Destined for Middle Earth

I honestly wasn’t sure that The Escapist even published e-zine articles anymore, but this interview with Turbine’s Jeff Libby about his position as content designer on The Lord of the Rings Online reminds me of a time when the vast majority of their content was deliberate, controlled, and top-notch.

Without intention, Jeff’s life experience to that date had accumulated the perfect mix of qualities for a content designer at Turbine. Jeff was offered the position, but it took quite a while for the reality of having his dream job to sink in. “I didn’t really believe it. I thought it was a trick. It was actually several months before I was convinced I wasn’t still interviewing.”

Then he had to get to the actual work of the job, a daunting task considering that many of his now-peers had years of videogame experience under their belts. The first day was a kaleidoscope of amazement for a newly-minted game designer: “Being given a disc with the current state of the game on it and told to play through it and take notes; walking past an artist’s desk and seeing a 3D model of the Watcher in the Water being worked on; getting into conversations with team members who’d worked on other games: Asheron’s Call! Thief: The Dark Project! Half-life! I met someone who had a locker in Black Mesa, for crying out loud!”