Middle-earth Online Memories, Part Three

RPG Vault has published the third installment to their interview series with members of the original Middle-earth Online team. Once again, Yosemite Entertainment’s Chance Thomas, Daniel James, Stephen Nichols, Craig Alexander, and Janus Anderson offer their thoughts on the original iteration:

Q: Did you watch Lord of the Rings Online during its development? Have you played it, and in either case, do you have any impressions or related thoughts you’re willing to share with our readers?

Craig Alexander: I’ve been playing LOTRO night and day since launch (about 150 hours so far), but stayed away from the beta so I could fully enjoy the product as a player. The world is beautiful, and much more relevant, at least to me, than other MMOs, and true to the fiction. The experience is akin to reading a travel book all of your life, but never actually visiting the location until now.

Far from power-leveling, I’ve been exploring every detail of each region, especially the familiar ones (Shire, Bree-Land, Ered Luin, etc.) with a focus on completing each quest and deed regardless of the amount of experience earned. I think it was terrific that the Turbine team chose to focus on quality over quantity, and only implement a portion of Eriador (the northwest corner of Middle-earth), and wait to release other regions (Rhovanion / Mirkwood, Rohan, Gondor and Mordor) later on, further enhancing the chances that LOTRO will fully realize the detail and grandeur of Tolkien’s entire world.