Middle-Earth Online Developer Diary

Turbine's official Middle-Earth Online website has been updated with a new developer diary, this time written by Game Systems Engineer Mike Raiter. An excerpt to follow:
Once again, I write this diary near a deadline. The art and content teams are pushing hard to deliver the kind of quality we've come to expect from them. The funny thing is that whatever our expectations are, they hold themselves to an even stricter standard.

As for myself, the schedule gods have again looked favorably upon me. (Note to self: ritual sacrifices really do work!) Much of my time recently has involved fixing up several less-loved parts of the game, such as the options panel and our trade UI. "Not loved?" you say? Well, let me ask you this - when was the last time you looked at an option panel in a game and said to yourself "Self, that option panel kicks ass!" Odds are that you never have. But that's not really a bad thing. Many systems in a game shouldn't be noticed. They form a set of utilities that you don't really notice, because the real star of the game is something else.