The Lord of the Rings Online

''The Lord of the Rings Online'' is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) for Microsoft Windows and OS X set in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, taking place during the time period of ''The Lord of the Rings''. Originally developed by Turbine, the game launched in North America, Australia, Japan, and Europe in April 2007 as ''The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar''. Players could create characters of four races and seven classes and adventure throughout the region of Eriador. In November 2008, ''Mines of Moria'' expansion was released, adding the region of Moria and two new playable classes. It was followed by the '' Siege of Mirkwood'' in December 2009. In 2010 the game underwent a shift from its original subscription-based payment model to being free-to-play.

The game saw continued development, alternating between paid expansions and free updates, which added new content in the regions of Isengard, Rohan and Gondor. In late 2016 it was announced that the publishing of the game would transfer from Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment to Daybreak Game Company, with development being taken over by Standing Stone Games, made up of former Turbine staff. The game development continued and in 2017 the ''Mordor'' expansion was released, bringing the main storyline to a close. The story then shifted to showing how various inhabitants of Middle-earth deal with the downfall of Sauron, with ''Minas Morgul'' expansion released in 2019 and the ''Fate of Gundabad'' expansion released in 2021.

Gameplay

Plot

Development and release

Sierra On-Line announced the development of a licensed Middle-earth MMORPG in 1998. Sierra had financial troubles in 1999 and replaced the staff working on the game. Sierra continued to confirm development of the MMORPG but did not release any development details. Vivendi Universal Games, the parent company of Sierra, secured eight-year rights to produce computer and video games based on ''The Lord of the Rings'' books in 2001. 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 a MMORPG based on Tolkien's literature and that Turbine would publish ''The Lord of the Rings Online'' instead of Vivendi. In February 2006, it was announced that Midway Games would co-publish the game with Turbine. A closed beta was announced on September 8, 2006. An open beta began on March 30, 2007, and was open to all who pre-ordered the game's Founders Club edition. On April 6, 2007, the beta opened to the public.

In April 2007, Salon.com reported that the game had dropped a planned feature for in-game players marriage because of the controversy around the possibility of same-sex and inter-species weddings. One developer stated that the design rule was for weddings to be allowed if examples could be found in the book, as between elves and humans. The online magazine for gay gamers, GayGamer.net commented that, while Tolkien was a devout Christian, his stance on gay rights is not known as the topic was not a public issue at the time. Video game critic Ian Bogost compared it to the case of ''The Sims'' 2, which did allow same-sex marriage three years prior.

In January 2014 it was announced that the license for ''The Lord of the Rings Online'' had been renewed between Turbine and Middle-earth Enterprises to 2017. Executive producer Aaron Campbell transferred to other duties in 2015, and '' Dungeons and Dragons Online'' franchise director Athena Peters replaced him. Peters announced a new roadmap for the future of ''Lord of the Rings Online'', including improvements to the legendary item system, new fellowship quests, and various "quality of life" fixes. Also on the agenda for the summer of 2015 were server merges and new datacenters. On December 19, 2016, it was announced that Turbine would no longer develop the game, rather a new independent game studio was formed under the name Standing Stone Games; the staff would be the people that had been working on ''The Lord of the Rings Online'' and ''Dungeons & Dragons Online'' under Turbine before. The publishing of the game would transfer from Warner Brothers to Daybreak Game Company. While a reason was not given for the transition, it was assured that the game would continue with new development.

Releases and subscription model

In North America, players who pre-ordered the game were offered a special founder's offer, a lifetime subscription for $199 or reduced cost of $9.99 per month. Standard monthly fee is $14.99 with three, six, twelve month, and lifetime discounts available. European players had a similar program from Codemasters. A holiday subscription was available in December 2007 and January 2008 for $9.99/month for a 3-month commitment. A special edition, which cost $10 more than the regular edition, included a full-color manual, an item called "Glass of Aglaral," a cloak of regeneration, which is visually different from the one in the regular edition, a "Making of" DVD, soundtrack, and a 10-day buddy key. The one year anniversary edition included a $9.99/month subscription or a $199.99 Lifetime subscription, which was again offered during the lead-up to the release of Mines of Moria. However the lifetime subscription option is no longer available and is unlikely to return.

On June 4, 2010, it was announced the game was to add a free-to-play option in the autumn, with an in-game store. Free-to-play was successfully launched in North America on September 10, 2010. After a delay in Europe, free-to-play went live on November 2, 2010. During the following six months the company reported tripled revenues from the title. On April 26, 2011, it was announced that Codemasters would relinquish control of the European service back to Turbine, and on June 1, the servers were transferred. After a transition period of a few days, they reopened under a unified ''Lord of the Rings Online'' global service. Finally, on June 6, 2012, ''The Lord of the Rings Online'' was made available for download on Steam. On November 1, 2012, a beta of the OS X version was released and a 64-bit client was added in June 2019. On April 20, 2022, the end of life for the 32-bit client was announced to be scheduled for January 1, 2023. At the same time as that announcement, to celebrate the game's 15th anniversary, all expansions and quest packs up to and including the game's Helm's Deep expansion were made permanently free to all players. In addition, all paying subscribers were given access to Standard Editions of the game's Mordor, Minas Morgul, and War of Three Peaks expansions for the duration of their subscription.

Soundtrack

The game features a variety of original music, with most regions and instances containing a selection of specific themes, most of which were composed by either acclaimed video game composer Chance Thomas or in-house composers including Stephen Digregorio, Geoff Scott, Brad Spears, Egan Budd, Matt Harwood and Bill Champagne. According to Thomas, all references that were made to the music of the peoples of Middle-earth in the books were used to extrapolate as much information as possible about the instruments and styles that each race would have used to create their music. This information was then used as the base for creating the score. In the first two years of the game Thomas and DiGregorio each contributed roughly half of all music, which was released as soundtrack CD available with the Special Edition of 2007 "''Shadows of Angmar''" or pre-order of 2008 ''Mines of Moria'' expansion, in addition to 61 songs that were made available for free in mp3 format using a download manager released by Turbine. Their collaboration continued on the ''Mines of Moria'' soundtrack, released as a CD with the Collector's Edition of the expansion.

Neither '' Siege of Mirkwood'' nor '' Rise of Isengard'' expansions received a dedicated soundtrack release, with no music added to the game between 2009 and 2012 made officially available until the ''Riders of Rohan'' expansion, for which Chance Thomas returned to work on LOTRO after years of absence, releasing a soundtrack available both on CD and as digital download. Music for the next year's ''Helm's Deep'' expansion was entirely composed by Stephen DiGregorio and was released as an album on SoundCloud while music added between 2013 and 2017 was likewise not covered by any official releases. In 2017 Chance Thomas returned once more to contribute music to the game, releasing a soundtrack album for ''Mordor'' expansion in addition to a commemorative 10th Anniversary Soundtrack which covered a collection of his work for the game from all previous soundtracks. After Mordor all music so far has been composed by Bill Champagne, with full soundtracks for free updates and expansions alike released on the game's YouTube channel. The soundtrack for ''Lord of the Rings Online'' has received much praise for its quality and variety.

In keeping with Tolkien's heavy use of song and music in his books, ''Lord of the Rings Online'' has a player music sub-system akin to MIDI that has been the subject of a Harvard anthropological study. Characters on reaching level 5 can learn to play musical instruments, including Bagpipes, Clarinet, Cowbell, Drum, Harp, Horn, Lute, Pibgorn, and Theorbo. Using keyboard macros, instruments can be played in real time on three octaves and abc notation, with the music broadcast to nearby player characters. Players can also play pre-programmed pieces from user-created ''.ABC'' script files using the game's music notation, similar to MIDI files. Players often hold impromptu public performances, in solo or as bands at places such as The Prancing Pony Inn in Bree. Communities also regularly organize music events and mini-concerts such as "Weatherstock": Woodstock above the Weathertop.

Reception

''The Lord of the Rings Online'' received wide acclaim.

GameDaily awarded the game 9/10, praising its rich, fantasy-themed universe, well-integrated trait and title system, and a story that remains true to the works of Tolkien. Yahoo! Video Games wrote a review with few negative mentions, awarding the game a score of 4/5, while '' Computer and Video Games'' called the game an essential purchase for ''Lord of the Rings'' fans, scoring the game a 9.2/10. Eurogamer scored the game a 9.0/10, calling it tough to resist. GameSpy gave it 4.5/5 stars, claiming the game "opened up Middle-Earth to the masses" but commented negatively on its weak PvP content, while GameTrailers awarded it 8.5/10, citing its interesting tweaks to the MMO genre. IGN ranked it a similar 8.6/10, praising it for its solid experience, though criticizing it for its lack of major improvements to the genre. ''The New York Times'' called the game "a major achievement of interactive storytelling, the first game truly worthy of the ‘''Lord of the Rings''' franchise and a must-play for just about anyone with an interest in Tolkien or the future of online entertainment." In a GameSpot review, the product was awarded an 8.3/10, praising its appealing polish and intriguing Monster Play feature. '' GamePro'''s review gave it an overall 4.25/5, pointing out how engaging the epic quests are, as well as how faithful to the novels the game managed to stay.

GameSpy declared ''The Lord of the Rings Online'' 'Game of the Month' for May 2007. Midway announced that the game sold over 172,000 copies in North America during its second quarter.

In August 2007, Codemasters announced that ''The Lord of the Rings Online'' had received five Golden Joystick Awards nominations for the five applicable categories for the game, and in October 2007 that it had won the "PC Game of the Year" at these awards. It won the same award again in October 2008.

In 2007, GameSpy awarded ''The Lord of the Rings Online'' 6th place in the top ten PC games of the year. Turbine also won the GameSpy MMO of the Year award.

In 2010, RPGFan's Adam Tingle named ''The Lord of the Rings Online'' the best MMORPG of all time in a top-10 countdown while RPGLand gave its "Best Free-to-Play MMORPG" annual award. That year, the NPD Group reported that the game was "the third most played massively multiplayer role-playing game" with Turbine citing their free-to-play model as the reason for the growing subscriber base.

In January 2011, ''PC Gamer'' chose ''The Lord of the Rings Online'' as the MMO of the year. Praise was given for treating fans to two new Epic Books worth of quests, two added regions, expansion of in-game events, improved UI elements, and the revamp of the character creation and starter regions. Also noted was the success of the move to free-to-play, stating ''Lord of the Rings Online'' is "quickly redefining the way a successful subscriptionless MMO is run."

In both 2018 and 2019, gaming blog Massively (formerly known as Joystiq) rated ''The Lord of the Rings Online'' as Most Underrated MMORPG of the year for its expansions and updates, vast, diverse world, some excellent storytelling, and a friendly and dedicated community.

Notes

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lord of the Rings Online, The

2007 video games
Active massively multiplayer online games
Codemasters games
Fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing games
Free-to-play video games
Games for Windows certified games
MacOS games
Massively multiplayer online role-playing games
Role-playing games based on Middle-earth
Role-playing video games
Video games containing loot boxes
Video games developed in the United States
Video games scored by Chance Thomas
Video games with expansion packs
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment games
Windows games