For Developer Appreciation Week, I’d like to thank Allan “Orion” Maki, Senior Game Designer from Turbine.

I’ve enjoyed Lord of the Rings Online since it was released in 2007 and have always been impressed by the level of detail from the books that Turbine was able to include in the world. Yet, the game had some rough edges in the earlier zones that don’t exist in the later content (looking at you Lonelands).

This brings me to why I’m singling Allan out specifically, he’s done a lot of work to redesign and polish up the early game experience in Middle-earth. Most recently was a revamp of the Lonelands, which are much much improved, and making the Volume 1 epic quest line solo-able. Even better though, was the way he went about the epic quest change. Orion didn’t just nerf the quest line so that it is solo only. He implemented a character buff called Inspired Greatness that scales based on the size of the fellowship. It’s always a good thing to more options for completing quests, and this buff allows players to solo if they want or duo or still go with a full fellowship.

Head over to Orion’s My Lotro page and leave him a thank you if you’ve enjoyed any of the updated zones of the Volume 1 quest change.

If you haven’t already, go checkout Scarybooster’s DAW posts he’s doing a full week of them.

DAW: Allan “Orion” Maki
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9 thoughts on “DAW: Allan “Orion” Maki

  • March 23, 2010 at 1:22 pm
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    Good post! I’m bout to Twitter link it. Thanks for the DAW support. These people bust their butt for us and 99% we complain about what they should have done. This week is to thank them for what they HAVE done

    • March 23, 2010 at 1:33 pm
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      Link away, this was a great idea you had and something I think that’s worth doing once a year at least.

  • March 23, 2010 at 1:31 pm
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    Excellent choice, Blue. I heartily concur. I enjoyed reading about his exploits in smoothing over the legacy content. Wish he’d get back to blogging more.

    • March 23, 2010 at 1:34 pm
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      Yeah, I noticed that his blog hadn’t been updated in a bit. This can only mean he’s busy though and that’s gotta be good for players.

  • March 23, 2010 at 3:35 pm
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    I think I’ll do my post tomorrow…but I think I’ll do it in the format of Scarybooster’s first post…I have a lot to be thankful for from lots of developers and I don’t know enough about specific teams or people to know to whom to address my gratitude 😀

    • March 23, 2010 at 8:04 pm
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      The important thing is just to show your appreciation. Plus it’s good to put some positivity out there to try to balance all the negativity from forums.

  • March 23, 2010 at 8:06 pm
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    That’s actually one of the things about my blogroll. Most of those writers are generally positive or at least constructive in their criticism. It’s easy to complain and tear something down, but I’d rather see how to improve stuff. There’s only so much negativity I can handle in a day and usually after two or three forums posts I’ve had my daily allotment.

    • March 24, 2010 at 12:32 am
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      A negative attitude breeds more negativity, imo. I like to keep positive and sometimes it might seem like I love everything…I’m sure cynics will label me a fangirl, but it’s not like I don’t ever have a negative opinion. I just never sweat the small stuff as long as I’m enjoying myself on the whole, it’s just not worth it.

      • March 24, 2010 at 9:54 am
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        That fanboy/girl label is so over used. To me a fanboy is someone who loves a game or developer and can’t recognize any faults. While I try to stay as positive as I can, there’s nothing wrong with pointing out mistakes, but there’s no reason to be gleeful about it. Constructive criticism should always be welcomed, emphasis on constructive. 🙂

        For what it’s worth, I don’t think you come across as a fangirl.

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