The Two Towers and its peripheral story lines, is expected to be announced early next year.
Midway close to being profitable
Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter tells GameDaily that Midway may be only one franchise away from not playing the Atari game of financial problems anymore. Recently Midway reduced their losses to around $14 million, which sounds like a lot to us normal folk, but for a corporation, that's like owing someone $20. Apparently Lord of the Rings Online helped bolster the bottom line, but because Midway is merely the distributer, Turbine is still reaping most of the benefits.Pachter believes Stranglehold will help Midway's cash flow and he expects it to sell a million copies in its first quarter of release. He believes profitability is right around the corner for the company if any of its titles do better than expected. Let's see, the contenders are Stranglehold, Blacksite: Area 51, and Unreal Tournament III. Given the way the industry is going, there's no reason any major company shouldn't currently be profitable -- unless they've got a great excuse.
New professions: Music, woodworking, or something else?
Recently we talked about what kind of quest you would make if Blizzard gave you the opportunity, and since reading Tobold's suggestion yesterday about a new woodworking profession, it got me wondering about what new professions would work well with the existing system. Like jewelcrafting, any new profession should cover items or functions in the game that are not currently craftable. I know many people are just dying to have your current profession improved, but think for a moment if you could start over with a clean slate: what kind of profession would you design?To give you an example to get you thinking, I did some searching and found this suggestion for a music profession which would let players create their own instruments and play their own music -- something I hear Lord of the Rings Online implements very well. (The clip above features a LotRO player using his keyboard to play "Dust in the Wind.") In addition to this, "song-spells" or enchanted instruments of some kind could give a benefit for anyone in range to hear them played, such as a short-term buff or heal-over-time, or else a debuff for enemies within range, such as a short charm or a lullaby. Some have suggested that a "Bard" class would be able to do this, but to me it seems that the "singing" mechanic suits a secondary skillset better than a full-fledged class and also opens it up for more people to learn and use in different ways. What's your opinion?
LotR Online dev not averse to console MMO
In an interview with CVG, Lord of the Rings Online executive producer Jeffrey Steefel does not rule out the possibility of a console MMO based on J. R. R. Tolkien's universe."I actually think Lord of the Rings is a platform we can build from. Our license is to build massively multiplayer online games based on the books on all platforms, all across the world, so we want to leverage that over time", he said. Later, in discussing the difficulties of a console MMO, Steefel said that "you've got to do everything in a thoughtful way and know why you're doing it, for who you're doing it, and then, what is an MMO on a console? What is that really? It has to be different."If it has to be different, then, don't expect cross-platform universe play. Ruminations of a developer does not a confirmation make, but we suspect Hobbits won't stray far from a future console release.
Turbine won't deny possibility of console Lord of the Rings MMO
Ever since people got word of the stealth-action MMO The Agency, a lingering question in the back of everyone's mind has been "will other MMO's get console attention now?" The answer is complicated. Blizzard probably won't bring World of Warcrap to consoles, but other developers are more open to the possibilities of console gamers who don't feel like getting a new computer every six months. Turbine Entertainment, creative minds behind The Lord of The Rings Online, are open to the idea. "I actually think Lord of the Rings is a platform we can build from," said executive producer Jeffrey Steefel. Even though the PS3 supports keyboards and mice, they've still got to think of a way to translate the game from PC to consoles. Steefel vaguely explained, " ... you've got to do everything in a thoughtful way and know why you're doing it, for who you're doing it, and then, what is an MMO on a console? What is that really? It has to be different." However different it may be, we'd be honored to start getting some MMO's on the PlayStation 3. Whether or not the game would feature cross-platform play is not known, but we'd like to see it exist someday.
See LotRO's Shores of Evendim in all their video glory
We've already shared with you some of the new features added by the forthcoming Lord of the Rings Online update, Book 9: The Shores of Evendim so you know it's not all sandy beaches and sunscreen. Actually, none of it is. Further evidence of Shores' non-friendliness to vacationers is evident in this new trailer.Take, for instance, that weird spear-carrying goblin. Good luck selling a condo next to that guy's hut. Oh, and we see there are creepy lizards roaming around and lots of stuff appears to be on fire! Watch those property values skyrocket. Don't trust your friendly Hobbit travel agent Seemo Islands, check it out for yourself when the free content goes live tomorrow.
Is real money for game items in our future?
No, this isn't something Blizzard is telling us -- they're still out there fighting with the issue of people buying and selling gold. However, Jeffrey Steefel, executive producer of Lord of the Rings Online, who seems to think that in the future, how MMO's handle the secondary market of gold, item, and character sales is going to have to change. In an interview with Eurogamer, he says:But, we all know that something will happen in the next two to five years to business models in general, so we're paying attention to what's going on [with the secondary market]; watching what's going on with Sony Station whose servers support and manage this.Does Steefel have a point? In the long run, is the only way to fight the secondary market to legalize it and integrate it with our games? But even if you look at Everquest II, where Sony provides an official method for selling gold, items, and characters for real cash, there's still a secondary market. And I've got to say, if Sony's method doesn't stop secondary market gold sales, I've got to wonder if any method of legitimizing the trade will. And while we wait to see what Steefel decides to do with Lord of the Rings Online, we can watch Blizzard approach the problem in their own way -- in the courts.[Via Joystiq]
BBC reports on upcoming WoW competition
Slashdot is linking this morning to an article that BBC has posted today which gathers views from several game developers as they talk about what comes next when you have a behemoth such as the World of Warcraft dominating the MMO-verse. While somewhat light on new perspectives, it's just further showing that developers really do have to account for WoW when considering their existing and future software offerings. Though the article talks with people behind Star Wars Galaxies, Lord of the Rings Online, and the upcoming Age of Conan, I find that Slashdot commenter JanusFury sums it up best with, "Instead of complaining about the lack of a strong competitor to WoW, how about making one?" What's on your MMO horizon as a WoW-killer? Does anything coming up, or existing on the market now, have a powerful enough hook to pull you away from the World of Warcraft? Obviously, if you look at the included image, you know what I'm waiting for. [via Slashdot]
Lord of the Rings Online midnight launch in Beantown
At the Prudential Mall in Boston last night, Turbine and Gamestop held a midnight launch for the Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar, this was one of the five sites across the country where LoTRO fans could get their MMORPG on early. The game is going into a very different MMORPG climate post-World of Warcraft and is doing its best to compete, with the first free content update already expected in June.We had a chance to speak with Jeff Anderson, president of Turbine at the event, and he was looking forward to showing players who never experienced a Turbine produced game the company's strength, "Most companies throw a project out there and don't update for six months to sometimes over a year. Turbine has been good at episodic content and we're looking to launch strong and keep adding content every quarter."The little gallery we put together of last night's event was supposed to be up this morning, but due to some technical difficulties that we're blaming on fat hobbits, we can now show off some images that survived the melee. We now wait to see if LoTRO can fair better than every other MMO that's entered the market over the last two years.%Gallery-2785%
UK Court: videogame ideas can be copied
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gaming_news/UK_Court_Rules_Game_Developers_Can_Plagiarize_Others_Work'; The terrific Tobold points us to this article about a ruling in the UK's Court of Appeal that has ramifications for our whole industry. The judge there says that ideas behind computer games can be freely copied-- it's only the source code and the graphics that cannot. Tobold ties this directly into connections players have been making between Lord of the Rings Online and WoW-- the two systems have lots of similarities (the UI layout is almost exactly the same at first glance)-- and says that Blizzard, for example, would never be able to sue Turbine, maker of LotRO.Of course IANAL, but I'm pretty sure this isn't a groundbreaking ruling. While graphics and the code are undoubtedly covered by copyright (because you can clearly look at them to tell whether they're identical or not), it doesn't seem like gameplay ideas would be-- game designers have always borrowed popular ideas from each other, going all the way back to the idea of experience points and hit points. Even something like Madden's "Playmaker" feature can be copied-- while other companies can't call their feature "Playmaker," they can definitely use the analog stick to direct plays.Besides, if you ask me, Blizzard has nothing to worry about, especially from LotRO (I hear Turbine couldn't get the rights to the movies, so while you may see the Treants or visit Lothlorien, it won't be anything you recognize from the films). The magic of Blizzard's game is in the design and the polish of how it's put together. Even they borrowed familiar MMO ideas to try and improve on them, and I'm sure they have no problem with Turbine doing the same thing.
Lord of the Rings Online music system
Earlier today we reported one of the extra layers of polish brought to Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar was a music system. The music system allows players to purchase an instrument from a vendor and play the instrument using the keyboard. It's not pre-recorded and impressive when you see a player in-game performing. Developers told us that the latest version of the music system compensates for lag allowing for bands to perform and sync properly. Above is a player in the open beta performing "Dust in the Wind." After the break is an extended version by a different player. Expect these clips to start popping up all over YouTube soon enough. There has been no word yet from the developers whether this music system will be implemented into quests.
