Jeffrey Steefel at LotRO Gathering

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Posted August 6th, 2006 by Ethec

Jeffrey Steefel,
Executive Producer

John Irwin,
LotRO Source

Steefel Expects Millions
in LotRO

Turbine Producer Shooting for World of Warcraft numbers, hints at a release date

by Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle

Providence, R.I. - Turbine announced the start of alpha testing with Lord of the Rings Online last Thursday, and Jeffrey Steefel, Executive Producer, spoke briefly about his growing enthusiasm at the LotRO Gathering fan event this weekend.

"As we get closer and closer to launch, we're going to be bringing in a larger and larger community. And that's a global community, as I can already see represented in this room." Steefel was referring to attendees coming from Switzerland, the Netherlands, Scotland, and Canada - according to LotRO Source lead and event coordinator John Irwin. The international contingent accounts for a significant percentage of the Gathering's attendees.

"You guys should know that this game, this world that we're building is going to be global from very early on. Our partners in Europe, in Codemasters, we're already getting ready to figure out how to make sure that this game rolls out in North America and Europe at the same time. We're having deep conversations with partners in China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan... this game will be a global phenomenon very shortly within the time it launches for all of us."

Steefel then offered what could be taken as a surreptitious challenge to Blizzard's numerical supremacy: "So, [the Turbine team is] very excited about looking at this community and imagining a community of millions of people around the world who are going to be in Middle Earth together."

LotRO's executive producer offered one other hint on the direction of Lord of the Rings Online. "This time next year, this is likely to be a pretty huge event. We'll talk about that then, but this time next year we're likely to be talking about the live LotRO game that we've all been playing." Steefel, known for saying a little more than LotRO stakeholders would like to be released, then quipped: "For those that are recording, note that I said 'quite likely' so legal doesn't kick me out."

Random Goodness

Interesting stuff overheard or seen at the Gathering that the die-hard LotRO community probably knows, but you might not:

Pending ESRB approval of the name and concept, pipe weed (that's "tobacco," for the Tolkien challenged... really!) will be farmed by the hobbits in differing qualities. The quality of the tobacco determines what kind of shapes can be made with pipe smoke.
Shire "shenanigans" are quests done around the hobbit's home with an interesting twist. For example, you might have to carry a pie from one place to another in Hobbiton while avoiding the noses of hungry hobbits. If one smells a pie, you fail the quest.
LotRO's "kung fu" system turns enemies into NPCs when a certain hitpoint threshold is reached, and the character begins an important dialogue and, perhaps, starts an important event. The idea is to interject some drama and story into an action-packed game.
Archers in Lord of the Rings Online will reposition themselves or shorten the distance to gain line of sight when attacked. Pulling an archer into a forested area, for example, can result in a tactical advantage.