Lord of the Rings Online

It's that time of year again in Middle-earth, as Turbine has blown the dust off Lord of the Rings Online's annual Spring Festival. A Casual Stroll to Mordor opines that this year's edition won't depart too much from years past, so you can expect to find the usual hedge maze, horse-racing, and Inn League shenanigans out in full force.

The site's annual festival guide isn't ready for prime time just yet, but you can check out the 2011 version while you wait for the update.

[Update: ACSTM's guide to the Spring Festival 2012]

You would think that growth and expansion is nothing but a good thing for MMOs -- after all, those are the hallmarks of the genre. But as these games get bigger, issues emerge as the developers add new zones, features, and systems. In short, maturing MMOs gravitate toward complexity, and this can have an adverse effect on the game as a whole.

The problem is that there is eventually too much a brand-new player has to absorb and master, not to mention the hassle of rolling alts and having to navigate all of that content once more. If developers don't stay on top of the situation, then the game starts to lose overall cohesion and becomes a befuddling mess.

With three expansions and numerous updates under its belt, Lord of the Rings Online is venturing deep into this territory. I have friends who are leveling up for the first time and finding themselves overwhelmed with everything that needs doing as well as all the systems that are not clearly explained. So today I want to play backseat developer and talk about five ways that LotRO should be streamlined for the good of all players, old and new.

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Massively Speaking Episode 201 gets into all of your dirty little secrets -- not to mention Funcom's, as well! We're joined by Jef, who gives us the full scoop on The Secret World now that the NDA's come tumbling down. Will this be another Failcom or possibly a Fabulouscom? Only Jef knows, and he's highly resistant to torture and bribery.

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Lord of the Rings Online's Update 7 is upon us, and it's established itself as taking a step forward... and a step back into the past. Featuring a new skirmish, a revamp of both Moria and the old Fornost instance, and an interesting addition to the legendary item system, Update 7 has a smattering of both endgame and mid-game content for most players to enjoy.

As always, it's worth combing through the notes for the smaller changes. Some of these include new and updated maps, friendlier Elves in Lothlorien who won't shoot you on sight, and Audacity lowering power costs in PvMP.

The official patch notes are up and the game will have the servers patched up by mid-morning. In the meantime, make sure to read up on what we think of the update's big selling points in our recent Road to Mordor column.

Without fail, the second I'm done writing this column for Massively, Turbine releases the big news of a major patch, and I have to wait a whole week to talk about it. In the case of Lord of the Rings Online's Update 7, I'm not that upset. I definitely was underwhelmed by it all initially, but now that I have had a whole week to digest it, read through the test server notes, and scope out the Moria dev diary that was posted, I feel like I'm in a much better position to talk about it.

So what does this game update mean for you? That's a good question, and it really depends on where you are in your leveling journey. New players won't be fazed by it whatsoever, but both mid-game and endgame adventurers are going to have some new (and reworked) content to devour. I am heartened that Turbine doesn't have tunnel-vision for the endgame and is still willing to go back and examine what does and doesn't work about its earlier content.

So let's walk through the major highlights of Update 7: Shades of the Past and give it the ol' Road to Mordor analysis, shall we?

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"Fornost was designed and built in a different era of MMO," Turbine's devs said about the newly revised dungeon. "It is time for Fornost to join the modern MMO world." With Fornost slated for a massive overhaul with Update 7, the team posted a developer diary to explain the history of the instance and its hopeful future.

The third instance ever created for Lord of the Rings Online will be chopped up from its current super-long state to four manageable dungeons. The devs said that it was designed from an EverQuest mindset of long dungeon crawls, but so much has changed over time and most players no longer have the time or effort to conquer it.

With Update 7, Fornost will turn into four element-themed six-person dungeons. Each of these dungeons should take well less than an hour to complete and scale from level 30 to 75 with two tiers of difficulty. The team's reworked positioning, bosses, and quests to reflect the upgraded experience. For those who might miss the old Fornost, the team says that playing all four instances back-to-back will replicate the grand tour that it used to be.

Turbine's been pumping out a bunch of screenshots for its Dungeons and Dragons Online expansion lately, so it's only natural that Lord of the Rings Online gets equal treatment. While Update 7 isn't a full-blown expansion, it is a pretty significant content drop that is focused on revamping Moria and Fornost.

Today's gallery features a look at the update's new skirmish, which pits players against a sorceress named Gwyllion at the southern end of the Misty Mountains. The Storm on Methedras instance supports one to 12 players and is designed for levels 70 to 75.

[Source: Turbine press release]

It's been several years since I played Lord of the Rings Online on a daily basis. For the most part, I'm loving my latest Middle-earth rediscovery tour. After the initial honeymoon phase wore off, though, I did re-encounter some of the things that irritate me about the game (in particular, Turbine's fondness for artificially limiting progression).

Now, I'm not a grinder at all, but on the rare occasions when I do want to put my nose to the proverbial stone and check some things off the list, there's nothing more frustrating than running up against the you-can't-advance-that-skill-any-further-today brick wall. This type of arbitrary limitation is somewhat common in LotRO, and whether we're talking about fishing or even the lengthy cool-downs on festival horse races, it rubs me the wrong way to have my gameplay directed in such a fashion.

What about you, Massively readers? Do progression barriers annoy you, or do you shrug it off and do something else?

Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!

Does Lord of the Rings Online's Moria benefit from a brighter night-light? The folks over at A Casual Stroll to Mordor went on the test server to investigate just how different the underground zones look now that Turbine's gone back to give the area additional lighting effects.

The fansite examines four different locales on both the live and test server and took screenshots to document the changes. The Great Delving, Silvertine Lodes, The Waterworks, and Durin's Way are the stops on the tour, and out of all of them, Silvertine is the most noticeably brighter.

"While playing, I can say that I do feel like it's easier to see," Goldenstar writes. "I don't know if I would fall into 'it's too bright' category. It still feels like Moria to me."

A revamp to half of Moria is planned with Update 7. Head on over and check out the differences for yourself!

More than any other MMO I've played, Lord of the Rings Online seems to draw out player events like crazy. Maybe it's the setting, Tolkien's world-building, the renaissance fair outfits, or the disproportionately large RP crowd, but LotRO seems to be graced with far more of these kinds of player-driven initiatives than elsewhere.

As such, today I wanted to scout around the forums and official calendar to highlight a few of the many, many events that festoon this great game of ours. These are great to check out, particularly when you're a little bored with the same-old, same-old of questing, raiding, skirmishing, or PvMPing. The ingenuity and spirit of these events is often quite infectious, and I never regret going to one once I make the effort.

So check out seven great player events in LotRO, coming to a server near you!

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Since the word came down recently that Turbine is revamping much of Lord of the Rings Online's Moria, players have been buzzing about the merits and scope of such a project. Content Developer Lauren Salk posted an article on the official site explaining the reasoning behind the decision as well as the specific changes involved.

Salk said that Turbine wanted to respond to player complaints about the difficulty and pace of Moria's leveling experience. She admits that the quests did not always lead to the best places and resulted in a frustrating stint underground instead of an amazing journey. Salk confessed that the zone even frustrated her mother, who never made it all the way through.

With Update 7, LotRO will update half of Moria, while the latter half will come later on down the road. In addition to a smoother quest flow, additional quests, and an easier difficulty level, Turbine's adding tasks for all to enjoy.

Travel through Moria will become more pleasant, as the lighting will be adjusted, additional stable routes added, monsters moved out of the major pathways, and a no-reputation goat made available from the start.

Even a good anniversary celebration can't delay Turbine from delivering the content through snow, rain, and volcanic ash from Mount Doom. The team has posted an outline of Lord of the Rings Online's next content patch, Update 7, with word that it will go to the test server soon.

Update 7: Shades of the Past promises to add a new endgame skirmish called Storm on Methedras. The skirmish will be free for VIP players and tasks groups of one to 12 players with taking on Saruman's ally, Gwyllion, in the Misty Mountains.

The update will also contain two huge renovations to existing content. Turbine will be divvying up the massive Fornost dungeon into four scalable instances accessible from levels 30 on up. More importantly, the team is renovating great parts of Moria with better graphics and a smoother quest flow.

There's a good chance you're not reading this column right now but instead are fully immersed in the weekend beta for Guild Wars 2: Guild Harder. That's OK. I won't hold it against you -- I may even be playing it as well. Oh, those ArenaNet folks. They make such lofty promises, don't they? They're going to rewrite MMOs as we know them and show us once and for all that we've been playing with Tinker Toys when we could have fully functional jetpacks and whatnot.

I don't harbor any ill will against Guild Wars 2; in fact, I'm quite looking forward to it. But as everyone's focused on the game's excising of traditional questing as popularized by World of Warcraft, I thought it would be worth examining just how dated Lord of the Rings Online's questing system has become, if at all.

In an era of dynamic events, public quests, full voice-over, and other techniques designed to get us away from the text box questing model, will LotRO hold its ground against these fads or is it truly becoming a relic of the past? Let's dig in!

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Still working feverishly on your Eriador Cartographile title? Take heart (and take a breather) because Turbine has just announced that it is extending Lord of the Rings Online's fifth anniversary festival.

This weekend was originally slated to mark the end of beer brawling and mass firework displays, but now the tomfoolery will continue through May 9th. If you're a festival newb and in need of some direction, A Casual Stroll to Mordor has a pretty extensive guide to point you on your way. You might also want to check out the LotRO wiki for a complete list of items attainable via the various festival quests and activities.

It's confession time, folks. I change MMOs like most people change socks, so while many of my colleagues write about their long-term MMO love and possibly a backup game or two in this column, I'm more inclined to write about four different titles in as many weeks. In fact, by the time you finish reading this, I may well have moved on to something else.

That's OK, though, and that's one of the great things about the modern MMO space: There are just so damn many games that there's really no excuse for ever getting bored. And this week's infatuation is Lord of the Rings Online.

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