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RPG Games
Mdl. Earth Online





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Gamer's Reality
August 26, 1999Middle Earth Online
Review
"Oh look, another online RPG. Why should I care?"
With all of the Online RPGs that
are already out and are coming out, that quote is bound to be the sentiment of quite a few
gamers today. Lets face it, no Online RPG has yet to meet the expectation that
people had. Ultima Online while incredibly ambitious, was plagued with bugs and design
flaws, though now it is vastly improved. And Everquest, though highly addictive, lacks the
sense of a true world that Ultima Online, for all of its flaws, has. One game reviewer
said it best, "I dont get [Everquest], its like Quake with Elves."
So when Sierra announced that they
were making an Online RPG based off Middle Earth, I wasnt really that excited. First
of all, Sierra was publishing it, which already made me nervous. Second of all, I was
wondering just how much new they could really add to the table. However when I started
researching the game for my friends website, I started to come to the conclusion
that the designers of the Middle-Earth Online RPG really are treading new ground with this
game. This preview will focus on what I believe sets this game apart from other ones,
while at the same time covering all the essentials you need to know about the game.
For those of you who dont
know what Middle-Earth is, (all twelve of you), Middle-Earth is the fantasy world that
J.R.R. Tolkien created and was the setting for the most popular fantasy series ever, The
Lord of the Rings. Not only is it the most popular fantasy series ever, it was also the
series that created the entire genre. Any fantasy author today owes his or her work to
Tolkien. Orcs, Dwarves, Goblins, Elves, all of these are a creation of Tolkien. There are
very few fantasy series out there that arent inspired by the Lord of the Rings. And
the same goes for most of the online RPGs. Therefore it seemed natural that the
inspiration for all of those games would get its own game.
The Middle-Earth
game takes places in the 4th age, or the age of men. If you read the Lord of
the Rings, than you remember (or forgot) that after the defeat of Sauron the Elves left
Middle-Earth, and the age of men began. This is the age that the game takes place. Frodo,
Gandalf, and many of the memorable characters from the series are gone, however according
to the FAQ there will be some of the characters from the series in the game, "for
example Lord Celeborn, now of Rivendell, and Thranduil, the Elvenking of the Wood of
Greenleaves. In addition there will obviously be new characters in the place of old, for
example Elessar's heir is King of the Reunited Kingdom."
The designers of Middle-Earth are
touting the size of the world as "enormous, many times larger than comparable online
games." While that is a pretty bold statement, it looks like the info theyve
given out supports those claims. According to the FAQ, to travel from the Shire to
Rivendell would take a half-hour if you were traveling in a straight line. And to get from
one side of the continent to the other would take considerably more than an hour. Add to
that underground environments and youre looking at a pretty massive land to explore.
So how will you be exploring this
land? In other words, whats the graphical interface like? Well, Middle-Earths
perspective is going to be different than most other online RPGS out there, in the sense
that it will be in a 3rd person overhead view. For those of you who dont
know what that looks like, thats the same perspective that was used in the
Playstation game Metal Gear Solid. Now while that might not look as realistic or immersive
as the floating camera view of Everquest, what that will enable the designers to do is to
optimize performance, since theres no view of the horizon. And youll want to
optimize performance, since theyre expecting the minimum requirements to be 300 MHz!
Also this view is better for social gaming. (For those of you who dont know what a
free floating camera view looks like, think Tomb Raider, or better yet, think Redguard,
since its an infinitely better game, but thats a subject for another time.)
The player will also be able to control the camera on its horizontal and vertical axis, so
you can get a better feel of your surroundings.
Now that weve talked about the
land, lets talk about what the land will be populated with, namely houses and
people, specifically 10,000 people. Thats the amount of users that one world will
support in the game. Since this is the age of men, most of the users in the game will be
men. However the designers are breaking away from Tolkiens vision a bit in the sense
that you will also be able to play an elf in the game. However, the designers are taking
steps to ensure that elves will not dominate the world, and will be as scarce as you would
expect to see a fading race be. There have been various ideas that have been touted. Some
of these include making an elven character develop more slowly than a human, becoming an
elf only by performing some quest or by having a certain number of elves proclaim you as
an elf, and even not having elves in the initial release of the game. Now I know that
there are some hard-core Tolkien fans who will be upset that elves still exist in the 4th
age, since this runs contrary to Tolkiens vision. However I believe that in making a
game you have to strike a careful balance between authenticity and enjoyment. And
sometimes you have to make a game less "authentic in order to make it more
enjoyable. Lets face it, people want to play elves. And to deprive people of that in
order to be "authentic" would in my opinion make the game less enjoyable, which
is what I believe the main priority of a game designer should be. Ive seen some very
"authentic" flight sims in my time, but many of them just werent that
enjoyable since the game designers werent able to strike that balance. So I applaud
the game designers for trying to stay true to Tolkiens vision while at the same time
making the game enjoyable to the masses.
Along with being able to play the
noble elves you can also play an evil character. Which means that there will be player
killing in the game. Now for those of you who still have nightmares from the player
killing in Ultima Online rest assured that the designers are taking steps that what
happened in Britannia wont happen in Middle-Earth. According to the FAQ "Middle-earth
will encourage such nefarious fellows to play roles within the context of the game, rather
than just using their morality as an excuse for indiscriminate aggression." Now while
weve heard that line before the designers have given us some information on how
player killing will be handled that should ease the fears of those reading this preview.
Before I give out that info though I
need to tell you all about something the designers are doing that is very controversial,
but yet in the grand scheme of things can work out really well if handled properly. And
that is when you die, you stay dead. None of this resurrecting with some loss of skill
points ala Ultima Online. You die, and thats it. End of curtain, take a bow and exit
stage left. Now needless to say this has some people just a tad nervous. Rest assured
though that the designers know your fears and are working hard to make sure that permanent
death will be a viable system. There have been tons of ideas that have been thrown around
on how to make it work. First of all, a player isnt going to be able to kill
somebody easily. They had to have been playing the game for a while before that option is
even available. Last I heard they were mentioning a month of playtime before allowing this
for somebody. Also, even when youre finally allowed to kill somebody you have to
knock all of the opponents in the surrounding area unconscious before you are allowed to
kill. And finally, the actual killing isnt going to be quick, but will take time,
which means chances are fairly good that somebody might come by and stop the murder before
it happens.
And dont think that youll
be able to kill another player and get away with it easily. First of all, youll be
tagged as a murderer and all shopkeepers in the immediate area will call the guards on you
if they spot you. Sheriffs will make you a wanted man and will hunt you down. However,
dont think its going to be like Ultima where guards teleport in automatically.
Instead guards will have to chase you down. Now if you leave the area that you committed
the murder youll be out of harms way, but dont think of going back to that
area for a long time, since the guards have a long memory. And finally, anybody else can
kill you without consequences.
However even with all of these steps
the designers are taking, I know there is some apprehension out there and people are
wondering why the designers have installed a permanent death system. From what I
understand, the designers are doing it to make sure that all your actions will have a
weight and importance that are not normally found in online games. Lets face it, in
most online games we tend to be a little complacent about the decisions we make since
there is no real serious threat. And this is especially true of player killing. A player
killer can kill without any serious threat to their character. Even if they get
"killed" in the attempt theyll just resurrect later and can get most of
their stuff back by killing other players. But in Middle-Earth, player killers will think
twice before attempting to kill somebody. First of all, any player killer whos going
to attempt to kill another player knows that there is a chance that he/she could die in
the battle. Also, its going to stop a lot of lone player killers from going out and
committing murder. If the player killer is alone, than there are no other opponents that
the other players have to make unconscious before they can kill the player killer. Also
other players dont have to worry about the consequences of killing a player killer,
so theres nothing to stop them from doing it. Add it all up and being a player
killer is a great way to send yourself to an early grave in the game.
Besides being killed, there are other
ways of dying in the game. Some of these include going without food or water for a long
period of time. Prolonged exposure to severe elements, suffering from a disease or even a
cold, and being poisoned. However the designers assure us that death is preventable, and
that if we are prepared we wont die.
Now that the morbid stuff is out of
the way, lets talk about fun stuff like houses! Yes you will own houses in the game,
ala Ultima Online. And youll be able to do fun things like decorate it with
furniture. (Im sure were all looking forward to that time where our virtual
wife or husband cant make up their mind where the furniture goes J ) However these
houses will not actually be on the map, seeing as if they were it would take up to much
space. Think about it, youve got 10,000 users on one world, if each user had a house
the world would become overcrowded really quick. So the designers were smart and instead
the houses will not be on the map, so the land will be used for more fun things, like
killing J .
Of course what fun is it owning a
house if you cant populate it with people and pets? The designers agree and have
included the ability to have families and pets. Families can come about by several ways.
Obviously you can marry somebody of the opposite sex and start a family that way. You an
also "adopt" people into your family if everybody in the family agrees. By
adoption you can cause a player to be your brother, for instance. Or whatever you decide
to call him or her.. You can also appoint members of your family as heir in case of
permanent death of your character. And families will share the same reputation. So if one
of the members of your family is a murderer, than youll all be branded as murders.
Along with having family members youll also be able to have pets. Besides the normal
cats and dogs youll also be able to have tame beasts, assuming you have the skill to
tame them. For those of you wanting a pet Balrog though, I dont think the taming
skill covers it.
Which brings me to the skill system.
As far as I know, the designers are being secretive about how the skill system will work
out. Which only makes sense, since if theyve got a really great skill system
Im sure they dont want to mention it and have other companies steal their
idea. Same goes for how theyre handling quests, which I for one really want to see,
since the main reason that online games havent been as engrossing as their single
player counterparts is because of lack of great quests.
One thing that online games do have
over their single player counterparts is the socializing. And nowhere is this more
prominent than in guilds. Both Everquest and UO have them, and you can be sure
Middle-Earth will also. However they wont be called guilds, but houses. This is to
give it a more familial atmosphere and be more inline with the Middle-Earth world. There
will be two types of houses, major houses and minor houses. Major houses will have the
added benefits of having a more permanent place on the map, receiving web recognition and
publicity by the staff, and possibly even receiving special abilities. However they will
be much more strictly enforced by the staff, and are more difficult to create. You will
need to submit a name, creed, and governing laws for a major house. A minor house on the
other hand can be created by just about anybody, just as long as they have enough gold and
followers. However minor houses will not be on the map, but will occupy space off the map,
just like a regular house.
And of course
what good are houses without uniforms to go with them? And unlike some online RPGS, in
Middle-Earth whatever clothing you wear will actually be shown in the game! So if you find
that really cool looking armor, rest assured that everybody else will see how cool looking
it is also. Along with customizing your outfit though, youll be able to customize
other aspects of how you look. According to the FAQ, "You will be able to create your
character's face from a huge array of heads, eyes, noses, chins, ears, lips, and
hairstyles." So we wont have a whole bunch of clones walking around, but
everybody can have their own individual look.
This preview is by no means
exhaustive, and theres a lot more I can add. And I will be adding as time goes
along. However I believe this is enough to get even the most jaded gamer (like me)
excited. The designers are taking lessons learned from the mistakes of past online games,
and are also including aspects that will set it apart from all other online RPGS. From
what Ive read, the designers are not seeing this as an easy cash cow, but instead
are laboring hard to make it the best online RPG ever. And it looks like they might
actually do it. |