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Recently, our own Jordan Deam had a chance to explore Book 13 with some people from Turbine. He filed this extensive preview based on his talks with them and hands-on time in Middle-earth.

We traveled along the coastline until we reached a small fishing outpost controlled by a group of Gauredain. These lanky fellows weren't particularly keen on sharing their real estate with us, but after a few minutes of steel persuasion (aided by our crazy admin powers) we triumphantly reclaimed the hastily constructed hide canopies and bonfires for ourselves. But it was no use: before we could set up our hammocks and crack open a few brews, a group of nomadic Lossoth moved in and put us to work. The Lossoth are a hardy tribe of humans scattered across Forochel that aren't particularly friendly toward you when you first enter the zone. As you liberate their camps from hostile forces and complete quests for them, they gradually begin to realize that you're not there to kill them and entrust you with rare crafting recipes. My character, a Dwarf Guardian, was decked out in crafted Lossoth gear, a stylish Inuit-chic ensemble that grants some extra resistance to the cold.

Read more after the leap.

In the second half of our interview, we focused on Book 13. Yesterday, it was all about The Mines of Moria expansion pack. Today, we look at the next patch, in this transcription of Jeffrey Steefel's conversation with our own Jordan Deam.

WarCry: Going back to "biomes" for a bit, I understand in Book 13 you will be debuting a new zone [Forochel] which will be the first to feature open water. Will that be significant to the gameplay in this zone?

Jeffrey Steefel: It's extremely cold water; when you go into it, it's going to have a very bad effect on you very quickly. And so in terms of ... if your question is "are we going to be embarking on missions on ships in Forochel," the answer is "no." It's the first exposure of players to the edges of the continent and seeing that there are oceans out there, that there are opportunities in the future to venture out into them. But in the case of Forochel, it's really meant to be ... more aesthetic than anything. And obviously some of the creatures that reside there and some of the atmospheric effects happen to result from it being near ocean. But being in the water is not a major part of the gameplay in Forochel. Other than dying.

Read more after the jump.

Lord of the Rings Online will launch its first expansion pack in the coming months and they're starting big in the Mines of Moria. We spoke to Executive Producer Jeffrey Steefel about this expansion in the first half of an epic interview, which we have now transcribed for your pleasure.

Check back tomorrow for Book 13 and general updates.

WarCry: Talking about the actual zone of Moria, how do you plan to differentiate sub-zones within the Mines to give players a sense of variety?

Jeffrey Steefel: This is where we get into that "we're still a long way away from launch," and we don't want to let all the cats out of the bag at the same time, so we're obviously going to be talking about all the different zones and how to differentiate them from each other. But what I can say is that you're spot on. We're creating a deep, giant, huge underground environment ... and one of the things we've talked about is how are [players] not going to feel like they've been treading through rock, you know, forever ... treading through dark passages and rock. As cool as Moria is, that would get kind of boring. And the truth is that Moria wasn't like that; Moria was an entire world underground, so there will be different biomes - "biome" is what we use to describe a type of environment in the world, so like "forest" is a biome, or "swamp" is a biome, or, you know, "snowy, icy" ... the Misty Mountains is a biome. There will be many biomes inside of Moria that are being being created as new that are very specific to Moria, and very distinct from each other.

Read it all after the leap.

We're continually updating our databases for LOTRO WarCry, and as you can see, we've got quite a list. Before that, say hello to the kinships that have registered with us:

New Kinships
Shadow's Company, Illuminati

You can see the entire list of updates after the jump!

In the second half of his two part article called "To Be A Hero" (Part One is here), Jonathan Steinhauer gives us more of his personal take on how MMORPGs and how players want to be the center of that universe.

Every other Monday, Steinhauer brings us his design related MMO thoughts in this column.

Achievement can be broken into two basic categories: fame and influence. As I considered the former, my time playing AC jumped quickly to mind. In the early days of AC, they introduced top ten lists. These were published about once a month and showed who had the highest rating in a particular stat by server. This had the benefit of instant recognition for those who were the most skilled in the world. Of course, the downside is that the achievement didn't necessarily speak to actual player ability. Gaining skill proficiency, like gaining levels, doesn't prove noteworthy competency. The advantage often goes to those who started playing the game sooner or those who've had more time to spend in game rather than those who truly are expert in a particular field.

Read more after the leap.

The folks over at tentonhammer have a video up, with a Q&A with Jeffery Steefel about the upcoming expansion for LOTRO:

Ten Ton Hammer's Jeff Woleslagle recently spoke with Lord of the Rings Online Executive Producer Jeffrey Steefel about the newly announced expansion, Mines of Moria, as well as the free updates coming with Books 13 and 14.

Head on over and check it out!

Sean Bulger is back with a new column in his bi-weekly look at issues of community and MMOs. This column focuses on player made content: what's good, what's bad.

As strange as it may seem to some, there are plenty of people out there who enjoy creating things by using parts of the game they play, or by creating something for the game. Even more people like to enjoy those creations - more so the videos in this day of age. This is also something that developers could take advantage of when trying to build a strong community.

Read more after the leap.

This Monday, Jonathan Steinhauer begins a look at a new issue in his bi-weekly column. In "To Be A Hero" asks the fundamental question that we all face when it comes to our time, our darkness and MMOs: why do we play?

Why do we play MMOs (or adventure style games of any sort)? Fundamentally, one would hope, because they are fun. Aside from that, there are a myriad of reasons, but a major one is that it gives us a chance to be heroic in a way we really can't in real life (and if we could, probably wouldn't want to given the massive death rate our avatars suffer). Games give us the chance to be "the hero." Yet how can we truly be the hero in a world where 100% of the world's population are hero-aspirants and each step down the road to renown is identical for everyone?

Read more after the jump.

Eurogamer and Hexus Gaming are both featuring interviews with Jeffrey Steefel. Eurogamer chose to focus on the just-announced expansion for LotRO, the Mines of Moira:

Moria, the ominous, deserted dwarven city which serves as the climax to the first book in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, will be rendered as a single, continuous underground world for players to explore. It will offer players a chance to fight the Balrog demon that's defeated by Gandalf in the books. We asked Steefel if this would involve making significant changes to the continuity of Lord of the Rings lore.

"No," he said. "Well, not as much as you would think. We're not talking about how we're doing that yet, but it definitely took some thinking. But especially around something as important as that, we never want to do anything that's anachronistic to the lore."

Click through for a bit from Gaming Hexus.

Massively is featuring a roundtable interview from Connect '08 with Lord of the Rings Online executive producer Jeffrey Steffel. The discussion began with a viewing of some of the highlights of Book 13 and then opened up into a broader Q&A session.

Q: Book 13: Any cinematic, unique content (like Gollum) planned?

A: Certainly in books 13 and 14 the epic story continues, we'll have more adventure instances that have a bit more of that dramatic feel. Moria will have a substantial amount of that. It's one of the things we know differentiates the game - we have a story to tell.

Q: Any plans to modify the kinship management system, like kinship banking? Any plans to combine kinship and housing management so the kinship pays upkeep?

A: Kinships is another system like housing that we have a roadmap for and a lot of stuff we want to do - just a matter of when.

There's much more over at Massively so be sure to check it out.