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

Ten Ton Hammer: Would it be more appropriate just to make new content that replaces the old content rather than simply adjusting what you already have? I know a lot of other games do that, and I was wondering why you decided to adjust the region rather than simply doing a complete replacement.

Jeffrey: The revamp is actually a combination of both parts, and I think it’s mentioned in the dev diary that we did create new content in a number of places, including some new quests. However, Angmar got the revamp treatment for some very specific reasons, and not just because it's in the title of our game. All the major areas in the region, the plotlines, and NPCs we've chosen are there for very specific reasons that we thought were important for taking you through the experience of LOTRO. In our revamp, the majority of our improvements really are aimed towards the functionality of the area. We didn't want players running back and forth across Angmar without getting into the meat of the actual gameplay. By adjusting the region, we hope to clarify the gameplay, story, and plot that's already there rather than replacing it.

Ten Ton Hammer: When I was reading the developer diary, it struck me as strange that Angmar was the last region to be created for the game. Why was that? It seems weird that the namesake of the game would be the last region to be implemented into the product.

Jeffrey: It can be a little misleading in terms of what you read in the dev diary. For example, the area of Angmar was built alongside all the other areas in the game in terms of the space itself and what it looks like (the terrain, structures, etc.).

In terms of the actual content that was placed inside the zone, I think there were a couple reasons why it was the last piece to be developed. First of all, you want Angmar to be your most ambitious, coolest place. Which it is! So you want as much of the content to have gone through the pipeline as possible before you tackle your most ambitious zone. And, as we're seeing now, the work was obviously very ambitious and maybe we weren't entirely ready for it.

The Turbine developers hope to have LOTRO chickens in every single country some day.

We also wanted to see some players in the game in the alpha and internal testing phase testing out the lower level content to at least validate a few things before we go rushing off to attempt our mast ambitious content. So you definitely want to have that learning before you get there. There's always a big focus on the earlier parts of the game before launch because it’s such a completely critical aspect of how you get into the game. The majority of what we're doing now is based on things we've learned since launch, and the smaller percentage of the improvements are based on things that we wished we would have done better when we first created the area.

That'll never change, by the way. If we had our druthers, I'd be getting a big enough budget to be able to hire enough people to continually comb every single inch of the game and make it continuously better all the time. But we're not quite there yet.

Ten Ton Hammer: Maybe when you get LOTRO in every single country, right?

Jeffrey: Every single country, that's right.

Adam Mersky: It's coming. You probably noticed that we formally announced our deal with NHN that we told you guys about a month ago.

Ten Ton Hammer: Yup.

Adam: China and Korea are definitely big, big markets, and we learned from the North American and European player bases before we rolled the game out to those markets.

Jeffrey: They [NHN] are really strong partners too. I know that we could just say that, but it's really true in this particular case. We couldn't ask for stronger partners. I've seen their operations first hand and what they do and these are large companies that know what they're doing and have the infrastructure to support this sort of thing.

Ten Ton Hammer: What's the next region that you're going to try and break into?

Jeffrey: We're going to be announcing one fairly soon, but not yet.

Ten Ton Hammer: I'm guessing....Russia!

Jeffrey: We're pushing really hard for Antarctica right now.

Ten Ton Hammer: *laughs*

Adam: Cody, I actually had to calculate just how many countries we were operating in. I called up Codemasters and figured out the exact number; by the beginning of 2008 we're going to be in 50 countries.

Ten Ton Hammer: Wow.

Adam: We're already operating in well over 45 countries around the world, and we're going to be opening a few more very shortly.

Ten Ton Hammer: That's pretty impressive.

Jeffrey: Adam's in charge of learning all of those languages.

*more laughter ensues*

Ten Ton Hammer: How many Books do you have planned for next year?

Turbine continues to push the boundaries of Tolkien's world, exploring everything ever mentioned in the books.

Jeffrey: We have a plan, and we have a concrete number. I can tell you that much. We do plan on releasing them with the same sort of frequency that players have gotten used to up to this point. We're not going to significantly slow down on updates.

Adam: If we start announcing dates or features that we're going to implement, that starts confusing players and we don't want to do that to people. We have a flow of information that we're going to release over the year, and we generally want players to know what's in their current version of the game first, then what's directly in the pipeline without getting to far ahead of ourselves. If you reveal too much information too early, players forget about it, they don't get excited about it, or it changes and they're ultimately disappointed.

Jeffrey: One of the things that's going to be really excited about next year is that we've definitely gotten to the point where we're going to start exploring the Misty Mountains, and Middle-Earth becomes a pretty exciting place when that happens. Eriador's cool, but when you start getting into the area's where the war is really fought, things start becoming really exciting. Big explosive things are happening in those areas of conflict, and that's really exciting. It's neat because as we continue to progress, things are getting even more epic in Middle Earth.

Ten Ton Hammer: I'm incredibly pumped up for you guys to get into Rohan. I'm aching to start up a Rohan warrior and ride around with the Rohirrim beheading orcs. If you guys can capture the flavor and feel of those epic halls and grand vistas, I'll be in awe.

Jeffrey: We always try to shock and awe when we can, but when we reach that point in developer, it will be a good time for LOTRO because we'll be getting into the civilizations that are really in their hay day. Although the lands of Arnor are cool, the real only real thriving society there is the Shire, if you don't count Rivendell which is on the edge of those lands. There's a vitality that will increase even more as we go forward.

Ten Ton Hammer: And there are so many more concrete content ideas you can pull from those areas without getting into the broader Tolkien writings. Rohan and Gondor really are prominent pieces in Tolkien's books while only a few places in the starting areas of the game were really on that scale.

Jeffrey: It definitely gives us plenty of work to do.

Ten Ton Hammer: Do you think people that choose Rohan as a background will be able to start in that area?

Jeffrey: That's definitely a part of the conversation we're having in terms of the franchise and also within design. As we grow and expand the world, what does that mean? It's the same sort of challenge all these games face, because your world has the potential to get so massive.

Adam: I think that's really going to be the next wave of innovation in MMOGs, how players go about exploring their world when they start up their characters.

Jeffrey: The question become, what will a new player expect two or three years from now? It's interesting to even watch WoW change their advancement path over the first 50-60 levels now that things have changed. It goes on the long white board of things called "What are we going to do about this?"

Ten Ton Hammer: How's the Lorebook progressing?

Adam: I think we're performing really well and once we start connecting it to the game so players can access it from in-game, we'll start to see things really take off.

Jeffrey: We've got a lot of people chomping at the bit here to really push the Lorebook to its fullest potential. It could really extend the game into another platform and push information to and from the players within the game.

The Turbine developers hate summer. Time to send in a Balrog.

But it's baby steps because we want everything we do to be high quality and well polished before we really start to implement it. People are increasingly participating in it and making things for the Lorebook.

Ten Ton Hammer: Finally, do you feel like players are online more during the holidays or less?

Adam: We always hope for more, but it really depends on who you are and where you are in your life.

Jeffrey: It's really demographic based. If you're a college student, you'll log in. If you're a high school kid, maybe. I dunno.

Adam: If you're an old person...*laughs* I think the way the holidays fell this year that there's even more work places shutting down for longer periods of time due to the extended break. But we like harsh weather too; there's nothing better than seeing a blizzard coming that will keep players in their homes. *laughs*

Jeffrey: We hate the summer. We do. We hates it! *laughs*

Ten Ton Hammer: Thanks again for taking the time to talk with us so close to Christmas!

Jeffrey: It’s always a pleasure!

Adam: We’ll talk again soon!

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