Blogs

Have you heard? Disney is buying Lucas Arts. It’s been the big topic of conversation this week, not only because the house of mouse will be taking the world’s best loved sci-fi franchise out of the hands of its creator but also because they’ll be funding a new trilogy of Star Wars films – episodes 7-9. If you’ve been on the internet in the last few days, you’ll already know all of this. But have you considered the changes that might happen in The Old Republic? Could Disney have the stuff to put it back on top again?

It can’t be denied just how much of an influence JRR Tolkien has had on the world of fantasy, in literature, fantasy role playing games, video games, film and even in music. The hippy equivalent of N4G users may have knocked the six books and their author in the sixties (including Gary Gygax, creator of Dungeons and Dragons), but the increase in sales of all sorts of fantasy, plus the widespread acceptance of it as a genre, can largely be attributed to that body of work. Perhaps it is for that reason that the Tolkien estate is so protective of their property, why you’ll only ever find hobbits in official Lord of the Rings games (or the upcoming Hobbit games). This over-protectiveness changed up some of the freedom of people writing D&D style games, but continues to have an effect on MMO games today.