Jeffrey Steefel: LotRO will be the second western MMO to succeed in Asia

by Samuel Axon Nov 19th 2008 at 12:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Interviews, MMO industry, News items

In an interview with videogaming247, Turbine bigwig Jeffrey Steefel said that he expects The Lord of the Rings Online to become the second viably successful western MMO in Asia (after World of Warcraft), should his team get the Chinese launch right. The two MMO-playing communities have historically had very different tastes, but Steefel believes western devs are finally figuring out how to break into the east. "That's where a big part of the global gaming market is and it's been that way for a long time," he said, "but we're only just now figuring how western games can begin to tap into that market.

Steefel also noted -- as many of Blizzard's competitors have been keen to do -- that much of WoW's growth in recent months has been in Asia, not in America or Europe. Guess he's hoping to capture a little of that Blizzard cross-cultural mojo when his game launches in China and Korea. We're aware Asia is a long way away for most of our readers, so for those of you who could care less: check out our own interview with Steefel for subjects a little closer to home. Shameless, aren't we?

Tags: asia, blizzard, china, interview, jeffrey-steefel, korea, lord-of-the-rings-online, lotro, turbine, world-of-warcraft, wow

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Mr. Digital said on 12:50PM 11-19-2008

When he says he things western developers are learning how to make their games more palatable to Asia, I certainly hope he doesn't mean that they're making their games more like Asian games because, frankly, most Asian MMORPGs really suck.

blindside044 said on 12:56PM 11-19-2008

What Digital said... and plus Asian games are all about grind, LOTRO isnt. As much as I enjoy LOTRO, I dont see it doing good in Asialand :D

Mondrian said on 3:51PM 11-19-2008

Too bad LoTRO offers nothing that Asians want... I think they will need to COMPLETELY revamp their PvMP system.

Sean said on 6:50PM 11-19-2008

Well I'm skeptical in so far as Tolkien conciously set out to write an epic narrative in the vein of the epic poems of earlier English like Beowulf or the Latin and Greek epics. So much of the story texture, the characters and their motivations, and the literary tropes he draws upon are specific to a Western European audience. This certainly doesn't preclude others, Asians included, from appreciating it, but I do think it raises a potential barrier to its adoption.

Mr. Digital said on 8:27PM 11-19-2008

And, don't forget, he had a lot of Scandanavian lore and mythology in his background as well, which he drew from when crafting his stories.

Sean said on 8:34PM 11-19-2008

Quite right; Finnish and other Scandinavian languages also informed those he created for Middle Earth. Moreover, seeing how few people in the United States are acquainted with the Kalevala other similiar works, it again raises doubts about the acceptance by an Asian audience. I do hope it transcends the cultural divide and does well though; I've certainly enjoyed Japanese games in the past and I'd like to think that gamers on the other side of the world might enjoy western games in the same vein.