Exclusive: Turbine's executive producer - Jeff Steffel

We all need to look at different business models, it’s happening, it’s just a matter of when.

HEXUS: It must have take Turbine a lot of blood, sweat and tears to acquire the Lord of the Rings and Dungeons & Dragons franchise, not to mention a huge amount of money. Looking back over the last few years has it been worth the gamble?
Jeff: Absolutely. You never really know what’s going to happen when you buy into a franchise, but we’ve worked tremendously hard to make it succeed. The communities in both are continuing to grow. We’re launching Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) in China, Korea and Russia so it’s going to continue to grow leaps and bounds. We planned to very aggressive on how we approached the game regarding its growth and content and the players seem to appreciate that. We’re delighted with the way things have gone.

HEXUS: Many Lord of the Rings fans are fanatical and know Tolkein lore like the back of their hands. How difficult was it for you to meet their expectations?
Jeff: I’ve read the books many times and fortunately I’m surrounded by people who know more about Tolkein then I could ever have imagined. We had consultants around us who had read every thing that Tolkein had ever written and we also worked closely with Tolkein enterprises.

HEXUS: I’m sure you know that Birmingham was an inspiration to Tolkein and that his ‘Two Towers’ was inspired by the landmarks Perrott's Folly and Edgbaston Waterworks. Will you be visiting them whilst you’re in the UK?
Jeff: Of course, we’re looking forward to it. We’re going to try to do that tonight or tomorrow morning.

HEXUS: Don’t get too excited, the real towers are a bit of an anti-climax.
Jeff: That’s what’s great about it, right? This guy must have had some imagination.

HEXUS: MMOs are notoriously difficult to get into for those new to the scene. What have Turbine done to make the experience more accessible?
Jeff: With LOTRO we were very focused on that; in fact it was one of the core design principles. It’s still an MMO, so it’s still difficult compared to Animal Crossing or something like that, but in the spectrum of things if you look at a game like EVE, which is very complicated, LOTRO is an accessible experience. In the first 5 minutes in the game we hold you hand and people seem to find it easy to get into.

I think, with MMOs in general, at the beginning people are more afraid of the concept, then they are of the actual experience. The challenge gets more complex the further you get into a game and it’s often difficult to get to the point where you feel comfortable, because they’re huge. We’re still spending a lot of time, thought and energy into making our MMOs instantly accessible.

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HEXUS: So, what would you say is Turbine’s philosophy when it comes to creating an MMO?
Jeff: We aim to create a living, breathing,stable, ongoing entertainment experience.

HEXUS: And what’s the biggest challenges you’ve faced in trying to achieve your aim?
Jeff:The usual challenges of running a live service when it’s something as complex as this is extremely difficult , but we’re fortunate that we’ve been doing it for 15 years, so we know how to do it and Codemasters is so good at it that they know how to do it.

The fans are attached to the lore of these games, so giving them something that gives them the experience they expect is also a huge challenge, but I think we’ve risen to it.

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