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Lord of the Rings Online has revealed their newest content patch, Book 14, on the preview servers this week. This is very exciting news, as it means we can try out the newest game changes before Book 14 hits the live servers.

We realize that sometimes downloading what is essentially an entirely new game for the sake of previewing content may not be your cup of tea, so we've put together this extensive visual guide to let you know just how useful this preview server can be. For example, did you know that you can instantly level to 20, 30, 40 or 50 quiet easily? Did you know that you can max out all reputation, renown, infamy, Book quests, traits and more just as easily? You will also get a full range of top-level items and gold to begin your journey. This server is not only great for trying out the new content for an upcoming Book, but it is also perfect for trying out other classes at max level to see if they're really something you want to pursue throughout the game. This applies to both regular characters and Monster players as well!

Lord of the Rings Online, Book 14: The Ring-forges of Eregion has just hit the preview server Roheryn, and the extensive patch notes are posted! To see the new content, you will need to download the Turbine Download Manager, which is currently in its second stage of beta itself, allowing new and current players much easier access into the preview content.

So let's get a glimpse into some of the biggest features of this new patch:

• Monster Play emotes are being introduced, complete with racial-specific emotes that can be achieved through deeds.
• Monster Play races have several improvements and balance measures, especially with the Weaver.
• New class improvements including several for the Burglar and Captain, plus the inclusion of varying instrument sounds and animations to correlate with the actual instruments being played by your Minstrel (not just the lute!)
• The Diminishing Returns system is set into place with vast improvements.
• Plus changes to Crafting, new dye, new outfits, new quests, UI fixes, new items and much, much more!

Check out the complete patch notes and take the rest of the day off to read through this monstrous list, you won't be sorry!

As the online presence of gaming news slowly eats away at the relevance of printed gaming news, these online magazines are becoming more and more creative in their approaches. Enter What MMO, a new dynamic online magazine from the creators of the ComputerandVideoGames.com website.

In this inaugural issue of What MMO, Lord of the Rings Online gets a special mention in the magazine's Revisited segment on page 14. In it, the game is given a general rundown to promote it for the upcoming release of their first expansion, Mines of Moria. Experienced players don't really learn anything new from this article, but it's a nice reminder for those people who have not yet played LotRO. Plus, we just find it fun flipping through the pages of this online magazine (hint: mouse over the page corners).

In the realm of Tolkien's Middle-earth, the ideals of general PvP get a bit complicated. For instance, you would never see bands of Hobbits battling with Elves, or vice versa. It's just not something Tolkien ever envisioned. This is a sticky situation for the developers of an MMO based on Tolkien lore, as PvP is a staple in the massively multiplayer genre. The solution, of course, is to allow players to play as the evil creatures that inhabit these lands. Of course, it is still possible to do a one-on-one duel with another player at any time during the game. This is seen as more of a private skirmish deal, which would happen in any land between any two people for any reason. Perhaps a drunken binge at The Prancing Pony enabled the loosening of your tongue a bit too much? Perhaps that ruffian bloke in the alley over there was eye-balling you a bit too long? Whatever the reason, dueling is a perfectly viable option in Lord of the Rings Online. For the sake of this guide though, we will focus on PvP on a much larger scale.

PvP in LotRO is referred more accurately as PvMP (player versus monster player) and it takes place in one specific area known as the Ettenmoors. It is really unlike most other types of PvP found in more traditional MMOs, as it could almost be considered PvP for PvEers. There are quests to pursue, areas to explore and skills to unlock, yet they're done in a way that is essentially separate from the rest of the game.

Continue through to our PvMP gallery for a complete visual tour of the basics of Monster Play.

It's a done deal for the European markets. Codemasters Online, the European distributor and operator of The Lord of the Rings Online and Partnertrans, one of the leading interactive entertainment localization agencies are partnering together again. Partnertrans will provide localization, audio recordings, and additional linguistic support on the new expansion and has been providing localization support for Lord of the Rings Online since August 2006.

Lord of the Rings Online has one last book before a new volume, Mines of Moria, is opened. Turbine and Codemasters Online are keeping the beta secrets locked away, but in the meantime to tide you over there's fun web-games and teasers to unlock the Mines of Moria website. Hands down these interactive web-games are better and much more fun than what Blizzard is doing with their one-a-day screenshot to fuel the speculative hype-machine on their unannounced game to be unveiled very soon. Although, it is working!

The latest House of Commons dev chat has finished for Lord of the Rings Online, and in this one we get a few more small glimpses into what we can expect with Book 14. The usual suspects -- Keth, Scenario, Patience and Avon -- were on-hand to answer player questions live at Stratics.

Most of the questions delivered by players concerned seasonal events, as this seems to be extremely popular lately. The devs say there will be another event this summer, and a "scary" event in the fall, presumably for Halloween. They go on to explain some details of Book 14, citing the fact that it will mainly be compiled of small changes and bug fixes in anticipation of the first paid expansion for LotRO: Mines of Moria. This expansion's two new classes -- the Warden and the Runekeeper -- are also explained in relation to their class roles.

The MMO gods giveth and they also taketh away. As the NetDevil team moves ever-closer to turning Jumpgate Evolution into a marketable retail product, they've undergone a fairly extensive site re-redesign, bringing them under the umbrella of publisher Codemasters. According to community manager Awen, the change was necessary in order to consolidate user information in one place in anticipation of the upcoming beta and retail releases. Unfortunately, this had the unintended side-effect of rendering the old JGE forums (and ostensibly the old beta applications) obsolete.

If you want to get your name back in contention for the beta, you have to sign up for CodeM account, which can be done on the beta sign-up page. The forums are slightly more complicated, and require logging into the Codemaster forums first to get a display name. We'll be honest here, it's a bit of a cumbersome system, and we're not surprised in the least that JGE's dedicated community didn't take kindly to the change. Still, you gotta do what you gotta do if you want your launch to go smoothly, and they clearly thought this was a necessary step.

In the second part of MMORPG's interview with Lord of the Rings Online's Executive Producer Jeffrey Steefel, we learn more about the final stages of development with LotRO's Book 14. Steefel discusses exactly how this final book of the first volume will unfold before the Mines of Moria expansion arrives on the scene. He also mentions the fact that Moria will not be considered Book 15, but instead be referred to as the first book of Volume 2.

Despite the wild success of the fishing system, there will not be another hobby introduced until Moria, he says. The live event system, which has been in under-the-radar development since launch, is the largest focus of Book 14 . With a little help from their cohorts at Asheron's Call, they will build a new event-triggering system based on a number of variables including a schedule, a time of day, a specific day or other in-game triggers. This feature seems to add more dimension to what has already proven to be one of the most incredible parts of this immersive game.

The music system in Lord of the Rings Online is truly a wonderful thing. We won't get into exactly how complicated and intricate it can be (just yet), but consider the fact that you can either play free form from your keyboard or write the music and let your character play it automatically from within the game. This written music requires a real working knowledge of songwriting, with a bit of coding thrown in. It's not an easy task.

Because of this involvement, there have been several bands that have formed in LotRO, mainly on the RP servers. One of the most famous and successful of these bands is The Shades, who recently held an in-game concert to celebrate their kindship's one year anniversary. This concert, comprised of original compositions, became much larger than imagined, according to the band's main songwriter, Achazia. Not only did over 100 players attend the event, but Codemaster's own Community Manager Satine was there to offer her support and hand out gifts afterwards. To get a better feel for this event, check out a few videos from fans. Rock on!

If you haven't taken advantage of the anniversary pricing special from Lord of the Rings Online yet, we're worried about your sanity. Yes it's still going on, but you only have less than two weeks left until the prices go back up. This special pricing deal started way back on April 24th of this year and was extended until June 30th.

Not to make this sound too much like a commercial, but this really is the greatest deal in town for a game as involved and deep as LotRO. Even at a 3-month subscription, you're only paying $9.99 a month, but for the first time since launch, they're offering the lifetime subscription for $199. After the 30th, it will go up to $299. So consider this your friendly reminder from your pals at Massively: don't let this lifetime membership deal pass you by!

Considering the fact that Lord of the Rings Online's Book 14 should be just around the corner, it's always great to get those little tidbits of information fed to us from the devs to keep us excited. This time though, we get fed a whole lot more than just a tidbit, we get some detailed information on some important changes that will be made to Monster Play with Book 14.

First there's the updates to crowd control and diminishing returns, namely the fact that root and daze effects will now share diminishing returns. Then there's the new revamp of the Weaver in PvMP, giving what promises to be a monster class that is more effective in battle. Finally, what we've all been waiting for: emotes for the monsters! This large list includes such favorites as cheer, dance1 and tantrum. It's certainly about time the monsters got a little RP love, too!

The Stratics team is at it once again bringing us the most recent House of Commons dev chat log with the LotRO developers. In this one, we get some treats in regards to Book 14 information, and the highly-anticipated first true expansion to the game: Mines of Moria.

So we're all busy people right? How about a quick summary of the topics in this log?

• An improved Monster Play login screen is in the works, with no definite timeframe yet.
• Since Book 13 focused so much on solo play, expect Book 14 to refocus on group play.
• Three new 6-man instances will be be introduced, as well as new deeds for the Urugarth, Carn Dum, Barad Gularan and Annuminas instances.
• Two new session instances will be introduced. These will not be at the level of the chicken play, but they do have plans for several more with MoM.
• One of the core focuses with MoM is character customization and improvements as far as traits and new features.
• The next Hobby is almost ready, with many more to come.
• Poison will not be introduced for the good guys, as it is restricted in Tolkien lore to evil use only.

Check out the rest of this dev chat log for more information on each of these topics!

Codemasters Online, publishers of popular free-to-play MMORPG, Archlord, announced that it has signed over half a million players. The rising popularity of the game has seen the addition of a new server to handle the expected load as they ramp up to the next free content update, Episode 3. In Archlord, you fight not only monsters, but other players, to become the Archlord -- the supreme power in the land. "Raise an army, rule the world" is their motto. Though with so many players, what would happen if they all got together and voted in a benevolent, peaceful democracy?

Well-known European games publisher Codemasters has announced that they plan to move some MMO development in-house. The company currently acts as publisher for a number of Western massively multiplayer games, such as Lord of the Rings Online and Jumpgate Evolution. It also acts as an EU partner for the Korean games and RF OnlineArchlord. Today vice president of Codemasters Online Gaming David Solari has informed GamesIndustry.biz that in-house development was 'always a part of the plan.'

In a lengthy interview with the site, Solari notes that entering the PC MMO marketplace is a daunting task - but they feel they're prepared. The numerous games they've licensed will give them an edge, and has given them a great sense of where the industry is going. His concluding statement is especially interesting, given recent comments by Bobby Kotick in the growing tit-for-tat war between EA and Activision/Blizzard. "I don't think you can compete with Warcraft. In two or three year's there will be something else that will be able to compete with Warcraft but nobody will be able to tell you what that is now. Chucking money at something isn't the answer."

We're sure you've heard the exciting news and most recent information on Lord of the Rings Online: Book 13 Doom of the Last King, which was released last month. You've probably also heard about the recently reduced pricing for the game, which was announced for the first anniversary of the game's launch. But we have some even better news for you.

This upcoming weekend, from May 8th through the 12th, you'll get to experience everything Middle Earth has to offer for free in a special Welcome Back Weekend. You can fire up your old characters that you may have forgotten about or create some new characters to test the most current changes. During this time, the anniversary celebrations will continue, so you can participate in those as well!