Stratics:We are Massively Multiplayer

Part 1 of our preview can be found here.

Our next stop on the tour was the Twenty-First Hall, a hub of trade and social activity for players in Moria. Again, you can get a glimpse of just how large the caverns of Moria really are, and the fact that there are no loading zones in-between areas is truly remarkable. The Twenty-First Hall is home to one of the forges in Moria, and here we were introduced to the Legendary Weapon system, another customization technique in Moria. Essentially, some weapons in LOTRO can be identified as "Unique" and can be developed into Legendary Weapons. As you kill mobs, in addition to gaining experience for yourself, you're also gaining experience for your weapons. When a weapon gains enough XP, it can be reforged at the forge-master, and gain "legacies". Legacies are basically special bonuses provided by the item and can be anything from increasing the power or duration of a class ability, to adding DPS to an item. Every time a Legendary Weapon is reforged, it can gain new legacies. Furthermore, the player is given a certain amount of points that he can spend to improve legacies. Some legacies are ranked higher (i.e. better) than others, meaning they'll cost less to develop or provide more of a bonus at each point investment, or have longer duration effects. These points are given back at each reforging to allow the player to choose how to respend them with the new legacies. With up to six Legendary Weapons, the player is able to have a set of top-tier weapons with a wide area of customized uses, without having to depend on raids or camping mobs for a rare drop (though, other rare items than weapons will still drop this way). A player could choose to develop one weapon by putting all his points into increasing its DPS, while developing another weapon to have better tanking stats, and a third to have better offensive skill abilities. These weapons can be further customized by drop-in relics that provide even more enhancements. The result is yet another layer of customization providing for a truly deep and varied experience.

I must confess, I've never been a big Lord of the Rings fan. The first movie was pretty good, parts of the second and third ones as well, but nothing spectacular. (I can hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth from the fanboys now. WHAT! HE MENTIONED THE MOVIES BEFORE THE BOOKS? BLASPHEMY!) Yes, I've read the books too, every tortuous long minute of them. Don't get me wrong, I loves me some fantasy books, and I actually find some aspects of the Tolkien universe pretty intriguing. But I'm a law student; I already spend my days reading through hundreds of pages of dense material, it's not how I'd prefer to spend my off time.

The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria Early Upgrade offer is now available to residents of Texas and Washington! You should now see an "Upgrade" button in your MyAccount.turbine.com subscription list page to upgrade your LotRO Game Subscription to the Mines of Moria, which is set for release on November 18th, 2008.

Early Upgrade Now Available to TX & WA Residents!

Two weeks ago, Blizzard confirmed that there were some rudimentary microtransaction features being implemented into World of Warcraft, mainly involving a paid character customization service.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. - Oct. 23, 2008 - NDOORS Interactive is confident you will like their game. They are so confident they are offering a satisfaction guarantee for Atlantica Online. Players who have a level 50 character can trade their character in for $20 if they don’t want to keep playing.

Players must have started their account after Oct. 11, be level 50 and have a PayPal account to be eligible. A player’s login ID will be void once they receive the refund. The offer ends Nov. 30, 2008.