Comments - TDW

I wished it was that way, but it isn't. If WB would smell any profit from letting MERP exist and having them do free commercial/ recruiting more fans for their own products they'd do so...but they don't. Money is all that counts for them. They don't send around C&D letters just because they love to be ********, they came to the conclusion that it would be a loss of cash and brand ID and those guys wouldn't be were they are today, if they had no clue of their business. I sympathize with MERP, but I think it will just not work out the way you wish.

Watching this for some time now and rather decided not to comment before, but well, here come my 2 cents:

As I see it this whole petition thing, "spamming" WB videos etc. won't have any positive results for this project. Maybe if MERP was using their own engine, they could negotiate to get a sublicense by WB for some LOTR niche content. But using Skyrim, planning to release this high quality mod for free...won't happen. If WB would take back the C&D guess what? A gazillion other LOTR projects would want to do the same. WB will not allow that and neither would I, if it was my franchise. Also, even if 20.000 people don't buy any of WB's products, which I highly doubt, they won't care at all. They make so much cash that it simply doesn't matter for them.

Don't get me wrong, I really like this project and have been on team for a while myself, but this all leads to nothing.

I'd suggest to start a new project with handmade content and no restrictions due to anyone elses copyrights. Yeah, I know it wouldn't be the same as LOTR, but you could create a game with similar love to detail and just add some of Tolkien's spirit.

Another possibility might be to use the large fanbase you have to gather some money (kickstart or similar) and try to negotiate with Tolkien Estate to get a license for a small portion of content for example from the Silmarillion or other books, which might not be interesting enough for WB to turn into movies or games. Tolkien Estate might agree to a special price, as it is a non commercial project. This is speculative, don't know if they'd even consider such a business.

Anyway, best luck!!! ;)

Badass!

Awesome work!!! ;)

Thx guys, glad you like it! ;)

@ande6190: Yeah, we definately need more good 3D modelers, but people at a certain skill level rather intend to earn money with their art. Some students do mods as a side project to have some nice stuff for their portfolio, but that's about it already.

I'll animate and voice that guy next and make a small commercial movie for MERP. This project needs more publicity and hopefully some good artists see it and jump onto the train. ;)

Awesome blades, gonna test those on some nasty orcs! ;)

Thx guys, it's WIP cause this is just a screeny from out ZBrush. The textures are still in progress. The beard has already been altered some days ago. The original texture was pretty crappy/ low res. Didn't find the texture I'm looking for yet and I'd rather want to avoid mixing fotorealistic texture with hand painted.

Once the model is textured, I'll at alphaed planes to it featuring moss, lichen, foilage etc. I'll post an update then! ;)