The Lord of the Rings Online Interview, Part One

CVG has conducted an interview with Turbine executive producer Jeffrey Steefel about their popular MMORPG, The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar.

Q: Are we ever going to see that ‘dark forces’ introduced as playable races from level one?

A: It’s a constant debate. We know people would like more characters that they can play. The question is, if we really drive that advancement path in Monster Play and we really do that well and you feel like that’s a persistent character that you’ve created and you have access to in an easy way, is that really the same thing. It still allows us to keep Middle-earth balanced.

Creating a whole race out of it is complicated, partially because if you look at the lore, you can read pages and pages on elves and dwarves and hobbits, on their history and mythology and what they stand for… There’s nothing about orcs and trolls, and that’s for a reason – it’s this kind of faceless evil.

It has no personality, no civilisation, and we don’t want to ruin that. So this way, by playing monsters, you’re on the side of the dark, you are working for Sauron, but you’re faceless. But we’ll see. We’re open to anything. Bottom line is – we want this to work.