The Lord of the Rings Online

The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar (LotRO) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) set in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth during the time of The Lord of the Rings. It is being developed by Turbine and, while the release date has yet to be announced, is expected to launch in 2006. It was previously called Middle-Earth Online, and was a joint production with Vivendi Studios.

Setting
LotRO is set during The Fellowship of the Ring after Frodo and Company escape the mines of Moria. Players will be able to meet the characters from Tolkien's story, but not members of the Fellowship. The four playable races will be Dwarves, Elves, Hobbits, and Men. LotRO is explicitly based on the books, not Peter Jackson's adaption in movie form.

Races

 * Humans
 * Elves
 * Dwarves
 * Hobbits

Classes
In a similar approach to many Massively-Multiplayer Online realms, Lord of the Rings Online will retain a class based system. It is not clear whether players will be able to have sub-skills or sub-fields within these classes, as the developers have remained silent to this effect. However, each of the seperate seven classes apparent at launch have been revealed.

Races: Man, Elf, Dwarf Races: Unspecified Races: Man, Elf, Dwarf, Hobbit Races: Unspecified Races: Unspecified Races: Unspecified Races: Unspecified
 * Champion
 * Captain
 * Guardian
 * Hunter
 * Burglar
 * Minstrel
 * Loremaster

Setting
Eriador. Rumored expansions promise Rohan and Moria, with the inclusion of new lands with the coming of new expansions.

Development
Sierra On-Line first announced the development of a licensed, Middle-earth MMORPG in 1998. This caused some excitement among fans, who were awaiting The Lord of the Rings movies, and was also slightly controversial for a few design decisions. The most debated design idea was the planned use of "permadeath": When a player character would die in the game, that character would be permanently dead (most MMORPGs resurrect a dead character with minor penalties). Sierra had financial troubles in 1999 and replaced the staff working on the game.

Sierra continued to confirm development on the MMORPG was progressing, but did not release any development details over the next few years. Vivendi Universal Games, the parent company of Sierra, secured eight-year rights to produce computer and video games based on the The Lord of the Rings books in 2001. Finally, Vivendi announced an agreement with Turbine in 2003 to produce Middle-Earth Online (at that time expected to be released in 2004). In March 2005, Turbine announced that it had bought the rights to make massively multiplayer games based on Tolkien's literature and that Turbine will assume publishing duties on The Lord of the Rings Online from Vivendi. The release date was also delayed to 2006.

Facts

 * No PVP
 * Based on books (not on the movies)
 * PVE and RP concentrated
 * Based on the works of Tolkien (LotR and the Hobbit)
 * Beta is not yet announced
 * a big questsystem
 * 1st AND 3rd person view

External link

 * LotRO official community site
 * LotRO Fansite "LotroSource": Your Source for Lord of the Rings Online
 * LotRO Fansite "The Arda Post"