E3 2007: Lord of the Rings Online
Tubrine (developer) / Midway (publisher)
Article by Dana Massey
Nestled in a corner of Midway
s E3 2007 booth, Turbine showed us what they have planned in Lord of the Rings Online. Fresh off their first free update, Book 9, the team has turned its sights towards Books 10 and 11, both of which promise even more fresh content on a timely schedule for fans of the game.
While other launched MMOs we saw at E3 gave us incremental plans, Lord of the Rings Online positively inundated us with fresh information. In Book 10, players can explore the new city of Annuminas, which exists in the lands of Evendim, but will now be open to full player exploration. The main story, as indicated by their decision to call them Books, moves through the city.
One of the new challenges is the collection of "relics" (not to be confused with Dark Age of Camelots PvP relics) in the new areas and instances. Players will need to go into the instances for the rare ones, while smaller pieces can be found in common areas. The relics tie into the game?s new barter system, which allows players to use these relic pieces as currency in exchange for new armor. No cash required.
They?ve also planned out a new reputation system, with an eye on the casual players. There are a multitude of quests players can complete as many times as they wish and each time a player does it, they gain the gratitude of one of seven factions. Eventually, once they accepted, the players gain access to that faction?s Hall. In our example, we saw a great Dwarf Hall. There, the players can access vendors that sell some of the best weapons available in the game. These weapons not only require players have a solid reputation with the vendor, but also possess certain virtues in order to use them.
