The Lord of the Rings Online Interviews

A couple of new interviews focusing on the Book 12 update for The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar have made their way to the web. The first is at MMORPG.com, where Turbine's Jeffrey Steefel talks about how players have responded to the update:
When I asked Steefel what the reaction had been to the latest update's release, he told me that, all in all, the feedback had been fairly positive, but that (everyone wants more stuff). A good example of the incremental additions to these features comes in the form of the latest housing features. Now, players can decorate their homes in new ways, having the ability to turn the objects for placement. The team has also added new trophies to the mix, allowing players to collect some items from defeated foes to display proudly on their property. In the future, we are told, (it's easy to imagine that rare drops will become trophies).

While the focus of this update was on customization, that doesn't mean that Book 12 didn't introduce some other interesting game play elements. In our Book 12 preview, we talked about The Delving of Frór, a new underground dungeon-like area under the Ettenmoors that can only be accessed by the side (Monsters or Free Peoples) that controls the area. If the other side takes the area while you're in the dungeon, they can follow you down.

As it turns out, this has been a very successful addition to the game and Steefel tells us that (it's a good indication) that this is a good way for them to go in terms of Monster Play. It's what he called (diverse, repeatable content).

And the other is within Gamers With Jobs' latest podcast, where Turbine's Cardell Kerr and David Lennon talk about the update's new features and the future of massively multiplayer games.