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The Road to Mordor: Festivals and you -- a love story

Justin Olivetti — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Events, in-game, Free-to-play, The Road to Mordor

It's a shame that Lord of the Rings Online's fourth anniversary will probably be remembered more for being a mismanaged festival event than for the achievement that reaching four years signifies. But things are as they are, and the "Grindaversary" has now gone down in LotRO's history of what not to do for an event.

If you're only tangentially tuning in to the LotRO news these days, last week Turbine launched its first anniversary celebration in the game (previous anniversaries were marked only by gift tokens dropping in the world). The celebration was a lesser type of festival that borrowed elements from previous events, namely, the horse races and the beer brawl. Players were challenged to participate in both to gain tokens to acquire special rewards, such as a new horse mount, housing decorations, and cosmetic outfits.

The problem was twofold: The tokens were gained so slowly that it took a long time to get enough for even one moderately priced reward, and the only endlessly repeatable activity (the beer brawl) could be failed if you were knocked out of the area by another player. As a result, players heavily protested what should've been a fun time and Turbine ended up with egg on its face.

In participating myself, talking with friends, and reading through the many, many responses to the event, I got to thinking about how Turbine's approached festivals over the past year or so and how the studio can learn from this to avoid another stumble.

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The Road to Mordor: Festivals and you -- a love story originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 29 Apr 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Road to Mordor: A year in Middle-earth

Justin Olivetti — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Free-to-play, The Road to Mordor

What a difference a year makes, eh? One year ago, and you didn't have to put up with me yammering at you every Friday like a hyperactive badger with a personality disorder. One year ago, and we weren't free-to-play-anything, Turbine was its own company, the festivals were nowhere near as cool as they are today, and shrews freely roamed the land without fear of reprisal.

So in my last Road to Mordor (of the year, stop rejoicing over there!), I thought it'd be great to look back at the wild rollercoaster that was 2010 in Lord of the Rings Online. I also thought I'd get an easy column out of all this, but that was before I had to read through 1,337 posts and my eyeballs began to lose pressure.

January

Stuff happened. Let's move on.

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The Road to Mordor: A year in Middle-earth originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 31 Dec 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Road to Mordor: Figgy pudding

Justin Olivetti — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Galleries, Lord of the Rings Online, Events, in-game, Free-to-play, The Road to Mordor

For those of us who celebrate the holidays, right now is an insanely busy time of the year. There are presents to be wrapped, eggnog to be nogged, and looks of annoyance to be thrown at the radio when the music station decides to play that Do They Know It's Christmas? song for the sixth time that hour.

It also means that winter holidays are hitting most major MMOs, including our beloved Lord of the Rings Online. This year, the Yule Festival is marked by the addition of a whole new area -- Winter-home -- and players are already neck-deep in the quests, snowball fights and theatrical hilarity. Turbine's done a spectacular job this year infusing a lot more life and fun into the festivals, from the shrew stomping this past spring to the Haunted Burrow this fall. Winter-home is, in many ways, a perfect capstone to a terrific year for the game, and it's a pretty enjoyable event from what I've seen so far.

So grab that cute Hobbit or Dwarf and join me as we travel to the merriment of Winter-home this week!

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The Road to Mordor: Figgy pudding originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 17 Dec 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Road to Mordor: A day at the festival

Justin Olivetti — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Events, in-game, Humor, 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 a well-known fact that whenever the country fair or spring festival comes around to Middle-earth, even big bad Sauron takes a day off from pestering hobbits, disguises himself as a schoolmarm, and enjoys the sights, sounds and tastes of these celebrations. I'm telling you, the dude has a cotton candy craving that is insatiable!

As such, I feel perfectly justified in also taking my union-approved break from being a mass-murder machine to take in the wonders of LotRO's spring festival. After packing three light lunches (I am one of the Little Folk, after all) and equipping myself with A Casual Stroll to Mordor's excellent Spring Festival guide, I was off, giddy as a little schoolgirl.

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The Road to Mordor: A day at the festival originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 26 Mar 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LotRO Spring Festival 2010: Shrewmageddon

Justin Olivetti — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Guides

Even the most dour dwarf or happy hobbit must take a break now and then from questing for a time of merriment, games and celebration. After all, we're pretty sure that the Enemy is a big killjoy, so what better way to spit in his eye than celebrate the life and beauty of the season with LotRO's Spring Festival?

Starting today, LotRO players can hop around to this expanded festival, which includes group dancing, a mysterious hedge maze, shrew stomping, food, drink and more! There's a lot of great rewards for the dedicated party-goer, including the opportunity to grab a fish and slap a friend.

Hit the jump for help in navigating this festival, as well as brand-new pictures of the event!

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LotRO Spring Festival 2010: Shrewmageddon originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 23 Mar 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LotRO tames the shrew in a new dev diary

Justin Olivetti — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 21:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Events, in-game

"Festivals are surprisingly brutal to make!" confesses Turbine's Lauren Salk. It turns out that she loves doing them anyway, and in a recent Lord of the Rings Online dev diary, she opens up on the process of creating and adding on to one of the game's landmark holidays.

Ever since 2008, LotRO's Spring Festival has added more casual content for players to romp through and enjoy. Last year it was a hedge maze -- this year, it's all about the Shew Stomping. Lauren is careful to note that no shrews are actually killed as players step on them with special boots (they're just knocked out!), so don't feel too bad for these garden invaders. She laments how difficult it was to program shrews that attack and could be attacked by players of any level.

If shrew stompin' isn't your thing, there are plenty of other activities in which to partake. "Between the shrews, the Hedge Maze, the Feast of the Greenfields, and all the other games, you should have plenty to keep you occupied for the next month," Lauren promises. LotRO's Spring Festival runs from March 23-April 6.

Gallery: LotRO Spring Festival Housing Items

LotRO tames the shrew in a new dev diary originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 19 Mar 2010 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Road to Mordor: Massively tour of LotRO Volume III Book 1

Dan O'Halloran — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Galleries, Lord of the Rings Online, Patches, Previews, Crafting, Hands-on, The Road to Mordor

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

Lord of the Rings Online Volume III: Allies of the King is kicking off Book 1: Oath of the Rangers on the live servers this Monday, March 1st. Massively got to sit down with a LotRO dev for a tour of the new content. But before we jump in to that, a quick note about content patches.

There have been some complaints on the official forums that this content update doesn't include a new land mass to explore. But the history of content updates for LotRO shows a pattern of only adding land mass every other update. Since the last update was a full expansion with the introduction of Mirkwood, it follows that this one would not include new lands.

That being said, there are many new areas to explore. The devs have created new instances in the "old world" for you to enjoy as part of the new Volume III epic quest line. So while this update doesn't deliver Rohan, it does have new dungeons to explore as well as a new Skirmish.

The tour (with some mild spoilers) starts after the jump!

Continue reading The Road to Mordor: Massively tour of LotRO Volume III Book 1

The Road to Mordor: Massively tour of LotRO Volume III Book 1 originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 26 Feb 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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