Interview with the Turbine Staff

[Hudson7]

Heya all, just wanted to toss a note up here that the folks at Turbine were kind enough to chat with me for almost an hour regarding Isengard and Update 5. Some good stuff in there that was pretty interesting and items I hadn't seen before including things like:

• Draigoch Loot
• Raid design methodology
• Scalable Instance Loot
• Some update 5 details

On the call were:
Aaron "Rowan" Campbell - Senior Producer
Adam Mersky - Director of Communications
Zombie Columbus - Systems Designer
Graalx2 - Systems Designer

Here's the link for the download for those interested.

[socom33]

LOTRO is number 4 in terms of PC game players across all genres, did I hear that right? If so it's good to see the game is running strong.

[Hudson7]

#4 according to the Nielsen's rankings, which I understand how they work with TV and am guessing its similar for gaming. Although no matter how the data is gathered, the relative rankings should still be someone representative of reality.

The first few numbers Adam mentioned absolutely floored me

[Wanderv]

text version anywhere? It's hard to understand spoken english for me.

[Hudson7]

Unless there's a trick I don't know of, I'm not sure of a good way to go from audio to te.xt. If there's something available I'm all for giving it a go and posting a transcript, I'm just not sure how to do it.

[WinterStar]

Thanks for sharing this interview with Turbine, the thing is that i cant understand a thing, that way, hearing the audio
Could you write it down for us please? thanks

[Leinad312]

A new armour set in update 5, that seems a bit soon for a whole new gear set. Maybe I'm just used to moria, where that set remained viable for years.

[Lohi]

New armor set makes sense because there won't be one in RoI at the start except for the raid gear.

[MajUntagent]

A new armour set in update 5, that seems a bit soon for a whole new gear set. Maybe I'm just used to moria, where that set remained viable for years.

nah, there's been a set for every raid released. just continuing the pattern. plus more options is always good.

[Inkfinger]

Listening right now. Is it just me or is Adam Mersky way too loud and aggressive? Makes this hard to listen to. I would also like a script if possible.

[Hudson7]

Listening right now. Is it just me or is Adam Mersky way too loud and aggressive? Makes this hard to listen to. I would also like a script if possible.

Yeah, they were sitting in a room with a speaker phone so I'm guessing he was just closer to the phone. Both he and Aaron are louder and unfortunately with a single audio stream there's really not much I can do to boost ZC and Graal.

[Evendale]

Unless there's a trick I don't know of, I'm not sure of a good way to go from audio to te.xt. If there's something available I'm all for giving it a go and posting a transcript, I'm just not sure how to do it.

Listen and type .

[Jadzi]

New armor set makes sense because there won't be one in RoI at the start except for the raid gear.

So there won't be an armor set at RoI launch except for... the armor set that will be there at RoI launch? Did I read that right?

[PypeRings]

Always interesting to hear the company line. 'Surpass expectations'. Well, not mine I am sorry to report.

Glad they are doing well. Best of luck and whatnot.

[Fin.]

So there won't be an armor set at RoI launch except for... the armor set that will be there at RoI launch? Did I read that right?

He said that there won't be armor set except one coming from raid. Meaning there is missing instance armor set(like from moria 6mans or mirkwood cluster).

Tho one can argue that 4/6 of the "raid set" is actually accessible to everyone, not just raiders.

[MoonwalkIntoMordor]

The Draigoch set is much more similar to the Watcher set in structure. 4 pieces require generic drops (medallions/marks) from any instance and 2 pieces require specific drops from the raid.

I am guessing that the sets from the new cluster will be more similar to OD sets. One low tier set that can be acquired through any of the instances in the cluster and one high tier set that can only be acquired through the raid.

[Elgalandir]

Thanks for this Doc, another great interview. A little hard to hear in places, but manageable, and some great new info. This is a lot of effort to go to and I appreciate you doing it when you do this for free and in your own time. A transcription is a lot of effort and work, and there is sadly no easy way to do it, unless there is a willing volunteer.

[MasterBurik]

Removed. Got to the 5min discussion on how announced projects slip, and realized...summarizing that and some others later on could really take things out of context...dont wanna get into trouble there.

[PhilippaSomerville]

Thanks for posting this. I did listen, and found it very interesting, particularly the stuff on Update 5.

[Hudson7]

Since it's my day off and well...I wanted to, I'm working on a transcript of it for those who seem to have trouble hearing/understanding what was said. I'll post it as soon as I'm done, as it is a 55min 10sec total session (including that music, lol). It is likely that I will shorten the actual QA sections (Get to the point so to speak), but not so much the intro.

wow, that's awesome - thank you SO much for taking the time to do it.

+rep for sure!

[heatherjewel]

Listening now... these guys are deluded. The number 2 MMO? Sorry am not going to buy that one, especially world wide. Just using common sense one can see the numbers themselves. Even though just about every game keeps numbers really close to the vest, you can use common tools to see that. And the most obvious one is that they started with X number of servers and despite all the so called influxes of people have never had to open any new ones. And it is also pretty funny how there were wait times back at release, and even small ones during the F2P change for a couple days, and shortly after that those wait times disappeared and the population was basically the same as it was. Despite being free to download/log in. But typical Turbine tripe.

Then the guy talking about the a la carte methodology. He had guys thanking him for offering it that way? Seriously? He tries to spin people who dont raid with people who just want to quest and explain away why the thing that was supposed to be free is not a 1295 quest pack addition essentially. Which really should be free to ViPs. It will be available for the launch. So they had two options.... Put it into the expansion and price it at the same as it is now or maybe a few hundred TP more. Or make it a quest pack and give it free to ViPs, and charge premium players for it in the store. To charge for it across the board is inexcusable.

And this guy fielding all the questions...wow. They have delivered on expectations? Not even close. So many missed expectations that they cant even be discussed here.

They talk about this expansion as if they werent working there the first year of the game. So where Evendim, the southern trollshaws. Eastern MM (including Goblin town) and Forochel, where they expansions? Because they certainly added a lot of landmass to the game. Those were all FREE, but somehow I doubt what was free in 2007-2008 would be free in 2011 going forward. We can debate all we want what was made and waiting, what was partially made and waiting or what they developed. The point is all that is free. We have already seen that what they have partially made is getting charged for today.

The last truly 'free' thing we got. Something that wasnt announced or delayed (that we know of anyway) was Endewaith. That was a semi old school free update. But since it came in connection with the free 2 play change its timing was dubious at best. So basically they almost HAD to deliver something for free to show people it was 'worth' getting a ViP status and show how those types of things would be free going forward. What I dont understand is Echoes of the Dead UPDATE is almost exactly what the December update will be. except somehow, someway people have to pay for these instances separately. the excuse being that they were delayed. Who knows if the Update 3 ones were delayed as well? regardless of if they were or not they were still free. So even in the last year they seem to have changed their stance. Maybe because they have locked so many people into those 99 dollars for 12 months subs. Amazing how people they have 'trapped' become a little less important. Had Once you have their money you dont really need to give them as much. But during the first months of F2P they did in fact deliver free instances to the ViP players.

Show of hands how many free instances will we see before the next paid expansion? Actual NEW Ones not ones that have been revamped or scaled up. I say zero. But I am optimistic.

The new line will be 'we are working on phasing and implementing that through out the existing game to change things we dont like about how we did things in the past". Which is all well and good, but that doesnt help old people who have seen all that before. If you want to revamp stuff it also has to be integrated with actual NEW changes.

We wil see what happens. I am sure some people are really excited, I would say the majority, at least long time players, arent. Which is what I have said for along time, old time players are almost meaningless nowthe game is marketed and catered to the people who go from game to game, get as much as you can as fast as you can and if they move on they will be replaced by someone else who will also spend money.

[cossieuk]

Listening now... these guys are deluded. The number 2 MMO? Sorry am not going to buy that one, especially world wide. Just using common sense one can see the numbers themselves. Even though just about every game keeps numbers really close to the vest, you can use common tools to see that.

They are not deluded. The are using this sites for ratings. The same site also does TV programs and is one of the most respected sites of it kind

http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insight...deo_games.html

[Arbalister]

They are not deluded. The are using this sites for ratings. The same site also does TV programs and is one of the most respected sites of it kind

http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insight...deo_games.html

Most respected - and TV programming lives or dies by their numbers.

[Arbalister]

ROFL - best tidbit from that interview - "best selling LOTRO expansion...ever." With the game gone F2P, and the RoI expansion only available in preorder, for cash, and not in the game store...it's outsold Moria...SoM...

So much for all the things that are going to kill the game.

[Silchas]

ROFL - best tidbit from that interview - "best selling LOTRO expansion...ever." With the game gone F2P, and the RoI expansion only available in preorder, for cash, and not in the game store...it's outsold Moria...SoM...

So much for all the things that are going to kill the game.

You have to admit, the trolls tried really hard to prevent that one.