One of the upsides of Update 11: Treachery of the White Hand, is the revision of the mounted combat trait system by Turbine. As a result the Lore-master class now has an additional pet that can be summoned while mounted and used in combat. The War Wolf  functions similarly to a skirmish soldier and is as equally erratic. However it does has some [...]

Yesterday’s problematic launch of Update 11: The Treachery of the White Hand came as no surprise. As usual Turbine did their best to manage the problem but effective communication was not immediately forthcoming. The sad reality is that many players were expecting something like this to happen. It has become common place, not just with LOTRO but across the gaming industry. Buggy [...]

In this weeks Contains Moderate Peril Podcast Brian and I are somewhat surprised by how quickly Update 11 for LOTRO has gone from beta to final release. We also consider the ongoing issue of players not receiving their monthly Turbine Point grant. We also look two recent exploits that have affected both Diablo III and Neverwinter and the associated fallout. I [...]

Contains Moderate Peril Episode 103: Ooh You Are Awful... But I Like You! [ 59:13 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this weeks Contains Moderate Peril podcast, Brian and I tackle the difficult issue of  whether real world issues should impinge upon MMOs. Exactly what should be let in or kept out of the in-game world? This discussion is a direct result of Turbines recent endeavour to highlight The One Fund charity via their games. We also revisit Neverwinter, now that it [...]

Standard Podcast [ 1:15:17 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Remember when Turbine introduced the Apparel Dummies into LOTRO last July and the drama that accompanied it? Well finally Turbine have managed to create a variation of this service and implement it in such a way that will potentially keep all parties happy. Lalia’s Market (Yes, that Hobbit that has caused no end of problems for players on the Barrow [...]

It is totally understandable why Turbine wants to support The One Fund, being a Boston based business. However, the way they have set about doing this and the subsequent manner in which they have handled the “debate” regarding it, has been counter productive and damaging. I’m sure I am not the only one who thought “this will end in tears” after reading the [...]

Once again the Contains Moderate Peril podcast has been beset with technical problems. This weeks show is unfortunately on thirty minutes long, as the other  forty minutes of recorded material had continuous background interference and could not be used. However, we still manage to pack a lot into the remaining half hour with a discussion regarding the new expansion for LOTRO, [...]

Contains Moderate Peril Episode 101: Bob [ 32:30 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Turbine announced the successful applicants for the LOTRO Player Council on Friday. Unsurprisingly, complaints soon started to appear on the official forums. It was inevitable that the Council would cause controversy and it didn’t take long for criticism to be levelled at some of the members. Allegedly, despite there being clear rules about certain types of bloggers and writers being excluded, it was [...]

Upate 11: Treachery of the White Hand will be available on Bullroarer public test server presently (NB It was not at the time of posting this article). The patch notes have been published on the official forums and they make for some quite interesting reading. Not only does the update have a new landmass and continuation of the epic story but [...]

Today’s announcement by Turbine that the next LOTRO expansion will be Helm’s Deep, really didn’t come as any surprise. The game seems to have a clear scheduling pattern with regard to free updates and paid expansions. Plus there was the small clue that the last expansion only gave us half a region and left the storyline on a cliffhanger. So we now [...]

Contains Moderate Peril has reached its one hundredth episode. However, as we don’t believe in making too much of a fuss, its just business as normal in this weeks show. So Brian and I take a look at the controversy that sprang up regarding Hobbit Presents. Why is it that Turbine seem to have such a tough time trying to come [...]

Contains Moderate Peril Episode 100: I Have Got No Brakes! [ 1:13:28 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Yesterdays announcement regarding Hobbit Presents was very ambiguous and has proven controversial. The initial post seems to be conspicuously missing a great deal of detail and has raised many questions. A thread on the official forums has provided some additional details since then, courtesy of Sapience. Yet that has not laid the matter to rest. At first glance, this new game mechanic looks like [...]

I was reading recently that The Hobbit: Armies of the Third Age, the web-based strategy game has racked up one million players after just a few weeks of being available. It’s a free to play, browser based strategy game developed by Kabam for Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. It was one of two official games developed to tie-in with The Hobbit [...]

Contains Moderate Peril podcast is back after a two week break. In the ninety ninth episode, Brian and I consider this week’s 6th Anniversary Festival for LOTRO as well as the forthcoming open beta for Neverwinter. When we say open beta we of course mean soft launch, because that’s what it appears to be. We recommend the informative documentary Star Wars Begins, [...]

Contains Moderate Peril Episode 99: That's You That Is [ 1:07:13 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

On 23rd February I was invited along with several other members of the LOTRO Community (AKA the unofficial forums) to listen to an online talk from a former Codemasters employee. It was regarding their involvement with the European service of The Lord of the Rings Online between 2007 and 2011. Sincilbanks (their current forum name) was online customer services manager [...]