Lord of the Rings Online: Mithril Edition!

For fans for the Free to Play MMO: Lord of the Rings Online, hold on to your hats!  There is a new retail edition heading your way.  You heard that right, it's a retail version of a free to play game.  It will retail at $29.99 for the Mithril Edition of LoTRO.


So what does it include to be worth retailing at a healthy chunk of change at $29.99?
-Game Disk's
-Starter Guide
-Keyboard Map
-Bonus Quests
-Exclusive Mount
-2,000 Turbine Points for the LOTRO Store

That's a pretty healthy offering if I must say so.  Especially since it already includes the game's client installer (which can be a hefty download with a long wait time for some of us).  Of course you'll probably be prompted to download patches once the game has been installed.  I am an existing LOTRO player, and the game is truly one of the best free to play titles out there right now.  So I promise if you have the hardware to run it, you'll not be disappointed.

For more information on the LOTRO: Mithril Edition visit: http://mithril.lotro.com/

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Snowman in August?

While playing a little bit of Lord of The Rings Online today, I stumbled upon this cozy snowman stuck up on a mountain top in the Vail of Thrain.  Pretty cool.

Also, if you're into the whole micro-transaction  setup and are playing LOTRO as a free 2 play title.  Best Buy (at least in my area) carries the $10 Turbine point cards.  Everywhere else (Walmart, Gamestop, our local Target, etc.) only carry the $20 cards.  Which is great, since I'd prefer to pickup the $10 cards as opposed to locking down $20 bucks at a time into a free game.  Same damage to the wallet over time, but it seems to appear more budgetable.  lol

So keep your eyes out for them.

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Lord of The Rings Online Goes Free-2-Play In The Fall!

One of the biggest developments in the MMO world this week happened today.  It looks as though Turbine is extending the same type of Free-2-Play Business Model that has made it's popular 'Dungeons & Dragons Online: Ebberon Unlimited' such a success.

This fall, Turbine will be applying a very similar concept to LOTRO.  It will include the LOTRO Store as well.  If you are a current subscriber, don't worry.  Turbine has included a handful of perks for you folks as well.  I have to be honest, I've heard pretty good things about LOTRO and I am pretty excited to see Turbine head in this direction.  The game will be free to download and play.  The players can then purchase character classes and character slots, expansions, etc. from the Turbine Store.

As a fan of MMO's, I love trying out games I haven't yet explored.  However, with most of the commercial games, you have to purchase the game and the subscribe to it monthly (or similar billing choices).  And more often than not, there are more games out that pick my interest than my monthly budget can support.  Not to mention the whole time issue.  I hate paying monthly for a game that I feel I can't get my monies worth of playtime.

Worry no longer, once F2P LOTRO hits, look for my review to follow pretty quickly.  You can sign up for the F2P Beta which will start soon as well.  http://www.lotro.com/betasignup/
Also for more info on the switch in business model, check out: 
http://www.lotro.com/news/709-announcing-the-lord-of-the-rings-onlines-move-to-free-to-play-

See you in the Fall in Middle Earth!

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