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The Road to Mordor: Dungeon-running with Turbine
As we talked about last month, Turbine's toting around a double-barreled shotgun full of content that it's preparing to unload. While the biggest blast will undoubtedly be Lord of the Rings Online's third expansion, Rise of Isengard, the team is working hard to provide us with plenty to do between now and then. Part of that effort is directed at Update 3, which is currently scheduled to go live on May 23rd in North America and after June 1st for Europe when the LotRO Global Service takes effect and all of the accounts are moved under Turbine's purview. I eagerly sat down with Turbine's Aaron Campbell and Joe Barry for a play-through of Update 3's two new three-player instances, Halls of Night and Inn of the Forsaken. Both of these scalable instances will be available to a wide swath of players, and they feature mechanics and sights never before seen in the game. Also, they're wicked cool. So join me today as I take you on a brief tour of horrors and adventures beyond imagination. Has everyone used the restroom before we go? Are you sure? It's a long article; I don't want you leaving in the middle of it. OK, let's ride!
The Road to Mordor: Four more years, four more years!
While four years is not a nice round number -- or even a halfway number like five -- it's a substantial milestone for any MMORPG. Debuting in early 2007, Lord of the Rings Online introduced something we'd never seen before: a fully realized 3-D virtual Middle-earth where we could not only enjoy a deep MMO but explore the lands and meet the people we'd only read about before. It might not be a universal truth that all LotRO players are big Tolkien fans, but I'm sure enough that it's a sizable chunk of the playerbase. There's something special about the IP that gives a weight and richness to the game, especially when a long-time reader of the books is given leave to actually go on adventures through Eriador, Moria and Mirkwood. It's a giant sight-seeing tour of lore, a thrill with every brush one has with the source material. It's heady to consider that four years ago we were but starting on this journey, feeling out the mechanics of combat, crafting and pie-running. Four years later, LotRO has emerged to be one of the most significant MMOs of the past decade, growing strong with no signs of slowing down. Hit the jump as we reminisce about the ups, the downs, and the off-the-beaten-path hikes of our beloved game as it celebrates its fourth anniversary.
Through Turbine's palantír: Developers outline LotRO's future
In J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, characters would use magical orbs known as palantírs to see and communicate with far away places. While Massively's own palantír is at the shop, we had access to the next best thing -- a one-on-two chat about Lord of the Rings Online's future with Turbine's Aaron Campbell and Adam Mersky. A lot's been happening since LotRO's free-to-play version went online last fall -- the closest thing to a relaunch that this game is likely to ever see -- and both Campbell and Mersky have one important message for fans: We're just getting started. Even as the Turbine team gears up for LotRO's third expansion, Rise of Isengard, the devs want you to know that they're also dedicated to bringing a good amount of content between now and then. Everything was on the table during this discussion, from this weekend's anniversary celebration to next month's update to the new expansion. Join us after the jump for a look through the palantír to see what information we can pry from the future!
The Road to Mordor: Rise of Isengard is coming!
Tweet [Update: Made a clarification that there is no indication of "open-world" PvMP in the expansion.] Times are tough in Middle-earth, even after the inexplicable appearance of several hundred thousand new adventurers this fall. The Fellowship of the Ring is broken, Sauron is rising in power, and the White Hand of Saruman is marching across the lands. Even the bravest and hardiest soldier of the Free Peoples cannot be blamed for feeling disheartened, especially in the face of the monumental struggle to come. Welcome to the beginning of The Two Towers in Lord of the Rings Online. Welcome to Isengard. The rumors are true: Next year we will be venturing into LotRO's third expansion, titled Rise of Isengard, to confront evil in its own backyard. While this may not be the Rohan or Gondor expansion that we've anticipated, Turbine is fairly confident that it will be well-received by players and will represent an ambitious step forward on (wait for it) the road to Mordor. Turbine's Adam Mersky and Aaron Campbell were on hand to outline for us the company's near- and far-future plans with Massively, starting with the imminent November update and cruising all the way through 2011. Hit the jump as we look at interactive theater, busy bees, Monster Play improvements and, of course, Isengard.
PAX 2010: Counting down to LotRO's relaunch with Turbine
TweetWith the launch of Lord of the Rings Online's biggest patch to date a scant few days away, we touched base with Turbine's Aaron Campbell, Brian Aloisio, and Bob Hess at PAX Prime to see how their nerves are holding up at this point. It is, as Aloisio laughed, akin to launching the game all over again, and LotRO is definitely under close scrutiny because of it. Many players were surprised to hear that LotRO's free-to-play update was going live much sooner than anticipated, and we asked Campbell whether this was due to a preset schedule or better-than-anticipated beta feedback. He said that they weren't going to release it until it was ready, but by the team's reckoning, the beta process went so smoothly that there was no reason to delay any further. Compared to the betas for Shadows of Angmar, Mines of Moria and Siege of Mirkwood, the F2P beta -- according to Campbell -- was the most upbeat Turbine's ever had, with far more positive feedback than negative. Hit the jump to hear more and see the latest screenshots and video from PAX.
The Road to Mordor: Touring the fall's new content with Turbine (part one)
It just may be the dream of every MMO geek to command the attention of his or her favorite dev team, bombard them with questions, and be shown secrets previously kept behind closed doors. Well, my friends, today that dream came true for this geek, as Turbine graciously sat down with Massively for over two hours to conduct an all-access tour to the fall's hot new LotRO content -- including the details behind the controversial and anticipated F2P switch. Aaron Campbell (Producer), Allan Maki (Senior Designer), Elliot Gilman (Senior Designer), Brian Aloisio (Designer), Joseph Barry (Designer) and Jonathan Rudder (Lore Guru) were on hand to fly me through the new content -- and reveal a few big surprises. To say that I had questions is an understatement; I fear that I sounded a bit like a six-year-old who peppers parents with unending "Why?" queries. Expecting to hear "no comment" a lot (after all, this content is in beta), I was surprised when the Turbine team enthusiastically answered all of my questions and then some. This is a team who know this F2P move is bringing some apprehension and concern, and they're trying to assuage that with as much information as possible. So join me as we go through the first part of this tour, looking at an enhanced new-player experience, instance scaling and the addition of Enedwaith to Turbine's Middle-earth.
LotRO: Siege of Mirkwood developer tour
If you've been faithfully following along with the Lord of the Rings Online: Siege of Mirkwood beta, you may be excited by what you've heard -- or even seen yourself -- so far. The new expansion, which is set to launch on December 1st of this year (December 3rd for EU), centers around the forest of Mirkwood, just to the east of Lothlorien. It introduces us to a large new map of Mirkwood, the skirmish system, five new instances and much more. On top of this officially-released news of these features, we were able to get together with Turbine's Aaron "Rowan" Campbell for a sample tour of the new content. Follow along after the jump for what we saw. %Gallery-76474%
Server merges in LotRO? Heck no!
The longer you are exposed to the One Ring, the stronger the hold it begins to have over you. It would appear Turbine has been able to harness this magic and set it loose upon the unsuspecting gaming population because The Lord of the Rings Online is continuing to grow even two years after its release.When VG247 caught up with Live Producer Aaron Campbell and asked him about any potential server merges, he had this to say: "If anything, The Lord of the Rings Online is growing. We have no plans to merge servers." Since Turbine nefariously refuses to release subscription numbers for any of their MMOs, I guess we'll have to take his word for it.Is it really that difficult to believe though when you consider the steady stream of content Turbine releases in the form of new Books? They also launched a strong second anniversary campaign, which included a digital download of the original game plus the Mines of Moria expansion for only $9.99. This pricing is still available.
LotRO dev tour: Massively's look at Book 8
Once again, Turbine has been kind enough to offer us a sneak peek look at the newest Book update to Lord of the Rings Online. This newest one, Volume 2, Book 8, introduces two new 3-man instances, a 6-man space and their largest instance to date: an enormous 12-man instance with six bosses! In addition, there's a revamp of quests in the 15-25 level range, many crafting system improvements and the Summer Festival, complete with new events and a different way to win the festival horse.This dev tour was given by Aaron "Rowan" Campbell, Live Producer for LotRO and Adam Mersky, Turbine's Director of Communications. It focused mainly on the new instances, as we were shown the highlights of each space, including the incredibly difficult bosses at the end. Follow along in our 26-image gallery below for more on what we saw in Book 8.%Gallery-64417%
MSNBC: Live from Middle-Earth
Usually when a major news outlet picks up a story about a video game, it's in relation to how destructive they are, or how unmoral they are, or it will just be a really dry interview with a game designer that everyone's going to forget about in two hours. So when we got word that MSNBC was interested in the Lord of the Rings Online, we weren't expecting this oddly amusing interview.Todd Kenreck, roving reporter and elven guardian, has taken it upon himself to brave the locales of Middle-Earth and catch up with LotRO's live producer Aaron Campbell. He braves the Misty Mountains, travels through Bree-Land, and gets all of the information from Aaron as the two chat in the scenic Rivendell. The entire interview is done inside of the game in a machinima style, and makes a pretty nice visual case for playing LotRO.We've embedded the full video after the break, so everyone can enjoy some solid reporting from the lands of Middle-Earth.
Massively's exclusive interview with Turbine: Moria and more
Recently, we were fortunate enough to sit down with some of the fine folks at Turbine to discuss a few more details on their newest content patch and the future of Lord of the Rings Online. During this play session, we got a load of screenshots and an in-game video to document the amazing content that will launch with Book 14: The Ring-forges of Eregion.The details of that play session are coming soon in another post and gallery, but for now, we'll tide you over with an exclusive interview with Jeffrey Steefel, Adam Mersky, Meghan "Patience" Rodberg and Aaron Campbell of Turbine. In it, we cover everything from the challenges Turbine may face with global distribution, to the reasoning behind introducing two new classes with Mines of Moria. Follow along after the jump for the complete interview.
