The Lord of the Rings Online: “just the right size”

Turbine Inc. CEO Jeff Anderson must be amused. In the span of one interview with WarCry, he is asked if or why the game world is “too small” and “too big.” Oh not so, said Goldilocks. Neither too big or too small, The Lord of the Rings Online: The Shadows of Angmar is just the right size as far as Jeff’s concerned.

Jeff stands by his assertion that the Middle-Earth world that Turbine has created is packed full of content. “50,000,000 square meters of densely packed landscape covering everything from snowy mountains to arid deserts – and everything in between,” he said. Key words: densely-packed. Turbine wanted to avoid the effect of having to traverse barren landscapes and empty wastelands just to get from Point A to Point Doom.

Right now the game is localized to the territory of Eriador, or the northwest part of the map of Middle-Earth. Obviously that leaves a lot of room for future expansion. Hence, the observation that one can walk across the available game world in only three hours. Of course, the problem is not walking across the landscape of Eriador, or Middle-Earth, for that matter. It’s Frodo’s job, so far, to get to Mount Doom. Players have a lot of other tasks to perform.

Of course, there is the fear that the world will be “too big”, especially once the game map expands to cover all Middle-Earth. Jeff assures that Turbine will address the problem of diffuse populations (a.k.a. a small, small player pool in a big, big world) when they get to that.

Turbine Inc. CEO Jeff Anderson must be amused. In the span of one interview with WarCry, he is asked if or why the game world is “too small” and “too big.” Oh not so, said Goldilocks. Neither too big or too small, The Lord of the Rings Online: The Shadows of Angmar is just the right size as far as Jeff’s concerned.

Jeff stands by his assertion that the Middle-Earth world that Turbine has created is packed full of content. “50,000,000 square meters of densely packed landscape covering everything from snowy mountains to arid deserts – and everything in between,” he said. Key words: densely-packed. Turbine wanted to avoid the effect of having to traverse barren landscapes and empty wastelands just to get from Point A to Point Doom.

Right now the game is localized to the territory of Eriador, or the northwest part of the map of Middle-Earth. Obviously that leaves a lot of room for future expansion. Hence, the observation that one can walk across the available game world in only three hours. Of course, the problem is not walking across the landscape of Eriador, or Middle-Earth, for that matter. It’s Frodo’s job, so far, to get to Mount Doom. Players have a lot of other tasks to perform.

Of course, there is the fear that the world will be “too big”, especially once the game map expands to cover all Middle-Earth. Jeff assures that Turbine will address the problem of diffuse populations (a.k.a. a small, small player pool in a big, big world) when they get to that.