It’s the Holy Grail for rabid Tolkien geeks – er, fans – an online game that allows them to live within Tolkien’s often imitated but never surpassed fantasy world. Before those of you with scale models of Rivendell in your living rooms get all up in my face, let me say we’re all friends here. I’m one of you. I’d read the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings through no less than six times by the time I was 14 because my desire to “live” in that magical world was so great. That said, I have to say I’ve been underwhelmed by each and every attempt heretofore made by a game company to turn the epic into an interactive experience.

In fact, every interpretation of the books thus far whether animated cartoons or games, falls short. I remember being terrified that Peter Jackson was going to flub the movie version of the story and I was extremely relieved that in the end he did Tolkien proud. But those were movies; innately passive experiences. Trying to tackle Tolkien’s multiple narrative threads, umpteen settings and what feels like hundreds of characters who tap dance in and out of the narrative at any given time through an interactive medium like a video game (in itself a multifarious thing) seems to me well, nuts. Turbine Games though, is clearly unintimidated by Tolkien’s story as evidenced by their upcoming game “Lord of the Rings: Shadows of Angmar” and has further upped the ante God love ‘em, by determining to make it an MMO.

I was treated to a look at it at E3 this year and all things considered, I’m on the fence. Yes, that sounds like a cop out, but really, it’s hard to say how it looks. Much of what I’m most curious about was unavailable (character creation for one) or could not be discussed at this time. That aside, I was interested that the game is based on the books not the movies, which is a much more ambitious project, considering all of Tolkien’s side stories and characters. The story is set in the time before Frodo’s departure from the Shire and before the Fellowship leaves Rivendell and ends at the end of the first book of the trilogy.

From what I saw, (a handful of pre-made characters representing the four playable races: Elves, Hobbits, Dwarves and Humans) the characters are fairly well designed and classes like Minstrel, Hunter and Burglar are interesting, designed as they are in keeping with Tolkien lore. One of the first things any LOTR fan is going to want to know is if they get to play any of the famous characters. Well naturally, the answer is a resounding “No.” The game is being made with the help of Tolkien Enterprises, i.e., in strict adherence to Tolkien canon. While that means lots of cool authenticity, it also means gameplay limitations. Anyone out there dreaming of playing as Gandalf or even as a wizard for that matter, can forget it right now. Canon says that there are only five wizards in Tolkien’s world. It also says regular mortals can’t use magic so this might be the only fantasy MMO out there that doesn’t have, strictly speaking, a caster class.

Ok, so you’re thinking, “I can’t play one of the heroes from the books. Do I at least get to meet them?” To this, a resounding “Yes!” As part of the various story arcs, players will get to meet up with and assist various members of the Fellowship, as well as minor side-story characters from the books like the benevolent but bizarre Tom Bombadil.

The game world is made as one huge seamless landscape, containing almost no instance-based experiences. Like most MMOs proclaim, it will reward the player for exploration. Players who take on optional sideline quests called “Accomplishments” will be given medals or “traits”. These traits can then be equipped three at a time to augment players’ characters.

One ambitious difference between LOTR Online and other MMOs is that the story will be told through the gameplay; quest text is short and sweet. While other MMOs are looking for ways to create more easily-referenced text-based lore, LOTR Online is looking to make the gameplay more immediate by making the UI more transparent, focusing on action rather than text. Speaking of action, Tolkien’s lore again presents unique challenges as LOTR Online only allows the player to play “good” races, races that are more or less disallowed from fighting one another so the way PvP will be set up remains a mystery.

Everything Turbine’s shown so far indicates the game should be cooler than hell but what concerns me is that from what I saw, with such strong adherence to the timeline of the Fellowship of the Ring, there’s a strong linear element to the game, something other MMO’s don’t have to contend with. The very nature of an MMO is that it’s constantly changing and growing, its history being written along the way by both the developers and the community. LOTR Online being so dependent on Tolkien lore seems to have a definite beginning, middle and end and as such, I’m afraid is in danger of feeling claustrophobic.

Overall, I came away from Turbine’s sneak peek feeling excited but wary. Many aspects of the game look very cool, like getting to play through all the familiar locations and playing familiar character types and meeting all the main characters as well as many minor characters that were given short shrift in the movies. However, many key aspects of MMO gameplay (like healing, traveling and PvP) Turbine was a bit cagey about and that makes me nervous. Looks like if I and any other Tolkien fans can’t wait another year to get the full story, we’ll just have to get our hands on the beta.