Jeffrey Steefel Talks Book 14, Moria and Beyond

Lord of the Rings Online Executive Producer Jeffrey Steefel talks about Book 14 of the Shadows of Angmar, the first of the annual expansions and the future of LotRO in the second part of his recent interview with MMORPG.

Mines of Moria is the first of Turbine’s annual expansions for LotRO. As the last update to Shadows of Angmar, Book 14 will provide the lead in to the adventures in Moria. The new book won’t just be a prequal to the next stage in the story. It will contain some significant new editions to already rich content.

“You’ll probably see some kind of extension of the existing social systems. We’re not adding a big new social system and we’re not adding a new hobby probably until Moria,” he answered. “You’ll get more things to play with in Housing.”

“The really big focus for book 14,” he told me, “is around our live event system. That’s something that’s been in since launch that we’ve been growing [under the radar].” Being informed by their Asheron’s Call 1 team, they have built a system that will allow them to trigger events in a number of ways: a schedule, a time of day, a specific day, or in-game triggers. The festivals that have cropped up in-game in the last year were a kind of prelude to the live events system.

“We’re doing a lot more with that in Book 14,” he said, “including new areas that expand on the land control stuff that we’ve done in a couple of parts of the game.” Players are going to have to work with others to gain ownership of certain control points. Holding those control points will open up more content for the team.

For more details on the future of the Lord of the Rings Online, read the entire Jeffrey Steefel interview on MMORPG.

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