I don't usually follow dev diaries and things, but I looked at this one for fun, and found it to be well-written and interesting, so thanks for that Massively

"In retrospect, we might have reduced the scope of the Mirkwood region in order to focus our resources more and go for a somewhat shorter experience with more color and depth, knowing that the Skirmish system was going to help fill in for quite a bit of hack-and-slash game play."

I for one would rather have a fuller Mirkwood experience than a more detailed Skirmish system; the latter doesn't interest me nearly as much as the former.