MMORPG.com's Garrett Fuller recently spoke with the team at Turbine about Lord of the Rings Online, where the current game is and what the team has planned for the future.

At PAX East Turbine was not pulling any punches. They had a massive booth and games for players to check out. With DDO continuing its drive in the FTP market we got a chance to ask about LOTRO and talk about the latest Volume along with Oath of the Rangers. The LOTRO team is going strong with lots of plans for the future. They stick to their goals of keeping players in the epic story lines of Tolkien's world and making them feel like a part of the journey as well as participants in the War of the Ring.

Oath of the Rangers focuses on Aragorn gathering his allies for the battle with Mordor. Players are asked to go out and align forces with the free people of Middle Earth. One of the great things that the team talked about was the Inspired Greatness Buff that is now part of the game. Taken from story elements like Samwise Gamgee and his heroic rescue of Frodo, the inspired greatness allows fewer players to take on great odds. With this system players can now run a six person instance with four players. It also allows for a broader range of solo content that gamers can experience. This opens up the door for players to get to see all of the content in the game without having to be part of a large group. The team has been happy with this addition because it was a central theme in Tolkien's work as well. Fewer players beating the odds and working together for glory is definitely a great element to this game.

Read the LotRO Update.

Glad to see this game is still going strong, Rohan may tempt me back whenever it comes along.

However I would like to know if they have fixed the problem alot of players including me had when I used to play, of characters getting stuck in the world and having to be moved by GM's not like stuck in a rock or something, stuck and then not being able to relog into that character until the GM took action - there was a section to report it on the forums. It was something to do with ISP's and the delivery of the internet.

Fixed or has everyone affected just given up?

Originally posted by peacekraft

Glad to see this game is still going strong, Rohan may tempt me back whenever it comes along.

However I would like to know if they have fixed the problem alot of players including me had when I used to play, of characters getting stuck in the world and having to be moved by GM's not like stuck in a rock or something, stuck and then not being able to relog into that character until the GM took action - there was a section to report it on the forums. It was something to do with ISP's and the delivery of the internet.

Fixed or has everyone affected just given up?

Haha, when did you play exactly? I've never gotten stuck in anything (so far).

Nice article, I'm glad they have plans already (so they know what they want to do instead of picking something out a hat) and that they're listening to players. Saw a good thread with tons of discussion on PvMP, which is long overdue for an upgrade. Also didn't know that many developers played LotRO!

I have played since the game openned, and this only happened to me a few times, Generally an environment hole.  There is an /stuck (or something like that) that will fix it for you.  But it has not happened in a long time, so not sure what you are referring too.  There was an issue where some pets or mobs could not find a path and would go into anti-exploit mode (essentially unable to move or be damaged) but it also is fairly rare these days. 

One thing about Turbine, like or hate their games, they have some of the best up time of any game company around.  Most of the time you can basically take the servers for granted.  

I actually really loved playing Lotro... I just found it very lonely at times thus why I left... might go back one day, still haven't opened my Mines of Moria box.

I've never been stuck like that either.

Mirkwood has been good and I enjoyed the skirmishes at the end of book 2.  I'm curious to see where they go next.

Originally posted by peacekraft

Glad to see this game is still going strong, Rohan may tempt me back whenever it comes along.

Rohan? I'm still waiting for Gondor...

Originally posted by Xondar123

Originally posted by peacekraft

Glad to see this game is still going strong, Rohan may tempt me back whenever it comes along.

Rohan? I'm still waiting for Gondor...

I'm just waiting for DX11, so I'll get my wish before you guys

Paid life membership and then ebayed it within a month. Sprawling, boring wretched thing.

Though the intentions were good this article has almost zero informational value:

- the devs like the Warden Class --> so what?

- New player experience and solo gaming is improved --> what about the high lvl players?

- there will be updates and festivals in the future --> haven't there been in the past? How about telling us what they plan for the updates?

- facebook and iphone apps? --> What if i don't own an Iphone and do not want to be on facebook? Don't make the metagame focus of the development. I pay for game content not IPhone apps.

There is no meat to the bones.

Edit: I play and enjoy Lotro.

I am and always have been an Everquest fan. But Lord of the Rings online is the best MMO out there in my opinion. And the only reason I say that is because of the story.

I wish EQ2 had story progresses like LOTRO.

I've fallen through the World in Warcraft 2 times now but I've never had any problems like that or getting stuck in anything in the LOTRO world.,I've never even found a creature that will "evade" forever in LORTO either so I don't think that would be a problem now. I'm excited about these changes.

When they fix Monster Play, I'll come back.

It has tons of potential as an innovative, fun PvP system in a PvE game, but it's not fun yet.  The imbalance built into monsters is just lame, and dammit, let us level the monsters from lvl 1 :) 

They really didn't say anything about LotRO at PAX.  Even mentioning an iphone or FB app makes me want to /facepalm.  Just call it like it is: they hyped PAX a bit on the site and then didn't deliver.  I don't care if they don't announce anything at a convention but don't hype it and don't make empty fluff reviews like this later as if anything at all happened.  Silliness.

So they're adding Inspired Greatness so that you can solo group content. They're cutting down on the need for a large group from 6 to 4. More solo content. And they try and say it's a good thing because that's what they did in Tolkien's works.

Why don't they just remove the servers and have it as a single player game? Seriously. Why pay every month for a game you play on your own? Just release it as a single player game, then buy the new content every few months as Downloadable Content. That's what they should do, it's not like they're trying to make anything worth grouping for.

Originally posted by snazz

Paid life membership and then ebayed it within a month. Sprawling, boring wretched thing.

Wait, What?

You bought a lifetime membership and then after a month found out that it was a "sprawling, boring, wretched thing."

So you mean to tell me you spent $200.00 up front and didn't know what the game was like?

What a moron...

Such a shame that Middle Earth Online became this slightly better version of WoW. (isn't a good thing)

Originally posted by Torvaldr

They really didn't say anything about LotRO at PAX.  Even mentioning an iphone or FB app makes me want to /facepalm.  Just call it like it is: they hyped PAX a bit on the site and then didn't deliver.  I don't care if they don't announce anything at a convention but don't hype it and don't make empty fluff reviews like this later as if anything at all happened.  Silliness.

I'm not sure they really hyped it. They just mentioned that they were going to be there.

Pax was more about LOTRO and PAX East was definitely more about DDO.

Still, I asked them about any future plans and the people I spoke with said that they will make any announcement around their anniversary time. Which I think is around the end of April?

As far as this piece, developers tend not to talk a lot about future stuff until they make some big announcement. This happens is most games.

I also think this piece is a 'keeping the game in the mind of the public" piece which then keeps people more open to when they actually do have an announcement.

Otherwise what tends to happen is that people start to think "hey, I haven't heard about that game in a while, well good for them that they are still in business".

Originally posted by UsualSuspect

So they're adding Inspired Greatness so that you can solo group content. They're cutting down on the need for a large group from 6 to 4. More solo content. And they try and say it's a good thing because that's what they did in Tolkien's works.

Why don't they just remove the servers and have it as a single player game? Seriously. Why pay every month for a game you play on your own? Just release it as a single player game, then buy the new content every few months as Downloadable Content. That's what they should do, it's not like they're trying to make anything worth grouping for.

 You ask why pay monthly for a game you plan to play on your own?  But I have a question for you, since when is "playing with other people" the only reason to play an mmo?  And more importantly who decides what people determine important factors in paying for a game whether at initial purchase or the decision to sub to a game with a monthly fee.

Originally posted by jaxsundane

Originally posted by UsualSuspect

So they're adding Inspired Greatness so that you can solo group content. They're cutting down on the need for a large group from 6 to 4. More solo content. And they try and say it's a good thing because that's what they did in Tolkien's works.

Why don't they just remove the servers and have it as a single player game? Seriously. Why pay every month for a game you play on your own? Just release it as a single player game, then buy the new content every few months as Downloadable Content. That's what they should do, it's not like they're trying to make anything worth grouping for.

 You ask why pay monthly for a game you plan to play on your own?  But I have a question for you, since when is "playing with other people" the only reason to play an mmo?  And more importantly who decides what people determine important factors in paying for a game whether at initial purchase or the decision to sub to a game with a monthly fee.

 

Well, considering the actual RPG mechanics are much MUCH more shallow than single player RPGs, why WOULD you play an MMO by yourself? 

LotRO was already one of the most solo friendly games on the market. Can't tell you how many times groups ONLY formed to run to the group encounter quest, with no talking, then immediately disbanded afterwards.