Feb 5
What I want Turbine To Do With Its Money
Turbine’s been sitting on a dragon’s horde for some time now, and they’ve yet to let us know what they’re working on. If I had my druthers, this is what I’d want them to be putting that money towards:
- A free to play Harry Potter MMO -
We know they have connections to Warner, and we know they’re working on a Free to Play title. Why not have the best of both worlds? This game would be so good just from the spare parts it’s almost hilarious to think about. Every player gets to start off as a new schoolmate at Hogwart’s. Pick your faction (house), and offer differing content to each group. Leveling up isn’t hard numbers, it’s school years! Your avatar changes as you get higher in grades, getting older and getting more clothing options.
Go adventuring in classes, do homework and get graded on your performance (ultimate single-player element) and then collaborate with classmates on projects (grouping). Even go head to head in sports and wizards duels (PvP). Microtransaction elements include clothing, brooms, etc. etc.
Built-in audience, easily understandable mechanics, and if you do the ‘look’ right could be playable on just about anything. Must-do, must-do.
- A console version and revamp of DDO -
Dungeons and Dragons Online is already a perfect fit to move to the console. The ‘swing and whack’ style of combat the game offers would be a great amount of fun mashing on a controller. I think the ideal, though would be to offer all-new servers for the console version with a ‘stripped down’ gameplay sensibility.
Let’s face it, DDO is hard. It’s pretty punishing even if you’re in a group, and the fun-factor you can see lurking just around the corner tends to get pushed aside. So for the console version, just damp it down a notch or two. Make soloing a possibility even for squishies like Wizards, and make players think “Diablo” more than anything else.
This game deserves buckets of success. It’s beautiful, innovative, and uses one of my very favorite fantasy licenses ever. If there was any game that could survive being ‘dumbed down for the masses’ it’s this one; in point of fact, I think it would be all the better for it!
- An aggressive ad campaign and new starting experience for LotRO -
Turbine is going to do expansions. They’re going to do more content, they’re going to do more books, they’re all set to do all of these things. Nobody needs to tell them to do it. What I think they need to do now is start advertising the hell out of this game.
Ramp up a serious marketing campaing, with everything from banner ads to magazine inserts. And not just gaming mags (all two of them left). Go after men’s magazines, teen beat-style rags, and even good housekeeping! Lord of the Rings is a family friendly experience. It’s loved by millions, and deserves lots of success just on its own merits. Get out there and sell that puppy! Do TV ads for criminy’s sake! WoW can’t be the only MMO worth advertising on television.
Combine that with a brand-new starting experience for the game. Offer a 1-10 experience that more fully captures the fun of the game without putting players into the rut quite so quickly. As it is, working your way through the Shire can be kind of a daunting experience. Give players a little room to breathe at the low end and they’ll thank you for it.
These are just my two cents, though; what do you think Turbine should do with all that money?
6 comments6 Comments so far
I’d be happy if they put that money into hiring new artists, first and foremost. Work on those character models, animations, more than two or three robes that simply get recolored for the next upgrade and for Gandalf’s sake, STOP going to budget Renaissance Faires for clothing inspiration!
Additional programmers to further enhance and optimize their engine next. Also get the engine and its games Mac-native versions! Retroactively fit the new middleware they’ve licensed into the existing games — actual physics rather than the generic arc system that practically every MMO uses? Sign me up!
Third, work on a cross-platform MMOG (doesn’t have to be an RPG, *definitely* does not have to be a DikuRPG, and doesn’t have to be a monthly sub model either) that is NOT fantasy! They’ve done nothing but fantasy since the studio’s creation; even SOE has non-fantasy titles in their stable.
But screw Harry Potter. First words out of the gamer public’s mouths if they announce a Potter game? “Great, now Turbine is making a Wizard101 clone? Can’t they think of anything original?” Doesn’t that sound familiar to what we heard at LOTRO’s launch?
Yes, playing a level 5 Loremaster was the most frustrating experience I’ve had leveling in an MMO in years. So I whole heartedly agree that 1-10 should be a cakewalk and those race specific starting quests revamped exp-wise, although I think that immersion-wise they were well done.
I also 2nd Scotts comments, especially paragraph 1 about needing updated animations and character models. The walking/running animations should be a constant embarrassment to the devs/artists. There is an annoying disconnect in immersion due to the amazing environment contrasting with the Simpsons-like character artwork and animation. WoWs toons fit in perfectly due to harmonious blending of character artwork and environment artwork. LOTRO characters seem to start a couple inches off the ground and the jerky animation is reminiscent of claymation.
Outdoors, Forgotten Realms.
Invest in enhancements to realize entirely new modes of gameplay in addition to the plebeian new zone, new classes and level cap expansion.
The’ve got the license until when, 2017? or something? They’re going to have to do MUCH MUCH more if they want to keep me p[l]aying that long.
LotRO needs something more than an ad campaign really, it’s a great game, but it’s just missing something…some “soul”? DDO and Asherons Call both have “it” (and I agree entirely with your comment on DDO, dial it down a notch and relaunch and I think it’d do pretty well), but somehow lotro missed the mark slightly….maybe it’s too “theme park/on rails” feeling? Hard to put your finger on really.
I’d like it if Turbine brought Asheron’s Call 2 back, since I enjoyed it, and if they created a “Turbine Pass” (ala Sony’s Station Access) subscription system. For a slight discount I could enjoy all their MMOs.
They have enough ponies in the stable to do that now.