Middle Earth, The mmorpg.

[davi]

Just wanted to show some screens i found from IGN for the Middle Earth mmorpg, i can tell from the photos that the combat system is probably not what i'm into... but damn it looks pretty non-the-less.

http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/middleearthonline_121603_000.jpg

http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/meo_111903_003.jpg

http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/meo_111903_001.jpg

http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/MEO_111003_007.jpg

http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/meo_082803_013.jpg

http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/meo_082803_006.jpg

[davi]

http://www.lordoftherings.com/meo/images/popup/23.jpg

^ wtf is that


http://www.lordoftherings.com/meo/images/popup/1.jpg

[Red_Rook]

looks really smooth for an mmorpg. What I wanna know is how there going to make it work in the world of middle earth, because I promise that not everyone is going to be the peaceful hobbit bar tender. And you cant have 500 gandalfs running around either?

It looks pretty sweet though. :)

[davi]

i think you can be an elf, dwarf, human or hobbit... it's based in the 3rd age of middle earth with mordor... so who knows how it will play.

[usagi yojimbo]

i dunno Red_Rook, they did a pretty good job with non-combat classes in sw galaxies i think theres a lot of medics and entertainers and stuff like that. also, im sure it'd be damn hard to become a wizard, especially one as powerful as gandalf

but at the same time who wants sit behind a bar washing glasses when you could be a ranger or something, especially in this world

[Forge]

is this project still alive... i heard a few time ago that it was cancelled...

[davi]

i've never heard anything about it being canceled, it seems very lively to me, http://www.lordoftherings.com/meo is the offical game site which appears to be updated today with middle earth trivix

[wassermelone]

Middle Earth Online as was being created by Sierra was delayed, delayed, delayed.... canceled. Most of the team that had been creating it were then layed off.

This is actually Lord of the Ring's Online officially (I think), and is being created by Turbine... who created Asheron's Call 1 and 2.

-toasty =)

[bigmonkeynuts]

No, the current project is very much alive. Back in the day, I guess a few years ago it was, the MEO project was haulted by Sierra. Corporate restructuring caused the dev team on the game to be laid off... which really sucked. Back then the dev team were -very- active on the message boards and were considering many suggestions the community had. Hell, perma-death was even being strongly considered. The game seemed like it could really change things up and offer soemthing new.

Something tells me this MEO will just be a prettier version of every other mmorpg.

edit - argh, bad timing :D

[wassermelone]

Actually I am pretty sure it was canceled at one point. Because my friend used to be pretty big in the community in the early days and he was really dismayed.

And if what you say is true... I guess it was ressurected at one point...

-toasty =)

[Forge]

take care there is vivendi behind turbine... da ya remember "the fellowship of the ring" the role playing game on xbox... hurgh... the project was cancelled by sierra (sierra is actually like the Titanic u know...) and was taken again by Turbine... let's see...

[davi]

beh,, prettier?

it looks nice but i seriously don't trust realism in games of that magnitude, The more and more realism you put into a game the more and more things are noticibley unreal, compair the hobbit house to the dungeons...

[wassermelone]

I would have to agree with you Davi.
I still far prefer the graphic stylizations of WoW and AO to the attempts at realism in many other MMOs.

-toasty =)

[netytan]

looking good

[AnarchyAo2]

I wonder how many different Gandalf's (ex. Gandalf123, xXxGandalfxXx etc) there are going to be?

[AnarchyAo2]

BTW, for you guys that are interested in keeping up with the beta and pre-release communities. go to www.stratics.com
its a network dedicated to mmo's.
the irc is address is:
irc.stratics.com

[ejwize]

hey... cool to see this stuff here.

There are a couple folks on the MEO art team that participate here on conceptart... marc_taro is production designer, muttonhead is doing some concepting, (and me :P )

We're definitely interested in feedback as we will be doing a lot of polishing in the next year of production.

Check out http://www.middle-earthonline.com for more info.

[davi]

oh no, and hear i am both praising and badmouth the game :rolleyes:

so far i think it really looks fantastic, but i honestly am unsure about the hobbiton house image... it just doesn't seem to fit with the realism of the rest of the game.

[ejwize]

haha... I didn't think you were badmouthing, Davi. An honest opinion can never be bad mouthing.

And we really are going to be doing a lot of polishing, so fresh impressions are helpful!

[davi]

well i think one of my problems with that hobbit house is that alot of the edges are smoothed to the point where it looks similar to clay, mostly just the wood

[Forge]

wow you're doing a fuckin game men ...

[marc_taro]

lol - thanks for the post Davi - nice to see word about us getting out...

In some ways I do agree with you re:realism in video games - it's fantastically difficult/expensive to take this approach - everything takes so much time and effort - For instance, we are normal mapping everything in the world - every character, building and tree gets a bump map...blarg...

In many ways it would be great to do a stylized game - something like XII or BG&E would be fun…but can you imagine cartoon wizards and hobbits? Shades of Ralph Bakshi!! I just cant see it for LotR…Middle-earth seems to demand realism and immersion….

Anyhoo - keep yer’ eyes peeled, we’ll be letting out more wikid pics in the new year….

~mth

[davi]

yeah i agree with that decision if this game was anything, but realistic it could cause problems. The hobbit game that was just released makes my stomach churn.


please try to see if you can find anything to post on the forum, even failed concepts. I'd enjoy seeing YOUR takes on the world of middle earth that we've all seen in the movie art books.


keep up the good work.