Todd Howard said they were offered the Game of Thrones but turned it down as they were working on Skyrim. That would have been amazing, but then there'd be no Skyrim.

And it was clear when Oblivion came out how much Bethesda was inspired by Weta's LOTR production, anyone debating that needs their eyes examined. The elven armor is incredibly derivitive, gold overlapping flowing plate with red cloth and all.

Whiterun and the great Basin surrounding it = totally Rohan. :tes:

Lol'd so much when I read this knowing what the reaction would be!
But obviously tes is heavily influenced by lotr books AND films, and that's no bad thing. Personally I'd love to see a really good lotr game but would prefer to see bethesda concentrate on tes and fallout as these are good enough in their own right.

WB have the rights to LOTR.

I played the War in the North demo... the game is awful imo. There's no reason an open world LOTR game in the style of TES could not be made, but Beth doesn't own the rights and it would cost... god knows how much to acquire them. And why would they bother when they have their own world and own lore that they have been developing for... I don't even know how long, a decade? It's up to WB to produce a good LOTR game.

Skyrim definitely comes closest to the Lord of the Rings Cinematic experience of any game to date. The production qualities and attention to detail in Skyrim comes close (for a computer game) to the equivalent achieved for the Tolkein movies. The colour values look pretty similar to the movies, a lot of the design is obviously based on stuff from the movies, even the soundtrack is pretty similar in quality and style to the lotr movies. I think TES team has gotten a lot of inspiration from both Tolkein lore and the amazing PJ directed lotr movies, I mean Whiterun to me looks like a direct rip of Rohan, albeit with less horses.

But yeah for me, Skyrim is the equivalent game to the LOTR movies, in terms of quality and general epicness.

No way, Beth should do something with the legacy of kain universe... I'd love to explore an open world NOSGOTH!

2x


LOTR is everywhere. Not just this game...


I remember an interview with Todd Howard and he was saying that what he loved about Fallout was the fact that "it have style" (something I agree with him) and he also said comparing it with Fallout that TES is "too generic" , because it doesn′t have any of their own.

Serious question, is it wierd that I love Elder Scrolls but hate Lord of the Rings?

Elder scrolls lore seems more interesting and original than LotR imo anyway.

As for the question I would prefer Bethesda to stick to TES

TES lore is more original? Who do you think pioneered magical, elven, troll and orc lore to begin with?

tolkein is the standard by which most fantasy is judged because almost all are based on his fantasy world.

How more original exactly?

C'mon.. first time you saw Whiterun and the surrounding plains.. you didn't think Edoras?

I don't think Middle Earth has been done justice in any game form, so i'm glad we don't see the likes of Bethesda getting in on it.. there own lore has it's weird quirks for sure but it's a good world to make stories in

Original is probably the wrong word but I definetly prefer the way in which TES is written. I just prefer the world created within TES alot more. It to me is just more interesting and to me believable.

Now I will admit I have never read the books, but based upon the movies I never liked it

Edoras and Whiterun architecture is based on Norse mead halls and stave churches, so it's sort of circular logic to say it's based on LOTR, when it's based on Scandinavian/norse Stave church architecture. Do a google search on stave churches, they look awesome.

http://www.google.com/search?btnG=1&q=stave+churches



But it's clear Peter Jackson's Weta production on Tolkien's books influenced Oblivion and Skyrim in visual tone with color and atmosphere, but it all goes back to Beowulf and European myth and folklore anyways.

As cool as it would be to see Bethesda handle LOTR or Game of Thrones, I think they should stick with Elder Scrolls, and that makes me sad, but it's necessary.

Play the lotr mmo if its really that big of a deal

http://www.moddb.com/mods/merp-middle-earth-roleplaying-mod

can't see no wrong in personal preference, :tongue:

The movies are very stripped down and changed for various reasons. The books are something else..and I think they deserve a chance from anyone who don't just hate to read. :teehee: :read:

Why on earth would they make LOTR? TES is miles better than anything Tolkien ever wrote.

If I had to pick any developer to make a Lord of the Rings game it would most definitely be Bethesda.

But if I had to pick any game for Bethesda to make it would be another Elder Scrolls.

I will at some point maybe give them a try.

Wasn't trying to shoot down LotR though, I respect the impact it has had on fantasy overall. I just prefer the way it's done by other sources. I even prefer Harry Potter to Lord of the Rings please don't shoot me :bolt:

lol That's what I was thinking the first moment I saw Whiterun.

Totally looks like Edoras with the white tree from Minas Tirith!

No, I don't want to give up one fantasy game for another. If another company did it by all means great but not Bethesda.

No. That's a bad idea.

What game are we talking about? I mean it's not mentioned in the OP anywhere or title... So we're talking about WET right?

I do not want Bethesda to ruin the lore and characters of the Lord of the Rings. Bioware would do a much better service to the fans.

I don't know about that, besides every other dev that makes a LOTR game doesn't execute.