The Lord of the Rings Online Developer Diary

Turbine's official The Lord of the Rings Online website has been updated with a new developer diary penned by designer George Ziets. In it, George Ziets explains how he and the team create the game's content, including NPCs and quests. An excerpt:
But how will we draw players into the story? In my opinion, it's best to drop players right into the middle of things, so I decide that human players will start the game as prisoners of the brigands. That makes the conflict personal, and therefore more interesting. The tutorial mission will be a jailbreak, where the player breaks out of the brigands' camp, with the help of a Ranger and a hobbit girl. After escaping, the player ends up in Archet and learns that the village is under threat from the same group of brigands. So the first quest arc will follow players as they help fortify the town, spy on the brigands, learn of an impending attack on Archet, and attempt to thwart a brigand raid.