This interview and article was done a few months before the official launch of the game
Thank you all for your patience regarding this article. The delay has been caused due to the fact that:
The problem with that the drivers for the camcorder from Sony’s website have not been updated since Vista has come out and for some reason, Vista just does not recognise my camcorder when I plug it in so I had to wait till I got to an XP PC and edited the footage
there.
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The Event
After some nice introductions, we got straight into the presentation in the Theatre room. Videos can be found in the links below:
Due to YouTube’s 10 minute policy..I had to cut the video into 6 parts..which took a considerable amount of time to edit and also to upload when you consider there’s almost an hour of footage here. Afterwards I got a good hands on with the game, creating a new character and getting through the beginning section…I chose to be a Man with a Class Type of Champion. As the presentation will inform you, there are 7 types of class including:
There was sadly some kinda glitch with the network stopping the Quest from occuring so we just went into Monster Play…which basically is the Evil Mode of the game. It allows you to create your own monster from Middle-Earth…be it an Orc or a Spider and roam around sections of the world to duke it out amongst other players. Consider these a alternate player to the game, with quests to do like smash a Hobbit village to the ground.etc, there’s bound to be hours of fun here.
The network problem did get solved and we did do a Fellowship quest for a few minutes, then I had to go to do the following interview with the Executive Producer of the game, Jeffrey Steefle:
Interview
After The Event
After which, was the end of the event and then I had to take the train back home with a copy of the Beta in my hands to play when I got back. Since then I have played quite a bit of LOTRO, my character is a Level 7 Champion/Man called SolidSnake of Gondor (Bet you didnt see that coming!) with a uncanny mullet like Snake has, obviously customisation can only go so far…but he looks kinda like him. I also created an Elf Champion but somehow that character oddly erased from my game, but it was definitely a different experience on both sides of the coin. I can only imagine that the Hobbits/Dwarves have very different experiences also, and will try these out in due course.
What’s my verdict on LOTR Online? I think its very similar to WoW but it does seem much better, more polished graphically, better quests, Monster Play adds a whole new dynamic to the game and I can’t wait to see the full potential of it and I guess the fact that I’m a huge LOTR nut adds to the experience. Also with the fact that Live Events are a reality, it would be great to actually be in the Battle of Helm’s Deep or Pelennor Fields with thousands of other players from around the world. I suppose I’m just excited by what I hope the game can deliver and it sure looks like it might just do that.
Once again, I’d like to thank Jeffrey Steefle for letting me interview him. Can you tell I was a tad nervous when I was asking him questions? Well it was only my second interview ever, so I hope I wasnt too bad! It might have been longer but well firstly he was pressed for time and secondly, my camcorder only had 5 mins of battery life left…what you see there is the last part before the camera dies, luckily Jeffrey gets his answer in just before that!
Finally a huge thanks to Codemasters Online Gaming for throwing the event and letting us film pretty much everything. Especially to Erica Hutton who arranged most of it and also sorted out my interview with Jeffrey, so thanks for that and thanks to all of you for reading all this! Oh and be sure to pre-order LOTR Online or buy it when it hits stores on the 24th of April.
And finally…
32 screenshots of the game have been added to the site, view them by clicking here but make sure you have a bit of patience while they load and a speedy connection as these files are rather big…you have been warned!!!!
Videos of the game in motion can be found in the links below:
So there’s plenty of footage there to get you into the mood while you wait till next month for the game’s release! Enjoy!