New Lord of the Rings MMO

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Flobee

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The franchise prints money and the previous LOTR mmo is pretty decent apparently. I never really got into it. Will be interested to see how this plays out
 

swayze22

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As awesome as LoTR is - i can't really see another game recreating the world with so much character and feeling as the one that still exists, even if it is 10+years old.

I will likely check it out in hopes the combat in middle-earth is improved from what's out there right now though. Hoping it's a proper game and not just a cash grab.
 
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Muligan

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Would love to see LoTR MMO's done right. Pretty well any to all RPG's, MMO's, etc. have all built their lore upon their lore. If it can show any promise at all, you just about have to give it a try. Looking forward to seeing what comes of this game.
 

Chris

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The franchise prints money and the previous LOTR mmo is pretty decent apparently. I never really got into it. Will be interested to see how this plays out
I played LOTRO probably about midway between launch and it's first expansion.

It was decent but I found the combat and dungeons a little boring compared to WoW. Funnily enough WoW now is very similar to vanilla LOTRO, they really dumbed that game down.

As a healer I think White Mage in Final Fantasy 14 has been the best experience.
 
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Chimney

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If they could fix the mediocre combat and make a graphically updated version of what exists in lotro now I'd play the shit out of it. I actually wanted to explore and complete quests in that game instead of practically every other MMO where I blaze to end game.

Warframe got almost 150 hours out of me in two months before I got bored with the grind, but it is a fairly solid game especially as free to play so I have some faith.
 

Dandai

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This isn’t aimed at you specifically, but there seems to be a misconception on how simple and straightforward it is to “update graphics” or do X game in a newer game engine. Upscaling textures, re-working animations, adding particle effects, shadows, cloth simulation, all take significant effort on the part of artists and engineers. With these older games that are just on life support with a skeleton crew, it’s not obvious that making a game look prettier to attract new players will yield more revenue than pumping out new content and retaining established, loyal players. With a small dev team, you simply can’t do both.

As far as porting an established game to a new engine goes, unless your game was built in a legacy engine (like Unreal or Unity), you can’t simply push a button to update your game (and even in those engines there’s unforeseeable incompatibilities and bugs that will result from the update). For example, when Tyen shows his prototypes for EQ in a browser in Unity, he’s manually transferring art assets from EQ into Unity. They’re just the assets though. You have to manually establish collision, interactions, etc. All gameplay (mechanics such as agro, skills, targeting, etc) also requires someone to code (or script) by hand. There’s no way to upload the rules and code from EQs engine into Unity.

Granted, there’s a lot of potential for us to use machine learning and have AI play legacy games and port them into newer engines. I haven’t seen anyone talking about this, but I have to believe it’s being looked into if not already being attempted. However, with the tools currently available to us, transitioning games into new engines is a matter of literally recreating an old game, line by line from scratch, in a new engine. There’s nothing simple about it. :(
 
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Chimney

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Oh I wasn't really expecting a port I meant built from the ground up with modern graphics/engine. I do web dev/programming so I know it's not a simple project and I would never expect it out of turbine or whomever is managing LOTRO now, but Leyou has the bank to do either and if they got a team like the one that manages Warframe I have some faith.

Everything in LOTRO was so well done (outside of combat) at least until the time I quit which was right before Riders of Rohan. All of the towns, music, voice acting etc was top notch especially for its day. My only worry is if it turns into a Chinese style MMO it's going to turn into busty elves wearing +2 thong of willpower which at that point it's a LOTR IP in name only.
 

Grim1

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As awesome as LoTR is - i can't really see another game recreating the world with so much character and feeling as the one that still exists, even if it is 10+years old.

I will likely check it out in hopes the combat in middle-earth is improved from what's out there right now though. Hoping it's a proper game and not just a cash grab.

Aye, the current game has a ton of charm (or did when I last played). And the players are also add to the experience. The actual mechanics aren't that great but you do feel like it is part of the LoTR universe.

Hopefully the new game can recreate that feeling and have modern graphics / mechanics. But I have my doubts. Big money, outsized egos and vested interests have a way of fucking IPs. Just look at SWToR.
 

Warrik

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LOTRO was good for its day, but this, Star Wars, and Star Trek have been vast missed opportunities that should have been MMO juggernaugts with its wealth of history and lore, but thus far have failed to be more than a niche success in the space.
 
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GuardianX

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Wonder what this means for lotro.

LOTRO is privately owned at this point so I don't think anything is going to happen to them, they are owned by Standing Stone Games.


Unless Amazon wants to drop cash closing a MMO down I don't see it going anywhere.
 

a_skeleton_05

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LOTRO is privately owned at this point so I don't think anything is going to happen to them, they are owned by Standing Stone Games.


Unless Amazon wants to drop cash closing a MMO down I don't see it going anywhere.

It doesn't matter that they're privately owned. The question is what the licensing agreement for the IP looks like. For there to not have been a "We can be the only LOTR themed MMO" part would be surprising. If there was, then they could be running on extensions of something, or the license period could be nearing its end. I'd be really surprised if Amazon/whoever walked into this without requirements that they would be the only LOTR MMO game in town.
 

Aaron

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I'd be very sad if LotRO died because of this. It's an amazing world, huge and full of quests. The classes are mostly unique and interesting, and though the combat could be better, it's still an amazing game. It also has one of the best and most mature communities in any MMO I've seen.
 
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Locnar

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as a huge LOTR fan, this makes me want to try the existing MMO. Immersive world you all say? hmmm
 
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GuardianX

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It doesn't matter that they're privately owned. The question is what the licensing agreement for the IP looks like. For there to not have been a "We can be the only LOTR themed MMO" part would be surprising. If there was, then they could be running on extensions of something, or the license period could be nearing its end. I'd be really surprised if Amazon/whoever walked into this without requirements that they would be the only LOTR MMO game in town.

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.
 

Pharone

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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.
Sony Online Entertainment's "Starwars Galaxies" shut down on December 15, 2011.
Bioware's "Starwars: The Old Republic" started on December 20, 2011.

It happens.
 
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