MMORPG.com managing Editor Jon Wood had a chance recently to speak with Lord of the Rings Online Executive Producer Jeffrey Steefel about the launch of the game`s first expansion, The Mines of Moria. This interview coveres everything from new features both inside and outside of the expansion, the timing of the release and more!

As many of you who haven’t been living under a rock for the past few months probably know, today marks the official launch of Turbine’s first paid expansion for its hit game, Lord of the Rings Online. The expansion, dubbed, Mines of Moria, will allow players to delve deep into the heart of the ancient Dwarf stronghold that played such a pivotal role in the books that preceded the game.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to sit down and have a conversation with Jeffrey Steefel about the launch and what players can expect from the expansion when it hits store shelves (and digital download) today:

The first question that I asked was simple: What does Mines of Moria add to Lord of the Rings Online. The answer, as you might imagine, was a little bit more complicated.

“What does it do for Lord of the Rings? What does it do for the world that we built?” Steefel responded. “It adds a lot of things, but most of all it adds Moria… We’re pretty sure it’s going to be an RPG experience for players in terms of being in a 3D environment that they have never had before.”

Read the Mines of Moria Interview.

Love reading what Jeff Steefel has to say, his passion for gaming is genuine. Keep up the great Work Turbine
 

btw , you link to the forums is not correct for this interview

Thanks for the article, Jon.

I have played both WoW and LotRO extensively. They are both very fine games, but I greatly prefer LotRO. LotRO is a quieter, less flashy, and yet somehow more elegant MMO, and I love the way all of its component features fit so well together. The community in LotRO is also markedly more friendly, more mature, and generally more polite than anything I experienced in WoW.

I thought it interesting what Steefel said regarding the timing of this MoM release. It speaks well for Turbine that they released the new expansion based on what they wanted for (and had promised) their own players and without much regard for what the competition was doing.

I'm sure Turbine would like to draw in the numbers that WoW is drawing, but I don't see that happening. In fact, I daresay I don't *want* that to happen. I want the new expansion to be successful and popular ... but not TOO popular. It's actually gratifying to me that the "masses" are flocking to play WoW, an MMO that seems to siphon off the worst of the MMO community, leaving LotRO and its players in relative peace, and I hope it stays that way.

Note--The link from the article to this discussion is broken and needs to be fixed.