Recent Headlines for Lord of the Rings Online

Correspondent - Moving into the Mines

By Jon Wood on Jul 30, 2008

MMORPG.com Lord of the Rings Online Correspondent Matt McLean files this report on the upcoming expansion for the game, the Mines of Moria and discusses whether or not the new addition will be worth the box price.

Ever since its release nearly 16 months ago, The Lord of the Rings Online (LotRO) has been one of the best MMORPGs on the market. It combines fluid gameplay with realistic graphics in one of the most recognizable fantasy atmospheres of all time. Their first “volume”, The Shadows of Angmar, allowed players to explore Eriador in all of its grandeur and frightening splendor. And now, coming this fall, Volume II of the story unfolds as the retail expansion, The Mines of Moria, will be released.

The developers at Turbine Studios, the group behind LotRO, know that without its players, there is no game. So periodically throughout the life of the game so far, the player-base has been given what the developers called “epic book” releases. These releases are fairly large in nature, and usually occur every few months. They have almost always added new areas of the map to explore, and allow the developers to introduce new characters, weapons, gear, and quests. It’s also a great way to make improvements within the game, like the ability to scale the UI, adding in and changing the existing graphic content and so on.