Shamus Plays: LOTRO, Part 5

[ThySensFan]

An interesting fact. There are 2 licenses for Lord of the Rings. There is the movie license which does not allow the reference to Tom Bombadil and then there is the book license which does. LOTRO is based off the book license and hence why we are able to meet Tom. I am sure there is someone out there that can explain to me why Tolkien Enterprise did I currently have no clue as to why.

I did a research on this last year and from what I remember, J.R.R. Tolkien sold the television and radio rights to The Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit to pay off some debts in the 60s. Those rights passed trough the hands of a few companies and are currently owned by Saul Zentz/Tolkien Enterprises - not affiliated with Tolkien Estates headed by Christopher Tolkien-. Any media produced is based on this license. As such, Turbine isn't allowed to reference or use anything coming from Tolkien's other works - The Silmarilion, Unfinished Tales, etc-, which are still held by the Tolkien Estate.

My guess is that if something (e.g. Battle for Middle-Earth, I think) is based off the movie it uses the movie license and since Tom Bombadil wasn't referenced in the movie they can't use it, but if it uses the license directly from Tolkien Enterprises (e.g. LOTRO), then the company would have access to all the material in The Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit.

 

[Donrad]

lmao he gets up and runs away through fire.
one tough cookie!!

 

[Mandella]

Okay. Can't believe I created an account just for this, but, here goes...

Now I've been reading Shamus since DM of the Ring days. He's always very funny (like in this series when the Nazgul realizes that he's going to have to get down from his horse to stab the hobbits -- that earned a spewed soda on the keyboard), and I understand that often one has to simplify a story to make a joke that doesn't take five pages to set up, but--

While there certainly are, let's just say, "odd" quests from time to time in LOTRO, most of the primary story arc is pretty tight, although sometimes subtleties can be missed if you're just clicking through to get to the next boar to kill -- or in this case spider. I think what the bilberry quest was trying to express was just how over their heads the villagers of Archet are. They are simple sheep farmers that have lived in relative peace for generations, and are in no way understanding or prepared for what is coming. Also, unless memory fails, Cob was a local, and up until a couple of hours ago a respected member of the town watch. Pruner likely grew up knowing him and his family.

So yeah, he decided to bake him a cake. And he got beaten and stabbed for it. Which was, you know, trying to make a point that serious shit was going down, and nothing was ever going to be the same again.

One more thing -- I and my kinmates have put probably a dozen characters through that newbie instance, and in each case we all first went out the south gate and turned east on the road. If you follow the directions that way, the road goes straight to the hunting lodge, with nary a spider in sight. Lulzy had to crawl through a broken gap in the wall to take the road with the spiders.

Which, I have to admit, was much funnier than just running there dodging a couple of bears and sick pigs...

 

[likalaruku]

Reading your tutorial must be at least 6 times more fun than actually playing it. I'm so used to being surrounded by stupidity, that I scarcely ever catch or question it. You gotta wonder about the people who scripted the NPCs & wrote the plot of the tutorial though.

 

[Farlander]

Shamus, you may be interested to learn that, along with the new F2P updates, the Archet beginning was revamped. It became more logical. Basically, it goes like this (for a Hobbit):

1. We start as a, I understand, bounder and meet up with bounder Boffin. We meet Frodo, Sam and Pippin who then run away as the Nazgul approaches. Trying to escape from all this, we meet up with Celandine Brandybuck and Mundo Sackville-Baggins who are chased by Blackwolds (looking for Baggins). All Hobbits are captured, and are taken to the Blackwold prison. Then saved by Aragorn and, well, Amdir (who is stabbed). We then go to Archet.

2. In Archet, nobody really knows about Blackwolds and no one believes that there is some threat to the town. So we do some work for Calder Cob who tries to backstab us by setting an ambush (so we would not dare to raise a defense in Archet), but we survive. Captain though doesn't believe in Cob's treachery.

3. We then go to the farmer, who tries to send us to Combe for aid, but the path is blocked by Blackwolds, so the farmer writes a letter to Captain that the threat IS real. We then interrogate a prisoner (by NOT bringing him a cake ) who accidentaly reveals that Calder Cob's a traitor.

4. We go to the Hunter's Lodge, and Jon sends us in the camp to get the plans. We learn that the Blackwolds work for Angmar and want to attack at nightfall. We return to Jon, we then investigate the old east path, learn that it's filled with spiders, and want to use it to our own advantage (filled with spiders = less Brigands go through there).

5. The siege of Archet works also differently. Eogan doesn't appear in it, there's a lot more hunters fighting, we go through the city along with Jon and, later, Atli. Two Cargul go to take Amdir, and Calder Cob kills Captain Brackenbrook.

This is, you know, a summary in a nutshell. I think you should check it out (seeing as LotRO is now F2P and all), and you will find that Turbine does a good job on improving things both gameplay-wise and story-wise. With the new update they plan to revamp the Ered Luin beginning too (people from the public test server say that it is much better than the old Ered Luin introduction).

 

[duchaked]

well I suppose all that fire would solve the problem of dead bodies lying everywhere

save the trouble of digging shallow graves that is