An Entertainment Tragedy - Amazons Lord of the Rings

foreign this video is brought to you by ag1 stick around here more about the special offer they are providing to the entire upper echelon Community alright today is a topic I just really want to talk about for myself I want to discuss this because I care deeply about Lord of the Rings and to be completely honest it was an important part of my childhood I don't

feel like I need to prove my credentials here or anything like that but just to establish the sort of foundation if you will I have played pretty much every single Lord of the Rings video game in existence multiple times I've played pretty much every themed board game I could ever get my hands on I would even use the pieces from Lord of the Rings Risk and

Stratego to play other games as if they were like army men and stuff when I was a kid and I've read the books the other books the letters and more Lord of the Rings legitimately means something to me and I even sunk I don't even know how many hours until Lord of the Rings Online unlocking regions with the free to play currency I was painstakingly able

to collect over time farming every single achievement and eventually grinding out PVP in the edin wars it was called creeps versus freeps back then and I'll never forget the rating experience with huge PVP battles especially when this guy named rashkosh would get online because every time he led the raid we'd wipe the floor with them and basically push the freeps all the way back out of

the region for a day to do free questing with no ganks man that was fun that's where I learned how to play MMOs actually Target for Target DPS rotations large scale battles and tactics with Wars and Hobbits Scouting For ganking etc etc I could say more but the point is this I have a deep deep appreciation and love for Lord of the Rings it is by

far my favorite fantasy Universe ever for a lot of reasons so when I see this this right here it kind of makes me upset Amazon for some ungodly reason is now throwing shade at Lord of the Rings online I mean not much shade but it's there after a failed MMO project of their own with tencent by the way as they tease a new title from Amazon

game studios the people behind new world where the mentality is and I quote I definitely want to put the game first to make sure it's a great game because as I said we want people to play for 10 years and it's not going to help me if someone is saying that's a perfect representation of the book in a game if you're really into that read the

book read it another five times otherwise if it's a game a game has to do with playing and they have to be playful so there needs to be a little bit of being able to bend the rules to make it a great game end quote just to really drill down here right like that was um what Amazon game studios vice president something something Hammer something I

don't know I'll get to his name later on the video just drilling down that means that Amazon after their first foray into the landscape of video game design with new world and their most recent streaming Series rings of power is going to make a Lord of the Rings MMO that is less tied to the books and seeks to differentiate itself from the original largely faithful nearly

Timeless and beloved version of the MMO game great all right it's that time of the video where I advertise a product and try to keep all of you watching interested long enough to satisfy a corporate marketing department while simultaneously showing you the product itself which is actually a pretty hard thing to do this is ag-1 it's an all-in-one foundational nutrition drink supporting immunity which is great

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to ag1 for sponsoring the channel okay with that out of the way like I need to ask a question of the audience right now and this is just kind of like one of those Off Script kind of heartfelt things to like okay just hear me out am I a toxic fan I hear those words a lot now especially in reference to things like Star Wars or

Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings and I sit here wondering if I'm one of the people that they mean when they say that am I a toxic member of the fan base angry malcontent and mental or is it wrong to remember the books love the books love the lore and appreciate a faithful adaptation of it in video game form is it wrong for me to

think that Lord of the Rings Online despite being paid a win and having very greedy monetization at times is still a fundamentally good game because of its appreciation for the lore am I I don't know I'm not being an ass here I genuinely I want to know the answer am I one of those toxic fans that they talk about and obviously despise let me walk this

through Point by Point Amazon game studios currently has one MMO under their belt count them one new world that game isn't bad certainly not but it had an extremely Rocky start to say the very least so bad in fact that the entire economy crashed multiple ways multiple times and the entire endgame content Loop was just flat out broken sure yes fine it got better I'm sick

of it now personally after hundreds of hours but I did play hundreds of hours many hundreds of hours and I largely disagree with some of their choices in game but it's in okay game by itself so what's my problem my problem is rings of power Amazon game studios might have the capability of crafting something good possibly as fresh IP even if it was a disaster for

a while at launch but we're not talking about a Brand New Concept with shiny new lore where they have absolute freedom we're talking about Lord of the Rings alright fine so what well lucky for us unlucky for us we do actually have an indication of how it can go when Amazon starts using established IP as well better yet we can see firsthand how they used the

Lord of the Rings IP and what they did with it for the purpose of a streaming series to be clear I don't really care what people want to say about rings of power from a personal perspective you loved it because yay diversity you hated it because holy [__] they butchered the lore wow the action sequences look real pretty because Amazon spent more money than any other

show in human history or anything in between right none of that matters what does matter is that we have an objective reality in front of us that can be analyzed rings of power was not faithful to established lore you can like that you can dislike that doesn't matter to me it's a fact actually a fan fiction author is now suing over rings of power because his

copyrighted fan fiction novel was allegedly stolen by someone which he then asserts was the basis for the show I don't care about this but of course Amazon's billion dollar tribute to the world of Tolkien is being sued for copying fan fiction even if it's not true which I don't know he definitely doesn't really have a case but even if it's not true that's just really fitting

based on the quality of that show anyway I don't have the capability to list all the different issues in play here there's too many of them but here are a few of the big ones rings of power has Rewritten foundational lore somehow the light of the silmarils is in me thrill and can save the elves from all dying Galadriel is basically a genocidal warmonger pretty sure

that Amazon doesn't actually have the licensing for some critical pieces of the lore or names to draw from and just made [__] up to cover for it while the dwarves woke up a balrog in a way that made absolutely no sense the writing doesn't track the physics don't track the character names are really messed up and the plot lines contradict each other people survive in impossible

scenarios where entire Bedrock foundations of why the books exist the way that they do stop making sense I mean like riding in from the wrong side because the sun's in the wrong location or like the map in travel distances I mean I don't know rather than just railing about this for the next hour and a half though I'll summarize it like so people are allowed to

enjoy rings of power shocking for me I know but they are I didn't but people theoretically can someone who never cared about Lord of the Rings and doesn't understand how it's effectively an insult to the true Spirit of the world well I envy them they can enjoy something and move on afterward but for me rings of power stands is a glaring Testament of not only Amazon's

complete and utter failure when it comes to respect for the material but also a box they have written themselves into almost deliberately I'd say where I've fully expect that the game will now kind of have to be used to explain in air quotes there some of these impossible things they aren't just deviating from the lore they are in the process of rewriting it such that true

fans are completely alienated and I'm finding it really hard to let go Lord of the Rings Online is still popular believe it or not to this very day why because it attempted holistically attempted to capture the scope and feel of the world in a way that is really second only to the books themselves Amazon after demonstrating that they have at bare minimum trouble making MMO games

as a fresh Studio has also demonstrated that they have no regard for the Integrity of the lore in a television show right in front of our eyes which they doubled down on multiple times and we have to remember they were making a different MMO with tencent of all people as recently as 2022 when it was suddenly canceled okay so the partnership with tencent fell through thank

God and now they are partnered up with embracer group that's better I guess but not much and if we expand outward yeah the most recent Golem game which I was kind of hopeful for maybe or maybe I'm just a naive [__] who has too much faith in large companies to do anything other than bastardize the worlds that I love is clearly a missed opportunity and if

I'm really being honest pretty much all of the officially licensed Lord of the Rings content these days it's just bad now I don't want this to be too pessimistic just me ruthlessly complaining with no upside so here's a bit of a positive angle actually here's an amazingly positive angle Conquest reimagined Battle for Middle Earth reforged kingdoms of Arda and a whole bunch more there's a bunch

of different games that fall into this category mods for existing games fan made content for established titles plus enormous amounts of passion and creativity from the community have resulted in solid lore-based options for people who want to go find them it takes a little bit of elbow grease to be sure but there is quality Lord of the Rings content out there including Lord of the Rings

Online where Amazon is sort of throwing shade which stands the test of time by the way Lord of the Rings Online does as a worthy and narratively engaging world it's huge by the way overwhelmingly large in a good way and players can absolutely lose themselves in passable combat I mean it's kind of sluggish and it's old but passable combat solid storytelling very solid storytelling and faithful

lore for the most part almost entirely if they ever wanted to for thousands and thousands of hours but most of the quality content we have these days for Lord of the Rings is side projects built in the shadow of a property that could be so much more but isn't Amazon has the money to bring the property forward into the hands of a massive modern audience that

much is Just undeniably true they could be treating the lore with respect and attempting to do something that stays true to what the dedicated fans love but they don't really seem to care at least not in my opinion especially not if I consider the track record it kind of reminds me how the Star Wars license got treated when it was under the Yoke of EA for

all those years but I was never a die-hard fan of Star Wars I liked it I appreciated good stuff but Lord of the Rings will always be where my true passion lies and right now the landscape is pretty bleak I've actually been replaying the original Battle for Middle Earth a lot lately and watching a YouTuber named Beyond standards his content is amazing I really wanted to

shout him out here just because I personally enjoy his work a great deal but why in the world is Amazon making programs like rings of power which blatantly disrespect the old school fans and then doubling down by effectively saying that the new MMO they are making at least it won't be with tencent this time isn't gonna stay as faithful to the books one of the final

things that has me sort of in disbelief is this from Amazon game studios vice president Chris Hartman there it is that's his name quote it's done when it's done and when it's ready that's it I want that thing to be alive for 10 years plus we're not going to ship something which is not ready we're not going to ship something that's not ready obviously we'd all

like it to come as soon as possible out of personal interest but we're only going to get it out when it's really ready to go end quote Yeah okay I appreciate the sentiment I do and I've seen what that sentiment really means in a lot of Indie Games before like falling Frontier for example where I have another Indie Spotlight coming out soon I mean that game

is really only gonna launch when it's fully ready but bro your studio launched a new world and that was the very definition of not ready how are we supposed to have any confidence in this so paraphrase one of my friends Shino here who has a knack for getting things across rather bluntly and succinctly I'm sure you're all very excited by the idea of New World all

over again but disregarding Tolkien at the same time yeah that that really sounds about right I mean that's the impression that I get honestly there's nothing to be gained from this video this is my own catharsis really it is as I come to terms with the fact that the fantasy world I loved the most growing up is now getting [__] on by corporate brands for profit

and maybe I should just let go and wander off silently into the night you know just just move on let my opinions fade away but that's really hard for me I love Lord of the Rings I wish we could have more good games set in that world tons of them and if anything good might come of this video possibly I hope it's this dear Amazon please

don't [__] this up and make something terrible just because you think that you can write it better than Tolkien did you can't please don't launch the game in an unfinished state where the entire endgame content Loop is broken for months after pretending that you're going to do justice to the subject matter new world please understand why the old school fans appreciate the original game and also

recognize that you have a veritable Army of supporters just waiting watching ready to come in to flood in and buy your product if you make even a slightly passable effort to appease and cater to them do you think it's wrong Amazon to build content for the old school fans nowadays does everything in modern entertainment need to subvert expectations or can we find some sort of Middle

Ground here where you do actually launch a game that's ready and you don't rewrite portions of a childhood memory in ways that make no sense and I don't know in the end I want to be hopeful because I love Lord of the Rings but maybe part of getting older is recognizing that the things you love get taken and twisted and turned into ever worsening versions of

themselves because of what profit message I don't know I hope it ends up being good all in all I view Lord of the Rings to be one of the greatest ongoing sequentially worsening missed opportunities in all of entertainment we could have so much great content from that world an unbelievable amount but no we can't because of unknown people in lofty corporate rooms making terrible decisions who

are holistically out of touch with what made the content special to begin with me I'll be down here waiting for an extensively playing community-made mods complaining on YouTube to anyone who will listen to me because I'm a bitter old man in a young person's body who wants the world to go back to how it was when I grew up at least for Lord of the Rings

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concerned about protecting themselves online that's an ongoing project and monthly subscriptions like patreon or locals Etc but yeah today was just me telling you how I feel about a topic that I care deeply about so that's it thank you all for watching and have a nice night [Music] thank you [Music] foreign