mines-of-moria posts

If you been on the fence in ponying up money to try out Lord of the Rings Online, developer Turbine is giving you no more excuses. The fantasy MMO based on the J.R.R. Tolkien books (not the movie) is now offering a 10 day free trial to download and play the game. All you have to do is download the client.

In addition, gaming-themed messenger service Xfire is getting both trial and full players of the game a way to win prizes if they play the game and join Xfire's Lord of the Rings Online clan. Prizes include free LOTRO subscriptions (up to six months) along with t-shirts and even an in-game mount for the top winners. The contest ends on Feb.11.

Jeffrey Steefel, Executive Producer of The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria, explains the Legendary Items system in this developer's diary. In the books, items like swords gained special properties with use. This concept is put to use in MInes of Moria so that their gear can, in a sense, level up alongside players as they progress through the game.

Download HD LOTRO: Mines of Moria Legendary Items Developer Diary (123 MB)
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Our sister site Massively has been working with the social gaming network web site GamerDNA to compile data on players and their activities in PC games with an emphasis on MMO titles. The result is a new feature on Massively that shows the trends in player interest in various MMOs over the past year. According to their data (they used the gamer messager-chat service Xfire as their base) the last six months of 2008 shows that Call of Duty 4, Counter-Strike: Source, Guild Wars, and of course World of Warcraft were always in the top 10 list of games played by PC games.

If you enjoy pouring over stats than this feature has it in spades. According to their data, the launch last September of Warhammer Online took players away from Age of Conan both otherwise had little impact on the MMO scene. Head over to Massively to read up more about their findings.

New gameplay videos have come to light featuring the new The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria classes. The first demonstrates the abilities of the Rune-keeper (shown above) and the other is the Warden. Both will lend their considerable abilities to the fight against Sauron. The expansion is available now in stores.

Download HD LOTRO: Mines of Moria Rune-keeper in Action Trailer (43 MB)
Download HD LOTRO: Mines of Moria Warden in Action Trailer (44 MB)
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Westwood, Massachusetts-based MMO game developer Turbine launched their Mines of Moria expansion pack for Lord of the Rings Online in November. Now Gamesindustry.biz is reporting that the company laid off a number of its staff members on Monday in their QA and Account Management departments.

According to the story the layoffs occurred at both the Westwood offices and Turbine's California offices which just launched back in October. A Turbine spokesperson admitted to some restructuring at the company and, "...As part of this transition some of our talented colleagues will not be with us going forward." It's currently unknown how many team members were affected. The Turbine spokesperson stated that the company is still working on current and future game products, saying, "In fact, Turbine is still hiring and we will continue to grow in 2009."

This video features a high level raid level boss monster called The Watcher, which can be found in The Lord of the Rings: Mines of Moria expansion. It's a generally well-known creature in Tolkien lore and one of the toughest monsters in the game.

Download HD LOTRO: Mines of Moria The Watcher Raid Video (34 MB)
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These new The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria videos take viewers through some of the different areas players can find new expansion. The video shown above is for an area called Zelem-melek, and videos for The Great Delving and The Redhorn Lodes are available for download. Tolkien fans can experience these new areas themselves, since the Mines of Moria is out in stores now. The expansion also includes two new player classes and the ability to custom level legendary weapons.

Download HD Mines of Moria Zelem-melek Trailer (51 MB)
Download HD Mines of Moria The Great Delving Trailer (49 MB)
Download HD Mines of Moria The Redhorn Lodes Trailer (41 MB)
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This launch trailer for The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria officially marks the release of the MMO's latest expansion. Tolkien fans will be able to adventure through this underground world. The expansion also features two all-new player classes among a long list of other features.

Download HD Mines of Moria Launch Trailer (77 MB)
Check out all LOTRO: Mines of Moria downloads

Last week Blizzard got the attention of the world when it released its second MMO expansion pack for World of Warcraft. Now Wrath of the Lich King is dealing with two more expansion pack launches today for Sony Online's Everquest II and Turbine's Lord of the Rings Online.

Turbine's expansion, Mines of Moria, continues the storyline of J.R.R. Tolkein's fantasy triology with new character classes, locations and more. Our sister site Massively has a ton of info about the expansion as they do for Everquest II: The Shadow Odyssey, the latest commercial expansion for the 2004 released fantasy MMO for Sony Online. In this case the servers for this expansion go live at noon PST today.

This developer diary for The Lord or the Rings: Mines of Moria goes into detail about the painstaking attention that went into designing the underground world of Moria. Tolkien fans will have a chance to experience the Moria first hand when the expansion releases on November 17th.

Download HD LOTRO: Mines of Moria Art & World Developer Diary (73 MB)
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