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Lord of the Rings Media Movies Entertainment Games

Middle Earth MMORPG Announced 197

Posted by michael from the i-get-to-play-sauron-no-me-me dept.
learithe writes "A new Middle Earth MMORPG, Middle Earth Online, has just been announced by Turbine, who produced Asheron's Call 1 and 2 with Microsoft. It looks to be just as pretty and cpu/graphics card intensive as AC2. More (flash-free) information can be found at IGN and Gamespy."
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Middle Earth MMORPG Announced More

Middle Earth MMORPG Announced

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  • Damnit (Score:5, Funny)

    by mao che minh ( 611166 ) * on Friday May 09, 2003 @05:32PM (#5922666) Journal
    I thought that I was done with MMORPGs. Ultima Online went all "candy land". Earth and Beyond was boring. It took too god damned long to get from point A to point B in Dark Age of Camelot. I had wrestled my life back from the clutches of these glamorus, yet malicious, time sinks.

    Now they have both a Star Wars and a Middle Earth MMORPG. I hope I have some personal and sick days left in a couple of months, I'm gonna need them. All they need now is a "You get to bone Britney Spears in real life" *game* and I would instantly reach a state of Heavenly Nirvana and transcend to the plane of eternal bliss. Well, a "You get to bone Jolene Blalock in real life" game would work too.

  • Oh well, hope the boss understands. Finally cancelled my AC subscription, and now we have this. If it lives up to anything close to its potential, I don't see how I won't be addicted.
    -A.M.

  • Here's hoping (Score:5, Interesting)

    by jbellis ( 142590 ) * <jonathanNO@SPAMcarnageblender.com> on Friday May 09, 2003 @05:34PM (#5922673) Homepage
    Sierra tried twice to get MEO (Middle Earth Online) going and failed. It is widely believed [mmogveteran.com] in the community that the first dev team [the 2nd didn't even get off the ground] made the "mistake" of making the game too Tolkien-ish, i.e. too realistic and not mass-market enough. Death was permanant, wizards were Gandalf-ish and not some D&D creation, etc. Too bad.

    So with that history, I hope Turbine pulls off the game we ("we tolkien fanatics") want to see, but I'm not making any bets on it.

    • I guess now that Peter Jackson and company have made LOTR mainstream, it will work?

      Here's hoping, I got excited the first time it was announced!

    • Re:Here's hoping (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Karhgath ( 312043 ) on Friday May 09, 2003 @05:53PM (#5922782)
      I do believe that the market is now ready for a Permanent-Death MMORPG. I mean, the market is so full of similar games that a trully different and risky feature such as this might be what's needed to get a good share of the market.

      Sure, making a PD game requires planning it from the start, making every features in a way that PD is possible for everyone to ENJOY. There are lot of problems to solve, and those are solvable on paper, and probably in practice. I just wish one publisher had the balls to really do it.

      I wouldn't bet that Turbine will keep the PD, I'm sure they won't. This sucks. I just wish there were still risky companies around like Looking Glass were. Ion Storm isn't bad with Deus Ex and now the sequel, although they used Looking Glass' legacy to build Deus Ex on... While you can be successful and make great games without being overly original and risky(Blizzard), we still need risky ventures to revolutionize and advance toward new and greener pastures.

      Oh well, don't mind me, the old skeptic gamer, but I'm sure the new middle earth will just be a 'standard' MMORPG with some new and unrisky features and the same old gameplay, with some tweak here and there, and more importantly, the Tolkien world! Wow, quite a change of setting...

      Please, someone, bring Permanent Death and more risky idea to the world of MMORPG and then, maybe, maybe I'll actually play one.

      • Re:Here's hoping (Score:5, Insightful)

        by DunbarTheInept ( 764 ) on Friday May 09, 2003 @06:23PM (#5922931) Homepage
        The problem with permanent death is that first the game engine has to be at *least* as fair as a compenent human gamemaster would be in a tabletop RPG. And that just isn't the case. When you can die because of bugs, or network lag times, and things like that, that's when permanent death just isn't fair. And if you think permanent death is somehow true-to-form for middle earth, NO it isn't. Gandalf was ressurected as The White. Sauron died by Isildur's hand - but no not really. And the author's hand was in there making sure none of the characters who needed to live for the plot ended up dying, even though there were many cases where they easily would have.

        If Lord of the Rings had been an MMORPG with permanent death, then Frodo would have died from the wraith's wound before reaching Rivendell and the whole story would have ended right there. The "he almost died but barely pulled through" story element that happens a lot in Tolkien wouldn't work if a computer was calling the shots.

        • Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)

          by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Friday May 09, 2003 @08:43PM (#5923604)
          Comment removed based on user account deletion

          • Re:Here's hoping (Score:3, Insightful)

            by DunbarTheInept ( 764 )

            Frodo pulled through, beside his very mortal constitution, because of the application of what you might call magic.
            Yes, but put it in terms of a computer game with hit points or some other such damage mechanism. To make Frodo's player really *feel* that notion that Frodo almost died, Frodo has to be down to scant hit points left. And then the difference between him dying and him living is a mere matter of typing speed and how on-the-ball the players of the elves at Rivendell are. "Oh, darn, I made a t
        • Another movie fan who's never read the book, eh.

          Frodo and co. would have died (or worse) by the hand of Old Man Willow, before the Deus Ex Machina of Tom Bombadil happened to jog along at just the right moment.

          If you have permanent death in a game, you just make it harder to die. That, or make it easy to start over. Look at nethack, it's one of the most popular games in history, and it not only includes permanent character death, but also includes all sorts of nasty and insidious ways to instantly die ("

      • When they port it to the X-BOX, you just might have your wish come true [bbspot.com].

      • Please, someone, bring Permanent Death and more risky idea to the world of MMORPG and then, maybe, maybe I'll actually play one.

        I think this could be addressed in a different way. The main problem is that resurrection is so close as to be impossible in Middle Earth, so allowing it in-game would be disappointing. So, what you need is a more appropriate solution to dying. What happens in the books? A heavy-hitting NPC swoops in and saves the hero. Bombadil, Aragorn, Glorfindel, Treebeard, all turn up in the

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re:Here's hoping (Score:4, Insightful)

      by DNS-and-BIND ( 461968 ) on Friday May 09, 2003 @06:07PM (#5922846) Homepage
      One thing I really like about Middle-Earth is how few Wizards there are, and how they're not using wizardly powers to heat their coffee, unicorn horns to "burn off" drunkenness, and other idiot things that are so prevalent in other crappy pulp fantasy fiction. I can count on one hand the number of times Gandalf used magic.

      Too bad they're dumbing down the game in order to appeal to the masses. It'll be just like every other game out there, only with Official Middle-Earth Theme[tm].

    • Re:Here's hoping (Score:2, Insightful)

      by ProppaT ( 557551 )
      I'm hoping, just hoping, that all you PD well wishers get your wish. You'll get your shiny new cd-rom with your brand new, PD encompasing MMORPG!! You'll install it and start playing it...and here's what you'll find:

      First few days: At first it'll be great. You'll die a couple of times at lower levels figuring out the game, but that's the learning curve.

      First week: Your level 10 Super Shadow Slayer thingie dies. You actually put REAL hours into this character. You curse that class and pick anoth

      • Re:Here's hoping (Score:2, Interesting)

        by 0spf ( 574535 )

        You raise many valid possible problems but I think there is a solution. Every character ages and dies naturally or by combat. This game would not be popular with people who enjoy raising stats and skills as quickly as possible so they can lord over the land with their god like powers. I think it would be popular with others who enjoy the process of building a character more than the eventual result (weekend warriors). We have many examples of the former and few or the latter.

        It will still suck big time wh
  • Looks beautiful! This will be nice. I really like Middle Earth. It's a fun environment. After reading some of the books, watching the movies, playing the Lord of the Rings TCG and that kind of stuff, I've really grown to love Tolkien's Middle Earth.
    This sounds neat that not only will you have more character classes, but actually have different races in an RPG with building of race-specific buildings and stuff.
    Kudos!
    ikeya

  • Will they double charge? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Jason1729 ( 561790 ) on Friday May 09, 2003 @05:39PM (#5922699)
    My objection to MMORPGs is that you have to buy the software and pay a monthly fee. I will pay one or the other, but not both.

    Jason
    ProfQuotes [profquotes.com]

    • of course they will (Score:5, Insightful)

      by jbellis ( 142590 ) * <jonathanNO@SPAMcarnageblender.com> on Friday May 09, 2003 @05:41PM (#5922718) Homepage
      it's well established now that their target market is willing to pay both.

    • Re:Will they double charge? (Score:5, Informative)

      by sweetooth ( 21075 ) * on Friday May 09, 2003 @05:50PM (#5922769) Homepage
      The initial fee covers the first month of play plus the cost of distribution of the nice box, manual, cd, maps, posters, etc. It isn't going to go away any time soon. The monthly fee pays for access to the servers, access to updated content, and bandwidth. I've really enjoyed the effort that Turbine put into monthly events that made the fees worth it. AC1 was great and I played it for far too long. AC2 was beautiful, but I didn't really care for the game. This game should be interesting as it should be using the same engine as AC2. Besides, there are hundreds of thousands of people that won't think twice about paying both prices so they really aren't worried about losing one or two subscribers that won't pay the initial fee.

      • Re:Will they double charge? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Jason1729 ( 561790 ) on Friday May 09, 2003 @06:14PM (#5922886)
        How about giving me the option to play the game without having to pay for a useless box and manual that I don't have the shelf space for? All I need is the CD. For a simple CD in a Jewel case they could charge the price of the first month's service and include a month of service. If they did that, I'd have played several MMORPGs by now. Instead, I've never even tried one.

        I've bought all 3 WarCraft games and StarCraft, and they're my favourite games since the Sierra adventure games. WoW looks like it will be the best one yet, but I refuse to buy into that model on principle, and I am definately their target audience, I still spend about 10 hours/week playing WC3.

        Jason
        ProfQuotes [profquotes.com]
        • What you're paying for when you buy the game in the box is not the box or the manual (or at least, not very much). Mostly you're paying for (in the case of MMOs) the $10-20 MILLION of development that the game cost before it made a single cent. The initial box purchase offsets the cost of development; the monthly fee offsets the cost of continuing service.

          • Then why don't I have to pay AOL a huge upfront fee to buy their disc since they put so much dev work into all their new versions? AOL's monthly fee is only double the cost of most of the online games, and they have to pay for phonelines to provide a dial up connection plus the backend connection, and they offer a lot of their own content that has to be paid for.

            It costs a lot more to build a cellular phone network than make a video game, and yet the cell companies will allow me to connect to their net

            • Then why don't I have to pay AOL a huge upfront fee to buy their disc since they put so much dev work into all their new versions?

              Basic internet service is a different sector of the market. Historically, there's been no signup fee, only monthly fees. Part of the reason is that internet service is basically a commodity -- totally interchangeable. MMOs are not a commodity; EQ is not interchangeable with DAOC, Star Wars Galaxies, or The Sims Online.

              AOL's monthly fee is only double the cost of most of

              • Historically, there's been no signup fee, only monthly fees.

                My first internet account in 1993 charged a sign-up fee, and then when I switched to high-speed in 1997, there was an other sign-up fee. It's only more recently that customers have smartened up and will refuse to pay it. It's too bad they're still making the same stupid mistake again. I will never pay another activation fee. I don't have a land-line because my phone company does have a fee. They also offer satellite TV, high-speed internet,

                • My first internet account in 1993 charged a sign-up fee, and then when I switched to high-speed in 1997, there was an other sign-up fee.

                  There hasn't been a sign-up fee for the overwhelming majority of dialup accounts since around 1994 or 95. The "sign-up fee" for the high-speed access in 1997 sounds more like it was paying for the service of setting it up. My DSL had a $200 setup fee when I got it in 1999, and a $150 DSL modem. (They waived the setup fee; I got to keep the DSL modem.) But even had I

        • If you are only planning on spending 10 hours per week playing I don't think you are really thier target audience. They seem to focus more on the people that play 40 hours per week. That's just my opinion though.

          I still don't think they care about losing a few customers that don't want the box. It seems from reading other threads and having played MMOGs for a while that you are in the minority and will probably not be catered to.

    • Crack Marketing 101 (Score:5, Interesting)

      by asv108 ( 141455 ) * <asvNO@SPAMivoss.com> on Friday May 09, 2003 @05:59PM (#5922810) Homepage Journal
      If a MMORPG just had a monthly fee, and a freely distributable/downloadable ISO, their increased sales would more than make up for the loss in revenue associated with ditching a retail box. There should also be a free 7 day trial that automatically converts to a paid account after 7 days. They should use crack dealer marketing: give them a free taste and get them hooked. The Safari [oreilly.com] free trial is a classic example in my case. After bad experiences with ebooks in the past, I didn't even consider trying Safari when it first came out. 2 months ago I saw a free trial offer, now I plan on keeping my Safari account for a long time to come.
    • Quite. In fact Everquest complete with various expansion packs graced the cover of a UK computer magazine recently. Thus proving that it is quite possible to give out the game like candy and still make money from the subscription. This is the way MMPORGs should go, since they ultimately make their money from the subscriptions. Do an AOL and practically force people to take your CDs and you'll make a shitload more money than you would otherwise.

  • But will they invest the time needed? (Score:3, Informative)

    by Araxen ( 561411 ) on Friday May 09, 2003 @05:39PM (#5922705)
    One thing Turbine has done before and it has shown in their games is that they haven't spent the time to the game just "right".

    I never played AC1 but from what I played in AC2 it was lakely alot of content. It is one of the thing that makes MMORPG sucessful. AC2 had the gameplay and the beautiful graphics part of it right but it lacked the content and was unfinished at release. Which is way AC2 is a virtual desert nowadays.

    Let's Hope Turbine can do it right this time instead of rushing it out the door like they've had in the past.

  • Oh jeez... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Bonker ( 243350 ) on Friday May 09, 2003 @05:40PM (#5922712)
    Ganndallf_00312 says out of character 'L22 Wizzard LFG in Rivendale'.

    Aarragone says out of character 'Ranger and Rogue group needs Wiz for Ring Quest.'

    Hobbitbone_05 says out of character 'Not another 'Fellowship' group. L4m3rs!'

    (Actually, I wrote a while back for an EQ website. [crgaming.com]

  • Oh! Hey! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Perdition ( 208487 ) on Friday May 09, 2003 @05:44PM (#5922728)
    I wanna be Bilgates Ballmersins!

  • +5 whip of flame (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Whitecloud ( 649593 )
    can i play a balrog? seriously though, me and millions more can't play until the ISP's drop prices for broadband. Over here in New Zealand we have to pay premium price's which are aimed at business clients not home users...supply and demand guys! drop prices and watch as the LoTR servers start getting a real workout!

  • already been done (Score:3, Interesting)

    by nomadic ( 141991 ) <nomadicworld.gmail@com> on Friday May 09, 2003 @05:48PM (#5922755) Homepage
    In the MUD world, at least. MUME (among others) has been doing it for years. I'd give the address, but I'd feel bad if it was slashdotted, even though I don't play it anymore.

  • Well, that's okay... (Score:3, Funny)

    by MmmmAqua ( 613624 ) on Friday May 09, 2003 @05:50PM (#5922772)
    ...I wasn't planning on spending that much time with my family/girlfriend/cats/ferret anyway, but between this and SW:Galaxies, it's starting to look like I'm going to have to build a life-support system into my office chair and buy a second Windows box so I can game *all* the time.

  • The first words you'll hear Frodo say... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Patoski ( 121455 ) on Friday May 09, 2003 @05:55PM (#5922796) Homepage Journal
    When you initially log in and get ganked by some loser playing a hobbit..
    "d00d! I 0wn0rz3d y00!!!!! LMAO!!!!"

    *cringe*

    I'm not looking forward to hearing those words from a hobbit...

    I think I need to go reread LoTRs just to get that picture out of my head.

  • I don't want to be an elf or a hobbit or a dwarf or a hu-man! I want to be the new, improved Orc! I want this now. Hurry. HURRY!
    • World of Warcraft says, "HI!"
    • [OFF-TOPIC] (a bit)

      that was one of the things I found completely stupid in the second movie btw... millions or gazillions of uruk-hai (u couldn't even see the end of them), all of them with super-human/super-elf strength and smarter than orc, and faster, and shoot stinging foam from their eyes (ok, ok, I'll get to the point)... against 100 or so elfs with bows! Gimli who is too fat to even pick up an Axe, JUMPS (or gets tossed) into the middle of all those uruk-hai (did I mention they had weapons too?) and

  • How can the game mirror the book? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by 1337_h4x0r ( 643377 ) on Friday May 09, 2003 @06:03PM (#5922830)
    In the book, you're going on a grand quest to save the Ring of Power from the clutches of Sauron.. in the game, you're going to be a peon, running around killing other equally useless peons. Same thing thats going to make Star Wars boring. Nobody can really be a Jedi or they'd be unstoppable.. similarly, there's only one Gandalf and only one Ring of Power, so as an MMORPG I don't see how it'll work.

    • Re:How can the game mirror the book? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Karhgath ( 312043 ) on Friday May 09, 2003 @06:18PM (#5922905)
      That's why I think the perfect MMORPG in Middle Earth would be during the second age, or at least long before the LoTR. Times of conflicts between all races, epic wars, easterlings invasions, etc. It's a much better backdrop than the Ring quest and it's backdrop.
      • Personally, I think the era immediately after the downfall of Sauron makes a good setting. There are plenty of nasties out there to be disposed of - orcs, goblins, Southrons, dragons, etc. You don't think they all just disappeared in the blink of an eye, do ya?
    • Sure, but name one other RPG where players might actually want to be a halfling.
    • "Same thing thats going to make Star Wars boring. Nobody can really be a Jedi or they'd be unstoppable."

      Well, seeing as players can be a Jedi in SWG, it might be time to rethink your theory. :)
    • MUME: Multi Users in Middle Earth [pvv.org]. The MUD based on Tolkien's work solved this problem by having an ongoing war between the good races(human,dwarf,elf,hobbit) and the evil races(orc,troll,black numenorean). You could choose to play on either side of the war. It makes for a much more challenging game when your opponents are humans.
      For the less combative folks, MUME also had things such as herblore skills where you needed to find rare herbs to use and quests to find rare items and you could even fish! 8^)

  • Driven by MASSIVE (Score:3, Funny)

    by notestein ( 445412 ) on Friday May 09, 2003 @06:12PM (#5922869) Homepage Journal
    I'm holding out for the version driven by Massive [massivesoftware.com].

  • There are three main problems with MS/Turbine game (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 09, 2003 @06:18PM (#5922898)
    As a long time player of Asherons Call 1 (On the Player Killer Only server known as Darktide). There are problems that plauge MS/Turbine games.

    #1) Lag, Sweet Horrible LAG!!!

    Wanna go PvP on a Player Killer Only Server? Well good luck having huge battles between clans, having more than 50 people in a single area will cause your ping to skyrocket!

    Non Player Killer servers suffer from the same thing, which are gathering places where "carebears" hang out for hours on end chatting. Log on or travel to a main hub or spot and get massive lag, sometimes these people create lag on purpose casting excessive spells which slow down your video rendering or spam your chat box with scripted responces.

    No matter how fast your Broadband connection is, you will never get a ping under 100ms.

    #2) Rules that MS/Turbine dont bother to enforce.

    They hire 10 admins to enforce the rules governing 500,000 players and it just doesnt work. People cheat, hack, exploit and even if theyre caught doing it, even if they admit to doing it and tell others how, they wont get punished. Massive item duplication sprees that as an end result cause gaming servers to CRASH!! Holy Crap MS! They are crashing your servers and you dont even give them so much as a slap on the wrists!

    #3) Scripted/Macros.

    Since MS heavily relies on scripts to test almost all their products including their games, this latest game will be prone to macros. Its a shake n bake on AC1. You dont even have to do anything, people level for you by passing up Experience Points (The Vassal/Patron system) through an XP chain. Scripts are created to not only level, but for skills and trades. The products of these skills can be sold, so no need to go hunting for cash.

    Of course the more MS/Turbine forbids the use of Macros, the more people do it. Its crazy right now, and the new rules strictly stating that macros are against the TOS have had the opposite effect. People macro more than ever.

    PS
    Their support is horrible.

  • WHy this will suck (Score:5, Insightful)

    by AuMatar ( 183847 ) on Friday May 09, 2003 @06:18PM (#5922899)
    Camping Sauron for the one ring drop. No better way to ruin Middle Earth than to have to sit and wait for the ultimate evil to spawn, and staying there for a few days.

  • A question on their "marketing" (Score:3, Insightful)

    by narfbot ( 515956 ) on Friday May 09, 2003 @06:23PM (#5922935)
    Why is Vivendi Universal Games making a game on the Tolkien world, when one of their subsidiaries is already been making a similar fantasy type for roughly nearly three years, World of Warcraft? Even then, why do they have the same target frame, 2004 right? I think being practically, the same kind of game, a customer will usually choose one over the other, and not buy the other. This means one of these games will largely fail. I think WoW will be the successful one as it will be more polished with the development time that has gone in. So these games are virtually competing against each other.

    Even after that, there are many MMOPG games in production. I don't think they will be too many successful ones because a gamer has only so much money to spend on monthly fees, but more important time. A single MMOPG can consume much of your free time.

    So I really doubt the success of Middle Earth Online.

  • Middle Earth Warcry (Score:3, Informative)

    by Bruha ( 412869 ) on Friday May 09, 2003 @06:25PM (#5922943) Homepage Journal
    Warcry News Network has had the first MEO site up for a few months now.

    Find it @ http://me.warcry.com

  • Something I never can understand.. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Azureflare ( 645778 ) on Friday May 09, 2003 @06:29PM (#5922962)
    Why do they insist on leaving Bilbo's early times out of all this? Personally I liked the environment that was set-up during "The Hobbit" more than the one during the lord of the rings series. Heck, it'd probably be better if it was even before Bilbo, before that silly ring started popping up everywhere.

    A big unifying conflict can be good...and bad. Part of the attraction of a MMORPG is that it never ends...Or at least lasts a long time. If they start right before war breaks out with Sauron, the game won't last that long...

  • Here we go (Score:2, Troll)

    by geekoid ( 135745 )
    fladnag:"Wanted: hobbit for quest"
    hobbit1:"No way, l4mer5"
    hobbit2:"No again old man"
    orc143:"errr Me Hobbit, me take quest"
    orc424:"me too"
    orc532:"me too"
    noruas:"me too"

    What we have is a game thats going to piss off middle earth fans. You know how THEY can be. This means they need to catter to regular fantasy fans. so it will be like every other fantasy game. Why bother buying the rights?

    OTOH I might sign up just to get a classin tolkien name, and then sell on ebay!

  • Suck the life right out of Middle Earth (Score:5, Interesting)

    by kabir ( 35200 ) on Friday May 09, 2003 @06:37PM (#5922993)
    I can't help but think that an MMORPG will just suck the life right out of Middle Earth. In my head ME is a rich, populated world filled with complexity, wonder and mystery. There's just no way that an MMORPG can do that justice with current technology. I mean, look at _any_ of the current MMORPGs and it's pretty obvious that they're not up to a world as rich a Tolkien's.
  • I was thinking about the scene in the Fellowship, where Sauron takes a swing at the oncoming army and wipes out the first couple rows.

    What an evil thrill that would be in an online game.

    An added bonus would be warping the minds of weak willed hobbits.
  • Junk filter won't let me post the text... Head on over to here [companions...realms.com] and check out the first two links to see some humor on LotR in the DAoC world. DAoC players will understand it best, but any mmorpg geek should be able to follow along :)

  • Turbine Engine (Score:5, Insightful)

    by L7_ ( 645377 ) on Friday May 09, 2003 @07:14PM (#5923198)

    When Turbine demo'ed thier Turbine Game Engine, they demonstrated how flexible it was to script and how dynamic they could make the games.

    They came up with an example set of inputs to thier engine and called it Asheron's Call 2. Thier engine is beautiful, thier game design is shit.

    So, what people should be hoping is that thier game designers (and artists) [where is devilmouse?] don't drop the ball and make a game worth playing. It *could* give EQ2 a run for its money.

  • The One Ring (Score:4, Insightful)

    by bigdavex ( 155746 ) on Friday May 09, 2003 @07:23PM (#5923242)
    Suppose they actually put the ring into this story. Suppose a hero retrieves it. Suppose the game engine actually gives the character a huge boost.

    Do you think there's any chance of the ring's destruction in Mount Doom?

  • Turbine's Last Stand (Score:2, Insightful)

    by JJahn ( 657100 )
    This is the game for Turbine. With the recent horror that is AC2, and AC1 only being a mildly sucessful game business-wise, this is their last chance to prove themselves as an MMORPG developer.

    Of course this game is not published by MS, so if it turns out well I guess it is proof that MS was at fault for AC2 being crap like it is now.

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