Please allow me to introduce myself

[Produktion Malphunktion]

...ut oh... a background in QA you say?

Welcome to LOTRO! Best sehsiw on your new role!

LOL...yeah, I type fast and with forums I'm not a big proffreeder.

[ItsKiva]

Hello and welcome!

[Kheld_GB]

Whoa. He knows Kung-Fu.

Nice introduction.

[Gabli]

Someone has been in Nantes !

[Brookey]

### is this? If I didn't think this game was doomed before...it sure as hell is now.

[Thorgrum]

### is this? If I didn't think this game was doomed before...it sure as hell is now.

Meh, I don't think its doomed but another blue name dosent equate to a new model. Good luck to the guy but expectations for LOTRO are exceedingly low, nothing here has changed that outlook. Good luck pal.

[Dordain]

### is this? If I didn't think this game was doomed before...it sure as hell is now.

QFT


Virtually everyone has quit the game already, and the company that runs it refuses to listen to the actual reasons why. Instead they consult with a handful of forum misanthropes that literally want(and expect that they'll be able to continue) to play an MMO all alone on a completely dead server. This is a company that has driven away huge swaths of its customers, and then silences them rather than hear how to get their money back. It's absolutely baffling.



Turbine, *YOU* need us- not the other way around.

[Nyrion]

QFT


Virtually everyone has quit the game already, and the company that runs it refuses to listen to the actual reasons why. Instead they consult with a handful of forum misanthropes that literally want(and expect that they'll be able to continue) to play an MMO all alone on a completely dead server. This is a company that has driven away huge swaths of its customers, and then silences them rather than hear how to get their money back. It's absolutely baffling.

Turbine, *YOU* need us- not the other way around.

I sincerely hope this producer has learned to take posts like these with a barrel of salt. People who claim to have 'the actual reasons' are almost never the ones you want to listen to. Why? Because at that point they are so convinced of their own validity that they refuse to listen to a dissenting opinion. Ironically the exact same thing you accused Turbine of.

[Rattkille]

Welcome to LOTRO, i hope you will look into out PVMP a little,but i wish you all the best

[Thorgrum]

I sincerely hope this producer has learned to take posts like these with a barrel of salt. People who claim to have 'the actual reasons' are almost never the ones you want to listen to. Why? Because at that point they are so convinced of their own validity that they refuse to listen to a dissenting opinion. Ironically the exact same thing you accused Turbine of.

Hopefully yours and post like yours are taken with the same barrel of salt. A fan of the game coming into the thread to quickly dismiss a hint of dissent. Listening to the fanboy's is analogist too doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. That approach doesn't appear to be working, but you go on Nyrion, no sense in trying something new now

[Milithion]

My actually hope is, that he will change the actually curse Lotro takes.

Welcome Produktion Malphunktion

[Daine]

Welcome and I look forward to the nature of your world running through middle earth!

[Linathrial]

The four letter word 'process' I try and help make developers lives easier, more organized and happy.
I manage deliverables between departments. I.e. make sure builds get on the right servers, the store gets the right update, preview worlds happen, installers get in the right place, troubleshoot issues as the arise.
Manage back end stuff.
Manage some 3rd party vendors.
Run meetings.
Work with the systems and engineering teams...I'm the <censored> shield so they can stay focused on work and not noise from elsewhere.

take all of that and figure out the tangled web of dependencies.

My goodness! How do you have time to post on the forums? o.O

Well met and good luck in your new adventure....busy bee.

On to Mordor indeed!

[Glumlug]

I'm a man of (no) wealth and (very little )taste
I've been around Turbine for a long, long year
Worked with many a man's kobold's and capes.
And I was 'round when Moria shipped
Working with Russia and Spain (ok France, but that doesn't rhyme)
Moved on to DDO
played with Lloth as she laid waste.
Pleased to meet you
Hope you guess my name
But what's puzzling you
Is the nature of my game
I stuck around through Shadowfell
When I saw it was a time for a change
Left QA for Producer land
and Rowan made the change....

I really love the Rolling Stones-ish reference...
Are you a devil of some kind ?

Happy to see you on board!

PS: i had the chance to learn the original 'Sympathy for the devil' song at school, with a hippy-like English teacher (in France...).

[Ravynne]

Now for the MOST important question.... CAKE or PIE?

Of course, you get bonus points if you say cookies.

Welcome to LOTRO!

[Whitestones]

Marvelous intro, and welcome (back) to LOTRO! I trust Rowan has upgraded your flame-resistant/kevlar forum gear? Excellent! Then jump on in, the flaming is fine!

[Whitestones]

I sincerely hope this producer has learned to take posts like these with a barrel of salt. People who claim to have 'the actual reasons' are almost never the ones you want to listen to. Why? Because at that point they are so convinced of their own validity that they refuse to listen to a dissenting opinion. Ironically the exact same thing you accused Turbine of.

Agreed, and well-said.

[Nymphonic]

I sincerely hope this producer has learned to take posts like these with a barrel of salt. People who claim to have 'the actual reasons' are almost never the ones you want to listen to. Why? Because at that point they are so convinced of their own validity that they refuse to listen to a dissenting opinion. Ironically the exact same thing you accused Turbine of.

Agreed 100%.


Seriously, some of you take the cake. He asks for input on something and some of you just bash him.

[Exion_Blade]

Guy with a sense of humor has a head on his shoulders. I welcome you with open arms, cuddles and uncomfortable kisses.
Welcome to Hell. Dining reservations are short as we just had to seat 299.

[Norwrei]

I'm a man of (no) wealth and (very little )taste
I've been around Turbine for a long, long year

Welcome back and nice to meet ya!

[Chris2]

Welcome! What class(es) do you play in Lotro?

[Comstrike]

I found him on Linkedin!



Seriously, yours is truly the real-life tale of the movie UHF, demand royalties brother! (welcome to LOTRO!)

I'm a man of (no) wealth and (very little )taste
I've been around Turbine for a long, long year
Worked with many a man's kobold's and capes.
And I was 'round when Moria shipped
Working with Russia and Spain (ok France, but that doesn't rhyme)
Moved on to DDO
played with Lloth as she laid waste.
Pleased to meet you
Hope you guess my name
But what's puzzling you
Is the nature of my game
I stuck around through Shadowfell
When I saw it was a time for a change
Left QA for Producer land
and Rowan made the change....

My dear Bagginses and Boffins, Tooks and Brandybucks, Grubbs, Chubbs, Hornblowers, Bolgers, Bracegirdles and Proudfoots. To the race of men, elves under the sky and dwarves in their halls of stone.
My name is Produktion Malphunktion. I've been around Turbine for about 6 years. I used to run localization for all the franchises back in the Codemasters days.
I moved on to Dungeons and Dragons Online and ran QA through a couple of expansions. I recently made the jump to producer, and Rowan then moved me from Faerun to Middle Earth.
I'll be the new live producer going forward, and you will here from me every now and again.
I do read forums often, I may not always speak, but I love to see what players think, and what ideas they have for the game, and with my QA background what is driving you crazy.



Here is a little novella about his career so far….

“It all started in the summer of 1979. I played an elf, with 4 hit points and was killed by a poison spider. The life long obsession with games began. Thank you Gary Gygax and mom my first Dungeon Master.

But I had another love, film and television. I was a Star Trek fan practically from birth,and Star Wars made me an obsessive movie nut.

Both of these loves formed my strange path to my new job.

I went to Clark university for psychology and philosophy but spent more time taking film appreciation classes. I transferred to a small community college known for television production. After 2 very intense years I started my career in TV as a cameraman/editor. I specialized in long form stories with no narration..ie no reporter to screw it up. After a few months I became the station director. Yep, 24 years old, directing a newscast, setting the on air look, rigging the studio, doing live events and NCAA sports and well, running the whole thing. Won a few awards, nominated for a few others, but it paid poorly.
I moved on to WB 56, yes this my second time on the WB train as just an editor. The OJ happened. I became disillusioned where news was going. I was still kicking but, I was nominated for two Emmy awards in editing but my heart was no longer in it. Around this time I discovered Doom. The First game that made me fall out of my chair. I was obsessed. You know how people complain about 14.99 monthly to play an MMO? I was paying over 200 a month to deathmatch. Yes calling in long distance to play a game. I saw in Doom and later in Quake the future. Passive entertainment was about to become a dinosaur. I wanted a piece of this.
I quit TV to be "freelance" but really I was spending most of my time building Quake levels, maps for Warcraft...and dreaming. A fortuitous meeting with a developer in McDonald's got me a job at Looking Glass Studios. I worked in QA for Thief-the real one, Thief gold, Thief II and System Shock 2. I was QA lead on Flight Unlimited III, and did a bunch of guerrilla design to finish the game after the producers and lead designer quit. No patch on that game thank you very much.
I became a designer on Jane's flight combat, I needed to design a full campaign for D-Day and the invasion of France. 10 missions in 6 weeks. Needless to say I didn't sleep much. Sadly LGS went out of business and I was starting a family so...
My journey took me back to QA. I worked on a 'digital non linear editor for television broadcast' (like Final Cut Pro ) and a streaming video system that allowed people to work with HD video in real time. My product was running CNN, NBC News, The BBC world news a ton of local stations..sadly that integrated system did a fair job of destroying newsrooms across the world. Sorry about that.

It was miserable. They hated me. I didn't like them very much either. I became a Kung fu artist during this time so I could hit things.

5 years ago I got a call from Turbine to lead the international QA team. It was interesting to say the least. I moved to lead of DDO QA, then promoted to manager. In that time I've shipped 8 major updates and 2 expansion packs. I jsut spent a few months as producer on DDO, and now for the next challenge!

To Mordor!

[vodou]

looks like that challenge fell limp right quick, eh. i base this from the forum insurrection and the admission that, despite your desire for feedback, traditional end game elements are never to return nor tolerated for discussion anymore as stated per the turbine mouthpiece. i feel sorry for you. what a way to get railroaded right off the bat

i don't care what turbine reps say. it's plainly obvious the direction of the game (read: lack of endgame) is resulting in the massive player loss. cosmetic pets and landscape is not an endgame and your former customers are showing you this. if pvp is an intended endgame then develop and balance it sufficiently but the mouthpiece says they are part of the neglectable less-than-ten-percenters.

i understand you may not be able to do anything about it due to actions from your predecessors but why the facade? if you intend to make alting the endgame just say so. it's fairly obvious with only landscape and the new class and not much else. no point in making a thread asking for feedback to get people's hopes up just to demolish them immediately. kinda cruel and insulting to your players if you ask me.

anyways, i can't wish you good luck this time. it's clear you are in an unenviable position and just have to tow the company mantra and try to appease whatever few you can. so long.


signed,

one of the former less-than-ten-percenters who helped account for the over 50 percent decline in the player base.

[elfincat]

Having pondered this thread for a while now, I now remember what it reminds me of. A very similar thing happened with another MMO I used to play and then six months later the game was canceled. While I certainly hope that doesn't happen to lotro, I am now putting extra effort into leveling one character to level cap as quickly as possible so I can at least experience as much of the content as possible.

[DaMac]

DDO changes direction, focuses on player feedback




http://massively.joystiq.com/

Lets hope they do the same at LoTRo