Lore and Character Customization: A Tasty Combination

By Shayalyn



In the world of fantasy, of dwarves and hobbits and wizards, it’s hard
to dispute that J.R.R. Tolkien reigns as the supreme grandfather of the
genre. His fans are legion. And not only are there droves of them, but
they’re very exacting when it comes to Tolkien lore. One visit to target="_blank" href="http://www.wikipedia.org">Wikipedia will
give you an indication of just how precise fan knowledge of Tolkien’s
works can be. You’ll find intricate lineages and histories of major
characters, and even minor ones. Myriad websites devoted to Tolkien
fandom exist, from href="http://www.tolkiensociety.org/">The Tolkien Society to
scholarly groups at href="http://tolkien.soc.ucam.org/">Cambridge and target="_blank" href="http://users.ox.ac.uk/%7Etolksoc/">Oxford .

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With all this in mind, one has to stand in awe of Turbine, developers
of The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar, for courageously
taking a beloved fantasy franchise and transforming it into an MMORPG.
Their game is based specifically on the Lord of the Rings trilogy (the
books, not the movies), and Turbine makes many references to their
devotion to faithfully rendering Tolkien lore right in their official target="_blank" href="http://lotro.turbine.com/?page_id=56">FAQs
--from the lack of true PvP in the game (to avoid elves “ganking”
hobbits in the Shire), to a notable absence of wizards as a playable
class, due to the fact that Tolkien’s wizards were rare and special
things.



But will Tolkien’s lore prove too restrictive for some players who take
great pains to envision and create a unique character? Should players
be able to complete a quest, for instance, that will allow them to
become a hobbit with blond hair? On href="http://forums.lotro.turbine.com/showthread.php?t=43132&page=1&pp=15">this
thread on the official href="http://forums.lotro.turbine.com">LotRO forums Turbine dev
Harry “Floon Beetle” Teasley said, “…anything to make blond hair rare
will have the opposite effect, if it's remotely achievable at all. In
any case, a quest to turn your hair blond sounds silly.”



It sounds silly to me, too. I could no more imagine a blond hobbit than
a portly elf. And Floon Beetle seems to agree that remaining faithful
to the lore of the Tolkien races could be more important than allowing
extensive (and sometimes outrageous) character customization. “Should
we offer a beardless dwarf option?” he asks. “I'm inclined against it,
for lore reasons: dwarves were very much a bearded race, and Tolkien
speaks in absolutes on the matter (de-bearding for a dwarf was always
involuntary and shameful). The folks who conceive of the beardless
iconoclast dwarf for their character should probably have another go at
it, because dwarves will have beards.”



So, those who have dreams of stepping outside the boundaries of Tolkien
lore had better think twice. And yet, Floon Beetle acknowledges that
some lore conventions may need to be flexible. For instance, should a
hobbit not be allowed to wear shoes because Tolkien stressed that they
rarely do? Should the race then be denied the valuable protection of
that piece of armor? There are options. For instance, those furry
halfling feet could come with innate stat bonuses that increase as the
character progresses. Or hobbit boots could be invisible when worn. In
that case, the character would still get the benefit of the armor’s
stats while preserving treasured Tolkien lore.



In my visits to MMOG forums and fansites, I’ve seen gamers request some
pretty unusual things. One asked for the ability to have bi-colored
eyes; for instance, one eye green and the other blue. There are those
who feel that things like blue or green or even hot pink hair should be
acceptable in historical and fantasy MMOGs, and they justify their
request by saying that if magical potions and spells exist in a game,
then surely the civilized world would have found a way to alter hair
color.



Yes, character customization is a good thing. MMOGs have begun to move
past the days where every playable race offered customization limited
to a half-dozen pre-made face options, and a dozen or so hair style and
color choices. EverQuest II, for instance, allowed customization that
extended to finely tuning things from a character’s skin tone to facial
skeletal structure. Many upcoming MMOGs are also promising a high
degree of customization when it comes to character creation. After all,
it’s what the fan base wants.



While I’m all for character customization, I have to admit that I would
be distracted by a wood elf with bright blue hair. Customization
features designed to make a character unique simply don’t have that
effect in online gaming. Were it possible to create an odd-eyed dwarf,
even through a complicated quest, that combination of one blue eye and
one green would be anything but rare—it would be everywhere. And, as
mentioned before, the same holds true for the “rare” golden-haired
hobbit.



Remember the old ad for Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups? Someone would be
rounding a corner while absently munching on a chocolate bar, while
another someone was rounding the same corner while spooning peanut
butter from a jar. (I don’t see this level of peanut butter fanaticism
happen often in everyday life, but I digress.) Inevitably, the two
would collide.



“You got your peanut butter on my chocolate!” one of them would shout.

“You got chocolate in my peanut butter!” the other would wail.



And, of course, they soon figure out that chocolate and peanut butter
happen to be a great (and, in my case, addictive) combination. It seems
the online gaming community needs to be aware of the same thing. Lore
is great—it’s thick and rich and adds lots of flavor to a game.
Character customization is a wonderful thing, too. In fact, it’s so
good that sometimes it’s one of the factors that make a game worth
playing. (Much as chocolate makes life worth living, but again, I
digress.)



So I say, yes! Yes, wrap some delectable character tweaking options
around that delicious game lore--arguably, no lore is richer or tastier
than that of Tolkien’s fantasy worlds. The combination works great
together. With it, our characters can still be unique, and our games
can have a flavor all their own.



Hungry yet?

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