Today saw the release of a Dev Diary “Introducing Dol Guldur” by Tsieng Liu of the LOTRO Dungeons Team (wow, I bet that’s an awesome team to work on), discussing different topics including how the dungeon area is laid out, a brief look at the dungeons and how they will work.  I personally have been blowing off the potential of end game dungeon crawling and raiding, but I have to say that this post has me rather excited!

So the breakdown of the fortress is as follows:

• Three 3-person dungeons:
  • The Dungeons of Dol Guldur
  • The Sword-hall of Dol Guldur
  • The Warg-pens of Dol Guldur
• One 6-person dungeon, Sammath Gul
• One 12-person raid, Barad Guldur

Tsieng describes the different dungeons, showing how the Dungeon Team really tried to ensure that the 3-person dungeons weren’t designed around the typical group make-up (tank, healer, DPS).  So for “The Dungeons of Dol Guldur” the fellowship will find themselves primarily avoiding mobs rather than killing them in order to free prisoners located within the instance.  If you are caught, you are put in jail which reduces the amount of prisoners you are able to free… Read More

Two charity auctions have been started on eBay by Xconomy Boston and The Ablegamers Foundation.  The Ablegamers Foundation is a nonprofit organization that strives to bring games to those who are disabled, while Xconomy is donating 100% of their proceeds from this auction to the Greater Good and Science Club for Girls.  Both are great causes and could use the help.  So please at least take a look and see if either is something that you would like or that maybe would make a great gift for someone you know.  Also, well done Turbine for taking the time out of your schedule to make a difference.

Xconomy Auction	Ablegamers Auction

Today we saw another feature Dev Diary from Zombie Columbus (the second to last one on Skirmishes!) talking about the accessibility of the Skirmish System in the upcoming expansion, Siege of Mirkwood.  He talks about their decision to make Skirmishes available through a new UI component called Skirmish-join which can be accessed once a (character?) has finished the Skirmish tutorial.  He gives in-depth description of the features of the UI which was discussed in the third Skirmish Diary.

There will also be restrictions on when the interface can be used (it cannot be used in an instance, PvMP, or while in combat) and there will be a queue system during times of high server volume.  Players will join a Skirmsh by use of a “Travel Now” UI that will pop up after the leader presses the “Create” button in their own Skirmish-join UI.  There will also be an alert  icon for any member that joins the Fellowship after the initial creation of the Skirmish; which once pressed will bring up a UI with the name of the Skirmish and all relative information.  However, please note that there is a timer that will expire the invitation if the Skirmish is not joined within a certain amount of time (which appears to be 5 minutes).  Once a player has finished a Skirmish, they will be placed in the exact spot from where they joined the Skirmish.

If defeated in a Skirmish, players will not incur Dread nor retreat, but instead will receive a stacking de-buff that reduces the amount of Skirmish Marks they receive upon completing the Skirmish, when it will then be removed (meaning the more you die in a Skirmish,… Read more after the jump

OK, so here’s the deal.  I usually don’t endorse copying someone’s ideas.  However, there is one area where I think that we can learn from someone else and copy them and that’s in MMO’s.  In fact, I would say that copying or incorporating other ideas is encouraged by game players who are constantly comparing game features from one developer to another’s.  So it is in that spirit that I am encouraging Turbine to take a look at these features and think about incorporating them into their already fantastic game.

Now I don’t mean that LOTRO should make itself a WarCraft clone.  Obviously I prefer LOTRO to WarCraft since that’s my game of choice.  Goldenstar and myself put a lot of effort into our site and podcast, which is not something we did in any previous game (to this degree); and it’s because we love the game, the community, and all that goes with it.  But there are certain features that I think LOTRO and other games can take from WarCraft and incorporate it into their game.  So what are they?

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It’s easy for us to associate a character name, an in-game avatar, a forum name, or some other online representation of the person behind the computer.  However, trust that there is a person behind there who has come into our lives whether it is briefly, for a long duration, or permanently.  That person, although potentially thousands of miles away, can still make an impact on our life.  Although the media can argue that relationships made online are fleeting, temporary things; most of us know better.  As seen by Tolkien’s works, words can make an impact on us as human beings that can last a lifetime.

This past Friday, Jaxom92 of The Middle-Earth Adventurer has decided that the time has come for him to retire from LOTRO blogging and to focus on other things in his life.  He has resolved not to quit playing or to disappear from the community, but currently he finds himself unable to continue writing the blog.  In turn he will turn his attentions to the possibilities of writing other works and is also pondering the possibility of doing a podcast in the future.  Jaxom (or Richard) would also like to stress that he still loves the game, but just feels that now is the right time to move on to different projects.

I am sad to see Jaxom stop writing, as he was the first bloggers to welcome us into the LOTRO community.  He could have easily felt that we were… Read More

I was browsing the iPhone’s app store the other day and on a whim decided to do a search for “lotro” to see what popped up.  Amongst the listed applications was one that appeared to be new to me (but I could have just overlooked it).  It’s name?  “LOTRO News” by LOL Software.  It’s claim? To provide all the LOTRO news you could need.  The reality, it’s a (crappy) RSS reader preloaded with very few RSS feeds to various sites.  So what’s bad about this?

Well, first off Google Reader will do this for you for free, where as LOL Software’s will cost you $.99.  Secondly Google reader will also update automatically, where as LOL Software’s seems to update sporadically (it first would only load posts from May-August even though it was currently October).  Also it seems they haven’t contacted anyone asking approval to be listed within the application, such as Mmeow.net or even Turbine…. Read More after the jump

I don’t know about you all, but when I was younger and saw the movie “The Hobbit” I was completely enamored with the Hobbit style of housing, or “Hobbit Holes”.  I thought the idea of living in a house that had most of its structure underground would be amazing not only because it was a different than normal design, but the thought of having areas completely isolated from the outsde seemed to be secure and solid.  The only downside seemed to be that unless designed very well, some rooms may have no windows and claustrophobia might set in on some individuals.

Over the years I’ve always maintained that having a hobbit hole, or earth house by which they have become known, would be extraordinary indeed.  The goal is to use the earth not only to form part of your house, but to use the earth to insulate, protect, and also to help minimize the impact housing has on the landscape.  Personally, I thought it’ was just a cool idea, but if it’s more eco-friendly and cost-effective I’m all for it as well.

However, Simon Dale of Wales decided to go ahead and actually build….

Read More Here

Just a couple of updates from Turbine to keep your Friday going!

MMO Calendar Released

First off the MMO Calendar for 2010 has been released as of October 21st and will be on sale until November 2nd.  It features various different MMO’s including Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons and Dragons Online.  The purchase of a calendar is $12.95 which is pretty good if you ask me.  Especially since all the proceeds will be going to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.  Everyone who rders will also be entered to win 1 of 10 prizes for each game featured in the calendar:

Age of Conan — 30 Day Subscription
Dungeons & Dragons Online – 30 Day VIP Subscription
Eve Online – 30 Day Subscription
EverQuest II — 30 Day Subscription
Free Realms – 90 Day Premium Subscription
Guild Wars 2 – Boxed Copy of Guild Wars Trilogy
Lord of the Rings Online - 30 Day Subscription
Runes of Magic - 30 Day Subscription
RuneScape - 90 Day Subscription
The Secret World – Closed Beta Slot
Warhammer Online — 30 Day Subscription
World of Warcraft — 30 Day Subscription

I’ll be purchasing one of these for my work cubical just to support the charity.  I think this is a great cause and a great product and definitely worth the small price.

LOTRO Lottery expands!

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What makes a raid, a raid?  Is it the amount of people required to kill the end boss or to make substantial progress?  Is it the feeling of walking into a dungeon and feeling that you have indeed entered an “epic” area of the land?  Meghan Rodberg, Senior Community Manager of Turbine, decided to take a discussion that Turbine’s Community Team was having on October 20th to Twitter and ask those people who are following her on the service the following:

Question: Where is the cutoff for a raid to you: 6 people or 12 people?  In other words, is a 6-person group taking on a boss mob or instance, a group or a raid? Or does it take at least 12 to make a raid?

And I began to wonder about raiding and LOTRO.  I myself haven’t been a part of many raids in LOTRO for a while, but I was an avid raider in other games and feel that I have some definite perspective on the subject.  I also think it’s a discussion that deserves to be fleshed out more than Twitter is really designed to handle.

What makes a raid, a raid?

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Tonight we will be interviewing Howard of Odd Duck Computing; the maker of The LOTROHerald (and the upcoming DDOHerald), the iTunes app that is taking the LOTRO community by storm!  If you have any questions you’d like to ask him regarding the app, developing for the iPhone, lotro, or about himself in general please feel free to comment on this post, email us, send a tweet, comment on Facebook or leave a post on our forums and we’ll pass it along to Howard tonight.