I still follow LOTRO closely. It’s a habit, but I’m trying to quit I swear. In tonight’s Dev Chat on Allakhazam Turbine released a first look at the new region coming in Book 13: Forochel. At first glance what do you notice almost immediately? If you’re like me you probably noticed the massive body of water smack dab in the center of the map. I chuckled to myself, then I read what the dev had to say about it… then I chuckled some more.
Does it look at all familiar? 
“We know that players love water. I am certain you will be disappointed to know that water in… our Book 13 region… will act effectively as an impassable and will actually discourage players from taking the plunge. Taking the body of water of this region out of the equation, you’ll have a near-North Downs size region to run around in.”
I’m fairly sure that the first part is sarcasm, and that we’re supposed to giggle at the second half in that “ohh you!” sorta way. Well, I’m not laughing with you. I’m sadly laughing at you. Whoever is designing these regions is either lazy or finds some bizarre comforting nostalgia because they grew up near a lake. In Evendim the water is easily 85% of the region and it’s always in the way. It has to be traversed…slowly… in order to reach quest objectives. It sucks – no, that’s an understatement. It sucks badly. What possessed them to make another big lake?! This time it’s not even passable! It’s impassable! It’s no longer going to be annoying to swim, and I suppose that Turbine is looking for the players’ thanks because they’re keeping players dry, but now it’s just a complete waste of space. That’s probably why they designed it this way, if it had been land they might actually have to justify the space with meaningful content.
This must be the work of Mordor. It wasn’t enough to stop the heroes of Middle-Earth from going under water, they had to make it impassible too. What a perfect place to hide the ring…
I was pondering a related matter just a few days ago so this is an interesting announcement from Turbine. I had been thinking to myself that LoTR reminds me of the Lake District (England) at times. It’s a beautiful environment to game in, lush meadows, rolling hills, woodland, and bodies of water, but not really a lot of lakes.
As such I concluded that lakes are an unrequired evil in terms of gameplay, for exactly the reasons you mention. However you can’t deny they add to the environment from a visual perspective, and they also ‘make sense’ in terms of the geography (glaciers, mountains, lakes…).
So I’m sort of glad to see them, but I think for what is a ‘traditional’ mmorpg if Turbine really want to see this through then they need to work out how to negate the gameplay related downsides of including large bodies of water.
PS: I came back to LoTR recently (only played it in beta previously) and really enjoy it, having recently ditched TR (no end game) and PotBS (er, no game?).
Lotro really is a boring MMO, that being said this article was very funny.
well Keen, I agree with you about Evendim, since annuminas is on the other side of the lake as well as the giants and the elf sanctuary with the ent. VERY annoying. In my mind though an impassable lake is about the same as a see through mountain in the way and there are plenty of mountains in the way, not to mention lakes, in world of walkcraft and lord of the water wings and so many other games. Looking at this map though it doesn’t appear that too much is going to force you to the north end of the lake so I think your overreacting just a teensy bit. Personally I’m just happy they are expanding the map. What I’m really interested in is how much they will change the gameplay (if at all) in the expansion, and how many areas and stuff they will add, once they announce that at the connect 2008 thingy on March 14 this week. p.s. I enjoyed your comments ‘woop’
@Woop: I like the look of lakes and bodies of water in mmos and concede to the point that they definitely add envrionment from a visual perspective.
@Thallian: In a way you’re correct that impassable lakes are similar to impassable mountains. My biggest gripe with water in LOTRO is that it takes up so much valuable space in a very small world. The one thing LOTRO needs above all else is quality content – heck even more poor content would help. They just need content!
The map does lead me to believe that Forochel will be a more pleasurable questing experience. Such a waste of space on impassable water though makes me sad. LOTRO is updated with new regions very rarely and to see 2 of the 3 (technically expanding misty mountains isn’t really a new region though) covered with enormous bodies of useless water is unfortunate.
@Keen Oh ok, yeah I getcha 🙂 Hopefully the expansion will double the size of the “planet” but maybe I’m being overly optimistic.
they are limited by the geography that is already been defined by the lotr ip, although there decisions to what areas to use are theres. (shrug) they cant just up and move lakes if they want to remain true to the lotr world … lets hope rohan is not so wet :o) or moria
Now I have a drippy wet cave in my mind, …. thanks 😛
Tangentially: Thumbnails?
The maps of Middle Earth have been around for a long time… it would be much worse if the designers felt free to change the game world to their own ends. People who play LotRO do so because of Tolkien’s creation, right? Aside from the IP, it’s hardly the most compelling MMO out there. It’s probably best they they not screw with the one thing they’ve got going for them.
They didn’t design these areas as much as represent them. As Earnest above said, the areas are set. Turbine is making the game set in them. Sure swimming across Lake Evendim is one of the least enjoyable parts of the game. But from the looks of it, the Bay in Forochel isn’t really in the way, as much as a mountain range would be.
How boring would it bee to have every area without such features, just plains and grasslands? I know, that sounds like Rohan to me too.
ok guys…first off the map has all ready been made by tolkien.
lake evindim is a sizeable body of water but that’s where it is and it’s size is basically canon.
as far as running out of area – i wouldnt worry about that. assuming they use all of tolkien’s middle earth we’ve got a LONG way to go before we run out of acreage. for god’s sake we are still inside of eriador! there’s tons of real estate left, isn’t there?
LotRO is amazing. Forochel is so frikin awesome.
omg lotro is so kool, i love it i like the story and following the fellowship.
you can tell that the people that piss their pants about the games looking good are WOW players. lol wow suks arse !! warhammer OMG is my second best mmo
Play lotro for PvE
play warhammer for PVP
Wulimaster is right,
The dev’s didn’t develop the area, tolkien did,
it’s a Lore based MMO
deal with it.
They can’t just say oh well this map has a HUGE lake that will piss players off we’ll just take that out.
they’re not allowed.