Plagiarism of the Rings

This is the first article I submitted for TORC.

Tolkien’s Creations in Video Games

It was obvious, but I had not been aware that Middle-earth was really beloved and famous. Could non-Tolkien video games attract more Tolkien fans?

Many years ago, my brother and I played Wizards and Warriors on Nintendo. In Part I, a knight had to rescue seven maidens in the land of Elrond, and one of the maidens was named Galadriel. Part II took place in the land of Sindarin.

A few months later, we heard about the game Faxanadu, where the pointed-ear Elves had a feud with the Dwarves. They also had Elven and Dwarven rings.

We soon played Ultima, which had several races of characters, including Humans, Elves, Dwarves, and Bobbits. We fought various monsters, including Orcs, Goblins, and Balrogs.

The following year our interest in the Final Fantasy series began. Some of the games had Elves and Dwarves, who produced powerful weapons and armor. The Dwarves often lived in caves or underground. The games also included Silvan places and items, and mithril equipment provided decent damage and protection. One of the monsters we fought in was Fastitocalon.

Throughout the years, we admired the ideas and creativity of the producers for we had never read Tolkien’s books. After watching The Fellowship of the Ring on February 3, 2002, I began to read the books, and do some research on Tolkien’s works. Bobbit was probably derived from Hobbit.

The creators of the games must have been Tolkien fans. Now, whenever I play the video games and see Tolkien terms, my mind wanders to the genius who invented them. Tolkien has really inspired and many minds over the decades, and opened up many new sources for fantasy creations.

However, using Tolkien’s creations in video games could mislead some people. The players might give credit to the wrong people if they never read Tolkien’s works, or are unaware when they were written. Maybe Tolkien’s children and grandchildren could accuse the video game producers for plagiarism. Hopefully, they gave him credit.