Home » Reading & Literature » J.R.R. Tolkien » There Are Games Afoot!

There Are Games Afoot!

© Michael Martinez

So, if you get permission to make a game, it comes only from Tolkien Enterprises, and they only have rights pertaining to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Although there is a tremendous amount of material in these books about Hobbits, Elves, etc., there are only vague references to many items which really intrigue Tolkien fans. For example, how much do we actually learn about the First Age from these books? Very little. Too little, in fact, to warrant making any extrapolations. J.E.A. Tyler tried to document the First Age in the first edition of his Tolkien Companion; when The Silmarillion was published Tyler had to extensively revise his book to correct all the errors of fact (or fiction) he had introduced. Games aren't the only area of creativity affected by the licensing situation. Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" movies are limited in what they can actually portray of Tolkien's Middle-earth. No matter how faithful Peter might try to be to Tolkien, he can't legally be faithful enough. In a way, the limitations on the rights to Tolkien's material inspire and incubate the creativity of artists and writers. If one is for any reason attempting to interpret Tolkien's imaginary history, one must fill in many details which Tolkien himself provided but which cannot legally be used. So departures from Tolkien are necessitated by the very policy intended to preserve the integrity of Tolkien's works. And that brings us to whatever game New Line Cinema may eventually contract out to some lucky game designing company (and there don't seem to be many left). Whatever that game turns out to be, it probably won't be any more faithful to Tolkien than Iron Crown Enterprises' MERP was. Furthermore, many long-time MERP gamers may compare the new game unfavorably to the old one. And hardcore Tolkien Purists will be dreading the inevitable intrusions into their online discussions by fans who draw upon the gaming material as an authoritative reference for answering questions about the Tolkien books. For example, MERP gamers know the names of the nine Nazgul. Tolkien purists know that only one of them was actually named by Tolkien Khamul. Being based directly on the Peter Jackson movies may hurt a role-playing game in other ways. There may be a contractual expectation of faithfulness to the movies. One would hope not, but the merchandising machines are more sophisticated these days than they were 25 years ago. Saul Zaentz just wanted people to pay him money for the licenses. Although some matters may have had to be cleared with Tolkien Enterprises, fundamental game design was pretty much left in the designers' hands. That may not be the case with whatever game eventually comes out based on the movies. The new game may have to push the movie through use of images and source material. If Tolkien wrote that Sauron attacked Gil-galad on Orodruin, and Peter Jackson says that Gil-galad gave Sauron a formal challenge, the new game may have to echo the movie and not Tolkien.