Producer's Letter Examines Plans For The Coming Year - Lord of the Rings Online News

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Producer's Letter Examines Plans For The Coming Year - Lord of the Rings Online News

The Lord of the Rings Online producer's letter has been published on the official site that gives players an insight on what the team is currently working on as well as a peek in the future.

Read the full story here

SavageHorizon

So all the naysayers convinced the game is closing down next year might want to rethink that.

etharn

Ser

Nyctelios said:

Wish the game wasnt empty, though. Can't progress on story because can't find people to run a certain dungeon. My favorite MMORPG regardless.

Servers I play on have plenty of people on them especially during events.

Aethaeryn

Yeah I usually see a fair amount of people as well. Glad to see they have plans for the future.  Also, many casual guilds don't care what you do on a day to day basis but will help with this sort of thing.

Po_gg

Yep, most servers have a nice crowd since the transfers. (I think nothing left in the story line which requires forced grouping, but if you don't like the solo option, you can ask around on chat, there are players / guilds who used to offer a helping hand)

For the letter, as I wrote to Suzie I love the housing part   more hooks, owning multiple houses on an account... awesome. Not sure about the interface, have no issues with it currently, but I'm curious how will they change it.

flizzer

This site is always doom and gloom. I've been playing LOTRO since 2008 and continue to enjoy it.

Paragonian

Nyctelios said:

Wish the game wasnt empty, though. Can't progress on story because can't find people to run a certain dungeon. My favorite MMORPG regardless.

FYI - Approximately 1 year ago, Turbine consolidated servers. They closed down half of them, and gave players a choice as to where they wanted to transfer to. Doing so largely ameliorated any population issues this game was suffering from. It took care of the problem so well that it sounds like you might not have logged in since it happened.

IceAge

Are you fucking serious? Reboot it already

gervaise1

flizzer said:

This site is always doom and gloom. I've been playing LOTRO since 2008 and continue to enjoy it.

This site voted LotR best "old" mmorpg last year I seem to remember only losing out to ESO in the final ballot for best overall.

The reality is that very few people on the site comment on the game - with the odd flurry following an announcement or the release of a chapter - mostly positive comments. Consequently a single "doom and gloom" post in the "quiet periods" can loom large and be given more credence by some. 

gervaise1

Which dungeon, server and what time / time zone do you play?

There may be someone on the forum that can help.

mgilbrtsn

Truthfully, I would rather this close and a new/fresh take on the IP be developed.  I really enjoy the setting, but LOTRO is a bit long in the tooth in many of it's mechanics which haven't aged too well IMO.

Alomar

I remember how much potential this game had in Beta and how excited so many people, myself included, were to play daily in the world of Middle Earth with our own stories. Yet, this game went off the deep end of disappointment years ago, the Gap of Rohan expansion was the last straw. Everything post Moria just kept going down hill.

I'm very much looking forward to another approach to a lotr mmo with some more modern mmo elements in the years to come.

mgilbrtsn

Nyctelios said:

DMKano said:

SavageHorizon said:

So all the naysayers convinced the game is closing down next year might want to rethink that.

When the games shut down - the devs don't know, heck not even the producers know until it's a few weeks left.

Why?

Because if they knew - they'd all be half assing their work and looking for other jobs.

This is why people who make decisions to sunset games (usually finance team) don't announce it to the producers and dev team as late as they can - they know a team that's working on a dead game accomplishes little.


Now I am not saying that LOTRO is shutting down next year- I am saying *IF* it is - they wouldn't even know now.

DMKano is totally right.

The "shut down" or "move on" call is not made public until it is done. You can find many cases of that on modern game development  -  like the total shut down to Mortal Kombat X support for PC by >>>>>> WARNER BROS <<<<< the publisher while the devs were not aware of that at all. So... if you get the connection here...

Doesn't just hold true for this field.  I've worked for an organization that said things were great, then cut people after the holiday.

gervaise1

Torval said:

I don't think we're all on one server here. I play on Crickhollow. A few others here I think play on Landy and Laurelin. Brandy is also a very popular server.

Crick is my main as well. 

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

gervaise1

Nyctelios said:

DMKano said:

mgilbrtsn said:

Nyctelios said:

DMKano said:

SavageHorizon said:

So all the naysayers convinced the game is closing down next year might want to rethink that.

When the games shut down - the devs don't know, heck not even the producers know until it's a few weeks left.

Why?

Because if they knew - they'd all be half assing their work and looking for other jobs.

This is why people who make decisions to sunset games (usually finance team) don't announce it to the producers and dev team as late as they can - they know a team that's working on a dead game accomplishes little.


Now I am not saying that LOTRO is shutting down next year- I am saying *IF* it is - they wouldn't even know now.

DMKano is totally right.

The "shut down" or "move on" call is not made public until it is done. You can find many cases of that on modern game development  -  like the total shut down to Mortal Kombat X support for PC by >>>>>> WARNER BROS <<<<< the publisher while the devs were not aware of that at all. So... if you get the connection here...

Doesn't just hold true for this field.  I've worked for an organization that said things were great, then cut people after the holiday.

Yep - businesses are always looking for their own self-interest - so the questions is what will cause the least amount of headaches for the company?

Telling people well ahead of the time and dealing with low morale and hostile employees OR just keeping them in the dark and then telling them and walking them out?

The vast majority of businesses (especially large corporations) will almost always opt for keeping the employees in the dark and showing them the door.

Like moving EU servers to USA and lying to the player base.

They didn't lie they passed on WarnerBros plans as related to them. Remember Turbine did not migrate the LotR servers. WarnerBros decided to consolidate all of their game activities; a plan which included a US and an EU data server. It panned out as it panned out. At the end of the day however LotR has benefitted by moving to brand new, more powerful, hardware.

As far as the long term future of the game goes the devs etc. - as in any industry - are usually the last to be told. In the case of LotR however they probably will know some time in advance because there are IP negotiations coming up. If the IP is renewed then the game - probably - will remain open for a further period. No guarantee of course the IP may get renewed and the game closed but odds are probably not.

The other factor is the story. It is coming to an end. Which is fabulous in one respect but obviously sad in other regards. And potentially sad for devs as well.

Lithuanian

Rumour (i.e. Bulroarer) has it, Premium husing would be for mithril coins. Kind of goof time-and-TP sinking. It could also solve ghost towns problem.
According to same info, we would have flowers (?) of different colours from new region. As if festival flower collecting was not enough. For this cool armour please give battle-hardened soldeir 10 pink, 12 blue and 7 orange flowers...
However, i still maintain some sceptisim. Team is reduced. They promise to "work on" lag, but  3 (?) developers cannot perform miracles. They introduce new content, yet I am really afraid it would very hard, forced-fellowship or even raid content like Gondor is. I wish Turbine listened to simple casual PvE players, even such soloers like me (well...something they never did on their forums).

xxBoneZxx

flizzer said:

This site is always doom and gloom. I've been playing LOTRO since 2008 and continue to enjoy it.

I haven't played it since the first year of release. If you don't mind me asking, what is there to do in the game that has kept you playing all these years? And are there PVP servers?

mgilbrtsn

Dren_Utogi said:

mgilbrtsn said:

Truthfully, I would rather this close and a new/fresh take on the IP be developed.  I really enjoy the setting, but LOTRO is a bit long in the tooth in many of it's mechanics which haven't aged too well IMO.

you can take that idea and shove it. I didn't spend 9 years to watch the game close because a minority didn't want to play it cause it was T.T middle earth WAHA ican't be gandalf waahh T.T.

I'm not sure how small or big of a minority I am, but I'm betting that it's pretty significant.  If you've gotten 9 years out of a game, I would say that that's a pretty good run.  However, I wouldn't actively advocate for it closing, or start threads to get the word out that it does need to be killed because of the people who are enjoying it.  That's why I merely phrased it as a preference as opposed to a clarion call.

BruceYee

Wasn't Turbine shutting down? Or is that not happening anymore.

Dakeru

Hmm I actually wanted to play again a few days ago but I got this ancient bug from 2009 and before where some .dat files get corrupted.
The patcher will only tell you that you are missing something but not what it is or if anything got corrupted or whatever.

The downside of outdated programs.

Po_gg

xxBoneZxx said:

I haven't played it since the first year of release. If you don't mind me asking, what is there to do in the game that has kept you playing all these years? And are there PVP servers?

Different for everyone I guess, in my case it's the world and the community what kept me there.
As for pvp, no servers for that, heck if you've played at the beginning you may remember there wasn't even pvp in it, it was a PvE-only game   Ettenmoors was added later.

Lithuanian said:

Rumour (i.e. Bulroarer) has it, Premium husing would be for mithril coins.

Thanks for the hint, checked and... not so happy with the housing anymore, unfortunately. Don't get me wrong, it looks great (even if not very hobbity for my taste), for lifetime subs it will be a nice new toy to play with. Maybe even for normal subs. But for the rest of the playerbase, it is way too pricey...

The purchase price itself might be reasonable, depending on the rate the smallest house (which is still bigger than the current kinship house) costs about 12-14 bucks. The largest one is over 65 bucks, which is simply insane, but still can imagine a large kin, or a lifer with the accumulated TPs to purchase one.

But what is the real salt in the wound, is the upkeep, which is also for mithril. Meaning, if you have the smallest premium house, that will cost you about 4 bucks a month...   now imagine if you have a bigger house, or multiple houses since with this update you can own multiple houses - it can easily pile up into a nice sum, just for owning houses in a game.

I'm quite puzzled, to be honest. A one-time purchase? can be fine. Paying rent in a game for real money? seems kinda dumb. Don't know what is their goal, but I don't think anyone besides lifers (or a few regular subs maybe) will use the system in this current form...

Phry

DMKano said:

mgilbrtsn said:

Nyctelios said:

DMKano said:

SavageHorizon said:

So all the naysayers convinced the game is closing down next year might want to rethink that.

When the games shut down - the devs don't know, heck not even the producers know until it's a few weeks left.

Why?

Because if they knew - they'd all be half assing their work and looking for other jobs.

This is why people who make decisions to sunset games (usually finance team) don't announce it to the producers and dev team as late as they can - they know a team that's working on a dead game accomplishes little.


Now I am not saying that LOTRO is shutting down next year- I am saying *IF* it is - they wouldn't even know now.

DMKano is totally right.

The "shut down" or "move on" call is not made public until it is done. You can find many cases of that on modern game development  -  like the total shut down to Mortal Kombat X support for PC by >>>>>> WARNER BROS <<<<< the publisher while the devs were not aware of that at all. So... if you get the connection here...

Doesn't just hold true for this field.  I've worked for an organization that said things were great, then cut people after the holiday.

Yep - businesses are always looking for their own self-interest - so the questions is what will cause the least amount of headaches for the company?

Telling people well ahead of the time and dealing with low morale and hostile employees OR just keeping them in the dark and then telling them and walking them out?

The vast majority of businesses (especially large corporations) will almost always opt for keeping the employees in the dark and showing them the door.

Not to mention, employee's tend to update their CV's and actively look for employment elsewhere, most likely finding it, and in the case of MMO's, its not just the dev team leaving that causes problems, the remaining playerbase could just decide to give up as well, and move on, destroying what little profitability the game has at that point, and if the dev team find out, chances are it will 'leak' to the players too.

Lithuanian

Actually Lotro mithril housing may succeed (NOT statint it would, no man can foretell future).
Reason:it worked of some kind in istaria. If you sub, you get 1 plot/lair to purhase and matinain for in-game gold. Some player were rumoured to add another subscription to have multiple plots. So, big spenders or eternal grinders may have a reason.
Explanation: me as an example. I have little to purchase for TPs. I do ignore latest quets packs after first Gondor. Not a fan of vanity items and bank/shared vault space could be upgraded to maximum. What happens then for a person that has no end-game activity? Yeap, alt-o-holism, tons of Bree/Shire reputation items. Grinding and grinding untill I have those thousands TPs for another hundred of mithril coins.
So, it could work. Wold it work, depends on 'whales' (ones who spend too much) and too bored grinders (who cares about grind too little).

FrodoFragins

The fact that they haven't addressed the license expiration next year says enough.  I'm a lifetime sub and never even experienced Rohan mounted combat.  They totally misdesigned this game from the start and once the lifetime sub money was spent they had to start cutting back while also releasing buggy dungeons/raids in Moria

gervaise1

Gorwe said:

They did in fact lie. Remember "EU server 2016" fiasco? That was an outright lie-black as a night. Now, I'd like if a more modern LoTR (mmo)RPG came out. LoTR:O is...too dated and exhausting imo.

Not what I said.

Stuff like budgets and profit targets are passed down from WarnerBros to WarnerBros Interactive Entertainment to Turbine to the "devs".

Based on this info the "devs" will have made plans - probably had them signed off - and then they (may) communicate their plans to the players.

When stuff changes - and a few months back staff were laid off etc. - all bets are off so to speak. 

Which can leaves players feeling they have been "lied to". The devs who got laid may have felt the same as well. Pretty sure they didn't "lie" on purpose though. 

And it happens all to frequently. Multiple examples around. Brad announced Everquest Next would launch last year did he lie? It was certainly an ambitious "plan" but a "lie" .... and it also ended with more devs laid off. Stuff changes all the time.

Now some companies respond to player backlashs by adopting a policy of saying nothing. Doesn't help the game though. Why others opt to add a caveat - a "stuff could change line". Check out any Mark Jacob's interview for example - a lesson learnt the hard way from Mythic days. SC now add this type of caveat as well - again a lesson learnt the hard way. 

Not all players "read" the caveats though - they "see" them but "dismiss" them. So you still get folk who feel betrayed. The alternative though is for the devs to say nothing about their plans. Being told is better imo - but the caveat is always there.