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Major Update for The Lord of the Rings Online

GameSpy: The Lord of the Rings Online — Book 12: The Ashen Wastes
The Lord of the Rings Online — Book 12: The Ashen Wastes (PC)
The latest addition to Turbine’s Tolkien-themed MMO might as well be subtitled “Extreme Makeover: Middle-earth Edition.”
By Allen ‘Delsyn’ Rausch | Jan. 31, 2008

One of the most frequently underrated aspects of the MMO by developers is avatar customization, and it’s certainly not hard to understand why. Would you rather be the monster designer who creates a fantastic new raid boss or the person tasked with coming up with 53 new hairstyles? The former seems fun, but it’s often the latter that has the greater impact on player enjoyment. Players will jump through massive hoops to gain some sort of visual distinctiveness and the developers at Turbine seems to understand this (if they didn’t, their players have certainly screamed loudly enough about it). That’s why despite the latest content addition to The Lord of the Rings Online adding some cool new PvP content, class tweaks and a major area revamp, much of it is simply devoted to making players look good.

On a recent run through “Book 12: The Ashen Wastes,” we were treated to an impressive demonstration of the game’s new cosmetic system in action. The keys are the two new “outfit” tabs placed on the player’s paper doll equipment screen. These new slots will change the appearance of that portion of the character’s clothing to whatever is slotted in and will also allow the player to turn any element of their character’s clothing on or off. The kicker is that these new items add nothing to the player’s abilities or combat capabilities; they merely alter the appearance of the player’s avatar. The system is also subject to class, level and area restrictions. Minstrels, for example, naturally can’t wear heavy armor, so they won’t be able to do so as an outfit either. The system will also be disabled in the Ettenmoors PvP area to avoid players disguising their classes…

And the Developer’s Diary Video outlines some of the major changes implemented with Book 12, including costumes and Etten’s Deep.