[PAX East 2011] – Lord of the Rings Online

While at the WB booth I was able to check out some of Lord of The Rings Online.  The game went free-to-play last year, and has since tripled the company’s revenue.  The people working on Lord of the Rings Online believe the reason they have been so successful since becoming free-to-play is that they offer a premium MMO without the premium price tag.  They ran through several quests to show off what they are working on for the year.  One quest that was mentioned would involve a bit of time traveling and will take players back to before Isildur cut off Sauron’s ring.  Another quest that was shown involved some ice caves and one giant mamma polar bear.

 

That bear did not like being called "honey". I'll be here all week folks

While whisking through quests it was easy to notice the graphical updates made to the game over the past year.  Each new environment looked varied and beautiful, from water flowing in Rivendell to the architecture of the Shire.  It is amazing what the guys working on Lord of the Rings Online are able to offer for the low, low price of free.  One of the highlights from the missions we were shown took place in the Shire and involved players having to stop a man from poisoning the Shire’s well, while simultaneously keeping those hungry hobbits from eating poisoned pies.  This presented an interesting problem, as our character didn’t want to kill the hobbits to stop them from killing themselves.  We were able to slap the hobbits out of their doom, which provided some nice comic relief.  The game’s new quests were a lot of fun, and the team seems really committed to providing an MMO experience that can be fun for players, whether they have four hours a week to play or 28.  Furthermore: boom.