With Lord of the Rings Online’s Angmar and Mordor progression servers looking forward to entering the first expansion sometime in December, thoughts have once again turned to Mines of Moria. Originally debuting on November 18th, 2008, this pack has become one of the most famous, infamous, beloved, and hated additions to the game.
Considering its return to the LOTRO consciousness and SSG’s recent stated desire to further improve Moria’s stable-master system, I thought this was a good time to look at the rise… the fall… and the rise again of Mines of Moria.
Out of all of the expansions that LOTRO has released, two stand out as projects that clearly went above and beyond in terms of resources, scope, and marketing (Riders of Rohan being the other, in case you were wondering). It’s undeniable that Turbine was aiming very high for its first big pack with Mines of Moria, cramming in a ton of features and trying to figure out how to create zones with massive ceilings looming overhead.
The extra work was well worth it:Â Mines of Moria was a big hit right out of the gate. It put the spotlight back on this MMO with two new classes, the legendary item system, and the iconic gigantic underground kingdom. Chance Thomas returned to do the soundtrack (which had its own release), there were some cool new lighting effects, and a massive numbers of epic questlines were added.
I couldn’t find any sales figures on the expansion, which isn’t unusual for MMORPGs, but it did very well with reviews and was widely perceived as a top-tier MMO release in its day.
From the perspective of a player on the ground floor, I was jazzed to dive into Moria’s depths. Keep in mind that prior to this, the entirety of this virtual Middle-earth was limited to certain portions of Eriador. Moria represented a good 1/3rd landmass addition, even if it was all in its own separated region.
As players settled into the expansion, a love-hate relationship developed. There was a lot of initial excitement over legendary items and the power spike that they represented, and overall, the zones and questing were warmly received. But it wasn’t perfect: The radiance mechanic was a huge misstep for the studio that is still something that the devs apologize for to this day.
Beyond that, the main problem with Moria — and one that the devs should’ve seen coming — is that players didn’t want to be stuck underground for long stretches of time. This is exactly what happened in the initial release: From November through mid-March, there was no exit from Moria, so everyone was kept penned inside with no sun or sky. To put it simply, people went a bit stir-crazy. Then the doors were opened for Lothlorien in March 2009, and adventurers experienced a sigh of relief.
However, that didn’t entirely erase the negative reputation that Moria cultivated as an overly long journey underground that’ll have you scratching at the walls in desperation to leave. Even after the devs streamlined many aspects of the expansion, Volume II of the epic story still spends an inordinate amount of time in the depths of Moria.
Thus, Moria became a divisive expansion. Some players (including me) greatly appreciated the ingenuity of the zone design and the fun of questing through it, while others hated falling down chasms, getting lost, and feeling as if they could never escape.
The negative reputation wasn’t erased overnight, but it was gradually eased over the years as the dev team revisited Moria to give it love. There was one large overhaul in particular (I forget when) that streamlined questing, added more travel points, and made it easier to navigate. The positive aspects were retained while the negative ones sanded away. Maybe it wasn’t enough to win everyone over, but this expansion’s in a much better place than it was in those early days.
In fact, the reputation I tend to hear these days is that Moria is one of the crowning achievements of LOTRO’s development. On all of the progression servers, the arrival of the first expansion is a momentous event that is eagerly anticipated (which isn’t something I can say about some of the subsequent releases).
I know there have been calls for alternative, above-ground questing to bypass Moria entirely, but I hope that never happens (although I’m not against even more streamlining, especially of the epic). It’s an important portion of the journey of the Fellowship and a lot of fun to revisit from time to time.
Every two weeks, the LOTRO Legendarium goes on an adventure (horrid things, those) through the wondrous, terrifying, inspiring, and, well, legendary online world of Middle-earth. Justin has been playing LOTRO since its launch in 2007! If you have a topic for the column, send it to him at justin@massivelyop.com.
