Viggo Mortensen has been honoured for his work in film. The actor took to the red carpet in Hollywood as the American Film Institute (AFI) held a special evening in his honour as part of the AFI Festival, accompanying a screening of his new movie The Road. “It’s a team sport making movies,” said Viggo, [...]

TORN Pal and author Ethan Gilsdorf has agreed to blog his West coast book tour for us! Take a look at his first blog: One of the joys of traveling across the US on tour for my book FANTASY FREAKS AND GAMING GEEKS: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role Players, Online Gamers, and Other [...]

Ian McKellen is going back to drama school, for television. The thesp has signed to star in a half-hour mockumentary series, “The Academy,” that is being shopped to U.K. and U.S. buyers by DLT Entertainment. McKellen would play his fictional brother, Murray McKellen, who heads a run-down drama school, the Clapham Academy of Creative [...]

From english.people.com.cn: U.S. producer-director Peter Jackson is expected to be in China in late November to promote his latest project – “District 9,” which will be released across the country on Nov. 27, the Oriental Morning Post reports. The director of the “Lord of Rings” series will visit Beijing and Shanghai to interact with moviegoers. [...]

Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Expansions, News items We've been enjoying the gorgeous screenshots and trailers from Turbine in the weeks leading up to the release of Lord of the Rings Online: Siege of Mirkwood, and the latest LotRO developer diary gives a behind the scenes look at creating the regions in Mirkwood. Jesse "Vastin" Kings writes about the fun the team had getting to play with new areas, monsters, and quests, and the challenge of balancing those plans with the available resources. Working with the original Lord of the Rings story line posed another challenge sometimes when it came to filling in the game and still remaining true to Tolkien. Of course, not everything was on the showy, fun, creative side: "...it might interest you to know that the single largest share of all the time I've spent working on Mirkwood was in trying to figure out and implement ways to keep our servers from being reduced to piles of smoking slag within hours of Siege of Mirkwood going live and all of you hurling yourselves at it at once." The full entry can be read here.Lord of the Rings Online dev diary tells of creating Mirkwood originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read�|�Permalink�|�Email this�|�Comments

Filed under: Fantasy, Screenshots, Lord of the Rings Online, Expansions The Lord of the Rings Online expansion Siege of Mirkwood is set for release at the beginning of December, and Turbine takes us farther into the forest of Mirkwood today with brand new screenshots of the Ashenslades region. It's a bit farther in -- you can see Dol Guldur looming in the background -- and looks more dark and foreboding than our look at the somewhat-sunnier Scuttledells region. The Ashenslades name fits what the screenshots show -- take a look at the forest in flames in one picture, and what appear to be burned and blackened trees in the background of another one. This is the fourth region that Turbine has shown us in our tour of Mirkwood, giving us glimpses of Dol Guldur, Gathburz, and the Scuttledells regions in previous weeks. Monday's release of a trailer gave us a bit more of a look into Dol Guldur as well. We have just over three weeks until the release of Siege of Mirkwood, and hopefully Turbine will continue their previews to make the wait go by a little faster. Gallery: Lord of the Rings Online: Siege of Mirkwood Ashenslades regionNew screenshots for Lord of the Rings Online: Siege of Mirkwood originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read�|�Permalink�|�Email this�|�Comments

Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Expansions, Game mechanics "Let's be honest, people play new content for the rewards." Perhaps not the most uplifting or metaphorical way to start off a developer diary, but if nothing else you need to give Lord of the Rings Online credit for being so direct about it. But with the most recent developer diary regarding the Skirmish system coming in the Siege of Mirkwood expansion, they really deserve still more credit than that. One of the larger new features of the upcoming expansion, the Skirmish system has had a number of diaries devoted to it, but this one is focused on exactly what the opening would suggest: the meaty rewards from taking part. Some of the specifics might seem a bit arcane to people unfamiliar with Lord of the Rings Online, but the short version is that the various bosses and so forth will be devoid of any loot except for what's referred to as skirmish marks. Accumulating them as well as special tokens depending on group size and skirmish difficulty will allow purchases from a wide variety of powerful items. However, the system is balanced so that even consistently solo players can still work toward the highest tier of rewards, although the road will be quite a bit longer. There's only so much we can get across in a quick overview -- it's better to take a look at the actual diary and get ready for one of the more dynamic systems coming with Siege of Mirkwood.Lord of the Rings Online explains skirmish rewards originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read�|�Permalink�|�Email this�|�Comments

Legendary weapons were a wonderful addition to LOTRO. Some claim the system is broken, or a game breaker, but I disagree…at least for now. For example, as much as I liked this post, I do not agree with allowing players legendary weapons earlier than level 45. My greatest fear is that upcoming changes may lead players to discard these gems. There is nothing worse than working hard to get radiance gear or a First Age Weapon (FAW) only to dismantle it because the developers want to march us further into Middle Earth and up the level ladder. My suggestions also have positive implications by linking them to players in different ways. So, here are my simple ideas for 2^nd and 1^st age weapons.

Customizability: Weapons should have a little more customizability. Maybe this would be some control over legacies or the visual effect (ooooh, a yellow glow!). The ability to name your item is fantastic but more control would be double delicious.

Player Forged: Weaponsmithing has been crippled by the FAW system. Let weapon crafters take some part in the process. Allow them to do new reforging at level 5, 15, 25, 35, 45. Or maybe visual effects and added bonuses are only available via weapon smiths. We could even make the FAW NPCs expensive and allow weapon smiths the chance to do the same thing for less. Weaponsmiths could be responsible for crafting components necessary for such upgrades. Why not include Lore Masters in the mix with the ability to craft the runes, settings, and gems? Clearly there would be many balance issue but that’s Turbine’s job

Show Off! Let us bring the gloat boat into harbor now and again. First, make the FAW stand out a little by providing diversity of design. Make them visually obvious in-game. I got my first FAW the other day but no one can appreciate my little song book unless they inspect me. Snoops! Second, create a second weapon’s panel that you can link to players. This would be a 3D rotating close-up that showcases everything about the implement: design, statistics, effects, etc. Why not add a history panel that players can edit?

Stability: Don’t make FAWs any easier to get than they will be in Book 8 but insure us that they can stay with us, grow with us, and become our most cherished item. You don’t think Bilbo is going to turn in Sting, his legendary weapon found on the trolls, do you?

When I have been slaving away at the “Turtle Instance” and I see the upcoming changes in Book 8, I become a bit sad for times gone by. The good news is that the sadness passes because Turbine is making this easier. The melancholy lingers if you have been grinding away for First Ages. If you read the section on First Age Legendary Weapons you can see the HUGE statistical difference between pre-post Book 8. Wow! I guess my question is…Why make the drops so horrid in the first place? Turbine expected players to do an average of 100 runs (at 0.8% of a drop you can use) to get a First Age? That seems punitive for the sake of being punitive. Is Turbine run by my 4th grade teacher? I know their philosophy on starting out with the hard core players in mind and easing up, over time, for the more casual players, but this seems unreasonable. The raids that drop those items are already radiance gated so this strikes me as a bit much. Had I known the odds were this bad I would have moved on to other things after experiencing VM and Turtle once.

I always support the refinement of terms so the article “WoW, Casually: What is casual?” was a fun read as it attempted to clarify the definition of the “Hard Core” MMO player. The only thing I could add to this well constructed article is the idea that maybe a categorical (2 group) system is not adequate. Obviously, for ease-of-conversation it makes more sense than using a continuum or range of “hardcoreness.” However, hard core vs. non-hard core is probably too simplistic. The language and mentality just happen to be rooted in the MMO culture deeper than that chasm of Khazad-dûm. Nonetheless, it seems that even a non-raider could be hard core if they sink as much time into questing and crafting, especially if they are passionate about the game. If, as the author (Robin Torres) says, having a yardstick of measurement for “better and worse” is the key variable we simply have to add more variables: time spent, items crafted, marriages ruined (kidding), gold earned, weapons advanced, characters at level cap, PvP rank, passion, etc. Measuring this is clearly difficult. It could end up looking like the Drake Equation but let’s keep forging the term. Who knows, maybe we’ll get a new legacy out of it!?

Praise to Vala and the new in-game GPS to be featured in busty Book 7. We’re going to get a visual quest tracker with aids in the form of arrows for quest locations and NPCs. For those who think this makes the game too easy I say “meh” to your elitist espousal. There is an option to turn it off. Issue closed. For those of us with major cortical memory leaks this is the perfect way to ease the agony of finding that blathering dwarf who’s taken refuge down a dark hole in Timbuktu. Once you’ve played through the game a couple times the LOTRO GPS becomes a beacon of guidance direct from Illuin and Ormal.

Now if they will just fix the travel routs I will be Turbines best friend. And I still hate the direction of the crafting changes. But wait, this is a positive post! I will be positive. I will, I will, I will…in-game GPS!

There are so many things to focus on with this huge update. Most of the changes appear to be good to OM-Freaking-G excellent! However, I do have concerns about the crafting changes. They are making things too easy instead of giving us more options for crafting quality items. See the idea of Crafting Instances that will make all materials easier to come by and therefore lower market prices. Also see the Crafting Section for all the details. I just question the decision to make things more accessible verses more worth the effort.

The Champion is to _____ play as the Minstrel is to _____ play. If you answered solo/group then you know where I’m going with this diatribe. My main is a Champ so I’m used to cutting through orc hide like Richard Simmons through quality TV. I really love playing the Mini but the tedium of waiting around for DPS/Protection help has turned me into a mouth breathing chair potato. Here I am, spamming my willingness to lick wounds and no one bites. When people want a healer for instances I know they’ll be sending those golden “tells” to get my attention, but where are they now? Part of this is no doubt the lack of traffic in the mid-ranged areas. Most people are now off venturing, it seems, in Moria territory.

By the way, it occurred to me to complain about this because a Good Samaritan named Tubolard joined me in the Misty Mountains after I pleaded to the ether for help. He stated that he felt my pain as a frequent player of a Minstrel. “It’s slow going,” he said. I really enjoy healing in a full group, maybe more than I have being the double fisted blade master as a Champion. However, the waiting part is a bit anti-game for me. It’s hot and cold without Minstrel love.

Every now and then you find a resource that is so helpful it would be wrong not to pass it along. If you want the best information on virtues, PvMP, hidden emote deeds, and Warden gambits BurgZerg is the one-stop website for you. Head over to BurgZerg now, create a membership (you don’t have to be a member to use the site), and get the scoop. It works brilliantly on a 2nd monitor while playing LOTRO. Explore the interface, you won’t be sorry.

It can be argued that MMOs are a microcosm of so-called “real life” (seriously, it’s all real life, right? Otherwise, we’re talking about death). If the idea holds, it simply means that a sampling of in-game behavior represents the person behind the avatar. In a concrete way this makes sense as you see personalities outshine pixels. In my experience most LOTRO people in-game are kind and helpful, maybe more so than any other game I have played. This post is not about them. It is about those known as “resource pigs” or in this case the “ore pig.”

The ore pig is an opportunist who exploits others when they can. Most people would agree that racing to a resource like wood or ore is a fair contest. The competition is clear – first one there, wins. I hate losing that race but it’s part of the game. You move on until you find an uncontested node. On some occasions a mob interrupts you from extracting the goodies. It is at this moment an ore pig strikes. In this case it was Tulipia on the Brandywine server who swooped in and took the ore I was fighting for.

I messaged the culprit. Tulipia said he did not see me complaining when we were racing to nodes earlier. I don’t remember that but the rule is always in place: a race is a race but you don’t ninja ore that someone is fighting for. An attempt at explaining the difference between the two scenarios fell on a dull cortex. Someone’s parents had failed him. It is difficult to understand this vulture mentality in, well…non-vultures. There is strong evidence that most people understand these simple rules. Almost everyone passes by when they see someone fighting next to a pointy node. I would guess approximately 97% of people in that situation understand this.

Once I stopped to help a person in such a fight. I then got yelled at for trying to take the ore so I explained that I had not in fact taken anything but was mounting up to leave. It just goes to show how frustrating the situation can be.

Right and wrong are not obvious to everyone. In LOTRO the best we can do is use the ignore list and hope not to cross paths with such hateful hogs.

If anyone is interested in how to build wealth in LOTRO while you play the game naturally I have posted a guide at my Kinship website, the Council of Eriador. See the FORUM post here.

I made a really dumb mistake. Maybe you can avoid this one if I put it out there, but you’re probably smarter than me to begin with so you won’t do this. As many people know, you can get a goat mount in Moria. To do so you must be KINDRED status with the Iron Garrison MINERS (see rewards here) and not the Iron Garrison Guards. I pumped all my rep items into the wrong place. While I’m kindred with the guards, I can’t get the mount until I now become popular enough with the miners so they trust me with their livestock. I hate buying reputation items so it means more quests and grinding places like the 16th Hall. The Iron Garrison Miners got my goat and they’re not giving it up because they know I misplaced my priorities with the Guards. Huff!