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Turbine: Horsemanship to become "important" when LotRO reaches Rohan
Alright, it's time for that gaming industry tradition of speculation based on vague quotes from developers! In an interview with Ten Ton Hammer, The Lord of the Rings Online executive producer Jeffrey Steefel spoke about future updates to the game, saying that the best is yet to come because now that Turbine has moved into Moria, the really interesting and fully-fleshed-out stuff from Tolkien's source material is only a few steps away.Among those interesting things is the land of Rohan, which fans of the books and movies will remember is a kingdom that prides itself on breeding and grooming the finest horses in Middle-earth. Steefel went on to say: "When we get to Rohan, does horsemanship become important? Yeah! Us and our horses would be strung up if we got to Rohan someday and didn't pay attention to horses. And it's just a matter of when."Mounts in LotRO have admittedly always been a bit basic (but in a good way!), so this could mean any number of things, but perhaps the most exciting possibility would be Age of Conan-esque mounted combat. Go ahead and meditate on that for a bit, and read the interview for a few more vague quotes about the future of LotRO and the company's console plans if you feel compelled.
The Daily Grind: What are your plans for Moria?
On Tuesday, players will be able to experience Turbine's eagerly-anticipated new expansion for The Lord of the Rings Online, Mines of Moria. With two new classes, the Warden and Rune-Keeper, tons of new content and lore to explore, and new monsters to slay, players are excited about all the goodness about to come. With new classes, a trip into the dark and foreboding Misty Mountains, and new legendary items, what's not to love?Of course, with any new expansion comes a few questions. Will you be shelving your beloved adventurer(s) to roll one of the two new character classes? Will you stick with the character you've worked hard at and continue onwards? Perhaps take a couple of days off to really sink your teeth into all the delicious newness that Moria has to offer and do both! What are your plans for Moria's launch?
The Daily Grind: Do expansions cheapen all that hard work?
It happened with The Burning Crusade -- players had spent months raiding at level 60 to get the very best gear, and when TBC came out, people were getting green drops with better stats than the best raid drops after only a couple of levels. A lot of hardcore players were annoyed, while some just accepted it as the natural motion of things.We've got at least three big expansions coming up in the next few weeks -- Wrath of the Lich King for World of Warcraft, Mines of Moria for The Lord of the Rings Online, and The Shadow Odyssey for EverQuest II. With the level caps going up in WoW and LotRO, we're expecting a similar situation to what we saw with TBC. How do you feel about this? Can it be avoided, should it? Maybe it's good to level the playing field now and then. Let us know!
Newest Mines of Moria screens come with extra character
Mines of Moria is getting nearer and nearer to its release day, but Turbine isn't sitting on its laurels and letting fans go without new information or screenshots. Today we bring you a slew of new images that revel in the character aspect of the digitalized Middle-earth's newest locale: Moria, and its many mines. While we're quite fond of the specific shot placed above this post (watch out for the baddies!) there are still several others worth taking a gander at whether or not you plan on even playing the newest expansion content for Lord of the Rings Online. For instance, check out this tantalizing moment caught in the heat of battle. Not only do you get a great sense of Moria's scale, but the lighting is pretty nice, too.We're looking forward to finally seeing these new art and animation assets running on our monitors in just a couple of short weeks.%Gallery-18340%
Massively in Moria: Exploring Book 1, Chapter by Chapter
As part of Massively's ongoing coverage of Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria, we're happy to bring to you this extensive look through the entire Book 1 of Volume 2. This entire article will be approached as a comprehensive venture through the Book, from Chapters 1 through 14. We should probably warn you right now, if you'd like to experience the storyline for Book 1 without spoilers, you might want to skip this article. As for the rest of you, read on!Book 1: Chapter 1 of Mines of Moria begins in Eregion, just south of the Trollshaws. It is the introduction to your adventures leading up to the mines themselves. This book takes place after The Fellowship has already entered the mines, and the entrance had been covered with rubble. When you arrive, the Dwarves are in the final stages of clearing Hollin Gate, and need your help. Follow along in our storyline exploration of Book 1, chapter by chapter by clicking the link below. Chapters 1-5 >> %Gallery-34331%
Massively in Moria: The beta NDA lifts tomorrow!
We here at Massively are happy to announce that the Non Disclosure Agreement for Lord of the Rings Online's Mines of Moria beta will be officially lifted tomorrow! We've spent several weeks in the beta, exploring the deepest depths, leveling the two new classes and experimenting with the new Legendary Item system all for you!You can look forward to several feature articles about Moria coming out from Monday until the release date of November 18th, and beyond. In fact, you can look for our first one, a complete guide to the entire Book 1 of Volume 2 to be released Monday morning, with many more to follow. We'll provide galleries, helpful class guides and much more over the coming weeks. Stay tuned!
Turbine releases three new Mines of Moria videos
Turbine has just released three new videos promoting their upcoming expansion for Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria. These videos show the two new classes: the Warden and Rune-keeper. Plus, they delve a bit into the new Foundations of Stone area within the Mines.If you weren't pumped up enough already about Moria, following our extensive coverage and our upcoming coverage, these short videos might help with that excitement a bit. Although we've seen plenty of pics for both of the new classes, this is the first official video showing the Warden and the Rune-keeper. Be sure to check out all three videos embedded just after the cut.
The Best of Massively: Hands-on with upcoming games
Massively's first birthday is only a couple of weeks a way! We've been having fun looking back at our first year of coverage -- first with our ten most important interviews, then our most helpful guides, and most recently our top 5 weirdest news stories. This week we've compiled six of our hands-on previews of games that are yet to be released.Jump into the gallery to see what's on the genre's horizon with new expansions, Sci-Fi, super heroes, and more. No matter what your interests, we've got you covered! Click to start >> %Gallery-34363%
The week in Massively features
Massively's exclusive Mines of Moria dev tourWe came back with loads of screenshots, video footage and an insatiable desire to speed up time until we can play this expansion on our own! As there is still no official launch date outside of "Fall 2008", we're getting a bit antsy for this game to hit store shelves. From what we've seen though, it's coming very soon. Massively's complete LotRO Fall Harvest Festival guideThis event runs from now until October 12th, so you have plenty of time to gather festival tokens, complete special quests and compete in the horse races! Follow along on our complete guide by clicking the link below, and be sure to also check out our enormous 33-image gallery of Fall Harvest Festival screenshots and maps below to get you where you need to go. EVE Evolved: EVE Online's server modelWhile most MMOs deal with large number of users by starting up large numbers of separate servers with identical game universes, EVE maintains only a single copy of its game universe on a massive cluster of servers. CCP's decision to go with a server model that doesn't use any sharding or instancing whatsoever has had a major impact on in-game activities and how the game has developed. MMOGology: WoW on easy modeMy buddy Rob and I play World of Warcraft frequently, but between the two of us he's got the most /played time. He's got a few 70s on a PvP server and a few 70s on the PvE server where we're spending most of our time.
LotRO: Mines of Moria screens released for Foundations of Stone
LotRO fans can rejoice in yet another collection of screenshots from the upcoming Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria expansion. These five new screenshots -- linked in a gallery below -- show creatures and environments from the Foundations of Stone area of the expansion. As depicted in a previous map of Moria we saw at PAX 2008, the Foundations of Stone area is in the southeastern-most corner of the mines themselves.Be sure to keep your eyes on Massively as we expect to release much more information on Mines of Moria as the expected release time quickly approaches.%Gallery-18340%
Mines of Moria pre-order now available in Europe
As announced today by Codemasters, the first Lord of the Rings Online expansion, Mines of Moria, is now available for pre-order in Europe. The website information gives us a complete run-down of what's available with this expansion and each boxed version, including the exclusive Special Edition content and special pre-order content as well. What's interesting about this is that on the Play.com site listing, it reports the release date as November 14th, which other online retailers such as Amazon UK had previously reported as well. Meanwhile, the official Codemasters online store lists the release date as only "Autumn 2008".Where's the North American pre-order information? It hasn't officially been announced yet, but expect news to surface soon. When it does, we'll let you know!
LotRO: Mines of Moria screenshots from Hollin Gate
What better way to introduce players to the first screenshots for Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria than by making those screenshots of the infamous Hollin Gate, also known as the Doors of Durin. This gate is the western entrance into Moria, outlined in glowing Elvish script. If you've never read the books (shame on you!) and have only seen the movies, you may remember Hollin Gate as the place where Gandalf solved the riddle of "Speak friend and enter" to finally open the gate for the Fellowship.These screenshots, graciously given to us by Turbine, depict Hollin Gate as it will appear in the game. Be sure to check out our complete Mines of Moria gallery below for concept art, logos and more from the LotRO team as it becomes available.%Gallery-18340%
Turbine's Jeffrey Steefel looks ahead to the Mines of Moria
The CVG site has up a talk with Turbine's Jeffrey Steefel, looking out to the future of Lord of the Rings Online. It's a good discussion of not only the issues facing the game in the coming months, but the entire subscription-based MMO marketplace. The site asks some tough questions and Steefel has some good answers: like, why is an expansion for a primarily patch-supported game even neccessary?The Turbine Executive Producer was upfront about their reasoning: "At the end of the day so much is going online, but retail is still very important. It's still a place where people learn about games, it's a place where if you're not on the shelf, at least from time to time, somehow there's implication you're not viable." Steefel also touches on how they keep their community as convival as it is, the 'world vs game' problem very MMO faces, and the ever-present console question. In his mind, the problem isn't how to get MMOs on consoles. The problem is, why aren't the big three helping companies like Turbine to get their products onto couches?
Five MMOs better than World of Warcraft - Part 3
Some call Turbine's Lord of the Rings Online a cheap imitation of World of Warcraft, but aside from some similarity in the UI, it really isn't. There is little magic, healing is spread out among several classes, and every class fights. Each player works together to build weak attacks to stronger ones, choosing them according to their needs and waiting for the correct group combos to appear which can instantly turn sure defeat into triumphant victory. The dungeons are incredibly challenging for people their level, and you must constantly be on your toes, thinking far ahead to be sure the attacks you need to use in ten seconds are being built up now.Where Lord of the Rings Online really shines, though, is in its lore. How could any story be greater than that of the Lord of the Rings? You can walk where the Fellowship walked; clear their way, or help from behind the scenes. Without your aid, the Ring would fall to the Enemy. As you move through the story – and there is one, a strong one – the world changes. A town is burned and rebuilt; a powerful friend and ally is turned; the wizards of the land try to push back the darkness. LotRO's first expansion will open the Mines of Moria to adventurers. WoW has its share of lore, but will anything compare to sneaking past the Well of the Watcher and staring out at the vastness of the Hall of Kings? If lore and story is why you play WoW, you need to come to Middle-earth for awhile. Find out which MMO we think has the better community than WoW ==>>
Turbine launches promo game, is crushed by its own success [Updated]
Turbine sent us a press release today, saying that it and Codemasters have launched a "new social gaming website" at unlocktheminesofmoria.com. Actually, that's the official website of the Mines of Moria expansion for The Lord of the Rings Online, and it's been running since the expansion was announced earlier this month, but fret not -- there is something new here!The site has been updated with the first of its social games, called King Under the Mountain. It's a "tactical strategy game," and the schtick is that it's derived from a game played by the dwarf lords of Khazad-Dûm. It involves very Dwarven things like "caverns, gems, and fighting." You can play it alone or against your friends, and it's pretty cool.Actually, we're just assuming the "pretty cool" part because unfortunately before we could check it out for ourselves, the site was shut down for maintenance. Apparently it was hosed "due to overwhelming response" from interested LotRO players. It'll be back up at some point though, if it's not already by the time you read this, so keep checking back if you're interested.[EDIT: Site's back up. Enjoy!]
Lorebook describes things older and fouler than orcs
Another Lorebook entry has been featured on the official Lord of the Rings Online website. This time we get to learn a bit about the Rogmul -- a monster found in high-level encounters.While Turbine has worked hard to stay as faithful to Tolkien's literature as is practical, they've had to extrapolate a few new things from the texts to fill up the game world. For example; the Neeker-Beekers of the Midgewater Marshes are based on an odd sound described in one one line from the books.The Rogmul are also a Turbine invention. They're lesser demons that serve the Balrogs. "Wherever a Balrog is or once was," says the Lorebook, "it can be wagered that a Romgul or two is not far away."
