Middle Earth Online Announced

[Squeeky]

I remember being really upset when i heard that MEO was cancelled by sierra?(not sure). But here is some info i stumbled upon on gamespy today

Middle Earth Online Coming Tomorrow - Warrior

Vivendi Universal will be announcing Middle Earth Online for the PC sometime tomorrow. We've got some early details, but all we can officially say now is that it is expected to be released in 2004. The game will be shown behind closed doors at E3 and we will be on hand for a preview. Stay tuned to GameSpy for all the latest info.


:D :D :D :D

[Hamma]

LOTR = boring

gg's

[Jimbo]

They are just now announcing it and it will be released in 2004? Are they nuts? Unless they have been secretly developing it for the passed year, there is no way they can get a quality game out the door that fast. Unless they are thinking like Q4 2004.

Besides, I'm not sure how a good game can be made out of the Middle Earth universe and not seem like it's just bleeding the name for all it's worth (similar to what they are doing with SW:G).

[Unregistered]

It's Seirra.

They haven't made a bug free game since Kings Quest. Seriously. After the mess that was Tribes 2, and then the problems with Empire Earth I've come to the conclusion that Serria dosen't care about quality. They just want you money.

[Robot]

Originally posted by Hamma
LOTR = boring


HEATHEN

[Happy lil Elf]

Meh,
I hate the Middle Earth world, I hate those plodding excuses for books and I think JRR Tolkien, aside from being an inspiration to many good authors, is useless /shrug

[Hamma]

Originally posted by Unregistered
It's Seirra.

They haven't made a bug free game since Kings Quest. Seriously. After the mess that was Tribes 2, and then the problems with Empire Earth I've come to the conclusion that Serria dosen't care about quality. They just want you money.
^^^ exactly

[Robot]

Originally posted by Happy lil' Elf
I hate the Middle Earth world, I hate those plodding excuses for books and I think JRR Tolkien, aside from being an inspiration to many good authors, is useless /shrug

The fact that the lord of the rings trilogy is the pinnacle of fine literature makes me think you don't read enough books

[Jimbo]

Originally posted by Robot
The fact that the lord of the rings trilogy is the pinnacle of fine literature makes me think you don't read enough books
Everyone is entitled to an opinion. I'll not knock Happy for his but I agree with you, Robot. Happy does make a good point about Tolkien inspiring other great authors.

I don't know if Tolkien inspired Robert Jordan but I really enjoy the Wheel of Time series.

[Robot]

Originally posted by Jimbo
Everyone is entitled to an opinion. I'll not knock Happy for his but I agree with you, Robot. Happy does make a good point about Tolkien inspiring other great authors.


Yeah, it is a good point that Tolkien has inspired other authors. My main beef is that, clearly, he wouldn't have inspired other authors if his work wasn't a monumental achievement in literature

[Happy lil Elf]

The fact that the lord of the rings trilogy is the pinnacle of fine literature makes me think you don't read enough books


The pinnacle of fine literature? That's just so wrong :lol:

Monumental? Only in the sense that he opened the door for many fantasy authors to get published and widely distributed. Look at Doom, the game in itself wasn't really all that good. There was no plot, the conrtol scheme wasn't anything special and the graphics, while good for the time, could be done better by a 5 year old nowdays.

That's why I don't think Tolkien's work is all that impressive. The world and plot is so two dimensional it's like reading a technical manual for a microwave. It was a breakthrough for the fantasy genre yes, but compared to modern writing such as the Wheel of Time it's a painfully simple series that could be read by elemtery school students without any difficulty.

I'm not saying they're not decent books, just that the should not be regarded as some sort of holy grail. The fact that so many people cling to them like religious zealots cling to the bible is what makes me hate them ;)

[OmnipotentKiwi]

This is really really http://bohica.planetside-universe.com/images/forumPics/OFNsmiley.gif

Middle Earth Online was bought by Vivendi a long ass time ago. It's probably been in development for atleast a year... I didn't think it was any secret. Also, I would like to point out Sierra totally dumped this. They did make a MMO a shitload of a long time ago called "The Realm". Before UO time, it was pretty good. They sold that too though, but this one after it came out. ;)

I guess they hadn't announced anything official, but this is really really http://bohica.planetside-universe.com/images/forumPics/OFNsmiley.gif

[Zatrais]

LOTR is to commercial now imo, shame really =/

[Robot]

Originally posted by Happy lil' Elf
Monumental? Only in the sense that he opened the door for many fantasy authors to get published and widely distributed. Look at Doom, the game in itself wasn't really all that good. There was no plot, the conrtol scheme wasn't anything special and the graphics, while good for the time, could be done better by a 5 year old nowdays.

But it was gold back then. That's the point.

Originally posted by Happy lil' Elf
That's why I don't think Tolkien's work is all that impressive. The world and plot is so two dimensional it's like reading a technical manual for a microwave. It was a breakthrough for the fantasy genre yes, but compared to modern writing such as the Wheel of Time it's a painfully simple series that could be read by elemtery school students without any difficulty.

Two-dimensional world? He spends nearly have the book describing every single lake, fyord and valley. He wonderfull ydescribes every city, every forest, every river, every battle. He fills in the rich history of the land without going into mounds and mounds of dialog from the wise elder of the forest tree monk describing what religion worshipped here 9000 years ago.

And the plot is simplistic, yeah; Hero finds magical ring, goes to evil place with rest of friends to destroy such ring so that evil lord can't rule the world. EVERY book has a simplistic plot, but it's in the way that the author executes it that counts, which is what Tolkien did flawlessly. It's not meant to be a wild conspiracy plot twist book, it's meant to be a fantasy adventure.

Originally posted by Happy lil' Elf
I'm not saying they're not decent books, just that the should not be regarded as some sort of holy grail. The fact that so many people cling to them like religious zealots cling to the bible is what makes me hate them ;)

There's nothing wrong with enjoying a good book that much. Just as there's nothing wrong with people playing Everquest zealously to get to level 65 or someone looking all over the world to buy an original copy of a painting

[Jimbo]

Originally posted by Happy lil' Elf
That's why I don't think Tolkien's work is all that impressive. The world and plot is so two dimensional it's like reading a technical manual for a microwave. It was a breakthrough for the fantasy genre yes, but compared to modern writing such as the Wheel of Time it's a painfully simple series that could be read by elemtery school students without any difficulty.
Now I will have to disagree with you on that. The story may be easy to follow but reading them is not easy. Tolkien's writing style is not at all simple.

Originally posted by Happy lil' Elf
I'm not saying they're not decent books, just that the should not be regarded as some sort of holy grail. The fact that so many people cling to them like religious zealots cling to the bible is what makes me hate them ;)
You hate them because so many people like them? What an odd reason to hate them and it contradicts your previous paragraph. At least, that is how I see it.

PS: I'm not trying to flame you Happy, just merely discussing.

[BeerJedi]

The biggest issue most folks have about LOTR is that many folks don't realize it is the series that has inspired countless authors and games.

I do think LOTR is very much an important piece of literature, and there is definitely more depth to the books then most people think. there is a load of (ah crap.. lack of vocabulary about to raise its ugly head) similies to society at the time his stories were written.

For one, it is the small people that everyone forgets about that shapes the future and has the most influence on the events. Two, the stories relate views on racism (a problem we face even today) and three focus' on political climates of that time.

But also, the new generation being exposed to LOTR are being exposed to it through movies and after reading books inspired by LOTR.

I've seen quotes that the books were unoriginal and that the story line has been done before. I've seen the same thing written about Lewis's Treasure Island, an extremely important piece of literature too. Many sometimes don't understand that is very difficult to break ground in literature and LOTR is one of the first to do.

Ok, lesson over.

[OmnipotentKiwi]

Most people consider Tokien a breakthrough author not for the story, which is a very common one as many have mentioned, but he created a full immersive world for his story. Races, languages, worlds, all tied in together. That had NEVER been done before. It is like reading a history book, rather then ficition, which is why he is a breakthrough author.

It is also why a lot of people don't like reading Tolkien, it is just too much info. It is like reading a history book. ;)

[HS Warwolf]

:evil: It might be a little off the subject now.
1st, have any of you heard of or played a game called Morrowind? I heard of a few dudes who are pouring over every peice of liturature J.R.R. has made and they're tryin to make an exact copy of Middle Earth. From what I've heard, It'll be in another time as LOTR. Probably a hundred or so years before bilbo or even Gullum. I mean an EXACT copy of middle earth. Moria, Mordor, everything. Not like those sorry exuses of games like LOTR:FOTR where all you can do is go to certain places and you can only pick up a few things. I'm talkin absolute manipulation of ervything in the place. And do just about everthing you want.:sniper: :whip:

[OmnipotentKiwi]

That would be neat. Full Tolkien world in a Morrowind system. Nice.

[Destroyeron]

That's gonna be sweet! I can run around as a hot elf sleeping with all the hott female elves!

[Destroyeron]

Originally posted by {HS}Warwolf
:evil: It might be a little off the subject now.
1st, have any of you heard of or played a game called Morrowind? I heard of a few dudes who are pouring over every peice of liturature J.R.R. has made and they're tryin to make an exact copy of Middle Earth. From what I've heard, It'll be in another time as LOTR. Probably a hundred or so years before bilbo or even Gullum. I mean an EXACT copy of middle earth. Moria, Mordor, everything. Not like those sorry exuses of games like LOTR:FOTR where all you can do is go to certain places and you can only pick up a few things. I'm talkin absolute manipulation of ervything in the place. And do just about everthing you want.:sniper: :whip:


That would be soooo sweet. I'm still waiting for a game where you could walk around and so literally ANYTHING you want. Kinda like GTA...buton a deeper level. If it was the land of LORT that'd be awesome..sailing, usuing magic and shit...AWESOME!

Give me a crossbow and I'll own. :D

[Arthell]

Some early screenies of MEO : http://me.warcry.com/scripts/images/gallery.phtml?id=27&site=25

Turbine is also in on MEO's development.