WESTWOOD, MA - October 5, 2007 - Turbine, Inc., one of the largest privately-held online game companies in North America, announced today changes in its management team designed to position the company for long-term growth. Jim Crowley has been named president and CEO. The move is one of many that Turbine has recently made to invest in new talent that will drive the next wave of the company’s growth including the addition of industry veterans Craig Alexander as Vice President of Product Development and Walt Yarbrough as Executive Producer.

...

Crowley had been working with Turbine’s management team for a number of months on a long-term strategic plan designed to build on the success of the company’s most recent hit The Lord of the Rings Online™ before being named president and CEO.

...

Crowley brings a wealth of operational experience to Turbine. As Chief Operating Officer of m-Qube, Crowley helped turned m-Qube into one of North America’s largest mobile media companies. Prior to m-Qube, Crowley was Chief Operating Officer of Network Plus, Inc., one of the country’s largest publicly traded competitive telecommunications and data providers. Crowley is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School and Connecticut College.


You can read the full press release over on the Turbine's official web site.

He couldn't do this:

Just saw this news over on www.actiontrip.com. Turbine's company background page no longer features Jeff Anderson as their CEO and President? There were no official news or announcements about this so we can't confirm this as nothing else but rumors...Click here to read full

Just saw this news over on www.actiontrip.com. Turbine's company background page no longer features Jeff Anderson as their CEO and President? There were no official news or announcements about this so we can't confirm this as nothing else but rumors but we'll try and get some official response. As to why would this happen (the guy was giving out interviews just a several days ago and no hints about this were mentioned) and what effect will this have on LOTRO we can't tell, but we'll keep you posted.

Here's the originating news source: Warcry

Update: in the comments section of Warcry's news there's this piece of information:

"Jim Crowley has replaced Anderson as President and CEO of Turbine. Crowley has held executive positions as Chief Operating Officer at Network Plus and Vice President Digital Content & Messaging at Verisign."

We'll keep you posted with future developments.

UI Changes * Reversed a previous change to the Auction UI that would prevent the entry of non-alphanumeric characters into the search field. You can now search for Barrow-Iron again! * No more crashes due to deleting chat windows. * Your UI will...Click here to read full

UI Changes

* Reversed a previous change to the Auction UI that would prevent the entry of non-alphanumeric characters into the search field. You can now search for Barrow-Iron again!
* No more crashes due to deleting chat windows.
* Your UI will no longer move around by itself when you resize your window or switch between fullscreen and windowed mode.
* Player and opponent power and morale bars should look cleaner now.
* Fellowship and raid pet vitals are once again green. See? Loremaster Smith's pet Yogi isn't really aggro to you!
* Session Players will now see the Monster Controlled and Player Controlled mapnotes in the Ettenmoors.
* Kinship Officers may now promote and demote Members and Recruits.
* Opening the bank (interact w/ banker) while the UI is [F12] hidden caused the bank to appear, but toggling the UI back on would cause the bank to DISAPPEAR until relogging. This has been fixed.
* Popup UI boxes while using mouse-steer caused the mouse cursor to disappear. This is now fixed.
* Fixed a bug that was resulting in previously deleted items returning to inventory in a state that incorrectly prevented the player from moving or deleting them.

Quests

* You should now be able to speak to Laerdan in Gath Forthnír up until you have completed both Books 8 and 9 of the Epic.
* 'Book 10, Chapter 14' - Now if you don't follow Laerdan into the depths of Barad Tironn, the quest will properly fail.

Crafting

* Ingredient recipes used to process items for some reputation recipes were not available in game, preventing players from executing these recipes. The missing reputation ingredient recipes are now auto-granted to the Jeweller (1 recipe), Prospector (1 recipe), and Forester (2 recipes) professions.
* Crafting (Tailor): Players can now purchase "Spool of Elven-thread" from Expert Tailor vendors.

Miscellaneous

* Fixed a crash which would frequently occur when flipping keeps in Annuminas.
* The respawn rate of Angmarim at the Gates of Annuminas has been adjusted to match normal landscape respawn rates.
* The Hunter's "Tracking Guide" passive skill was missing from trainers. No longer!
* Fixed a bug that was preventing Fellowship members from looting a corpse with money on it when it wasn't their turn under a round-robin loot rule.
* High level Decayed now drop Putrid Fingernails again.
* The House of Elrond is no longer invisible in low-detail graphics settings on some hardware.
* Fixed an issue where monsters' pets would sometimes fail to summon. Be on the lookout for more adds!
* Fixed the issue with companion pet skills. If you keep using only 1 companion skill, it would only work once and then never again until you click another skill.
* Added a bunch of server-side fixes and changes that are transparent to the players.

Our tour of guest comics continues with a brand new member of LotroLife community - Zaimoku. He was kind enough to visit our Forum and the user submitted art section and post a couple of his works.

Click here to view this comic.

Our tour of guest comics continues with a brand new member of LotroLife community - Zaimoku. He was kind enough to visit our Forum and the user submitted art section and post a couple of his works.

Click here to view this comic.

Ambush Martyr provided us with a couple of guest comics that I will be so free to post during our vacation. We'll have a couple of new artists presented as well during this period. The comics are self explanatory and very fun so props out to Ambush. If you ever want to send us some of your creations please feel free to visit our forum.

Ambush Martyr provided us with a couple of guest comics that I will be so free to post during our vacation. We'll have a couple of new artists presented as well during this period. The comics are self explanatory and very fun so props out to Ambush. If you ever want to send us some of your creations please feel free to visit our forum.

Dear visitors, We'll be on vacation for the next two weeks and the updates will be scarce if any at all. See you all in September. (I'll try and post some guest comics on the site but I can't promise anything)

The second free content update for LotRO has hit the US servers. European players will have to wait for a bit of localization and the patch will be available on their servers on August 23rd. Meghan Rodberg aka Patience, the US community manager...Click here to read full

The second free content update for LotRO has hit the US servers. European players will have to wait for a bit of localization and the patch will be available on their servers on August 23rd. Meghan Rodberg aka Patience, the US community manager posted all the patch notes on the US forums. They are massive as always spanning over 9 forum threads. You can read them all at:
[Part 1 - Overview, Of Special Note]
[Part 2 - Gameplay (misc), Loot System, Skills/Classes, Traits/Titles/Deeds, Monster play, Crafting, Items]
[Part 3 - UI, Kinships, Chat/Social, Emotes, World, Town Services, Travel/Maps/Radar, Music System, Adoptions/Notary System/Bios, Auctions, Mail]
[Part 4 - Graphics/Animations/FX, Audio, Miscellaneous, Quests, Carn Dûm, Helegrod]
[Crafting Summary] [Month of the Captain] [Month of the Hunter] [Monster Play Dev Diary]
[Known Issues]

The most interesting stuff:

" New Area : Annuminas!

* The main theme in the area is one of battle over the ruins of the past. The Rangers are far out-numbered by Angmar and its troops. The players are coming to help turn the tides in this struggle.
* The area around Annúminas is full of rolling green hills and fields, leading the edge of Lake Evendim (Nenuial). Upon the banks of Nenuial lies the ruined city of Annúminas, long abandoned by the Men of Arnor in the days of Amlaith, who moved the seat of power from Annúminas to Fornost.
* The city of Annúminas was one of the greatest achievements of the Men of Westernesse, built during the reign of Elendil. Great works of architecture spanned the city across multiple levels, though nearly three-thousand years of weather and abandonment have left much of it in ruin. Where once were beautiful gardens and tall spires now are pools of filth and decay and jagged ruined towers.

Monster play enhancements and new quests

* Play as a Troll
* Play as a Ranger
* Play as a Chicken
* Gain powerful new keep defenses
* Gain allies in keep assaults

New Areas:

* 6 Instances, 2 Public Dungeons, Annúminas Ruins Landscape

Quests:

* ~24 new Ettenmoors landscape quests
* 8 new Session Play quests
o 2 types of Troll play quests
o 2 types of Ranger play quests
o 4 Chicken quests
* 30 new Annúminas landscape and dungeon quests
* 14 quest Epic Book 10 arc
* 16 new side quests
* 4 new Hunter Class quests
* 39 new reputation quests
* 7 new reputation vector quests

Classes

* Hunter Revamp
* Captain Revamp

Keep Siege Enhancements

* Monster Play Events (numerous events open and close based on keep/POI ownership)
* Players can gain access to new keep defenses such as murder holes, arrow traps, and area of effect buffs.
* Both attacking and defending players have more option to call on the aid of ‘allies' as reinforcements.

* Reputation System
* Barter System
* UI Scaling
* Expanded Vault Space
* Monster player Tribes
* Emotes: We've added 40 new emotes! /clap
* You can now disable the Dread/Hope FX! The option is "Enable Dread Effects" located in the "Special Effects Options" section of the "UI Settings" option tab.
* Dealt a telling blow to Sauron's auction pilfering operation! (AKA - Fixed a bug in the Auction System which would occasionally consume an item and send out "Sauron stole my l00t" letters.)
* Water will now splash when you jump into it! CAAANNONBAAALLL!
* If you currently have Book 8 - Chapter 5 underway and have defeated Mordirth, you will want to turn it in before the update goes live on August 20. "

In the few days left until Book 10 is released Turbine and Codemasters keep releasing new info about the free expansion. Here's the news we received: "Make friends and influence factions with LOTRO's new Reputation system! Jessie...Click here to read full

In the few days left until Book 10 is released Turbine and Codemasters keep releasing new info about the free expansion. Here's the news we received:

"Make friends and influence factions with LOTRO's new Reputation system! Jessie "Vastin" King explains how in the latest developer diary about LOTRO's second free content update - Book 10: The City of the Kings!"

Read the Developer Diary here.

The release date for the next free expansion is now officially August 20th - only 7 days away. Man, I still didn't get a chance to go through all the content of the previous expansion - these guys are fast and we love it! Here's parts of the...Click here to read full

The release date for the next free expansion is now officially August 20th - only 7 days away. Man, I still didn't get a chance to go through all the content of the previous expansion - these guys are fast and we love it!

Here's parts of the official announcement:

"WESTWOOD, MA – August 13, 2007 - Turbine, Inc. and Codemasters Online Gaming announced the details of the second free content update for subscribers to The Lord of the Rings Online™: Shadows of Angmar™. Book 10: The City of the Kings continues the epic story, adds over 100 new quests, implements significant enhancements to monster play and introduces the Reputation and Bartering systems. Book 10: The City of the Kings will be available to subscribers of The Lord of the Rings Online on August 20, 2007.

“Our first update significantly expanded the world of Middle-earth with new story arcs, quests, and exciting new kinds of gameplay,” said Jeffrey Anderson, president and CEO of Turbine, Inc. “For Book 10 we continue the epic story and introduce a ton of new content, but we also are introducing legendary play, a completely new way to experience monster play that enables you to play as a powerful Ranger of the North or a terrible Troll.”

Beginning August 20th, heroes can join the battle in Book 10: The City of the Kings, the second of many free updates to The Lord of the Rings Online.

NEW FEATURES:

- The Epic Continues! — Amarthiel, introduced in Book 9: Shores of Evendim, has reclaimed the palantir of Carn Dûm and is now seeking to make Annúminas her new seat of power as she searches for her lost ring of power: Narchuil. The Dúnedain stands against her as the Rangers mount a last, desperate attempt to wrest the palantir from Amarthiel. Before she can find Narchuil, a most dangerous opportunity presents itself that may give the Dúnedain the advantage they need to blind the eye of Angmar.

- Legendary Play — Once in the Ettenmoors, players can experience monster play in a completely new way by spending their Destiny Points to play as a powerful Ranger of the North or a terrible Troll to offer a strategic advantage to their allies in the battle for control of the Ettenmoors.

- Critter Play — Friendly barnyard animals love squawking around the landscape, exploring chicken coops, hunting for worms and more! Players can now explore Middle-earth from a different – and sometimes unexpected – viewpoint as a chicken, the first of many new playable critters that will be added to the game in the future.

- New Reputation and Bartering Systems — Book 10 introduces the Reputation and Bartering systems. The Reputation system enables players to earn positive and negative standing with different races and groups in Middle-earth based on both monster kills and quest completions. The Bartering system allows players to trade trophies earned in battle for rewards such as armor sets or mounts.

- Over 100 New Quests — The story continues for players as they aid the Fellowship and encounter new adventures, new dungeons and over a dozen new monsters.

- Enhanced User Interface — The game’s UI is now customizable. In addition to being able to skin your UI with a unique look, Book 10 will enable players to access sliders in their ‘Options’ panel to scale the size of individual elements of the UI to their liking.

“We are working very hard to deliver the most content and best experiences to our subscribers and it is extremely satisfying to see such a large number of players embracing the game and joining us in Middle-earth,” added Anderson. “We intend to continue our long established reputation of delivering frequent and substantial updates to our players with the release of Book 11 this Fall which will offer players the opportunity to live in their very own house in Middle-earth!”

Damn, they've changed Session play to Legendary/Critter play - I'll have to change our Session play comics to accommodate for the new name :P. Anywho, follow this link to read the full announcement...