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The Road to Mordor: Homeless in Middle-earth

Justin Olivetti — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Player Housing, The Road to Mordor

Every Friday, The Road to Mordor brings you the latest in Lord of the Rings Online news, guides and analysis.

It's always amusing to me when the Turbine team gets decked out in leather, waves around their riding crops and starts abducting members of the public for their innocuous "surveys." Okay, maybe that's just how I mentally envision them going about the task - and I'm sure that says a lot about the state of my mental health these days.

However it happens in reality, Turbine's pretty good at soliciting player opinion on improving the game, and last week we saw them post a thread in the forums entitled "Tell the Community Team - New and Revamped Systems" to do just that. They basically asked players to comment on what game systems they'd like to see improved, what new systems should be implemented, and what regular systems they never use due to time or other factors. PvMP, Radiance gear and Legendary Items were off the table for discussion, but all else was fair game.

I started to tally all these up, but that was an insane task, which I realized only after filling up an entire sheet of paper while I was only on page 5 out of 39 of the thread. Besides, the overwhelming theme of the thread quickly made itself known: players want housing fixed, and in a bad, bad way. So, hey, let's look at the Middle-earth housing crisis this week, and see how we can make it better.

Continue reading The Road to Mordor: Homeless in Middle-earth

The Road to Mordor: Homeless in Middle-earth originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 16 Apr 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVE Online Community Spotlight: a Q&A with Chribba

James Egan — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:30:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Interviews

Trust is a rare commodity in EVE Online. Many players are drawn to the game by the fact that almost any form of deceit, betrayal, and outright treachery is allowed in EVE. Not all players head down this path, of course, but plenty do. This element of risk is what makes the game exciting, but even those who are wary of the online personas of some EVE players may still find themselves getting backstabbed and robbed, or worse. Many in EVE have learned to profit from the misfortunes of others. However, this social environment has created certain opportunities for individuals who are able to establish their credibility over time, and through great effort.

Among the most trustworthy in EVE Online is Chribba, a player who's very active in the community and provides a number of services to EVE fans, free of charge. Helped by Chribba's efforts, EVE Online has expanded into a game where players become auteurs, creating videos and sharing their in-game pursuits with others, either for their own glory or their organization's propaganda. Of course, his contributions don't end there, as most everyone in the EVE community knows. Massively recently caught up with Chribba and asked him to share a bit about what he does for the EVE player base, and why he does it.

Continue reading EVE Online Community Spotlight: a Q&A with Chribba

EVE Online Community Spotlight: a Q&A with Chribba originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LotRO EU dev chat reveals Book 13 details

Dan O'Halloran — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 18:30:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Interviews, Patches, Previews, Grouping, Player Housing

At the end of every month the Lord of the Rings Online Europe team sits down for a dev chat. February's happened last night at Stratics and this time we got some juice on the upcoming Book 13 content patch. Here are the highlights:

Book 13 will contain a new area to explore that is bigger than Evendim but have a different climate than the recent heavy emphasis on snowy mountains
No new 12 or 24 man raids will be introduced. (Note: The recently launched Book 12 introduced new raid content for those hungry for more large group encounters.)
6 man instances work will be limited to the Book 13 continuation of the epic storyline as well as retuning the existing Annuminas 1 group instances.
New armor sets are coming to primaily address playstyles not served by existing armor sets
Housing is changing in regards to non-payment. Instead of losing your house and all your items going into escrow, non-payment of the maintenance fee will simply lock you out of your house until you can pay. Your house remains and all your items remain within while you are locked out. Only houses that are abandoned will have their items placed in escrow.
The ability to turn off the graphic of certain item slots will be independent for each Outfit
New non-combat clothing will be coming as well as headgear that doesn't cover your characters hair (i.e. Circlets.)

The devs also talked about technology being implemented into the game that will allow them to work in new functionality. Here are some of the features they would like to add at that point:

More character slots
Guild banks
Sending multiple items in the mail at once

Expect dev diaries to start appearing soon detailing the major features of the patch as we get closer to its arrival on the Test server. A full transcript of this dev chat can be found at Stratics.

Gallery: Lord of the Rings Online Player Housing

LotRO EU dev chat reveals Book 13 details originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 28 Feb 2008 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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