yule
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Listen to Shroud of the Avatar's player-created soundtrack
The fact that approximately 90% of the soundtrack for Shroud of the Avatar will be player-created may have escaped your attention, but the devs have not forgotten. In fact, in this past week's newsletter, several of the successful submissions were featured, including the track called Truth. The team is getting ready to unleash another grand tour quest and has announced that the reward for completing this journey will be a seasonal yule hat. Another addition planned for the upcoming Release 13 is the ability to light weapons on fire via magic. Why have magic if you're not making the world burn, right?
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.
Know Your LotRO Lore: Celebrating the holidays Hobbit style
Welcome to Know Your LotRO Lore, a new weekly column here at Massively showcasing the lore of J.R.R. Tolkien's world as it intersects with Turbine's Lord of the Rings Online.For some, the holidays are already over, but for many they've just begun. Throughout Middle-earth, none are known better for their love of celebrating those holidays than the Hobbits. We've talked about the Hobbits here before on Know Your LotRO Lore, but with the winter festivities in full swing, we thought this would be the perfect opportunity to explain more specifically about just why those Hobbits are so infamous for their partying.
The Daily Grind: 'Tis the season
It's that time of year again -- when every MMO on the market decides to break out in some form of winter-y celebration. Festivities abound! AoC is handing out gifts, EVE offers snowball fights, Nexon holds festivals, Warhammer celebrates Keg End, Lineage II lets you save Santa, the World of Warcraft celebrates Winter Veil, Guild Wars players celebrate Wintersday, City of Heroes and Villains hold their uncreatively named Winter Event, LotRO hosts the Yule Festival, EverQuest II celebrates Frostfell, Final Fantasy XI hosts the Starfall Celebration, and probably a number of other events in a number of other games that have slipped our immediate notice. Whew! If you haven't been overwhelmed by the sheer amount of holiday cheer provided by that simple list of events, then here's the question(s) from Massively HQ to you. Are you celebrating this holiday season MMO style? Seeking out every seasonal quest and seeing how many MMOs have virtual eggnog to indulge in? Would you prefer not to have real world holidays barging into your virtual reality? Or does celebrating in real life provide you with more than enough holiday cheer for one lifetime?
Massively's guide to LotRO's Yule Festival
Now that the Yule Festival in Lord of the Rings Online is in full swing, you may find yourself in need of a proper guide nudging you in the right direction. Well, that's why we're here! Whether you haven't had a chance to try the festival yet, or you're just stuck in a quest, this guide will help you get the most out of the event.This year's Yulemath has many features that are identical to other events we've seen previously. You can head on over to any Town Crier for a complete list of events going on around Middle-earth. Because of so many similarities, I will refer to a previous guide we've done for this year's Summer Festival and explain only the differences. Plus, you can visit our Yule Festival gallery for a visual aid to this guide. It all starts just after the cut below.%Gallery-39170%
The Daily Grind: Dear Santa, I've been very good this year...
No matter what holiday you celebrate this time of year, one thing is generally guaranteed; the presence of presents! The team here has bounced things back and forth and we've gone all across the gaming gamut. Some of us can't wait to get our hands on Rock Band or one of those ever-elusive Wiis; others of us are just hoping for something as simple as time cards for our favorite MMOs. I know my wish list involves gift cards so I can pick up a nice powerful video card for some of the games coming down the pipes. (Just no CompUSA, kthx.)For this morning, we thought it would be fun to let you in on the "oooh, I wish" trading-notes fun we've had off and on comparing ideas for some of the holiday gift guides we've put out/are working on. What kind of cool gaming stuff are you hoping to land this year? The hot WoW item this year seems to be the Figureprints statues, but as they're limited availability, who knows who is going to get one of those. If you can't score that, what's your fallback must-have gift? Elf plushies? TCG decks for your favorite MMO? And speaking of awesome presents; WoW Insider will be giving away one of those sweet World of Warcraft Dell laptops soon, so be on the lookout for the post with details here giving you the scoop!
iYule.tv
The holidays are a time for frivolity, are they not? They are also a time for rhetorical questions, but that is neither here nor there. Today's bit of Christmas cheer comes from iYule.tv. The idea is simple: take that corny old burning fire that some tv stations broadcast for the benefit of apartment dwellers, non-fireplace owners, the aged, and the lonely and put it on your iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, Mac, PC, XBox, or Zune (hey, it is Christmas, so we have to include everyone). iYule offers up several high quality downloadable versions of this roaring fire (with music, without music, widescreen, and so on) for a reasonable price ($5 - $10) and no DRM.Some of the proceeds will go to charity, so think about that before you fill the comments with things like, 'Why would I pay for that!' or 'I would buy that if it cost $2 and came with a free Mac.' Also keep in mind that a similar, though free, yule log is available.
HDTV Listings for December 25, 2006
What we're watching: The Yule Log burning all day on INHD of course. Otherwise there are a few more marathons, with Smallville on HDNet and Law & Order on TNT, but later on we'll probably watch Pirates of the Caribbean or Monday Night Football featuring Jets vs. Dolphins.Our traditional high-def listings continue below.
Is that a yule log on your iPod?
WGN9 Chicago has the perfect holiday treat to go along with your video capable iPod, their famous Yule log! Available for download in an iPod compatible format, you'll (get it it?) be the talk of Christmas day with this little fire in your pocket.Best of all? This little nugget of Christmas nostalgia is free.
