Is your server up on the chopping block in Lord of the Rings Online? You'll find out on August 3rd as character creation will halt on impacted servers and a timeline for... the end will come. Not for your characters, just the worlds themselves!

On August 3rd we will announce the worlds that will be impacted and the entire game will be brought down for a small patch which will send out an in-game email to all characters notifying them of the beginning of the World Closures and what that will entail along with a link back to this article and others to be released in the coming weeks. Additionally Character Creation on the worlds we are closing will be turned off at this time.

There is a lot of REALLY AWESOME stuff coming out of this! So before we shed a tear for our fallen servers, let's also understand there will be free server transfers to the five remaining worlds and between those worlds. Characters on impacted servers can move to any of the five servers for free, for basically ever. This means that you can relocate to any server of your choosing without having to worry about any of the BS. There is going to be some oddities, but they've thought it out - if someone has your name and are less active than you, you should be able to keep it (please read all of the details though!).

I think this is a good move, especially to keep concurrent players high and keep the game healthy. I'm excited to see how the game works after the new year (the servers close at the end of the year) and I hope all of the players the best on their move.

Click this huge link to go read the announcement.

Were you impacted by this? Feel free to comment about it - I haven't seen too much of the reaction yet, but I hope it's positive. I don't know the detailed implications of this change, but I think it should be positive in the long run.