2/26/07 - Latest News

Rings RPG Expands Tolkien
Xoanon @ 6:07 pm EST

Jeff Anderson, president and chief executive officer of Turbine Inc., told SCI FI Wire that Lord of the Rings Online: The Shadows of Angmar is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game that takes its cues directly from the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, but that also expands on them. "[We] took a lead from the master [and] focused [the game] on the first book [in the trilogy] and covered the storyline as Frodo and Sam leave the Shire and start moving towards ... Rivendell," Anderson said in an interview at the New York Comic Con over the weekend. "Post-launch we are going to tell more of the story as the fellowship leaves that area and goes forth ... all the way to Mount Doom."

The main storyline of the game covers many of the same events as the first book of Tolkien's trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring, Anderson said. "Everything from Gandalf being captured ... [to] Strider meeting up with the fellowship at The Prancing Pony [to] the fight on Weathertop," he said. "We've got all those moments in the game, and we communicate that through a variety of different mechanics: through text, through voice-over, through game cinematics. Those all make sure that the player is aware of where the story is." [More]