Earlier today, the MMO world was surprised with the news of Lord of the Rings Online moving to a newly founded independent game studio called Standing Stone Games, together with Dungeons & Dragons Online. Daybreak Games will be doing the publishing. Of course, people are already announcing the impending death of LOTRO in various comment threads, inspired by the cancellation of the much anticipated Everquest Next earlier this year by that very company. Truth is, we don't know what Daybreak's role in this exactly is and we're not likely to find out anytime soon either, the way things are done in the game industry. But if Daybreak Games is indeed just distributing LOTRO and will not hold any control over the game's content, this may actually not be a bad change.
Considering we LOTRO players aren't going to change anything about the whole situation anyway, I don't see the point in doom-and-glooming and am trying to see the positive side of things. Remember earlier this year, when it was announced that LOTRO transitioned into a "free-to-play, mobile development studio" and had to eliminate several positions? An independent company that fully focuses on developing and sustaining their own two MMOs sounds a lot better to me. We also know that Warner Brothers never really was interested in LOTRO. The game developers that have been making these beautiful regions of Middle-earth filled with lore appropriate quests all these years, though? They definitely care.
There are other possibly positive aspects to this. For one, revenue earned from LOTRO might actually be invested in LOTRO rather than another game. However, we don't know how much LOTRO received from Warner Brothers, so we're unable to tell what the changes to the overall budget will be.
Not having a big gaming company look over your shoulder all the time might be a positive change as well. I'm not being naive and don't expect less grind and gear related store incentives all of a sudden, but who knows? If the developer team can sustain themselves by continuing to release the quality content we're used to, this could be for the better. We'll just have to wait and see.
There are other possibly positive aspects to this. For one, revenue earned from LOTRO might actually be invested in LOTRO rather than another game. However, we don't know how much LOTRO received from Warner Brothers, so we're unable to tell what the changes to the overall budget will be.
Not having a big gaming company look over your shoulder all the time might be a positive change as well. I'm not being naive and don't expect less grind and gear related store incentives all of a sudden, but who knows? If the developer team can sustain themselves by continuing to release the quality content we're used to, this could be for the better. We'll just have to wait and see.
In the immediate future, not much will change for players. Lifetime memberships are staying, Turbine Points will be renamed but will function the same, and the licence is taken care of for now. LOTRO is not the pool A "WoW killer" MMO it once was and that is not what its players are expecting. But if the game manages to continue to put out small quality updates that bring us closer to Mordor... well, that's all I can hope for, and I'm still positive we'll get there.
I am very curious to see what is the outcome of this. LotRO is one of my side games but I always enjoy it a lot when I play. It would be great to see it bustling again!
ReplyDeleteI would love that, too! A positive side effect of this all is that there is some renewed player interest - oldtime players checking back in and such - and the forum is full with plans and ideas.
DeleteI read the FAQ you linked in Twitter out of curiosity. From what I understood the new company is formed by people who were already developing the game, yes? If so, I think it will be good for LotRO and DDO. It means it will continue being worked on by people who understand how the game works and know the community.
ReplyDeleteAs for Daybreak Games (DBG for short) being the publisher, I can believe they won't be interfering much. If DBG intended to muck up too much with the games it is likely that they would switch to using DBG points as is the case with DBG developed games. Also that subscription in any DBG games would also automatically give subscription to LotRO and DDO, again as is the case with DBG developed games.
Since that won't be the case it seems that DBG will just keep to their role of publishing and let Standing Stone Games do their thing. This also means that if things go badly with DBG, Standing Stone Games could potentially just ditch them and go look for a better publishing partner.
So, overall I think it will be a positive change to the games and the players.
Thanks for your expertise, Rakuno; I appreciate it! You've been around longer and know much more about old MMOs than I. There's currently somewhat of a fresh wind blowing through LOTRO, and it truly seems the developers are enthusiast about the change. :)
DeleteThe only real drawback to the spinoff is that Standing Stone had better have competent management, or they'll sink both MMOs really really fast. That's about the only benefit of staying with Warner Brothers: the money will keep flowing, even in times of incompetent leadership.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, leadership seems to be somewhat of a weak point. In that article of the former employee I linked to, they spoke of everyone doing their own thing (the class 'balance' testimonies to this). That's the past, though. Hopefully starting out anew will cause an influx of cooperation.
DeleteIt makes me wonder about the whole 2017 End of the World scenario. All the promises that LOTRO will continue to delevop into the future are now out the window so this could potentially be a 'one year then it's over' story
ReplyDeleteIt could be, if the new company turns out to not be economically viable. The devs seem to have every intention on continuing, though, so I hope that they can make it work!
DeleteHope everything works out well for you/LOTRO Rav!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Traitine!
DeleteWhen online games change owners it usually doesn't do much. When Minecraft was bought by Microsoft or LoL was bought by some chinese company it really didn't make much a difference. It's way more about business than it is about how the game is developped and run.
ReplyDeleteTrue, also if you look at the past owners of LOTRO. The situation is a bit different now, though, because it's basically owned by the devs themselves, as opposed to a big company. I think that's why people are hoping things will change for the better.
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