Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I havent slept in almost 30 hours, but while just watching the newly released Lord of the Rings: Online trailer, I just couldn’t stop laughing. The thing is cut horribly and it doesn’t really do anything to make a good show of the engine. The copy is also horrible; sporting horrible effects. I wonder if that is a plug-in for After Effects; Horrible(R). The thing honestly looks like the publisher was yelling at them to release a trailer, but they already had plans to go out drinking, so they just told Bob the janitor to throw something together.
Check it out for yourself
~Spot
The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar: Because The Title Wasn’t Long Enough Before
We don’t love Turbine enough around here.
We should have a Shiny Happy Week sometime, in which every day several of us post nice things about how wonderful assorted games and companies are. This will balance all the bile and hatred of the entire internet, and peace will reign.
Ethic; HAHA
Zubon; Well so far they keep getting close but are just missing the mark. They have two of the biggest properties alive. A little lack of love is not so bad. There are some LOTR fans which would gut them with a hunting knife.
:)
Spot: “close” seems to be the most hate-evoking thing out there, ne? I mean, if they were making a LOTR Online: Hobbit Pillowfights game, we might think that was kind of odd, but few would hate them for destroying their dream of the perfect hobbit pillowfight. “You call that Shire down?! It looks like something from Gondor!” It is getting close to what you want but having a serious (but potentially minor) flaw that really upsets people.
I suppose that ignores exclusivity. Because of investment and production time, you only get one shot at an implementation in any reasonable time frame. If Hobbit Pillowfights were the only LOTR MMO coming out, that would bring an entirely new kind of hate, kind of like folks who want DDO to be more like normal MMOs. If the American online game market was more like the Japanese market, we might be more tolerant of different implementations because there would be so many options. In the graphical online game world, the only things that seem to exist in endless variety are xp grinds and fantasy worlds.
It’s not THAT bad. It isn’t a great trailer, but it isn’t bad. After what you said, I thought it would be like the announcement of Dawn or something. Then again, maybe you set my expectations low enough that I couldn’t think it sucked.
Yeah, the trailer didn’t bother me either, GG. Still, unless Turbine does something to improve their engine, I don’t see anything doing very well. And besides, what IP has bigger nerd fans behind it than LotR? Turbine will get hammered to no end regarding every little detail that isn’t perfect. It’s a no-win situation in my opinion.
” And besides, what IP has bigger nerd fans behind it than LotR? ”
Well Star Was does…and look what happened to it.
The recent issue of Business Week sported a cover story concerning Steve Jobs taking over Disney. The entire article was intriguing, but one thing stood out to me as pure logic.
It was stated that Pixar kept a strict policy on only ever producing one film at a time in order to ensure the highest quality team members and therefore highest quality ideas/assets on every property.
I see two parties to blame here. Turbine, for biting off more than they can chew. Then whoever came second, because they should have been smart enough to say ‘You are already supporting a huge franchise, how will you be able to give ours the highest quality attention?’.
A wise man once said: ‘Do one thing, and do it right.’
Well spoken Spot.
Kudos to the business guys at Turbine though…Asheron’s Call one is still plugging along, AC2 was a flop in my opinion, but they landed the D&D and LoTR franchises as well as massive amounts of funding last year from VCs. That is pretty fricking impressive in my book.
On the other hand, I’ve heard rumors that not all is well in paradise, and like most game companies, they have their fair share of problems internally.
Anyway. I can see handling more than one big project at a time if your company is setup for it and you have the right teams, but dealing with multiple massive franchises that are on the level of D&D and LoTR is just something really risky. It looks like we are going to get saddled with mediocre games with mediocre content and desaturation of the property.
“LOTR Online: Hobbit Pillowfights”
Oh god, where can I get THIS?!? I better be able to upgrade my Shire down pillow to a 3 foot long iron bar tho.
*yeah, bustin hobbit ass, oldschool…..*