Interviews// Jeffrey Steefel, Exec Producer, Lord of the Rings: Shadows of Angmar (Online)

SPOnG: Basically you’ll start playing, maybe with a couple of mates that you know anyway and then you’ll build up your in-game network…

Jeffrey Steefel: Yep, and maybe you might decide to migrate to another server which some people do. It’s kind of like playing tabletop D&D, if you are heavily into that, you may play D&D with a group of old friends from college every Saturday, but then play a different game with a different group of friends every Tuesday. So, that’s what starts to happen here, you might have different characters on different servers and so on.


SPOnG: It seems that it’s the hardcore MMO fans that have been fairly critical about the limited PvP (Player-versus-Player) elements in LOTRO – how does PvP work in the game?

Jeffrey Steefel: Well, the ‘Monster Play’ Ettenmoors area (and in some of the other PvP areas we’re going to have), is a region in which one group of people play the good guys and the others play the bad guys and they are different races and they can kill each other - if they want to.

What the real hardcore PvP’ers want is a totally open world – in which “I can go kill anybody I want whenever I want wherever I want. So, if I want to walk into the Shire and just whack you, I can!” We’re not sure if we are ever going to do that. There’s probably a subset of people who would like that. The Wow players who are also hardcore PvP players, we’re hoping that they’ll come and try the game out, but if all they really want to do all day long is play PvP, then perhaps this may not, long-term, be the game for them.

What we are really hoping is that as ‘Monster Play’ evolves is that it will satisfy even them – because the most important thing to those players is persistence, ownership and bragging rights. They want an evil race, which is getting more and more powerful, and is getting recognised as the best. We can still deliver that in our PvP, it’s just a little more focused, it’s not anywhere in the world. But if you really want to be that guy who has killed more people than anyone else on the server, then you can be that guy; and people will know it, as we have leaderboards and places and things that show on your character. People will know. It’s all about the bragging rights.


SPOnG: Heh, so no plans to partner up with South Park as Blizzard did on Make Love Not Warcraft last year?

Jeffrey Steefel: [laughs]I dunno, they may have pre-empted us on that one! Who knows? There’s all kinds of possibilities. When the game is up and if it has the kind of success that we hope it has, then all kinds of possibilities will open up. First things first, I have six weeks left to launch my game.


SPOnG: Right, all the best with it all, and thanks for your time. I’m off to get signed up on the beta.