Eurogamer
is reporting that Turbine has revealed their plans for a Facebook-like social networking site centered around
Lord of the Rings Online. The website would launch sometime in Q4 and basically track everything a player does across multiple characters by being
directly connected to the game. It'll also feature the kinds of things we all expect from a social networking site such as friends lists, communication tools and even the ability to upload pictures and videos. Similar websites are said to be planned for
Dungeons & Dragons Online and
Asheron's Call sometime soon as well. Turbine also seems to be planning on advertising on these websites, which is a pretty clever way to introduce advertising into their games without ruining the experience.
Facebook and other sites like it can be
a surprisingly strong tool for creating communities around just about anything. So we're admittedly excited about this announcement, because anything that can create a more tightly-knit community in an MMO is hugely important as far as we're concerned.
