Lord of the Rings Online MMO News, Guides, and Features at Ten Ton Hammer

Time to scare up some page views... BALROG BALROG BALROG PARIS HILTON BALROG!

When Ten Ton Hammer ran the news that a Balrog would be included in the Book 11 update for The Lord of the Rings Online, the general LOTRO community exploded with questions and concerns about the encounter and what players might expect from the larger-than-life mob. To answer some of your concerns, Ten Ton Hammer had Cody "Micajah" Bye and Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle interview LOTRO developers Jeffrey Steefel and Adam Mersky about the Balrog and the reasoning behind Turbine's decision to include such a massive creature only a few months after the launch of the game.

"These games take so long to evolve...especially this one because Middle Earth is so huge," Steefel said. "It's a problem we have to solve overall. Saruman is way down to the south; [as a player] am I going to have to wait forever to see Saruman, or is there a way to encounter him earlier than I might expect? How long is it going to be before I see Riders of Rohan? Am I going to have to wait till we're in the experience where we're dealing with the capital of Rohan and Helm's Deep and all that?"

Read the interview at Ten Ton Hammer's LoTRO site and keep on the lookout the rest of this week for more information on Book 11 including player housing and some additional updates players may see in the upcoming content upgrade! .