Festival Theatre: Bravo!

[Cymry]

I almost fell off my chair laughing when I saw the hobbit versions of Statler and Waldorf up in the balcony....and then sat there with a big grin on my face as I listened to them.

Really enjoying all the little touches all over the festival, too, like when you're cleaning up the induction messages are "Ewwww..." and "All Better!" And the "grouchy trees", that's just great!

Loving all the items, too ("What rhymes with ale?", classic!), thank you so much for all the hard work you put into this for us!

[Ngolmo]

I love the reference to Tolkien with the Ronald Dwale character; when you click on him he talks to himself about how its silly to have the eagles take them to Mount Doom, a tongue-in-cheek reference to a common criticism of the books.

[auximenes]

Very well-done. Bilbo's Haunter Cellar set the bar high, and the Theatre/Yule Fest in-general didn't let me down.

[Dyfrin]

Somehow never been picked to act. 0/12.

Looks fun though.

[cipher_nemo]

Somehow never been picked to act. 0/12.

Looks fun though.

Yup, I'm probably zero out of a dozen or more times too. But I was there when way too many other people were around. I need to try when less people are online... time to stay up all night, lol.

[Laokong]

Three Cheers for the Festival dev team!

Never had so much fun in a festival before. Good challenges and neat rewards (great cosmetics, cool titles, fun items, TPs). Players' participation in the play doesn't make it feel like a grind to me because plays are never the same. I have no idea how the theater's mechanics can be adapted for the game, but I would love to see more of this.

Loved all the lore references mentioned above and the hobbitesque take on Bilbo's disappearance. Great storyline IMO, festivals under the shadow of Sauron can't all be about merriment and easy-going times, this is a world at war after all!

All in all wonderful job!

PS: there's a little bug that shows up during the snowball fights: some snowpiles indicate that you don't have the permission to use them even if you have the quest, others don't "loot all" while others work fine.
PPS: I understand combat skills have to be disabled in the theater, but how comes that also affects stats? I noticed my hunter loses about 500 morale stepping through that door.

[Baedun]

So I go into the theater for the first time without a clue of what to expect. A minute later I get a load screen before I suddenly appear back stage. I think a particular four letter word crossed my mind at first as I realized that I might have just stepped in it.

The curtain pulls back and I'm told something about the audience and then told somewhere to stand (a private tell that left me looking for the actual player that was trying to help me, not the case mind you). Next thing I know I'm getting pegged with rotten fruit like it's nobody's business. Another round of fruit before I finally got the hang of things in time to end with an applause and some pedals.

Needless to say, the best part of my day hands down. Thank you Turbine.

LOL, yeah that was my first experience with the theater as well! Think I still have pieces of fruit in my hair...

[ciaranblackrune]

Like others I am digging the theatre. Very well done. Allowing us to be actors is an especially nice touch. Whatever team did this deserves a raise and you (Turbine) should get that team working on other stuff so we can have more awesome.

I do have two complaints/nit picks...

1) Allowing people to barter for the titles. Duuuuuuude. That's a slap in the face to those who earned the titles. Maybe if all the bartered for titles changed to say "Poser" or soemthing like that. But letting people barter for the titles? A bad decision.

2) I cannot use my D.R.A.G.O.N in the audience or on stage!!! (You can, however, use it back stage) You throw fruit, I throw fiery dragons. I think my way will get a faster response from the actors. I was able to use in backstage on a fellow actor who was getting a little anxious and fidgity. That was fun!

[Talfryn]

I found the rest of Winter-home to be depressing, but I spent many an hour laughing in the cozy Frostbluff Theatre. It's the most fun I've had at any of the festivals. Well done!

[CaptainBoots]

One of the neat aspects is to watch people make their own fun in the theater. So many folks have found ways to either be amusingly good or hilariously bad.

After my dwarf got Star of the Show, he started drinking heavily and would just stagger around drunkenly for show emotes. At the end he just passed out.

It's great to watch people use emotes to forget lines, or any number of other fun things.

Another interesting point is that I have in the past been in several plays even into college. The first couple of times when my character was on the stage and everyone was waiting for an emote felt a -little- like those real stage experiences. Odd, but I guess not surprising in a way!

[Malachi108]

1) Allowing people to barter for the titles. Duuuuuuude. That's a slap in the face to those who earned the titles. Maybe if all the bartered for titles changed to say "Poser" or soemthing like that. But letting people barter for the titles? A bad decision.

The thing is, you can't really earn those all by yourself. You require both 2 or more other people for the event to start, the <random> to select you as an actor and then another <random> for it being the role you want/have left.

Some people just can't earn the titles because there aren't enough other people around in their play-time. Or there are too many and they never get selected. Or they get selected 20 times as Bilbo and 20 times as Gandalf, but never as an extra. If they couldn't get the titles because of those limitations, some people would get really frustrated.

[cipher_nemo]

Well, after spending a lot more time in the theater, I've experienced being called up frequently now. My friends and I have a little lucky ritual that we perform to get picked now. I've been picked three times in a row once with a dozen or so others around, picked twice in a row many times, and routinely picked every so often.

[PenrodBarker]

I just paid homage to It's A Wonderful Life, running around Frostbluff saying:

"Merry Christmas!" to anyone around

"Merry Christmas Mr. Potter!" at the mayor

and my favorite:

"Merry Christmas movie house!" inside the theater.

[Ozeagle]

Special thanks to Turbine for taking a leaf from the Blackadder school of acting, by making /roar a successful emote for every situation for every role in the play.

(For non-Blackadder nerds, from 5:40 in this video. And yes that's a young Dr House as the Prince Regent.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iHPOabGtXs