Lord of the Rings Online

Sixteen years. Bradford's Lord of the Rings Online Kinship is now old enough to drive. How long have your group or guild gamed together?

PvP in MMORPGs - sometimes it can define a player's enjoyment for good or ill. Being PKed or being part of a massive takedown of an enemy can be invigorating in any game. Bradford is looking back on his most memorable PvP moment in any MMORPG.

Last Friday during a Q&A with Lord of the Rings Online executive producer Rob "Severlin" Ciccolini, we got a tease of next year's fall expansion. The 'smell of salt water' has Bradford really interested in where LotRO could go here, possibly bringing the story back to more familiar roots.

Anniversaries are important in MMOs, whether they be the game itself celebrating one or players doing so. Bradford's Kinship in The Lord of the Rings Online turns 15 this year, and it got him thinking on Anniversaries past. How do you and your group celebrate?

The Lord of the Rings Online recently announced a swathe of changes coming to its monetization model, and the change is quite the breath of fresh air. From making content free to all to increasing the amount players can enjoy before they have to pay, LotRO is ensuring that it could be around for quite some time.

As we say farewell to 2021, Bradford continues to look back on the MMOs that helped define the year. Specifically, the stories told within those game worlds. Has there been an MMORPG story that has been your favorite this year?

When Fate of Gundabad was announced and we knew we were going back into one of the lost Dwarvish strongholds in Middle-earth, Bradford's hope was we would see something really new. And while we don't have a simple retread of the past, Lord of the Rings' Gundabad is giving massive Moria vibes - in both good and bad ways.

Dwarves. Not the Firstborn, or the Secondborn of Illuvatar, but rather the red-headed stepchildren of Middle-earth. This is a race that, admittedly, Bradford hasn't spent too much time thinking about in the fourteen years he's run around The Lord of the Rings Online. But prepping for Gundabad has made him quite upset he's slept on the wonderful stories Standing Stone Games has written for this solemn race.

Fate of Gundabad, and the new Brawler class in The Lord of the Rings Online, is sure to bring back some players who dropped off the Middle-earth radar in the years since the last major expansion, Minas Morgul. It got Bradford wondering how often our readers return to older MMOs when they get new content.

The long, long awaited Legendary item revamp is finally coming to the Lord of the Rings Online. But how does the new system work? Check out our impressions from the preview server late last week!

With The Lord of the Rings Online players able to go hands on with the MMO's first class sincce 2014 today thanks to the Brawler hitting the Bullroarer test server, it got Bradford thinking about how he chose his favorite class in any MMO he plays. Spoiler alert: They are usually ranged.

Everybody remembers their first. First dungeon that is - and the world of MMORPGs have a ton of them. But what was the first dungeon that really make you start to fall in love with the game - and the genre as a whole?

Last year much of the discourse around The Lord of the Rings Online was one where the community didn't feel as though the team was doing as much as it could to communicate with its players. This was completely exacerbated thanks to the extended downtimes last year. However, the recent push with interviews, especially with new producer Raninia, it feels like Standing Stone Games has dome a complete 180 - for the better.

In game awards for your time are paramount to keeping players engaged, and Bradford can't think of one that players he speaks to love showing off more than a hard-to-earn character title. Is there a title you craved and had to have in any MMO you've played?

Weatherstock XIII took place over the weekend (We even streamed a little bit of it!) and one aspect Bradford could not shake was just how cool the Lord of the Rings Online community has been over the course of the game's life.