LORD OF THE RINGS ONLINE EXPANSION ANNOUNCED

Turbine, Inc. has officially anounced that the first expansion for Lord of the Rings Online, it's mmog based on Tolkein's legendary trilogy, will be available at retail this fall.

"Turbine, Inc. and Codemasters Online today unveiled Volume II of The Lord of the Rings Online™, the first retail expansion for the award-winning massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG).  Announced in Birmingham, the childhood home of J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings Online™: Mines of Moria™  will expand the online world of Middle-earth to let players explore the ancient underground cities of the dwarves, battle epic characters in the depths, face off with the Watcher, be a part of the fateful release of Durin’s Bane and more! The Lord of the Rings Online expects to open Volume II of its epic story in the fall of 2008 with an increased level cap, two new classes and the introduction of a unique item advancement system.

“The Mines of Moria is one of the most epic settings in all of fantasy fiction,” said Jim Crowley, president and CEO of Turbine, Inc. “No one delivers more quality content than Turbine and with our journey into Moria, we will raise the bar even higher.  We are adding vast amounts of  content, debuting massive new environments and unveiling numerous unique feature sets, like item advancement, which will create entirely new dimensions of compelling game play and social interaction which are unique to The Lord of the Rings Online experience.” " – Turbine Entertainment press release 

Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria will open the second volume of the trilogy and includes not only the six "chapters" included with the expansion at it's release, but access several more as of yet unreleased chapters. In addition, the expansion will also see the addition of two new character classes (Rune-Keeper and Warden), an increased level cap of 70 and the ability to forge "legendary" items.

For more information on both Lord of the Rings Online and the Mines of Moria expansion, including the full text of the press release, check out the links below.

• Turbine, Inc. – Company website
• The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria Unveiled at Connect 08 – Official press release
• The Lord of the Rings Online – Official website
• The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria – Promotional website

TABULA RASA OPEN BETA INVITES AVAILABLE AT FILEPLANET

Those of you who are burned out on World of Warcraft and the other available MMOGs and have been hoping that NCSoft’s upcoming Tabula Rasa (designed by Richard “Lord British” Garriott of Ultima series fame) will rekindle your interest in the genre should be aware that Fileplanet still has a limited number of keys left for the open beta test running through October 26th. If you want to give it a shot and see if it’s for you, be sure to grab one as soon as possible.

I’ve followed this one a bit over the last few months, and did grab a beta invite from Fileplanet, so if I get a chance to put some time in with it and it’s something worth talking about, I’ll throw up a post sometime after the 26th… or before that if it’s really amazing.

• Tabula Rasa – Official website
• Tabula Rasa: Fileplanet Beta Event – Fileplanet

HORIZONS: EMPIRE OF ISTARIA EXPANSION ANNOUNCED

Tulga Games has announced the first expansion for their mmog Horizons: Empire of Istaria. The expansion, tentatively titled “Horizons: Settlements” will be provided free via download to those who already have the game, as well as in a bundle with the original game for $19.99. I both beta tested Horizons and played it at launch, and I’ve got to say that I loved the game. To date, there still isn’t a game featuring as deep of a crafting system or a character class system as flexible as Horizons in my opinion.

I left the game because unfortunately, the folks behind it (Artifact Entertainment at the time) just didn’t have the cash on hand to properly maintain the game, and after awhile there was just a complete lack of content. A man can only kill “cursed wolves” for so long, you know? Anyway, it’s very nice to hear that there’s some hope for the game yet, and who knows, they may even get my subscription money again someday. Big thanks to drkphreakx for the tip. Click here for the press release.

WORLD OF WARCRAFT: BURNING CRUSADE – NEW ALLIANCE RACE REVEALED

The official World of Warcraft site has announced that the Dreanei will be the new Alliance race in the upcoming expansion. Check out the Draenei page at the World of Warcraft site for more details.

SIGIL GAMES & MICROSOFT PARTING WAYS

It appears that Microsoft Games and Sigil Games are parting ways on Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. According to a press release from Sigil Games, Sigil and Microsoft are currently in talks regarding the transfer of publishing rights, and upon completion, Sigil and Sony Online Entertainment will co-publish the title. The co-publishing agreement would work as follows;

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“As co-publisher of Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, Sigil assumes greater control of marketing and PR, while maintaining responsibility for game development, community relations, media relations, customer support, and quality assurance. Under the terms of the agreement, SOE will provide distribution, marketing, hosting and back-end support — including billing and technical support — for the game. Additionally, SOE is tentatively planning on adding Vanguard, upon its release,to SOE’s Station Access™ subscription plan. Station Access allows players to enjoy all of SOE’s MMO titles for one low monthly price.” – Sigil press release
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It’s interesting to note that Sigil Games is headed up by Brad McQuaid, one of the original designers of SOE’s EverQuest game, and that one of the things often mentioned regarding Vanguard was that Sigil wanted to make it more in tune with the original “Vision” EverQuest had before Sony completely took over Verant Interactive. While according to the press release, Sigil would be maintaining creative control over the game, I for one would begin to worry about Sony slowly trying to gain control of this game in an attempt to give them a profitable successor to EverQuest.

SIGIL GAMES & MICROSOFT PARTING WAYS

It appears that Microsoft Games and Sigil Games are parting ways on Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. According to a press release from Sigil Games, Sigil and Microsoft are currently in talks regarding the transfer of publishing rights, and upon completion, Sigil and Sony Online Entertainment will co-publish the title. The co-publishing agreement would work as follows;

—————————————–
“As co-publisher of Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, Sigil assumes greater control of marketing and PR, while maintaining responsibility for game development, community relations, media relations, customer support, and quality assurance. Under the terms of the agreement, SOE will provide distribution, marketing, hosting and back-end support — including billing and technical support — for the game. Additionally, SOE is tentatively planning on adding Vanguard, upon its release,to SOE’s Station Access™ subscription plan. Station Access allows players to enjoy all of SOE’s MMO titles for one low monthly price.” – Sigil press release
——————————————

It’s interesting to note that Sigil Games is headed up by Brad McQuaid, one of the original designers of SOE’s EverQuest game, and that one of the things often mentioned regarding Vanguard was that Sigil wanted to make it more in tune with the original “Vision” EverQuest had before Sony completely took over Verant Interactive. While according to the press release, Sigil would be maintaining creative control over the game, I for one would begin to worry about Sony slowly trying to gain control of this game in an attempt to give them a profitable successor to EverQuest.

WOE TO MMOG PLAYERS EVERYWHERE – ALLAKHAZAM’S HAS FALLEN

1UP.com is reporting that in the battle between mmog players and the gold farmers, the gold farmers seem to have won another round. Allakhazam’s Magical Realm reported today that they have been bought out by the parent company of IGE, one of the largest item selling companies out there, and the owners of Thottbot.com as well. While the moderators at Allakhazam’s are stating that IGE’s parent company has made sure to put the 2 in different divisions, gamer’s aren’t buying it.

Now I’ve had a lot of bad experiences with gold famers in World of Warcraft, so I’m not holding out much hope for Allakhazam’s to be left unscathed. Personally, I’d advise to be very careful if you use them to price items before you toss them up in the auction house. Adding insult to injury, it was also revealed that Allakhazam’s will be renamed Zam.com.

WOE TO MMOG PLAYERS EVERYWHERE – ALLAKHAZAM’S HAS FALLEN

1UP.com is reporting that in the battle between mmog players and the gold farmers, the gold farmers seem to have won another round. Allakhazam’s Magical Realm reported today that they have been bought out by the parent company of IGE, one of the largest item selling companies out there, and the owners of Thottbot.com as well. While the moderators at Allakhazam’s are stating that IGE’s parent company has made sure to put the 2 in different divisions, gamer’s aren’t buying it.

Now I’ve had a lot of bad experiences with gold famers in World of Warcraft, so I’m not holding out much hope for Allakhazam’s to be left unscathed. Personally, I’d advise to be very careful if you use them to price items before you toss them up in the auction house. Adding insult to injury, it was also revealed that Allakhazam’s will be renamed Zam.com.