Rumors, can anyone confirm them?

[RovingTurtle]

LotR board game??? I heard some scattered comments about it, anyone know if it is true or not? I remember the glory days of "Hero's Quest" maybe it will be like that :)

[Saulotus]

www.spielbox-online.de/sp...dringe.htm (http://www.spielbox-online.de/spielarchiv/kmw/hdringe.htm)

Due for release next month.

[RovingTurtle]

Thank you... German made?

[Morkhon]

Hhhmmm? Who the hell did that translation program. It needs some serious work. Alot of words didn't translate and then I couldn't understand most of what did translate.

Does anyone think that this will come the U.S. in an English language version?

[RovingTurtle]

Freetranslation.com... what did u expect

[Saulotus]

>:D oes anyone think that this will come the U.S. in an English language version?<<

English version due out next month; same as German.

[Shanamir Duntak]

Do you have any idea of the price? Will it be available in Canada/Québec?

[Xivigg]

If it became available in the U.S. we will be able to get it here Shan

[Shanamir Duntak]

yeah... in six months

[dunedain lady]

It's comming out in the US? Woohoo!

[Grand Admiral Reese]

Looks cool.

I like the English translation of the title(from the translator): "The Gentlemen of the Ring". :)

[arynetrek]

"Hobbitfiguren" - he he he!

aryne *

[RovingTurtle]

So it is coming out in the US in 6 months?

[WHITEWIZZARD]

NO. ACTUALLY I THINK IT'S A CDROM GAME, NOT A BOARD GAME.

[Legolas]

Actually, 'Sierra On-Line' (I put it in quotes for a reason that I will mention further on in the post) was planning to make an LOtR computer game.

It was going to be called Middle-Earth, was going to be a multiplayer game, and looked like it was also going to be very cool.

Alas, it was not to be.

'Sierra On-Line' was recently bought out not once, but twice- the second time by Havas Entertainment- in the space of about a year. Since then, 'Sierra' has laid off hundreds of former employees, mostly those in the adventure game department.

The first major layoff that I know of was named 'Chainsaw Tuesday' by... oh, I think that it was Al Lowe, a former designer for Sierra. On that day, 'Sierra' fired 150 employees. Some time later, on 'Black Tuesday' (as it is commonly known among the members of several of the 'Sierra' and Quest for Glory, a Sierra game, forums), 250 people were fired, and the Yosemite Department was shut down.

The Yosemite Department, it should be pointed out, was the original branch of Sierra, founded b Roberta Williams back in the 1980's. It was, for some time, responsible for the production of adventure games- which had, in recent years, become less and less profitable, due to two main factors- first, their great cost (as, after all, highly immersive games with beautiful, tastefully rendered games with excellent plots, such as the QfG series, cost much more than crass, shoddy little productions such as Half-Life). Secondly, adventure games did not sell well. Although there is a core, so to speak, of extremely devoted adventure game fans (I would be one of them...), and there are those who may not be devotees or fanatics but are fond of adventuring games or simply amenible to them, most people would prefer to play Doom or Quake or Half-Life, the 'shoot-em-ups', so to speak.

So, to make a long post short (;) ), Sierra downsized most of its true employees and slashed the budget for Middle Earth. And, because the true Sierra employees are gone, and the true Sierra is gone, I now refer to the current 'Sierra' in quotation marks.


Legolas

(By the way... this was not in any way intended as flaming of 'Sierra'. I may dislike the company the way it is now, but I am merely expressing my opinion rather mildly; and I sincerely apologise if anything that I have said here has come across as seeming derogatory).

[Xivigg]

That's very bad :(

I would have put money in a Middle Earth game :(

Maybe WE should create one ???

[X Rogue]

That is a wonderful idea, but do you think it could be done without engendering huge arguments and hurt feelings? I don't think it's worth losing the community over. But I would love to see it done and done well if possible.

[Xivigg]

I think WE can do something very good without destroying Entmoot

Of course they will be argument but such argument will make the game even better (I can't imagine a project were everyone had the same view from the start up to the end)

As for hurting feeling it could happen but i think everyone understand that not all idea can be keep
And if we argue and explain our idea instead of discarting them as bad i think it won't be a problems

[X Rogue]

Oh, good. In that case, can I help?

[Xivigg]

Sure but i'm not an informaticien neither an artist
i think i have a good imagination but that's all we'll need lots of people if WE realy want it to happen

[RovingTurtle]

CD Rom game??? Looks like I'll start brushing up on my C++
YES MY PEOPLE!!! FLOCK TO XIVIGG

[Michael Martinez]

If you want to create a Middle-earth based game without getting into legal troubles, your best bet would probably be to create a MUD/MUSH game and there are already several out there.

Also, several people on The Vault's Middle-earth boards are tired of waiting to see if Havas will actually bring out MEO (they claim they developed it, and it appears they did hire a new development team) and they are designing their own.

The Havas situation is a little more complex than Legolas described it to be. There were actually going to be TWO games from Sierra: Middle-earth Online and Orcs: Revenge of the Ancient, the latter being a CD-ROM game.

O:ROTA was discontinued before it was released, and MEO was put on hiatus. Tolkien Enterprises notified Havas that they had forfeited their license on the grounds that the game had been cancelled. Havas is arguing (in court) that it did not cancel the game, and that therefore they have retained their license.

What Havas actually has right now is anyone's guess.

[Xivigg]

Mud/Mush are fun but not as fun as a game were you can actualy see what your character is doing

I remember when i was playing Baldur's gate and i was hoping to be able to play a better game based around midle earth

[Shanamir Duntak]

Hey Xivigg.... what you are proposing is to DO a Middle-Earth computer game??? If that is so, I must told you it's nearly impossible! Do you know the amount of work needed to produce something slightly good? Being a programmer, I can tell you it's impossible to do by ourselves. If what you propose is a board game, then it's possible and would be fun to create!

[Michael Martinez]

I think if you start out with something small and simple that can be expanded, it's doable. It would require a lot of dedication from the programming team, of course.

[GlaurungTheGold]

and good graphic artists, i want middle earth to look gooood :p

and of course you have us all as reviewers, testers, and technical advisors :)

[Xivigg]

That's it folk

i resign

what i needed is doer not critic :p

It was a good idea but since we start from nothing it's almost impossible :( (without talking about the copywright)

board game can be more feaseble but we need a damn good idea
(and again we are not talking about the copywright)