...when Frodo gets to mordor and destroys the ring? This has always been my concern with the game and lately, more than ever, it feels like the game has always had an expiration date.

So, what do you think will happen to the game when the Return of the King finally concludes?

mm first gandalf as to reach elm deep for an epic battle there open world pvp 1000 player vs 1000 player

Thats such a long way off, that it isnt really worth thinking about, to be honest i'd be more suprised if the game was still running when it got to that stage.

as I think it'd most likely be four or more expansions before they even tough the end of the third book, so thats what? 7-8 years?

Well, you have to go back to protect the Shire from Saruman, don't you?

That's quite a while off, but their license includes rights to the Similawhatevergeekworditis so the story they have access to extends well beyond the ring.

oddly enough even though the lotr story ends at return of the king the story of middle earth still remains in fact tolkein made it clear there was much more to middle earth then just those places gandalf took merry to a new place at the end of the story

Originally posted by Loktofeit

That's quite a while off, but their license includes rights to the Similawhatevergeekworditis so the story they have access to extends well beyond the ring.

But events in Silmarillion doesn't even take place in the same age with the Rings, although i didn't know they had the rights for it too, interesting. Anyway, Op's concern is a bit unnecesarry imo :)

Aragorn is crowned king and we enter the Fourth Age. The kingdoms of Gondor and Arnor are reunited, the house of Telcontar reigns, and we fight Harad to the south and Rhûn to the east. At least, that's what would make most sense.

The game is completely wedded to the storyline. There'd be no way to take the game off the rails without invalidating much of whats in the game now.  I think they'll keep pushing out xpacs til the storyline is done then people will just keep playing the storyline over and over like they do now.  Though its conceivable that they won't even reach that far since we're talking about many years of xpacs til they got to the end.

The Silmarillion is basically a collection of tales that include the creation of Middle Earth and others...

After the ring is destroyed, the Hobbits had to fight off Briggands and others continued to fight the rest of Saurons minions around Middle Earth, because they did not just simply disappear.  They Fourth Age, after King Ellesar was crowned, brought even more adventure for the king and the Free Peoples as they cleaned up the mess Sauron had made yadayadayada....so  there would be plenty of lore to work with even after the books...

If I understood correctly, they intended to do something in Northern Mirkwood, sidelining the Ring story again (like they did with Southern Mirkwood) when the Hobbit film releases...

The Silmarillion can be used for "old" places (like Annuminas and Fornost) and possibly with flash-back stories (like the Moria "Discovering the Balrog" one).

We all pat each other on the back and say "Good job!".  Then everyone retires to beach front houses in Gondor, and we move on to the next game. 

Cause honestly at their current rate that's at least 3 years away.  I'll be suprised if Rohan makes it this year, it should, but you never know.  Then Gondor can be at least 2 expansions.  Mordor could be split up as well.  By then it'll be 2015, lol.

I honestly done think the game will be around long enough to get to the point where the ring is destroyed. My bet is Turbine will have moved on to something new and if LoTRO is still around at that time then it probably wont have much support behind it.

LoTR was supposed to be Turbines golden ticket but they severely over estimated the lores draw. Just IMO but they should have put that game setting as AFTER the ring was destroyed.

does lotro have the rights to Silmarillion? everything i have read said that they do not. the info i have is from 09' but i have not found anything saying the family has changed their mind about giving out the rights.

Its highly unlikely LOTRO will even be around by then - they are already struggling now trying to keep players happy in deserted towns and quests chains.

The more expansions they make the thinner the population spread is and the longer it takes for new players to grind through empty content. By the time Frodo gets to Mordor I'd imagine another 4/5 expansions would have come out and max lvl will be close to 100 - unfortunately the population just isn't large enough to play this kind of content and most importantly fund Turbine making it.

Plus the graphics, (especially models which already do) will look so horribly outdated in the next five+ years will anyone even want to still play this?

The game probably won't survive until then. There's already too many lifetimers playing which pay no monthly subscription, and in the following years it's gonna be even worse. They will have to rely on extremly frequent paid expansions with little content -- exactly what SoM was.

Originally posted by Thillian

The game probably won't survive until then. There's already too many lifetimers playing which pay no monthly subscription, and in the following years it's gonna be even worse. They will have to rely on extremly frequent paid expansions with little content -- exactly what SoM was.

This really.

The current pace of content updates is so extremely low at the moment. Compaired to the first two years up till Mines of Moria.

That it will take at least 10-12 years till they end up in Mordor. 

DDO Unlimited is Turbine's new succesful cash cow that gets their prime attention at the moment.

So no. I don't think we will ever see Mordor in LOTRO.

Originally posted by Guillermo197

Originally posted by Thillian

The game probably won't survive until then. There's already too many lifetimers playing which pay no monthly subscription, and in the following years it's gonna be even worse. They will have to rely on extremly frequent paid expansions with little content -- exactly what SoM was.

So no. I don't think we will ever see Mordor in LOTRO.

They might be preparing Lotro to go F2P as well as DDo with microtransactions. The recent GATING radiance system which artificially locks players from reaching certain areas/zones might be an indication of such a move.

The whole world is made of extremly narrow transitions between zones (usually a bridge or a narrow path surrounded by impassable terrain), so it wouldn't make them a problem to lock certain passages for F2P players.

Originally posted by Toquio3

...when Frodo gets to mordor and destroys the ring? This has always been my concern with the game and lately, more than ever, it feels like the game has always had an expiration date.

So, what do you think will happen to the game when the Return of the King finally concludes?

As far as the books go, the fellowship is in Lorien now, almost 3 years since launch.  That's not quite to the end of FotR.

This is the part I think most people are missing: 

NOW consider that about two thirds of THAT was available on launch day, 3 years ago.  Up to, "The Ring Goes South".

So, as far as expansions go, they've gone not even a THIRD of FotR in 3 years. 

If you do the math for that speed of progress, they'll be in Mordor in... 18 YEARS.  If the game makes it that long, it can be said that the lifers got their moneys worth.

Methinx they've got plenty of material to expand on.  And as others have said, there's The Lonely Mountain, North Mirkwood, no shortage of places to revisit from the Silmarilian, etc.