New Lord of the Rings MMO

A

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GuardianX said:
So I have always wondered what goes into a decision like this where you have an existing game in the space that has been in place for a while. I really doubt that another company can come in and immediately demand the closure of another company's product just because they want to release a new version of that same product.

Unless that was something previously agreed to by standing stone games before they purchased the rights to Lord of the rings online.
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This isn't a question of the Amazon people making the choices to cut LOTRO off, it's a question of the rights owners deciding to allow someone new use the IP.

When Turbine or whoever originally set up to do LOTRO, they would have had to talk to the Tolkein people or whoever owned the video game rights to the IP and set up a licensing agreement to use the IP in return for money etc... This would have had time limitations with options to renew. The publisher/dev do not own the rights to the IP and are beholden to the license in order to have the game running. If the owners of the IP want to make a deal with another group, they can, and can end the licensing deal with the LOTRO folks if renewal is up in the air. It's entirely possible that since nobody else wanted the IP until now, they were just extending the deal to the LOTRO people until someone else came along.

Can't really know what exactly is going on without specific details of the original agreement/renewals.
 
Kuro

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It does happen. Hasbro has used purchasing up rights as a cudgel to kill competitors before.
 
shabushabu

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Interesting they will have an MMO and new series around LOTR. I bet the era in game will be same as show..so not covering hobbit+
 
Mick

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The game is set in the second age of middle earth and will be a tie in with their streaming show they are producing. The Peter Jackson movies and the current mmo are set in the third age.
 
Rombo

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Ill prolly day 1 this because there’s nothing else remotely interesting in the mmo genre nowdays.

Saying from someone who missed the boat on ff14 and now feels its too late to
dive in 😭.
 
Araxen

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It'll be F2P so I'll have zero interest in it.
 
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Tmac

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Mick said:
The game is set in the second age of middle earth and will be a tie in with their streaming show they are producing. The Peter Jackson movies and the current mmo are set in the third age.
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The article I read said the two projects were unrelated, per Amazon Games.

Although, both the TV show and the MMO will fall in the same period.
 
Pharone

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Rombo said:
Ill prolly day 1 this because there’s nothing else remotely interesting in the mmo genre nowdays.

Saying from someone who missed the boat on ff14 and now feels its too late to
dive in 😭.
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I just started FFXIV recently, and I have to say that the idea of being behind is a misnomer when it comes to that game. The game IS the story in the game, so the typical MMO design we have been taught for the past two decades of "the game starts at max level" does not apply to FFXIV in any way shape or form.

I haven't even gotten to the first expansion in the game, and I don't feel like I am behind at all. I am playing through the main story quest (you have to in order to progress in the game), and enjoying the story.

Also, every time I need to do a dungeon for part of the main story quest line, I just join the queue (they call it Duty Finder in FFXIV), and I'm in a group in less than 10 minutes in most cases. A lot of times, I get a group in the duty finder in less than 5 minutes, and that's while playing a DPS class. You get faster queues typically as tank or hearler.

There is the option to purchase a MSQ (main story quest) bypass for like $25 that will make it so you don't have to do all of the MSQ up to the beginning of the current expansion that just came out, BUT.... you are REALLY doing yourself a disservice by not playing through the full MSQ. I can NOT stress enough how amazing the main story is in FFXIV. This game is in no way like WoW or EQ where you just level as fast as possible to max level, and then raid non-stop to get gear. The main story quest line IS the reward of playing the game.
 
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Aaron

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Standing Stone games have been actively developing LotRO and have a road map published for tons of future content. They wouldn't do this if they believed they'd be shut down due to licensing issues once this new game is launched. If they did they'd have halted development and just pushed it as a stale game til they had to close.
 
Chris

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The problem with Lord of the Rings is how you have healers or any spell DPS given that only three people in the lore have magic and hardly use it. Gandalf has lightning powers he uses about once, Radagast can do... something... with animals and Saruman I guess is good at spawning and arming abominations.

They would have to have health bars not be the primary mechanic but some sort of morale/stamina.

There's also surprisingly little lore for specific bosses you can fight in a raid. Most named characters are good guys, long dead bad guys or dealt with by lore characters.

The big missed opportunity for a MMO is the D&D setting on The Sword Coast from the Baldur's Gate games.
 
Aaron

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I agree with the missed opportunity. They tried that with Dungeons and Dragons Online, but the problem here is the thought that if it takes place in the D&D universe it must use pen-and-paper D&D rules (as DDO does), and that just does not make for good computer RPG game play. Sure, you'll have some hardcore fans who like the system, but they're rare, and that's why hardly anyone has heard of DDO. If they could use the D&D lore, but create good computerised versions of the classes and other systems, then that would be amazing. But pen-and-paper rules in an MMO... it's a shit sandwich.
 
Fyff

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Aaron said:
Standing Stone games have been actively developing LotRO and have a road map published for tons of future content. They wouldn't do this if they believed they'd be shut down due to licensing issues once this new game is launched. If they did they'd have halted development and just pushed it as a stale game til they had to close.
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The only public licensing agreement I could find for the game ended in 2014 so either they reupped and I can't find it or they are running the game without a license.
 
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