LOTRO Players News Episode 48: Downs-sizing

Lilikate replied – Some of those British accents are terrible. The odd Scot sounds good but the more working class English accent needs a lot of improvement. The actor needs to stay in the same geographical region and class for the entire speech.

cableknitdragon replied – “BY DURIN’S BEARD WON’T YOU GIVE ME A MOMENT?” My experience of Moria in a nutshell.

Fredelas replied – I think voice acting can be a powerful way to tell stories. However, it’s not suited to EVERY kind of story or every MMO. The way we take in information and think about it can change greatly based on the medium we receive it in. For example, imagine the different levels of information, context, and emotion you might get about the exact same news story if it were:

Printed as a two-column article in a newspaper (you remember what those are, right?)
Printed as an eight-page feature in a magazine with large glossy pictures and helpful sidebars
Typed in a 40-page academic essay full of references
Written as a blog post, with hyperlinks and personal perspective and opinion added
Spoken about in a live hour-long audio podcast (or radio show) with multiple hosts reacting to each other
Presented by an anchor in a 3-minute television (or online video) news segment
Filmed in a two-hour documentary by a passionate director featuring actual participants in the story
Dramatized in a 90-minute Hollywood movie with professional actors

Different kinds of MMOs tell different kinds of stories. For example, I really love the voice acting in SWTOR, because Star Wars has always felt like a hugely cinematic story to me in the first place. In cases like this, the voice acting is an absolutely giant upgrade to just reading quest text or NPC dialog. But in a game like LOTRO, it’s not as meaningful to me. The Lord of the Rings has always been a primarily literary pursuit for me, so I like having pages and pages to read, and having to go back and re-read passages to get their full meaning. I don’t mind having an actor read the first few lines, but it doesn’t add much, except to remind me Middle-earth isn’t a silent place.

I don’t think LOTRO really needs more voice acting than it already has. What I think it needs are more voice ACTORS. It’s incredibly disorienting to me when every NPC in a region has the exact same voice. Imagine how many hundreds of employees have passed through Turbine in the ten years it’s been working on LOTRO. If each of them had recorded a handful of different phrases, enough of these recordings would have been good enough quality to include in the game.”

Jordan replied – “1. I enjoy voice-acted quests, instances, and other random atmospheric sayings by NPCs. The only time I don’t like them is when they are repeated so much that it becomes funny; I like the laugh, but it is strange that everyone says the exact same thing, and is honestly slightly lore-breaking for me. As well all know, there are many excessively repeated phrases with LotRO NPCs. [Hopefully when we move to Volume 4 areas, because we’ll be “well known”, we wont get all of those insults to our quality of outfitting.]

I like them because they let me sit back and pay attention to the story (more so seen in other games, not as much in LotRO), but at the same time, if the game is rushing me along, or gives we a means to rush along (such as XP boosts or other timed things), I will tend to skip even the most interesting things to make the best use of the valuable boosts, which is a problem.

Otherwise, the immersion is great if the voices are realistic and not too repetitive.

2. I think it can definitely upgrade the quality of a story, but I don’t think it should be forced, and I don’t think money is best invested in that, I would usually rather see a great story than an acted out decent one.

3. I think LotRO should (still) push for voice-acted content, but I would say mainly in the Epic quests. They have far better things to invest in, at least at this point in the game, in my opinion.”

Donations

A big thanks to Braag for a $10 or more donation to LOTRO Players!

“Dear Lotro Players Crew,

Long time listener here. My donation to Lotro players this week serves a dual purpose. It is meant, first of all, to offer support for the excellent work you have been doing. Many thanks for the hours of edification and enjoyment you have provided to date and wishing you all many happy returns.

It is also sent with the hope that you could mention to your audience the introduction of my new Lotro focused Podcast: “Light the Beacons” which is now available on iTunes with my inaugural episode being published this week. No idea where this train is going yet, but am hoping at least a few folks from the community will be willing to jump on and see!

More information is available at Lightthebeacons.com and I can be reached at Braagsonofbalin@gmail.com or on Facebook at Braag SonofBalin. Thanks for your support!

Baruq Khazad!

Braag”

To help support LOTRO Players simply go to the donation pagewhere you can help support the podcasts on LOTRO Players and also help support the site. We have $5 and $10 mentions where you can donate and get a mention on one or all of our active podcasts for an episode depending on the amount.

Feedback

Reviews

MistahHelpful left a review on iTunes:

“What’s the practical limit on podcast hosts? I don’t know, but I’m afraid LPN surpassed it somewhere along the line, as temporary guests inevitably became fixtures. I really liked this podcast when it first showed up, but now an hours worth of episode is 30 minutes worth of information (if that), thanks mainly to ‘going around the table’ to hear too many people weigh in with diminishing returns on a given question. Ethelros’ detailed examinations of a given topic are interesting, but by the 3rd or 4th input, you’re mostly hearing the same thing. Please folks, thin the heard!”

Featured Comments

Thraorin left a comment on episode 47 of LOTRO Players News:

“New LOTRO zone: The Braxwood

Gather Firefox furs to gain reputation with the BraxClan and barter for Chromium ore, Chrome ingots and Opera sheet music ;)”

Tim left a comment on the Update 14 Release and Landscape Details article:

“In the last LOTRO Players News, Ethelros brought up the question “What keeps you going back to a game?” In a huge way, it’s the continuous addition of content and story that keeps me hooked on lotro. You see, when playing single player games, I was always hoping there was more content as I would blow through the content in a matter of days or a week or two. There would then be weeks of desperate content search while I slowly lose interest in the game and try finding a new one.

A few months after I bought and installed lotro, Mines of Moria was released and all of the sudden there was a whole new zone of interest to dive into. This and the prospect of new content coming in the future keeps me coming back to the game time and again.

Also, now that I have gone through the story numerous times on 12 toons (all 95 amazingly) I still feel the story is timeless. I continue to find new places, NPCs, and a generally new feeling as I go through each region and book. The region revamps always help to keep interest in old content.

I’d say more about Belfalas, Paths of the Dead, and Dol Amroth but this is already getting too long.”

Garthain of Middlemead also left a comment on the U14 article:

“I’ll gladly take the update in July, preferably around the middle of the month so I can convince myself that it’s Turbine’s birthday present to me (which falls on the 18th).

To be honest, this was a lot sooner than I was under the impression it would be. I’m looking forward to dinking around on Bullroarer during the weekends as soon as U14 goes into testing (which, if they’re planning for a July-August release, presumably isn’t that far out.)”

Emails

This week we received an email from Estelali saying:

“Hail Friends! Estelali is back..its been a long time since I wrote to you guys and hope I was missed 🙂 Really enjoyed the last episode of LOTRO Players News, especially the discussion on “taking a break” from LOTRO or gaming in general..I would like to add my 2 cents on the topic..Let me start by saying that this is the only game I play at the moment and I just dont see myself getting into any other MMO or any game in general..while I do like raiding , I was never a hardcore player..Being a casual player means that if I dont feel like doing a daily quest for rep or other items, I dont feel any obligation to do so..So if one night I am leading a raid, next night I am attending a concert in Bree and just chilling..So I have never been burnt out from the game..I think its all about taking things in moderation..and “taking break” from some aspects of the game..there is so much you can do in LOTRO and so much variaty, there is no real need for a complete break..and I make sure people appreciate the casual nature of this game in my kin “Casual Raiders” (cheap plug , I know! :P)

I do miss being part of LOTRO Players Adventures show but saturdays has become a kin raiding night and when I finish, its too late already..

I have also completed my latest poem and like always I am sending it to you guys.. This one took a long time because I tried the ABBA rhymes in this one..Hope you guys enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it..

As always excellent shows and keep up the good work.

-Ali

(I would really love to hear braxwolf read it but if he is not there, then pineleaf is the man)

Olorin

When all the hope was gone, he came,

Like a beacon of light,

In the shadow of night,

His mighty ancient sword aflame,

His pointy hat and long beard,

Smoking his pipe weed,

Riding his white steed,

He is loved by all, not feared,

His humility was exemplary and his grace,

A steward, a passenger,

A wizard, a messenger,

He wasn’t a man, nor of elvish race,

He walked with mighty powers in west,

His mission was high,

When the end was nigh,

Fought the evil in Moria, he passed the test,

Wandering the Middle-earth, from Ithilien to Bree

Telling his tales, with a pint of ale,

From Ered Luin to Lonely Mountain, of Dale,

He cares for hobbits, elves, dwarves and men free,

Now in the land of Aman, he walks once more,

In company of Nienna, Manwe and Varda,

Faded the power of Narya in Arda,

‘A far green country’, beyond the white shore.”

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Final Thoughts

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Thanks for watching!

7 comments

Tomeoric / May 27, 2014

Thanks so much for the mention on LP for the week. If that doesn’t get me writing more, I don’t know what will! Ahhhh the pressure!

- Braxwolf / May 28, 2014
  
  No pressure at all. Just keep putting good content out there and the LOTRO community will come! 🙂
  
MistahHelpful / June 2, 2014

Wow, interesting to hear my iTunes review dissed on the episode. I guess I came across as more hostile than I intended. For what it’s worth, I would have given the show 5 stars about 20 episodes ago, but it’s changed for the worse. Not because it’s long, but because it’s bloated. I’m still thankful you guys make the show, but if you ask for iTunes reviews, you’ve gotta be prepared to take some criticism. Blowing it off as ‘not fit for mention on the show’ is just bad form.

- MistahHelpful / June 2, 2014
  
  I think I’ll put my money where my mouth is. $10 donation incoming! Because I love the site, and you guys are totally worth it. But I reserve the right to call ’em as I see ’em.
  
  - Braxwolf / June 2, 2014
    
    Seriously, thanks for the review and the donation. I think it’s sometimes easy to get a little defensive with even constructive criticism, initially, and then the more you think about it, the more merit you see in the critique.
    
    As you heard towards the end of the discussion, we started to talk about ways to avoid some of the pitfalls you mentioned. We probably won’t “thin the herd” as you put it. But perhaps we can find a way to keep the discussion fresh and relevant.
MistahHelpful / June 4, 2014

Yeah, I uh… this is embarrassing… I posted all that stuff up there before hearing the end of the podcast. Who knew you’d all get back to my review?? Anyhow, I thought it was a funny discussion, and the topic got it’s due, so I appreciate it.

Tirian / June 5, 2014

Regarding the third of the three regions with u14, I think its going to be Morthond. Dol Amroth is inside Belafas, the southern area, and as such I think Dol Amroth will be a city map (like Bree, Edoras etc.) Morthond is also already partially in the game (check out some of the early Vol. 3 session plays to see the area around the Stone of Erech.

Also, the Oathbreakers that you referred to that we had already met (in Vol. 3) headed south from Enedwaith in one of the Book 10 interludes (the one with Saeradan and Radanir), and they may end up being the Oathbreakers that stay in the Paths of the Dead, having arrived in the Paths too late to follow Aragorn.

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