LOTRO like any spaghetti western has its ups and downs; its dramas; humourous episodes; and also its grim moments…
THE BAD
http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/02/12/turbine-goes-through-new-layoffs/
The bad news (affects other TURBINE games but I will focus on LOTRO)
THE GOOD
http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/02/15/the-road-to-mordor-when-storm-clouds-gather/
SYP hoping…
THE UGLY
https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?542154-Turbine-hit-with-another-round-of-layoffs
Forum post that Sapience closed…With such a passionate community, shit started to fly in the thread which also contained lots of very nice thanks to staff forcefully departed from turbine…
When something goes bad u have ‘shit hitting the fan’, here WB have literally changed that to ‘TURBINE blows gold away’!
Now they HAVE to deliver a full Update13 with all promised content or we will only find one conclusion, LOTRO is in really bad shape!
Of course no noises coming from Turbine but in their normal communication vacuum no-one can hear the TURBINE scream!
…lets grease the fORKer and get it moving again…
As a community that needs LOTRO to continue how can we help it continue… basically more revenue and more players are needed both feed each other and would contribute to a life-saving revival…
A divided, in-fighting community will only quicken its demise.
Time to pull up your socks and put on your campaigning boots… time to be friends… time to be united…
Time to rescue LOTRO.
Other related links:
LOTRO PLAYERS http://lotroplayers.mymiddleearth.com/2014/02/17/lotro-players-news-episode-34-the-velvet-warden/
and: http://lotroplayers.mymiddleearth.com/2014/02/13/turbine-layoffs-reaction/
Flamingbard http://wordpress.com/read/blog/id/27571534/
Thinking Play: http://thinkingplay.wordpress.com/2014/02/14/lotro-the-shadow-of-the-future/
Where to start:
Having fun in LOTRO https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?542529-Lotro-is-fun!
And here Syp again with a great article about one of LOTRO’s strengths…heroism: http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/02/08/the-road-to-mordor-how-lotro-explores-what-it-means-to-be-a-her/
So lets make LOTRO the best dammed ‘Spaghetti Western’ [MMORPG] ever!
Sergio Leone would be proud of it…queue Ennio Morricone soundtrack:
‘Go go go LOTRO
Go go go LOTRO
Go go LOTRO
Go go go
Aaaaa
Go go go go go…
Aaaaa
Go migo
Aaaaa
Go migo
Aaaaa
Aaaaa
Aaaaa
LOTRO go go…’
Final words :
tsuhelm 
I should point out my blog is called Thinking Play, not Thin King Play.
I fall short in the royalty and thinness departments. 🙂
I wonder if there really is much the community can do to influence matters? So far we haven’t been able to so much as get an official statement from the LOTRO management.
oops i think it was an intentional play on words…will correct 🙂
Long term LOTRO community and the players themselves will need to become less fractured and more homogeneous, I even think if LOTRO fails to grow it can only stagnate. As TURBINE seam so inept at selling the game I think that we players should do it…with no new expansion (I bought RoR and Moria and have had a 3 month sub, I TP ground the rest.)
I will not be investing more dosh in LOTRO (unless they introduce something I like of course…) but would love to introduce new players who maybe would…