alt="LotRO's 4th Anniversary: An Interview with Aaron and Adam"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/97734">
With the Spring Festival having just ended, the Free People
continue to celebrate their victories against the forces of shadow for
the fourth anniversary of
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro">the
Lord of the Rings Online. And the devs
have reason to celebrate as well - we got Aaron Campbell, Producer of
LotRO, and Adam Mersky, Executive Director of Communications at
Turbine, Inc., on the phone to talk about the festivities and about
what's coming up for the game. In regards to the 4th anniversary of
LotRO, Adam said, "It's been a killer 4 years for us and we're real
happy to have made it to this milestone, as not many games have.
Ironically, LotRO is still the baby in our stable, as we have a title
that's turning 12 this year and a title that's just turned 5, but
nonetheless we're still proud to be 4."
alt="Beer Brawl in Thorin's Hall"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/97730">
Making its auspicious return for the anniversary celebrations
is the Thorin's Hall Beer Brawl - imagine a lively game of beer pong,
but you and the other players are the ping pong balls. The goal of the
Beer Brawl is to snag the trophy and smash the other players out of
your way, or out of the arena entirely, thus making it easier for you
to snag the trophy. Sadly, the Glorious Beer Mug housing item is no
longer a part of this competition, but players can earn barter
medallions for anniversary cosmetics and other housing
items. This
year, in keeping
with the season, they are going with an Easter theme: pastel colours
dominate the festival rewards, most notably the Anniversary Steed.
Regarding the new anniversary rewards, which can be obtained by trading
special Anniversary Tokens at select traders in the major towns, Aaron
Campbell says, "(They are) specific to the
anniversary, brand new this year. For our 4th, we really wanted to go a
little crazy for it. Even though we just finished up the Spring
Festival last week, we're really diving in for the anniversary now."
border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0">
alt="Silken Robe of Golden Splendour"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/97731">
Silken
Robe of Golden Splendour
alt="Silken Dress of Golden Splendour"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/97732">
Silken
Dress of Golden Splendour
alt="Cloak of the Shining Star"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/97733">
Cloak
of the Shining Star
In addition to the robe, cloak and dress, there are windmills
for the yard and area maps to hang on the walls of homeowners. Any of
these rewards will set you back 20 Anniversary Tokens.
The anniversary steed has an... interesting look, and
can be won in the same way as other festival mounts: win a race for the
horse token,
collect some barter coins by participating in races or the Beer Brawl,
buy the document of mount ownership, ride it
out of the lot. The cost of the Anniversary Steed is rather higher than
other festival mounts: 3 race tokens and 30 Anniversary Tokens, plus a
Document of Mount Ownership. The
mount has the same stats as a standard mount (+62% run speed, 100
morale), so the standard on its back is just for show. "We
wanted it to be visually distinctive and make it stand out that way,"
said Aaron. "It should really be matching up with other festival mounts
you might pick up as well."
alt="Anniversary Steed"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/97735">
There are 2 different kinds of tokens for this anniversary
event: Anniversary Tokens that can be earned by competing in the Beer
Brawls and races, and the tokens that drop from mobs everywhere. The
mob-drop tokens are old standards and can be turned in at Keepers of
Gifts in the major towns of Middle-Earth to be exchanged for gift
boxes, which contain random items ranging from cosmetics to curatives
and other goodies.
The Anniversary Festival runs until May 2. And then it will be
just a short wait for Update 3 - check back next week to hear what
Aaron and Adam had to say about that.
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Lord of the Rings Online Game Page.
