Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Episode 020: Dev Interview - Orion

Greetings and Happy Holidays to everyone! We have a very special 20th episode for you today. Alberos and I sat down with Orion, a Senior Content Designer at Turbine. Many thanks to Orion for taking an hour out of his Chritmas vacation time to chat with us. There is a lot of great information in the interview, which can be found on the Zune Marketplace, iTunes, and can be direct downloaded from the bar to the right once the feed has updated. Orion covers a wide variety of topics, from behind the scenes at the Turbine offices and discussing a lot of the fundamental design decisions in the games to reminding us about the first Rule of Isengard: Don't Talk About Isengard. Find out about the Man Behind the Gorilla and get some insight as to what's in store for LOTRO in the new year.



I suppose here, he's the man in FRONT of the gorrila.

We hope you all enjoy the interview and have a wonderful rest of 2009! LOTROCast is going on a short hiatus until mid-January to give us both a chance to spend some time with our families and ring in the new year, but we will be posting LoreCasts between now and then (plus our contest winner on January 1st! See below for details). If you want something else to tide you over, I would recommend checking out Orion's extensive series of blogs at his my.Lotro.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

LOTROCast Contest Video

If you're interested in the LOTROCast Siege of Mirkwood Screenshot Contest, check this video out on the LOTROCast YouTube Channel!

Wanna Win Siege of Mirkwood?

LOTROCast: The Lord of the Rings Online Podcast is pleased to announce a contest for all members of the LOTRO Community! You can find LOTROCast online at http://www.lotrocast.com/, on the Zune Marketplace, and on iTunes.

With the release of Siege of Mirkwood, there has never been a better time to experience Middle-earth through Lord of the Rings Online (indeed, if you haven't yet had a chance to pick up SoM, check out what you're missing!). SoM brought with it the conclusion of Moria's epic storyline, the robust new Skirmish System, and, of course, allows you to take the fight right to the Enemy in Mirkwood.

Haven't upgraded yet? LOTROCast is holding an 'upgrade' contest from December 17th to Dec. 31st and, thanks to the good folks at Turbine, may be able to upgrade your experience! We hold two product keys for Siege of Mirkwood and want to give them away. In addition, both of our winners will join us to introduce a future episode of LOTROCast: The Lord of the Rings Online Podcast.

So how do you get a piece of the action?

One of the main themes of LOTROCast: The Lord of the Rings Online Podcast is that of exploring the lands of Middle-earth. Because of this, we are holding a screenshot contest. There are two categories (the winner of each category will win the product key).

Category 1) Locations. We are looking for the best/most creative screenshot of a location in Middle-earth. Perhaps there is a region you particularly love, a favorite fishing spot, or a little nook that you like to park at for a few minutes just to enjoy the view. Whatever it is, we want to see it!

Category 2) Characters. We are looking for screenshots of your favorite player or NPC. Whether it's a toon with a particularly creative outfit, or maybe it's a boss that you have particularly fond memories of defeating. Maybe it's just a quest-giver who sent you out on a particularly enjoyable part of your journey. Regardless of your choice, we'd love to see it!

In order to enter, send us an email at LOTROCast@gmail.com (we will NOT spam you) with the subject line "Siege of Mirkwood Contest," the picture saved as an attachment between Dec. 17th Dec. 31st, and the following information:

Preferred (in-game) Name:
Server (if you want):
Entry Category:
A sentence of two about WHY this picture is so meaningful:

Please send a separate email for each entry!
_______________

We will announce the winners on New Years Day and will compile all the submissions into a nice video slide-show to put on our YouTube channel. you are allowed to submit as many screenshots in as many categories as you want as long as each screenshot is in it's own email. Since the prizes for both categories are the same, you can only win one but submitting to both can up your chances of winning!

To Recap:

From December 17th to December 31st, send us an email at LOTROCast@gmail.com with a screenshot that fits one of the two categories with the required information and wait until January 1st to see if you'll be ringing in the New Year in Mirkwood! In addition, our winners will join Alberos and Moormur to introduce a future episode of LOTROCast: The Lord of the Rings Online Podcast. To see some of the great changes that came with Siege of Mirkwood, head here! Remember, because we are giving away SoM keys, you must already have Shadows of Angmar and Mines of Moria. If you don't yet, you can head over to the Turbine Store and pick them up. This is NOT the Adventurer's Pack. I've learned through writing this up that I can't spell "category" very well.

If you have any questions about the contest, don't hesitate to drop us a line at LOTROCast@gmail.com.

LoreCast 004: The Elves of Mirkwood

Greetings and salutations from Middle-earth!

Today's LoreCast comes from Moormur and its about the Elves of Mirkwood. I apologize for the audio quality...the microphone kept cutting out each time I recorded [maybe it's time to get a new one ;-)]. The music for this mini-cast is not from Turbine's or Howard Shore's soundtracks for their respective works, but from the Middle-earth Album by Glass Hammer.

As always, you can contact us at LOTROCast@Gmail.com.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Episode 019: Mirkwood Unleashed Shownotes

Greetings, listeners! After a week of delay, I'm happy to bring you the newest episode of LOTROCast: The Lord of the Rings Online Podcast! You can find us on the Zune Marketplace, iTunes, and from the download bar to the right once the feed updates. As always, feel free to contact us at LOTROCast@gmail.com. We'd love to hear what you have to say!

This episode doesn't really have much in the way of shownotes...it's really mostly a narrative of our experiences in Mirkwood so far.

The big note is that we will be hosting an interview with Orion, the Turbine Developer and we would love to hear your questions!

See you in Middle-earth,

Moormur

Monday, December 14, 2009

LOTROCast To Interview Orion

Greetings, fellow members of the LOTRO Community! I'm pleased to announce that LOTROCast will be continuing our series of Developer Interviews with "Orion," a member of the Lord of the Rings Online team from Turbine. We are opening up the interview questions to the community, so if you have a question you would like to ask Orion, post it in the comments section below! I can't promise all the questions will be asked and answered, but we will consider each and every one! Please post your questions by Dec. 20th to be considered.

See you in Middle-earth,

Moormur

Apologies and Good News!

First, I suppose an apology is in order for my dropping off the face of the Earth for two weeks. The truth is that we recorded our episode on time last week, but when I went to edit it (twice) the program crashed right as I was exporting (twice). I tried a third time, this time saving my progress at the end...and of course the program crashed as I was saving it. In other words, I've edited this program three seperate times and am pretty sick of listening to it, lol. It's kinda like when you're working on a Word Document that vanishes just as you finish it because it hasn't been saved. Times three. I'll get the episode out the door in another day or two, I promise :-)

Now for the good news!

We're going to be interviewing Orion from Turbine next week! Look for details in the following post!

See you in Middle-earth,

Moormur

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Announcing LOTROCast Gear!

Alberos and I put a lot of time and effort into making out Podcast what it is. For a few months now, I've had some people ask how they can support LOTROCast. Well, here's your chance!

The LOTROCast Gear Store!

The store seems like a nice happy medium...listeners can get a nice t-shirt of sweater (or a Flip if you really want a LOTROCast video camera...), and Alberos and I make a few dollars on the sales. I've put together a collection of about a dozen items in the store for you to peruse. Check it out and let me know what you think! If there is an item you want to see, let me know...I've only put out a few of the many options. If this goes over well, I have a couple of other designs that I haven't put out that I would love to trot out.

See you in Middle-earth,

Moormur

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

LoreCast 003: Dol Goldur

In honor of the release today of Siege of Mirkwood, Alberos delves into the history behind that great bastion of the enemy...

Dol Goldur.

You can find it on LOTROCast's podcast feed on iTunes or the Zune Marketplace, and you can directly download the

Servers Live!

Siege of Mirkwood is now live on all LOTRO Servers!

That is all.