User:Hairy Dude/Games inspired by J. R. R. Tolkien

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Many computer games and role-playing games have been inspired by J. R. R. Tolkien's works, especially The Lord of the Rings.

Contents 1 Role-playing games 2 Computer games 2.1 1982-1990 2.2 2000s

[edit] Role-playing games

While fantasy as a literary genre existed long before Tolkien, most modern fantasy settings are at least partly inspired by Tolkien. His works have thus had a great influence on the settings and style of the many fantasy role-playing games.

In particular, the creators of Dungeons and Dragons were strongly influenced by Tolkien. The game has (clearly Tolkien-influenced) dwarves and elves as playable characters, and in earlier editions had hobbits as well. After being threatened with a lawsuit by the Tolkien estate, they replaced hobbits with the similar "halflings" - which term is also used in Lord Of the Rings to describe hobbits. In most versions of the game, halflings were especially good at being thieves/rogues, a nod to Bilbo the thief in The Hobbit. The Kender of Krynn (from the Dragonlance Campaign setting) are again essentially renamed hobbits.

Equally common is the use of the term orc for a variety of hobgoblin-type creatures in later fantasy, although Tolkien created this modern usage of the word. Even games in non-fantasy genres, such as Shadowrun and Warhammer 40,000 (both to a certain extent a mixture of fantasy and science fiction), use the term. Some use the spelling Ork, usually for style reasons (in the case of Warhammer 40,000, to distinguish them from the similar Orcs in Warhammer Fantasy.

[edit] Computer games

The story has been reproduced in video game form a number of times over the last three decades.

[edit] 1982-1990

Following up the popular 1982 text adventure based on The Hobbit on the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64, among others, Melbourne House released Lord of the Rings for the aforementioned two computers in 1986. It was, however, an "illustrated adventure" as opposed to a text adventure. A BBC Micro text adventure released around the same time was unrelated to Melbourne's titles except for the literary origin.

In 1987, Melbourne House began to release a number of titles based on a licence from the Tolkien estate. The first of these was Shadows of Mordor, another text adventure, followed up by War in Middle-earth, a turn-based strategy game, for the Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, Commodore Amiga and Atari ST.

In 1990, Interplay, in collaboration with Electronic Arts (who would later obtain the licenses to the film trilogy), released Lord of the Rings Vol. 1, a role-playing game based on the events of the first book. Second and third instalments were planned, but never released. The second was developed to completion, but never appeared in public, except for a playable demo. No work was ever carried out for the third instalment. Interplay's titles appeared exclusively on the PC and Commodore Amiga.

[edit] 2000s

Thereafter, no official Lord of the Rings titles were released (in part due to the falling popularity of the books) until the release of the film trilogy in 2001-2003, when enthusiasm for the story peaked again. Electronic Arts obtained the licenses for the three films, although they only produced games for The Two Towers and The Return of the King. Sierra Entertainment, having lost out on the film licenses, obtained the license to produce games based on the books (as opposed to the film trilogy) instead, entitling them to use the story, but not the music or video material from the film.

This gave rise to an unusual situation. Electronic Arts produced no adaptation of The Fellowship of the Ring film, but Sierra adapted the book. On the other hand, EA did produce adaptations of The Two Towers and The Return of the King films, whereas Sierra did not adapt these books. This produced a "complete trilogy" of games (albeit unofficial). Sierra's entry to the series received average reviews, and Electronic Arts' entries received rave reviews. Peter Jackson, meanwhile, criticised EA for leaving him out of the development process and declared that he was unhappy with the quality of the titles.

While Sierra Entertainment's access to the book rights prevented them from using material from the film, it permitted them to include elements of the Lord of the Rings books that were not in the films. EA, on the other hand, were not permitted to do this, as they were only licensed to develop games based on the films, which left out elements of the original story or deviated in places.

Fans' opinions differ on the better of the two styles. Some prefer EA's action-oriented hack and slash-style games, which tend to pass on large segments of the story and place a reliance on film clips and the film's music, citing the almost cinematic quality that the game produces as similar to the film. Others preferred the Sierra adventure title, which, while featuring less action and epic battles than the EA title, cover the story in greater detail and offer a more cerebral challenge.

Sierra's consequent adaptation of The Hobbit also received average reviews. It is unknown which developer/publisher would assume the task of adapting a film version of The Hobbit to a video game, especially since Jackson chose to work with Michel Ancel and Ubisoft on King Kong in light of his displeasure with EA.

The popularity of real-time strategy (RTS) titles led Sierra and EA to independently produce two RTS games. Sierra produced The Lord of the Rings: War of the Ring in 2003, based on the books. The title was well received by the press and fans, but some criticised the overwhelming similarity of the game to Warcraft III. A year later, EA released The Battle for Middle-earth, based on the films. The title was given rave reviews in the gaming media and sold well. Sierra have since produced no games based on the trilogy.

EA released an RPG in 2004 entitled The Third Age, based on the universe portrayed in the films, though not the original story. It was based on an original story that runs parallel to the events of the movies. The game received average reviews, with many quoting the poor quality of the story in relation to its source.

In July 2005, EA was granted the rights to develop games based on the books, alongside the separate agreement for games based on the New Line films.

EA is due to release Battle for Middle-earth II in 2006. An online MMORPG by Turbine, Inc., entitled The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar and endorsed by Tolkien Enterprises is also in production.