Executive Producer Jeffrey Steefel extends holiday wishes from the folks at Turbine

From http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?t=109362

Whew! It’s been an unbelievable year for LOTRO – seeing Middle-earth coming alive before our eyes has made all the years of development worthwhile! It’s hard to believe that less than a year ago we were deep in Beta, preparing the game for a huge launch!As the holiday seasons are upon us I wanted to take a moment to express the team’s gratitude to all of you for making LOTRO a success and helping us to keep making it better and better. With Books 9, 10 and 11, we’ve grown the size and functionality of the game a great deal and tried to improve the things and places most important to our players. The past seven months (yup-it’s only been that long) have been a blast and we’ve just gotten started. We have some huge plans for 2008 and we’ll have more to say on that subject after the first of the year. Suffice it to say that while 2007 was a big year for LOTRO, 2008 is going to be even cooler!As a leading MMO, we’re looking forward to expanding the LOTRO franchise into China, Korea (we recently announced our partner NHN, a huge game operator in Korea) and other territories worldwide, adding to our huge and growing communities in North America and throughout Europe. We hope you’re still having a great adventure in Middle-earth and remember, this is just the BEGINNING! Before you know it, you’ll be crossing the “Misties” and riding fiercely among the Rohirrim, delving deep into the mines of Moria, assailing the dark walls of Isengard, visiting the forest homelands of Galadriel and the Ancient Ents. New adventures and features are coming your way as well, to challenge and inspire you on your grand exploration of Middle-earth.So kick back with a warm cider, fire up LOTRO, and spend winter with us in Middle-earth!Happy Holidays and looking forward to a great 2008!Jeffrey "Ringleader" SteefelExecutive ProducerThe Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar

Whew. 2008 looks to be another great year for our favorite game.

Book 11 Patch notes

http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Release_Notes_Book_11

Screenshots

I've now added a link on the right for some in game screenshots from some of our members. Enjoy!

Housing preview

Thanks to Tentonhammer for posting some info on the upcoming housing system.

Picture Gallery
Review

Dev Chat: Book 11

http://lotro.stratics.com/content/hoclog/hoc12.php
Looks like it's ETA is end of October.
Enjoy!

Congratulations GM Crafters

Congratulations to all the crafters we've had reaching Grand Master within the past 2 weeks:

Wishty (Cook) - alt of Connu
Connu (Scholar)
Desorond (Metalsmith)
Laure (Scholar)
Dragonelle (Tailor)
Vendril (Tailor)
Darmok (Tailor)

Get up, old stone!

Thanks Vendril and Dragonelle for sending in this Pic, one of the iconic places in Lord of The Rings lore. "These must be the very three that were caught by Gandalf quarrelling over the right way to cook thirteen dwarves and one hobbit."

Hemi and Oak

The first time Oak and I met up in game way back on May 7th, 2007. It feels great to have our guild tag back. Hard to believe we were only in our teens back then.

Welcome

Hail friends! Welcome to Eriador and our new home for the LoTRo shard of Pak'Cafan.