Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

And again, it's going to be bang for buck. We're going to be looking at the market to see how many people have the Dx10 cards that are needed to see some of this new content, and how big the benefit is going to be. We're doing research and development on this particular notion right now, but we're also going to be putting this in front of people and asking them how close this is. We're always running these sort of things against the idea that instead of adding Dx10 additions, we could be making more content, features, and extensions of the game for the players. We obviously want to find what the most players desire immediately and bring those features to them.

But, as Adam said, with the price drop and as Vista becomes more ubiquitous, you'll begin to see these things become much more important.

Ten Ton Hammer: Since I don't have any other Book 11 oriented questions, I'll move on to Book 12 inquiries. In the next content update, which classes are being changed? I know you are always working on a couple of classes, and players were wondering what was next.

Jeffrey: We're not ready to specifically talk about the classes yet, but I will say that there will be three classes that are touched upon in the next update.

Ten Ton Hammer: You usually only touch on two, correct?

Jeffrey: Why do two when you can do three?

Just like Book 11, the next content update will bring major improvements to the LOTRO gameplay.

Adam: But there are some redux classes in there as well.

Jeffrey: Yeah, that's true. We are reduxing one of the classes, so the amount of tweaking will probably be less for that particular class. It's always a struggle to make sure that we're always working on balancing the classes and not just pulling the rug out form underneath the players all the time.

Ten Ton Hammer: It's been said the we're going to be getting a new Outfit System that will allow players to wear any armor we choose while maintaining a different look. How does this work? Will players need to purchase other items to obtain a different looks? Or will there be a built in mechanic to facilitate that change.

Jeffrey: It's sort of in-between. Basically, players will have the ability to maintain what they present outwardly to the other players and modify their stats in two different channels. How that actually happens, we'll talk about a little bit more in the future. There will be a significant amount of "new appearance" sort of things that players will have to choose from for this.

Ten Ton Hammer: A "Barber Shop" is being introduced into Book 12. Will this change the initial character customization process at all? How many new looks will we be seeing?

Jeffrey: This is the beginning of being able to make specific visual appearances to your character after you've created him or her. It focuses around on particular aspect of your character's appearance, and you'll basically be able to change that particular look on your character.

Ten Ton Hammer: I'm guessing that the particular aspect might be the hair? *laughs*

Jeffrey: Given that it's called the "Barber Shop" is a pretty big give away.

Ten Ton Hammer: What about the new Ettendeep areas?

Jeffrey: It will definitely be expanded the Monster Play system, but we can't go into details on that particular aspect just yet.

Ten Ton Hammer: Can you tell us anything about the new items that are going to be displayed in kinship homes?

Jeffrey: Not yet. *laughs*

Adam: Can we talk about the Golden Joystick awards?

Ten Ton Hammer: Sure! You guys won the PC Game of the Year!

Jeffrey: It was pretty cool.

Ten Ton Hammer: What did that entail? Did you get a little Golden Joystick to display?

Lord of the Rings Online won the PC Game of the Year award from the Golden Joystick Awards.

Adam: It's a pretty global award, and we were up against some stiff competition in the PC game department. So to win the PC game of the year award in 2008 - of all years - was a pretty outstanding victory. It was a very gratifying experience.

As far as the actual Golden Joystick, we're just waiting for it to be shipped over from London. I've seen pictures of it, it's a pretty big, gold-plated, phallic-looking trophy.

Ten Ton Hammer: And we can quote that? Big and phallic-looking?

Adam: Sure!

Jeffrey: That would be our PR director.

Adam: That's what it looks like! But we're pretty excited about it. We obviously hope to win a lot of awards, because we think we're probably one of the best online games of the year. However, most of the awards are picked by the editors of each publication so you try to impress them with the game and just cross your fingers to see how it turns out. But when the fans come out and vote like they did for the Golden Joysticks that's a very fulfilling part of this job.

Ten Ton Hammer: Is there anything else you guys want to hit on before we call it an afternoon?

Jeffrey: Have you guys had a chance to go to the new Lorebook? You can find it at http://lorebook.lotro.com; if you haven't looked at it yet, make sure you check it out.

This is sort of the beta version of a site that's going to become a very significant web presence for LOTRO. It's basically an extension of the game, much more so than your basic gaming portal. We've really been growing this over time.

At the foundation of this site is a wiki. We've mapped out a lot of items in there with "official" entries, but players can go in and add their own entries. We also have around 40,000 entries about the lore; it's kind of a like a dictionary for the lore portion of the game. It's cross-linked and hyperlinked with everything in the game. You can go in and look at the description of a place you've actually visited in the game, then check out the history and get all the information you'd expect to see in this sort of database: crafting recipes, vendors, and more.

We've also added Google Maps to the game; we have a license arrangement with Google to allow players to create actual Google Map entries of places in Middle Earth. They can put a particular quest path that they're on; we started with Frodo's path to Rivendell. It's Google Maps; you can put tags in it and all that stuff.

Ten Ton Hammer: Is this like a database you'd find on a site like Ten Ton Hammer? Can you type in a descriptor and the item will pop up with all its stats marked down?

Jeffrey: There are community sites out there that have that information and love providing that information, and we're just trying to augment the natural phenomena of communities developing their own web presence rather than supplant it. We're adding Web 2.0 community building type tools to our web space, where you can find your character and look at your place among the greater community at large. The goal is to compliment what's already going on out there.

One of the main reasons we're doing this is it's easier for us to provide certain information to the user that the other online entities can't provide (like the lore background). This should really feel like an extended platform of the game itself.

All of this is going to be available in-game as well. There's an in-game browser that will feel just like you're looking at this over your native browser. It's going to be more Web 2.0 community building than your typical game guide content database.

With their Lorebook, LOTRO hopes to develop a complete Web 2.0 type experience.

Ten Ton Hammer: Who's moderating the player submissions?

Jeffrey: Our community group will moderate it. That said, in so much of the Web 2.0 stuff, you'll see people self-policing what goes on in the wikis. Just go to Wikipedia and you'll see what I'm talking about.

Ten Ton Hammer: Fact fight!

Jeffrey: Or reality fight. I've heard both. *chuckles*

Ten Ton Hammer: Is there anything else you'd like to tell us about LOTRO?

Jeffrey: Nothing springs readily to mind. We've been having meetings all day, so it's pretty crazy.

Adam: It's definitely a pleasure though, and we look forward to talking to you guys again!

Ten Ton Hammer: Thanks, and we'll talk to you soon!

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