Jan 18, 2022

In less than 48 hours, Standing Stone Games made a 180 on their proposed Ember changes. I talk about changes SSG should make, what Pay-to-Win actually means in a never-ending MMO, and how SSG should proceed to fix this PR situation. I really tried to see both sides of this situation and explain it as well as I could, while giving my own thoughts as well. Below...

Jan 12, 2022

The sliding scale continuous sliding towards a grindy and lootbox encouraged game environment. For the full announcement view https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?&postid=8118189#post8118189. Take in mind that this statement has passed several stages of scrutiny from departments such as marketing, producer(s) and developer. This is a press release...

Dec 15, 2021

The Lord of the Rings Online is declining and is getting dangerously close to the popularity levels of dead MMOs. Can Amazon’s new Lord of the Rings Series save LOTRO, or is it too late? In this video, I compare LOTRO’s current popularity on Google Trends to dead MMOs in the months they died. The results were surprising and lead to a different...

Sep 1, 2021

Ever sat on your 130 hobbit during farmers faire and pondered i’d like to see the Shire one more time? or your stout-axe dwarf that would like to see the mountains of Mordor again?  Tough luck. Once you’ve completed a quest it’s gone forever on that character. But what if it’s not? Lotro’s sister game Dungeons and Dragons online (DDO) has a system called...

Jan 15, 2021

The current state of LI legacies numerically and how the proposed changes on Bullroarer Update 28.3 Preview #1 might affect you when Update 28.3 is released.

Dec 4, 2020

We told you that Daybreak games was bought by a new investment company EG7 EG7 released a presentation to highlight this acquisition, and we learned some very interesting things from it. You can click on all the pictures to see a full-page view of it, I’ve broken down the information below the pictures. Jack Emmert is listed as the CEO of Standing Stone...

May 30, 2020

  This a guest post by published author Seth C. Adams HarperCollins, HarperCollins UK, and One More Chapter.     Over a quarter-century ago–long before I had the coherent thought that I wanted to be a writer–I read J.R.R Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy for the first time. As a middle school kid, I was...

Feb 12, 2020

Minas Morgul is the cherry on top of 2 years of development by the SSG team and developers. With nearly each update since Mordor, the game slowly closed some hoops and holes that you’d run into and had a hard time getting out of. Culmination of revamps and balances What might the largest accomplishment is the fact that each class and activity has its place in...

Jan 10, 2020

Today I wanted to share my thoughts on the new 6-man dungeons comin in update 25.3 and some tips to consider when it goes live!...

Jan 1, 2020

Everyone is now in the year 2020 and all the critters and humanoids would like to wish you a happy 2020.  Below we’ll also take a little look at some expectations, expectations and hopes for Lotro itself. Continuing 2019 From last year we’ll continue to see some revamps that were still planned, but didn’t make it last year. From the...

Dec 12, 2019

Opinion piece written with the current state and no comments from SSG – 12-12 10 Pm GMT The ghost of christmas past appeared and told George of Mordorian pasts. People could trade for gear, pets and other goods. Some even bought extra’s, but atleast you could slowly get your own or trade these items for yourself. Grims of christmas spawning Times...

Aug 30, 2019

In the last article we’ve gone over what the legendary system currently looks like and what they want(ed) it to be. So lets just fix it. Or why it’s not that easy. First we’ll see why it’s not as easy as some might think and the extra underlying problems each iteration has. In the end we can look at how SSG could go about updating the legendary weapons and...

Aug 26, 2019

Easy to learn, hard to master. Simple in design yet infinitely intricate. That’s what the legendary item system was when it was introduced 11 years ago.  With the launch of the Mines of Moria. Each Legendary Item contains the possibility of greatness. While they’re typically less impressive than comparable items of their initial level, they have the...

Jun 17, 2019

Lets talk about the current state of the Featured instance aka box run.  Once a fun and alternative activity has lost most of it’s appeal. Introduced back in Update 18 as a way to give players a reason to run old content in a time where set bonus armors from Osgiligath and Minas Tirith reigned supreme. Every week, one scaling instance or raid from a list...

Mar 23, 2019

Elves and Dwarves By Cyndars March 23, 2019 This month, Cantarlina finished her sojourn in Falathlorn for now, and moved into the dwarven areas of Haudh Lin in pursuit of new musical experiences, and to aid her friends along the way. As she ran towards Gondamon, the mournful sounds of the string family were replaced by the deep resonance of the brass family....

Feb 20, 2019

Hobbits to Elves By Cyndars February 20, 2019 After completing her walk through the Shire, I chose to take Cantarlina from Needlehole to Duillond, one of the homes of the elves. I encountered an unexpected problem with my theory that the music would transition smoothly between zones. Transitioning between Needlehole and Duillond requires passing through a...

Feb 14, 2019

Little changes are often missed in the large open world of patchnotes and lotro. You’d rush into the new raid or quest chains that you have been looking for. Lets take a look over at 19 little things i may have missed. Little tweaks to quests LFF wargs Old quests you have ran a dozen times that always make you wander too far to find the mobs in a lower or...

Jan 21, 2019

  So It Begins By Cyndars January 20, 2019 On January 19th’s LOTRO Players News (LPN) podcast, Teriadwyn gave me a homework assignment to listen to the Update 23 soundtrack as they all had just discovered that I play without the in-game sound. For me, personally, music has a visceral pull on my emotions. In-game sounds, especially combat sounds and the...

Jan 16, 2019

Slightly short attention spans, a fondness for nuts and articles slightly based in reality. “Squirle goes nuts” explores the world of lotro in quick bites as the topics come along that don’t really need or fill an entire article. But the animal shrink said it might be wise to write them down (lightly based on Sperlings sick of it for the MtG players)....

Nov 1, 2018

The bear is solid, we’ve got monumental dps and are fairly effective group members. Vastin might be coming for my critter comics soon. If the current bear, outside of anything but landscape, only needs a few quality of life fixes. Please break my bear. Incase you want to skip to a part. Index 1 -Current state of an unfinished class + examples 2 -Beornings...