Yes have to agree was well written.
Sorry to throw water on the fire, but lets face it they can not make it any worse than DDO which for me was AC2 re-drawn. I for one spent £35.00 pounds and will be hard pushed to spend any more money with Turbine/codemasters/Atari in the name after that last coding shambles they called D&D.
Candy does not make a game palyable, content is KING and D&D fails in that department, and without being rude to your fine article, I feel anyone can make a demo look and feel good.
Game companys are great at doing this, if they just put more effort in the games they are selling us rather than throwing them out ten a penny then maybe we would be richly rewarded and give our hard earnt cash out freely.
E3 by way of Lord of the Rings Online
It's another hazy day in Los Angeles. The L.A. Convention Center looms into view from behind dusty brick buildings standing sentry-like in the middle of down-town; the white of the Convention Center Complex in dull contrast to the ashen skies. In fact, we may as well be in Centralia, Pennsylvania there is so much low-hanging grey. But who's concerned about the weather when we are on our way to E3 2006? Today's quest will take us indoors into a public dungeon, and its definitely going to be a long day.
After the NPC parking attendant takes my lunch money I park my car and make way through the underground parking garage towards the lobby area following signs with arrows each spaced not less than four feet apart - in a strait line. I wonder if they are expecting a mob of near-sited teens with short attention-spans today. Someone should have told them that they would be getting a mob of near-sited adults with A.D.D. instead.
My quest markers lead me to my second NPC of the day: The Bag Checker. This light-security NPC gives me a few choice directions and lets me continue on in search of my goal. I pass through the checkpoint, follow a ramp up and to the left, and behold! I have made it to the Golden Gates of E3. The thrum of moving people and escalators and automatic doors give way to amplified speakers beckoning us to come closer to magnificent displays of the near-future in electronic entertainment. There are video screens and gaming banners as large as my automobile to the left and to the right advertising the latest in gaming development. The air is thick with the sounds of video game demos both interactive and cinematic; and this is only the foyer. Ahead lay my next goal in this quest: the West Hall. But before I can gain entry I have to do a side quest to obtain my E3 Early Access Media pass. With this pass I will be able to enter at 9 am rather than 11 am thus avoiding long lines and crowds.
After a successful negotiation with the E3 Media Pass Administrator-NPC I have completed my side quest and will now continue on to the West Hall. A high-level NPC Security Guard monitors the door closely, but I am allowed in due to having obtained my E3 Early Access Media pass. Now the real adventure begins�
The main dungeon in the L.A. Convention Center quest, also known as West Hall, is alive with ambient sound and glowing walls. Now I see display screens that are two stories high and twice as loud. This area can be described in two words: sensory overload. In the West Hall there is Nintendo, Turbine, Bethesda, Wizards of the Coast, Temco, UK Pavilion - the list goes on. The elephant in the room is of course Sony to whom a massive portion of West Hall is dedicated. Playstation 3 is large on everyone's' quest list today, as well as Nintendo's Wii (Formerly known as the Revolution). Lines of people will stretch like Nordic wyrms in legendary proportions for these two products alone.
I continue on in search of the main goal of this quest which is to be found in the Turbine, Inc. exhibition booth. I have a mini-boss to face at the end of today's quest by the name of Nik Davison, Lead Game System Designer. Turbine's booth sure isn't hard find with a 25-foot Gandalf overlooking the show floor on one side, and a 10-foot picture of the Witch-king of Angmar on the other. It is here that the quest will finally lead me; it is here that my mettle will finally be tested.
The Turbine exhibition booth looks great. Swarms of gamers, fans, media and observers move to and fro through the immediate area all a-buzz with the new Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) based on J.R.R. Tolkien's opus. The game is entitled: "The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar" (LOTRO: SoA). The Turbine people are welcoming and seem to be very organized. Questions from passers-by are fielded and deftly answered by a pair of developers each operating their own demo versions of LOTRO: SoA while just behind and to the side is a bank of playable demos where the game itself can be experienced first-hand by E3 attendees.
This playable demo involves a group of four players and takes place upon an orc-infested path to a point of interest called "Weathertop" (You may remember this name from the movie). If anyone makes it to the top alive within the time limit a "golden ticket" to beta is earned for all members of the team. Let me tell you that this is no ordinary hack'n'slash MMORPG. Team work is vital for survival as mob AI has achieved new levels of intelligence. It is no longer feasible to simply "pull and isolate" to kill enemies individually. Now they are going to bring friends with a shout, or perhaps turn and run to a strengthened position. I even saw one orc engage me in melee, then just before his health got too low he turned and ran to a large bell that when rung brought reinforcements! And if you think you can ignore archers and leave them for last, think again. Archers are the hardest hitting in the game according to current information, and the old techniques are no longer applicable. In short, the demo was a blast!
Game-play was fun and immersive from the first moment. This is a mature game, well crafted and well-designed. LOTRO: SoA is a perfect fit for both hard-core gamers and hard-core fans of the literary works. An enormous amount of developer attention is devoted to lore-compliance. I overheard one developer mention that the attention given to lore is one of the largest and most laborious aspects of the development process for LOTRO: SoA. And mention must be made of the absolutely beautiful artistic design of the game itself. You will be stunned at the beautiful, hand-crafted skies and valleys. Trees and grassy areas are placed with care. Even now, though the shipping-world is mapped out and landscaped, the art department is still going through everything and double-checking according to Harry Teasley, Lead Production Artist.
Facing the mini-boss, Nik Davidson, was a pleasure indeed. As Nik took us on a tour of LOTRO: SoA he explained that his department is responsible for much of "the mechanics, the behind the scenes, the monster behaviors, character classes, skills... if there's numbers and data involved its pretty much us." He went on to say that they are but part of a larger team that is putting together LOTRO: SoA. Turbine, Inc. is one of the largest independently owned massively multiplayer game-studios, and Lord of the Rings Online is "the only online role-playing game that is based on the literary works of J.R.R. Tolkien. What that means is that whereas the movies and even previous games based on Tolkien's work took you on a very narrow path through the story, following the books in this way allows us to open up the rest of the story." In effect, the player is allowed to "live and breath" the world of Middle-earth in a fuller context and is allowed to adventure on their own where-ever they wish, experiencing events and taking in scenes previously only found in the books while simultaneously witnessing the effects of more familiar events.
Nik then proceeded to take us on a journey through the Old Forest, an ancient, maze-like forest of mystery and wonder -- not to mention that it is infested with "intelligent" spiders rumored to be the evil spawn of Shelob. "All of these details," continues Nik, "are re-created from Tolkien's Middle-earth. We've been in the business of making [MMORPGs] for about 11 years now and it would be easy enough to make a game-world and plop Tolkien on top of it. In order to do this right you really have to set out from the beginning to re-create Tolkien's Middle-earth. And that's what we've done." And from what I have seen Turbine is doing an outstanding job. Just wait until you see this game for yourself. Not only are the in-game graphics some of the best I've witnessed but the scenery has been designed with such care that the "Tolkien-feel" is virtually uncompromised.
Next we went to The Shire and had a look around. Standing in the sunny afternoon of The Shire, the starting area for Hobbits by the way, Nik explained the class-system to us and provided a few details about how each class will interact with the others. Grouping is encouraged but not forced; but after that playable demo I am looking forward to grouping with others, let me tell you. Two of the classes that piqued my interest are the Lore-master class and the Minstrel class due to the fact that these classes represent the closest thing to "magic-classes" that will be in LOTRO. Nik explains: "Magic in the world of Tolkien is very important and very specific in its use. Tolkien was very clear that if mortal races use magic it can have a corrupting influence. At the same time there are a lot of things in Tolkien's world that have magical properties: "song" is very powerful, "names" are powerful. The Minstrel as a master of songs is able to create magical effects with the power of his music. The Lore-master is a special case as well. He does get to use a little bit of magic using existing elements." So rather than "creating" a ball of fire to throw at an enemy "the Lore-master would use flaming oil and use his knowledge to amplify the effects". "Whatever we do with magic stays very consistent with Tolkien's work." Nik then reminds us that there are only five wizards that have been mentioned in Middle-earth, and no we don't get to play them.
While talking about some of the details of crafting available to players in LOTRO, Nik took us over to see Tom Bombadil's house. For those of you that care to know: yes, he does dance and frolic about. And Goldberry herself is a site to behold as well. Bombadil takes us on a quest through the Great Barrow, which as you may know did not make it into the movie. But here again much attention is paid to lore and Bombadil is represented faithfully according to Tolkien's work -- all the way down to the yellow boots.
"Basically we are set during the first book. Frodo has left The Shire; The Fellowship has not yet assembled. There's a lot that we know about this time-period and a lot that isn't made explicitly clear. The individual members of what will be The Fellowship are still out having adventures at this point on their own -- characters that will probably be encountered in the world as you travel, and this gives us free reign to explore a lot of the story that wasn't explicitly told but that was definitely implied. There is a larger context in the [events surrounding] The War of the Ring going on. Everyone knows about what happened to The Fellowship, but it is made very clear that much went on behind the scenes in order to allow The Fellowship to accomplish their goal. And the players get to be a very real part of that [behind-the-scenes work]. They get to take part as meaningful heroes in Tolkien's world to make sure that The Fellowship is safe."
We are at the end of the demo now, and what a ride it has been. Nik is due for a much-needed break and concludes the Q&A with a little more info on the current state of racial modifiers in the crafting system, which is still as of yet to be finally determined. Afterward Nik shakes our hand in parting; today's quest is complete.
"It's been an absolute pleasure working on this game because we have all grown up with Tolkien. LOTRO is very much a landscape-game; it's a game about exploration and an individual character's travels through the world of Middle-earth."
I can hardly wait.
-- Charles "kinudig" Kindig