LOTRO

A new digital expansion for The Lord of The Rings Online has been announced today. The new expansion, entitled "Siege of Mirkwood", will bring the culmination of the epic storyline that began with the Mines of Moria, or more specifically bring the game to Book II Chapter 9, and will include the Epilogue as well. In addition to the story content, the expansion will bring a level cap bump to 65, introduce a new 12 man raid, and a smattering of three to six man instances.

A new game system will be introduced as well, called Skirmishes. Some information on the skirmish system is available below:

Skirmishes offer endless action in repeatable, randomized instances where players can create and lead customizable soldiers into battle, training them to greater skill as they earn victories against the forces of shadow. Answer the call of war wherever violence erupts with the new "World Join" function that lets players and their fellowships band together to fight in various locations throughout Middle-earth.

The official Siege of Mirkwood site can be found here.

MMORPG.com Lord of the Rings Online Correspondent Andrei Hamagea writes this article looking at the video game as an art form.

In a recent mainstream gaming magazine, I came across an article trying to prove why games, in general, are not art. During my time with both the gaming world and art school, I have seen the two overlap numerous times yet to this day modern art in general can stir up some pretty heated conversations and disagreements. In one of my previous articles, A Look at the Looks of LOTRO, I gave a summary of why I think this MMO stands out, however I never touched upon its reflection of some artistic vision. As a result, I wanted to follow up and provide some arguments surrounding the intent, procedure and outcome these artists and developers consider before hitting the public with a massive MMO production. These people not only work years making the pieces that shape up a MMO, but have to predict interactions and user generated content that might come of it, much like an exhibition in a gallery. It is in a way a study, fueled by us the players, in which the artist conceives his work based More >

MMORPG.com Lord of the Rings Online Correspondent feels that the game’s crafting and combat mechanics could use some tweaking and offers his own solutions to the problem.

Gamers have started paying attention more and more to the production of upcoming MMOs and discuss relentlessly on forums about the game’s structure, problems and how they see it functioning. As a gaming society, we have earned more and more respect out of the growing collaboration between developers and the public’s requests and needs. There are cries though that never get heard, cries which target crafting systems, PvP and PvE game play, computer requirements and many more. LotRO has been, in fact, a mark of such comments due to some missing features some players have expressed. Crafting is too boring and banal; combat becomes rather repetitive, not enough PvP and most of all not enough incentive to keep on playing for more than reaching the cap. In a way, we have to be realistic about what is possible and what forces the use of super computers as was the case with the release of Crysis. The battle we are fighting today is between complexity and computer power, and since it all come down to More >