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It's safe now to say that the current generation of MMOs--ushered in, more or less single-handedly, by World of Warcraft--have solved the genre's long-standing struggle with accessibility. Anecdotal data aside (everyone has a non-gamer friend who's been drawn in), numbers don't lie. And eight million is a pretty incontrovertible figure. So indeed, the prevailing sentiment is that WoW represents a paradigm shift in MMOs that's both lucrative and populist. By extension, this means that the genre's evolution could stop right now, and a great many people would continue to get filthy rich.

But that would be too dismissive of what Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar appears to be accomplishing. Five years ago, anyone involved in MMOs would have told you that the biggest hurdle impeding their widespread success was their lack of accessibility, which clearly isn't the case now. I would argue that the most significant thorns in the genre's side are the paper-thin worlds that the games take place in. They're simply not conducive to telling good stories, so most developers don't even bother to give it a real try.

At best, these worlds are vivid, expressive amalgamations of disparate fantasy and sci-fi setting. At worst, they're soul-crushingly uninspired paint-by-numbers high fantasy. In this regard, LotRO is at an unfair advantage--the team at Turbine has full-access to the blueprint from which all of this fantasy themed gaming spawned in the first place. That alone wasn't enough to guarantee its success, however. Wisely, the team at Turbine made story-telling a focus for LotRO, and thanks to its novel execution, the effort has paid off in a big way.

By the reckoning of most anyone who plays these games, LotRO is a fine MMO. Advancement is quest-based, so there's a whole lot to do all the time. Character advancement is brisk, and even though the levels don't always come super quickly, the deed system keeps the stats-garnering achievements flowing in manner that effectively fools you into believing that they are. Each of the available character classes can solo with some modicum of effectiveness, but there are enough group quests to make forming fellowships (LotRO's name for a party) worthwhile. Not the least of which are the story quests--a continuing chain of narrative-focused quests that carry you through the events of the novel, starting with the Nazgul's incursion on the Shire, and extending, presumably (through future expansions) to the Battle of Pellenor Fields, and beyond.

Unlike most games, you don't have to wait dozens of levels (in other words, hundreds of hours) before getting to see any of this compelling content. Upon creating a level one character, you're thrust into the most exciting aspects of the mythology by, as of current, the best "newb areas" conceived of by a game developer. As an elf, you start out in Edhelion, an idyllic city under siege by a group of renegade dwarves, and their troll and goblin conscripts. During this intro sequence, it takes you all of five minutes to fight alongside Elrond. Newly-minted human characters, on the other hand, come face-to-face with a Nazgul within the first ten minutes of starting play.

It's a bit ironic that a game like LotRO could make players feel so important. In spite of the fact that its setting is the high-fantasy prototype, the player characters will never become the world's biggest movers and shakers. But by keeping them in regular contact with the Fellowship of the Ring and their numerous allies, they feel like they're right there. There are moments when the immersion comes apart a little--most people mention their first meeting with Aragorn, during which they encountered him in a room full of other players waiting in line for an audience--but when the narrative sequences are at their best, they'll make you reconsider that "MMOs can't tell stories" truism.

One thing that bugs me a bit about the game is that I can't really play as one of the bad guys. On some levels, though I can understand why not; when it comes to the stories of Middle-Earth, the bad guys don't get much play. If you scour the legendarium, there's precious little information about the orcs, compared to the volumes on men, elves, dwarves, and hobbits. And since Sauron's side is all about orcs and a few humans, so there wouldn't have been much variety there anyway, without straying too far from the mythos. But I'm confident that the team could get creative without defiling the source material, so I'll hold out hope for future expansions.

LotRO does let you flirt a bit with the dark side, though; its answer to PvP is "monster play," which lets you jump into the role of one of the Dark Enemy's minions for some fun, if isolated dastardliness. All the monster play takes place in a single zone called the Ettenmoors, which real-deal player character can visit, and chop it up with you. There's a parallel advancement path for your monster character, though you can use any of the points you accumulate as a monster to bestow temporary buffs upon your hero character instead.

In any case, LotRO is a certifiable hit, both commercially (which translates into a healthy playerbase), and in terms of its impact and quality. Its launch was technically sound, its production values are top-notch, and its focus on narrative is refreshing. Its effects on the genre may be a bit more muted than WoW's, but they're significant nonetheless. Hopefully, given its success, more publishers will follow suit.

Article by: Miguel Lopez