Reviews

Jonathan Steinhauer continues his application of the writings of Clausewitz to gaming, this time examining what happens when you have to turn and run.

The Lord of the Rings Online lorebook has been updated with a profile of one of the High Elves of Rivendell, Cachúnir. Check him out after the jump.

This time on RoleCraft, Jim Moreno wants to hear from you roleplayers out there.

Turbine announced that the Public preview server now has Book 14,The Ring-forges of Eregion, out and ready for download.

You can find more information about it here.

Our friends over at Stratics have let us know about an EU dev chat scheduled for tomorrow:

Join us tomorrow, the June 25th at 12:00pm PDT/3 pm EDT/8 pm BST in the #straticshoc channel on the Stratics IRC network for another great LotRO EU Stratics House of Commons chat!

You can find all the details about how to connect at their site.

Turbine let us know about their scheduled maintenance:

All Turbine services will be down on Monday June 23th from 7:00am - 11:00am Eastern (-4 GMT) for maintenance. During this time the game, billing and authentication servers will be offline. In addition, all Turbine forums will be viewable, but players may not be able to log into their accounts.

The news is also in their game launchers, so you'll be reminded Monday morning!

Turbine's taken a closer look at another set of residents of Middle-earth, the Guant-lords:

In the First Age, Morgoth summoned many fell spirits into his service and twisted countless creatures to his will. Among those were dire creatures called Gaunt-men, which had the power to instill other fell spirits into the remains of the dead and raise them as wights...

Click below to read more about these evil beings!

Turbine has just released a new developer diary video for The Lord of the Rings Online in which Executive Producer Jeffrey Steefel describes all of the new content that was recently added to the game with the launch of Book 13: Doom of the Last-king. Video's after the jump.

In this installment of RoleCraft, Jim Moreno looks at an interesting idea from WoW RP Realms: Full Immersion Roleplaying (FIRP).

Jonathan Steinhauer continues his study of Clausewitz and examines the art of the kill.

In honor of Queen Elizabeth II's birthday, Richard and David Darling, founders of Codemasters, were named Commanders of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). Read more about this outstanding honor after clicking below.

Players needing a housing specialist that doesn't require a 2% fee for helping find a house need to look up the latest Lord of the Rings Online NPC Badennas. Check out this lil gal after the jump.

Codemasters will be celebrating Fathers' Day in Lord of the Rings Online this coming Sunday, June 15, 2008. Fathers are invited to come participate in fishing, music and fireworks events. See the details by clicking below.

Turbine made an interesting announcement today:

Now you can download over 50 tunes from The Lord of the Rings Online™: Shadows of Angmar™ in .mp3 format! Featuring award-winning artist Chance Thomas as well as original compositions by Turbine, LOTRO has received wide-spread critical acclaim for its high audio quality and variety.

The LOTRO audio library is the first product to be distributed by the Turbine Download Manager, currently in a late Beta version. Ready to get started? Visit the Turbine Download Manager Beta forum for more information. This is a great opportunity for you to enjoy the tracks whenever, wherever you want and not just when you happen to visit Bree, Rivendell, Carn Dûm, or the Old Forest! Enjoy the music!

Interesting idea! I know a lot of people have been asking for the Tom Bombadil music, so now they can get it! You can find the downloader here.

Turbine let us know about some maintenance they have scheduled for Monday:

All Turbine services will be down on Monday June 9th from 7am - 11am Eastern (-4 GMT) for maintenance. During this time the game, billing and authentication servers will be offline. In addition, all Turbine forums will be viewable, but players may not be able to log into their accounts.

Might be a good time to head out and dodge some tornados!

Turbine's given us another look at one of the more intimidating creatures in their version of Middle-earth: Dour-root.

In out-of-the-way places dwell many ancient creatures, and numbered among them are the Huorns. Whether these creatures are trees that have been awakened or Ents that have become treeish is hard to say, but without the guidance of the Ents, they often become wild and dangerous, sometimes even black-hearted.

In Agamaur, one such Huorn guards the ways into Garth Agarwen, the stronghold of the Red-maid. Dour-root long dwelt in the presence of the River-maiden, who succumbed to the evils brought by the ancient wars with Rhudaur and Angmar. When she fell, so did Dour-root.

Dour-root was created by the developers at Turbine as one of the boss-monsters in the Lone-lands instance, Garth Agarwen. Players adventuring in Garth Agarwen should beware this vengeful creature of nature.

WarCry's Jordan Deam sits down with Jeffrey Steefel of Turbine to chat about recent and upcoming content in Lord of the Rings Online.

Turbine's taken a look at another resident of Middle-earth, one who has some specialised knowledge:

Many festivals come to the Bree Festival-grounds throughout the year, replete with food, drink, and merry-making of all sorts. No festival is complete without dancing, however, and that is where Dance Leader Ada Musgrove comes in. No one in all of Bree knows the dances of the Bree-folk as well as Ada, and she happily imparts her knowledge to any players who can keep in step.

Ada Musgrove was originally created by the designers of The Lord of the Rings Online™: Shadows of Angmar for the inaugural Summer Festival. As new festivals arrive at the Bree Festival-grounds, players should always watch for Ada and the opportunity to learn the dances of the Bree-folk!

Keeping in step isn't easy, either! I've tried!

Just in case you may not be aware, RoleCraft isn't the only place where you can find roleplaying related info on the interwebs. Of course you know that, and I'm only joking. During the course of my day, I am given and locating sites which are directly related to or merely referencing some aspect of roleplaying, and I consider it part of my duty to help keep you, my fellow roleplayers, informed as much as possible.

Turbine has released the next mini-game as part of their promotion for the upcoming expansion, The Mines of Moria:

Now that the dwarves have had their fun with Swig & Toss, it's time to give Hobbits what they love most: a game and a snack in one fell swoop! If that's not enough, playing Eleventy-Seven Morsels can earn you another star on the gate, which will unlock another exclusive poster featuring art from the upcoming expansion to The Lord of the Rings Online™: Mines of Moria™!

Based on an ancient board game, Eleventy-Seven Morsels is a Hobbit game, and everyone knows Hobbits like to eat! The game pieces are edible and each time a player starts a move, they suddenly have one less playing piece, conveniently saved for later in the Hobbit's snack sack. The game is easy to get into and fun to play, but may take time to master.

You can visit the official site here to try your hand at this...maybe I'll have better luck than drunken axe throwing!

Turbine's posted a closer look at one of the creatures that players can encounter in Lord of the Rings Online, Baugarch:

Wandering through the Chetwood and the Blackwold camp is a vile Warg that came with Éogan out of the North. Many an unwary woodsman has vanished in the Chetwood, taken by the evil Baugarch. Learn more about this terror in this week's content update!

Follow through to read more about this beast that terrorizes young players!

Turbine's turned their attention to one of the more infamous characters in Middle-earth's history, Gollum:

The tale of Gollum is sad and complicated. A poor creature named Sméagol enslaved and isolated by The One Ring; he was twisted in both mind and body. Learn more about the famous and complicated creature named Gollum.

You can read more after the jump!

Bree-town bully Bill Ferny is the subject of the latest lorebook update at the LotRO site.

Every town has its ruffians and rogues - bad apples, so to say. Bree-town has more than its fair share, but none with more of an ill name than Bill Ferny. Bill is known for his foul disposition, his rotten manners, and his ill treatment of both animals and people alike. Some believe he even has ties to the bands of brigands roaming the countryside beyond the town...

In recent days, unsavoury travellers have been seen passing in and out of Bill's home, beyond the Woodworker's Gate in Bree. He also takes long strolls outside the town walls late at night, with no word as to where he goes. His foul and secretive ways have caused the Bree-folk to shun him, leaving him free to do whatever mischief he desires.

Readers of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings will recognize Ferny as the scoundrel who sells Bill the Pony to Strider and the hobbits before they leave Bree, and who consorts with Saruman's brigands, helping them in their planned depredations in Bree-land and the Shire.

Sounds like someone to either: a) avoid; or b) beat the snot out of.

Since we are dealing with computer-generated cyber worlds that are more than likely not our own creations, there are certainly roadblocks and speed bumps in these games that challenge roleplayers to improvise and adapt. These game mechanics come with the nature of the beast, and many are very necessary to the operation of the games, and are often so obvious as to threaten to pull a roleplayer out of character. While they may not be pleasant to experience during roleplay, their effect in-game can be at least lessened through the lens of imaginative roleplaying.

Turbine let us know about some upcoming downtime:

The LOTRO game servers will be restarted on Monday, May 19 at 10:00AM Eastern (-4 GMT). We expect the servers to be back up by 10:30AM. Thanks for your patience, and we'll see you back in the game following the restart!

The latest "Point of Interest" (POI) posted in the official Lorebook is Gammy Bogg's Farm:

Many farmsteads lie on the outskirts of the village of Staddle, but none are as oft-visited as Gammy Boggs' farm. Gammy holds the unofficial but influential office of Town Gossip. If anyone wants news of the current happenings in Staddle, to Gammy's farm they go. Gammy also has some of the finest pipe-weed land in Staddle. Too old to raise a crop herself, she allows others to tend her fields . . . for a modest share of their profits, of course. Gammy Boggs and her farm were created by the developers of The Lord of the Rings Online™: Shadows of Angmar™. Players will encounter Gammy and her farm early in the game, and she'll waste no time putting idle hands to work!

If you don't like working, stay away from Gammy!

The official lorebook at LotRO has been updated with a look at NPC dwarven characters Dori, Nori, and Ori.

Dori and his brothers, Nori and Ori, were among the thirteen companions of the great Thorin Oakenshield on the Quest of Erebor. Dori was often responsible on that journey for keeping an eye out for the Company's burglar, the hobbit Bilbo Baggins. He proved quite dissatisfied with the task, but nonetheless tried his best.

Now he acts as an emissary to the dwarf-mines of Othrikar in the North Downs, investigating the troubles that have kept the mine unprofitable. His grumpy demeanour hides a keen wit that will no doubt uncover the dangers in the North . . . or get him into trouble himself.

Dori appeared first in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, prominently complaining throughout the book about having to carry Bilbo Baggins throughout various dangers (eventually dropping him in Goblin-town, leading to Bilbo's discovery of Gollum's Cave.) Players in LOTRO will meet and interact with Dori, both on and off the battlefield.

Nice to see the 'big boys' make it into the game. Cheers!

Turbine updated Book 13 with a patch today, fixing various things that had slipped through the cracks, and changing one feature that had a lot of players up in arms:

Fix for the horse whistle. There will now be two shorter and cleaner whistles only heard on the client-side. No more hearing entire groups whistle for their trusty steeds!

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

As game worlds become more and more advanced, they also grow larger and larger. The by-product of this improvement is the long distances that must be traveled between locations. For some reason, with this increase in world size, there is not a corresponding improvement in traveling systems. Indeed, there seems to be almost a perverse joy in sending players on quests that involve running back and forth between two distant points with no other objective but carrying a bickering message between a pair of NPCs.