Lord of the Rings Online

Turbine Unveils Volume II, Book 7: Leaves of Lórien for The Lord of the Rings Online

Orvago — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 15:59:36 -0400

Turbine Unveils Volume II, Book 7: Leaves of Lórien for The Lord of the Rings Online™

Best Overall Game of 2008* Introduces New Content Update for Subscribers

WESTWOOD, MA – March 17, 2009 - Turbine, Inc. announced the details of the latest major update for subscribers of The Lord of the Rings Online™: Mines of Moria™ (LOTRO). Book 7: Leaves of Lórien is the latest of Turbine’s frequent and substantial updates to the Best MMORPG of 2008**. Book 7 delivers the next installment to the epic story for Volume II of LOTRO, a new 12-player raid, major gameplay enhancements, the Spring Festival and access to the full region of Lothlórien. Book 7: Leaves of Lórien will be available to subscribers of The Lord of the Rings Online on March 17, 2009 in North America and March 24, 2009 in Europe.

“The launch of our first expansion, Mines of Moria, has been a huge success and has firmly established the game as one of the premier MMOs in the world,” said Jeffrey Steefel, Executive Producer of The Lord of the Rings Online. “For nearly two years LOTRO has

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LotRO US - The 16th LotRO Turbine House of Commons Log is Now Available!

Orvago — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 23:05:17 -0400

The 16th LotRO Turbine House of Commons Transcript from tonight is now up! You may find the transcript here.

All our past House of Commons Transcripts may be located here as well.

Thank you Turbine for yet another wonderful House of Commons and our sincerest apologies for the delayed start.

LotRO US: Turbine Inc. joins us for a House of Commons Dev. Chat, March 11th - 8pm Eastern!

Orvago — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 22:36:13 -0400

On March 11th at 8:00pm Eastern (-4 GMT), we will be hosting another House of Commons with The Lord of the Rings Online! This week's House of Commons will be a Developer Chat with Turbine Inc.! The topic will cover questions and answer pertaining to upcoming release of Volume II: Book 7: Leaves of Lórien!

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Turbine Inc. Names Ken Surdan as Vice President of Operations!

Orvago — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 22:17:44 -0400

Turbine Names "Ken Surdan" as Vice President of Operations!

Online Entertainment Leader Names Proven Operations Expert to Lead Global Operations Efforts

WESTWOOD, MA – March 9, 2008 – Turbine, Inc., the premier creator and operator of massive, persistent online worlds that foster powerful social gaming communities, today announced the appointment of Ken Surdan as Turbine’s new Vice President of Operations. Surdan will be responsible for overseeing worldwide operations including network operations, project management and customer service and support for Turbine's award-winning franchises.

“Ken brings an extensive ecommerce and consumer facing operations background that will be vital as Turbine scales its global operations,” said Jim Crowley, President and CEO of Turbine, Inc.

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LOTRO EU House of Commons Today at 3pm EST/12pm PST/20.00 GMT

_zigzag_ — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 08:27:31 -0500

A reminder that our House of Commons chat with the LOTRO team is today at 3pm EST/Noon PST/20.00 GMT! Join us in the #straticshoc channel on Stratics IRC for a great hour of questions and answers!

You can connect to one of Stratics IRC servers through the use of your favorite IRC client, such as mIRC, ircle, xchat, trillian or whichever you prefer. Connect to irc.stratics.com port 6668 or the server closest to you:

irc.frws.com - USA - Colorado

irc.epaxsys.net - USA - Colorado

stratics.afraidyet.net - USA - Georgia

irc.glowfish.de - EU - Germany

You may also connect through the Stratics Java link. You must have Java installed to use this which can be downloaded from the Java homepage. We'll see you there!

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LotRO: Mines of Moria Press Release

Orvago — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:44:13 -0500
The Lord of the Rings Online™: Mines of Moria™ Launches!

The First Expansion for the Award-Winning Massively Multiplayer Online Game Now Available!

WESTWOOD, MA – November 18, 2008 - Turbine, Inc. announced today that The Lord of the Rings Online™: Mines of Moria™ is now available for purchase across North America and Europe. Mines of Moria expands the award-winning online world of Middle-earth and allows players to explore the ancient underground cities of the dwarves, battle epic characters in the depths, face off with the Watcher, be a part of the fateful release of Durin’s Bane and more! In addition to extending the challenge to new heights, Mines of Moria will introduce two new classes, ten additional levels, hundreds of new quests, and the highly anticipated Legendary Item system.

“The Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) has established itself as one of the world’s premium MMOs for successfully integrating story into a game that features innovative and entertaining advancement through an immersive and breathtaking world,” said Jeffrey Steefel, Executive Producer of The Lord of the Rings Online. “Mines of Moria will raise the bar with the introduction of Legendary Items, a massive new system that will let players advance unique and powerful weapons and items that grow in might alongside their hero. These unique and powerful weapons will be by our players’ sides to aid in the challenging adventures that await them as we continue to journey through Middle-earth through the next several volumes of the game in years to come.”

Some of the new features in the Mines of Moria expansion include*:
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Exclusive LOTRO Mines of Moria Preview Pt. 2

SWATJester — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 07:54:07 -0500

Part 1 of our preview can be found here.

Our next stop on the tour was the Twenty-First Hall, a hub of trade and social activity for players in Moria. Again, you can get a glimpse of just how large the caverns of Moria really are, and the fact that there are no loading zones in-between areas is truly remarkable. The Twenty-First Hall is home to one of the forges in Moria, and here we were introduced to the Legendary Weapon system, another customization technique in Moria. Essentially, some weapons in LOTRO can be identified as "Unique" and can be developed into Legendary Weapons. As you kill mobs, in addition to gaining experience for yourself, you're also gaining experience for your weapons. When a weapon gains enough XP, it can be reforged at the forge-master, and gain "legacies". Legacies are basically special bonuses provided by the item and can be anything from increasing the power or duration of a class ability, to adding DPS to an item. Every time a Legendary Weapon is reforged, it can gain new legacies. Furthermore, the player is given a certain amount of points that he can spend to improve legacies. Some legacies are ranked higher (i.e. better) than others, meaning they'll cost less to develop or provide more of a bonus at each point investment, or have longer duration effects. These points are given back at each reforging to allow the player to choose how to respend them with the new legacies. With up to six Legendary Weapons, the player is able to have a set of top-tier weapons with a wide area of customized uses, without having to depend on raids or camping mobs for a rare drop (though, other rare items than weapons will still drop this way). A player could choose to develop one weapon by putting all his points into increasing its DPS, while developing another weapon to have better tanking stats, and a third to have better offensive skill abilities. These weapons can be further customized by drop-in relics that provide even more enhancements. The result is yet another layer of customization providing for a truly deep and varied experience.

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Exclusive LOTRO Mines of Moria Preview Pt. 1

SWATJester — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 14:58:26 -0500

I must confess, I've never been a big Lord of the Rings fan. The first movie was pretty good, parts of the second and third ones as well, but nothing spectacular. (I can hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth from the fanboys now. WHAT! HE MENTIONED THE MOVIES BEFORE THE BOOKS? BLASPHEMY!) Yes, I've read the books too, every tortuous long minute of them. Don't get me wrong, I loves me some fantasy books, and I actually find some aspects of the Tolkien universe pretty intriguing. But I'm a law student; I already spend my days reading through hundreds of pages of dense material, it's not how I'd prefer to spend my off time.

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LOTRO House of Commons Today At Noon PDT/3pm EDT/8pm BST

_zigzag_ — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 10:58:42 -0400

A reminder that our House of Commons with the LOTRO EU team is today from 12:00pm to 1:00pm Pacific (3:00pm to 4:00pm Eastern / 7:00pm to 8:00pm BST) in the #straticshoc channel on the Stratics IRC network.

To be part of today's House of Commons, connect to one of our Stratics IRC servers using your favorite IRC client. A list of popular IRC clients is available on our downloads page, and for those who wish to chat via their browser you can connect via our java IRC client. (Java required - download here)

Connect to irc.stratics.com (port 6668) or choose a server close to you from following list:

stratics.frws.com USA - Colorado (ports 6667 6668 7000)

irc.glowfish.de EU - Germany (ports 6667 6668)

stratics.afraidyet.net USA - Texas (ports 6667 6668)

irc.gamers-irc.org USA - Colorado (ports 6667 6668 7000)

Once connected, join #straticshoc – and you're there!

Also join us in #lotro any time to chat with other players about all things LotRO!
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Turbine Partners with Warner Bros for Lord of the Rings Expansion

_zigzag_ — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 09:46:00 -0400

Turbine Inc. has announced it will partner with Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment for distribution of The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria, the first expansion for the award-winning title which recently celebrated it's first anniversary. In conjunction with this announcement, Turbine also unveiled its fall product lineup including two titles to be available at retail and a digital-only title for existing subscribers.

Read more for newly released concept art and the complete press release.
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