If new MMORPGs were baby seals emerging from shelter and into the sunlight for the first time, World of Warcraft would be the hunter clubbing them as they took their first tentative sniff. On a planet where the Star Wars license could fail to gain a large audience, it's easy to imagine that Lord of the Rings could crash before it ever got off the ground. Sierra's first attempt certainly did; Middle Earth Online promised permanent death and other risky features before getting the axe in back in 1999.

Turbine, the developer of Lord of the Rings Online, has a turbulent history of its own. After the moderate success of the Microsoft-published Asheron's Call was followed with a failed sequel, Microsoft cut Turbine loose. Left to their own devices, Turbine launched D&D Online and turned out a solid, if forgettable, group-focused MMORPG based in the Ebberon universe. Some gamers in the Turbine forums complain that the company diverted too many resources to the development of LOTRO, leaving D&D Online under-supported. Maybe that's true; Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows Of Angmar has obviously been given a lot of love and attention. It surprises with interesting, well written quests and an affection for the mythos created by Tolkien.