Hi Tom.
I'd actually recommend looking at the articals on the encyyclopedia of arda
site as I said, since they're really well written, intended for people like
yourself who are casual fans, and yet highlight some of the differences
betwene the films and books, and which differences cause major and severe
problems with the history of Middle earth, and which they think are simply
amusing, all while acknolidging Peter Jackson's achievement in creating such
great films.
As I said, I'm fairly certain a decent Lotr game could! be made, much as Tom
zuchowski did with Thror's ring (I know I've mentioned this Eamon game a lot
but I really enjoyed it), just so long as the history and such are treated
fairly.
The really major issue is that Lotr isn't a fantasy as we would think of
fantasy today. it the case that tolkien wrote a book, then expanded the
background. Rather, he spent his entire life working out a full and complete
history, language and set of myths, and in that history wrote what were
essentially a number of Historical novels. Therefore, just as say a second
world war novel needs to get the history of the war accurate, since the
events of the war exist outside those of the novel, the same is true of
tolkien.
suppose for instance you were to make a side scroller called the invasion of
berlin, in which you played a soldier of the allied forces tasked with
invading the German capital, finally infiltrating Hitlers' heavily armoured
castle and killing hitler.
this is a perfectly acceptable plot for a random war game or a fantasy spy
game, but of course we know Berlin was never invaded and that no such lone
mission to assassinate hitler happened. If we are to create an actual game
based on the second world war, it needs to be true to the events of that
time.
ditto with lotr.
that being said, as David Greenwood's battle of britain map shows, it is!
actually possible to create a game that does justice to the second world
war's historical background, and I feel the same about lotr.
Equally, I will say that while I am a purist about lotr history, I am not
inflexible. I knew for instance the film would have to miss out bits of the
book, heck, my favourite adaptation of lotr, the 1986 bbc radio play does,
simply because it is a huge book with a lot of contrast, and in the same way
a game would have to bend a little. it's just however a matter of being
respectful to the source history rather than trampling all over it. This is
why my favourite of the lotr films is still the first, since that was the
one in which Jackson deviated the least from the book, and even though he
did! eature digressions none caused as much historical shenanigans as in his
last two films.
interestingly enough, I think the same about the first hobbit film, ----
though I am rather concerned where the next two will go, though that is of
course not a topic it'd be good to discuss on list.
Beware the Grue!
Dark.
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