Aware that the license is likely to provide a draw to many new and casual players, Turbine is playing it safe. "We want people who are playing popular MMOs today to feel comfortable," says Steefel.
But, despite the plural, LOTR Online's design bears the strongest resemblance to World of WarCraft 's refined conservatism. There are, however, encouraging signs that Turbine's pursuit of accessibility extends into a few small innovations.
"Persistent instancing" means that key, showstopping group encounters won't be repeatable by any individual, granting players the sense of personal influence and narrative coherence they're used to from offline adventuring.
Then there are Traits, a system of achievement medals that grant more than bragging rights, feeding back into your character with skill and crafting modifiers. It's a smart application of familiar mainstream design to the particular demands of MMOs (in this case, the need to individualize).
The same is true of the intriguing, but not yet demonstrated, "conjunctions." These are effectively quick-fire, button-hitting combo eventsthat occur within group play, and that could bring immediacy to the occasionally obscure world of MMO group dynamics (helped by voice chat support).
These may be little more than embellishments on a proven template, but in a market that has been slow to capitalize on WoW's success - following it with a slew of strange imports and niche experiments - LOTR Online 's matured, formulaic approach is almost as strong an asset as that licence. Combined, they could quite plausibly make it the next - the second - truly mass market MMO.
