The Destiny of Lord of the Rings Online

An anonymous reader writes "Julian Murdoch over at Gamers With Jobs posits that the recently released Lord of the Rings Online, for all it's flaws, is a new kind of game — the Destiny-Locked RPG: 'The reason that Story sets LOTRO apart is because you know how it ends. This is a luxury World of Warcraft simply can never have. There is no logical end to WoW, where the evil WoW faction of the Horde is victorious, and every member of the good-aligned Alliance dies. The viciously PvP nature of EVE Online means that the story can only sit on the sidelines and inform, not take center stage. But in LOTRO, the game is the story. In this, the game has far more in common with Oblivion than it does with WoW.' The argument here is that a game in which the outcome is known is fundamentally a different (and possibly better) form of gameplay than that the current rage of emergent-gameplay sandbox weak storied games. A challenging idea." It's not so much that the game's ending is already known, as that there is an ending.

Not the first...

[C0rinthian]

I think Star Wars Galaxies qualifies, as it's set between two pre-existing movies.

I also think the fact that the story was already written was part of it's downfall. The developers had no room to work with because they would keep bumping into canon.

The whole point..

[LordBafford]

Isn't the whole point of a company making an MMORPG to not have a ending? I mean if they want to rack in the cash, why would they ever think of making an ending to their game? Like WoW they just keep adding new areas to give more quests to make more cash. The only possible ending for WoW would be that they open up northernd and you have to kill Arthas on on the frozen throne. That is where warcraft 3 left off was evil technically winning. So knowing the end is ok but it's better to not have one if you want to make money.

Re:Noone gets it right

[Anonymous Coward]

The horde is not evil in WoW, the alliance isn't good either.

I disagree, and it bugs me a lot when people say that. Horde has always been the "evil" side in Warcraft. But that's a good thing. Trying to claim neither side is good or evil just waters down the game and makes it more bland and boring. I like playing the Good sometimes, and other times I like playing Evil.

Also remember that while Blizzard has developed their own story and world (somewhat) everyone who uses Orcs in fantasy got them from Tolkien. And Tolkien's Orcs are evil through and through. Undead and Trolls are also almost invariably "evil" in fantasy.

Re:Not the first...

[MontyApollo]

Yeah, but do you really want 1000 Gandalfs running around...If you want to play Gandalf, a MMO is probably not the way to go. A single player game is probably more suited.

Re:Noone gets it right

[SuperMog2002]

I submit to you the following for consideration, all of which can be learned by doing the quests in Ratchet and Westfall. At the end of the third war (Warcraft III), both the Alliance and Horde capitals were destroyed. The leadership of both factions paid for skilled craftsmen to build new capital cities. Thrall, leader of the Horde, hired a group of goblins from the Steamwheedle Cartel to build the orcish capital of Orgrimmar. He was very grateful for the their fine work and paid them well. The goblins were impressed enough with the orcs that they decided to start their own port town not far from Orgrimmar (Ratchet).

Meanwhile, the humans hired Edvin VanCleave and his guild of craftsmen to build the city of Stormwind. They likewise did an excellent job building the city. However, when they attempted to collect their pay after finishing, the government conveniently "forgot" that they had offered VanCleave any pay at all for his work. They threw him out on the streets of the city he built without a penny. Disillusioned with the kingdom of Stormwind, VanCleave and his guild reformed in to the Defias gang, who frequently terrorize Alliance players in the level 1 to 30 range. VanCleave himself is the last boss of Dead Mines, the first Alliance instance.

Which one of these sounds evil to you?

Re:WoW Story

[Anonymous Coward]

Plots centered around a video game are often left open-ended for a reason.

The story in WoW is there if you actually read the text for the quests you do. There is an explanation for why Blood Elf players would want to kill Prince Kael'thas (and it isn't because he drops epics) in the quests, but most players simply focus on the quest rewards. TBC quests based around Akama set the stage for Illidan's downfall (at the hands of the players).

The only problem is that the major lore villians that get killed will likely only be killed by top end players because they are tucked away in raid instances that are too difficult / involved for the average person. However, the fact is that the story is there and pretty focal, even if most players don't care.

Of course, the players not caring so much allows Blizzard to get away with some pretty heavy retcons... reworking part of the plot so that it fits in with the gameplay better.

At some point WoW will reach the end of it's life and there will be no more expansions. Eventually a newer, better MMO will come out that will actually be better. A likely end to the WoW story itself will be defeating Arthas in Northrend. Though there are plenty of other enemies that Blizzard could throw at players if WoW remains popular after that.

After WoW, new Warcraft RTS or MMO could be made which is set many years after the end of WoW that continues the Warcraft story to some point. ...

LOTR is not open ended. And the problem is that people who would play LOTR online over WoW quite possibly care about the LOTR story very much and there might be huge player complaint for violations of canon. The very hard core ones have read the Silmarillion, and just about every unfinished piece that was edited and then published after Tolkien's death. I've seen hard core LOTR lore fans, and they will simply go ballistic if a game violates any of that lore.

Thus, your character is forced to be a bit player. Defeating a major lore villian would be a massive violation of canon. You can't raid the Balrog of Moria, the Nazgul, Shelob, Sauruman or Sauron for loot. These are challenges for the main characters of the story. At best you can be a nameless soldier fighting nameless enemies as part of one of the major battles from the books.

Re:The Road Goes Ever On and On

[Bodrius]

I'd like to say I'm shocked and surprised at your tale, and hope that you're just too jaded by past experiences to give the game an honest chance.

But I have to admit, that Boromir always seemed a bit shifty to me.

I wouldn't be surprised if pig-related incidents happen again on LOTR online.

Re:Not the first...

[ThousandStars]

Warning: LOTR nerd nitpicks ahead. There are only five wizards, two of whom are never named, and they don't use "magic" but have unusual power. Two of the wizards wander into the East and are never heard from again; Radagast is not terribly effective, Saruman lusts for power and becomes corrupt, and only Gandalf remains true to his purpose. The elves may or may not use the same thing, and they certainly do use what Sauron does, as Galadriel says in Book II of Fellowship in "The Mirror of Galadriel":

'And you?' [Galadriel] said, turning to Sam. 'For this is what your folk would call magic, I believe; though I do not understand clearly what they mean; and they seem also to use the same word of the deceits of the Enemy. But this, if you will, is the magic of Galadriel. Did you not say that you wished to see Elf-magic?'

Overall your point is well taken, and if everyone could use 'magic" in the way Gandalf does, the LOTR world would lose much of its appeal and just become another of the innumerable MMORPGs. Part of what's so special about Tolkien is that he doesn't translate well to video games, and his wars are not just modern combat but with funny clothes. When there's money to be made, however, the story can be damned.

Re:Not the first...

[MontyApollo]

I don't think magic is that rare in the books, but that extravagant displays of magic are rare. You have elven swords that glow when orcs are near, the palantir, the gates of Moria respond to voice commands, trolls that turn to stone in sunlight, etc... The one ring and the 3 elven rings are of course magical.

I like that they limit magic wielding players, but I hope the developers don't get caught up in the whole "magic is rare" thing in terms of player experience.

Re:Noone gets it right

[shinma]

I read your post, and the simple, inescapable conclusion is that you are blatantly, by your own admission, ignoring what the Orcs and Trolls are in World of Warcraft in favor of an intertextual interpretation based on your own image of how things should be, because of your preference for the works of Tolkien.

That's fine, but arguing that the Horde is evil because you want them to be or because you disagree with Blizzard's execution or simply because you don't find it as well-written as another author's works is silly. World of Warcraft's story is Blizzard's to create. It is what it is, regardless of your preference that it were otherwise. If you don't like their choices, good on you. There are things I don't like about World of Warcraft, but I don't deny that they exist simply because I don't think that Blizzard's writers are as good as Tolkien or China Mieville or Mark Z. Danielewski, or Margaret Atwood, or Neil Gaiman, or Michael Moorcock, or any number of other wonderful writers out there.

And I've read most of Tolkien's work, including the Silmarillion. I wouldn't call them the holy gospel, but they're very good books. My biggest gripe is that Tolkien sometimes fell to digression and rambling in a way that made the story drag. But thanks for assuming.