Gamespy has released another article regarding the upcoming update to Lord of the Rings: Online, The Mines of Moria. MoM will bring along Legendary Items(Not unlike Sting and other iconic weapons), Two new classes, Three New Regions(Eregion, Moria& Lorien), Introducing Volume 2 of LotrO, and much more.

Lotro’s Executive Producer Jeffrey Steefel talks about some of the problems Turbine encountered while trying to remake this iconic location.

“One of the biggest problems we faced was how to keep the players from feeling claustrophobic,” Steefel says as the camera operator moves into a pyramidal chamber. Unlike the rest of Moria, this chamber isn’t lit by torches or glowing crystals or fungi. The top of the pyramid is a skylight that leads out to the surface world and floods the chamber with natural sunlight. The result is an underground garden that — though now overgrown and loaded with monsters — still has traces of natural beauty. “This garden was one of the ways we answered that problem along with the enormous spaces and varying the terrain a lot. Moria was a place that was once loved and traces of that still remain. Players need a chance to lighten up and just have some fun.”

Steefel goes on to talk about how the defeat of the Balrog has freed Moria, creating a vast region waiting to be claimed. Mutany has arised within the native goblin ranks, now that the Balrog is gone. Orcs are sent to Moria by Saruman, Sauron & The False King to claim Moria as their own. The Longbeard dwarves have sent out a massive reclaimation colony and the Dourhand Dwarves will be added to the mix aswell. Mines of Moria will tell players the story and hsitory of Moria, like never before.

“It’s funny, but as frightening as Moria is, it’s also a place that brings up a lot of sympathy,” Kerr says by way of conclusion. “Ultimately Moria is a cautionary tale about arrogance and obsession. One of the big things we want to help players do is dig into Moria’s past. What were the Dwarves doing in Moria? What did it mean when they ‘dug too deep’? Ultimately all these events can be laid at the feet of certain individuals and players are going to find out who these people were, why they did what they did and why it all went so wrong.”

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