Twenty Questions with the LOTRO Dev Team - July 2013

[Kaynith]

I am now one of many friends that have simply refused to pay/renew their subscriptions for the lack of proper service we full time creeps have had or are going to get in the future and feel that Turbine/WB are losing out on a very lucrative market.

It would seem that if a market were truly 'lucrative', then efforts would be made to develop and capitalize upon said market. Since said market is almost completely ignored, it can be reasoned that it is not lucrative. Or at least not lucrative enough. Ergo, if it were anywhere near as lucrative as you'd like it to be, Turbine would be tripping over itself to develop PvMP content for you.

The reality of the matter is that all minorities tend to be much more vocal than the majority. Thus, full time creepers, whilst very loud and persistent, represent a very small population of the player base.

When looking at things from a business standpoint, no company is going to waste it's time making niche things for minority markets, when they can spend their time making mainstream things for wide and vast markets.

I'm sure this simple logic doesn't make it any better for you, however, so feel free to continue your rant.

[Torhowl]

It would seem that if a market were truly 'lucrative', then efforts would be made to develop and capitalize upon said market. Since said market is almost completely ignored, it can be reasoned that it is not lucrative. Or at least not lucrative enough. Ergo, if it were anywhere near as lucrative as you'd like it to be, Turbine would be tripping over itself to develop PvMP content for you.

The reality of the matter is that all minorities tend to be much more vocal than the majority. Thus, full time creepers, whilst very loud and persistent, represent a very small population of the player base.

When looking at things from a business standpoint, no company is going to waste it's time making niche things for minority markets, when they can spend their time making mainstream things for wide and vast markets.

I'm sure this simple logic doesn't make it any better for you, however, so feel free to continue your rant.

I am glad you find this so amusing. I for one and at least 9 friends have ended our subs and left this ( insert words that cant be mentioned) game for exactly this reason.

[Lohi]

When looking at things from a business standpoint, no company is going to waste it's time making niche things for minority markets, when they can spend their time making mainstream things for wide and vast markets.

Which is why I think overall it's often not a good idea for games to try to combine radically different gameplays, such as PvP and PvE. One of those gets overlooked or turned into a side feature. The purists who only do the one part of the game feel that they are overlooked, or one side of the game inevitably gets influenced/corrupted by the other side of the game. It just seems to make more sense to me to make one game that's great with PvE and one game that's great with PvP, rather than one game that tries to do it all.

Although to be fair, there are also a lot of players who do like to do both. Maybe they don't want to game subscriptions, or even if free just don't want to deal with two separate games.

[Lohi]

The individual who made the thread did a lot of the groundwork for you, even to the point of creating the interface windows, suggesting mechanics and rewards, etc.

Except that overall game designers often have to overlook that. The more detailed the idea, the more that the devs have to avoid any resemblance to it. This is because often if there's a similarity to an idea then someone later comes and wants to get recognition for the idea or even monetary compensation, and even if the devs can prove it was designed and implemented independently it is a major headache to deal with. So ya, if you've got an interface window mockup, I can guarantee that it will never be used even if the feature is implemented.

One of the biggest "I'm done playing this game" points for a lot of my old lotro buddies has been that the Kinship system is nothing more than a social club. If you gave rewards for organized kinship play, and made the system more integral, like guilds and clans in other games, I think you might see a bit of a turn around and old players that left spending a bit more time looking at the game again.

And yet how we do it here is how I've seen it done in almost all other MMOs I've tried. A few that do it different tend to be raid heavy games where PUGs are not viable or even laughed at. The guild-only cliques I think are a problem in some games and any feature that encourages more of this can ruin the wider social atmosphere. I want to group with everyone in the game. So it can be seen as a positive feature in many games to NOT provide guild-only rewards.

If anything I think we need things like alliances so that we can make tiny kinships more viable for grouping.

[Minquinn]

Which is why I think overall it's often not a good idea for games to try to combine radically different gameplays, such as PvP and PvE. One of those gets overlooked or turned into a side feature. The purists who only do the one part of the game feel that they are overlooked, or one side of the game inevitably gets influenced/corrupted by the other side of the game. It just seems to make more sense to me to make one game that's great with PvE and one game that's great with PvP, rather than one game that tries to do it all.

Although to be fair, there are also a lot of players who do like to do both. Maybe they don't want to game subscriptions, or even if free just don't want to deal with two separate games.

The game that does all gaming aspects well seems to have the most players. WOW did quite well with PVE and PVP until about 2 xpacs ago.

The last thing I would like to see is the Call of Dutification of all games, MMO or not. Lately I've been trying different games and the ones I get the most fun out of have high difficulty. I'd rather have a game that has balanced difficulty, good gameplay, Variety of gameplay and replayability. Rather than a game that my 5 year old nephew can own the content with minimal effort.

[Hiritier]

Since next 20 Q&A are about instances, i want to ask about what the devs gonna do to encourage people running multiple instances instead just 1-2 easiest? When U10 loots just announce, i thought this could encourage players run multiple instances instead 1 and only foundry, because there are best in slot items in every instance. But everything turn out bad because the drop rare is too low and people soon give up. I've heard many ideas from players, but now i wanna hear from Turbine: what's the devs gonna do to fix this issue? Last 20 Q&A the devs said there might be another reward system beside the RNG. I want to know more about this. Will this system base more on effort? Can it encourage people running multiple instances?

[Radbug]

Interesting stuff.

Who asked these questions, where do I go to submit a question, and what is the likelihood of getting a question answered?

Nobody?

/moarchars

[Levarust]

Dead Sapience, is there a "certain" date for next 20 Question? Not today, it's certain, as it seems. Next week, this week end or?

[Tirian-Hammerfist]

Dead Sapience, is there a "certain" date for next 20 Question? Not today, it's certain, as it seems. Next week, this week end or?

I rather think you mean 'Dear Sapience' But I wish to echo the question, as it was said that today was the day on which we would get the next 20Qs, so I'm hoping for Monday...

[Sapience]

I rather think you mean 'Dear Sapience' But I wish to echo the question, as it was said that today was the day on which we would get the next 20Qs, so I'm hoping for Monday...

AS you can tell there were other things going on this week. The 20 Questions went to the localization team today. They've been tied up with work on the forum revamp and the 20Q fell behind the other work. It usually takes them 2-3 days to work through the translations and then we post. So I would say mid week next week is when you should see them (with the usual caveats of the world not ending, aliens not eating the dog, and so forth).

[Levarust]

I rather think you mean 'Dear Sapience' But I wish to echo the question, as it was said that today was the day on which we would get the next 20Qs, so I'm hoping for Monday...

Yes, absolutly! My typo-mistake. Sorry for that Sapience.
Well, another week, another hopes...for even maybe the HD pre-orders! (Just joking, we all know "There is no hope.") :P

[Jewl_of_the_lake]

Can we get any info about the future housing update? Looking for a little bit more details then it is coming with the expansion.

[Boraxxe]

If aliens eat the dog it will be the end of the world.
And I feel fine.

[DolorousBob]

Just joking, we all know "There is no hope."

Still hoping HD and the changes it brings will rekindle the interest in all my toons.

[Levarust]

Still hoping HD and the changes it brings will rekindle the interest in all my toons.

There is still no hope, yet. But things can change with HD pre-order details (like huge content and huge end game).

[Minquinn]

There is still no hope, yet. But things can change with HD pre-order details (like huge content and huge end game).

Don't do that man. soda just shot through my nose!

[Levarust]

Don't do that man. soda just shot through my nose!

Why? Cause of this: "(like huge content and huge end game)"
Yeah, I'm just a optimistic-fool.
Huge end-game for Lotro? Bah! :P

[manstan]

I just love the tap dancing around actual answers. I don't think sapiences feet even touched the floor on the 2014 question.
Personally I can't take any 20 questions seriously when mods candy jars are part of it. Just makes it another LOTRO joke.
It's nice to see some questions actually got answered, but most got politician responses, not answers.