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One licensing deal to bind them all

The intellectual property rights for The Lord of the Rings are a mess. I don't know much about the particulars, but apparently Tolkien signed everything away for a song, much to the chagrin of his estate, which has been unsuccessful in their attempts to contest the terms. A lawyer friend of mine characterized it as "Tolkien was bent over and his pants were taken down". That’s not a visual I really need, but I get the point.

In the gaming world, the fallout of this whole messy affair has been that Electronic Arts has the rights to the books and Vivendi Universal has the rights to the movies based on the books. So there was no shortage of Lord of the Rings games being shown at E3, some clearly duplicating the look of Peter Jackson's movies and others with their own unique aesthetic. Well, as unique as you can be when you're dealing with clichés like orcs, elves, and hobbits. Coming to your PC from the Tolkien IP are a massively multiplayer online game, an RTS, and an action game.

MMOLOTR

The massively multiplayer online game is Middle Earth Online, which is still over a year away with an estimated release in the holiday season of 2004. The game is being developed by Turbine, the creators of Asheron's Call, using their engine from Asheron's Call 2. Vivendi Universal was showing a mock-up of how the final game will play, demoing a hobbit shire and a dungeon environment. The shire had some scripted moments with gossiping hobbits, preparations for a festival, pipe smoke emotes, and a fireworks machine. Cute stuff, to be sure, but it's basically just showing off the graphics engine we've already seen in Asheron's Call 2.

Middle Earth Online 1

Middle Earth Online 2

Middle Earth Online 3

The dungeon area was a bit more informative. They demonstrated a bit of the character advancement, which seems to be lifted straight out of Asheron's Call 2, but with hobbits, elves, and dwarves instead of Lugians and Tumeroks. What looks promising and new, however, is the inventory system. The fellow demoing Middle Earth Online gave a little spiel about how choice and moral consequence are a significant element of the Lord of the Rings universe. He said Turbine will be using items to implement this concept. Players will find good and evil (corrupted) equipment. Depending on what they choose to equip, and therefore which powers they wish to acquire, they'll be pulled in one direction or the other, transforming their visual look and their capabilities.