Lord of the Rings Online is turning 15 years old this year, and there's a lot of content to plough through if you fancy immersing yourself in one of the most classic of still-going MMOs. You will need to pay for quite a bit of the content if you want to experience it all, but moving forward, the developers are going to make a huge chunk of it free to play. Basically anything released between the game's 2007 release date and 2013, will not be freely accessible to anyone.
"All quests, areas, instances, and expansions released between the original launch of LOTRO back in 2007 and up to – and including! – the release of Helm’s Deep will be available for free to everyone," the game’s producer Raninia confirmed in a recent statement.
This be-free-aning will take place in late April with the release of update 33 to the main game. That gives players access to the iconic Helm's Deep, and the devilishly difficult Mines of Moria, as well as Rune Keeper, Warden, and Beorning classes, to play with.
No word yet on the big visual overhaul that was expected to take place in LOTRO before now. It hasn't been mentioned in much detail since 2020, but there are hints that other big updates are coming to the online world of Tolkien's creation, so it could be that that release isn't too far away either.
When was the last time you booted up LOTRO? Will you be going back?